Thump!

The whole family spent the weekend in the Drakensberg to celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday. It was an awesome weekend, with the perfect hiking weather and enough of a mix of people that everyone had people to hang out with – the toddlers had the kids activities, the pregnant ladies had the toddlers, and the older folks had the pregnant ladies and the toddlers.

Me? I dragged my father up a mountain. And the next day I dragged him up a different mountain and made my brother come along too. It was quite odd – I spent most of my childhood holidays in the Drakensberg struggling to keep up with them as they sprinted along hiking trails, and this time I left them behind repeatedly until they organised someone to walk in front of me and slow things down. I wasn’t hurrying! i guess growing up is weird like that.

Unfortunately as much as my father and I bonded a lot, my mother and I are still really not seeing eye-to-eye. I think she struggles with her idea off what family relationships are and what she actually has – my father and I aren’t the most demonstrative people and seeing my brother and his new family who are all so close must be difficult for her. That said, she can’t hike and I refused to go all the way to the mountains to sit around, particularly when she was all difficult and snappish. I tend to respond by snapping back (I’m generally laid-back but my mother has a way of pushing buttons…)

We rushed back form the weekend away to get to my cousin’s baby-shower which was interesting. The scariest point being the number of times I was asked if I had any kids. People get offended when you aren’t flattered by the idea of having offspring floating around.

But I got thumped back to reality when I went to the salaries office today to find out why the university hasn’t paid me for teaching this year. Turns out they switched my forms with someone else’s, so my ‘salary’ has been paid to a stranger. And to make it trickier they lost all the original paperwork too. and they ‘don’t feel like going to the office’ – can’t I just call the guy and ask him to give me the money they paid him by mistake?

Can I go on holiday again please?

On the plus side, although our SA vs Ghana tickets fell through, we’re going ice-skating tonight! On the coldest day EVER! Yay!