Karma and Knysna

Do you know what the bad karmic equivalent is to petting a baby cheetah? That is, the amount of crap you have to endure to spend some time with a wolly little thing in the evil quid pro quo thing we call the universe. No? Let me tell you.

It's waking up to a man standing on your balcony using a high power water thingy to take off the plaster off your building while dirty water is seeping into your kitchen. It is phoning your estate agent to ask what the hell is going on, only to hear that your landlady is planning to sell your flat. It is finding out that your future now ivolves building works at home as well as at work. It is being faced with the choice of moving out early from the flat of your dreams due to the disruption, or staying but in a building site until my lease runs out end of May.

All this, it seems, for a few moments of bliss with two of these:


In Sweden, you can own rental contracts. Nobody can kick you out but you. Of course, there it's hard to find somewhere to live. But I'm so fed up with having to perpetually exist under the threat of landlord whims and fancies that I'm actually considering buying the place. But then I'll probably also buy a damp problem and rotting windows, my sister pointed out this morning as I fumed over my breakfast cereal completely devoid of peace and quiet.

Of course, this post was meant to be about my recent adventures, of which there have been many. There was a Catholic wedding and boy was I surprised the bride and groom didn't run out of the church as the priest started going on about how hard marriage was and how they were at the BOTTOM, not the top before going on to quote some embarrassing "erotic" passages from the bible. First and foremost, a wedding is NOT about a party. Oh well, luckily I was at the 'kool' table and there WAS wine AND a party so pffft to you, priesto!


A group of us went to see a play at the old zoo in Cape Town - you sat where the audience used to sit and watch the lions and then had dinner (a very sparse such) in the disused lion cages. Some were too tall to fit through the doors.


The day before my parents arrived last Sunday, Miracle-Gro and her flatmates held an Oscars-themed party. Since Simon is the heir of a winery it was a well lubricated event. Some took the costume thing more seriously than others. A fun game will be to play 'who are we' - so... Spot the celebs???

Linda and Luke as the main couple in a film eponymous with my character's name... Who are we? [NB both looking extremely stupid in this pic] Clue: Luke is sporting a magnificent double chin trying to look shorter than me...

Gro went all out to capture that real uppear east side flair. Who is she?

The secret is in the tache. And the chin. Also, for extra points spot Gro's fake eyeleashes. Who is Andreas?

Mr Backsberg opening a bottle of his red stuff. But who is he? The clue is on the shirt...

Sister likes it hot. Who is she?

You're allowed to make fun of dictators

Simon's girlfriend was a Valkyrie. Dunno when they won an oscar though...

My bottom in these silk trousers from the early 80s, rented from a second hand shop, must be commited to posterity - as it were. As Gro said: "Well, at least you know now what your arse will look like when you're 80..."

Then the family came.




And we went on a tour of the Garden Route... With stops in Addo Elephant park, Knysna, Outdshoorn and Montague. Very nice.

Dries, our personal safari guide. Or Gris, as we called him, which will be funny if you're swedish. Holding up a tuktuk bug

Dries looking for the elephant

Peekaboo!!!

Older bro teasing little bro

In the end we saw a lot of elephants, they all came walking past our parked jeep. And on the next day we saw giraffes and a buffalo and lots of boring antelopes... I petted the cheetah at a sanctuary where they're bred in captivity to improve the blood line.

Dad mimicking a hungry crocodile?

The best scenery, however, was in Knysna on the coast. It was the day before a tropical storm from the Indian Ocean clashed with a cold front from the Atlantic side, causing massive rains along the garden route. But when we were there, it was stunning. We spotted at least 20 hammerhead sharks in the inlet to the bay, waiting for the tide to bring fish I guess.

Mum miffed at all the signs forbidding you to do things in a Knysna national park



So I guess it hasn't been bad these past few weeks. It's just, well, I don't want it to change. But it will. Sister is leaving on Thursday, I might have to move from my beautiful flat, Gro will be off also in a few months' time. Why can't it just... Stop? For a moment. I was having such a good time.