Craig visits his Dad in SA

Basil at his 80th Birthday party in 2006

As I write this post my wonderful hubby is on his way to South Africa to visit his dad. Basil has not been very well recently, following a heart attack. We are all very worried and encouraged Craig to get over to South Africa to spend some time with him. Basil is one of the kindest people I have ever met, always keen to help out, putting other people's needs before his own without a second thought. He has been writing long, newsy letters to Craig on a regular basis for many years, often more than one a week. Usually typed on a typewriter that has seen better days, or hand written and bundled into an envelope along with interesting newspaper clippings from Craig's hometown Pietermaritzburg. I am sure that having Craig spend some quality Father/Son time will mean a lot to both of them. Taken 3 years ago on Craig's last trip to SA.Earlier in the week I drove the girls to Halifax to finalise Jemma's paperwork before she starts University in less than a month! Fees, meal plans and book lists, as well as general familiarisation all need to be sorted out before then and I am sure there will be many more trips over the next few weeks/months.
Now, although I have driven Craig to the airport and back before and done a small bit of city driving (with Craig as a passenger giving me fierce instructions!) I have never been a great fan driving in unfamiliar surroundings, so I had a tummy full of butterflies before leaving on Wednesday morning. As Jemma quite rightly pointed out, she's the one leaving home and has reason to be nervous, not me!!
Anyway I managed to stay surprisingly calm, even though we did miss just one turn off, we ended up taking a different route than planned, luckily there was a map on hand and Jemma is a pretty nifty map reader as it turns out :)It must have been the relief of finally getting to St. Mary's campus that led to Amber and I having a mild case of the 'Giggling Gerties' while we ate our packed lunch and waited patiently for Jemma to do her stuff. Amber had brought her camera along and took a few snaps as we sat under the trees on the campus grounds. There were quite a few students milling around, much to Jemma's delight many were Japanese and Korean. She will be studying Japanese in her first year at St. Mary's. The Loyola block in the background, Jemma will be living on the 9th floor

Heading home (via the shopping centre of course) we were soon back on the motorway again. Switching back to a manual drive after my automatic car was fine and my fear of stalling at a traffic light in the middle of the City turned out to be unfounded after all :) I suppose using a stick shift, as it is referred to here, is a bit like riding a bicycle, in fact I find it stranger going back to my automatic when I have borrowed Craig's car and find myself wafting my hand around wanting to change gears!
The running around since then to soccer matches, doctors appointments and other local trips, as well as fitting in all the little extra jobs Craig does on the property has meant that my days are going by really fast. I needed to make time to catch up on my computer by taking a little down time over a cup of coffee this evening.
Hazel x