C'est la Vie

This is going to be one Crazy year!

Tara — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:38:51 +0000

Note the capital “C” in that title. It feels like I’m gleefully heading off into the perfect storm. And the worse thing? It’s all my own doing!

January – We headed home to surprise my Dad (yet to be blogged…sorry!) for 10 days.

February – I write exams on the 25th & 26th immediately followed by…

March – MBA lectures for the first 2 weeks (1 subject per week) for while I will have assignments that are due by the end of March; in between catching up with all the work-work I miss by being at lectures for 2 weeks.

April & May – are relatively quiet months, though I need that time to get cracking on my dissertation (which seems to have stalled a bit right now*). Oh, and I will probably have the fun added bonus of wedding planning stuff starting in earnest!

June – Probably the month I am second most excited about this year! I have been accepted to be part of the ESSAM Summer School program in Denmark! Two whole weeks of lectures and group work and company visits and socializing and stuff. The best bit though (apart from this being only the second time I’ve ever been overseas) is that John & I have decided to go 2 weeks early to have a bit of a holiday and a jaunt through Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany & wherever else we can fit in. We’ll be CouchSurfing to try keep the costs down!

View Larger Map

A long way from home. Approx 10,080km actually.

July – I return from Denmark around the 8th, and then have assignments to submit before the end of August. Fun times! I will also be properly in the thick of things at work and with wedding planning. AND can’t forget that dissertation!!

August – I will be frantically trying to finish assignments for Denmark as well as my dissertation so that I can be done and dusted (or very very close!) by the beginning of September because…

September – we are getting married! Twice! Yay! I have yet to blog about any of this because it’s all a bit up in the air but it basically boils down to wanting a very specific date, which falls on a Sunday AND wanting to have a rip-roaring party…which won’t be on a Sunday. So we’re having two ceremonies. (You want more details I’m happy to oblige-but I don’t want to bore people to tears).

October – Strictly recovery. Maybe dissertation. Definitely work catch up. Possible nervous breakdown.

November & December – To be honest, right now, I can barely think past my exams this February so November & December might as well be another planet!!

Oh and did I mention my Mom wants to visit in March, John’s PhD has to be finished by June (cos that’s when the funding runs out) I have a full time job AND I am the treasured for a local NGO.

I know it sounds like I am bitching and moaning, but I’m not. Not really. I’m super excited and so looking forward to what will probably be the most exciting year of my life!!**

*Breathing frantically into a paper bag NOT that I am panicking about that or anything!

**I accept stress relief in the form of wine and/or chocolate and/or backrubs.

I am because I Read.

Tara — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:06:04 +0000

Hello! I am back from our semi-annual jaunt to Zimbabwe to see my parents. We did indeed successfully manage to surprise my Dad (more on that when I’ve edited the video and downloaded all the photos off the cameras!) and generally rested and recharged. I do have a post brewing but for now, I read this over on julochka’s blog and started to comment before realising that it was a blog post all of it’s own! So here you go…

When I was 4.5 years old, my parents moved us from our very very small bush community to the capital city so that I could start Grade 1. Big School. Up to that point, the most kids I’d ever seen altogether were the 20 or so at the “local” crèche (and by local I mean it was an hour’s drive away!).

I really struggled. All my early reports are filled with admonitions to pay more attention and stop staring out the window. I struggled so much that I began to fall behind. The headmistress at the time, a true gem of a teacher called Mrs. Marr, took me under her wing. I had to go to her office, with my reader, every week to read out loud to her. To my, probably imperfect memory, we flew through the assigned readers and soon I was way ahead of my class mates. Dick and Jane was old news! I didn’t see much of Mrs. Marr once I moved from the infant’s school to the junior school. But I didn’t loose my love of reading.

My parents encourage it. We didn’t have a TV and so we were bought or given many many books! To this day I prefer reading a book to watching mindless TV. One of my favourite collections was called the Children’s Treasury of Literature. We made my Mum and Dad read us Riki Tiki Tarvi over and over and over again! That’s also where I discovered the Nonsense Poems of Edward Lear and others.

I slowly discovered my parents library (as appropriate of course!) and thanks to my Mom’s love of crime and who-dun-its I read a lot of Ruth Rendall, Kellerman and Tom Clancy. High school literature introduced me to more classic literature and poetry (though not my favourite I did appreciate the writing!). Our high school English/Drama teacher ran an informal reading club, encouraging us to talk about what we were reading and what we’d enjoyed. It was one of the few times I’ve ever felt really confident talking in class!

Since I was small I have read before bed. A few pages, a few chapters. My brain cannot switch off and start its shutdown process without reading. I am very democratic in my reading, almost everything is fair game or I’ll give it a try. I shy away from very heavy philosophical texts at the moment as I find them challenging rather than relaxing and I do enough reading for work and studies to want to concentrate when I pick up a book at bedtime!

Reading is simply a part of who I am and I get antsy and grumpy if I don’t have time to read. Like my Mom, I give books as gifts whenever I can, especially to kids! I love the feel of a hefty book (except when it hits me in the face when I fall asleep reading!). A gorgeously bound and decorative collectors item. A crisp new paperback picked up at the airport. The well loved copy of a popular book from the library.

I love this essay especially the final section;

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads. - Rosemarie Urquico

Reading. Where would I be without it?

It’s been a long time in the planning….

Tara — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:00:32 +0000

By the time this post goes live, if all goes according to plan, we will have given my Dad the surprise of his life. John & I, and my sister and her hubby, along with my Mom, have schemed and planned and scrimped and saved and planned some more to fly to Harare for my Dad’s 60th Birthday. So far we *think* he has no idea that we’ll be there. I am so going to organise a video for when he walks through the door!!

Once the shock wears off we’ll be off to Kariba for a week or so. A blissful week of sun, fishing, sleeping, and family. I am so lucky!

The Great Road Trip #8: Shakawe, Botswana – Popa Falls, Namibia

Tara — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:00:42 +0000

You can find the rest of the posts in this series here. Caution, quite a few photos after the jump!

Dates: 18th – 20th
Distance: 55.1 km (34.2 mi)
Cumulative Distance: 3,608.5 km (2,242.6 mi)
Accomodation: Camping, except for last night where we slept in the kitchen building!

: Shakawe – Popa Falls

We left Shakawe fairly leisurely, got stuck in the sand once, and hit up the local supermarket for supplies. Which was in iteself a surreal experience. Sitting next to the 50kg bags of mealie meal, and bulk packs of Chinese long life milk and cooking oil were tinned muscles, Simonsberg camembert, great red wines and assorted other luxuary goods. Truely bizarre. We thought it was because of the upmarket lodges and camps in the area but it was still very strange! We stocked up on mussles, wine and fancy cheese (as you do) and headed the 2km up the road to the border. The border crossing (our second) was painless, let’s hear it for tiny out-of-the-way border posts! The whole drive was only about 50km so we were in no great hurry.

We were staying at the government run Popa Falls campsite, the cheapest, closest campsite to Mahongo Game Reserve. Mahongo was one of those places we decided to stop at thanks to our guide book. There are apparently over 400 species of birds in the reserve and the Big Five as well. It’s also one of the few reserves where you can get out and walk around if you want to. Though with all the tall papyrus, thick bush and the one lion sighting we didn’t do that much. Oh and it rained for almost 2 days solid. Did I mention that?

: Our view for two solid days

Ok not solid for two days but enough to make it feel like it and make us sick to death of the tent and each other. But I’ll get to that. Popa Falls are not so much a waterfall as a series of rapids on the Kavango River (which is what the Okavango is called in Namibia). The campsites was gorgeous with great bathrooms and an awesome kitchen. It was just very wet.

We set up in the empty campsite next to a gorgeous little stream and pool. I’m not sure why we didn’t swim in it; probably we were quite damp enough and anyway, it was more than likely against the rules! The best part of the pool was the Paradise Flycatcher that came down to bath everyday. He, (we knew it was a he because of the silly long tail!) would dive bomb into the water and then fly up to a convenient branch and fluff and preen and then repeat the whole sequence. It took him about 15 minutes. We tried to get photos but alas…he was just too quick!

: John trying to capture the dive-bombing Flycatcher at the pool in front of our tent

We also had Giant Kingfishers visiting and a multitude of other tiny and not-so-tiny birds. It was really fabulous!

: Giant Kingfisher

We spent the three days we had here driving around the little park spotting birds and animals and relaxing. The rain was incredibly frustrating though. We only had a little 2-man tent that we could not stand up in. So we played a lot of cards. Talked a lot. And got on one another’s nerves. I think that constantly being wet. Sandy thanks to the sand covered camp-site and stuck either in the car or in the tent was getting to us in a big way. We got out as much as we could, but thanks to the rain, we didn’t see much game on our game drives. It wasn’t a dead loss though!

: Sable

We came across a heard of about 12 sable on the main road. Such a special sighting! These antelope are not all that common and they are so beautiful!

We also saw an enormous legavaan …

: Curled up and sluggish in the cold

Some shy bushbuck…

: A female bushbuck peers through the foliage

A squirrel at one of the viewpoints gave us a wink…

: Yeah…so what?

Or is that a stink-eye?

And a wet and very grumpy-looking White-browed Coucal.

: White-browed Coucal

It really is a superb little reserve. I can highly recommend it; even if the accommodation options in the area are limited.

Finally on our last night we were sick and tired of the damp so we broke down our tent, packed up the bakkie and set up our mattresses in the kitchen. We were the only people in the campsite so it wasn’t an issue. We slept soooooo well that night! The next morning, after coffee and rusks we were busy packing up when the security guard (who had obviously been sleeping somewhere sheltered instead of patrolling) stomped up to us angrily yelling about not being allowed to sleep in the kitchen. Whatever dude. You just miffed you didn’t think of it first!!

We headed up the dirt road and turned west on the Caprivi Highway (B8), heading for our overnight stop via Rundu (where we had an almighty fight!)…stay tuned!

Shoes in the Bank

Tara — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:10:43 +0000

They move past with a measured step. Sombre trousers and tight laces. Another pair seem shiny and new. Careful mincing steps. A well-loved pair enter, then stop hesitating, unsure of where to go.

In and out they go. Back and forth. Some shuffling. Other sure. Past all of us waiting patiently on the bench. Waiting in the queue.

Clack-click-clack some high-heels this way come. And then a farmers boots covered in dirt. Takkies squeak past. A new student?

My neighbours perfume is getting stronger. The air conditioning hums, trying to keep up.

A pram! Tick-tick-tick the wheels click over the grout lines in the tile.

No more waiting. It’s my turn. I stand in my comfy shoes, and walk to the teller.

~*~

A little something that I amused myself writing while waiting in the bank one day.

New Year’s Goals

Tara — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:35:01 +0000

I suck at resolutions. They never seem to stick, partly because they are so vague. So this year I’m going to try write down at least 12 things that I want to do or accomplish this year and see if I can cross them out as I go. I’ve spent quite a few days thinking about these. They are not spur of the moment, they are all do-able.

So here’s my 2012 bucket list; in no particular order. I plan to achieve one a month, more or less.

Say YES more often*
Re-paint & decorate the bathroom
Re-cover the couch & finish headboard in bedroom
Kidnap John for a weekend away!
Sort out savings account & get an accountant mostly to help with taxes
Actually make something from my DIY Pinterest Board!
Sew something with my sewing machine
Print & frame at least 12 new pictures for the house NOT including wedding photos!
Host Christmas Dinner and Secret Santa for friends
Go camping somewhere new
Get my hair cut regularly
Commit to sending or delivering hand written birthday cards

*This is actually something I’ve been thinking a lot about. I tend to be overly cautious and careful in what I do. I tend to focus on the obstacles rather than the fun of a thing. So I want to be able to say YES more often.

Christmas 2011

Tara — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:54:09 +0000

Christmas 2011 will always stick out in my mind as the very first and so far, only Christmas that I didn’t get to spend with any of my immediate family. In 2010, John spent Christmas with my family, which was wonderful, so this year it was my turn to spend the Holiday with his family. I have to be honest, I was kind of apprehensive about it. I knew I was going to miss my family and that chatting to them on the phone was going to be hard. And even though our family doesn’t really have hard and fast traditions at Christmas time, we do things a certain way. Like opening presents on Christmas morning, with mince pies and and coffee and chocolates. My Dad sitting with his sily Father Christmas hat, on the batonka stool handing out gifts.

John’s family do things differently; but first of all, the weather in Port Alfred was miserable. Cold, rainy, and generally not conducive to going outside. So we were all cooped up from Christmas Eve until Boxing Day when we left. We drove down from Grahamstown in the morning on Christmas Eve. Hung out chatting and doing some prep for lunch the next day. Then around 7ish, we sat down to open presents. Yes, on Christmas Eve. That was; weird. Nice to open presents early, but I didn’t really enjoy it. not sure why. Perhaps because it meant that I felt like there as nothing to look forward to the next morning. I was spoilt though! John gave me a Chocolate Lover’s Cookbook, his brother gave me a recipe book called ‘Toast It’ which is to do with sandwiches and things. My parents gave me some perfume, his parents gave me a really good novel which I’ve already finished! I also got a gorgeously scented candle and some luxurious hand cream from his sister. His Gran knitted me the most awesome soft booties and we got some other lovely bits and bobs from other family members. Anyway, on Christmas morning, we were up early-ish and I felt a bit spare. Eventually, I got myself some tea and sat with John watching TV while his Mom headed off to Church.

When she got home, we set about making lunch. A gorgeous leg of lamb on the Weber, a ham, lots of roast potatoes, roast veggies and lots of wine! It was delicious and very relaxed! After lunch we rolled up the stairs to the lounge and commenced to lie on the couch and nap. Hard. With my nose stuck in a book. I was “reading”! I did get to chat to my Mom and my dad briefly but the connection was so bad so it kept cutting out. But at least I got to chat to them!

It’s taken me a few days to digest my feelings and work out what it was that made me feel so adrift at Christmastime. And I can nail down two major things. The first was that we didn’t really put any effort into Christmas. Partly this was because we have both been working so hard this year, and especially before Christmas. We just didn’t have any time to do ‘Christmassy stuff’. I’m not going to let that happen again. 2012 is going to be an insane year but I hope to at least decorate, (even if it’s with home-made things!) and I really want to have a secret Santa and a Christmas dinner with friends. The second reason is we are both used to our respective parents/families sorting things out; as in, we knew we’d be with family for Christmas so we didn’t make any plans of our own. I hope that next year we can host Christmas (maybe-we shall see!). The we can begin our own traditions and I can revel in the planning of it all and above all, being involved! I felt a bit like a guest, rather than a part of the family and that’s just something that will take time and an open mind on my part to get used to a different way of doing things.

Cliff Notes 2011 Edition

Tara — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:38:52 +0000

{2009 Edition and 2010 Edition}

Here’s my now annual round-up for this year. Looking back I can say 2011 has been a bit of a roller-coaster year. There was a lot of work stress behind the scenes (I don’t blog about work here) and a lot of MBA stress up front! It was a good year as well and the absolute highlights have to be my sister & her Hubby’s wedding, John & I (finally) getting engaged and the births of friends’ babies. In some ways it’s been a very long year, and in other, I can’t believe it’s over already!

January

I started out by making some resolutions. I haven’t done that well with some of them, but I have managed to cook a bit more, though I haven’t baked much! I made some tomato-chilli jam and I still have one bottle left-it’s aged really well! I spent a weekend away with John at his field site near Graff Reniet. Beautiful mountains and gorgeous sunrises. And dropping my camera into a puddle. And then I crazily went ahead on impulse and booked to go to FBI2011! I tried to live up to being a food-blogger and made some caramels. And then I destroyed my reputation and wrote about KornKurls (not what you think!!). And then I drowned my phone! Prickly pears are tricky to peel-but not with this handy guide!

February

To start the month, I created my own delicious banana bread combo and as the Easter Eggs were already out in the shops, I made a pie with them. And then I made what’s become a firm favourite with us, Cooksister’s Lemon & Prawn Risotto. I lamented the hot weather. I attended the Food Blogger’s Indaba (which I never ever got around to blogging about) and ended off by spending 14 hours at Cape Town airport-entirely my own fault! I whipped up some Gormet Kudu Wors Rolls with things from our goodie bag (and that post is still really popular!). And then I took a hiatus when the dreaded MBA workload and real life intervened!

March

After a long break, I crawled out from under the MBA rock and caught up on what I’d been up to. Then I got sick and did things by the numbers. Disco ball stars made me happy. I collected a whole bunch of my smoothie recipes together. I wrote a post about my kitchen which I later linked up as part of The Gallery.

April

I made some yummy bites, naan and curry. I took a moment to appreciate the humble cup of tea. My sister got married and I blogged about our road trip (Part 1 & Part 2) down to Paarl.

May

I shared the link for Ash & Gareth’s amazing wedding pics (I’ve since seen the rest and they are awesome!). I shared Part 3 of the Road Trip back home from the Cape. My blogging mojo was on an extended leave of absence. So it was a bit quiet on the blog front.

June

The first proper cold snap rolled around and then I went AWOL for MBA lectures and so forth. Once I returned to normality I attempted a sour dough starter called Janet. John shot a blesbok and we made biltong.

July

We spent a freezing weekend in Hogsback with some close friends. The Arts Festival started and I bought myself some amazing boots. And I whined a lot and wrote about rage. And then I wrote about my nipples (yes really!). Unsurprisingly it’s a popular post! I finally got to bake some of my sour dough and it turn out delicious! We had a lot of rain and ended up with out own water feature.

August

I reminisced about shopping with my Mom. We were visited by a donkey and I saw a beautiful rainbow and drank some lovely wine. I headed up to Jo’burg & Pretoria for work…

September

…where I met up with some amazing lovely and wonderful bloggers (Tamara, Ruby, Angel, Philly and Louisa!) but I was glad to get home again. I took a bit of an unscheduled blogging break, but shared some good news and details! And then tried to get the Mug of Destiny to Pimp by Braai but no luck!

October

I wrote something silly sitting in lectures. And then the brain went on holiday. But I did blog when I got back from Knysna, twice! And I started up a Tumblr blog “Snippets” where I dump all sorts (check it out)!

November

My Canadian friend hosted a belated Canadian Thanksgiving where we ate and drank and watched the fire glow. I thought about but about inheritence, and remembered my first car. I tried on some wedding dresses with friends. I also bought an iPad after playing with my Mom’s one in Knysna! We also drove through to East London to watch some cricket. Later that month some moron spolit a lovely weekend by almost crashing his car into our hedge.

December

We’ve had a lot of rain. I love it! We had a very relaxing weekend and I wrote about something that I hope happens to everyone!

Christmas was spent with Johns family-my first Christmas away from my family. (I’m still gathering my thoughts to write a post). We did our annual shift at the Legendary Ox Braai (2000 odd burgers sold in 24hrs-you do the math!) from 5pm to 3am and Im done with burgers and bacon & egg rolls for a while! Right now, as I finish up this post we are about to head off for a New Years braai with friends.

I hope that everyone gets what they wish for in 2012. As for me, I just want to that everyone for reading. 2012 is going to be a big year for me so I hope you’ll come along for the ride!

Merry Christmas!

Tara — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 07:00:43 +0000

Here’s wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful day surrounded by love and laughter (and presents!)

A Geocaching Weekend (Part 3)

Tara — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:00:59 +0000

See Part 1 and Part 2!

The very first think I noticed when I woke up on Sunday morning was how very stiff and sore I was. My hips especially! Oh and my feet too-blisters! Bah… No time for too much complaining though, another breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and my favourite fried banana washed down with a steaming mug of tea and we were on our way again.

Fortunately we’d decided to save the shorted hike for the second day. The Blue Rout is only 1.5km but we knew that in places the terrain was a lot trickier! The prize at the end of the hike was a geocache that hadn’t been found in over 3 years!

The start of the walk was very easy. Wet and squelchy and we had to take our boots off a couple of times to get across the streams safely. Boy was the water icy!! However, towards the end of the trail, the path started to twist and wind its way up the hillside. We were scrambling over boulders and fallen logs. There was one section where you have to hang onto a rope ladder and pull yourself up. In places the path vanished entirely and we were left to literally feel our way through the undergrowth-hoping we were heading in the right direction.

It was all totally worth it though as we finally found ourselves at the end of the trail. And standing at the base of an amazing waterfall.

Waterfall

The pictures don’t really do it justice. So I made a short video

John went off in search of the geocache which we found! Yay! John had some fun with a vial of bubble mix we found in the container:

We hung around a bit, admiring the location and reminding ourselves how lucky we are to be able to go to these beautiful places. Some raisin and water and we headed back. We stopped to find another two geocaches near waterfalls on the way back to the car but neither were quite so spectacular.

Finally it was time to head home and pack up. The packing and trip home were accomplished with a minimum of fuss. One supper of home-made pizza later and we were both in bed fast asleep far too early!

So that was our little Geocaching mini-break weekend!