I got a phone call yesterday to say that a little gadget I ordered had arrived!  Now it’s nothing too exciting, just a little adaptor that will allow me to connect my Macbook to a large 23″ monitor! (The fact that I don’t actually own a 23″ monitor yet, doesn’t matter, because now I could connect to one if I wanted to, so there).  I’m so adding a 23″ monitor to my Christmas wishlist! Yeah! (Honestly, I’m so not buying one before we get to Aus, but I *will* borrow my moms 19″ wide screen one for awhile…).

So I drive out to the store today, that it’s at (a mere 40km away) and collect it with Flipper in tow, making record time (of course, Apple products are involved!!). Amazing how I’m too tired and too bogged down with kids to make it to the grocery store on most days, but an Apple store clear across town? Childs play! 

Ok, so I picked up the goody, and actually did make it to the grocery store, given that I only had Flipper with me, as Skippy was at school, to pick up a couple of things.  Amongst these, were yummy breakfast things, since I’m lately up around 04h30 – and unable to sleep again after feeding Flipper I decided that tomorrow (Friday morning) I’d make a serious effort and cook some streaky bacon with pancakes, Philly cream cheese and maple syrup. Before you all gag, I challenge any one of you to put all those ingredients in your mouth and *not* do that Meg Ryan ‘fake O’ scene from ‘When Harry met Sally’.  

My evil reason for doing this is to get the hubby out of bed early enough (around say, 05h30am) so we can head out to a nearby town to get his new passport application in.  We don’t go to our local home affairs office, because you stand in lines for up to 6 hours, sometimes all day.  This nearby town (small farming community), their office is super efficient and if you get there early, you’re out in as little as 10 minutes, and by golly their staff actually know how to smile. Something seen rarely in government employees in this country I can assure you.   But this little detour will mean a small roadtrip on our part (around 60km, roundtrip 120km), and we need to get back in time to drop Skippy at school, and of course hubby needs to get to work by 08h30am too.  

The reason we all need to schlep out there? Hubby doesn’t know where the office is in this small town (it has weird diagonal streets making directions given telephonically practically impossible to decipher unless you have a compass, gps, or caged canary, oh wait, not the canary, at least not for directions).  Anyhoo, I ‘know’ where it is, but can’t explain it, so we all go.  

The reason it HAS to be done now?  We’ve had feedback from a company in Australia that are interested in starting to talk to hubby about working for them. They want to know if we’re available in 3-6 months (please note – he has not even interviewed for a job yet – they’ve just seen his resume- they just want to know what his terms are – i.e. notice at current job, does he have to sell a house first etc – thank god no, not again), so we have to have all our ducks in a row.  Both his British and South African passports expire this year, so we have to get the new SA one (which can take up to 3 months) done pronto, the British one, takes 10 days. Go Figure. Welcome to African Bureaucracy. 

I was done shopping sooner than I thought and had an hour to kill before picking up Skippy, so I decided to headover to his school anyway, and just sit in the car and feed Flipper who was starting to wake up and liable to start sacrificing my eardrums to his hunger pangs.  It took me about 40 minutes to feed him, during which time I had the car switched off, no aircon, no radio (car had a service yesterday and I forgot to put the faceplate back in), basically not using any power (can you see where this conversation is going?), then I saw some other people arriving early and fetching their kids from his class, so I figured what the hell, followed them in and picked him up a little early too. 

I get him and Flipper strapped back into their respective carseats, climb back into mine. Reach for a couple of MnM’s from one of the shopping packets, hand two to Skippy, and shove the rest into my mouth (I’m such a good mom), and turn the key.

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Hurn

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Hurn

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(Are you getting the effect of an engine that will barely turn and definitely not start the car? If not scroll up and try again.)

My car battery died – while the car was off? I repeat it was off – there was no power draining the battery, we had the windows open because it’s been a glorious Autumn day and I actually wasn’t fearing hi-jackers enough to keep them closed, okay, we were in a secure parking lot anyway…and the car was serviced yesterday.

I reach for the phone round the time that Flipper starts screaming, providing excellent background accompaniment to my PISSED OFF PHONE CALL TO MY HUSBAND. Well of course it’s all his fault, he chose the damn mechanic didn’t he? Since he wasn’t about to rush to my rescue, he called the mechanic, who then called me, and from my description of the sound the car was making said he thought it sounded like the battery had reached the end of it’s life.  What it couldn’t wait to die a lonely death in my garage at home? So selfish.  My mom was working nearby, so she rushed to help (I love my mom!) and at least took Skippy home and gave him lunch while she waited for me to get a new battery sorted out.

So the extremely helpful mechanic rushed to my aid and kindly jump-started the car for me, and drove ahead of me to the nearest battery replacement centre (I wasn’t sure where they were, and he wanted to make sure I got there okay – one engine cut and I could have gotten stuck again – yeah with a baby!), and folks seriously had he not been so helpful? I would have said a few choice phrases very unbecoming of a lady.

The battery place was just around the corner from a baby shop that I visit often, and walking into it, I was pleasantly surprised when Superman popped up from behind the desk.   Well okay, it wasn’t really Superman but he looked *so* much like Brandon Routh that I had to take my eyes off his pecs hastily collect my thoughts rather quickly and go into all the yadda about the car battery.  Of course being Superman like he had me sorted (no not in that way, sadly) in less than 5 minutes at which point my credit card (actually hubby’s card account) decided not to work.  What ELSE!?  Turns out that because the cards are expiring at the end of this month some EEDJIT at the bank was issuing new cards and disrupted the system between the time I did grocery shopping and wanted to pay for the new battery. Nothing in Africa works according to plan people, trust me on this one.  

Anyway, Superman flashed me his perfectly straight, bright white teeth, and ice blue eyes, and said it would be okay if we did an internet banking transfer instead when I got home safely. Awwww.  Totally made up for my crappy day I can tell ya!

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