Christmas was lovely - a beautiful day - a beautiful meal, a swim in the pool, thoughtful gifts, heartfelt toasts - a perfectly South African family Christmas!!!
Before we came we were told to keep Dec 26th free.
That's all...no details.....nada
This....as you will know.... hard for me....but I went along....
Today dawned and we were up and ready at the assigned time.
The briefing commenced.
Allan and I picked pieces of paper which decided the colour team we were on.....Girls got Green and boys got Orange and we opened the first clue.....and we were off....
There was some argy bargy getting out of the gate but the girls arrived first at the family homestead (and every stop thereafter) and a big crowd of Byres assembled...... wowzer..... the kids were overwhelmed.....but what a lovely opportunity to meet so many Aunts, Great Aunts and Uncles, cousins, second cousins and help the kids put it all together.....over a delightful breakfast... what a precious opportunity!!!
 |
| David chatting - Lindsay taking it all in....... |
 |
| The Clan |
And soon we were off again....on a tour of our former lives, some stops that connected to the family history and a tour of the town second to none.....
 |
Site of Allan and my first date - Lindsay strangely did not want any details??
|
 |
| View of "our" valley from Worlds View |
 |
| Allan's old "hood" |
 |
| Our lovely niece Callans high school |
 |
| Our old swimming spot |
 |
| My childhood home |
 |
| My former office |
 |
| Pietermaritzburg City Hall |
 |
| A commerative statue of Gandhi who was thrown off the whites only section of the train in this town |
 |
| The largest red brick building in the southern hemisphere |
 |
| The winning Amazing Adventure Race team - the Lean Mean Green Machine |
 |
| Our first home - ground floor flat on Burger St |
 |
| Alexandra Park |
Sheer brilliance to make it a game....so much more entertaining for the children...hats of to my SIL Wendy...for a fantastic day.
We ended up at a McDonalds for milkshakes to try and cool off and then a quick shopping stop and finally a Wimpy lunch for 9 (and no - WE are not Wimpy - the chain of restaurants is called "Wimpy" - where the Tomato Sauce (aka Ketchup) tastes the same as it did 100 years ago!))
Now home to pack for our "Tour de Durban Beachfront" with Rosie tomorrow morning (on bicycles Emily Vera!!)- followed by some shopping and then on to meet the family at the beach house, with the pool..... Yippeee!!!
One more week here.......hard to believe..... I can't even imagine leaving at this point.....
As I blog Lindsay is napping trying to beat her second cold of the trip, Allan is doing techie things on his sisters computer so we know where we are going tomorrow, David is trying to be interested in the 5 day cricket test on TV and I am trying to ignore the distant thunder that is sure to be a storm soon.....and I must soon be off to pack for the beach........I have a love / hate relationship with my suitcase at this point and am ever annoyed at the too much stuff I packed.....
These normal family moments with our family are lovely......to be treasured......
A priveledge to be able to plan a "surprise" for my family after you and Allan so graciously extended your welcome to us in our (over)extended Canadian visit, and did so much for Darren and I-the very least we could do! I am ever grateful it was a lovely day - Hilton wasn't shrouded in mist, we didn't have to battle with our current ever-present rain and traffic was at a minimum, also terribly pleased to have driven on our new (and controversial) red brick road.
ReplyDelete