Visit to Durban, Christmas, and a Goodbye to 2012

To say the last few weeks have been crazy would be a terrible understatement.  I've seen Black Friday sales that were less hectic.

Our trip to Durban didn't turn out the way we wanted it to when we planned it.  About 30 miles from our destination (as the GPS says) a loud screeching noise made me a little worried, as did the smoke from our tailpipe, that quickly disappeared.  The A/C stopped working, and the car was making a weird noise.  Sadly, however, this was late Saturday and everything was already closed.  Nothing is open on a Sunday, and Monday was a holiday, so it looked like we were going to have an issue with fixing the car.  The hotel was nice, and not too far to the beach.  So the first couple days were OK.  We spent time at the pool and went to Gateway Shopping Mall (the largest supposedly in the Southern Hemisphere).  On Monday we met family Friends D and A, and their son who is also on the spectrum.  He's much older than Lovely Little Girl but a sweet boy that very much took to Lovely English Lass.  A called around and found that the Mazda dealer was in fact open on Monday, and took me to see if they could fix it.  Turns out they couldn't.  He then called his mechanic who recommended someone who would  come fix the car for us.  Problem was, no one had the part we needed.  Our car is a 2 liter engine, and all of the ones in country were 1.6 liters, which is a problem.  So while he looked around for the part, we rented a car and went looking for Rhino at a Nature Preserve.

While there we had lunch near a herd of Zebra, saw numerous monkeys, and saw the beautiful dam built by LEL's people.  (Not enough concrete to be from mine.)  In many of these nature parks they have paved roads, but also unpaved roads to travel on to see animals.  We saw an unpaved road that looked like it had been used, and decided to give it a try.  Low clearance + No 4wd = stuck car.  I had to walk back to the info center to ask for help.  The woman asked me why we went down this road, and I told her that if they'd have given us a map, I wouldn't have in the first place.  She called for help, which is where I heard the Zulu word for idiot.  (It's yejane in case you're wondering.)  A man came up with a Land Cruiser, and off we went to our stuck vehicle.  He looks at it, says, "Stuck", makes a motion like backing up, and leaves.  We sit for almost 10 minutes, and just when I'm about to go back to the center, the man arrives with a large red tractor.  He hooks us up, pulls us out, and we're on our way.

The car got fixed on Thursday, but by then we'd had enough.  We packed up and left Friday.  It wasn't that busy, but apparently the road we traveled (the N3) was very dangerous.  About 15 minutes after we passed an area a HUGE accident occurred an 6 people died.  That happened a lot here.  You always have large casualties in accidents, sadly.

Christmas was brilliant.  The kids loved the gifts Santa brought, I got an ice cream maker, a book on ice cream recipes from Ben & Jerry's, a Batman Belt Buckle, a Batman DVD, a Batman Comic book, a Batman t-shirt, 2 different Captain America t-shirts, and Spider man cuff-links.  Yeah, I'm a geek.  LEL got a tri-pod for her video camera, the entire series of Buffy, last season from How I met Your mother, tea mugs from Ali Miller (which were featured on the TV show "Sherlock") and a Jane Eyre t-shirt, which she adores.

However, Christmas was cut short by news that a very dear friend of LEL had died the day after Christmas. It happened quickly, and was a shock for everyone.  So, Saturday LEL and the kids flew back to England for the funeral, and for LEL to help with the arrangements.  Very sad way to end the year indeed.

It's been a quick year.  Time always moves faster when you live oversees in the Foreign Service.  I'm now almost 1/2 way through my tour here in Johannesburg, and this summer we'll be looking to bid for our next job.  Seems difficult to believe we've been here so long.  It's been a good year with some difficult times.  However, LLG is growing more and more sure of herself.  She loves the new main-stream school she's in, and has even made some friends.  Crazy Little Man is becoming his own little person, and definitely has his own personality.  (He's larger than life in his mind.)  LEL started a new job, and is getting rave reviews for it. Me?  I got promoted, we're all relatively healthy and happy.  Hopefully it continues into the new year.

Thank you reader for letting my random brain droppings entertain you this year.  I've had over 2000 views since I started this new blog in June, which boggles my mind.  I just can't imagine people wanting to read my thoughts, or even to read my attempts at music reviews, but apparently they do.  So thank you.  May the New Year bring you happiness, health and joy to you and yours.