We don't have that much still to do, in preparation for our move. The car is the biggest thing, it's still to be sold - no one has really shown an interest in it.
I feel tired, restless, on edge. Plus I'm irritated because I have mosquito bites. Or I think they're mosquito bites, they might just be flea bites.
We have 10 days til we fly. It's supercrazytired now. Mom and Sis just keep on going, endlessly. They haven't really been speaking to each other for the past age. I try to enjoy time with both, separately, but it's difficult because of the issues between them. It seeps into my mind and I can't get away from it.
Sis came to G's parents' place, left her car and went through to Spier with us yesterday. Of course she rants about the houses here not having numbers, liberally using the F-word where it isn't quite required. I understand Mom's unhappiness about Sis's attitude, but there's nothing I or she can do about it.
We went through to Spier and as soon as we got there we looked at the crafts stalls they have just at the entrance. Of course I fell head over in love with the little stone birds-on-a-wire-pole, and had to be swayed to have lunch first. We had a delicious buffet lunch at Moyo, an African themed restaurant. Sis, G and I each got dots painted on our faces and we were serenaded by 4 singers who sang a click-song.
^above pic from SAWeddingVenues.com It shows one of the kinds of eating area at Moyo - we had a similar place which is built up out of wood so it felt as if you were up in the trees.
After lunch we browsed the Moyo crafts shop, had a brief relaxing moment sitting by the river/lake in the picnic area (see below for pic of the lake), and then went to see the Cheetah Outreach and Eagle Encounters area.
^above pic from Afrilux.co.za
The cheetahs are beautiful, but the experience wasn't much to write home about. Not dissing their work etc, just from a tourist point of view, unless you feel like forking out R110 to have an encounter with a cheetah which involves stroking it a bit*, you can only see them from a few metres away. Luckily the handycam has a good zoom so it wasn't that far off.
* Ok, maybe growing up in wild ol' Africa and seeing wildlife so much in pictures makes this less exciting to me than it would to real tourists LOL!
^above pic from Picasa user Bonnie
After the cheetah view, we went across to the Eagle Encounters, which was incredible. For R30, you get entry plus you can 'cuddle' some owls (there are other additional experiences that you can have, like an encounter with a Black Eagle, for example).
As we entered, there were 2 Wood Owls stationed at a table, one 3 years old and one 9 weeks old. The 9 week old one was SOOOOOOOOO adorably floofy and fuzzy, I wished I could steal him and take him home in my bag!
This is a pic of a Wood Owl youngster, like the little floofball I scritched:
^above pic from Owen & Mzee's Web log.
Isn't he just too adorable for words?!
This is the older Wood Owl, Woody's Facebook page
Next to the Wood Owls were 3 half-asleep Barn Owls who didn't seem to care either way whether you stroked them or not. To me, they look so much like over-sized moths!
^above pic from cdedancemom's photobucket
We then entered an owl enclosure, got to don leather gloves and become Spotted Eagle Owl perches!
^above pic from Owlpages.com
These guys were clearly trained to perch in order to get food as they completely ignored us apart from the cue of glove+outstretched arm, and focused entirely on the 'handler' guy who was (in the minds of the birds) limitlessly laden with food.
We spent quite a while admiring the birds there: eagles, kestrels, falcons, vultures, the list goes on. The birds are really beautiful but it's innately sad, because the whole reason so many of the birds are there is because they've been injured, or rescued and imprinted and can never be released into the wild. Some of these birds spend so much of their time 'screaming' for the attention of the handlers. On the plus side, though, is the fact that you can see the birds comparatively up close, and they really are beautiful (apart from the vultures, of course!).
Afterwards we popped by the craft stalls again, for me to finally buy my birdie. Sis decided she also wanted one, so we both got one each. Each and every one of the birds has a different personality as they are hand carved and also are of different colour stone. It was hard to choose but I think this one is by far the sweetest. Sis's one has an attached, carved tail, whereas mine has an inserted metal tail. I have yet to name him, but I'm sure he'll love wherever we live, in Aus.
Hope AQIS doesn't have a problem with him!
Ok, that's all for now - time to head out to gym! Yes, not quite a new year's resolution, but we've been good and have gone quite a few days in the past 2 weeks. We only have until Sunday to gym, so we're going to head out now and work up a sweat.
1 comment:
Sorry to hear that things are still bad between your sis and mom. You're right though... nothing you can do about it cept to listen. Sucks, though.
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