Keir's View

This is the view from the Library at Gobabeb in the desert. The White tower in the left is the water tower and has become the icon of the research station.

The morning of

I'm packed, and my plane clothes are laid out on the bed. My toiletries are all in a one gallon bag ready for TSA. I have done all the admin nuisances that I can get done before I leave and now I am lying on the couch feeling the bubble of butterflies for the first time since we booked our flights.

There is a series of events involved with flying that adds to the build up of excitement for your arrival. First you wait in the house, bags packed, dressed, everything done, waiting to leave. There's a flurry of activity as you lug your bags downstairs, hugs all round and then get arranged in the car. Then the airport as you stand in the multiple queues to you get through. There is such a feeling of relief when you hand over your luggage and then again when you get through security and can put your shoes back on.

All the waiting creates momentum for the moment that your head pulls back and the plane magically and fantastically takes off. 7 more hours in the USA, 19 hours in SA, a total of 17 hours on the plane and then home!

ROARRRRRR

I start to have even more compassion for circus animals, and commit more to cirque du soliel every day that this move progresses. I now empathise with any creature that is made to jump through hoops. I have had to do the same to get everything in place. Every hoop imaginable; pink ones, yellow ones, little ones, big ones, thin ones, fat ones. (or is that worms?) In particular, to get the cats to Namibia required hoops of fire. And K and I weren't the only ones who had to make the leap. Big Shout out to B for driving all the way out to Annapolis to the USDA vet services. BUT today I got the call that they had arrived safely and happily and hungrily at our new home. I love to imagine my hubbles, and my kittens snuggled on the couch watching the sunset and breathing the dusty Namibian air.

To tempt you to visit - attached are pics of the garden and the view onto the garden. That bench is begging for a G&T.

it fast approaches!

Wow - just a little over one week left to go before I leave. Here is a pic of the front of our new place. Keir will be moving furniture etc this weekend. It's a massive place and it's going to be great to have so much space. It'll feel wierd coming back to the States after all that sunshine and air.

The properties of light

Last night on my way home from work I stopped at the grocery store. From there I was struggling back down the hill with my heavy bags, wondering how easy it is to dislocate a shoulder, and whether I should figure out a better way to carry the heaviest bag, when I looked up.

In front of me was a huge construction site, basically a big hole in the ground with cranes in it. Beyond that was another construction site, the building standing, but with no filling, no walls, just concrete and ropes of steel holding the whole structure together. Beyond that was the spire of one of the many churches in our neighbourhood. (All Souls's I think - click here for an image of it - http://www.travelphotobase.com/f/DC16/DCS59.HTM) It was a classic DC scene - actually, probaby a classic city scene, but what made me stare was the frozen moment of light on all these structures.

The hole in front of me, and the cranes in it, were in shadow, and their ugliness hidden in the passed light of dusk. The almost-building behind it was shining, the leftover sunlight from the day was reflecting off all the metal in the structure, it made the whole building into a crosshatch of bright light and dark holes. The church spire was swathed in a low hanging cloud, stretched out like a duvet. The top of the cloud was white, the center was grey and stormy and the bottom of the cloud, the part that was snuggled around the spire was red and orange and yellow and all the colours in between.

I didn't think about my groceries again till I got home.

winter crisp

Today is one of those days for feeling semtimental and reflective. Walking to work was cold. My face was cold but the rest of me was snuggled into my fabulous winter coat. Cold, crisp air blowing my hair out of my face, and the sun shining down on my squinting eyelids. This is the best kind of winter day, it is just refreshing and not depresssing.

I got into the office and everyone is in a good mood, sleepy, but happy to see everyone else, happy to have someone else to share the early morning dark of the office with. We commune in the kitchen, the bright lights and smell of coffee assisting in our grunting waking up. Everyone's hands are busy, there's toast in the toaster oven and naturally there is someone standing with the fridge door open looking inside but really only seeing their crumpled, warm bed that they left behind. My tea is sweet and milky and everyone telling banal stories from the night before is soothing. We all scatter down the hallway to stare blankly at the computor. Do people who get in at ten have the same half hour of coming-to, or do they walk into work brains fired and ready to start the day?

I don't really want to let go of the warm fuzzies this morning. BBC2 is helping, "the magic numbers" is excellent early morning assistance.

Life is Cruel

Earlier today I was sent a link by someone who loves me very much. It took me about two hours before I had time to open the link.

http://www.johnpauljonesarena.com/event_details.asp?id=27

Eric Clapton is playing in Virginia! For a shining, sparkling moment I was ecstatic. Then I looked at the date, he is playing in Virginia Tomorrow. Tomorrow, Tomorrow. I feel like the opposite of orphan Annie.

There is no way I can go. Even were there tickets available, which would be a miracle in itself, I can't dump work tomorrow. We have funders coming in, I have to be here.

Like I said, Life is cruel.

Ferrero Rocher

Undoubtedly, indisputably, THE best chocolate there is. My challenge to you... name one better. You won't be able to....

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." Oscar Wilde

At some point in the night I became aware of a warm, small and purring body lying against my thigh. At another point he shifted to actually lie on me. He was, of course, lying on my bladder, but since he had seen fit to forgive me, I magnanimously forgave him for reminding me I needed the loo.

As a result of the bladder I had bad dreams, but I forgave him for those too since he lifted his little head when I woke up from them and started his purr engine roaring till I felt better.

mmm - I love my cat.

[Water is] the only drink for a wise man. Henry David Thoreau

I am weak! I have no willpower! I am awake. Sigh. Coffee again.

No one can hold a grudge like a cat

Brain the size of a walnut and he uses up the limited space to remember that he is not speaking to me. At the beginning of the week I treated him to his monthly flea medication. This involves catching him, holding him down and dropping some oily smelly stuff onto the back of his neck where he can't get to it. Then I release him and he runs around the house like something is chasing him. To top this off, I have to lock him in the house all day on flea-meds day, otherwise he finds someone to clean it off.

Needless to say, Henry is pissed. Very pissed. So peeved he has to show me how peeved he is. I was sitting on the couch with my roomy, he came over and lay down on her lap with his back to me. We knew he was punishing me because he clearly wasn't happy to be there, his ears were back and he wasn't purring. When I tried to be friends again his tail started twitching as if to warn me that an attack was imminent. My other roomy still has a scar on her nose from when she was being friends, so I gave up on trying to get some kitty luv and decided to go to work. He wouldn't even say goodbye to me when I left.

When I got home he was so excited that someone was there to alleviate his boredom other than his sometime demented and tortured sister that he momentarily forgot how peeved he was and was even prepared to chase a fluffy toy. But then he recalled that his neck was sticky with meds and had to stalk away from me and said fluffy toy in a superior manner. His next tactic was to sit just out of reach and glare at me while I attempted to ignore him and nap on my bed.

He continues to give me the cold shoulder. Frankly I am just relieved he didn't pee anywhere to display his disaffection.

Who says cats have less personality than dogs!

He taketh away and he giveth

I know I know, I have it the wrong way round. But I just have to make the point that even though my father successfully ensured that all the avocado in the house was his, he also shared with me something that has affected who I am and the choices I make. I am not talking here about the usual dad stuff; groundings, school grades, shoelaces. I am talking about elemental stuff, things that will never change no matter how old I am, things I have no choice about. I am talking about Tracy Chapman and Eric Clapton.

"We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win." Edward Gibbon

I have done it. I have kicked caffiene. I have not had coffee in a week, I have only had one and half cups of tea today, and I am awake, alert and ready to analyse my budget! To the D's of the world... it is possible! Let's see how I am faring at 3pm though. That is the true test, when I still have another hour at the office, I have done all the interesting things for the day, sleep was and is a long way away and lunch is using all the brain power left in my body. THEN we'll see.

How things change

When I was a child, the smell of cheese made me feel sick. I could not understand how people could eat cheddar and enjoy it, let alone blue cheese! I vaguely recall that I had a gouda and peanut butter sandwich, which, I think is to blame for the aversion. What I don't recall is at what point things changed. I luuurve cheese. I eat it on everything, every day. It's the sole reason I have put on so many pounds. And just when I thought I had reached the peak of my cheese-eating, we are offered the delight, the joy, the rapture of Cambozola.

Right now I am eating a large bowl of oatmeal. It's deliscious. It has nuts and craisins and honey. Back in the day, I went to a playschool during school vacation while my parents were working. The first order of the day at the school was to get a good healthy bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. The problem was this: the oatmeal had been sitting on the stove-top since about 5am. It was congealed, it tasted slightly of the burned bottom of the pot and there were no nuts, craisins or honey. Needless to say, it took a long time to eat that bowl every morning, and it took a long time before I realised that it was not oatmeal's fault that it was so unpalatable.

Also when I was a child I had an aversion to Avocado's. Why would I deprive myself of this delectable delight? Well, actually, it was my Father who deprived me. He should have had sons, a whole bevvy of them. Instead he had daughters, so while he did scale down his teasing, tomfoolery and pranks, he still scarred me for a long time. I was 11, that awkward phase of becoming aware of your body and realising it has betrayed you before you have even hit puberty. Puppy fat abounds, hormones rage. My mother was in the bath, my father making a sandwich. he got that gleam in his eye as he took the pip out of the avocado, the gleam that says; "Run, Forest, Run!" I, not being named Forest, did not run.

My Father tenderly placed the pip in my shorts, while I kicked and screamed. Then dragged me into the bathroom where he announced to my semi-submerged Mother that I had Pood my pants. It is quite remarkable how similar an avo pip is to poop in your pants. Needless to say she was shocked and appalled. Not because her husband had played a cruel joke, but because her 11 year old daughter had lost bowel control in such a spectacular fashion.

It was another 10 years before I ate my first avo. I had been living out from under his roof for four years at that point, and felt safe enough to be within spitting distance of an avo pip. I have now been living on my own for 11 years, and am even speaking to him again. I also ADORE avocado.

small surprises

I love it when life gives you little happy surprises. Like when someone at the office has made five roses tea, in a tea pot, with a tea cosy. Or when your loved one calls on their way home, and is much closer to home that you thought they would be. Or when your cat suddenly remembers a game you haven't played with him in three years. Or when the bus arrives as you do. My life is suddenly filled with these kinds of things and perhaps I just was not in the right frame of mind to recieve them, but now that I am aware, I hope they happen all the time!

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens excursion

There is a Kenilworth in Cape Town too. I don't recall that they have any gardens though, and even less likely - aquatic gardens. We managed to get all the house-mates dressed, fed and sunblocked in an hour and bundled into the car to drive up to NE DC. Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is apparently the best thing to do in August in DC. This is quite a claim as there really are MANY things to do in DC, in any month. The gardens completely met my expectations! Mostly because I have never seen plants such as these!

August is when the lotuses bloom. I always imagined that Lotuses were like lillies, floating peacfully on the surface, reflecting their colours off the mirror of the water. These lotuses however were astonishingly different. Their leaves are huge, like elephant ears, as one of the house-mates commented, waxy and rough to the touch. The flowers are Giants as big as my head when they are open fully, and the buds are like massive artichokes, but beautifully pink and red. The leaves, flowers and buds are all appended on the end of a long, rubbery and solid stem, which brings them up out of the water, high up above the heads of visitors to the gardens.

The most remarkable feature for me were the seed pods. I had seen them in specialty shops that sell incense and potpourri, but never known what they were. They grow up out of the center of the flower, starting as an emerald green and then drying out to dirty brown. At first glance it looks like an old-fashioned shower head, with the seeds sticking out of many little holes. The holes slowly expand as the pod dries and shrivels and that allows the seeds to drop out, falling 5 feet into the water below.

Kenilworth in DC has certainly given me an experience that Kenilworth in Cape Town never did. Although I hear they have some protected marshlands in the center of the race track. I doubt that you would see people wondering around there with their mouths in a constant 'O' of wonder at the spectacular behemoths nodding above them.

**Forthcoming attraction: photo's

Substitute

Tea is not that bad really... you just have to drink it two hours before you would have had your cuppa coffee to get the same eyelids peeled back feeling at the right time. Also, drink two or three cups instead of one. And then pee all morning long.

coffee breakdown

One week of vacation, getting up at 10:30 everyday.
One long drive back from the beach.
One glass of wine to get over the drive.
One morning of getting up at 6:30.
Sixty One emails clamouring for my immediate attention.
All equals one cup of coffee that I should not be drinking. SIGH.

the greatest thing about the United States

Toilets that flush automatically. No need to remember to flush. Just think, all those hours my Mother spent training me, each time she asked: "did you flush?", wasted! Unnecessary! I just know that it was a Mother who came up with the idea of self-flushing toilets! it is one of my favourite topics to tell people about overseas. Also - tissues with lotion! Genius! Bet you a Mom came up with that one too!

Of course these things do have their downsides. For example - the loos at work are a little boisterous. I believe the idea behind self flushing toilets is that they save water. Well I think the loos at work are scared of humans and flush in panic. I open the cube door:'OMG a human!', - flush! I turn around to start undoing my belt:'yikes what's it doing?' - flush! I sit: 'OMG it's sitting on me!' - flush!

At which point I start to get annoyed, not only because of the waste of water, but because now my bottom is wet. AND THEN, when I am done, I stand up... nothing. I do up my belt... nothing. I wave in front of the red light... nothing. I open and close the door to the cube a few times... nothing!! It's as if the commode is in shock. Eventually I give in and press the teensy weensy button provided... flush! And now that it is on a roll... I Open the door; 'She's leaving!' - flush! close the door: 'Yay' - flush! wash my hands: 'phew' - flush! like I said, boisterous, but in principle, the best thing about the United States.

meeting misadventure

Today I re-discovered the un-enviable position of falling asleep in a meeting. Or rather, trying NOT to fall asleep in a meeting. There were only three of us, so no dozing in the back of the conference room for me. No legs out in front of me, arms folded high on my chest and eyes delisciously closed for a nap.

No, no, I had to contribute, or if not contribute, at the very least I had to keep my head where it should be: on my neck and not on my chest. For a while I tried keeping notes to keep me awake. But that had me looking down, and down meant chin on chest and that was just a natural position for a nap, may as well just have laid my head on my notebook.

Second I tried flexing my calf muscles, I have heard that getting the blood flowing will keep you from falling asleep. But how do you clench your calves without clenching your buttocks? It started to look like I was desperately holding in a pee and was getting some worried looks from my boss. So I decided I would practice that one when back to my desk and no one would be concerned with me gently bobbing up and down in my seat.

Third I tried the deep breathing trick, get oxygen to the brain and all that. Well, either I was breathing wrong, or I don't have a brain, but that just made me feel more like taking a nap.

So, maybe I should allow myself to have a cup of coffee before going into a meeting. It's just so embarrasing when your head suddenly jerks up and you blink and squint at the same time and the other two people in the room seem perky and smart.

yours in continued caffiene deprivation