Christmas in Cape Town with the family :)

When I first found out I was coming away for a year I said to my family ‘Nah, don’t come visit, I want to spend a year being independent. If you come out it’ll just make me want to go home!’. Well, I say I said it but the honest truth is that various versions of that sentence were screamed during various arguments while they were trying to plan holidays in Cape Town…

I guess all I can say now is thank goodness they won the argument!

It’s not that I’m not loving the independence. Not at all in fact, I’m in my element! Nor is it that I’m horribly homesick- South Africa is feeling more and more like home and while I do miss my family and close friends SO much I have lots of friends and a surrogate family of volunteers over here. I’m generally very happy with my entire situation, after all, it’s only a year-long break from normality.

No, the problem is that I don’t think I ever fully realised how much I just ENJOY my family.  I like sitting around the table at dinner time and talking about everyone’s day. I like family days out. I like talking shit with Abi late into the night and taking her to partys and trying to persuade her that exams aren’t THAT big a deal (possibly not my most useful piece of advice but I also like the fact that she knows when to ignore me). And I like drinking a beer and watching Top Gear with Dad. I like helping Mum cook dinner and having girly shopping days and lunch at Starbucks with her.

So, needless to say, it was just awesome to have them around for two weeks! We did all sorts while they were here. A highlight for me was being able to show them around the Children’s Home and introduce them to my friends, co-workers and, of course, the kids. We took a trip to the Garden Route Game Lodge which was just INCREDIBLE. We took a trip to Robben Island. We went out for meals and for drinks. I slept over at their hotel a few times. Most of all it was just so nice to see them. After all, we had four months of catching up to do!

The first day might well have been my favourite to be honest. They arrived at Cape Town International airport on Christmas morning (I’d love to say this was simply so we could have Christmas Day together but I believe the flights were considerably cheaper seeing as no normal human being wants to travel that day…). Anyway, I had Christmas Day off but was going to have to work on the 26^th and 27^th so I originally told them that it would just be easier to see them on the 27^th after work. That way they could settle into the hotel and sleep off the 24 hours of travelling. Anyway a few days before Christmas I had a brainwave  (OK… not exactly a brainwave. I guess it was more like my brain catching up and going ‘What the f**k?? You’re OK with not seeing them on Christmas day for the first time in your life?’). So I emailed Dad and asked him to tell me their flight details so I could ‘check online to see they got in safe’ in typical Dad style he then told me that Mum deals with all that and all he knew was that they were getting in at around 8am so he’d text me when they got to Heathrow and let me know.

Christmas Eve arrived and I still hadn’t heard from him. Surprise surprise, he forgot.

So there I am at 3am on Christmas morning, online and trying to work out which flight they’d be on. There were about 7 different flights getting in from London between 8am and 8.30 am so I figured if I got to the airport at 8am I’d be able to find them.  Four hours later I get up again and get in a car with two of my good friends to go to the airport. We got a little lost on the way but arrived at almost 8am on the dot. As we were walking through the doors I checked my phone- I’d got a text from Dad 10 minutes before saying they’d arrived. I can’t begin to explain how far my heart sank, I was so convinced I’d missed them! I was cursing myself for trying to surprise them- of course they wouldn’t wait around when they didn’t know I was coming! So I phoned him to say Merry Christmas and ask where they were (casually of course… ‘So, have got the car yet or are you still waiting?’ Subtle, I know.) Bear in mind that while this conversation is going on the three of us are racing round the airport trying to spot if they’re still there. Then a magical thing happened- dad said they were sitting getting a coffee, I turned around to face the food court and he stood up and said ‘Oh, there you are!’

Best Christmas present ever! We all cried a bit, but that’s OK.