The Le Bs are here!

Time to contribute, methinks. We've been waaaaayyy too busy these last few days, trying to stay afloat with the present, let alone ready ourselves for the future six months. A few recent excitements:

1. Jake's performing in the musical version of a Christmas Carol. He plays several parts in the chorus and is on stage every night till 9pm. This will continue until the night before we leave (which, in fact, would be tomorrow night!). It's a very professional production and Jake performs his multiple roles with considerable aplomb and enthusiasm. If the stage ends up being his chosen career path, he'll do well. No doubt about that.

2. Max has mumps. With impeccable timing, the swelling in his glands (blithely dismissed by his father as toothache) has mutated into full-blown mumps. Given that he has had sleepovers with half of Harare in the last two weeks, we're about to become very unpopular indeed. Perhaps making this a good time to depart!

3. None of the rest of us have mumps yet. But we're on tenterhooks. When I phoned the clinic to ask if I could take any preventative medicine, the nurse laughed and asked why I should be worried, given that I already have three children. I didn't exactly follow her logic, but found it distinctly worrying all the same.

4. Mands and I had a frantic day's shopping in Joburg on Tuesday. We specially organised this, as a last chance to get the goodies we'd earlier imagined picking up on our way through (when we still thought we could ship our cars through Durban, ho ho!). Imagine our surprise to find that we'd carefully and cleverly chosen a public holiday for our one day of shopping! As it turned out (10 days till Christmas), shops were open and we managed to get most of what we needed, but it was a worrying moment.

5. Meanwhile we've now perfected the art of going to bed after midnight and waking up at 4am, with lists of things To Do running through our head at breakneck speed. Yesterday morning's early awakening was made more special by the arrival of our new baby zebra. Mum's been growing rounder and rounder by the day, and the inevitable finally happened and out popped a baby. No name yet, but Jangano strikes me as appropriate.

6. And finally, I've just about finished at work. Time to lock up the office and hand over the keys to Jonny (the lucky man) and head for the door. I perhaps won't mention the mumps.....

In 48 hours we'll be on the road!