IT IS ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

Hi All

Well time flies, it has been a months since I last updated and a lot has happened. We are now nicely settled into our home and have literally slowed down to crawling pace, it has been a crazy year! So much has happened and who knows what will still happen before December 2010 comes to an end.

As most of you know, Günther's mom had a stroke and is being taken care of in the Prinzessin Rupprecht Frailcare Centre and is doing a lot better, amazing what proper care can do and I sincerely admire the nursing staff they are wonder workers and never gets recognized for their good work. She is still paralyzed on the righthand side and probably will never be able to walk or use her right hand again and the challenge always remains to keep the bloodflow going properly and for the nursing staff that is a challenge but they are amazing. They have a way of getting a laugh out of her that others cannot. She is really looking much better under the circumstances and always look well cared for. She sleeps most of the time but we think, or rather we hope that that is a good thing.

The budgie has gone flying off into the wild world, Mitzi throw his cage off the cupboard and after retrieving him, Günther bumped the cage off and I think by then Boy has just had enough and decided it was the best thing to get out of here as his life is in danger. We are hoping that he joined the avery of budgies that lives freely in the trees at Cafe Anton and will be happy there. Thing is we do not generally like birds in captivity but he was so cute but now I feel ok as he is free and hopefully amongst his own kind so no more feeling bad!

It is almost Christmas and for once I can actually prepare properly for Christmas, most of my shopping foodwise and gifts is almost done, well considering that it will just be Kim, myself and Günther, it was not too serious, but at least I will not have to rush around buying things at 99, well only fresh vegies,and hat else may be needed.

Last night we went to the Advents church service at the Stadtsmission, it was really nice (especially the cookies!), there is so much going on here now in Swakop with Christmas approaching.


Our place is really looking Christmassie, Mitzi helped me with the decorations, it is Günther's responsibility to get the tree, he says that since it is Namibia, we need to get a white thorn tree which is the traditional Namibian Christmas tree, however, I was more thinking in the line of a GREEN tree, everything cactussie and thorny is just too much for me lately but I did say it is his job so lets see what happens.


We even have a Father Christmas, sure hope he brings big presents (although he does not look like your traditional red-cheeked-friendly-faced father Christmas) and a snowman in the middle of the desert (Petra that is still your snowman - do you remember him!).


For some people the effort of getting ready for Christmas is just too much!! Günther was just home for lunch and was telling me that at the Brauhaus they have a big Christmas tree up and I must go have a look, you don't understand, in a small place like Swakop, that is a big event! Shops are running empty now already and I still need to get 1/2 things, thing is in Swakop you have to find out when new stock is arriving, and if there is something you like you have to take it immediately, if you go back tomorrow it will be gone so no "I will sleep on it kinda thing" it will not be there if you go back tomorrow.


I baked and am still baking some Christmas cookies, doing it in stages, Saturday I made Zimtsterne, they are really nice, but they are really not that easy to make and they are really expensive you use a load of nuts and eggs and in the end have only close on sixty cookies, but they are heavenly I must admit even though I have sworn that I will only attempt these at Christmas, the recipe I had omitted to tell you that you have to roll it out on baking paper or clingfilm and it was sticking to the surface and I did not know how to get it right eventually I went onto the internet and my Das Grôße Kochbuch and found out that that actually makes it a lot easy, in fact on clingfilm it is the easiest to do. A lot of effort but well worth it, this is one cookie I will not share so easily, my outydse soetkoekies, gingerbread men, etc. will have to do as gifts!!



I even made little gift packets of decorations for the Christmas tree for a friend's daughters with tags and labels and everything, I really got creative this year, it is just so much fun when you actually have a bit of time on hand!

The biggest gift is that Kim is coming home for Christmas, I am literally counting the days, if I was still little I could create and Advents calender and maybe the days will go faster. It will be so nice to have her here I just cannot wait. This will also be the first Christmas we will be staying at home, for the last 10 years!! we have been on the farm in George on on the river at the Orange or somewhere else (failing memory), this will be a first and we are quite excited hence all the effort with decorating and getting things ready.

The 24th will see us having a big Christmas dinner, I have a request for a duck from Günther (and I bought one when I was in Windhoek, it is a French duck - well lets hope it taste good!). I wanted a gammon and then we decided on a pork neck as well, we will have meat left until new year but it will be fun and less cooking in the days after Christmas. Tradition here in Swakop is a big family dinner on the 24th and then on the 25th everyone goes off to the beach with friends for the day to have a braai or a potjie, thus far I think we have said it will be a potjie, there goes the kilograms I have worked so hard on shedding - ahh but it is well worth it!

I will update a little more closer to the time and would love to hear how my friends all over the world will be spending their Christmas!

LOL - till later

OUR LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRIARIES .... OOOOPS DESERT!

We have finally finished building and are now busy with the finishing touches, which is fun but I think we have both had enough for this year and would just like to take it a little bit easier. I see boxes in my dreams, boxes being packed and unpacked and still it is not the end - I do not even want to think that in a year or two we will go through the same process again, but then that is life, change is good they say!

Here are pictures of the house, the first one being the front entrance and patio, previously there was nothing here, gate into the garden was on the lefthand side, the walls were low and there was only a path from the gate to the front sliding door and if you were not careful you could fall into the house instead of walking in, it was just so impractical and a little dangerous!

The front garden was previously a cacti garden, all plants with minimum water requirements, but it looked and was a brown and depressing garden with all kinds of stones and little paths, it did not work for us, we wanted green and quickly, and roll-on lawn was the quickest we could get green. Please note the first tree we planted, hopefully it will grow quickly and you cannot see it on this picture very clearly but there are lavenders in the bed where the trees are, we look every morning to see whether they have grown at all! The scullery that we built on is in the corner where the bin is.

The lounge and kitchen, the scullery we have built on and my little office space in the scullery, the kitchen, guest bathroom, etc. It is small but cosy, warm and sunny, we have green lawns an absolute luxury and it is more than enough for the two of us. I have already told Günther that I think we will stay here and eventually rent out the house we are planning to built, this is good enough for me and is in the more sunny part of Swakopmund, closer to the sea it is damp and misty and I think I prefer the more sunny side, the plants do too.

The lounge is small but cosy, and looks out on the front garden, previously with the low walls everyone could look into your lounge and we had absolutely no privacy - the walls had to go up and quick. The lounge was repainted as the colour they had when we moved in, depending on the light had a green tint to it and I do not particularly like green walls so Günther repainted the same colour as our home in Cape Town, much softer and warmer.






The lounge and kitchen flows into each other as with most town-houses but it is nice when you are cooking you have company and can talk to whoever is in the lounge (right now mostly Gunther and Mitzi - not much of a choice!)

The Kitchen is not too bad, there is room for improvement, for example the kitchen tops not ones we would have chosen but they work and one can get used to them. The stove is a free-standing stove but it works pretty well and is basically brand new, the cupboards are not too bad and the tiles are a small grey ceramic tile, not what we would have done either but it will have to do for now.








The Guest Bathroom is quite a nice size for a second bathroom, tiles are not too bad and the accessories are all white which is what we liked about it. The main bedroom bathroom has a shower and is quite a nice size for an en suite, tiles are similar to the guest bathroom.

We had to build the scullery on, without it we would not have been able to bring in the washing machine (which was in the garage), the dishwasher and tumbledrier. The fridge, before we built on was standing in the kitchen but it made the space in the kitchen so much smaller. The fridge is now in the scullery as seen on the picture and we built in the cupboards in the scullery, which is almost the same as in the kithcen. On the left of the picture is the spare bedroom. The bedrooms are quite big, the main and spare bedroom being almost the same size with lots of cupboard space.


The scullery is nice and airy and very sunny, it is north facing so you have sun the whole afternoon. As you can see all the machines fits in perfectly and Günther made a desk for me to work at. The scullery was a must.

Photos I did not include here is of the main bedroom, spare bedroom, main en suite and the garage (Günthers pride!) and the back garden, I will update at another time, just wanted to give you an idea of where we are living!

Till next time LOL!