My Room...

We are moving in 3 sleeps. That's actually just 2 days of packing left & I've just run out of boxes. It is amazing how many one needs for a move...

It has been a long time since I lived in my parent's house... I went to boarding school from age 14.5 which was my first big "solo" move - back and forth from Espin House with my big blue trunk. I still have dreams about packing my trunk - it would disappear to who-knows-where once unpacked at the beginning of term...and reappear magically at the entrance to the dorm room at the end of term - (or was it year end?) to prepare for home-going. Thinking back, it seems a bit like the Harry Potter arriving and leaving Hogwarts... how easy it is to  romanticise experiences when looking back!!

I went through so much in that room in my parents house. I fell in love for the first time... read letters from and wrote letters to my crushes... agonised about life, love and everything else with my best friend. I escaped here when I was feeling sad... read scary novels on my bed... cut out photographs and stuck them in my scrap book... recorded late night music on my tape recorder & listened to my collections until the tapes stretched...

I liked to move my room around once in a while - this mostly involved moving my bed to a different location within the room. I remember making changes late at night a few times when not being able to sleep. (I don't think that mom approved - especially when coming to wake me in the morning & things being different to how they were when she said good-night!) It was important for me that I could change things - make them my own in this small way. I must remember to allow my daughter to move her room around as she pleases one day too. ..and also remember that even though I am her mother, I will not always know what's best for her.

My parents have decided to make a move from life in our family home, and so they have put their house of 20+years on the market. Because I have not lived there for so long, I am not overly concerned about being sentimental that it won't be our family home any more. Our family home will be wherever my parents are - which, for the next chapter, will be their newly renovated lock-up-and-go flat in Mosselbay where we spent Summer holidays swimming in the sea, tanning on the beaches & walking through the streets on hot Summer nights (dodging cockroaches) with after-sun on our skin, the smell of the sea in our hair & ice-creams in our hands.

Granny's House

About a month ago, Geoff and I spent a night at my Granny's house.. She lives in a beach house in Little Brak (between Mossel Bay and George). My late Grandpa had a very quirky sense of humor & named the house 'Little Dog Box' - as the town is called 'Kleinbrak' in Afrikaans and a 'brak' is a scruffy dog. (he also had a boat which he named 'Gaal Kat' - instead of 'kaalgat') :)

My Grandpa had a little Schnauzer dog called 'Towser'. He hated our dog, Stewie.
Because their surname is 'Purcocks', my grandparents ended up collecting a lot of chicken / cockerel related stuff: ornaments.. tea towels with cockerels on them.

Visiting my Gran's house always brings back loads of memories from when we were growing up & the house was kept as a beach house for holidays. It has many rooms, so everybody would pile in & the adults would consume unbelievable amounts of G&T's and red wine over cards & tile rummy...Pictionary and Monopoly and a number of other games. Our days were spent on the river: water skiing..tanning..swimming in waves off the Mosselbay point or Santos Beach. Evenings saw songs around the piano & my Gran's famous syncopation skills were much enjoyed! ...roasts & braais... games & stories.

There are signs of my whole life around this house. My gran still has the underwater tropical fish pastel artwork that I made for her one Christmas when I was about 12 years old. The reds have all faded, but the rest still looks ok.

The place I linger longest is the passage wall where my Gran has loads of photos up:

There are pictures of my Great Grandparents who I never met... pictures of the 6 cousins.. school year photos, Matric dance.. weddings & other occasions. All these memories make me very nostalgic!

There is a lovely little market that happens on the bank of the Great Brak river on the first Saturday of every month. There is always a lovely atmosphere...and one particular pancake stall which always has the most people queued outside it: and for good reason too: their pancakes are, quite honestly: the best! :)

Home is wonderful

Geoff and I went for a walk on Fish Hoek beach the other day... I've been desperate to get out and be active (double doses of vitamins in preparation for Spain must be working!!)...plus I just KNOW how much walking and swimming (and lazing) we are going to be doing just as soon as we get to Aguilas camp site... I just can't wait.

We have to run off all over the Southern Cape this weekend to auctions and back by Monday to compete the last bits of work we have before abandoning the world of technology for more simple pleasures: each other... fire... beach... food and language of another country... & stars of another hemisphere.

Of course all the plans to have packed already... have Miss Molly stuff prepared to continue in my absence already... have all work completed by now so we have the last week here to wind down and do the minimum... all these have been FOILED by the nasty hand of procrastination...

We've had a great week though:
For the last 3 days we've had a seriously strong North Wind blowing the sea sideways & rattling anything vaguely loose all night long...its been such a warm wind - as if it was a hill-billy borne out of the Karoo and traveled on its annual visit to the sea (with all its friends this year!! - they had quite a roaring party!)...it does mean a cold front is most likely about to hit us though...

On Tuesday night we had spinach and butternut lasagne with friends and it was so warm that we sat outside...Geoff brought out his 'magic' box of instruments and we played rhythms into the night.

Last night we walked to the harbour in the warm wind...had dinner & really focussed on spending quality time together. One loses oneself so easily in the daily 'things to do'...

Basically - home is wonderful. Even though we're going far away - we know we will love coming back here.

I never would have guessed that I would be living in a picturesque fishing village with 20+ quirky restaurants, artisan bakeries & coffee shops (and a bar or 2)... a short walk from the harbour and its boats and seals ...balcony view a great surf spot ...clothing for any occasion ...vintage & antique shops ...beaches at a stone's throw ...jewelery ...a new mosaic shop ...books ...a tiny cafe post office ...and today I finally went to "Kassia & Fig" and discovered that I can buy free range eggs from them -- and possibly Free Range milk! -- (previously unavailable in Kalk Bay)!! ...and the man I love and adore.

What more does a girl need?!

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