Chocolate on wheels

Sitting in bed, ready to sleep after having watched the movie Chocolat and eaten a few squares of Cadbury's chocolate mousse bar. Heaven. The chocolate I got from Jeanette today, when she came back from South-Africa. I had earned it by being her today; taking all her classes in the morning and then all her piano lessons in the afternoon. The piano lessons were such fun, I think I might change and become a piano teacher instead! The kids were gorgeous and it was so much easier than teaching violin. Ten times easier, even though I'm only on book two and all the kids I had today were ahead of me. Don't get me wrong; I love teaching the violin as well, but then I need to help so much more, since they're nearly all beginners and some can hardly hold the bow. And today was just different, a fun break.

Tonight I also gave back Jeanette her car. She lent it to me on Friday, since they were going down south and it would help me. Typically on Sunday they then dug up our driveway because of a water leak and I couldn't use it anyway... But I did use it today and I loved it. Last Thursday was the first time I drove in nearly ten weeks. Weird not to have driven for so long. The only thing I noticed after such a long time off the road was that I drove too much on the left side again, just like when I started driving on the left side when I came here. I sort of drift over to the left very easily. But after only one or two turns in the car I'm fine again.

I'm hoping to find a car I can rent from someone I know, because I am going mad having to ask people for lifts all the time and being dependent on them. I want to be able to move around the place not burdening anyone else. But we'll see how it goes, you never know how things will turn out here. Until then I have my taxi Jeanette, who I pay with Sibelius helping and things I bake.

But now my eyelids are drooping too much. I will post this in the morning when I get internet. So in that case: Good Morning to you all, have a nice tomorrow!

Skiing times are on their way

I have now asked dad to register me for the 2013 90 km cross country ski race Öppet Spår. Yep yep. (Pepp!)

This means that I will have to say goodbye to the somewhat laid-back lifestyle that I have accuired since April. Watching a lot of tv, lying in bed forever and sitting down too much. So, on Sunday I made a plan for fitness and snared in Maria into it. She now has to ask every evening if I did my morning walk. If I didn't she won't buy me yoghurt when she goes shopping on Saturdays. I started on Monday with quite a short walk, but for every second week I will add another block to the walk and in a few months it will be very long and I will have to run at least parts of it to be able to get around before work starts. We just have to hope that my shins will be fine with this.

I have always had a trouble with motivation when it comes to these kind of things and wondered what would actually be needed for me to to it. It seems like I have found the one way to make me get out of my warm bed before eight o' clock, put on my shoes and get out of the house without giving up half way and going back to bed again; the fear of missing out on one kg of yoghurt (which has to last as long as possible since I only get one a week). And it works because Maria does the shopping and will not buy it if I haven't done my walking.

I must say though, it took me more than one hour of snoozing on Wednesday before I realised the danger I was putting myself in by not getting up (one week of yoghurtlessness). But of course I do love it once I've gotten outside the gate. Seeing the dust swirl in the morningish sun and feeling my pulse quicken. Sometimes it actually feels like a Swedish spring day, the sort of cold weather, but warm sun. Gorgeous.

Right, time for orchestra, so I better start unfolding the music stands. How hard can it be to unfold a music stand correctly when we've even had a short lesson about how to do it?!? Haha, anyway. Bye for now!

Ps. Happy Birthday Mum!!

Fruit salad

Friday and I am soon going home, having been at Girls’ College all day. If I’m not whisked off by Jeanette to a music department thingy at Petra High School where GC’s Marimba band is playing. It is quite probable that I might be. 

This week has past in a flash. I nowadays have the mornings completely free, all to myself, which for me is heaven. Anybody who has seen me in the really early hours of the day knows that at that stage I am not to be talked to, hardly even looked at. It is so nice not being tired all day because I got up too early for my body and brain. I get home late instead, which is fine with me, because then the evenings become relaxing. Ever since the festival finished I have just taken it easy at home. Recuperating. I found Harry Potter books (all except number 6 and 7), which is very relaxing reading. Add first one movie and then two oranges from the garden and you have a summary of my evening after dinner.

We have so many oranges now Joe keeps on nagging me to eat more and more. I am certainly not complaining. And they have even more trees at work, so Maria has planned on making lemon curd and marmalade tomorrow. I’ll probably end up helping her, if I don’t go to the bendover with Thembi, our office lady. Plus I noticed a basket of grenadillas/passionfruits on the kitchen table the other day, so add that to my fruit eating mission and I’m quite happy. Yesterday Maria and I were out in the garden picking garlic chives (gräslök med vitlökssmak) for our home made cream cheese and she pointed to the paw-paw tree in the garden, which was full of big, and still growing, paw-paws. I can’t wait for them to get ripe. Mmmm…

Right, time to go. I am apparently/obviously coming with to this music department thingy, so better get going.  

I hope you’re all well and have a lovely weekend!

Hugs from the south

The twentysecond weekend

Hey everyone, I hope your weekend was lovely, because mine definitely was. First Friday dinner with the performers remaining and their hosts, which was really great fun. Despite my age, which was mocked quite a bit. I got to sit at the fun table, with Jeanette and Marnie, the Academy's musical director Rose and her husband, the conductor from SA, Piet Mullman, the guitarist Morgan Szymanski from Mexico/London and his host Allan. We laughed a lot, ate gorgeous food (at 26th on Park), had good conversations and actually didn't freeze too bad. I nowadays wear my longjohns nearly every day which helps. Then I went out to see some friends I hadn't seen for over a month, but the maturity level dropped a bit too fast for me to think it was as good as the marvelous dinner.

Saturday was spent with Jane Austens best book (you better know which one it is) and then I made chokladbollar. Mmmm! (Sugarfilled cocoa balls sort of.) Maria and I proceeded to play cardgames and watch a romcom.

Sunday I went with Jeanette and Marnie to a farm outside Figtree to meet other farmers and families for a braii. We made fruit salad with perfectly ripe paw-paw/papaya in it (Mum, how on earth do you spell paw-paw?). It also had strawberries in it, which made me think of the Swedish midsommer quickly approaching. On the way back to Jeanette and Marnie's farm we took a road that used to be very good, but not any longer. It was very ... skumpig. Anyway, we watched a bit of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee thingy on the Thames and went to bed. But not before we walked outside to see the Kudu that was grazing just next to the house. I then fell asleep on an electrical blanket and woke at the absolutely ghastly hour of 05:40 to get into town in time. Can you imagine me being even remotely alive at that time of day??

So. I hope you had just as nice a weekend and are ready for another week of work and school. I have loaded nellieinafrica.tumblr.com with pictures, so you're welcome to check it. Now I better photocopy some music for this evening's little string group here at the Academy, before zesa goes.

Hej svej leverpastej!

Hej svenskar

Jag har tro det eller ej lite smått hemlängtan igår och idag.

The festival is over. Done. Finito. It has definitely been the most hectic week sincce I got here. Eesh. We were all worked to the bone, but it was fun as well. Great socialising, amazing musicians and artists, lovely wine and a lot of music. Friday was my only day without a performance, from Tuesday to Sunday. I would like to tell you all, but at the moment that isn't the best idea. Things are a bit ... touchy right now at the academy. There was quite a bit of unwanted drama and attention around one person. Still is mind you. But anyway there was the amazing concert with the 500 kids, a fully packed hall for Carmina Burana (people were sitting in the aisles), 500 people watching the pop concert and the final orchestral concert. Richard had written hilarious verses that were read out in between the different animals in the Carnival of the animals by Saint-Saëns. The one that had me in stitches especially was the tortoise, who finished off with the line (read very slowly) "As a tortoise I don't want to be a winger, but at least a turtle gets to be a ninja..." !!!! Haha, I laughed so hard.

So. Now I am so glad the festival is over. At last I can sleep and sit down in the middle of the day and do nothing for an hour. Wednesday I was away from home for 17 hours, and Sunday I was home two o'clock... That's the sort of beating all of us have taken. But still, it was amazing having the proffessional musicians here. Mesmerising listening to them play. And they were all so friendly and nice. They have now gone to the falls and Hwange for a few days, the lucky fishes. I have booked this weekend at Jeanette's farm, to get away from town and relax a bit after all the stress. And this time I am pulling Maria with me. We both need it.

Winter is really getting going here now. Yuck it's cold. I know I've lived through much much worse, but then all the houses were heated. Here it's colder being inside than outside, unless there's a wind. And I definitely don't have enough winter clothes (should have listened more to mum when I was packing...) so I freeze. But we're on a mission now to find more jerseys for me. Soon maybe I'll even start using my knitted gloves and winter jacket. I think I have my mother's blood. I have never before slept with socks on, not even when it was minus thirty. Who would have thought I would when I was in Africa?

Right, I shouldn't write too much. We're back to everyday life now, so I should be able to write more often than I have the last two months. Bye bye!

Bulawayo Music Festival week coming up

I am busy and sick. And extremely busy. And trying not to give my sickness to anybody else. So I uploaded pictures in stead for the next week to come. When it's the festival and I'm up to my ears in The Song of the Carnivores (500 kids), Carmina Burana (I play percussion), pop music for a Pop concert (I did all the music for it on Sibelius... probably close to 24 h of work), Mozart, Saint-Saëns etc. So. Have a look on my tumblr. Things will be happening there at least. Bye for now!

Harare

I am alive! Sorry for so few updates, I'm pretty sure it's going to get a lot better as soon as I just start working again. Except I am going to be so busy for the festival now that I might not write as much as I think. Anyway. A week ago, on Friday afternoon, John and Heather (girlfriend), invited me to come with them and another friend on a weekend trip to Harare in ... 40 minutes! I obviously said yes and spent two nights in Norton, just outside Harare. After a long Friday night we watched Winks play rugby and unfortunately lose quite badly, but it was a nice day anyway. Had a quick pop into a big market, which I definitely will be visiting again, with a bunch of money... After another long night out we drove home Sunday afternoon and got back after dark, which isn't optimal.

A funny, but creepy incident on the way there was when we slowed down at a railway crossing out in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly Heather, who is driving, screams that there is somebody running behind the car. I am sitting in the back seat (of course, when does the smallest person ever get to sit in the front??) and as I look back I see a black guy in a white hoodie running behind the car, grabbing at the back of the car. His face less than two meters from mine. Heather hoots and accelerates away, and the guy disappears. Obviously he had been waiting for somebody to slow down like we did, so that he could grab stuff from the boot. The guys then discussed what they would do if the same guy tried it again on the way back...

Now it is time to pack up and wait for John to pick me up and take me home. So irritating not to have a car and driver's licence, but that's one of the things on my to-do-list. Right, have to go, bybye!!