While this included a weekend, it also involved:
- Further failed property bids
- Lots of running
- A new addition to the family
- The start of the two year slog
- Not enough sleep
1). We are still without the positive response on the piece of land we have made an offer on at Pecanwood. Without going into all the gory details, the seller has twice requested an extension to "sort her issues out with her attorney". This is a cause for major frustration as we don't seem to be making enough progress and would like to close this deal up sooner rather than later!
As a result, the offer is now open till this Friday and we are waiting to see if we will be extending it again!
My parents, Helen and I went to have another look at the land on Saturday morning and once again confirmed it is absolutely what we are looking for and the location within the estate is superb, not to mention the pecan nut trees out in front of where our garden would be. Nevertheless, we shall perservere, as always.
(The plot from the road)
(Our front garden and the extension on from our lawn out under the trees)
(The little park across the road from our front door, big enough for a game of soccer or cricket and to give us the feeling of a front and back garden)
2). I have run approximately 34km's in the last 4 days since I posted and have just about reached the 100km mark for the year. This is particularly significant as we are just past the halfway mark in the month and my target for the month was to do approximately 120km in total. At this rate I should hit the 150km mark well before the end. I will update the actual runs at the end of this post.
3). Following on the run situation, on Sunday evening I went for a hilly 5km and spotted a strange sight just after crossing the River Club Bridge, a collection of fluffy little kittens just sitting down below the bridge. So I hastily finished the run, called Helen and we made a decision to go and see what we could do.
The kittens were all sitting out in the open (we counted 7 of them) and a few of them eagerly approached the milk we put down. We managed to catch one, but the others seemed to pick up on our strategy and nullified the effect of our ongoing attempts. As a result, we did not catch any more as it became too dark. This was all rather stressful as we knew there were a handful of little kittens living down in the wet and cold.
BUT, we had one and he was incredibly relaxed, which was a surprise in itself, considering their circumstances. So we took him to the local vet (for an exhorbitant after hours fee) and did the innoculations and had him checked out. Much to our surprise, he was in very good condition and very healthy. Needless to say, we had already decided this little guy would not be going anywhere. And so, Jelly was welcomed to the family!
He is 7 weeks old, has an extremely calm nature and has settled into the house amazingly quickly. He loves to be tickled and squeeks a little when you do something he doesnt like, which in his case is very little, what an amazing little kitty! yay! :)
4). MBA started yesterday and we're straight into the grind. The first day was spent discussing the opportunities in Africa and dynamic markets. This was an eye opener for most who havent spent much time on the continent or in other countries included in the BRIC nations. So, without going into too much detail, the big debate was whether or not South Africa deserved to be included in this emerging/dynamic powerhouse grouping. The debate will rage on and I know some economist's have very strong views!
Day 2 (today) was spent working on group dynamics and an Amazing Race through inner city Johannesburg. My syndicate group has proven one thing, we're all amazingly relaxed in getting things done! There was never any panic, frustration or disgruntled MBA-er driven disagreements. This, in a team of hard working, over achiever types is quite something when thrown into a taxi with R200 to our names and a list of destinations and tasks at hand.
Even a hijacking situation in newtown was taken in our stride (there was an attempted hijacking of a car in front of us, so our driver hooted to alert the driver of the car, to which he pulled off and the hijackers proceeded to be very upset with our driver (as if to say "come on, you should support us in this!" haha...only South Africa!
Some pictures from the day...
Edwin and Rima at the world of samoosa's at Oriental Plaza
A photo of the group (except for the lady in the middle with the glasses who was the checkpoint person) at the Art Gallery next to Joubert Park, checkpoint 3
Getting in with security at Nelson Mandela Square at the start of the day before we hit downtown
5). Waking up early to get to Gibs in the morning and do actual work (catch up because I'm not in the office at the moment) before we go into class and then having to do the same (as well as try to catch cats under bridges each night) when I go home in the evening, means that I am pretty tired by the time it comes to going to bed, and don't feel like I've had enough sleep by the time I go to bed...catch 22 :)
But I may as well get used to it, as it's going to be two more years of the same :)
Totals: 2011, January 18th, 97.93km to date over 16 separate runs in 9hours and 03 minutes, burning 10596kcal
Will be holding thumbs that you get the plot - looks like its a fantastic one.
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