Tillbaka till Sverige

I thought I should tell you all that I am back in Sweden, safe and sound, despite everything. We had a lovely trip on the Zambezi and the flight back went... well we got home on time anyway. Here in Gagnef it is now freezing cold (not really, but it feels like it) and one percent of Bulawayo's sun-amount. But all is well, and I am keeping relatively busy. Will give you a summarey of the year I think. But not right now. Skype time!

Toodles.

Zambezi

Dear all, writing on my phone in Kariba. Everyone is alive, although I have terribleear pain. Samma som du hade Mathias i Spanien... In an hour we leave for our canoe trip down the Zambezi. Should be interesting. Will be back to civilization on the second. Love from all! Toodles!

Less than a month left

I am freeeeeeeee!! No more lessons or concerts. I would give you a story of the last two weeks events, but it has been crazy busy, so it would probably end up fifteen pages long. Plus after all this playing my elbow is not happy and therefore I won't write that much.
I think I've counted to seven concerts in nine days, plus HECTIC rehearsals. I held the conducting stick in six of the concerts, and the violin in all of them. Student concert, fundraiser, opening ceremony, busking, carol concert, christmas showcases. Phew.

It is a strange feeling now, when it's all over. My whole year of what I've been doing here. I can't believe how much has happened, how much I've learnt, how much I've seen and grown. I came a spoilt, naive Swede and leve a little less so I hope.

I now have a few days to spend with Sam, before the Swedish invasion. It is hot and cold like a roller coaster, but after the rains we've had everything is now turning green, which is so so so nice. I have gone from being a Swedish rain- and grey-clouds-hater to being a Zimbabwean rain- and grey-clouds-lover.

This morning Line, Stephen, Maria and I went to the bendover a quickie. The backseat of the car (Stephen and I) were not happy with the time of day and kept up the yawning and mumbling. Getting up at seven on a Sunday is just wrong. We did find a few things though, while some of the stalls were still being put up. Now I feel like going back to bed. I think I might.

Toodles.

Harare weekend

Today is Stressful Thursday. As always. I am at Girls' College fixing for all the concerts that are happening soon soon. In an hour we have music group practice, since we are then playing at the Form 1 orientation day, then more practice, then hopefully three lessons, then a get together with all my students, to get ready for the student concert on Tuesday. We are playing Twinkle Twinkle in three different variations. Exciting. I am so terribly proud of all of them, thay have learnt so much in a year and are all enjoying it, which makes me even happier. Yesterday little Jamie-Lee brought both her mum and gran to the lesson, because she likes it so much. Made me really happy.

So on Monday I came back from three days in Harare. Took the frightfully early bus up on Satur`ay mopnin( `fter @ri``y nhdhpr Rapiapy So`w thph$pur`r%fdh`p%w`lu`d'ano`a d'd`w&`a#bgradas`d!fcifgn`(!Lf`a.`h'ebpr%fobeph!Barepg%pg%repm%d`r)`q.`i.cberile`b!yn`c,oed|`'(ych`f/lloget`e){s all the way in to town, where I was picked up by Frank Rae. He and his wife Elisabeth live in Gran and Grandad's old house on Mount Pleasant Dr. It was fascinating to see the place I slightly remember from last time I was in the country, 13 years ago. In my memories things were a whole lot bigger! I spent the night fighting a pack of mozzies that kept me awake too long, then eventually gave up. Sunday morning we went for brunch with their homegroup, which was interesting and very tasty. I met people who knew both gran and dad. Amongst them were Ingrid and Ron Marks.

After another nap (I saw this trip as a little holiday) Frank and I headed off to see Elisabeth sing in Handel's Messiah in Arundel School Chapel. Very nice. During the wine and cheese afterwards I met Francis Podmore and his wife, who wanted alot of updates on the family. Sunday night I drenched myself in mozziespray (by then I already had around 25 evil bites) and tricked the horrible mozzies into the bathroom, away from my sleep.

Monday I headed off to Emirates to buy a ticket, and then we visited an orphanage that got some help before enjoying a wonderful lunch at The Cottage. A little oasis in town. After all this I jumped on the afternoon bus back and arrived in the dark evening in town to be picked up by Maria.

With us now we have Joe and Maria's son Stephen with girlfriend Line, and Joe's brother Dan. So once again we fill up the house. We are lucky we have borehole water or there would be problems. Apparently the city of Bulawayo now only has water left for 38 days. Then the dams are dry. The rain situation here is absolutely terrible and there are many rain-prayer meetings being held because of it. I really hope we get some soon. The heat has been stupid the last few days and this morning we got a little bit, but we need the big drenching rains, not the little dainty ones. Sigh. Anyhow. I better print out all the music I just arranged, so the girls have something to play. Toodeloo! 

Ten months into the game

Right. So. After quite an extreme blog pause, I am back. Not back from anywhere special (except a long day at work), but none the less back.

I can hardly think of what to write about what has happened in the time that has elapsed since last time I wrote. You know, it's weird but somehow I've forgotten a lot of it. I think everyday life does that to you. It blends together and makes a mush of lessons, planning, chats, papers, lessons, papers, notes, pens, driving, lunch, frustration and laughter. All in all; not boring, but very busy. And today I found out I am to be even more busy the last week of November and first week of December, due to concerts, that I now for the first time am on the teacher-side of. Phew, so much work to be done. And so much music to be written and arranged. Mostly Christmas carols.

Otherwise, more unusual things I have done are:
Gone to CBC leaver's dance with a fascinator in my hair.
Experienced more lightning than I have ever before.
Danced in the rain til I was soaked through and through.
Spent my last night as a teenager being violently sick.
Turned Twenty!
Had Birthday Dinner and Birthday Lunch. (on different days)
Got lovely presents.
Played with glow sticks for the first time in my life.
Skyped a lot.
Taken care of a choir consisting of 80 teenage girls by myself.
Participated in Girls' College Speech Day (typ skolavslutning fast Mycket mer formellt.), which demanded twelve hours of work.
Built blanket forts.
Etc.

Really, a lot has happened and even more lies ahead. I now definitely understand the necessity of weekends, although some of them make me more tired than the week days.

The weather has been interesting, first stupidly hot, then rain and really cold and cloudy (for being here), and now it's getting hotter again. I now appreciate clouds much more than when I first came here. The midday sun can be so very harsh. Not to say that I long for the dreary yucky autumn I imagine they have in Sweden now. I am very happy to be here right now.

People keep on asking me if I am really leaving, and then why. Sometimes I do wonder, but mostly I know that my time here soon is up, more places need to be found. Right now I can think of one special place that needs deep exploring and that is my pillow. It has been a long day (my statement that I don't work on Mondays is a big fat lie, I have realised). So night night people!

The first rain in over half a year!!

I seem to have made blogging a Wednesday thing. Well, three in a row now right? I must say, it is much easier posting pictures on nellieinafrica.tumblr.com. I have fallen in love with tumblr, I really have. It is a whole world. Anyhow. I have started taking photos with my phone camera now, which means I can take of things anytime anywhere, since my phone is with me all the time. But of course, quality wise it can never ever compete with my sweet Nikon D90. Which now has four different lenses. Amazing, how on earth did that happen?

Yesterday it rained!!!!!! For maybe five minutes, but at least it rained. I was in the office at the academy, so I jumped up and ran outside to feel the drops. It was glorious. So I walked around the building hearing the rain fall hard on the corrugated roofs next door and seeing the the dusty reddish brown ground turning spotty. So so nice.

Obviously my tactic worked. You see every week my students have to paint one thing each time they practice, and every week has a different theme. For a few weeks now my kids have got rain clouds, where they have had to draw a raindrop each time they practice. I told them it was wishful thinking, since we wanted rain. And TADA it came! Yeha!

Today I am first off to GC to start arranging all our christmas songs that we are going to play, then I have lessons at the academy in the afternoon. And I today had my alarm set for six o'clock. ... I am honestly telling the truth. I volountarily did so, because otherwise I die by the end of my morning walks. It is quite fun now, walking this time in the morning. It is before the real rush of cars for CBC and Petra, but just in time to meet all the kids walking to Hillside Junior School. And they are sooo sweet. By now they reckognise me and since I always say good morning to everybody I meet, they now even sometimes say good morning to me before I've had time to open my mouth. There were two small girls today who looked so happy when they said it, I couldn't stop smiling for another twenty five meters. Cute! I love kids.

Right, sore elbow. Must be a sign, saying I should be off. Which I should. We have a few whispy clouds today, so perhaps we won't die of heat. Like we did yesterday. Sweating in my room ten o'clock at night. Africa. Anywho. Toodles!

A longer update

A week of blog pause. Well at least it wasn't longer.

Life is a bit hectic during the days. I am working so hard on Sibelius arranging stuff for GC that I feel totally square eyed. We are playing in two weeks on Speech Day and we haven't started with all the stuff yet. I'm still getting it ready!! But by tomorrow lunch time it should all be done and I can relax when the weekend comes. Again. I definitely understand why we have weekends now. How on earth would we survive otherwise?! Last weekend was wonderfully chilled. I made a feeble attempt at filling up my 2TB external harddrive with music and movies from Sam, but it hardly made a differenc in this black box. I slept and wrote a lot. I'm doing a thirty day writing challenge which is such fun! Most often I end up writing bleary eyed just before bed though, so when I read it in the morning I have to try and decipher what I've written and what I actually meant...

I've been getting up so early the last two weeks, trying to get my walk in before it gets too hot, so now I meet all the school people when they go to school, which is amusing at times. Both Petra Primary and High and CBC go past our house on their way to school, so there are a lot of them. It becomes one long line of cars at the busiest of times. Anyway, so I get up early, but unfortunately I don't go to bed earlier. Too much of a night owl.

I read the other day of how science had shown that there were big differences in the brain and genes between early birds and night owls. At last. Proof. Early birds are most productive and efficient at 9 am, and then during the day they slowly get worse, while night owls are the exact opposite, with their peak at 9 pm. Ha!! There you go, I'm not lazy, just not made for society. Tonight though I am going to bed early, since I have so much to get done tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I had a new student, first in many months. Her gran had bought her a violin, and when I opened the case I got quite a shock. An electric violin!! Obviously it wasn't possible for her to have that, what with zesa-cuts and so on, so I tried to explain the difference between it and my violin and how she needed to get one with a box, not an S shape. But my insides were all the time screaming "I WANT IT!!" It actually didn't look to bad, she had paid quite a bit for it, so it wouldn't be a rubbish one either. Anyhow, I put it away reluctantly and today she came with a wooden one (honestly, if it has headphones, do you not think it needs power...?) and I am now to assemble what will be something like my twentieth violin since I got here.

Right, writing time, before I spend some quality time with my pillow.
Night!

Time in the heat

So, I think this is the third week of term, but I'm not sure. Time is just running past me. I now have a slightly different schedule, but only a tiny bit. It feels so weird to think that this is my last term. Ahh!! I don't want to leave my kids/teenagers, they are too wonderful. But I will as I must. Before I do though we have a lot going on. Concerts and gigs and concerts. Phew. Plus my birthday!!! I am turning twenty in less than a month. I can hardly understand it. I don't feel nineteen, but I don't feel twenty either. Hopefully I'll be in Hwange then, seeing as I  haven't been there yet, despite my best efforts.

It is getting considerably warmer now, which is welcome after the freezing winter we had. However, I am constantly warned that October will kill us all with it's stinking heat. I wish we could keep it like this; warm enough to never be cold in a summer dress. (Bought soooooo much stuff at Bendover last time.) I have noticed that my morning walks, which I have now revived after the holiday, feel a lot better heatwise too early in the morning for my liking. So unfortunately that might continue from now on...

I bought a 2TB external harddrive just before Linda left and have now transeferred nearly all my photos and movies there, which on my computer made it impossible for me to even play spotify songs, due to lack of disc space. On the external now, it hardly makes a dent in the space. Amazing. Very cheap as well, $215. Good buy Nellie, good buy.

And good bye to you as well. Time to skype Ella. I think.

Kind of back

I have kind of struggled getting back into blogging mode since Linda came/left. Suddenly work is back and in full speed and life just seems to wizz past. A week ago exactly Linda ran off back to Sweden and for the first time since February I am the only person under 50 staying here. Strange.

On Friday we had another performance of the SOTC, but this time without intruments which was very interesting and meant we choirleaders had to do much more. Anyway, we survived and it is over now. Celebrated with pizza at Sam's.

I feel like I should tell lots about when Linda was here, but I can't remember what I've already told you. We did a lot anyway. Antelope Park, Chipengali, bendover, craft shops, work, Vic Falls, Jeanette's farm, Heather's farm, tummy bugs, car breakdown, a whole heap of chatting, Wordfeuding, walks, shopping, suntanning, cooking, dinners and lots more. I couldn't believe how bad my Swedish was when she came, but by the time she left it was kind of okay. It was a bit of a stress having to try and think in Swedish, and talk! Much easier with English I felt. So now I am back to that. Comfortable. I just kept on forgetting the Swedish words, or making them English. For Swedes: Once Linda and I were driving in the dark and I said " Åh, kolla väglamporna är på!" And she replied "Japp, och gatlyktorna också..." Felt a bit stupid. Anyhow.

Today I am to meet a girl called Chelsea, who is a niece of someone who gran knows (if I've understood correctly), at Hillside Dams, so I better get going. I'll try to come back here a bit more often than I have lately. There have been coming up a few photos on my tumblr if you've missed that in my blogging absence. nellieinafrica.tumblr.com

Toodles!

Matopos, Bulawayo and Vic Falls in a week

Wow, it seems like forever since I wrote here last. Anyhow. Terribly tired now, got back from three nights in Vic Falls this afternoon, but thought I should show signs of life here before the gravity of my pillow gets too strong and pulls me under.

SO, we spent two nights out on the farm last week, then on Friday the brakes on my Sunbeam (aka the yellow Nissan Sunny) packed up way out of town and had to take it to car-hospital for a few days. Problem here: we were going to go to the falls on the Sunday. Instead we went to the bendover market and to Chipengali, the animal centre. I should mention that Friday night was spent on our veranda roof watching the blue moon, with cardgames, a movie and sleep. Monday we jumped on a bus to the falls and spent three nights at a backpacker's lodge called Shoestrings. Linda looooved it. I knew she would. We went white water rafting on Tuesday which we of course loooved (only flipped once though...), chilled in the afternoon (/died of exhaustion), had pizza and chatted. Wednesday we went to Victoria Falls National Park. Well, I went there and spent a few hours with a milkshake while Linda did the Bridge Swing on the bridge. We then trotted around the park, seeing so much more than when Peter and I were there. There was much less water now, so less mist, but then also less water coming over the edge. For late lunch I had a Crocodile Tail Wrap. Way cool. We hurried home to catch the Sunset Cruise on the Zambesi above the falls. Beautiful. Home and shower at last. It was actually really warm in the falls, much warmer than here at home. After a long and good night at the Shoestrings bar we got up at another ungodly hour and headed back to Bulawayo.

That is basically a weeks worth of stuff we've done. I might write more about it later, we'll see. The days are going so fast now, but it feels like Linda has always been here. Part of the furniture. At the moment her bed. I think I will follow her example and head for mine. Night everybody!

Matopos next!

In about ten  minutes Linda and I are heading off to Jeanette and Manie's farm in Matopos for a few days, but I thought I'd write you a line or two before we head off.

It's amazing how suddenly when Linda comes I am eating such lovely lunches out in Bulawayo. Not to mention the milkshakes... We have spent considerable hours at coffeshops/lunchplaces the last week. We have also gone to a curioshop kind of thing and bought some actually quite nice stuff. The real deal. I bought a speghetti spoon made out of aluminium from an engine block! Then John left yesterday for South Africa, which meant Heather left the house as well, so we are at the moment downsizing the household.

It is now time for Linda to drive on the wrong side of the road, change gears with the wrong hand and all this with only one sideview mirror. Yey! I am looking forward to this. A lot.  Hihi.
Right. Bye!

Antelope park

I thought I'd give you a few more words about our trip up to Antelope Park. It's just outside Gweru, and took us probably two hours to get there. Heather drove all thw way of course, in her sweet Cherrybomb (Honda Fit). So we got there at around three and Linda and I set up camp, while Heather and John had a River Tent. At four we headed out on a short gamedrive with some other people as well. We saw impala, a tawny eagle, wildebeest, zebras, giraffes, lions, some type of antilope, hartebeest and weaverbirds nests. We even got chased for a tiny bit by a lion that was being walked by some staff, because we came close to where it was hunting some zebras. The rest of the evening was spent eating and drinking and having fun until quite late.

Next morning (actually it was still night) at half past five Linda and I woke up (barely) and soon headed out on a walk with two lions and maybe ten other people. But first a long safety talk. It was quite surreal walking with them and stopping to sit next to and pat them. The sunrise as we started the walk was just so beautiful and all the photos got a lovely glow about them. Our guide took lots of photos with my camera and said he had by now probably handled around 4000 cameras on all his guided tours... Back at camp Linda collapsed in the tent again and I made myself pancakes before we then packed up everything, put it in Heather's car and checked out.

At ten we rode the elephants for an hour, which was cool. I rode Thombi, 23 years together with an elephant trainer who taught me a lot about elephants. Interesting stuff, which I of course will have forgotten in a week. Then Linda and I soaked some sun while the other two went fishing. I actually got a tan and didn't get burnt!! Can you believe it?! At three we jumped in the car and went home again after 24 hours of holiday. Sweet.

So that was our first real touristy thing. Then we had a goodbye braai on Saturday for John, who is leaving for Sweden tomorrow. And a sushi evening tonight. Good times!

Linda and I are now completely locked on an app called Wordfeud, which is like Scrabble but on the phone. So a few more words now, then we'll make some Zs. Nighty!

A fast week

Oh boy. I haven't written for a week! Anyway, we're all alive.

The week has just wizzed past. There has been a lot of card games, chatting, shopping, walking with lions, riding elephants, being slightly chased by a lion, phone-nerding, picnincs, poetry, Swedish and laughter. Life has been good one could say. I could write about so much, but don't know really where to start and we're leaving soon to give back a borrowed violin, so I think the best thing is if you check out the photos on nellieinafrica.tumblr.com. Photos should be coming up there.

By the way, I just got back my violin. Hurrah!! And mum, I met an older man yesterday who remembers you. His name was Bruce. Now time to head off. We woke up at one this afternoon and had cooked brunch in bed, so we really need to do something today before the day is over.

Toodles!

My very own Linda visit

So, Linda has now been here for more than two days, but it feels so much longer. Weird how with good friends you just take off from were you left last time. She arrived safely on Friday at lunch time with Maria, Heather and I as her welcoming commitee. I am so so happy to see her again  and be able to show her my life here. So far we have done a lot of visiting grocery shops, we've had a picninc at Hillside Dams with Sam, been total nerds when it comes to my new phone and her ipod and also spent a whole night up LAN-ing (Playing networked based computer games) with Heather, John and Ian. That's where we are now. Tired as anything.

The week before Linda came was suprisingly busy, with holiday, work, walks, cardgames, playing at a wedding, visiting the National Arts Gallery and skypeing. The arts gallery was really interesting; we went around to all the studios that artists rent there and met them and saw their work. Some of it very modern actually. Also, if you think you have heard creaking floorboards before, you should have heard the ones in there!! You couldn't even talk normally, because nobody would hear it.

So, now we are trying to plan out a bit of an adventure for Linda and I while she's here. Looks like we will be walking with lions on Tuesday anyway, and maybe riding elephants on Wednesday.

Maria is sick with the flu now, which sucks and I hope we don't get it. It's going to be interesting and nice to have a true vegetarian in the house for a month. Lovely. Now I think a nap is in order. nellieinafrica.tumblr.com is pouring out pictures at the moment, so you can check in there if you want to. Toodles!

Shopping in Bulawayo

Bulawayo is an expensive place to live. People don't earn a lot, but everything costs a lot, especially imported food, which is most of it. Also it is hard to find things that you would very easily get hold of in for example South Africa.

Today Maria and I went grocery shopping, as we alwasy do on Saturdays. We have gone around town now the last two times to see which shops are the cheapest ones and you would be surprised by the difference in price on normal things like coffe, cooking oil and butter. In one shop butter cost nearly eight dollars and at another it cost five and a half. For the exact same butter! So to maximise your wallet you have to run around town to find the cheapest of everything. But we have now found that we can manage going to just three shops, buying different things at each place.

Because here you know there are still the specialized shops like the many butcherys, dairy shop, vegetable shop, lots of bakeries, hardware shop, chocolate shop and so on. Of course we have the bigger super markets that have basically everything, but it isn't at all the same as in Sweden, where there hardly are any specialized shops left. I love it like this, except when you're trying to find one special thing and you have absolutely no idea where to start looking. Thank goodness I know people here.

The last few days have been nice, I've jammed with Vuzi and Sam, had dinner and late chat at Sam's and slept eleven hours. Yesterday Jeanette, Michelle and I went to a dancing performance with lots of lovely kids and teenagers who did things with their bodies that I will never in my life even come close to doing. One of the dancing studios here is an acrobatic dancing studio so you can just imagine... and then of course there was ballet. The whole last half was only classical ballet, which has beautiful costumes, but it did get a bit boring after a while. Everybody in the audience was freezing of course. We are probably having our last cold spell before summer now and this one has been awful, really really cold nights. Six degrees in the morning, and the house has no insulation at all...

Anyway, now skype time! See you there!

You wouldn't have known

There are always things that you sort of take for granted work the same everywhere, even on the other side of the world. Like how to put airtime (money to phone for) in you cell phone. When I got mine and was going to fill it up I asked where I could go and buy more airtime and people said "ah, just on the street corner.". This really confused me in a way. Not until I learnt that nearly every traffic light (and there are a lot of them) has a guy in a reflective vest standing there selling airtime and text cards. But bear in mind that the guys selling newspapers also have reflective vests...

And public transport... Oosh. There are lots of small taxis and then there are the ETs; Emergency Taxis. They are minibuses stuffed with people. I could never take an ET, not allowed to. So everybody here who can afford it have their own car. Otherwise you are pretty much stuck. There are no passenger trains here that I have heard of either. Between the big cities (Harare, Bulawayo, Vic Falls, Joburg) though there are bus companies who drive sometimes twice a day. 30 dollars from here to Harare.

I can just mention the power which goes on and off like a yo-yo and the water cuts (which thankfully we aren't affected by since we have a borehole). And that everything is paid in cash here.

But now I have to run. Well, actually drive. So long!

Running off!

Having holiday, sort of, is quite nice. I do so little. I spend the whole morning up until lunch time doing my morning routine, just slightly slower than normal. I go for my walk, do my fifteen minutes of strengthening exercises, have my breakfast usually while watching a movie, then a shower or bath, get dressed and it's nearly time to go to work!

The most amazing thing with my walking though is how much stronger my legs and shins are. I have now walked every morning Monday to Friday for two months, extendig the route every second week and in the beginning my shins were so sore. But somehow they have got stronger and I have now started (*drumroll*) to run on the sandy patches!! Today I ran the most, probably about a hundred meters, but before it's been around twenty. I am so happy!! I haven't run for almost two years and now it seems like I might be able to run in a sort of near future. Eish I have missed it.

Yesterday something not so fun happened. My violin broke. Again. The neckboard, which a guy in Harare glued back on like a month ago, went off ... again. So now I have to hunt Harare-goers, so they can take it up there to be fixed. Again. But the evening weighed up with positive stuff like skypeing friends.

Anyway, time for lunch. See ya!

Speeded week

Correction of last blog post: at least four tv-channels of olympics.

SO much has happened this week. I have hardly had time to write here. (Well I have, but I was just too lazy to do so.)

We had the student concert on Monday which went so so so so well and I was so proud of my kids and so happy that I couldn't stop smiling and hugging them. Then another concert after that with two Russians. Nice light classical music, but way too long.
Getting the car fixed on Tuesday and having coffee with Heather before lessons.
Wednesday assembly at Girls' College where it went... not so good with the orchestra and violin group. Lessons etc. Out for cocktails and chatting with Jeanette, Mullins, Aurie (all GC teachers) and two more.
Thursday HOLIDAY!! Getting eyebrows done, chilling on the lawn, getting a Swedih For Heather book going.
Friday haircut with the most amazing blowdry (holywood locks!!) then getting dolled up by Heather. Shopping and chatting to people I met (I actually know people in Bulawayo now...), then dinner at the Montgomerys' with the two Russian musicians as well. Lovely evening.

That was the week in superspeed. I haven't actually watched that much Olympics as I would have likde. Really miss my Swedish commentators. Anyway, tomorrow going shopping then jamming with Sam.

Trivia 1: John has bought his ticket to Sweden and is leaving end of August. Sad, but I get why.
Trivia 2: Linda is arriving in less than two weeks!!
Trivia 3: I am getting a Sony Ericsson Xperia Go sent out to me with Linda jippie yo!
Trivia 4: Soooo tired. Just thought I hadn't written here in an age.

Night everyone!

Olympics start, term ends

Sunday, second day of Olympics. That's what it's all about right now. Three tv-channels of it, so I keep on switching. Nobody else here joins me so I get to choose exactly what to watch. Though I do miss my Swedish commentators and tv-warmups. What is so nice is that I now cheer along Sweden, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Lots of athletes and lots of competitions looove it. Yesterday I snoozed at the tv from half past six in the evening listening to the commentary of the womens' fencing and then woke up a bit more for the swimming.

Perfect end to a day of driving around the academy band and instruments, since we played at Jill's 80th birthday party for a few hours. I have never ever before improvised on the violin so much and for so long. Sometimes I sort of startled myself with "Wow, I'm not concentrating and it still works!!". The band this time was made up of a keyboard, base and the drums plus me. The party was a cheese, dip and sip so an amaaaazing buffet of cheeses, dips, crisps and snacks. Such nice cheeses as well, I really love special cheese.

Friday also had nice touches to it; visited the new bakery while it was being set up, got an extended visa (YEY!!!), some last lessons before the school holidays start, trying out a new violin for a student, watching True Blood with Heather while solving the world's problems and then a night out with great people. I can feel the term is coming to an end, which will be nice, but I will miss my gorgeous Girls' College girls.

Now I can feel my back getting into pain mode again, an all too common occurence theese days, so I better get on my feet and move around.

Happy Olympics-Watching!

Student concert ahead

This week has started of very well. On Monday Heather and I planned just about the whole trip we're going to do when Linda comes here (3 weeks and 2 days left). Great fun! We're doing Vic Falls, Hwange, Chipangali, Antelope Park, Harare, Chinoiy caves, Nyanga, Matopos and maybe Manama later on with Maria. Hopefully both Heather and John will be able to come with us around the country. Then Heather and I had another coffe (!!) and I had work, sort of not that much to do. And in the evening we ate chinese take away stuff. Yummy!

Yesterday I did two hours of filing for Maria. Brain dead work, but thought I should help a bit now in the hecticness of moving from their factory on the outskirts of town to the take away place they started leasing a few days ago. There is a lot of moving stuff about and Maria has moved her office home, so she is home most of the time nowadays. After the filing we did a bit more planning before I rushed off to have three lessons.

I am getting a bit nervous now, because on Monday we have our end of term student concert and I'm going to have nearly all of my students in it, playing Engelska från Småland. Nobody has really heard my students play yet, since I didn't have any of them in the last concert, so I really hope they will think my teaching is ok. This evening we are having a little group session so that they will have played once together before the concert anyway. Iiiih, such fun!

I spent Sunday night at Manie and Jeanette on the farm and guess what I saw when I went for a walk? Kudus! They were a bit suspicious of me, but jumped over the fence maybe hundred meters ahead of me. And then in the evening they ate just outside the garden fence. Lovely. And I saw Mongooeses (spelling?!) and Impala. Good times!

Now my lunch should be done, better eat fast so I'm not late for my first lesson today. Byeee!