So, this needs a bit of an update. The bit below is past tense. That was me a while ago and also the reason why I started blogging – to maintain some form of sanity in my life.
More recently I have decided to kick the farm life out on its butt and return to the Gauteng Province of South Africa to start all over again. At 36, and having been out the job market for six years, this is not a course of action for the faint hearted. I’m beginning to suspect I am faint hearted.
Basically, from here on in, this blog will probably document process of picking up the pieces. As for about me, I’m probably the same person I described down below.
People in my life…
I will update this as I go along but you can keep an eye out for Teddy Bear, The Highlander and of course, The Odd Couple will be ever present.
The Old Katt Info…
How do I tell you about me? Should I steal Isak Dinesen’s opening words, fudge the truth a bit and say “I had a farm in Africa?” Or should I plagiarise the words of SA’s famous Oscar winning actress who fudged the truth a lot and said “I come from a farm in Africa?”
Well, I do live on a farm. It just isn’t mine. This farm is in Africa, South Africa to be specific. To be even more specific, we’re close to the coast of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
I’m a city girl who thought farm life would be wonderful and decided to try it out. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be!
There are a few creatures in my life that make my life worthwhile or miserable, depending on their mood and the weather. In no order of preference:
Creature 1: Flyboy
My aviation obsessed significant other who makes me laugh, makes me cry and manages to pull me back from the brink of murdering him with alarming regularity. Like any other partnership, we have our ups and downs but mostly we have our moments. The fact that there are no bodies buried at the bottom of the garden is a miracle as we both suffer the frustrations of the tedium of rural life.
Creature 2: Houndus Maximus
A four-legged chocolate dog, full of love, mischief and wisdom. If he was human I would marry him if he would have me (Sorry, Flyboy).
Creature 3: Hades Cat
A 16 old feline of the tabby variety. She has been with me for 16 years, has travelled with me from one side of the country to the other, been my friend, companion, muse and sympathetic ear. It is because of this that I feel I owe it to her to put up with her senility, arthritis, getting stuck in the carpet and sleeping on top of me every night.
Creature 4: Ciller Cat
A recent, 1 year old feline addition to the menagerie that has terrorised all creatures living indoors and out. We still haven’t decided whether we like her or not but she does provide vast quantities of entertainment and disembowelled offerings.
Creature(s) 5: The Odd Couple
This is the euphemistic name my brother has given to the collective that is our parents. Maw and Paw are old and odd, providing much tears, laughter and incredulous head shaking.
At the time of writing this I am 35 years old and speeding towards 36. I have never been married and have no kids although I do get to suffer the joys and miseries of being a Holiday Mommy to Flyboy’s children, the product of his brush with marriage. As a result of playing Holiday Mommy, I suspect my mythological biological clock broke as I suffer from no inexplicable urges to produce offspring.
I wish I could tell you I have hobbies but Flyboy’s hobby (gliding/soaring) tends to eat all the time available for mine or anything else. Perhaps it would be safer to say I have interests.
I am interested in photography.
I love nature and the outdoors, hence my interest in birding.
I am also interested in gardening but sadly I seem to kill more plants than actually grow them.
I love travelling although opportunity and finances don’t always allow for much of this. This could be the reason why I am trying to cheat a bit and get my tourist guiding accreditation. That way I would get to travel and get paid for it.
I don’t do jams, preserves and pickles. I don’t do candle wicking or quilting. But I can knit, quite well actually. Oh, I am learning to play guitar, badly.
Personally I think I have a sense of humour. You have to have one on “a farm in Africa” because often it is your only defence against insanity.
I have a knack for inadvertently getting myself into sticky, often unpleasant situations.
I love my country although I often wonder why. I like being African.
I literally have too much time on my hands and my mind never stops.
Although I don’t think I do it very well, I love writing, hence this blog.
