Weekends & holidays...

We had a busy weekend and I've spent most of the week trying to recover! My body just can't party like it used to. Saturday evening was Joanne's kitchen tea/hen party/pamper party. Rosanne and I are to be her bridesmaids, so it was our responsibility to organise it all. Rosanne's been really wonderful with all her hard work in pulling things together, it would've been a disaster if not for her wonderful food preparation skills. We tried to do as much as we could before hand and froze whatever we could, but Friday and Saturday were still hard work. On Friday evening, we hung fairy lights in the trees, sorted out furniture (we had the party in the garden) and made as much ready as we could. Satuday morning, we were up and working by 8 and although we spent the majority of the day working, it didn't feel like that much hard work. It was nice spending the time with my mom and Rose while we worked busily around our tiny kitchen in 34 deg heat! We took regular breaks to swim and by 5pm, when our guests started arriving, we were all cool, calm and relaxed. It went off really well too, so we're very happy! And, we managed to keep the party a secret, which is quite a miracle. Because Joanne's an accountant, she's very organised and she likes knowing what's happening when. For a change, it was out of her hands entirely and she didn't like not knowing when it was going to happen. She also insisted that we don't dress her up (hence the 'French Maid' uniform) and that she didn't want to play any games. Once everyone had eaten and drunken their fill, we headed out to a local bar. Mainly because everyone (except me - I was the designated driver) had had too much to drink. Everyone had a super time and we got home just after 1, so not too late. Our friend, Sam, slept over - her and Jo were quite funny, but suffered for their sins the next morning.

All dressed and ready to go Sure Paul won't mind her doing the housework in this little number... Opening gifts, with Jake looking on - he was bored, there were no sweets in any of the presents... Leaving the bar Jo and Sam at home after the evening's fun... Sunday, was pretty much a write-off. I was completely exhausted and spent a lot of the day just lazing around next to the pool. I managed to bribe Jake into watching a DVD while I snoozed on the couch, which was divine. Sunday evening, I had a party to go to on the farm - it was the owner's 41st birthday on Monday. I thought I was just going to a casual get-together with a couple of people from the farm, it turned out that there were 120 people invited! Lars had caterers in and hired bar men to make cocktails. Only the best wines from Buitenverwachting were served. There was a live band playing music to dance to. He had a marquet put up on the lawns and there were fairy lights strung up all around it. Inside the marquet, he had big, long beanbag-type cushions for people to sit on and low tables. It was really fabulous. They'd invited a lot of people from the Constantia Valley, who I haven't seen in years, so it was really great to catch up with old friends. Everyone was really nice to me and people kept telling me how they miss having us around and that we're always welcome on their various farms, etc. Although it was really nice to be included and to have been a part of the evening, it was a really tough night. It was just so strange to have been there and to have not been going home with Jacques to our house. I kept looking up during the evening, half expecting to catch his eye across the room. You know, the way partners do. So, went home feeling like a lost soul, wishing I could have my old life back again. Needless to say, even with my anti-depressants, I cried all the way home (that's about 30 mins). When the hell are these things going to kick in??

I was in bed and asleep by 9 on Monday night and by 10 last night. I'm still tired though, so hopefully another early night tonight will do the trick!

Other then that, I've been a bit unhappy at work for the last little while. Although my office is really close to home (less then 2km away), I get a bit bored during the day. I know the opposite extreme, of working your behind off is also unpleasant, but still... I'd love to have more time in my day to spend with Jake. I've been looking around for a half day job with the view to moving, should anything similar come up near home. To date, I haven't found anything. My sister's thrown things in the air a little, one of her boss's companies has a position available for a bookkeeper. It's from 9 - 2 for more pay then I'm getting now, but it's in town. It'll be much busier then the current posistion I'm in and I'll have a lot to learn and huge challenges to face. Fortunately, my sister is a bit involved with the business too, so she will be around to help out and to get me going in the right direction. I'm very, VERY nervous about accepting. Not sure how I feel about working with my sister, although I wouldn't be in the same office, I guess I'd still be reporting to her. Also, I do like the people I'm with now, so feel like I'm letting them down by leaving. Not that I'm irreplaceable, I just don't like the thought of dropping them in the deep end. The posistion my sister told me about is going so different, if I chose to accept. So, lots of thought going into this at the moment.

On a very happy and exciting note, Jake & I have booked out tickets for our next holiday! We'll be travelling to the UK on 27 June, returning 20 July. I can't wait. We'll be in London from 28 June - 2 July, then in Scotland till the 17th (hoping to squeeze EuroDisney in for a few days during our time in Scotland), return to London on the 17th and fly home again on the 19th. We're flying with Emirates and have a stop-over in Dubai, which is not ideal and it's 2 long flights (works out to about 20 hours travel time), but it was half the price of flying direct on either SAA or BA. I can't wait!!! Wendy, hope we can catch up with you and Lily for coffee sometime!!

Lots of love, Sue xxx

PS. Anch, sorry I didn't make it to the picnic, I hope you all had lots of fun. I was just too exhuasted to think and had to get my sister home too.