Living their lives away

So I packed up and raced home on Thursday night, driving through several storms and stopping only to pick up cinnamon cola for the folks back home and a wedding present for the wedding on Saturday. It was quite fun actually, I didn’t warn anyone of my coming home a day early (there was one mega storm on its way and I didn’t want to get trapped there) and my mother got the fright of her life! The only downside (besides realising how bad this place smells) was all the construction that’s happened sine I left – the highway interchanges have all changed so I ended up taking a detour through Bedfordview, then to Midrand, then Kyalami, then Sunninghill while cringing at the fact that despite all the street-lamps and buildings that make this place so bright at night, people still have to blind me by driving with their brights on.

It was quite fortunate that I got back early, I got to go to donut-day, as well as our department’s end-of-year function where everyone made a huge fuss of me and I wanted to curl up and hide under a chair… I also had car trouble so at least there was time to sort it out pre-wedding+work+social Saturday and I was able to spend a couple of hours with La and CG and organise a proper Saturday evening.

Saturday was insane! I finished late at work (eventually just leaving the vet with the last client) changed in record time and just made it to the wedding which was really really stunning! I mean I got to see that side of the family for the first time in ages, I got a shiny new cousin who was looking so gorgeous AND they gave me bubble-mix! What a perfect wedding!

From there we planned for goth-clubbing but fate gave me a minor klap and instead I wound up as the only English girl at a sokkie club with several people trying their best to teach me to langarm, wile I had other friends calling me repeatedly from the goth club (about a kilometre down the road) to tell me how awesome it was. Did I mention that being all gothed-up at a sokkie club is not the most comfortable situation? Unfortunately La and CG had the time of their lives and refused to elave until it was too late and they didn’t want to go through to our original destination and as I wasn’t driving I had to be OK with it.

I have nothing against them having a good time, it was awesome to see CG smiling so much for once, and I felt really selfish for feeling so unhappy. I think it was just that after being considered to be totally crazy for the last couple for months I wanted to go somewhere where I’m considered to be vaguely normal. Being the only English girl (dressed in black) at the sokkie club, particularly following being so singled out everywhere else over the previous 36 hours made me very miserable. Particularly when they seemed to be enjoying my Englishness so much that they either laughed at my attempts to speak to them in Afrikaans or else refused to let me try.

It’s nice to be home though, bad smells and traffic notwithstanding! My hair straightener and I had a very emotional reunion, I nearly died at gym (lowveld to highveld altitude shift + a week of sitting around = I’m going to die at tai chi tomorrow) , I had too much coffee in the lab this morning while discussing stats and experimental design and was reduced to a gibbering wreck on my way to work this afternoon. So basically once Leia gets back from diving tomorrow it’ll all be right back to normal!

And it’s the Killers concert on Friday!