Holiday around the corner

Since last time things have definitely got better. Thanks to gran I got a new simcard with the same number as before and I borrowed a phone from Adri and I got my pay today and I am more at peace with the planning for the touristing with Peter and I spent Wednesday night with friends and I have learnt to play Gran Turismo 5 (best part of the week (Ella you have to play it sometime!)) and I got lots and lots of hugs today at the school we went to and it's the weekend and holidays! I am much happier now.

The week has been extremely busy and today it rained cats and dogs in the morning. Since then there has been drizzles and thunder, but nothing like when I was driving to work. It was so heavy that I sometimes couldn't see despite having wind screen wipers on max. This resulted in more pothole-hits than usual, poor little car. The roads here are a bit like swiss cheese. The joke is that you can see if a driver is drunk if he is driving in a straight line...

Anyway, so tomorrow Peter arrives!! Can't wait. On the morning I'm going to a shopping area where we are going to some busking, playing and hoping people give us some money. Going to be lots of people from the academy for a few hours, so I'll be stinking hot by noon. Hoping to go to the bendover in the afternoon and then in the evening I'm playing for a few minutes at a concert-like thing. At around eight I'll be picking Peter up! Probably leaving Bulawayo Sunday morning and heading out to Victoria Falls, where I've got my sights set on bungy jumping and white water rafting, before we head over to Hwange National Park and then back home. Matopos will be visited and maybe maybe even Great Zimbabwe. We'll see how things go. We will be borrowing a tent from Adri's sister, so we don't have to pay too much for lodging.

Right, now I want to go home (and maybe do a lap or too with the Zonda R on the high speed circuit). It's been a long week. So if you don't hear from me before Easter; Happy Easter, have a lovely (next) weekend and enjoy spring! Photos should be rolling up on tumblr while I'm away and then when we get back I'll bombard you with tourist photos!!

Lots of love to you all!

Problems problems problems

Okay, quickly now before my lesson I thought I would just send you a word or two. I am totally stressed out. There is so much I have to do, and so little time. And the breaks in my busy days are so short, that I can hardly do anything then anyway. My biggest problem is what happened on Saturday night: somebody stole my phone!!! I hate that person, whoever it is. Really bad timing. So now I am trying to get both a new phone and a new simcard. Both prove problematic. Gaaah. And on Friday night John totaled the car in an accident, so he has a concussion and we lost a car, but he's alive thank goodness. Anyway, amongst all this is my trying to plan for Peter coming here, and it being the last week of school and having a sore elbow and people not showing up when they said they would and I can't find time or courage to go get my bloodtest and the atm gave me a hard time, so I only got out 60 $ yesterday and I spent an hour and a half at the policestation yesterday and I have to try to fix the insurance stuff... well you see it's not going to well at all. Also Anette is leaving next week, so I really have to be with on the visits to the schools this week. Still I am keeping busy. Now my student is here, the supersweet one, so bye bye!

A kiss for you all, because I miss you

Did I mention that I miss you ?

And by the way ... I miss you.

Just to make sure, did you catch what I said about missing you all?

Veggies

Really want to write in Swedish when I listen to Swedish music. But anyway I thought I would just throw away (haha love the Swenglish in that) a few words before I go out lunch hunting. Today we went to one school in the suburbs and then went by a veggie shop on the way back to the academy. Vusi said I looked like a kid in a candy shop, which was sort of what I felt like. I loved it. I haven't seen that much greens for a long while and I definitely miss it. I am truly in my heart a vegetarian, though people here would think not. I miss your food sometimes mum.

Yesterday I had a girl called Jess over and we had such fun, it is nice to get friends my age(ish) at last. I love my students as well, especially a little girl who has now three weeks in a row practiced seven days! Amazing. And I have now finished my first piano book and should be moving on to number two. Exciting!

Anyway, I am hungry hungry hungry now. Bye.

Needles and scared veins

Okay, so I had told you about the weekend out on the farm. Anyway. I don't think I have told you who's the pictures are that are on my header. They are taken by my heart warmer Linda Sporre when she was in Namibia.

A lot has happened since last I wrote, but I don't want to bore you out totally so I'll give you the most interesting parts. And of course now I get the car keys, so I should be on my way to get blood sucked out of my arm for 92 dollars!! Theft. I am so nervous, because I have been to the lab and it is a fear inducing light blue and a bit of white, with tiny booths where somebody who doesn't know my veins as I do is supposed to stick a needle in my arm. Eesh, gives my the creeps. And Tookie's tuck shop is closed and I forgot to bring lunch, so I need to get food for Jeanette and I. Today is Maria's birthday, so I am to play Happy Birthday on the violin tonight when we eat a cake. Maria and I went to the bendover for a quickie on Saturday to get my birthday present for her. (She promised to forget it in time for unwrapping it.) But I really need to go now. I am not allowed to chicken out of this test. So I'll get back to you later about what happened last week, which definitely is interesting!

Don't miss next post!

All these weekends

It has been soon two weeks I think since you last had a good report of my life down here, so it’s definitely time for a debrief.

I didn’t tell you about the weekend in Matopos did I? I don’t think so. I would check if I had Internet, but right now I am at home, in a very Internet free environment, writing in Word. Anyway. Not this weekend that we just left, and not the one before that, but the one before, I spent Saturday night at Anglesea farm, which is Jeanette and Marnie’s farm out in Matopos. I think they said something like 600 hectares? Huge anyway. They picked me up around noon and then Jeanette and I spent the rest of the day chatting, chatting, chatting,  drinking tea, making brownies, cooking dinner, watching rugby and eventually what I came out there to do; install Sibelius on her computer. I got to sleep in one of their daughter’s rooms, which was a dream, because it had beautiful purple painted striped walls. I slept in, took a few photos and when Jeanette and Marnie came back we installed a bit more, had lunch and another brownie (soooooo good) and chatted until John and Heather came and picked me up. We went to a very local bar and played some pool, which somehow I always lost. Terrible.

In between all these weekends I have now got eight students and probably another in a week’s time. Anette, Adri and I (and now Vusi as well) go out three days a week and visit the schools and teach the choirs songs that a man named Richard has written. The whole thing is called The Song of The Carnivores and is made up of seven pieces, an introduction piece, then one about each of the five big African carnivores; lion, cheetah, hyena, leopard and wild dog and finishing off with another general piece. The children have so far learnt the first and we are now starting on the one about the cheetah. If I am not having a lesson or am out in a school I am most probably sitting at a computer working in Sibelius or surfing the net. Though the whole of last week was a disaster when it came to Internet, so we had to get some guys here to fix it.

The weekend after the Matopos weekend I did very little and can hardly remember actually. Though John and I did “fix” one of the motorbikes in the garage on the Sunday. All it needed was fuel, even though it is from the eighties. It looks a bit like ours at home, but lower, not as plasticky, better quality and not quite as much as a motocross bike.  It doesn’t have insurance however, so we couldn’t ride it on the roads. John tried to teach me to do a donut, which I didn’t manage, but I have a year. Molly (the bullterrier) when completely nuts when we drove it, so we had to stop quite soon or we would wake up the afternoon sleeping people inside.  Oh, I know what I did on the Saturday, I went to the bendover again, with Anette and two older ladies. Didn’t find much.

A week ago I skipped Pilates (I know, it is so nice, wish I could do it every day) since we had all the Swedish ladies that we know in Bulawayo over for tea and cakes. We were six of us, including Agneta, who lives in Manama. The others meet every now and then and exchange Swedish books and tea and cakes. I had made gewycakemuffins (bra översättning från kladdkakemuffins va?) which, if I may say so, were soooo good. It was great fun hearing all the Swenglish going around. Mostly Swedish though, which was even weirder. After more than two months here I am now flowing so much better in English. Not that I was rubbish when I came, but now I actually think in English all the time (except when I am really cross or read something Swedish on the net) and speak it more and more like I speak Swedish.

This weekend was nice as well, spent Friday night out in town, Saturday mostly reading, Sunday went to the Country Club with John and a gang for a braii, drinks and a lovely dip in the pool. People here are so kind and friendly and open. It’s not like the social distance in Sweden at all.

This morning I dressed in jeans, t-shirts, long sleeved shirt and scarfy knitted thing (bruna stickade runda halsduksgrejen), but couldn’t bring myself to wear socks because that would just be giving in to autumn. I have absolutely no idea how I am supposed to manage through winter here. And then of course it is about twenty degrees warmer in the middle of the day, so I can’t wear jeans anyway, yet. So Peter when you come (I’m counting the days (18)) bring thick socks as well as sunblock!

Now I think you know enough to last you for a while. I try having photos come up on my tumblr nearly every day, so check there if I haven’t written anything, or you want to know what the stuff I’m writing about looks like.

Until next time; Miss you all! 

Urk

Sorry, I was going to write on Friday, but managed to stray far from internet all day. And I would write today, but I feel I should be a bit more into it to actually sound interesting, so I'll probably do it tomorrow. My body isn't in tune with it being Monday and the beginning of a new week. Rather the opposite. Anyway. Miss ya.

We caught the net!

I am alive! Sorry Internet has been fighting a war against the academy, and was until yesterday doing very well. Then we got to guys here to overpower it, which they did and tada! We now have Internet. Yey!! I am rushing off in about one minute to a school to practice with the choir, so I thought I'd just show I am alive and will be writing more tomorrow, when I don't have lessons or school visits.

I can stay another month!

Another week is coming to a close and I am happy today, really content with life. I feel I am definitely in the right place at the moment. Today I slept late into the morning, and got a “Good morning” from the maid Sophie, who started working again on Wednesday, after three months off because of an infection she got when she had an operation. She makes the bed differently from Nokotula (the maid we had while Sophie was gone), but I mean, she makes my bed – can I really complain?

Since I got to work I have mostly been working on a program called Sibelius, maybe I have told you about it already, it is music writing program. So today Vusi and I scanned some music and put it into the program and we can now edit it on the computer and then print it! Amazing!! Hard work actually, but I am starting to get the hang of it. Vusi is a Sibelius expert and he has taught me so much, so now it is going a bit faster.

Yesterday was an extremely busy day. We visited two schools and then I got my VISA renewed, threw down some lunch and rushed off to Girls College to fix a violin, help in the orchestra and have three lessons. The last student was a new one and I can feel now that I actually know what to say when I start teaching someone. After GC I rushed back to the Academy for a practice with the string group and when I got home it was past seven and I could eat a horse, I was so hungry. (Except I wouldn’t seeing as I am really a vegetarian.) My elbow was killing me fast, so I got some pills in me and some ice on me (thank you for the tip Claire, it really helps!) and spent the rest of the evening in a semi-horizontal position.

Soon Anette and I are going shopping, which should be fun. I need more earrings as always. Internet is giving me a hard time, but I will try to post this before I run off to town.

Lynette /the Internet wiz) sends greetings to snowy Sweden!

Tjoho!

Autumn is on the way

This week is going so fast, so I decided I would write a bit about life now, Wednesday evening, in Word and then post it to you tomorrow morning quickly before work. We are going out to two schools again tomorrow. All these early mornings are killing me, but it’s nice to do stuff.

So, last weekend started with a long Friday night. Actually I went with Joe, Maria and John to the factory and helped bake rolls and hamburger bread. We were supposed to do it on the afternoon/evening, but Zesa (the power) was out until half past eleven, so we couldn’t do anything before then. I had the important task of placing them in exactly straight lines before rising. A good job for a perfectionist. Maria and I went home at quarter to three, so I had a bit of a lie-in next morning.

Around noon Jeanette and her husband Marnie picked me up and we drove out to their farm in Matopos. It was so beautiful and quite. I am definitely not a town-person; it felt so nice to not hear the cars all the time, to know that the closest neighbour was seven kilometers away. Just chatting away the whole afternoon and then making brownies and watching rugby (yes, I now understand it and actually get excited) was so nice, I loved every minute. Then I helped Jeanette install Sibelius, a music producing program until late and had a lovely, long sleep. Next morning was nice and when Jeanette and Marnie came back from church we had some lunch and brownies (soooo good!). On the afternoon Heather and John came and, after a chat in the shade, drove homewards. We stopped at a very local bar and played pool and had a few drinks, which was great fun, except I didn’t win a single game!!

That was basically my weekend, now another three days have gone and I have been a bit busy. I had three lessons yesterday and two today. A bit hard to think of what I am to do each lesson, but so far all has gone well. Tuesday we went out to three schools and I went to Pilates in the evening. Today Richard had a Sibelius workshop for some of the teachers, which was really interesting, and I tried to teach Jeanette to understand and use Internet. Very interesting, I mean, we all take it for granted, but here people haven’t had it for as long and as easily accessible, so the people don’t always understand it. Though of course all the youngsters are completely fluent in Internetish.

Today we also started to practice Carmina Burana for the music festival in May. I am to play timpani (pukor).  Ehee. Yep, so a bit of a challenge, but it’s quite fun hitting them. So fun that Anette asked me if I could try to be a bit quieter, or she would get deaf. Hehe.

Anyway, now my computer is dying and so am I. I baked this evening (chokladknäcksnittarna Ella, fast jag hade dem inne för länge, så de blev inte så kletiga. Men de smakade bra ändå. Lions golden syrup i dem bl.a.), so now my sugar high is coming to an end. Tomorrow I’ll just post this quickly before setting off to the schools. I have put some pictures on tumblr as always.

/the Nellie who will be eating mango for breakfast tomorrow

Update: Internet is is not behaving very well, so I couldn't post this this morning.