Well, I’ve finally made it back to Mozambique, my return to the farm is imminent! Can’t wait to see my dog again! It’s been long few days, firstly, my flight from Sydney to Joburg was two hours late, causing me to miss the last bus to Nelspruit that evening. So after being awake for more than 24hours I wasn’t impressed to have to bugger around and find a place to stay overnight. After a bit of fuffing around I was able to locate and make my way to some accommodation that didn’t cost a fortune. Upon arriving I tried to organise my shuttle to Nelspruit the next morning only to find that the shuttles were all booked until the afternoon. Amazing how missing one bus by half an hour can put you back a whole day! Nuts!
The trip upto Nelspruit was pretty uneventful and I checked into my usual backpackers, happy to have a few beers with friends I’ve not seen for a few months. How time flies, they thought I’d been gone for only a month, when in fact I’d been gone for more than 3! Thursday was spent organising my Moz visa and shopping whilst I waited. Once again managed to get myself a 6 month visa, of course with the bugger of having to leave the country every 30 days. Geez I hate that. Jumped on they bus to come through to Maputo on Friday lunchtime, again reasonably uneventful until after the border where the bus had a blow out. Bugger! Fearing that we could be trapped by the side of the road for hours, and that infact I’d never get to Maputo to meet Christen, I was able to jump off the bus and get on another bus, all with in 5 mins! Good work!
I arrived in Maputo last night only a few hours late, and met up with Christen. We’ve not seen each other for over two years since her, Jimmy, Maryann and I travelled Sth Africa and Zambia together in early 2006. Bloody long time but nothing much has changed, still the eating, drinking and funny times! She’s here working for an NGO for six months as part of her Masters… Nerd! I hear you shouting, yes I would agree!
I’ll be returning to the farm tomorrow, only I’ve the slight problem that I’m unable to get a hold of Charles atm. His phone has been off since I got into Mozambique yesterday. Oh well, I’m sure, as usual, that problem will sort itself out. This will most likely be my last post for a while, as you know, back on the farm there is no such magical thing as ‘internet’. Not sure when I’ll be online again, so, see ya!
I know, I know, I can’t believe it myself. Yes, I’ve finally built a photo section onto www.gregdick.com/photos, it can also be accessed from the menu ‘Photos’ on the top right of this page. It’s only taken me years to do, however, I’m quite proud of my efforts this time around. I’ve posted a bunch of photos up there and there will be more to come from my adventures. Enjoy looking at ‘em ‘cos I sure enjoy taking ‘em.
G.
Well let me start by saying sorry for not posting for so long. Given that I’ve been back in Australia since the start of April this really is not cool. Most, well some? of you may have noticed that my blog was down for a while due to hosting issues (different issues to those which saw gregdick.com as a porn site for a while after I forgot to renew my domain name!!). My old hosting expired and I wasn’t too quick at getting the new one up and running. However, with many thanks to my ‘cuz Lachlan, I’ve now got hosting for my site.
Many things have happened since my last stories of a serial killer pig and attacking bees. It’s been an intersting time to say the least since my last post. I returned to this fair land on 3 April this year and managed to spend a grouse 4 days in Sydney with my brother and his wife, playing golf, drinking beer and generally trying to get over the massive culture-shock I suffer when ever I return to Australia! It does take a while to get used to not being in the minority again, to the huge range of products available at the supermarket (which is 5 mins down the road!) and to being able to eat something without having to kill it first! Luxury! Suffice to say a great time was had by all, by which I mean me, in Sydney.
My return to Melbourne however, was not so great… Long story short, I arrived to the news that my Dad was leaving and my folks are getting divorced. Welcome home Greg! For just about everyone, myself included, this came as a huge surprise and somewhat of a shock. Like all couples who’ve been married for forty years things have their ups and downs, and things had been down for a while but I guess like most kids you don’t really expect your parents to divorce, it seems to be something that happens to other people. Yet anther lesson in the real world for me to learn. Crap. Suffice to say it’s been a tough time since then trying to sort out not only the emotional complications for everyone involved in a break up, but the logistical complications as well. In the two and a half months since this happened things have settled down to a dull roar, with all parties having regained (most of) their composure and things are now in the process of being sorted amicably… well, it’d better be or I’m bloody well bringing my elephant gun back at Christmas.
The reason for my return was to attend my cousin’s wedding in May. Who gets married in May in Melbourne you ask?? Well, Jen and Steve do. Yes, even though it wasn’t offically Winter yet, they took the plunge then, funnily enough, so did the weather! Argh! The location was a lovely little winery up in the Yarra Valley. It didn’t rain all the week before, or the week after, but we all awoke on Saturday to the sound of rain, heavy rain, on our roofs. Bugger. Did I mention that it was also a little cold? Bloody freezing I would have said! But what do I know, I live in bloody Mozambique! The bride was resplendant in the cream, the bone, the white, the off white, the ivory or the beige, I couldn’t tell! I was far too busy admiring her wonderful blue sholders in her strapless gown. It was a classic, deep shade of blue emanating down from her shoulders the entire length of her arms, wonderfully setting off the bright crispness of the dress! I guess the adrenaline somehow kept her teeth from chattering!
Thankfully this was one of those fully self contained weddings where the post wedding/pre reception drinks were about fifty metres from the chapel, which in turn, was about fifty metres from the reception. At least that part was well thought out!! More to the point there were bloody great heaters along with the drinks. Good times! The lunchtime reception was heartily and enthusiastically enjoyed by all, being at a winery sure helped! I had the pleasure of sitting next to Dad’s best mate, who just happens to have owned a winery, needless to say we really enjoyed ourselves and made the most of not only our location, but the fact that neither of us were driving. The younger ones kicked on later in the evening with a great pub dinner in town. The old people went home and collapsed. I’m still young!
It was not my intention to stay this long at home, however, for obvious reasons I extended my stay a little while. The time is now upon us when I must once again leave for the dark continent. Wednesday the ninth is the day. Funnily enough, and I didn’t realise this until after I’d changed my tix, the ninth of July 2005 is the day I left for my adventure. Three years to the day and I’m once again departing! So, to all the girls I’ve loved before, and those I’m yet to love, don’t worry my darlings, I’ll be back for Christmas… that’s better, I see smiles already!