The new year begins

01 Jan. 12


Typical beginning to the year, going to bed after eight in the morning then waking up midday with an oversized head and shaky body. Not quite remembering the entire evening before with large gaps and missed events. Lost four glasses in our quest to have the most memorable of all new years but deciding today never to do it again as with every other new years before. Hopefully the rumours floating about that 2012 is the end of the world aren’t true since I still have lots of things to do.

02 Jan. 12

My daughter and her boyfriend came back yesterday from their party in Balito in high spirits having had a more successful trip this time round. Today I am hoping to be more productive than yesterday. During the course of the day I am hoping to get all the preparations done for the installation of our solar panels. We have to fit some channels on the bimini roof, then install wires and lay one layer of fibreglass over the entire roof to give it a bit of strength. With all my kids here visiting me I am stuck between a rock and a hard place, wanting to spend as much time as possible with them and at the same time getting the boat finished.

04 Jan. 12

The time is flying so fast this year already it feels as if I am missing days, every two days feels like one. Whenever I look at the date on my cell two days have gone even though I think I checked it yesterday. The rain halted us dead in our tracks yesterday halfway through laminating the bimini top. Now this doesn’t really sound like a big deal because we can just finish it today if the sun reappears. However because we didn’t manage to finish it all in one go I will now have to grind it down to remove any high spots and the amino blush that comes with the product as opposed to just being able to complete the work. Well I suppose that is just how it goes sometimes. Normally we go to bed at about nine thirty, which someone told me is cruisers midnight, but since the kids are here we find ourselves going to bed after twelve and this morning it is finally taking its toll with me only being able to surface at eight as opposed to my normal five o clock rising time.

05 Jan. 12

Yesterday we took the day off and went to the mall with the kids to do some shopping. We lunched at milky lane on a couple of waffles and bought some movies at Musica. Then we bought groceries at Pick and Pay, tried to by cigarettes at Sha’s, but they didn’t have our brand so landed up buying one carton of another brand and headed back to the mall to fruit and veg to by meat and veggies. We landed up with two overloaded trolleys and it still amazes me every time when we get back to the boat where Lola finds place for this ton off stuff but yet magically and within minutes the cockpit is empty and it’s all gone. Last night a friend invited us over to his house for a braai which was a lot of fun but Lola got chest pains during the evening and I had to remain relatively sober in order to drive us all back. Nevertheless we still only managed to get back to the boat after twelve and it was past one before we got to sleep, again.

07 Jan. 12

Yesterday we decided to spend the day with our kids down at the foreshore playing ball swimming and rowing in our blow up canoe. Today we all look a bit like well cooked lobster but it was worth it having some time off and bonding with the kids. I am not quite sure why but both Lola and I suffer from self inflicted stress all the time. Because of this we are always pushing each other to get things done feeling that we will get fired or something if we don’t get finished quickly enough. Unexplainable and weird but perhaps a good thing.

08 Jan. 12

With a bit of help from my son Keagan, Lola and I managed to laminate the bimini top this morning. Now I have to grind down the rough spots then we can paint it and finally fit our solar panels. This is going to be exciting since it is an improvement on the boat that we planned unlike the repairs we have already done that were not planned for but rather thrust in our faces. Sadly I have only one more day to spend with my son before he flies back home and I don’t really know when I will see him again. It’s going to be a tough goodbye which I am not looking forward to and I hope I am able to cope with some of my dignity still in tact.