Christmas 2009

My oh my, I can hardly believe it has been nearly two months since our last posting on this blog..

On the 23rd December, Ruth and I left home at 4:30am to start our drive down to Umkomaas (Place of the Whale) which is about 50km south of Durban on the east coast of South Africa. My parents have retired down there and have been there since 1993.

South African roads over the December holidays are a nightmare as hundreds of thousands of holiday makers head off from up-country to holiday next to the sea. Incidentally this Christmas holiday death rate from motor vehicle accidents was just over 1000 souls. That was for December alone!
We stopped a few times on the way down to swap drivers. Fortunately, seeing as we left home on the 23rd, so we did not experience too much traffic. After 6 1/2 hours drive, we arrived in Umkomaas. We had rented a self-catering cottage in a small guest lodge for 3 nights, seeing as we were leaving back for Johannesburg early on Boxing Day. We went straight to my Parents home to say hello. The weather was really humid and hot and we were both pouring with sweat before long, seeing as Johannesburg has very little humidity. After the visit, Ruth and I headed of to the supermarket to purchase some Christmas fare, which included a turkey. Lordy, can't remember the last time I have had turkey for Christmas, let alone sitting around the dining room table with my parents eating the said fowl!

Christmas day arrived and Ruth and I sprang out of bed in search of the elusive bag from Santa, but alas it remained elusive! Ruth did however present me with a book on African travel and a small backpack....In return, once I had the said gifts in my possession, I gave Ruth a very interesting book on facts of South Africa. Aaaah, the joys of extravagant and lavish gift giving.

We got dressed and headed for the beach which was about 1km walk down a steep hill. After walking along the beach for a while I decided to take a swim and seeing as I didn't have my swimmers on I thought I would do it in my birthday suit! Lordy, the water was being in a bathtub it was so warm........
We headed back to the guest lodge to grab a small breakfast before heading off to my parents place for Christmas lunch.

After arriving 30 minutes late and meeting the wrath of my Dad, we settled around the dining room table for a sumptuous feast of prawn cocktails ala Ruth hastily followed by turkey with all the trimmings ala Alan. Dinner was delicious, but man oh man, why do we always eat so much?

Ruth and I went for a walk down to the beach to try and help digest dinner. Weather the last few days has been a bit grey and wet. Apparently it has been like that for nearly 2 months. I suppose it is better than the UK where it is like that most of the time...

We had to leave early on Boxing Day to try and miss the traffic, so we left the guest lodge at 6:00am sharp. The drive back to Jozi Town was pretty uneventful, but at least there was hardly any traffic going our way. Traditionally, a lot of people leave Jo'Burg on Boxing Day to start their holidays on the coast, so we saw a lot of traffic going in the opposite direction.