Moving to Toti

Well we arrived Friday 28th at 18h30 after a long day of travel with the singing cats. But the trip went well. Tiger was the first to escape his cat box - about 2.2 minutes into the trip, "in-car-ceration" was not on his bucket list and besides  a  room without a view is not something that a discerning cat would order now is it.

He was promptly  placed back where his humans wanted him - not without objection and the handlers have the scratch marks to prove it - a bit of duck tape over the door to add insult to injury and we were off.

Chris Tomlin  was  joined by the "Tom Cats " as additional backup, as Michelle piloted the zoo towards  Standerton and listened to the cat choir  version of her favourite "road tunes."

Vocal chorus was not the only contribution and soon the cats put up a real stink over the indignity of being removed from their hunting grounds of Pannevis street, and soon Michelle and Noah had natures air con as open windows  whistled fresh air in to add to music the ambiance of a convertible - all Michelle needed now was the scarf blowing in the wind and a set of pilot goggles.

With great tenacity se soldiered on - while I on the other hand sat in the luxury of aircon and  that new car smell which still lingered, but was  lost  somewhere  in the free state I believe as our 12 day old car hit 2500km.

After a good lunch of Wimpy burgers and a rest at Harrismith which was a sea of activity of arriving and returning tourists either clogging or honking there way down the roadway - we set off on the final leg of our destination.

Thomas and Fluffy Bean soon rearranged the seating plan again and joined Kisha on the back seat, Thomas looking more like an  harassed African wildcat than a domestic  kitty.

Without too much additional drama besides the Gautengers not knowing how to drive at 80 Km and hour down the pass - we reached our new home at sun set - to discover that  it is not the sun that provides  the earths heat - for even in its absence it was  sweltering . Having no furniture and thus no where to sit in our new house we headed for the beach and our first swim and at east there are soft spots to sit in the cool (just below 30⁰Celcius) of  the evening.

 Back home in the evening we had our first encounter with Natal household wildlife. Having been born in Durban I was not taken aback by the creature that shocked the family by its shear size  - unlike Bill Cosby's old roach just trying to make it across the floor, this one was agile and darted too and fro inspecting our apparel like a sniffer dog at the airport.

Day two saw us up before the dawn as it was just too hot to seep    spent a lot of the day on the beach shedding the Secunda  out of us through sweet and copious amounts of sea water washing the inland life  out of us and preparing us for the status of beach B...- "is it boys and girls or something else)?

Sunday Morning I decided to sneak into the back of St Mary's and enjoy the service,   we went un noticed by most except those that we had previously met at a fellowship evening in October.  The poor women who sat in the same pew as us was of course very surprised to be welcomed as the new Rectors Wife - having  seen Michelle once, the mere fact that she was near me was enough to set some people off in cheerful and well meant salutations of welcome.

Having resolved that I chatted to those there and the poor Lay Minister who had know idea that I was in the congregation, was most relieved that the service had gone off well. She preached a great sermon on the need for maturity, using the Gospel reading where Jesus stayed in Jerusalem while his parent's  traveled on and when they found he was not with them they returned to Jerusalem to find him in the temple. Great use of the text and personal touch -She did well.

The truck arrived at around ten thirty and in the sweltering heat we unpacked all our things which seemed to overflow the house with Manning:  by evening we had secured a place to sit and a bed to sleep in which was most welcome.  

A thoughtful and kind parishioner provided a cooked chicken and some buns which is just what we needed to provide sustenance for the task ahead, and a kitchen made inoperable by boxes with three miles of paper wrapping up each and every small glass bowl which soon filled the kitchen like one of those kids play boxes full of balls or a balloon or foam party where you wade through  the objects in search of something - in our case the kitchen cupboards  and our menagerie of pots and pans and plates cups and sources.

Looking more like home we retired to bed to try and sleep despite feeling damp and sticky, tired but content, we are here.