First week of school over, and it’s been great. Some of the new teachers are still struggling to adjust to life in Africa, and they will get there in time. I can already see how they are changing, and beginning to understand that time is not a factor in life here. When the curtain lady says she’ll come measure your curtains at 3pm tomorrow, it might be at 3pm 3 tomorrows away. When the internet man says he’ll be at your house at a certain time on a certain day, it might be that time, that day but the following week. It’s amazing, I’ve lived out of Africa for 10 years, but have quickly adjusted back into African time. If you wait for things to happen, you might have to wait a long time, better to just make them happen yourself.
Last week we went to Arusha which is only about 70km away, to the other campus to meet our counterparts and do some planning. The trucks on the road move at a snail’s pace, and they have all these speed bumps, some quite huge, that even with a 4x4 you have to slow down and crawl over, so it took us over 2 hours to get there. It was much faster coming back, as there weren’t so many trucks. Arusha has far more shops, lots of restaurants, a South African Shoprite supermarket, and I suppose is a little like Shanghai compared to Nanjing. It’s going to be great to go there for a weekend, but I’m pleased I don’t stay there as I’d probably spend a fortune. When one of the American teachers was commenting on how much better Arusha was, so much more civilised, I said that I’m pleased that I live in Moshi as I have something to look forward to each month – a weekend in Arusha. If you live in Arusha, then what do you have to look forward to? Actually, Moshi is not too bad. It’s much smaller, but you can basically get anything you need here, more so than in China. Especially the western foods. So for me in that respect, it’s not a hardship post, as everything is available.
What does make it tough, however, is the lack of internet at home. Yeah, yeah, I’m still waiting for them to come and sort it out. I have a landline but it’s not connected, so it just means someone coming and flicking a switch or something like that. The school has internet only in the staff workroom and it’s so slow, a carrier pigeon will probably reach its destination faster than an email. As most of us are still waiting for the internet at home, it’s not always possible to get on the internet at school as there’s often a queue. So, for those emailing me requesting for personal emails on top of my blog, unfortunately it’s not going to happen until I eventually get internet at home.
Then of course, I have the ants. Large army ant types. The ones that march up your stairs to find a new home in your bathroom. Last Friday afternoon, when I got back from Arusha, my gardener, Kabelo, was waiting for me. “Little dog, little dog,” he said frantically, pulling my arm to follow him behind the house. I immediately thought that someone’s dog had escaped and he’d tied it up in my back yard. Unfortunately, it was not a dog, but a writhing mass of black army ants. “Spray all gone, spray all gone,” Kabelo said waving his arms wildly, “In bathroom, in bathroom!” This was my welcome back from Arusha. Streams of ants, carrying their eggs, all marching up my stairs to make a new nest in my bathroom. I quickly nipped down to the local supermarket a 3 minute drive away, and bought some cans of insect spray, went home and indulged in a spray frenzy, which has given me hayfever. I thought I killed them all. However, Thursday I went to the toilet and happened to glance at the wash basin, which looked like it was covered in black fur. It was totally covered in heaving ants, so that you couldn’t even see the white of the basin. I pulled out a can of spray and completely annihilated the enemy. When I managed to wash most of their dead lifeless bodies down the plug-hole, I noticed that they had succeeded in making their nest in the hole above the plug in the porcelain, so they were actually living inside the washbasin! Persistent little blighters! I sprayed directly into the hole, and like the serial killer that I was, watched them come out of the hole to die. I thought that was that. Ant problem sorted. Last night, Siobhan went into the bathroom, to find the wash basin looking like it was covered in black fur. More ants, more spary. Hope this will be the last for a while. Murder is not really my thing. Although I have absolutely loved watching Bones second series every night. I think it’s better than CSI, and I was devastated when I finished the last episode last night.
Although you can find places selling the pirate Chinese dvds here, you can’t buy the whole series like I did. I think I’ll be starting on Women’s murder Club series next. We still don’t have a TV. I’m not in a rush to get one either. We brought so many movies and TV series over from China, ones I bought ages ago, wanted to watch and never got round to watching, that I first want to catch up on those movies. The PYP Coordinator is from Fiji and a rugby fanatic like myself, so we watch all the rugby together at her house, making bowls of popcorn, and chomping them nervously as we shout at the players on the screen. As if they can really hear us!
There’s a great restaurant in the street next to us called El Rancho. Although the name seems to suggest that they sell Mexican food, they don’t. Strictly Indian, but the most delicious Indian food ever. Siobhan had two girls staying over last night, so we went there. Our 4th visit in two weeks. She’s settled in so well here and appears to be loving it. Usually such a girl when it comes to insects and creepy crawlies, she’s not fussed by the ants, just picks up the can of spray and lets them have it. I have a feeling her American twang is soon going to change to a Princess Diana accent, as her best friend here, who’s mum is with the UN, sounds very Princess Dianaish. The school is putting on a whole school production – Early Childhood to Grade12 diploma, of the musical Cats. It’ll be in the beginning of December, so while I see heaps of work ahead, Siobhan is very excited. She’s practising a few songs for the audition on Wednesday.
Tried to make some sausages yesterday with some beef mince I bought with a little hand machine, but it was quite hard work. It really does need a little bit of pork mince to work properly. Whereas in China, beef was expensive and hard to come by, here it is pork. I still haven’t found pork. Beef is so cheap. 1 kg Beef fillet costs $9. I saw an electric sausage machine in Arusha which I think I’m going to buy. We get a good discount because the owner has kids in our school. I already have people asking me for sausages, and the butchery in Moshi, where I bought my fillet, asked me if I can bring in samples of my sausages as she’d read in my biography on the school website that I make sausages as a hobby. Of course, my scale, vacuum sealer and bags are all in the box sitting in storage that I didn’t send, as the shippers had covered up the M for Moshi with packing tape! I’m still trying to figure out what to do about that, as I am missing the boxes with our linen, summer clothes and kitchen stuff. Oh well, seeing as we’re only going back there next year December, will probably just have to start from scratch again.
I bought a barbecue grid in Arusha and am going to build myself a block barbecue in my back garden. Eventually, I want to build a lapa as well, as it’ll be lovely sitting outside in the garden. I can’t believe how fertile the soil is here. Spinach we planted two weeks ago is already so big! It’s hard to understand how people are starving here, when the soil is so fertile. I think though, that maybe it is just the area where we are. I’m not sure. But everywhere there is an abundance of avocado trees, and the locals don’t eat them! Gosh, if I think how much they charged for a puny little avocado in Nanjing! Here, they virtually give them away as they say it’s animal food. I think that avocado has far more nutritional value than corn, which is a staple here, but I don’t know if that’s true. Just my opinion.
The kids in my class are lovely, and come from the UK, US, Netherlands, India, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana. The team I’m working with are very collaborative and lots of fun. Despite internet and ant woes, this has been a good move for us, and I can see why people stay here for years. It’s such a pity Tony has already finished school, as he would have thrived in this sort of set-up. I get one sentence emails from him every few days. The last one saying, “Momsy, am officially out of money, think I did well lasting 2 and a half weeks on R500, so feel proud.” No love Tony or anything. He’s working at The Peninsula Hotel in Sea Point which is 4 or 5 star, and very busy. He’s in the kitchen, and has been doing a few 20 hour shifts, so that’s probably why his money lasted as long as it did. He was too busy working to spend any! He doesn’t get paid for his work though, it’s all part of his training. He just has a few more weeks to go, then he has a two week break, then he starts a ten week theory block. This is definitely making him grow up quickly. He’s met the US rugby team and Springboks, all who stayed at the hotel and he cooked their eggs for breakfast, and one of the Springboks gave him a rugby shirt which he was delighted about.
Have a great week! I’m going to get dressed now, head off to school and hopefully get onto a computer to send this, after which I’m going out exploring with some fellow teachers, checking out some of the markets. Which reminds me. Had better study the town map. For a small town, it’s easy to get lost. As we discovered last weekend when my gas ran out and I had to try and find the gas shop. Thank goodness I have a 4x4, as the roads are well, not really roads! And the view of Mount Kili from Moshi – magical. That old mountain rises above the clouds so majestically, it’s breathtaking.
Luvya all!
Cindy xxx
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Lost luggage, again!
The last few days in South Africa were hectic! The awesome family lunch at Quay 4 on the Waterfront on the Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday trying to get the Hermanus Rainbow Trust website done on Siobhan's macbook. After all the time and effort put into creating the website in iweb, the host guy couldn't figure out how to upload a mac website onto a non-mac server. Of course, we couldn't help him either. And, to make matters worse, the silly man had deleted completely the existing website, so now there was nothing. A void, an empty space. A, "This page has permanently vanished" message. No possible bloody way could I leave my Mom without a website, so we managed to upoad Wordpress onto the server, and I started making her a Wordpress website, just so she has something there. Worked until late Tuesday night, then got up at 5am to continue on the Wednesday, as we were supposed to be leaving Hermanus at 10am the latest. I wanted to do a little shopping first, and hadn't even packed our bags yet. Well, only finished the website at about 10am and then had to pack. Trying to pack a lot into a little is something I have perfected over the years. I managed to pack one big suitcase, two big backpacks, two draggy carry on bags and one gym bag. For us, that was hardly anything. We were no sooner getting ready to go out the door, when my Mom's housekeeper came running out with a pile of freshly ironed washing that we'd forgotten to take. I had to try and stuff it into the hand luggage, which proved to be a big blessing.
I had contacted South African Airways previously, to query why we had 20kg each from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and 30kg each from then on. The lady on the phone was very unobliging, and advised me to go on a wild shopping spree at the duty free in Johannesburg to make up our weight allowance. Fat lot of help that was. But, when we arrived at Cape Town International at 4.30am, the check-in man looked so tired and bored, he'd obviously pulled an all-nighter, and checked in our big suitcase and the biggest backpack. I had the one I usually carried on my back, and Siobhan hiding around the corner with the two carry on suitcases and sports bag. The check in man never asked about hand luggage or said how much our two big bags weighed, as I was worried they were over the 40kg we had between the two of us. The flight to Johannesburg was uneventful and we managed to get away with our heavily-laden hand luggage which was way over the 7kg we were each allowed. When we arrived in Joburg, we went to the baggage collection - our bags weren't there! I went to advise them at the lost luggage office, but then they looked at our baggage slips and said that they'd been put in to fly direct to Kilimanjaro with us. I did think that this was a bit strange as we were changing from the domestic to international terminal and still had to check in for our international flight, but stupidly, didn't take it further. When we checked in, the check in guy there asked us for our luggage and we checked in ALL our hand luggage with the exception of Siobhan's school backpack and our laptops! It was only 37kg! Which of course means, that we were very lucky to get away with carrying 37kg of hand luggage on the plane when we were only allowed 14kg! Never have we traveled with so little hand luggage. Both Siobhan and I had no idea what to do with our hands. The plane was delayed 45minutes, which meant that we didn't have much time to make our connecting flight in Nairobi.
The plane was so empty, Siobhan and I each had three seats to ourselves, so could really spread out, relax and watch the onboard movies. The Air Kenya plane was old and the fittings onboard really showed the age, but it was a pleasant enough flight, even though the pilot had problems with take-off and landing. His take-off was a little hair-raising and definitely reminded me of why I hate flying. It is such a long way to fall if something goes wrong. We arrived in Nairobi and it was all confusing, we weren't sure what we were supposed to do, or where we had to go. Eventually, we found that we had to head to the gate next to the gate we'd come in through. Twenty minutes after arriving, we were boarding Precision Air to Kilimanjaro. Siobhan was very concerned when she saw our little plane had propellers on the wings! They looked more like lawnmower blades! The plane was full and I wondered how they'd fit in our total of 77kg of luggage on such a small plane. There was no room on board for hand luggage and I was relieved that we didn't have any. I shouldn't have wasted my time worrying how they'd fit in all my luggage, as obviously they didn't. Our large suitcase and big backpack never arrived, and still hasn't. there is still no trace of it and at the moment, each airline seems to be blaming the other for losing it. As I like to travel braless for comfort purposes, all my bras were in my big suitcase. So, I have been braless ever since I arrived in Tanzania. What a good impression I've been making!
For such a small plane it was a great flight and flying past the top of Mount Kilimanjaro was one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. There's not that much snow at the moment, but still, seeing it at dusk sticking up above the clouds - simply mind-bogglingly awesome! Everything had gone so smoothly, I should have been prepared for what happened next. As we had to fill in swine flu forms and our arrival forms, they asked me for our yellow fever cards, which of course we didn't have. I had checked before with the Tanzanian Embassy in South Africa, and on their website, and as Cape Town was not in a yellow fever area, we didn't need them. we would need them when we left, but I thought I would get them later. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in the fact that we stopped in Nairobi for 20 minutes which IS a yellow fever area. Therefore we needed them otherwise they'd deport us. The school principal tried to bribe the official, but for once he was above bribery, and we had to pay $50 each to get a yellow fever injection. Siobhan started crying, and the guy then momentarily had second thoughts, but decided he wanted to make us safe. Yeah, right. He showed us that the vaccine bottle was unopened and the needles were new, and put on one glove to make it semi-hygienic. Luckily, we haven't felt any ill-effects. The rest went quite smoothly, we paid for our visas and then had to queue up for the immigration official to take our photos for the visa. I asked him to try and make me beautiful and he laughed. However, when he saw the photo he'd taken of me, he sent me to another immigration official to take another photo as he said the other guy's camera took more beautiful photos.
Then we went to collect our luggage from the baggage collection area, and only our luggage we'd checked in at Johannesburg was there! Most of our clothes, lost! Four days later and still no sign of our things! I should have been suspicious of everything having gone so smoothly with our luggage! I reported the missing baggage and the official demanded a communication fee. I told him I only had rands, so he said he wanted R200. I said I only had R100, which he took and gave me no receipt. Obviously a bribe. When I asked for a receipt, he said he'd have to walk to the control tower to get the receipt book, and that it was getting dark and I wouldn't want him to do that, would I? So, I then countered, okay, will give you the R100, but if you don't find my luggage I want R200 in return. Looks like I might have to drive to the airport to collect!
Otherwise, have settled in quickly! The management here are great, and we have the biggest garden ever! The house is basic but comfortable and I'll do it up a bit in time. We definitely have enough room for guests, so, book your visiting times! The school itself is well-organised and very laid-back. The best place ever to raise young kids. I wish I had come here when my children were younger! For those of you teaching, enjoy the start of your new school year or term! Keep well, and keep safe!
love
Cindy
xxx
I had contacted South African Airways previously, to query why we had 20kg each from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and 30kg each from then on. The lady on the phone was very unobliging, and advised me to go on a wild shopping spree at the duty free in Johannesburg to make up our weight allowance. Fat lot of help that was. But, when we arrived at Cape Town International at 4.30am, the check-in man looked so tired and bored, he'd obviously pulled an all-nighter, and checked in our big suitcase and the biggest backpack. I had the one I usually carried on my back, and Siobhan hiding around the corner with the two carry on suitcases and sports bag. The check in man never asked about hand luggage or said how much our two big bags weighed, as I was worried they were over the 40kg we had between the two of us. The flight to Johannesburg was uneventful and we managed to get away with our heavily-laden hand luggage which was way over the 7kg we were each allowed. When we arrived in Joburg, we went to the baggage collection - our bags weren't there! I went to advise them at the lost luggage office, but then they looked at our baggage slips and said that they'd been put in to fly direct to Kilimanjaro with us. I did think that this was a bit strange as we were changing from the domestic to international terminal and still had to check in for our international flight, but stupidly, didn't take it further. When we checked in, the check in guy there asked us for our luggage and we checked in ALL our hand luggage with the exception of Siobhan's school backpack and our laptops! It was only 37kg! Which of course means, that we were very lucky to get away with carrying 37kg of hand luggage on the plane when we were only allowed 14kg! Never have we traveled with so little hand luggage. Both Siobhan and I had no idea what to do with our hands. The plane was delayed 45minutes, which meant that we didn't have much time to make our connecting flight in Nairobi.
The plane was so empty, Siobhan and I each had three seats to ourselves, so could really spread out, relax and watch the onboard movies. The Air Kenya plane was old and the fittings onboard really showed the age, but it was a pleasant enough flight, even though the pilot had problems with take-off and landing. His take-off was a little hair-raising and definitely reminded me of why I hate flying. It is such a long way to fall if something goes wrong. We arrived in Nairobi and it was all confusing, we weren't sure what we were supposed to do, or where we had to go. Eventually, we found that we had to head to the gate next to the gate we'd come in through. Twenty minutes after arriving, we were boarding Precision Air to Kilimanjaro. Siobhan was very concerned when she saw our little plane had propellers on the wings! They looked more like lawnmower blades! The plane was full and I wondered how they'd fit in our total of 77kg of luggage on such a small plane. There was no room on board for hand luggage and I was relieved that we didn't have any. I shouldn't have wasted my time worrying how they'd fit in all my luggage, as obviously they didn't. Our large suitcase and big backpack never arrived, and still hasn't. there is still no trace of it and at the moment, each airline seems to be blaming the other for losing it. As I like to travel braless for comfort purposes, all my bras were in my big suitcase. So, I have been braless ever since I arrived in Tanzania. What a good impression I've been making!
For such a small plane it was a great flight and flying past the top of Mount Kilimanjaro was one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. There's not that much snow at the moment, but still, seeing it at dusk sticking up above the clouds - simply mind-bogglingly awesome! Everything had gone so smoothly, I should have been prepared for what happened next. As we had to fill in swine flu forms and our arrival forms, they asked me for our yellow fever cards, which of course we didn't have. I had checked before with the Tanzanian Embassy in South Africa, and on their website, and as Cape Town was not in a yellow fever area, we didn't need them. we would need them when we left, but I thought I would get them later. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in the fact that we stopped in Nairobi for 20 minutes which IS a yellow fever area. Therefore we needed them otherwise they'd deport us. The school principal tried to bribe the official, but for once he was above bribery, and we had to pay $50 each to get a yellow fever injection. Siobhan started crying, and the guy then momentarily had second thoughts, but decided he wanted to make us safe. Yeah, right. He showed us that the vaccine bottle was unopened and the needles were new, and put on one glove to make it semi-hygienic. Luckily, we haven't felt any ill-effects. The rest went quite smoothly, we paid for our visas and then had to queue up for the immigration official to take our photos for the visa. I asked him to try and make me beautiful and he laughed. However, when he saw the photo he'd taken of me, he sent me to another immigration official to take another photo as he said the other guy's camera took more beautiful photos.
Then we went to collect our luggage from the baggage collection area, and only our luggage we'd checked in at Johannesburg was there! Most of our clothes, lost! Four days later and still no sign of our things! I should have been suspicious of everything having gone so smoothly with our luggage! I reported the missing baggage and the official demanded a communication fee. I told him I only had rands, so he said he wanted R200. I said I only had R100, which he took and gave me no receipt. Obviously a bribe. When I asked for a receipt, he said he'd have to walk to the control tower to get the receipt book, and that it was getting dark and I wouldn't want him to do that, would I? So, I then countered, okay, will give you the R100, but if you don't find my luggage I want R200 in return. Looks like I might have to drive to the airport to collect!
Otherwise, have settled in quickly! The management here are great, and we have the biggest garden ever! The house is basic but comfortable and I'll do it up a bit in time. We definitely have enough room for guests, so, book your visiting times! The school itself is well-organised and very laid-back. The best place ever to raise young kids. I wish I had come here when my children were younger! For those of you teaching, enjoy the start of your new school year or term! Keep well, and keep safe!
love
Cindy
xxx
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Now I have no excuses!
As I come to the end of a very busy unholidayish holiday, I realise that I have not blogged since I landed back in South Africa. I have no acceptable excuse. Please queue up on the left to beat me.
This holiday has been very eventful and I have not managed to see everybody I wanted to, or do all the things I wanted to. It has been a little frustrating. What has been even more frustrating, is how little writing I have managed to do. It seems like I've been rushing off to Cape Town for the long list of medical check-ups I required, and then rushing back to Hermanus to try and get as many things done as possible for my Mom's Hermanus Rainbow Trust. All available funds has gone onto getting Tony all set up in Res at the Hotel School. Hopefully, he'll soon learn the value of money, as he's been tapping me for money every single week.
All my medical check-ups have gone okay, gynaecologist said I am far from menopause which was very sad news as I've been praying each month that it'll arrive. I rather fancy having hot flashes. He was very nice with a great sense of humour, which he needed after making me sit in his waiting room for 45 minutes clutching my urine specimen bottle which rapidly cooled down in my hot little hand. Nowehere to put it, so I couldn't even read a magazine! The physician was great as well, and has now put me on blood pressure meds and a special diet. the urologist reckons I have an irritable bladder which is what is causing the inflammation, so now I have to retrain my bladder by not going to the toilet when I need to, and rather doing the dance of pain and suffering as I clamp my legs shut and try and encourage my bladder to hold out. I'm not too sure how I'll stop the Niagara Falls in mid flow to practice clamping my muscles either. Oh well, guess I'll have fun trying! He also put me on a special diet, so I have to avoid any food or drink which irritates the bladder. There is such a long list of stuff I can't have. All that's left is a piece of steamed fish and a lettuce leaf!
As regards the Hermanus Rainbow Trust, I've managed to make a brochure, a movie, a website and run workshops for the Grade R teachers about planning and assessment. I really feel that when I finish my next job, I need to move back full time to help the Trust.
I managed to work quite a bit on The Case of Billy B, but not as much as I had hoped. Not nearly as much as I'd hoped. Never got to watch all the movies and series I brought along to watch either, or read the books.....ahhhhhh, time is the killer for me. There are definitely just not enough hours in the day. I'm still hoping to have The Case of Billy B and Toxic Weeds out before the end of the year! I'm going to have to work on them until the early hours every night. I haven't had a chance to do much writing on Hubpages either.
Somehow I also managed to sort through my shipment which arrived intact and unscathed from China. Julian's terracotta warriors remained in one piece. I've given all the boxes going to Moshi to the airfreight people. Reminds me, the buggers still have not sent me the invoice, must get onto them about that. Now, tonight have to do all our final suitcase packing. Luckily, have cut down so much, that I think Siobhan and I will manage okay without Tony as our packhorse. SAA only give us 20kg each to get from Cape Town to Johannesburg. But Kenya Airways gives us 30kg each to get from Johannesburg to Moshi. Now I ask you, isn't that ridiculous? I phoned SAA and they laughed at me and said thems the rules and suggested I go wild shopping at the duty free in Johannesburg to make up the extra allowance. Jeez, what a sense of humour!
Had quite a few games of scrabble with the folks and think that I'll be leaving here the scrabble champion. I plan on only returning in 18 months time, but members of my family have already bought books and maps of Tanzania, so think they'll be visiting, which is cool. Got to rush off to the website people and see if we can upload the website from the macbook onto the windows server.
luvya
Cindy
This holiday has been very eventful and I have not managed to see everybody I wanted to, or do all the things I wanted to. It has been a little frustrating. What has been even more frustrating, is how little writing I have managed to do. It seems like I've been rushing off to Cape Town for the long list of medical check-ups I required, and then rushing back to Hermanus to try and get as many things done as possible for my Mom's Hermanus Rainbow Trust. All available funds has gone onto getting Tony all set up in Res at the Hotel School. Hopefully, he'll soon learn the value of money, as he's been tapping me for money every single week.
All my medical check-ups have gone okay, gynaecologist said I am far from menopause which was very sad news as I've been praying each month that it'll arrive. I rather fancy having hot flashes. He was very nice with a great sense of humour, which he needed after making me sit in his waiting room for 45 minutes clutching my urine specimen bottle which rapidly cooled down in my hot little hand. Nowehere to put it, so I couldn't even read a magazine! The physician was great as well, and has now put me on blood pressure meds and a special diet. the urologist reckons I have an irritable bladder which is what is causing the inflammation, so now I have to retrain my bladder by not going to the toilet when I need to, and rather doing the dance of pain and suffering as I clamp my legs shut and try and encourage my bladder to hold out. I'm not too sure how I'll stop the Niagara Falls in mid flow to practice clamping my muscles either. Oh well, guess I'll have fun trying! He also put me on a special diet, so I have to avoid any food or drink which irritates the bladder. There is such a long list of stuff I can't have. All that's left is a piece of steamed fish and a lettuce leaf!
As regards the Hermanus Rainbow Trust, I've managed to make a brochure, a movie, a website and run workshops for the Grade R teachers about planning and assessment. I really feel that when I finish my next job, I need to move back full time to help the Trust.
I managed to work quite a bit on The Case of Billy B, but not as much as I had hoped. Not nearly as much as I'd hoped. Never got to watch all the movies and series I brought along to watch either, or read the books.....ahhhhhh, time is the killer for me. There are definitely just not enough hours in the day. I'm still hoping to have The Case of Billy B and Toxic Weeds out before the end of the year! I'm going to have to work on them until the early hours every night. I haven't had a chance to do much writing on Hubpages either.
Somehow I also managed to sort through my shipment which arrived intact and unscathed from China. Julian's terracotta warriors remained in one piece. I've given all the boxes going to Moshi to the airfreight people. Reminds me, the buggers still have not sent me the invoice, must get onto them about that. Now, tonight have to do all our final suitcase packing. Luckily, have cut down so much, that I think Siobhan and I will manage okay without Tony as our packhorse. SAA only give us 20kg each to get from Cape Town to Johannesburg. But Kenya Airways gives us 30kg each to get from Johannesburg to Moshi. Now I ask you, isn't that ridiculous? I phoned SAA and they laughed at me and said thems the rules and suggested I go wild shopping at the duty free in Johannesburg to make up the extra allowance. Jeez, what a sense of humour!
Had quite a few games of scrabble with the folks and think that I'll be leaving here the scrabble champion. I plan on only returning in 18 months time, but members of my family have already bought books and maps of Tanzania, so think they'll be visiting, which is cool. Got to rush off to the website people and see if we can upload the website from the macbook onto the windows server.
luvya
Cindy
Friday, June 26, 2009
BACK IN cAPE tOWN AND FINALLY ABLE TO ACCESS MY BLOG!
Blocked website
For some reason known only to Big Brother, the last month and a half in China, all blogs and nings and many other websites were blocked. It probably had something to do with the Tianemen Square Anniversary. Well, finally, I am able to update my blog! So many things have happened which I could have blogged about, but as I'm getting old, my memory is fading. Maybe an onset of early Alzheimers.
To cut a long story short, Tony finished his exams and Grade 12, and lolled around for a month and a half watching TV and playing on his computer and doing no packing. We all nearly died of shock at the school's award ceremony, when he was awarded a certificate for the most improved student. He has worked really hard at school though, and I am proud of him. Monday, he received a large trophy for sportsman of the year. While I was terribly proud, I did wonder where the hell we would pack it into our luggage.
I completed the thirty hubs in thirty days challenge and have been working quite hard on my latest book. My goal is to complete heaps of writing this holiday. That way, I won't spend any money!
The rest of the month of May flew past so quickly, with my birthday, Kerri's birthday and the farewell parties and end of year functions that start to fill up your social calendar. It's strange how you start to feel yourself subconciously withdraw from people, as you know that you'll be leaving soon. I think, it helps to cure the pain of leaving close and dear friends behind. But, when you close doors behind you, other doors always open in front of you, and that is something that bears remembering. It's probably hardest leaving Kerri behind, but so many people and her friends told me that they'll take care of her and I mustn't worry. I know that she'll probably be the one taking care of her friends rather than them taking care of her, but she's with a great community of people, so I must stop worrying. I'm too young to go completely grey. Even if I do have the early signs of dementia.
Swine Flu
The Swine Flu Pandemic is causing strange behaviour. Not only are Hong Kong primary schools closed because of Swine Flu, but Nanjing Airport is taking temperatures of all passengers on the plane before they are allowed to get off. If they detect someone with a sniff, cough, sneeze, runny tummy or temperature, they put them into quarantine. Last Thursday, one of our teacher's husbands was on a flight into Nanjing. Someone on board had a fever and was put into quarantine. We had a big farewell party at their house on Friday, went with them to the staff party on Saturday night, and then on Sunday they had China Health Services knocking on the door. The guy with the fever had swine flu, so everybody who had been on that plane was put into quarantine, including all the people they'd been in contact with. My friend and her husband stretched the truth. Okay, they lied, and said they hadn't been in contact with anybody since he'd returned. Forget about a wild party at their house with easily fifty odd peopl on the Friday following the flight! There gate was chained up, and a security guard was put at their gate preventing them from leaving and others from visiting. What a way to end their time in China! At least, the Chinese Government delivered restaurant of their choice food to them every day! Imagine the expense of doing that to everybody who had been on that flight?
Leaving Nanjing
Our trip home on Wednesday was an adventure, or rather, a series of adventures. But then again, this is us we are talking about, would you seriously expect anything different? The school has a tradition of students and teachers going into the gym to do a yearbook signing and saying their farewells to each other. I headed to the gym with good intentions. Andy, one of Tony's friends asked me to sign his yearbook, in the corridor outside the gym. I could feel my eyes well up with tears and knew instinctively that if I set foot in that gym, I would break down in front of everybody. Leaving, is so hard to do. Great friendships you've made over three years, people you've traveled with and got to know so well. It's very hard and not something I'm good at dealing with. So, I just turned around, headed to my classroom, hid out there and drank a sprite, waiting for the final bell to go, ending my time in China, and escaped through the back door, too cowardly to leave through the front and have to say goodbye to everybody. I am yellow from head to toe. My blood is yellow. I am a coward.
The driver had arrived at 7am to pick up our bags, but saw that we had too many, so he booked a small van to take the baggage and he would just take us. Mike, our driver, we'll miss him greatly. I'd struggled to sleep, knowing that we hadn't quite finished packing and sorting stuff. Talk about leaving it to the last minute! So, I was up at 4am, packing, sorting, but we still managed to leave Siobhan's guitar behind! Probably just as well, as we would never have been able to carry it with all our luggage! We had two large suitcases, two large backpacker's backpacks, one large gym bag, two small gym bags, three small wheelie bags that can only just fit on as handluggage, a huge metro bag with teddies and two Wii fits, two laptops, another laptop bag with Siobhan's Wii in it, and my big sling shoulder bag. As you can tell, we had a lot of luggage. The smaller wheelie bags were each heavier than our hold luggage. We were seriously overweight, and not from eating too much KFC either!
Nanjing was not a problem, until the vigilant check-in lady happened to cast her eyes towards our laden trolley loaded with hand luggage. She immediately called security and ran after us, shouting, "You can't take all that hand luggage on the plane!" She probably had a point, as we had only checked in the two large bags, one of the backpacks and the large gym bag into the hold. I quickly explained that we were still sorting out the hand luggage. So, we sat down, discarded Siobhan's rollerblades which she'd forgotten to put in the shipment, the kids' Vietnamese straw hats and my Timberland boots. When the security and check-in lady weren't looking, we jumped up and quickly went through immigration. The flight was delayed about 3 and a half hours, which didn't really impact on our traveling as we had originally had a 7 hour stopover in Hong Kong. Imagine my dismay, when we spotted the vigilant check-in lady and her security man at the boarding pass gate! But, ever quick-thinking, I quickly dispersed our hand luggage amongst other friends also flying to Hong Kong. What would we do when we left Hong Kong?
For the first time ever, I was strong-willed and didn't go shopping at Hong Kong Airport. The thought of having to carry our purchases on top of everything else was enough to put me off. Instead, we left Tony at the gate with all our luggage, and Siobhan and I headed to the sports bar to meet up with some friends who were on our flight and waiting in the airport for their connecting flight to Amsterdam. A couple of apple ciders later and we had time to eat dinner at Burger King, before heading to the gate where Tony had fallen asleep while supposedly guarding the luggage. Luckily, nobody removed any of our belongings! We managed to somehow or other carry our 'hand luggage' onto the plane and make out as if it weighed nothing. The flight was a little bumpy, but uneventful. I had a Chinese man sitting opposite me who spent the whole flight hoiking loudly and spitting into his air sickness bag. As we headed to South African immigration, he hoiked loudly and spat on the floor, leaving a delightful blob of mucousy mess. Ah, what we'll miss about China!
Bribery and Corruption!
Then we arrived in Johannesburg. Collected our luggage, had three large trolleys piled high! We decided to check in straight away for our flight to Cape Town, to get it all out of the way, and then have a leisurely breakfast. SAA are much stricter on luggage and hand luggage than the other airlines we'd used on our trip. Luckily, we'd only approached with two trolleys and Tony had stayed back with the hand luggage trolley. The guy on the weighbridge weighed the two trolleys and we were 70kg over the limit of 60kg! Three of us were allowed to take 7kg of hand luggage on board each. Although I begged, the man would not grant me any slack, and then the porter chipped in and said they should help us. I quickly realised that they were playing a good cop/bad cop routine. I've watched enough American TV to recognise the signs. Anyway, he finally put us down for being 26kg overweight, so we had to pay about $70 (R700). They then signalled for another guy to go and do our check-in, which he did without blinking an eye at the obvious discrepancy between what we were checking in and the weight of our luggage written down on the paper. Definitely a whole team of them at work running this operation. Of course, nobody helps without demanding anything in return, so we had to pay $90 (R900) as a thank you gift. Thank God for bribery and corruption! We would have had to pay more money otherwise, and they completely turned a blind eye to our third overladen trolley.
Lost luggage
However, the story doesn't end there. Three of our bags failed to arrive in Cape Town! All Tony's clothes and underpants, his trophy he won for being sportsman of the year and other documents we need! Hopefully, they'll be found and they won't have items missing. Of course, our bags weren't locked! We are too trusting! I'm not sure if it was the scammers who removed our bags, or if there is another operation working there. Hold thumbs they locate them today!
But, yippee we are HOME!
love
Cindy
(Already missing everybody from Nanjing!)
For some reason known only to Big Brother, the last month and a half in China, all blogs and nings and many other websites were blocked. It probably had something to do with the Tianemen Square Anniversary. Well, finally, I am able to update my blog! So many things have happened which I could have blogged about, but as I'm getting old, my memory is fading. Maybe an onset of early Alzheimers.
To cut a long story short, Tony finished his exams and Grade 12, and lolled around for a month and a half watching TV and playing on his computer and doing no packing. We all nearly died of shock at the school's award ceremony, when he was awarded a certificate for the most improved student. He has worked really hard at school though, and I am proud of him. Monday, he received a large trophy for sportsman of the year. While I was terribly proud, I did wonder where the hell we would pack it into our luggage.
I completed the thirty hubs in thirty days challenge and have been working quite hard on my latest book. My goal is to complete heaps of writing this holiday. That way, I won't spend any money!
The rest of the month of May flew past so quickly, with my birthday, Kerri's birthday and the farewell parties and end of year functions that start to fill up your social calendar. It's strange how you start to feel yourself subconciously withdraw from people, as you know that you'll be leaving soon. I think, it helps to cure the pain of leaving close and dear friends behind. But, when you close doors behind you, other doors always open in front of you, and that is something that bears remembering. It's probably hardest leaving Kerri behind, but so many people and her friends told me that they'll take care of her and I mustn't worry. I know that she'll probably be the one taking care of her friends rather than them taking care of her, but she's with a great community of people, so I must stop worrying. I'm too young to go completely grey. Even if I do have the early signs of dementia.
Swine Flu
The Swine Flu Pandemic is causing strange behaviour. Not only are Hong Kong primary schools closed because of Swine Flu, but Nanjing Airport is taking temperatures of all passengers on the plane before they are allowed to get off. If they detect someone with a sniff, cough, sneeze, runny tummy or temperature, they put them into quarantine. Last Thursday, one of our teacher's husbands was on a flight into Nanjing. Someone on board had a fever and was put into quarantine. We had a big farewell party at their house on Friday, went with them to the staff party on Saturday night, and then on Sunday they had China Health Services knocking on the door. The guy with the fever had swine flu, so everybody who had been on that plane was put into quarantine, including all the people they'd been in contact with. My friend and her husband stretched the truth. Okay, they lied, and said they hadn't been in contact with anybody since he'd returned. Forget about a wild party at their house with easily fifty odd peopl on the Friday following the flight! There gate was chained up, and a security guard was put at their gate preventing them from leaving and others from visiting. What a way to end their time in China! At least, the Chinese Government delivered restaurant of their choice food to them every day! Imagine the expense of doing that to everybody who had been on that flight?
Leaving Nanjing
Our trip home on Wednesday was an adventure, or rather, a series of adventures. But then again, this is us we are talking about, would you seriously expect anything different? The school has a tradition of students and teachers going into the gym to do a yearbook signing and saying their farewells to each other. I headed to the gym with good intentions. Andy, one of Tony's friends asked me to sign his yearbook, in the corridor outside the gym. I could feel my eyes well up with tears and knew instinctively that if I set foot in that gym, I would break down in front of everybody. Leaving, is so hard to do. Great friendships you've made over three years, people you've traveled with and got to know so well. It's very hard and not something I'm good at dealing with. So, I just turned around, headed to my classroom, hid out there and drank a sprite, waiting for the final bell to go, ending my time in China, and escaped through the back door, too cowardly to leave through the front and have to say goodbye to everybody. I am yellow from head to toe. My blood is yellow. I am a coward.
The driver had arrived at 7am to pick up our bags, but saw that we had too many, so he booked a small van to take the baggage and he would just take us. Mike, our driver, we'll miss him greatly. I'd struggled to sleep, knowing that we hadn't quite finished packing and sorting stuff. Talk about leaving it to the last minute! So, I was up at 4am, packing, sorting, but we still managed to leave Siobhan's guitar behind! Probably just as well, as we would never have been able to carry it with all our luggage! We had two large suitcases, two large backpacker's backpacks, one large gym bag, two small gym bags, three small wheelie bags that can only just fit on as handluggage, a huge metro bag with teddies and two Wii fits, two laptops, another laptop bag with Siobhan's Wii in it, and my big sling shoulder bag. As you can tell, we had a lot of luggage. The smaller wheelie bags were each heavier than our hold luggage. We were seriously overweight, and not from eating too much KFC either!
Nanjing was not a problem, until the vigilant check-in lady happened to cast her eyes towards our laden trolley loaded with hand luggage. She immediately called security and ran after us, shouting, "You can't take all that hand luggage on the plane!" She probably had a point, as we had only checked in the two large bags, one of the backpacks and the large gym bag into the hold. I quickly explained that we were still sorting out the hand luggage. So, we sat down, discarded Siobhan's rollerblades which she'd forgotten to put in the shipment, the kids' Vietnamese straw hats and my Timberland boots. When the security and check-in lady weren't looking, we jumped up and quickly went through immigration. The flight was delayed about 3 and a half hours, which didn't really impact on our traveling as we had originally had a 7 hour stopover in Hong Kong. Imagine my dismay, when we spotted the vigilant check-in lady and her security man at the boarding pass gate! But, ever quick-thinking, I quickly dispersed our hand luggage amongst other friends also flying to Hong Kong. What would we do when we left Hong Kong?
For the first time ever, I was strong-willed and didn't go shopping at Hong Kong Airport. The thought of having to carry our purchases on top of everything else was enough to put me off. Instead, we left Tony at the gate with all our luggage, and Siobhan and I headed to the sports bar to meet up with some friends who were on our flight and waiting in the airport for their connecting flight to Amsterdam. A couple of apple ciders later and we had time to eat dinner at Burger King, before heading to the gate where Tony had fallen asleep while supposedly guarding the luggage. Luckily, nobody removed any of our belongings! We managed to somehow or other carry our 'hand luggage' onto the plane and make out as if it weighed nothing. The flight was a little bumpy, but uneventful. I had a Chinese man sitting opposite me who spent the whole flight hoiking loudly and spitting into his air sickness bag. As we headed to South African immigration, he hoiked loudly and spat on the floor, leaving a delightful blob of mucousy mess. Ah, what we'll miss about China!
Bribery and Corruption!
Then we arrived in Johannesburg. Collected our luggage, had three large trolleys piled high! We decided to check in straight away for our flight to Cape Town, to get it all out of the way, and then have a leisurely breakfast. SAA are much stricter on luggage and hand luggage than the other airlines we'd used on our trip. Luckily, we'd only approached with two trolleys and Tony had stayed back with the hand luggage trolley. The guy on the weighbridge weighed the two trolleys and we were 70kg over the limit of 60kg! Three of us were allowed to take 7kg of hand luggage on board each. Although I begged, the man would not grant me any slack, and then the porter chipped in and said they should help us. I quickly realised that they were playing a good cop/bad cop routine. I've watched enough American TV to recognise the signs. Anyway, he finally put us down for being 26kg overweight, so we had to pay about $70 (R700). They then signalled for another guy to go and do our check-in, which he did without blinking an eye at the obvious discrepancy between what we were checking in and the weight of our luggage written down on the paper. Definitely a whole team of them at work running this operation. Of course, nobody helps without demanding anything in return, so we had to pay $90 (R900) as a thank you gift. Thank God for bribery and corruption! We would have had to pay more money otherwise, and they completely turned a blind eye to our third overladen trolley.
Lost luggage
However, the story doesn't end there. Three of our bags failed to arrive in Cape Town! All Tony's clothes and underpants, his trophy he won for being sportsman of the year and other documents we need! Hopefully, they'll be found and they won't have items missing. Of course, our bags weren't locked! We are too trusting! I'm not sure if it was the scammers who removed our bags, or if there is another operation working there. Hold thumbs they locate them today!
But, yippee we are HOME!
love
Cindy
(Already missing everybody from Nanjing!)
Monday, May 11, 2009
Three hubs down, 27 more to go!
At 6.20am this morning I published my first hub in the quest to complete 30 hubs in 30 days. I want to get a couple under my belt today as soon report writing for the final semester will take up a lot of my time.
How on earth are we ever going to be able to read each other's hubs? I can't see us getting the same amount of Hubpages traffic we always used to get!
Oh well, for me it's not about the money anyway.
Time for a milo and Amazing Race!
love
Cindy
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Hub Challenge at Hubpages
The past two weeks have flown and I have been beyond stressed. Packing up a life and sorting bits and bobs to go off in three different directions, once they all get to Cape town first, has been a nightmare. Too much to do, no time, not much assistance from kids, a veritable nightmare. But, as I sit in my close on empty house surrounded by debris and stuff to perhaps sell or dispose of in some way, I feel a huge sense of relief and a sense of loss. What happens if Somali pirates hijack the ship carrying my life? What happens if it gets damaged in a hurricane and sinks? My poor terracotta warriors will then lie on the bottom of the ocean floor.
Anyway, the good news, no, make that the great news is that Hubpages is having a 30 day challenge so I'm going to try and write 30 articles in 30 days. I want my articles to still be quality ones, so I'll not be forsaking quality for just any shyte. So, please we need your support! I don't actually win anything if I do it, and won't make any money as I don't have Goggle Adsense anyway. they wouldn't let me sign up as they didn't recognise my Chineses address. thought I was taking the piss by giving an address in China. Others are doing it for the money. i just want to see if I can. maybe, somebody will click on the amazon link to my book and buy some copies. That's all I can hope for lol.
So, wish me luck! Am off to see if Nele is at home. Think I need a wine or two for my weary soul.
Am out tonight for Mother's Day. Tony took me out to the Nepalese restaurant last night with money he earned selling some of his art. Tonight Kerri is taking me to Secco, the german Restaurant which has an all you can eat BBQ on a Sunday night. She's renting me out to friends who are missing their moms on Mother's Day! So, should be quite a crowd!
Have a great Mothers day! Hot as Hades here today!
love
Cindy
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Packing and picnics
Last weekend went to see the Shaolin Monks. The full details of which can be read about in my hub about the trip in http://hubpages.com/hub/Shaolin--birth-of-Kung-Fu. I should have been packing, but now suddenly I want to see some of China before I go! June 24th when I leave, is edging ever closer.
This week has flown past so quickly, it is frightening. Everyday I've been staring at my empty boxes thinking that I really have to start packing. Then the shipping company contacted me with the timeline for my move. The collect my passport and expert card on Monday 5th May, and then my actual shipment gets collected on Sunday 10th May. Luckily, it's a Sunday so I don't have to take time off school to organise the pick up of my stuff. This motivated me to think more seriously about my packing. It didn't quite motivate me enough to be galvanised into action to actually do any packing though!
Thursday was Tony's graduation assembly at school. My baby boy has grown up, and when I look at my tall strapping boy with the tufts of pubic hair growing on his chin and cheeks, then I feel that I have done something right. I feel that he'll be able to go out and conquer. He starts his final IB exams on Monday, so please hold thumbs that all goes well. He has been actively studying for the last couple of weeks, so I hope something has penetrated into his brain.
Yesterday, I was supposed to meet Kerri for a picnic in Pearl Park. The day turned into a very bad China day which was good for me, as I came home so angry and upset, that I was motivated to pack like mad, discarding things for my garage sale I've decided to have next Saturday. So, when that is over and my shipment has gone, I'll be living like a squatter in this big empty house. Hopefully, that'll make the time go faster.
So what happened at the picnic you might ask? We were supposed to meet at 11am at the Park. I bought a huge bag of rolls and lots of meat and homemade sausages, which Siobhan and I lugged around. I was really excited, I was going to meet al whole bunch of Kerri's friends and her boyfriend who I've never seen yet. When we arrived I phoned Kerri but she was still somewhere on her way stuck in the traffic. She assured me that she'd contact a friend who was already at the park to collect me from the gate. An SMS promptly arrived with the friend's number I had to call. I duly phoned he friend who told me, "Walk until you hear loud foreigner voices. I am with the foreigners," as if this was some kind of achievement. Siobhan and I bought tickets to the park which were quite costly, and the bimbo phoned again saying that she couldn't see us yet. I patiently explained that we were just buying our tickets. She then said, "I know, but I can't see you yet." I again explained that we were still buying our tickets. She then responded with her stock line, "Walk until you hear loud foreigner voices. I am with the foreigners."
Unfortunately, there were three paths leading away from the gate. We didn't know which one would lead us to the 'loud foreigner voices.' I tried to call, but she obviously couldn't hear above the racket of the 'loud foreigner' voices. So, Siobhan and I decided to take the path the majority of the 1st of May public holiday crowds were taking. As we were walking along the path, slowly wilting in the strong sunlight, a woman danced in front of us with her camera poised ready for action. She walked backwards as her obscenely gross hoiky husband walked next to me put his arm around me and squeezed my breast, while she clicked away like a mad woman on her cheap Chinese-made digital camera. I couldn't fend him off as my hands were full with the humungous bag of rolls and other stuff I was carrying. Another woman sidled up to Siobhan who was walking next to me and tried to put her arm around Siobhan for the photo. Siobhan cursed and managed to brush the woman away.
We walked and walked and saw crowds of people, people having picnics, but no sign of the 'loud foreigner voices' anywhere in the park. Having finished our bottles of water we bought at the gate, and feel tired and dehydrated, we sat down on a bench and decided to wait for Kerri to arrive and find us as we were obviously lost. Siobhan mentioned a bad smell that was getting worse and we looked next to the bench to discover flies buzzing around a fresh human baby turd, no doubt left there by one of the slpit-pants brigade. We hastily moved away to another bench. A golf cart loaded with locals drove by and they all pointed at us and jeered and laughed. People walked past and pointed to my huge bag of rolls and laughed and pretended to throw up and get sick. Charming. The bimbo sent a text message this time. "Where are you?" I replied that we were sitting on a bench waiting for Kerri. She sent another text, "Come for a beer with us first and then you wait." Now, I could feel the veins in my neck starting to pulse with blood as I became more angry. An hour and a half had now gone past since we had arrived. Firstly, I don't drink beer. Secondly, how the hell do I join yu for a beer if I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE YOU ARE! Which is what I said in my text. No response. I called Kerri, she said she couldn't talk as her phone was going flat because she had forgotten to charge it, and she was still stuck in traffic.
Siobhan and I wandered around for a while longer and then decided to go home. We were tired of people laughing at us and mocking us. It was thoroughly unpleasant. As we were walking out the gate, the bimbo calls after not answering her phone the last couple of times I tried to call her. "I can't see you, didn't you see the big white bridge?" For God's sake, what big white bridge? this was the first time she ever mentioned a bridge and no, not once on our wanderings did we ever see a white bridge. maybe we weren't even in the right park, although the ticket said Pearl Park.
We called our driver to fetch us, and as he arrived, Kerri phoned me from a friend's phone. "Where are you? I got here 15 minutes ago." Gee, only an hour and three quarters late.
"Sorry," I reply with anger dripping off my tongue, "We're leaving."
"Oh but you can't everybody is here and wants to meet you!"
I can feel myself start to choke back tears of anger and frustration. "I'm tired and just want to go home now. We walked for miles and never found your frigging friend's wonderful directions of 'loud foreigner noises.' I'm going home, the driver is here."
"You can't go, just find a Chinese person to talk in the phone and we'll find out where you are. Maybe there's another gate to the park and you're at a different gate."
I look around in desperation and see only hoiky spitty types. finally, I spot a woman that looks decent with her two kids next to her. I approach her carrying my huge bag of rolls and meat. "Hello, excuse me, " I say politely as I try and pass her my phone.
If looks could kill I would have been dead on the spot. She pulls a face that would turn any good wine into vinegar straight away, said, "Ha!" and backs away and refuses to take the phone.
By now I can feel the sobs are nearly escaping and I momentarily lose control. "I'm going home now, this wasted exercise has cost me RMB260 ($40) I can not afford at this time with all my expenses. I am very upset. Bye!" and I end the conversation as I start to sob.
All in all, a great China experience. I have not heard from Kerri, so I guess she's mad at me for not attending her picnic, meeting her boyfriend and making a fool of her in front of her friends by getting lost.
But, what the picnic did do, was motivate me to come home and pack like a woman possessed. Oh my God, I've accomplished so much and have become quite vicious in what I'm discarding. I'm determined to no longer be sentimental and hand onto stuff I don't need. Oh well, had better get more packing done and cook dinner while I still have the things to cook with!
Have a great next week!
love
Cindy
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