The mysterious RINGBONE

My younger brother just sent me an email with the new South African Nokia RINGTONE. It’s really funny but I can’t share it with you, as I can’t upload sound files onto the blog.

In any case, when I forwarded the email to my English husband so he could listen to some Afrikaans my spell check suggested RINGBONE instead of RINGTONE. This bothered me for a while and I eventually gave in and put RINGBONE into Google, expecting to find some rather rude information and have a disciplinary lodged against me. And after deciding to stay on and enjoy my promotion I was going to be leaving in October jobless as originally planned.

But no. I’ll put your minds at rest too.

“Ringbone is new bone growth on the last three bones in a horse's leg, the phalanges.”

Oh effing-eck

I’m feeling quite slapped. How is it that life will always, yes ALWAYS, do things you don’t expect at a time you least expect it. And how often the timing seems all out but some how is right but you didn’t see it coming?

I’ve been doing really well at work. Only it hasn’t been much fun or easy. I’ve had a really tough time and the only reason I’ve been able to rise above it all is because I’ve had the knowledge that I’m leaving. I’ve been pushed to work harder than ever before and all because I’ve had a really awful time. Awful but I’ve also come to have such a brilliant time because I turned it all around.

Dang dang dang!

So the long and the short of the whole story (which I won’t bore anyone with) is that due to my career taking a big turn in the upwards direction and increasing financial pressures the scale finally tipped towards delaying the trip.


DELAY.


I can hardly bear to think of it.


Another winter is already on the way.

But I’m not going to think about that. I’m going to focus on my future and my lucrative career. The fact we will have much more money to blow on the way. I’m at a really strange place where things are great and yet my dream is on hold but life right now is still groovy.

The final final count down begins

Nine weeks to go and all of a sudden everything needs to happen, it’s all more complicated and time consuming than expected.

Paperwork is dependant on other paperwork that is delayed because of something that didn’t exist before… Banks are getting complicated and irritating and producing fine print for nothing and warning of possible possibilities. Every day we wait for someone to reply, who might simply be on holiday, yet another day wasted and our schedule gets squeezed and I get wound up. I’m just hoping we actually leave 2nd October because if we don’t it gets too cold to cross Europe and too hot to cross Africa and we will be jobless and homeless by then too.

With the exception of spares, I think we have bought every little gadget, goodie, thingie and whats-it that we could possibly need. We have a library of literature and maps. We have gear coming out of our ears. We have stuff that is completely unnecessary but “just in case”. I’m feeling swamped and wondering where Simplicity and Practicality went.

Sorting out the house is the real nightmare. Rental agents are seriously strange and I have now found out that it’s not just tenants getting yanked by the short and curlies.

The cherry on top is feeling really bad about Paul having to sell up his life in UK to embark on an adventure that is full of uncertainty. I can handle me doing dumb-ass things to muck up my life but feel slightly awkward about encouraging someone (who’s life was intact and in order) to do the same.

God help us.