The Wighams are joining the world of blogging ... finally!
It's October 19 - Sunday. Tim is on Day 4 of the Professional Coaching course and I'm at home, sitting on the couch, typing, with Gandalf sleeping at my feet. It is so good to have Tim home and I just can't wait for the course to finish so we can spend some time together without Tim falling asleep while watching a movie :).
The last month has absolutely flown by. Tim was on the rig from Sept 10 - Oct 8, while I was busy between Namibia and Cape Town working with the HR department and preparing for an Engineering workshop which is happening next week. I loved the time in Cape Town. I was working on De Beers projects, so busy from a work perspective but being at home for a few days also meant that we could progress a few more things on the homefront.
The result are amazing ... by the time Tim came home, the patio had been tiled, the garden is 90% complete, the kitchen floor was tiled, and t
he bathroom was completed except for the painting. I love the new look for the bathroom. Sometimes, having time is a good thing and in this case it gave me time to think about the colours... which means that we now have a lovely mix of beige porcelain tiles and an aubergine suede paint to cover the top half. It took the poor tiler almost a month to complete the job as - sadly - nothing in our house has 90-degree angles. He did his best, but we still ended up having to re-skim walls to get it all level. The bathroom is at least 5CM less wide as a result :).
An amazing highlight of the past few weeks was our trip to Kariba. The idea for this trip was born at our wedding when the idea was that a bunch of us would get together for a few days on a houseboat on Kariba. Jase Way was in charge of the organising ... and he did! Meanwhile the world as we know it had changed dramatically ... Nick & Sam just had a baby girl and Nick Jermyn disappeared off to Afghanistan. So the people going changed, and instead, we went with the extended Way family, Jase & Chaz's boys Tristan and Ethan, Jase's parents, and his brother Justin and wife Siobhan. I flew up to Jozi on Oct 9 where I met up with Tim coming in from Luanda. From there, we traveled on to Harare together with a heavy suitcase laden with cheeses and port ... all the good things that are simply not available in Zim.
We spent the night at the Ways and got up early the next day for our charter flight to Kariba Dam. It is possible to drive (approx 3 -4 hrs) but the roads are apparently not great these days and you never know what you might run into along the way, so the Cessna Caravan was a great idea! Plus, it meant that we were on the boat, in our bikini's by 9AM! It was just amazing to fly over Kariba and see our houseboat on the water below. Four lovely cabins, an awesome sundeck, a small pool on the boat, two fishing boats, and a well-stocked bar. This was paradise!
For the first day, I found it incredibly hard to reliax. Time went far too slow and I just couldn't see myself sit still, doing nothing for four days ... for me, that's close to torture!! There was absolutely nowhere to go. Kariba is a huge dam,
270KM long, and filled with crocs and hippo so swimming is just not an option. Apparently, a few years ago it was perfectly fine to swim as long as you were not near land. Or perhaps it wasn't safe then either, but the guys were younger and more foolish? :). Anyway, the good news is that once you're forced to relax, you discover how amazing it actually is! Our only responsibilities on the boat were sunscreen, fishing trips, and of course pouring our own glass of wine ... The Captain and his team of 3 men took care of everything else!
Tristan and Ethan are just addicted to fishing and had their rods out at every opportunity. They loved our daily fishing trips on the two speed boats. So did we! Both TIm and I managed to catch some breem and tiger fish. I've never enjoyed putting on the wriggly worm but with others around to put on the bait and take off the fish, I loved doing the in-between part - especially the 'fight' with the tiger fish - and watching hippo and elephants while sipping sundowners and enjoying awesome sunsets.
It's October 19 - Sunday. Tim is on Day 4 of the Professional Coaching course and I'm at home, sitting on the couch, typing, with Gandalf sleeping at my feet. It is so good to have Tim home and I just can't wait for the course to finish so we can spend some time together without Tim falling asleep while watching a movie :).
The last month has absolutely flown by. Tim was on the rig from Sept 10 - Oct 8, while I was busy between Namibia and Cape Town working with the HR department and preparing for an Engineering workshop which is happening next week. I loved the time in Cape Town. I was working on De Beers projects, so busy from a work perspective but being at home for a few days also meant that we could progress a few more things on the homefront.
The result are amazing ... by the time Tim came home, the patio had been tiled, the garden is 90% complete, the kitchen floor was tiled, and t
he bathroom was completed except for the painting. I love the new look for the bathroom. Sometimes, having time is a good thing and in this case it gave me time to think about the colours... which means that we now have a lovely mix of beige porcelain tiles and an aubergine suede paint to cover the top half. It took the poor tiler almost a month to complete the job as - sadly - nothing in our house has 90-degree angles. He did his best, but we still ended up having to re-skim walls to get it all level. The bathroom is at least 5CM less wide as a result :).An amazing highlight of the past few weeks was our trip to Kariba. The idea for this trip was born at our wedding when the idea was that a bunch of us would get together for a few days on a houseboat on Kariba. Jase Way was in charge of the organising ... and he did! Meanwhile the world as we know it had changed dramatically ... Nick & Sam just had a baby girl and Nick Jermyn disappeared off to Afghanistan. So the people going changed, and instead, we went with the extended Way family, Jase & Chaz's boys Tristan and Ethan, Jase's parents, and his brother Justin and wife Siobhan. I flew up to Jozi on Oct 9 where I met up with Tim coming in from Luanda. From there, we traveled on to Harare together with a heavy suitcase laden with cheeses and port ... all the good things that are simply not available in Zim.
We spent the night at the Ways and got up early the next day for our charter flight to Kariba Dam. It is possible to drive (approx 3 -4 hrs) but the roads are apparently not great these days and you never know what you might run into along the way, so the Cessna Caravan was a great idea! Plus, it meant that we were on the boat, in our bikini's by 9AM! It was just amazing to fly over Kariba and see our houseboat on the water below. Four lovely cabins, an awesome sundeck, a small pool on the boat, two fishing boats, and a well-stocked bar. This was paradise!
For the first day, I found it incredibly hard to reliax. Time went far too slow and I just couldn't see myself sit still, doing nothing for four days ... for me, that's close to torture!! There was absolutely nowhere to go. Kariba is a huge dam,
270KM long, and filled with crocs and hippo so swimming is just not an option. Apparently, a few years ago it was perfectly fine to swim as long as you were not near land. Or perhaps it wasn't safe then either, but the guys were younger and more foolish? :). Anyway, the good news is that once you're forced to relax, you discover how amazing it actually is! Our only responsibilities on the boat were sunscreen, fishing trips, and of course pouring our own glass of wine ... The Captain and his team of 3 men took care of everything else! Tristan and Ethan are just addicted to fishing and had their rods out at every opportunity. They loved our daily fishing trips on the two speed boats. So did we! Both TIm and I managed to catch some breem and tiger fish. I've never enjoyed putting on the wriggly worm but with others around to put on the bait and take off the fish, I loved doing the in-between part - especially the 'fight' with the tiger fish - and watching hippo and elephants while sipping sundowners and enjoying awesome sunsets.
Kariba was a great start to Tim's time away from the rig and it was awesome to be able to be together 24-7 without work interuptions for a few days. By the time we got back to Harare, it felt like the rig and De Beers were miles away ... We managed to see Jonathan before going home the next morning. He had just returned from South Africa where he had his ear operation, which went well, though they ended up removing more of his ear than anticipated. the good news is that at least with this op and a few follow up treatments this scare is behind us.
We met Jonathan at his local, Reps, for a drink. Funny, inflation in Zimbabwe has reached 230 million % - really! The 11 zero's they took off their currency a few months ago are back and more! So Reps drinks are no longer priced in Zim $, but rather in Reps Stars, e.g. a glass of wine is worth 1,100 stars, which is then translated into whichever currency you choose to pay with. Zim $ are pretty much useless so most people use US $. How people continue to survive is beyond me! We also stopped by Rona's place for a quick visit and then back to the Ways for the night and back to CT the next morning.
There are so many other small highlights in our life ... irrigation, a beautiful plant, a new rock next to the garden bench, stained trellises ready to be placed, the Jacuzzi box which was re-built to the right size ... oh, and we now have a dishwasher! Tried it last night for the first time and absolutely love it! We still don't have running water in the kitchen because the sink I've ordered is out of stock until end November and we therefore can't get the tap in yet either. So the dishwasher makes life that much easier and saves running back and forth to the outside tap for water.
Then there's Gandalf ... still growing like a weed and, mostly, hugely loveable. He is now almost 7 months and his legs seem to be getting longer by the day. I love taking him for walks to the Promenade or Noordhoek Beach ... he still gets so much attention from people and he's just so fun to watch when he literally gallops along. His new favourite treats are these huge
disgusting ostrich bones that I finally gave in to buying. I hate them, but the good news is that once he sees his bone all else is forgotten and I can even leave the house without feeling that huge pang of guilt for locking him into the garden. He really makes us laugh ... his latest thing is to NEVER drink water from his own bowl, but rather drink from the pool, lick the shower floor dry the moment I get out, or drinking hot water out of the bath tub while we're having a bath... too strange!I must go. I had meant to get some laundry done before Tim comes home so that we can take Gandalf for a nice long walk on the beach. Hope this finds you all well and happy ... I'm sure Tim will soon add his two bits ...
Lots of love,
-ange
