Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start

So on Friday the 18th of January, I left the family of my birthing and went to see the family of my birth in my homeland. My mother country. The cradle of civilization-AFRICA! Ok,I was trying to be a bit Maya Angelou-esque there but it's not really taking is it. So I went on a little trip to see my parents and sibs in South Africa.

People have expressed interest in what this little foray was like. And who am I not to oblige them.

I have decided that to post all 10,000000000 of my photos and describe the entire trip would be overwhelming for me and probably lose me the 3 readers that I still have. (I have not checked stats lately but what with all the continued whining....) So the current plan is to post a picture or two (or 12) that sort of highlights what I did each day. Yay? No? We'll see how that goes. Please note that most of this first week's photos could have been taken in Ohio so if you are in it for the African thrills, you may be very disappointed to see many photos of very white people doing unspectacular yet pleasant things.
Day 1
There was lots of this

and then after waiting another 12 days for my luggage to emerge from the carousel hole, this:

Awesome! My sister Shona is in there somewhere too, but she is concealed by another of my fans.

Day 2

I may have mentioned how Christmas Eve is huge in my family. So we had a re-creation for those of us who missed the real one:

This was wonderful of course, in every way and just as I remembered.

Day 3:

We went shopping. When Thalia and I got bored of waiting for Shona to try on clothing, we decided that she would be the Mommy and I would be the baby. Cos maybe we have issues.  I was going to sit on the little seat in the front but we decided that my knees would probably get stuck and being cut out of a shopping cart (or trolley) as we say, may have ended up being a tad awkward. Here I am being the wistful baby who wants the pink thing even though mommy said not to touch the pink thing.

Day 4:

We went to see my extended family. We call them the Mini-Randalls for obvious reasons. This was surrreal as the girls sitting to my right were babysat by me when I was a little girl). I remember the brunette (Talissa) crying ceaselessly one day and me calling my friend Viki who asked her mom for advice for me and her mom suggested putting just a bit of whiskey in her bottle. Worked like a charm.

Day 5:

Girls day. We went for pedi's and a lovely lunch, but were saddened that we only noticed this ice cream display when we were too stuffed to do anything about it:

Day 6:

Went to get hair cut and coloured with Thalia. As you can tell, it made a HUGE impact.

Then went to visit my best friend Viki (aforementioned) who I have known since I was 10. She moved back to SA from England 2 days before I arrived so I got to meet her little ones for the first time. So exciting.

Aren't they adorable?

She has a Gracie too. She let me cuddle her which they tell me is unheard of. I fell in love.

Stin and Vix. Ah the times we have had.

We dropped in on my aunt and uncle. My mother's brother Uncle Spiro married my father's sister Aunty Elsa. They have been amazingly good to our family.  They plied me with food and showed off their muscles.

Then my mom and I went to my favourite childhood restaurant for dinner. It was just as wonderful as I remember. And how often does that happen with your favourite childhood restaurant?

Here's one of the myriad of photos we tried to take of ourselves, most ended up blurry from the laughing or showing the spinach/sesame seeds in our teeth.

Day 7

Went to the temple in the morning. And then off to Sun City. Where we engaged in the very serious business of a) attempting to get the high score on the hungry hippo machine for the day b)outdoing the high score of the boys

The guy in the middle is Sean, Thalia's boyfriend. He is a good guy.

There were injuries.

Then we forced to the bathroom attendant to take our sexy, sexy photo in front of the Hollywood mirror. By this point it was about 2am. Nobody can say we don't know how to party.

This is what the bathroom attendant thought of our sexiness.

Day 8: We waited for a bus with the baboons. Isn't that a beautiful shade of blue?

The others had a wedding to go to so Shona and I hit the waves

Anxiously surveying the wild surf and the tides...

This is where we are forced to take this delightful self portrait while Marc gets us drinks. It was a very stressful day.

We are somewhere in the whiteness there, there were several attempts at body surfing. Some slightly more successful then others.

And for a change of pace we went to the pool of the kings or the gods or something. It's incredible. An infinity pool which is very very peaceful and an amazing view while you float the day away.

Shona and Marc enacting a swimming with the dolphins scenario

Marc posing very naturally. He took the same super natural pose of me but I will spare you.

Isn't the scenery incredible?

Ok I am done for the day. If you made it this far, brave soldier, know that you will be rewarded. Sometime later I will show you The Attack of The Baboons. There were casualties. It's exciting stuff.

 

Comments

[Jessica]

Oh Kirsty I looooove reading about your trip! I can't wait for part 2!
Welcome home, love!

[Carolyn]

First of all I am sorry taht your birthday was such as bust. I hope that there is some other wonderful day on the horizon to look forward to like ummm ground hogs day or somthing like that which will bring more sun into our grey lives.
As for your wonderful family adn vacation photos I love them. It looks like you had a wonderful time!!! I hope there are more to come. After the one baboon picture that was shown I can't wait for more!

[Melissa]

More pictures! More pictures!! And yes, I want to hear about the baboons!

[JenniferC]

Love the photos!! Makes me hope we are stationed over seas one of these days:)

[Charis]

Loved reading about your trip home - and seeing pictures of your family :-) Made me miss SA - I need a trip back soon! I just laughed seeing those baboons with their legs wide open - that's the brightest blue I've ever seen ;-)

[Jen]

I stuck in with the pix & I too want more. That little pool you guys were relaxing in was AWESOME. Hmmmm Summer.

[Amz]

Fabulous! I thoroughly enjoyed all your pictures. The pool spent so much time in is worthy of becoming my "happy place." I really could escape there in my mind. What a wonderful trip. Glad you are back, even though you aren't...can't wait to see your other pictures.