We're still all here!

I know I keep saying we'll be back soon but really we will!

Yes it's been over 3 years, and it's been 3 years of feeling very low at times. And very recently hitting rock-bottom.

Thankfully I feel we're "on-the-up" now.

We're VERY much older, a tiny-little bit wiser, and still here and looking hopefully at the stars.

I'm crap at writing and even crap-per at keeping in touch with everyone but recent events have shaken me a little so perhaps I'll even update this blog a 10th of the amount I update Facetube :-)

But perhaps not, as one thing I have learnt over the last few months in particular, is that living in the real world is just too precious, too special to be given up or ignored in the face of the instant gratification that is the internet. My challenge is going to be starting to really live an authentic life rather than fannying around pretending this virtual life is really worth as much or is as fulfilling. I'm going back to basics and, whilst I hope it isn't the end of my virtual life, I can't let that take precedence over my real one.

Life starts here. Today. Now.

And now I must sleep....lol

In my African Dream

As I write this, I'm flying at 36,000 feet over North Africa.


Well, no I'm not actually, but tonight I would have been, had Nationwide Airlines - the airline with which our flight to South Africa been booked - not gone into receivership on Tuesday afternoon.

Apart from the fact that we're now over £1200 out of pocket for the flights alone, and have also lost all the deposits we'd paid for our planned epic journey through the Drakensberg, down the Wild Coast and Garden Route into Cape Town, we will miss the chance to spend a few days with Phil's best man Gary and his family. Not to mention our planned meet with my best friend Lillian and her husband, who we have not seen for nearly 3 years, and all the guys in Joburg who had been planning braai's to welcome us "home". For us, still sitting at home wishing we were on our way after months missing the place and people we love, it's heartbreaking. However, our grief at a missed holiday must pale into insignificance compared to those employees of Nationwide who toughed it out through the airline's troubles in December only to now find themselves out of work at a time when large sections of the unemployed and low-paid populace in South Africa are marching through the streets protesting at the cost of bread, fuel and all other comestibles which are expensive enough to those of us lucky enough to be in work.

There is already talk of "interested parties" to buy out Nationwide, but this cannot be in time to preserve peoples jobs or provide us with our long-ago-planned holiday. And I am sure that the famous Nationwide dessert trolley has wheeled its last circumnavigation of the aircraft, which is a pity. It was a good airline, with good staff and we started many very good holidays on its lone 767 which did the trip from London Gatwick to Johannesburg 3 times a week. Now it is no more. Just another sign of the times. And I'm sitting here at home, wishing I was now falling uncomfortably asleep in the knowledge that I would be waking up to sunrise over Africa and a wonderful month of quality time with friends and family. I'd be lying if I said I was happy right now.

Word up!

Ah...I must say one of the best things about being a parent is that every now and again you have a moment when you are filled to bursting point with pride and amazement at something your wondrous offspring does. I had one of those days today.

Archie's vocabulary has been developing in leaps and bounds recently, but stringing words together up until now had been restricted to "all gone" "night-night" and "no kuku" (that's when he can't see any birds on the roofs of any of the surrounding bungalows) and various babbled sequences of genuine and imagined words. Today he came up with his first perfectly constructed and elucidated sentence and it was proof, if it was ever needed, that he is his father's son.

"I did a poo-poo"

Time for mummy to get the potty out.

Watch this space (pleeeeeease?)

Ok, time to start posting again.


There have been many ups and downs since June last year but we seem to be on an upward trend at last and I feel the need to start writing again.


There again, I am being fortified by a bottle of SA's best vino at the moment so perhaps it's a false dawn....

But maybe not. The following words may explain my silence for the last 8 months (in chronological order but not necessarily referring to me directly).


House move


Accident


Death


Depression


Holiday


Christmas


Study


Depression (sorry, again)


Interview


Redundancy (voluntary)


Holiday


Major building works


New job




None of these involve our wonderful baby who continues to be an absolute joy and revelation. Every day he amazes us with something new.

So. Be assured that all is well in the Maningi Indaba household now. We've ridden out the storm and, despite the uncertainty we find ourselves in currently, can finally can see some hope for the future. It's good to be back so if you've been checking in occasionally, thanks for hanging around.


(Incidentally, despite the picture, we're not still gloating about the outcome of the rugby world cup......lol)

Confused of Brighton

I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing here today.

The absence of recent blog entries is partially down to me trying to come to terms with returning to work. I thought I'd managed to get my head around it, to be honest. I've found a lovely childminder who Archie seems to really enjoy visiting - especially as she has a daughter only slightly older than him who he can practice his stare-offs on. The house move was on track, I'd finally accepted that I was going to be without Archie all day, he would be fine with it and it was only a temporary situation anyway as we would be moving over Bognor-way soon, so Archie would be with family while we were working. I was actually starting to look forward to going back to work and I was attaining - albeit for only brief periods of time - a serenity worthy of the Buddha himself.

Well. Today was meant to be my first day back at work and I'm so stressed that this has taken me over half an hour to write so far, despite Archie being asleep and nothing to distract me (other than my rather confused and tired mind).

Archie has a pox of some kind - actually it's "Non-Specific Viral Rash", according to the on-call doctor I saw yesterday. He apologised that it wasn't a very satisfying diagnosis, but at least we can rule out Meningitis, Measles (one of my bigger fears, due to being rendered extremely short-sighted by a bout of measles when I was 7), Scarlet Fever, Allergy, Heat Rash or anything else, er... specific. It's not causing him any distress but the accompanying sore throat, which he was originally diagnosed with on Friday has been very uncomfortable for him. We all had sleepless nights this weekend and Archie seems permanently impregnated with the scent of strawberry, due to the quantity of fruity kiddy meds he has ingested to enable him to sleep, eat and drink. He's over the sore throat now and, as it appears he caught the pox from the childminders baby, my reintroduction to the corporate world looks likely to start tomorrow.

On the house front, we still haven't exchanged contracts as our purchasers mortage lender has not yet sent them the offer which will enable them to proceed with the purchase. It has to happen soon as we only have childcare booked for Archie for a maximum of 4 weeks, which cannot be extended (although I only found that out last week....long story) and I refuse to pass him round from carer to carer so if it goes on any longer than that, I'll have to go and stay at my mums and commute to work by train. Once we exchange it will be about 2 weeks to completion, all being well. But that's 2 weeks in which you have to arrange moving your whole life from one location to another, whilst stressing about leaving your child with a stranger - even if she is qualified and lovely, and having to learn a whole new product which you will be managing at work and trying to negotiate more time off to actually move and settle in...

I'm ditching Buddha. Anyone got any recommendations on a book about chaos theory?

Home from home....

We went to Lille in France last weekend. We'd planned it some time ago as the Telegraph newspaper* was doing an offer in conjunction with Eurostar for 2 return tickets for £90. We'd been on the Eurostar once before (to Paris) on an extension to our honeymoon and a very good service it is too. We chose Lille as we'd heard good things about it (historic town, good restaurants and bars, good shopping, cosmopolitan etc etc). We didn't know about the students.

Lille, as I found out from the brochure on the hotel reception desk, has a population of 220,000. It has universities and a student population of 100,000! We might as well have stayed at home. Particularly as the hotel was rubbish - overheated, on a noisy main road and the staff were the most miserable bunch of people I have ever seen outside of Belgium (possibly because we were close to Belgium).

On the plus side, we did have a wonderful seafood dinner at L'Ecume des Mers, a real old-school restaurant who were more than happy to accommodate Archie and let him plaster their walls and furniture with crab mousse and turbot flakes. Actually, he behaved like an absolute star and loved all the food which came his way. Unfortunately, dinner ran over his bedtime and he got a bit grumpy towards the end of the meal. Phil was holding him on his lap when dessert arrived and, as we were talking, we didn't notice anything amiss until we heard our neighboring diners laughing. We looked at them and then at Archie, who having plunged his hand up to his wrist in Tiramisu, was greedily sucking it off his fingers! So much for the ban on sugar until he gets a bit older. We all paid for it later, sitting up with a baby with a sore tummy at 3am while every moped in Lille screamed up and down outside our hotel.
The cafes in Lille were also nice and had a good selection of Belgian beers on offer. I dont think there has ever been a European trip where I haven't got a picture of Phil with a huge beer in front of him so here's some from this trip, along with some other photos of the weekend. This weekend it's Manchester, where we'll be meeting up with family and old friends who have also had offspring since we last saw them. I'm hoping it will be more of a rest than last weekend!










*Dear reader, please note that I have not recently come over all Thatcherite, although that would make Phil very happy indeed. The Telegraph was purchased solely to collect the vouchers for the offer.