hmm Spoke too soon

I am still sitting in the Joburg Airport. It looks like I am going to be departing an hour late at least.

Not cool. Not cool at all. I don't know what I am going to do if the delay becomes longer than the time between my next connecting flight...

It's out of my control so I might as well go with it and hope for the best.

Frankie's Travels Morocco Day 0

I still was feeling ill when I got to the airport but my belly and I have now a tenuous agreement that it will stop wriggling if I feed it boring plain flavourless things for a while.

sigh - annoying physical response to stress.

Next thing to fret over is a) hoping my flights are all on time. And b) hoping I manage the international-domestic transition at Casablanca in 2 hours. If those two things go past without hitch then Ill be all good and looking for my airport transfer in Marrakech.

It's gonna be fun fun fun! And I think I am beginning to take my normal more relaxed approach to travelling now :)

Let the feel good I deserve this holiday feelings rush in and the bitter You look happier than me feelings wash away.

Too much more of this perkiness and Ill have "leeeaaaving soon a jet plane" stuck in my head...

Oh (insert expletive of choice here)!

I am ill. I am flying in 5 hours and I am ill. I couldn't eat last night and my belly is empty and all my body wants to do is puke. Ever vomitted on an empty stomach? It is vile.

I have been ill like this before. I know what causes it... (Nope Not Pregnant - Let's not be jumping to cliched conclusions now) Lets say it's a kind of mental allergic reaction that I wish I had better control over.

Anyway there isn't much to do about it but to wait it out and hope it really is all in my head and that the symptoms will pass before it affects my holiday. Please not the holiday.

For now I gotta sip some tea and hope to feel better soon. Like Really Soon. Immediately if possible.

Past midnight - it's officially Leave for Morocco Day!

I took a moment to reminiscent over past night-before-overseas trips here and a little more than two years ago I was ridiculously excited for my very first trip flying to UAE and Italy. Freshly graduated and on the tipping point of a whole wave of life change. Starry eyed and way too excited (and in hind sight a little naive)
A little less than 18 months ago I was less excited and more stressed over being a leader of some willful young women but not afraid of where the weeks to come in Germany would take me.

Now today I have been almost sick to my stomach nervous and crazy stressed out over my trip to Morocco. So many unknowns! So many things to organise! I am second guessing this exercise of independence. However it's all paid and organised and I am packed, I have nothing more to do but Be Kinda Excited. I hope only for dreams of being the Explorer and not to wake every half hour thinking of something more to not be forgotten.

Morocco! Morocco! Morocco!

And that is all I will say about Anything going on today. Any words more must go unsaid.

Last week of the year is a good time to reminisce

No harm in jumping on the band wagon... 

A year is a difficult amount of time to really remember in one stretch. Peoples lives seems too busy to really sum it up in one set of text. Anyway a few things to make me smile when I think back. (I will not talk about this years soccer here... everyone else can do that instead)

I saw my stern and practical mother turn to mushy mushy mush for her first grandson. I secretly hope she still has the same enthusiasm for when I have children. This pic was taken last night while my nephew was cooling his toes at the fan.

My brother finally married his beloved. The wedding was beautiful and romantic and everything a wedding should be. I should resent them for having an awesome wedding except after dating for 8 years.. they deserve the happy ending.

I also spent plenty time with some really great friends.

The Monkey is one of my oldest friends. I think it is really kinda cool to have a friend or two who knew you when you were uncool and teenaged and weird and finding yourself. The Monkey and I haven't really got much in common other than our shared memories of being friends for more than a decade. And that's why he's awesome.

The Lindt Fairy made me an awesome pair of hand painted lace up shoes for Christmas. And beyond her access and generosity with great chocolate,  She is thoughtful and super creative and always remembers birthdays and Christmas with her special unique touch.

Heatherina is my best engineering friend and one of those few special people who can understand the fashion disaster involved in wearing safety boots and a business suit.... as well as the delights of getting construction site mud out of pinstripe trousers and ladies work shoes. Bizarrely, of the whole varsity buddies gang of 5 of us, Heatherina and I were the only girls and the only ones now working at voltages above 220V.

This is the guy who got me through my final year of engineering and his lawyer girlfriend. I considered him my bestest friend at one stage because we spent so much time together. We still see each other on a regular basis but as time passes and people get busy they naturally drift apart. I really miss him some days and his special brand of constantly streaming factiods and debates my way. I think his girlfriend really "cuts the mustard" and she is of course pivotly important to the varsity social circle to settle arguements with the legal perspective.

So after all this soppy sweet talk about my friends, I must also mention that I acheived a life goal this year. I took the big step and moved out of my parents house into my own little castle. It is rewarding to feel so independant and to plan meals and stay up late because I feel like it and to decorate and plan. It is so much hard work to cook and clean and wipe and clean and vacuum and clean and sweep and disinfect and clean. I miss my mommy and daddy and my kitty cats and having fresh fruit and veggies and cheese on demand without stressing how fresh it is. I realise I can't easily reverse this step and fit in again at home and there are many reasons why I would or would not want to go back home - but I can see a future where I might enjoy sharing a home and halving the chores (of course in exchange for sharing a bed)

My home has a pink rose bush :)

And finally MrT, so much to say about MrT... but I think the one thing I should say (given he reads this blog and will get a kick out of this) that honestly, truthfully, somedays I like MrT, somedays I don't like MrT, some days MrT doesn't like me, But I do love MrT... and he loves me :)



Love of sheepliness

Yeah, I have earrings with sheep now. I went past a bead shop with The JoBro on the weekend and picked these pendants up. I also have some sheep earrings with black noses.

Terribly Frank-ish all my friends will say. But that's why they find these domestic-animal-obsession quirks endearing.

My earsies have sheepies!

And speaking of ridiculous baby talk... While I was at the bead shop I found some rattling animal bell beads which will make an awesome noisy babies rattle if I could just figure out how to attach them to something... Then I will have to hope my nephew likes the noisy brightly coloured toy.

It's only funny because it's true

Hot button to push me from a good mood to a bad mood is to make me read the comments after a South African news report on race sensitive matter or a foreign news report on South African matters where a lot of SA expats comment... Or on religious matters...

 

Aaaahh stupid narrow-minded stupid tactless stupid opiniated stupid dum people!

 

Christmas Countdown

Five days to Christmas! And for the first time in a week - I will be sleeping at my little castle tonight. Which I will confess I am looking forward to with much anticipation. It is going to be so very very nice to be at home in my own bed surrounded by all the things that belong to me.

I think I will never make much of a house sitter. It's not comfortable for me to be sleeping at other peoples homes for long periods - none of my stuff is there! It is a little selfish I know. It was even stranger house sitting for my parents this past week because the entire house is very familiar with the exception of sleeping in my old bedroom which contained none of my possessions. It is just a little inconvenient.

The one nice thing about my parents’ house however is that it has three friendly kittehs, a lot more space and it was a lot tidier!

Anyhow my parents have returned home now so I can return to the comforts of my castle.

This past week I have been in a foul mood. I don't know if it was the end of year stress or that I was not sleeping at my home or that my work colleagues banded together to irk me but I was feeling very unfriendly and foul mouthed last week. I didn't even enjoy thinking ugly thoughts about everyone. I hate it when I am moody and angry and aggressive and take it out on the road and my car. I hate that I couldn't pin point the cause.

But the weekend passes and I am feeling a lot better about me. I may not feel as good after an evening of unpacking and house tidying and cleaning but MrT has bravely offered to come cook dinner (Taco's!) and face the dragon in me when I get tired.

What a Champ!

(I might even do some baking to reward him)

I have a secret

... And like me with secrets, It's killing me!

... And I can't tell any of my usually confidants because they will promptly give me a fat slap around the ears.... And say "Frank! No! You can't! Naughty! Bad Frank! Bad!"

I was bored and any reader of my blog would know that interesting things tend to occasionally take place when I get bored.

Anyway it should all blow over in due course. I have things under control... Until the overwhelming urge to blab all about myself takes over and I tell.

And me with secrets is like Pringles... Once I pop and tell once... I will be telling EveryOne.

So to distract you from the tantalizing idea of a secret... I show you here what I made today.

I got this idea for super shiny sparkling Christmas cards... And the photo is what I made...

The lounge where I am working is a gold and silver star and green glitter massacre... Fortunately house cleaning day is Wednesday :)

Morocco Countdown 19 days

..... eeeeeeeeeeeekk! And So much to still do!

9 work days left
only 60% christmas shopping complete.
House sitting for a week
I must collect my passport from the embassy
I must do a little shopping for my trip (clothes and forex and stuff and things)

Either way I am getting excited... As well as a little nervous if Morocco was such a great choice. Why I say that is that when I was in Dubai, there was this odd smell that I noticed everywhere. Kinda like a sweet smokey spicey smell. Now the blend of sweet smokey and spice may sound like something out of a novel, the smell made my stomach turn. It does explain why I spent most of the time there feeling ill and not hungry at all...

Now I know that while Morocco has a big Islamic element it is not really the arab middle east... I have noticed that All the Sahara/Middle Eastern/Moroccan themed restaurants in Joburg seem to smell the same when I walk past...

I do know that this may be my minds Nervous worries getting creative again... Is it possible that this poetic "smell of the Sahara" and exotic arabic smells are just not right for the nose on me?

I guess Ill know in 19 days.

(yippeeee!)

Look what I received at work late yesterday

aren't they pretty :)

MrT is fond of me..

Travel woes

So I am sitting outside the Morocco Embassy in Pretoria waiting for the office to officially open. I am leaving for my holiday of independence to exotic places in less than a month. Because I am a little bored sitting out here, my head is spinning over travel worries (I am a woman - we worry over everything)
So here is what I am stressing for at the moment...
7. The creepy security guard will harass me.
6. I don't have all the required paperwork for my application
5. My visa application is rejected based on something a South African politician has done to offend the Moroccan government
4. I loose my passport in the next 3 weeks
3. No one else in the entire world books the same trip as me (sub-worry is that there are only a few people on the trip and the people on the trip are lame/too old/too young/unfriendly)
2. I miss one of my 6 flights getting there and back.
1. I won't enjoy the holiday for what ever reasons. Or else something BAD will happen there. Resulting in feeling that I have wasted my money and will regret the impulsive urge that got me to this point of sitting outside the Moroccan embassy...
Sigh... And I drank too much coffee so my digestive system is u-n-h-a-p-p-y...

Back again to Botswana

... I am back in Botswana.
Honestly I REALLY do not want to be here.
Firstly, I have been involved in other proposal work for these past two weeks and so I am not quite on top of my game as far as the Botswana project goes.
Secondly, the new (assistant) PM is kinda really efficient and so there is another reason why I am not fully in the mode for the meetings to come.
(In my defence, This project has been the main part of my work for 18 months I am not far off my game yet. Ill be back in the swing of things in no time at all)
Thirdly, the client has been sending letters to us that indicate that they think our performance on this project is unsatisfactory. And while the core reasoning behind their complaint is valid and I know we have put the best of our resources into the project, they are going about the complaint in the rudest most uncivil mean-spirited way. Being told that you are no longer welcome on a project that you have put your entire effort into for 18 months kills all motivation to work hard... Especially after letter number 3.
Finally I am tired and am full of the end-of-year exhaustion feelings. I don't feeeeeel like being away from home for 3 days mid week on a non-holiday.
Anyway I dutifully packed my bags and printed my paperwork and went to the airport and boarded the plane to Gaborone.
Now it is always a mission to get accommodation in Gaborone and so a few months ago we found this B&B called Kidron Suites. Which is a little unknown but nice and pretty good value for money.
Problem is that it is near impossible to find this place. Especially at night where street lighting is minimal and you're looking for the second dirt road on the left.
So we landed and I bravely took my car voucher to the car rental and got the keys. Lesson in Frank: 99% of my driving experience is in my little old trusty manual Toyota Tazz. The brand spanking new modern Polo Vivo is Not At All Like the Tazz.
First I couldn't figure out how to start it... Then to figure out how to get the lights turned on ... Finally to turn off the accidently-initiated windscreen wipers... And oofff we goooo!
So I thought I was doing pretty well following my map that I made earlier today. Left at the substation, second right, third left and.... I was lost. And it was getting dark. I decided to press on and tried the next dirt road - Wrong Place! I turned around and tried the next dirt road... Which was in fact not a dirt road but a bus stop sign and a steep grass embankment...
Fortunately the Vivo's brakes are in tip top condition...
And so the semi-retired lines specialist offered to drive and let me direct. So we swapped seats and he promptly drove to the nearest hotel and asked me to go get directions.
Lesson 2 from Frank: The reason why so few roads have road names in Gaborone is that none of the locals use road names. The man at reception looked at my map with awe saying "Wow we have a road named after the president! Oh is that the name of that road..."
Finally he let me phone Kidron who immediately offered to drive across and lets us follow them back.
So while I was dying of mortified shame, the specialist followed our hosts and in 10 minutes we were signing our book in forms.
They helped carry our bags, bought iced water and said the greatest thing all afternoon "Chicken stew and rice is for dinner and it will be ready in 10 minutes"
And it was.... And it was delicious.
See as irksome that it is that I was reluctant to be here and that I got lost and I was ashamed... These people are really really helluva nice.
So here goes the shout out for the nice nice people;
If you are ever in Gaborone, and looking for a great place to stay, look up Kidron Suites. You'll get fair value for money and you'll feel really well looked after. Kidron Suites! Kidron Suites! Kidron Suites!
... Just don't ask me how to get there.

But if you have to ask... Ill give you the number and they'll tell you instead :)