Return to Reality

After almost two and a half weeks away I have returned from South Africa. I would love to say that I have returned feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world again but unfortunately, that is not the case. It was a bit of a stressful trip, there was a lot of moving around staying with various people which just played havoc with J's routine. On top of that he came down with an ear/throat infection that necessicated a trip to Casualty one night, as well as a follow up visit with an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor. He is still not right and therefore not sleeping well meaning I am one frazzled mammy at the moment. Luckily, Johannesburg is only two hours ahead so jetlag is not really an issue, although the overnight flight home was a bit hard on him (and therefore us!). He is a great flyer, not a peep out of him on any of the flights, despite his ear being at him but the return trip in particular really disturbed his sleep.

It was lovely though to see J with his South African grandfather and his aunts, uncles and cousins there. Both Mr HNW's grandmothers are still with us too so it was wonderful for J to meet his great grandmothers. It was a bit stressful and tiring for us but it was worth it for J to spend time with the other side of his family.

Another great part of the trip is the current euro/rand exchange rate. Some days it was 15 Rand to the Euro which made shopping extremely affordable for us. We went a bit mad, especially buying stuff for J for the next year of his life. I will share some of my purchases in a future post. I don't think there will be many purchases over the next few months. We'll be getting back to saving again, methinks.

This fits in well with Avril at School Gate Style's March challenge - to blog about what you can find in your local charity shop. Luckily, there are a number of charity shops near me so I'll be making a trip soon to see what I can come up with. When I lived in New Zealand I used to buy second hand clothes a good bit as it's very common there (they call it op shopping) and I used to sell clothes I no longer wanted through a big second hand store there and then use the money to pick up some new items for myself. It's something that is not popular here at all so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can pick up and if there are any bargains to be had.

N
xxx