Breathe in, breathe out...

And try to find that place of peace and happiness within you... it's still there, right?  Is it just me, or does it feel like 2015 is flying by at an alarming rate?  Can you believe it's term 2 already, or that exams are just around the corner?  When will the Silly Season come to an end?  2015 has promises of plenty of excitement and there are many things to look forward to in the next couple of months - I just feel like I'm almost not getting time to think about these things though and that's sad.

First up we have a lot of birthdays in the next month or two.  Michael turns 12 on the 9th of May and Jake, 11 on the 16th.  Marius' mom (AKA Jean, or Oumie) is on the 12th.  Bi and I share our birthdays on the 17th - she'll be turning 4 and me 27 (again).  Jo turns 26 on the 13 of June and Becky 13 at the end of July.  Before Becky's birthday though, Jake and I are heading off on an adventure...

You might have noticed in my last post that I mentioned my new lens and a trip to Kruger.  Well, that's our next stop.  I cannot wait!  I am very disappointed that Marius and his kids aren't joining us, but as you know me, I'd never let that spoil my trip or my time with Jake!  My folks are also going, along with some good family friends and I know it will be a great holiday none-the-less.  We are very excited and Jake and I are counting the months down (I'm about to go into weeks and days).  

This holiday has been a long time in the planning.  When Jacques died just after Jake was born, I had a small insurance policy that paid out and invested the money into our holiday fund.  I'm sure you'll understand that I had to have plenty of goals to get me through the crazy days that followed and I had many short term goals (like brushing my teeth and getting dressed each day), medium term goals (like living on my own again, which turned into a 6 year goal) and long term goals (my holiday with Jake, age 10).  We delayed our trip by a year and the 10-year older, more sensible me, knows that my little holiday fund (that has grown by more than 5 x the original investment) needs to remain as an education fund for Jake.  He's going to need to study after school and I can't afford it, so he'll need a student loan to cover his costs.  This fund saves that.

Anyway... getting distracted...  my long term goal had always been to take what ever the money had grown to and to blow it on one amazing, memorable holiday with Jake.  To anywhere in the world that he wanted to go.  When I sat him down, age 9, and asked him where in the world he'd like to go; I listed the beautiful places we've already been and some of those that we haven't yet seen.  When I ran out of ideas, Jake looked and me and said "Mom, you know Kruger's my best, right?".  So that was decided.  The investment could stay and Kruger it was.

We leave Cape Town on 4 July and have 2 nights outside the park, which gives us time to drive from Jhb to the southern part of Kruger and time to do our grocery shopping.  We go into the park on the 6th and are there until the 16th!  We were so lucky to get reservations at all the campsites, in the specific bungalows that we wanted and so we are staying at Skukuza, Satara, Olifants (our absolute favourite) and Shingwedzi.  We fly home on the 17th, so have one last overnight on the way back to Jhb.

I cannot tell you how much holidays drive me.  It's who I am and the world is there to be explored.  I love the excitement of knowing that I have something booked and planned and something to look forward to.  I know that when I get home, I'll be thinking about "where to next" almost immediately.  Hopefully though, next time, Marius, Michael & Cameron will be with us.

Lots of love,

Sue XXX