Sunday 25th May 2008

Landing at Heathrow, we could have been in JHB, nothing different at all and I soon realized that a city is a city wherever you go. Again, Steve and Tanya came to the rescue and made sure that this very pregnant, stressed and sleep deprived mother made her way all the way to immigration control and beyond, where they handed us over to Simon and then headed off to catch their connecting flight to New Castle where they live.

It was wonderful to see Simon again, and the kids excitement levels escalated about 400 notches, much to the horror of this very pregnant, stressed and sleep deprived mother…but we made it all the way to the car park without incident and were introduced to Madge our large, “sleek and powerful” Toyota Previa 2.3l automatic 7 seater car…and let me tell you it was love at first sight, she is old and worn and has seen many miles, but she is very comfortable and the kids have loads and loads of space.


The trip home wasn’t nearly as long as I had expected, probably because Phillip and I were both fast asleep, but Megs thoroughly enjoyed taking in all the sights and I was woken by her sighs and shrieks of pure ecstasy as we got closer to home and the countryside opened up around us…I have to admit I have never seen anything quite so green and beautiful. Once we reached the town of Haywards Heath, I started to fall in love immediately and it only got better as we entered the village of Lindfield, below are a couple of photos of my favorite parts of town.


The weather cleared beautifully in the afternoon and England showed us her best, we went down to the local Sainsbury to do some shopping which is where I had my first melt down – a chicken for R140, simply couldn’t put it in the basket and then started to have a panic attack about how I was going to feed my children and how we were ever going to afford to live in this country (hamster breathing, deep swallowing, sweat breaking out, you know the feeling), but my dh came to the rescue and made me stand in a corner with the children while he carried on shopping, he then ploughed me with chocolate (good man) made me breath deeply and I survived.

Bedtime was a bit of a challenge as the sun only sets at around 21h15 here at the moment, so the kids felt like they were bathing and going to bed in the middle of the afternoon – feels about 15h00 here when it is in fact 20h00, but they were asleep before their heads hit the pillow. Fortunately their room has black out curtains on the windows so it is at least dark in there.