wordless wednesday 37

Trains, buses and 5-story toy stores...

When we returned from the UK in 2008, Bilaal couldn't understand why we no longer travelled everywhere by bus or train, or why there was no Underground Ernie (the name of the children's animated story about the tube network). He still asks us to take him on a train in South Africa. Sumayah on the other hand only knows the car. So being here in London, she is enjoying the whole experience of travelling by train and in the tube. Today we visited the awesome 5-story Hamley's toy store and she had a fantastic time playing with and on all the demo toys. By the time we were done there it was dark so she also got to see the Regents street Chrismas lights. Tomorrow I want to take her down to the Thames River where we so often took Bilaal to feed the ducks ad wave at the passing boats. But the best part is really the quality time is getting to spend with her grandparents, who she has not known until now. She of course really misses her daddy and her boeti, but Yaasier recorded her a lovely message on my phone which I have to play for every morning on repeat. In the mean time, Bilaal is having the most fantastic time with his dad in Cape Town. They have been up table mountain, to the aquarium, swiming with the penguins at Boulders and frolicking at the beach. Before I left, Yaasier kept asking Bilaal if he was sure he didn't want to come with me to London, but as Bilaal said, Sumayah is going to have fun in the snow with mommy (not that there was much snow left when we got here) and he isgoing to have fun in the sun with daddy.

The 12 hour flight

I recently took the very brave 12 hour plane ride alone with a toddler to visit my family in the UK. For weeks building up to the flight, everybody (myself included) was worried about how I would cope with little miss tjankie on the plane. We even tried to get a doctor's prescription for something called Valagan which is supposed to knock the kid the hell out. Eventually the date of departure arrived and I settled on giving her 2.5ml zyrtec, 2.5ml stopyne, and sister Lilian's trusted homeopathic rescue rest remedy. Our flight was on the night 22h40 and fortunately they had the good sense to let all the many many passengers travelling with babies and children to board first because as they diplomatically put it we "may need a little more time to board". This worked out great, because it gave me time to get us all settled and then while everybody else was boarding I could put Sumayah to sleep standing in front of the seat (always ask for a bulk head seat when travelling with kids). So by the time we had to buckle up for take off Sumayah was fast asleep. She is too big for a bassinet, so I had to sit with her sleeping on my lap the entire time. But I didn't mind one bit, because she was a little angel! She slept and slept the entire time while the 4 year old behind us screamed her little lungs out midway through the flight. The hardest part was when she was awake the last 3 hours of the flight, but at least most of the passengers were waking up by that time. So I walked up and down the aisles with her a few times and she was so cute, because she would see the people sleeping and and put her finger on her lips saying 'sshh!'. Of course when we landed I had to wait till everybody passed us in the aisles so I could collect all our things and get myself comfortable. I took my pram along expecting it would be ready when we exit the plane, but they had already taken everything to the baggage claim. Anybody travelled to UK before know what a looong walk it is to the baggage claim area, so it was not fun to carry Sumayah and my coat and my nappy bag and handbag all that way. Fortunately I had a backup plan, I bought a carry thing at pep stores for 39 bucks that allowed me to carry Sumayah on my back while I filled out the arrivals card. The perk of travelling with a child is that you don't need to queue at emigration. The minute they saw me with my parcel on my back they sent me straight to the front. Then finally, the best part of my journey... walking through the terminal doors and seeing my brother, sister and parents standing at the end of the stretch eagerly anticipating our arrival with huge smiles on their faces. And the moment Sumayah met her grandparents for the first time... priceless. Apparently we brought just a little bit of warmth with us because the temperature bumped up from the minus degrees to a whole 7 degrees... believe me, that is warm here. So here I am posting from the comfort of my parents' home while my daughter enjoys getting to know her ma, papi, uncer meez, and aunty... and of course the cat Casper (known to Sumayah as Gabber).

Jozi Girl!

Sumayah hates the beach, she hates the sea sand, she despises the wind! And of course Cape Town is not known as the windy city for nothing! The poor child clings onto me for dear life if even a little wind blows her way, so you can imagine what happens at the beach where the wind tends to be even more joyous. Take her to a pool and she is totally happy. Guess we just have to accept that she is our little Jozi Girl! 

wordless wednesday 16

wordless wednesday 15

Wordless Wednesday 9

Driving Backwards

Yaasier got us this really cool digital photo frame. so last night we were sifting through our photos choosing the ones we want to load for display. Then we came across this hilarious video clip taken in December 2008 when we were in CT on holiday. Its really short, but had agood chuckle I just had to share it. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw this guy actually driving in reverse as though it was the most normal thing in the world to do... I ran out of space on the camera, but he actually continued to the traffic light, stopped like a law abiding citizen, then proceeded to turn into the next road when the light turned green. now bear in mind this road has speed bumps, but did this deter our stunt driver... of course not! i don't know where he was going but he continued this way for a long time until our route took us away from his. I wish I had all of it on camera, but this is all I have...