Action Packed Week!

We've had quite a busy last week here in Joburg. Terry and I kicked things off with a charity event at theh Johannesburg Country Club, a morning of croquet and pimms on the lawn to sponser a great charity organization caled Starfish that is based here in South Africa and works to provids for AIDS orphans here in South Africa. It was a fantastic event and very well planned. Given Terry's slightly competitive nature (oh yeah and he decided to dress up for the event in his old school blazer) our foursome was the most hotly contested game on the pitch and lasted a good 30 minutes longer than any of the other games but we followed the rules and really let ourselves become immersed in the cometitive and slightly passive aggresive nature of the game!

After our morning of colonial opulence Terry and I headed off to the filmset of a friend's movie currently titled Jerusalem, about building hijackings in Johannesburg. Yes, in Johannesburg a building can be hijacked by less than savoury individuals who then demand that rent be paid to them rather than the rightful owners. It wouldn't be as big of a problem if the laws weren't set-up as they are. With the current law systems it can often take an owner months to regian the legal rights to a buliding once it has been hijacked. We arrived on the set in downtown Joburg (a slightly seedy area of town) and watched from the sie lines as they filmed about 20 security guards and police storming a hijacked building. It was a lot of fun to see everything in action and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the finished product in about another 18 months.

After that we went to visit our friends Cliff and Elsje who had a baby last week, Cayden, and had just brought him home from the hospital. It's always amazing to see how small a new born is! But Cayden is looking strong and Terry and I have made his parents promise to keep us up to date on all of his progress given that we are leaving this week, but at least we got to meet him before heading out!

We also had a chance to have a lovely leisurely lunch with Terry's cousin Sonia and her kids Nicole and Theo who flew out to Joburg from Austin for a visit with the family here. It was a bit odd seeing them so out of context but great to catch-up and see how much the kids are growing.

Last night was our official going away party and we had a fantastic turn out here at Terry's parent's house. About 30 of our friends came by to wish us well on our next adventure and to make me promise to keep up the blogs so they can follow us and our adventures in the US. Thanks to loads of help from Mimi we had a fantastic night. This morning we hustled Terry off to the airport and I am following in three days time.

The itenerary in the US is for Terry to fly (via Dubai) into New York and immediately down to Florida from there for a conference he is then going to DC to meet up with me and some of our very close friends from business school for a long weekend reunion. From there he is off to Boston and New York for work and will then fly to San Jose to get stuck into work. My plan is to fly into New York; spend a day there (hopefully without doing too much damage) and to then take the train down to DC for the reunion. From DC I'm off to Austin for a few days with my family (I have to make sure they still are able to recognise me after all this time!) and will then fly onto San Jose to start settling us and sorting out our lives there!

It should be an interesting few weeks!