Last Sunday Norm and I were up and off to the airport early as I had an 11am flight to the small seaside town of George. I have a lot of anxiety when flying, so I like to leave early and be settled at the gate in plenty of time.

I sat there for an hour but that was fine with me, much better than racing and sweating and getting anxious. I chatted to the little old lady next to me (I think I mostly chattered at her, bless her). I people watched and played ‘spot the Americans’ as you can always hear them over every other voice in the airport.

Here’s one now.

Depending on the day and time, the flights to George are sometimes via a teeny, tiny plane. In the photo it looks reasonable until you count the windows and realise that is more than the number of rows. They have you queue at the gate shown above, then you board a bus. The bus then takes you out onto the tarmac where you are herded onto the plane.

The whole experience of flying scares me but the thing that I dread most is scaling that itty-bitty ladder. I am a big, clumsy woman with a laptop in my backpack and a large squishy carry-on bag with a million smaller bags contained inside, slipping around as I waddle my fat arse up the steps.

Then even though it happens every time, I forget the carry on stowage area is so low and I bang my head. I did it again this time. A lovely lady and I were in the front seats of the plane so we had to agree to being able to manage if we had to do a rescue and open the doors and guide people out etc. When the air hostess turned away I said loudly to the other lady, should we do a quick run through? And the hostess spun around like Blaire’s head in the exorcist. I just grinned and she realised I was not actually insane, just not very funny. The other lady and I had a giggle.

My son in law Josh collected me at the airport and when I arrived Amelia was napping. After she woke, my son Trevor came round to visit. He had babysat Amelia the night before and he entertained us with tales of her antics. Trevor stayed for dinner and for nostalgia’s sake we ordered chicken schnitzel from The Spur because when they were small and I lived in Knysna we would go for dinner there every weekend. Then when I moved to Johannesburg we changed the destination to Sandton City but we kept up the schnitzel tradition. It was so lovely to spend time with them all laughing over our past stories and current life.

Lily and Josh’s bedtime coincides with Amelia’s so we all went to bed by 8pm as Lily lies down with Amelia about 7ish. After Amelia was down I watched an episode of a series while lying in bed, then was out like a light from exhaustion after my day of travel and the resulting anxiety around the whole process. This became my routine each night.

Amelia gets up at 7am and some days she is bright and happy and some days she is a grumpy grouch, much like me! I am just not as cute as she is when I am grouchy.

She loves an activity and did a lot of drawing and playing with playdoh as well as riding her bike and playing outside in her pool and jumping on her trampoline. She also helped Lily make us some delicious banana and chocolate chip muffins and some banana and raisin ones.

I love seeing my family but the timing and the length of my visit is due to our renovations. Norm has stayed behind in Hout Bay to deal with the floor transformation. We converted our old terracotta floors to marble screed.

Here is the before video for context of just how different it looks afterwards.

The builders started sanding the floors on Monday as soon as they arrived. The dust it created was just horrendous.

We have booked 2 people to come and wash everything down on Monday and Norm will start cleaning as soon as he is allowed on the floors.

On the first day Norm had set up some of his camp in the outside room but did not have his bedding or any clothing, his wallet or chargers when the builder told him ‘great news, we made more progress than expected!’ the bad news was he could not walk on the floor to go up and get his bedding and personal items as he had been told he only had to move out the following day.

He had a towel and tried to take a shower, but the shower did not work. He managed to beg for a dinner at Massimo’s since we know the owner and staff so at least he did not starve. The three animals were so confused about why they could not go into their home and sleep in their beds or why there were no comfy pillows and duvets to snuggle up in.

They all survived the chaos but poor Blue the geriatric cat just cried and cried continuously out of confusion.

Finally, yesterday, it was all finished.

It has been a busy week for us but still relatively relaxed. We ordered out a few nights and Lily cooked some gorgeous meals for us some nights. As she is 6 months pregnant I did not want to add to her burden, rather to lighten it but not sure I have managed that. Either way I have loved my time with them.

It is so important to spend time with Amelia in these formative years so that we have a relationship. I love that she is so comfortable with me and we have such fun. She had a cold when I arrived which progressed over the time and by last night she was roaming around looking like she had been sniffing that luminescent radioactive slime in the Simpson’s intro. Last night we were singing a song and she kept going back and forth between Lily and I kissing us with her sticky face right on our lips then giving us a huge hug. You cannot deny that little face full of germs because it is too cute (other than the slimy bits) and you are so thankful for the love.

As a result of our kissathon, I have woken full of my own slime supply. Trevor was coming over for dinner, but he also has the slimes, so we are putting it off to tomorrow and will see how we feel. I do not want him to have to drive so far just to see me as I will see him in a few weeks for Bree’s first birthday party.

Lily and I both are working so when Amelia was home sick on Thursday and Friday, she brought her ‘computer’ to sit with us and play the tunes and poke the buttons. Did I mention that I changed my handbag last minute and forgot my earplugs? Luckily I have been disassociating all of my life.

I have a client to produce a delivery for which is great, it is pre-sales so hope it leads to something billable and longer term. It could be a very meaty data driven project. I have been attending my workshops from Lily’s kitchen. Luckily the 2nd day I figured out how to blur my background from the usual chaos of a toddler, two ADHD parents & an AuDHD grandmother. I still have a few days of meetings left, then will write those notes up and create my deliverable presentation with a goal of handover by the end of the week. Wish me luck that my cold disappears before I fly home on Tuesday as it is dreadful flying when sick. However I am so excited to see my house even though I am not excited to leave my kiddies. Hopefully some of the skirting boards will be installed as well as the new toilet. We are getting some new bits and pieces of furniture and a few rugs as ours are threadbare and trashed. I am so excited!

Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxo