They will be African cats soon...

Well, the cats are now at Heathrow, awaiting their flight to Cape Town.

As usual, not without hiccups - the letter from the shipping company said to get there before 16:20, but while paging through all the documentation I discovered that they needed to be there an hour earlier than that! So, minor panic, but managed to get my local taxi driver (my cousin) to come earlier.

Then, the water bowls for the three mogs weren't there as promised, but a quick phone call and ten minutes later problem solved.

Driving with three neurotic cats in an MPV certainly made me understand what a 'cat's choir' sounds like. By the time they went through to the warehouse though, two were asleep, and the other was nearly so.

Tomorrow morning the kitties will wake up in Africa, with a whole new set of smells, sights and sounds to experience. Let's hope they like it!

Next couple of days are going to be a bit dull, with things like account closures, phone cut-offs etc. to do. Oh, and maybe book a ticket for me to fly out too!

So, I might play a bit and see if I can add pictures to these posts, but don't expect anything new for now...

Later,

Preparation.

The last few weeks have been absolutely manic, culminating in a whirlwind week of...

Monday - last household goods packed in boxes, previous boxes in storage taken to depot.

Tuesday - all those boxes packed into a 20' container, along with the bike (Honda VFR 800) which took some doing, considering the container was 5' (don't worry - I'm going metric soon enough) off the ground. Eventually done with some serious man-handling, and no scratches.

Wednesday - had the house re-carpeted. They turned up at 09:00 instead of 13:00 as booked, so I was frantically replacing floorboards while they were lifting carpets. Also, it was our last day with the car, so running around getting paint and stuff to tidy up the house for the new tenants (not a good time to sell right now), new (spare) fuel tank for "Three Summers" so will be able to carry enough on board to run for a full day at cruising speed. Not that I know what that is, 'cos she only did one trip on the Thames, and that was limited to 5 mph! Still, it was a good day.

Thursday - drive car and boats to container depot for loading into a 40 footer, to discover trailer is too wide to go through the doors. Finally convinced them that if the mudguards were removed, it would fit. With about 1" to spare either side! Vet came around in the evening to make sure the kitties were OK to travel. House calls from a vet? Yip!

Friday - First Mate starts packing (again).

Saturday - another lazy day. First Mate sleeps for most of it, then to the local for a last pint together (of Belgian beer), then off to Heathrow in the afternoon. Only to get there and be told her ticket is for 27 October!!! Well, she managed to get past that, and though didn't catch her booked flight,she still got the one after, on standby.

Sunday - She's now comfortable in the spring sunshine of the Overberg!

Skipper's (me) flight hasn't been booked yet, as unsure if going to Jo'burg first or not.

Will let you know.

Bye!

Leaving England...

Intro...

Well, now is as good a time as any to start this blog - the aim being to let family and friends around the world know what's going on in our lives, and anyone else interested in the transition of two South Africans, that having lived in London for the best part of fifteen years, are now returning to South Africa. That's where we came from, and it's time to go home.

Neither of us intended to leave SA for very long - a couple of months, maybe a year or two, but hey! Time passes, and having arrived here with not much more than a backpack, we're returning with two container-loads of stuff!! OK, one of them contains the car and the boats. The other is mostly furniture - bulky stuff.

So, it's going to be a bit of a diary about fitting into a new life, adventures of "Three Summers," the boat that I have spent the past three (and a bit) years building, and some photo's of SUNSHINE - something that has been lacking severly in our lives for too long!

The First Mate left last night on a flight to Cape Town, and for the next couple of days will be staying with her dad, until the three animals (cats) arrive on Tuesday, after which she will be going to her mom's place in the "dorp" (afrikaans for 'small town') where we are hoping to settle.

Well, them's the basics. Details will follow.