Whoops

Hello, all! Sorry about the lapse. I spent a surprisingly social long weekend in Maun and when I got back - lo and behold - it was the final week in the office! Believe me, it is a MISTAKE to take a quasi-holiday the weekend before your real holiday - this week has been moving at a snail's pace, and I dread to tell you the number of Very Important End-of-Year Meetings that I've just about dozed off in. I have discovered, however, that sitting in the lotus position is a good antidote to drowsiness... The awkward pain in your ankles prevents you from falling asleep. The good thing is that Africa is informal enough that you can sit in the lotus position while in a Very Important End-of-Year Meeting, thus allowing me to discover this delightful trick (sadly inapplicable in most other parts of the world).

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is that I'm hiding out in the office as the Komku Farewell Braai is prepared - we've spent all day like a big dysfunctional family, chopping vegetables in the office and making endless batches of chakalaka, rubbing spices into huge bowls of meat, including an enormous spiral of sausage that looks bizarre and disgusting, but tastes delicious. S and I introduced the office to feta cheese and parsley. Bonus! We have balloons (only pink and yellow, because there were no other colours), four tinsel-and-bow Christmas garlands (because that's all the store had), and one string of Christmas lights (which I paid for, and will take back to my house later. If they don't get broken.) All in all, it's set to be a good night.

Tomorrow I go to Maun to sort out some visa things, and on Sunday I fly to South Africa - first to Jo'burg, then to Cape Town, where I will spend approximately three weeks in the company of a wonderful family I met while I was in India. In fact, we spent last Christmas/New Year's together, on the Andaman Islands. I should have written about that, but I think my India blogging petered out long before Christmas. Anyhow, I'm delighted to be spending time with them again, and I can't wait to see South Africa! I plan to write a longer summary-type entry while I'm in Maun, but the best-laid plans of mice and men... So this is the hasty stop-gap to reassure you that I'm still alive, and if I don't post for awhile, it's because I'm on a beach in South Africa. TAKE THAT, MY SNOWBOUND FRIENDS.

Lots of love to all! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and really, I DO plan to update again in a couple of days....