Happy Old Years Eve...and a Blessed New Year!

Ok, a quickie, back in my bed tonight for a quick visit. We returned from our trip way up north, almost made it to Mozambique on our "drives" with the UK gang. They rode back with us to Queenstown, a fair piece...but we did take it over three days for their sake. My kids would be rolling over realizing that we only made the UK gang travel for about 5 hrs the first day to Clarens...a lovely ARTY community situated near the Golden Gate Park...beautiful mountains. It reminds me of an African Santa Fe, NM. Some very cool stuff....but went back to the one shop that I wanted to buy an african bowl....most cool..with porcupine needles and metal in it...and the lady never showed up to open the shop!So no bowl...had to get on the road for, a very short 3 hrs trip to Bloemfontein...( again sorry kids...for all the 12 hr travel days we put you all through) Spent the night there, then off to Queenstown.Now our friends have lived in some of the nicer parts of South Africa...mostly larger Urban areas, with shopping malls...and coffee shops...and very geared for the people who have money to spend.Queenstown is very poor, not much to do, only two actual restaurants, and some quickie Kentucky Fry, or fish places, with a Wimpy burger joint for the bulk of our entertainment dining out experiences. We have grown used to it...and actually enjoy the quiet pace of life here. But I could tell by my friends face that she was pretty surprised about all this....lack of Stuff in town. I think "my part of Africa" has taken on a whole new meaning. Our friends will stay the night with us...we will get our laundry caught up...I have just successfully dyed my hair...WITHOUT ANY BATH TUB MISHAPS~!!!!! and then we are off to Port Elizabeth, to hopefully get a little sun. Although, today it was between 13 and 18 C.... wet and cold. We all had jackets.....on, hard to believe that two days ago...it was almost (37 C) 100 here...F of course! My pal, Jayne, hadn't even brought along a sweater...so she picked one up this afternoon. Hoping to spend some more time on computer tomorrow retrieving photos. I have attached a photo we took two years ago...of golden gates park.It is a lovely place as you can see. Hope all had a lovely Old years Eve( as they call it here in SA) ....it was quite subdued for us...as we spent it at Oliver's Restaurant in White River South Africa. A very long.....4 hr..... several course dinner....all very nice....but not us at all! Followed by fireworks at midnight....but no Auld Lang syne.....a huge disappointment! Must admit....other years we have sat on Frank and Jayne's balcony overlooking the beach, watching the fireworks and had a blast....but since they have moved....we had to go POSH this year!White River is a nice place...they live on the golf course here...but no beach to look over!SHAME! We'll be in PE for a couple of days...then back to start some serious purging and packing for me! Enjoy your new year..... hope all have made realistic goals for themselves. I plan to reconnect with all old friends and family! And sew like a crazy woman.....too much fabric and way too little time! Colleen