Whoa...

I cannot believe that it's been almost a year since I've been here. Very sad. Still singing the same ole song...thoughts of writing pop into my head numerous times a day, but I don't act on them. My Africa Adventure on-line diary has fallen by the wayside. I am ashamed....

Today, in one of my moments of writing contemplation, I checked Craig's for possible leads or opportunities and found something interesting...

Semi-retired businessman and his wife looking for a Tagalong speaking assistant to do research in matters of a "gentle day." Huh? Does that mean they want someone to follow them around and help them to articulate their thoughts or accompany them in their daily routine? I do love researching stuff and maybe semi-retired and "gentle day" means laid back but still in the game, so I continue reading with some hope and interest. "Liaise with various professionals and vendors..." I can do that-I deal with professionals (sort-of) and vendors every day in my real job. "Drive to Manhattan..." Hmm. Maybe I could enlist Dennis to help me with that one. "Assist around the office and home. Welcome to live on property in guest house if needed." Wow. This was sounding better and better. Until..."Must have the ability to converse in Tagalong as the family interacts with business involvements in the Philippines."

Converse in Tagalong? Better re-read that..."Looking for TagaLOG speaking assistant...ability to converse in TagaLOG." O. M. G. They don't need a speaking assistant to tag along. They need a Tagalog speaking assistant. TAGALOG? A quick search in Wikipedia defines it as "...the first language used by a third of population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest."

Oh, my. I do feel stupid. Maybe I need to brush up on my reading skills before I attempt any writing....

Back in the states...back at work....back to reality

My first day back at work. Laurie, my sub, was great...my desk has never been so clean and organized and she made my transition back easy and effortless. I like my job and in this economy, I'm grateful to have it, but I'd still rather be back in South Africa. It's a magical, wonderful place and I can't wait to return.

Now that we're home and have constant access to the Internet, I'll try to go back and tell the story of the last three weeks... they were the best of my life...they changed my life...

Later....

Cape Town

So I just spent the last 45 minutes here, trying to give a synopsysis of the last few days. Uploaded a pic, didn't like the placement, tried to delete it and the entire friggin' post was gone. No way to retrieve it. Dennis went down to the gym for a while and is back, so we're going into town. So now I'll see if I can give the details of the last 24 hours withhout screwing it up.
Sadly left Zulu Nyala yesterday at 8:30 am and took a ninety minute noon flight from Richard's Bay to Johannesburg. Left Johannesburg at 3:15 and arrived at Cape Town in the pouring rain. Hasn't rained here in hundreds of years ( well, maybe that's a bit of an exageration) and it decides to do it now. I guess we're good luck for the South African people. They are really grateful for the weather. We'll make the best of it.
Get to the Radisson Blu via a driver who met us at the airport, check in, and go upstairs. Uh-oh. No electricity on one side of the room. Call maintenance, long story, they give us another room, but not as nice---I'm tired, hungry and pouting. We decide to try and make the best of it and hit the hay at 9:00---without getting dinner. Dennis wakes me up at 8am---not too happy, as one of the lights over the mirror is out. He was going downstairs to see what he could do. Comes back not 5 minutes later, and tells me we're moving yet again. But he saw the room and said I'd love it. He was right.

See...

Ok-I still have to figure out how to place the photos on here but the idea is there....I love our room.
Off too explore....

WE GOT TO SEE MY ELEPHANTS!!!!

...AND TRIED TO UPLOAD THE IMAGES, BUT THEY WON'T COME THRU!!! DAMN.Briefly-went to another game park today-Hluhluwe National the oldest park in SA and they had =
---100's of them and we must have seen at least 60. Babies, teens, adults....beautiful.
Also saw a lion kill at the same park. Two females and 3 cubs...= one dead Cape Buffalo. Poor thing....happy lions....lots of pix
Also=3 cheetah-2 brothers with a female and her 3 cubs. It was the most awesome day so far. I'll try to put some pix on email for you guys....
xxoo

If at first you don't succeed....

It was really, really dark by this time, but you get the idea..I was in tears.!

Cheetah mom and her three cubs. Our ranger took us right up to see her, relaxed and eating after a kill.

Here we are sitting in a BAR (!) trying to stay connected. To the internet, that is so don't worry.

Try to do some more pix from here now---we've seen everything we've hoped---saw my elephants last night-but it was dusk---and getting dark quickly, so viewing wasn't as good as I hoped. Went looking again this morning with no luck and it's raining this afternoon so the drive was cancelled. No prob-try to get you all some info.

Here goes...

Obviously we have not morphed into giraffe---I'm just not good at placing copy yet....A taste for you...we'll send more later-I want to quit while I'm ahead..

Pictures Speak Volumes

To go into detail would be impossible right now--when we get to Capetown I'll get down and dirty---for now here's what's been happening...

This is our "house". It's a Tent! When the wind blows the entire place shakes--it's cool.

Our first game drive yesterday afternoon was awesome--the mom and baby above are just one of the animals we saw, but because this connection sucks, we'll send others by email and see if they go faster...

Ready as I'll ever be...

That's it-I've done as much as I can do---at work, at home...we're ready. Packed. Need to try and get some sleep---didn't get much last night due to high winds, humidity, stress and excitement.

Hopefully we'll have internet service in Johannesburg. We'll see.

Until then......