....Hugs and Wine is the Best Thing to Do Next....

....Ahhh...I did get you back - it really is not that interesting, but it got you back here didn't it......

I wrote that saying for a couple of reasons, one, because I loved it & two, because for what happened next in our travels... - Trust me, I will not dwell on it, but it is all part of our journey so it must be told - Delia and I have been planning this adventure for years - 5 years thinking, 2 years of serious saving and in January 2009 we put "pen to paper". So with all the preparations we did prior to our departure date one would think that our adventure would be "error free", but alas, we are all human & unfortunately mistakes happen - we were just hoping not this soon and not affecting so many people. Delia and I looked over our travel itinerary millions of times - checking, re=checking - times, places and when we would be meeting family & friends along the way.....but this is what hapened. We were in contact with Julie; Delia's Aunt from Cape Town, SA (she doesn't like being called that, I think because it makes her feel old, but she is anything but - tons of energy (we had a tough time keeping up to her), beautiful and tons of fun), the day before we were talking to Julie on the telephone insisting that we were going to meet her at Cape Town International Airport on Monday Dec 7th at 9am - knowing full well that we were not leaving Toronto until Sunday Dec 6th at 9pm, with a 7 hr flight to England, a 12 hr layover in England and an 11 1/2 hr flight to Cape Town - really - what were we thinking - hmmmmm...we weren't - even though it did not make sense to us in our heads - we did not stop to make sense of it - we had just enough sanity and energy to deal with what was next - I think it was lack of sleep and the shear realm of travelling for 5 months - as much as I wanted to do an adventure like this since I was a teenager - there is a certain amount of stress that comes along with it. I am sure that you can figure out the rest - so to keep the story short, it wasn't until we were going to board the plane to Cape Town that we realized our "brain pause" moment that we were not arriving in Cape Town until Dec 8th - by this time it was too late - we called Lorna to help us out and was just able to tell heher back she had enlisted more help from Sonia, My Mom & Dad and Anita - oh my gawd - I just wanted to yell really loud so they could all hear at once just for everyone to stop, but of course everyone being concerned and having only 1/2 the information - it got worse before it got better - ahhh, the art of communication and the chaos when it breaks down. I know what you are all thinking - I hear your thoughts from here - oh I don't know, something like........GET A CEL PHONE!!! I know, I know you are all right - we might come around by the time we get back who knows =) We did eventually figure it all out, Julie was there to meet us at the airport (AGAIN), and we had the most amazing time! And to relate to the saying at the end of the last entry - What Julie, Delia and I all did - was to give each other a big fat group hug, drove home and shared tons of stories had a glass of wine (South African wine at that ...mmmmm...) and "cheered" it all away! Good friends, good wine, good times and I think that choice would have resulted in an eagle shot!