First Post

hello All,

sorry to keep have kept you waiting for this blog. Hope you can understand I had quite a few things on my mind and it is not easy finding a decent internet connection. I am at the office now and still struggling a bit.

Quite a few things happened in the past 14 days.
First of all, I had a great send off by friends and family. In the past weeks I have had to say many good byes, which was weird because it still feels like I won't be away that long... but that might still come. Either way I am very glad to have seen almost all of you before I left.
I had a good flight. Even the baby - because there is always at least 1 baby on a long distance flight - kept its (cute little) mouth. Upon arrival I found my luggage immediately, and had a driver waiting for me at the exit. To top all things off, I was brought to a very nice hotel. Perfect ride, almost. At the hotel they didn't know I was coming. But a cup of coffee and a few calls later that was sorted as well.

The first week at the office was quite busy from the very beginning. Of course there is the pile of paperwork to wrestle through (insurance, bank account...), a househunt to start and next to that I had to immediately join high level meetings with the top guys about a big contract that will be negotiated soon. A dive in deep water, but an interesting one at that. I wouldn't have wanted it otherwise.

The first Friday night is easy to sum up: farewell drink for a MISE colleague leaving to Dubai and watching a rugby game in a bar. I'll leave it up to you to estimate how many beers that took. Saturday was dedicated to house hunting, Sunday was the day of the Big Walk. The Big Walk is an annual event where thousands of people walk 10-20-40 or 80 kms on one day to raise funds for charity. It all ends with a festival like happening. It was a lot of fun even though it rained quite a lot.

The second week was filled with visiting apartments, work and looking for a car. I would have liked to be able to say that concludes the search, but alas.

Last weekend I joined a couple of colleagues at their house to have a braai and watch the Bokke play France. The braai was a result of 8 men going grocery shopping: too much meat, a few rolls and a small bag of lettuce that was left unopened till the end. It must have been the thought that counted. The same goes for the national anthem sung by a rastafari at the beginning of the game. It was a complete embarassment. The guy sounded like he had sworn never to sing one note right, and was very enthousiastic about it. He squeeled for the entire stadium and thousands of viewers on television, inducing the rage of the Bokke fans (look on youtube). Fortunately for the organising country, he was assigned by the SA embassy. I think he better stays in France for a while.