What a night ! (2 soggie doggies)

So John has gone to Cape Town and I'm left all alone with Sid and George. Great, I think. Big plans for a girls Friday night with Daniele... drinking champagne ... playing on the Wii Fit. Much as we love our men it's great to be home without them!

It's a (very) long weekend in Botswana. Tuesday and Wednesday are public holidays to celebrate Independence. The actual day is Tuesday 30th but the day after is given off as well because no-one shows at work the next day anyway. And this year ... Monday, well ...?? And it's been a very heavy week. The project is frantic now as it is the end of our last quarter and we are trying to get everything done that we said we would and write the quarterly report. So I was really glad to slip away early on Friday afternoon and start THE BIG PLAN. The idea was to go for a massage and relexology treatment at our lovely local spa ... have fun with Daniele on Friday night and then spend the next 5 days getting stuck into my research, doing my sewing/crafts and having a detox. You know, no tea, no champagne, only water and juice and raw fruit and veg. Even some weights and aerobics. And then have some more me time ... get my nails done, have a pedicure and facial etc etc.

The first bit worked ok - got home from the spa, all cool, calm and collected, only to find that the house is FULL of flies (at least 40) and the gardener - who acts as our guard when John is away, decides he too, is having a holiday. This, despite a long talk with him with John before he left when he promised that he would look after 'Madam' and would stay over every weekend to look out for the tsotsis! I was just reeling from that, logging in to email to check on job applications and searching for the Doom (fly spray) when the electricity went out. This is a fairly regular occurance here - but I couldn't face putting on the generator as it is so noisy and smelly. I sat in the dark chatting to Dan for quite a while and then the heat really got to me - no fans in 38 degrees (at 6.30pm!) when there is not even a breeze ... is not a breeze if you see what I mean. Power finally came back after 3 hours!

Then the gardener/guard decides to pitch. Long story short, he lied to me about why he didn't come to work (this is the second day running) and I just lost it ... and sacked him. Bit rash?? probably ... but he's become increasingly unreliable and is really no use to me whatsoever. Last time John was away and he was supposed to stay over he went missing for 5 days!

So now I'm really all on my own. Dan & Tom have gone camping in the desert with most of our other friends and nearly everyone I know is away for the holidays. I could have gone with them but I don't like trips like that without John and I'm not sure I'd last that long with a big group of people (about 14). I checked that the neighbours are home so at least there's someone there if I need them. Sid and George and I have just been for a swim in the pool. The electric beams are on around the outside of the property and it sounds like the party has just started across the river bed ... I think I'm in for a long night.

But still looking forward to some me time ... got all my decoupage stuff out and plan to make some leaving presents for the girls because it looks like we will be departing Botswana in December - but I'll save that for another story.

In my tree ...

I'm adding a new feature to the blog - which might only interest the birders amongst you (mum, mike, alan) I've been running it as an email from time to time but maybe other people might be interested.


Outside my study window (where I spend most weekends) there is a tree with yellow flowers and huge bright green seed pods. There is a security light next to it which attracts the bugs. On the other side I have hung a bird table where we put fruit and nuts. Consequently we get a huge variety of seed, bug and fruit-eating birds (and squirrels and bush babies). John wanted to cut the tree down when we arived because it was partly covering the security light - I'm so pleased I persuaded him not to.
Anyway this little feature will give a running commentary of the birds I see in my tree.


In my tree today there is ...

• a crested barbet (see pic)
• a fork tailed drongo
• 4 blue waxbills
• a masked weaver
• 6 arrow marked babblers (VERY noisy)
• a Senegal coucal (my favourite)
• 2 boubous
• a brown headed kingfisher

I hope you like hearing about the activity in my tree ... it provides endless entertainment for me (when I'm supposed to be studying!)

Our House

Several people have asked about where we are living - so I thought I'd put up before and after photos - at least of the garden. We rent a small house on a large plot on the northern edge of Francistown. It's got 3 bedrooms, living/dining room with a big bar, massive kitchen, a strange, wide hall and a nice guest cottage. We are about 50kms from the Zimbabwe border in northern Botswana - which brings certain security problems. The house was a bit sad and uncared-for when we took it on but we've managed to make it home. The garden was a dust bowl when we arrived but John has worked hard on it and it's lovely now. It's amazing what you can do by just moving plants around and regular watering. There is borehole water, so that is useful! We've got a nice orchard with lemons, oranges, grapefruit, guava, mango and mulberry trees. Not that we get to eat much of the fruit because the moneys and birds get to it before we do. Even the dogs eat the mulberries off the lower branches! There are many, many birds of different varieties - too many to mention here.

We've been very happy in this house - the landlord is very friendly and has improved the security and done a fair bit of renovation for us. It's still old and a bit run down - but we like it!