Christmas was lovely, the first Christmas spent at home in many years and Kim was here, David unfortunately was working and could not join us but next time. We had a typical Swakop Christmas, relaxed at home, fished a lot, ate a lot, drank in moderation(!) and visited with a lot of nice people!
Christmas day was spent on the beach fishing, braaiing and just lazing about and some people won fishing competitions, of which I benefited of course! Kim and I swam (yes I swam in the sea - when last did I do that, but the water was amazing), played some beach tennis and read and lazed about.
Gunther caught a couple of catfish and other than that we just relaxed, met Imogen and Co at the beach later the afternoon. It was really special having Kim home for Christmas as I miss her terribly, like so many of you all! Christmas eve was spent with just Kim, Gunther and myself and it was lots of fun preparing the duck
Gunther wanted and the gammon I wanted, Kim was happy with anything (good girl, well trained!) New Year was spent just down the road from us at a braai with Imogen, Wulff, Dirk and Uschi and some friends from Windhoek, had a lovely evening and the best was that our house was just around the corner.
Kim was with Maddie and friends at Gwyn's place in Longbeach, think she needed younger company by then! New Year's day we went to the beach, Gunther and Peter went kayaking and Kim and I did the braaiing and lazed on the beach. Soon it was time for Kim to go back again, the time just flew.
Namibia has had lots and lots of rain, it is so green and so lovely at the moment, even Swakop had rain, and I was told by all that it never rains here, we even had thunder and lightening, I loved it of course missing the Cape rains (yes I miss them - not the southeaster, which I believe is causing havoc at the moment)! Gunther and I went camping with Lynelle, Clive and friends at Ameib it was so green and beautiful and water everywhere,
Spitzkoppe was beautiful and the contrasts in colour spectacular.
. One just cannot believe how green it gets and how quickly after the rains, the photos taken here was in January and now we have had tremendous amounts of rain, 
it will still go on to April, apparently the south, including Sossusvlei, has had tremendous amounts of rain, Windhoekers are complaining bitterly about the everyday rain!
Of course with the rains you get damages, pests, our beautiful little green lawn has now turned brown (one would think the rain will make it go green) no! Apparently what we found out was that when the rains come, there are thousands of moths and beetles and everything everywhere (our cat's, whom I believe is a wild cat - diet has changed to moths, caterpillars, locusts and whatever else he manages to bring into the house - gross animal!) Well apparently you have to put 411 on the lawns as this will kill the bugs and worms eating the roots of the lawn, funny thing is the front lawn was not that bad but the back lawn went brown overnight! So we are religiously throwing 411 and hope that the back lawn will recover.
Inbetween all this I worked for a 6-week stunt, a hectic experience is all I will say about that lot, but I met a lot of people and was all over Namibia in that six weeks, either driving or flying to the North or to Windhoek, the first week I was literally worked off my feet, could not stand on them at night - luckily that is a thing of the past and two of us well actually three, came and left within weeks of each other - need I say more. I will be going for an interview tomorrow so lets see what this one brings.
All in all we are well, Gunther is having the time of his life surfing, diving, kayaking and fishing and has now even taken up golf with me, we ordered a how to on golf and will see where that will take us. We were planning on going away to Sossusvlei for the weekend, so lets see what happens, will keep you posted!
