I'm home after nearly 3 weeks away on business. I need to state this right up-front (that I was on business that is) as I was asked a couple of times whilst away if I was enjoying "semi-retirement"? The first time I was asked this, I sprayed my coffee/wine/Red Bull all over the poor person who had innocently assumed I was, more due to my minor outrage that I would even be considered "semi-old" enough, let alone that my life here must be the very opposite of "semi-retirement". As my mother has pointed out (several times in fact) I now have 3 full-time jobs, which does mean, I suppose, that I must definitely still be young then.
It was a long trip. It had it's up and downs, but there were highlights. Staying at the London NYC on Election Day in New York was a good way to kick-off the trip. I had a fine time sitting in the Gordon Ramsay 'Maze' Bar people-watching whilst I nursed a glass of prosecco (I'm not good at nursing drinks). It was too cold (0C to be precise, we lost over 30 degrees in one afternoon) to go out and join the revellers in Times Square, but I was very happy to watch it on TV whilst saying "that's only a few blocks away from us".
I can never get enough of swishing through the veld on the Gautrain, which is a deeply cool way to arrive in Africa, but the trip took a bit of a nose-dive when the next day my credit card was swallowed just in time for the weekend. Since the taxis in Joburg all seem to be very smart Mercs, this was not really a hardship but it put pay to any spontaneous popping in on friends and shops. Despite all of this, I was able to enjoy 'Joburg Book Club' which sort of carried on until 2am-ish, shopping with girlfriends, a lovely lunch with my former boss and his wife and a really fantastic evening out at our old family 'local'.
The highlight of the trip was probably the five days I stayed with my 83 year old mother in Cape Town. She gamely kept up with me as we did some extreme shopping last Saturday, whilst I piled up on bakery goodies, Jedi Starfighters and yet more shoes for the boys - which is just as well as I didn't have a spare second in London. Being a Taurean, I have a set Harvey Nichols-Sloane Street-Peter Jones-Kings Road routine which I've probably done twice a year now for the past 15 years. I was a bit anxious that I couldn't stock up on our usual elderflower cordial and John Lewis Christmas crackers but I'm sure life can go on without these items, despite my need for seamless continental continuity.
I also managed to go 'off piste' and see some friends who I had reconnected with on Facebook. I caught up with my first serious boyfriend who now has a child the same age as we were then (20) and a lovely friend in London who I had not seen for 18 years. Seeing friends again is one of my greatest pleasures. I'm reading an excellent biography on Queen Alexandria at the moment and what struck me was how they all kept completely connected with each other through constant letter writing and the expansive sharing of news about the minutiae of everyday life. I like this.
The flight from Gatwick to Antigua on Virgin Atlantic was actually brilliant, as the planes have just been upgraded with remotes that look like iPhones and iPad TV's. I spent a very happy 8 hours swiping away and catching up on music, movies, reading my book, munching choc ices and relishing the last bit of time to myself before getting back to my "semi-retired" life here on Tortola.
It was hard to leave the boys behind, especially as I knew Tyler was already working flat-out with the bakery without the added demand of 3 kids, various needy animals and copious amounts of washing and other domestic stuff. Everyone managed heroically but we were all relieved to be back together again and no permanent damage appears to have been done.
We really do live in a backwater here and so I like going out into the big wide world, only to return again. I always get terribly smug when asked "which hotel" when arriving back in the Caribbean and am able to reply "I live here".
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