Love is... sharing earphones with your grandson while watching the Bon Jovi concert ....

Yesterday it was the live stream of Bon Jovi's concert in Lisbon - the last concert of the Circle Tour and well, i dont need to explain how i have perved over this man for 25 years, so of course I was all settled down to watch, giving strict instructions to Carla that i was not to be disturbed.  This is Jon Bon Jovi after all, and he deserves my undivided attention..... :))


A little while into the concert, Carla came in and gave baby Kate to me. I took her rather absent mindedly and continued watching with her lying on my lap.  A while later, when it was getting close to feeding time, Carla came in to fetch her, this time with Luke in tow.  I handed Kate over to Carla, barely looking up from my laptop screen lest i miss something, but out of the corner of my eye i caught a glimpse of Luke standing watching me, looking so forlorn and neglected.  My heart melted as i turned to him and asked "Do you want to come and sit in Gogga's lap and watch some Bon Jovi ?? "    His little face lit up and he immediately clambered onto my lap,  pointing to my earphones and asking what they were.


The pics tell the rest of the story.... There will be other Bon Jovi concerts, but these moments with Luke can never be recaptured......

Yay for Bon Jovi

 

Play time with Luke

It gets really boring for a 2 year old to be dragged around shopping malls (and Walmart lol) with his mom and Gogga, so we have tried to include fun things for him to do as well to keep him entertained (okay, they are fun for me too, I am just using Luke as an excuse lol).

 We had lunch at Mc Donalds  and while Carla sat and rested, I took him into the play area.  Lol the bruises on my knees and arms from crawling through the play centre with him are only just starting to fade.  After doing the entire circuit a few times with him, he was able to do it by himself, but after only one solo attempt, he decided it was more fun if i did it with him, so my poor knees took another beating..... coming down the slide was really fun though :)

On Friday we were browsing around the Golden East Crossing Mall in Rocky Mount, and Luke was really patient while we did some bargain shopping at some of the awesome little shops there, so as a special treat we took him on the train ride around the mall.  Once again, i dont know who had the most fun. It is a miniature version of a real train that whistles and chugs around the mall,driven by a little Chinese man dressed in a uniform.  We getting some really strange looks from people walking through the mall, probably wondering if this strange lady from Africa had ever seen a train before lol 

There is a wishing fountain in the middle of the mall, where you are supposed to throw a coin in and make a wish.  Carla had already told me how much Luke loves the fountain, so after the train ride we headed there. I had already filled a little bag with all my South African coins to give to him to throw in when we got there. 

On Saturday, although it was a scorching 33C, there was a lot less humidity so we could finally spend sometime outside without running inside to the aircon after just a few minutes.  I got to spend some quality time in the sandbox with Luke, making sandcastles and decorating them.   He was so funny..... if he liked how i decorated my sand castle (using twigs and leaves etc) he would clap his hands and say "Yay".   If he didn't like my decoration he would break it down and say "Oh No"

All was good until "Along came a spider and frightened poor Gogga away"  lol

 It was just a random garden spider, but didn't look like anything i knew, so that ended my time in the sandbox.  I decided being inside with the aircon was much safer :)

"I think i just threw up in my mouth a little bit ....."

Standing in the check out line at the store, I am eyeing out all the American chocolates.....I spot a Hershey's bar...... "Oooh, Hershey's" I say to Carla.  "No mom, trust me, you dont want to try that, they are gross" she replies.  But how can i be in the USA without trying a Hersheys Bar, so i grab two.  

We head to the car, start the drive home, and unable to wait until we get home, I open up the Hershey's bar......

OMG, it tasted like i threw up in my mouth and swallowed it !!!!!! 

Hersheys Bar.... $0.78

The look on my face when i ate it .... Priceless

Goodbye Cape Town, Hello USA and all the stuff in between :)

Within hours of my Birthday and Bon Voyage celebrations, it was finally time to get on the plane and start my journey (although my actual journey started  just over a year ago when i made a bargain with the Universe and quit smoking but that is another story for another day).

I had been dreading the goodbyes at the airport - all of you know that my children are the centre of my universe - and as excited as i was to see Carla and Jake again after almost 2 years, it was going to be hard for me to say goodbye to Lisa and Jarryd.

We arrived at the airport early and my bags were checked in within minutes, so none of the long queues that i had expected - although my last experience of the airport was quite some time ago, it really has changed somewhat.  We had nearly 2 hours to kill before i could board, so we all grabbed a bite to eat (I actually managed to eat cos for a few days I had barely managed to get anything down with my stomach sitting in a knot in my throat - was pretty bummed that i could barely eat any of that yummy Moroccan food at my birthday party).

And then it was time..... time to say goodbye to what I knew, my comfort zone.  I think when the time finally came, i was drained of all emotion because i had already done the hyperventilation, panic attacks, self doubt and tears in the days leading up to this.  Words were few as i hugged my children, picked up my hand luggage, walked through security, turned around once to give the family "salute" (lol) and the Royal wave (just for you, Justin) and walked towards the next 50 years.

The flight from Cape Town to Heathrow was pretty uneventful.  At least I think it was - i took a sleeping tablet a couple of hours into the flight and woke up the following morning. Shortly after that, the captain announced that we were flying about 30 miles east of Paris and that is when it finally struck home and the excitement started.  It was like "OMG, PARIS!!!!  I'm flying over Paris !!!!"

I had been told that Heathrow was big.  Big???  It was overwhelming!!!  I had what felt like a half hour bus ride (was probably only about 10 mins) from the terminal where my flight landed to the terminal where my flight to the USA was. It had been drummed into  my head not to speak to strangers, only ask airport personnel for directions, so with that in mind, I found my way through this oversized, over crowded, overwhelming "shopping mall" to the next check-in counter, American Airlines, where i experienced my first and only real hiccup of the entire trip. 

Now bear in mind that, by this time, i am really full of myself because I (the one with no sense of direction who once held up a local flight from Cape Town to Jo'burg) has just flown ALL BY MYSELF from Cape Town to London. So up i go to the American Airline check in desk to get my boarding pass for the next and last leg of the flight (when Carla booked my flight, she made them as direct as possible, hence there was only the one layover).  

The lady at the check in desk checks my passport, flight confirmations etc and then she pages through my passport again and asks me where my Visa Waiver is. I ask what that is, and she says that because i have a British passport, I have to apply for a Visa Waiver in order to enter the USA and she can't book me onto the flight until i have registered for this.  I must have froze for a couple of seconds with a really dof look on  my face because she smiled (in sympathy, maybe?), wrote down a website address, told me to go to the internet cafe, log on to the site and register, then to come straight back to her with the registration number.

Ummmm, internet cafe???  Strange looking website??? Jarryd!!!  Help me!!!!

Okay, girl, deep breath, Jarryd is not here, you are here by yourself, you have come this far, you can do this ....... and so the thoughts went through my head, in between some serious yoga deep breathing exersises (thanks Laurence).

I finally found the internet cafe, sat down, pulled out my credit card, took another deep breath, reminded myself that i can do this and logged on.  The Visa Waiver thing literally took minutes, was a very Denise friendly site to use, and once it had confirmed payment and details, it gave me the required reference number which i took back to the check in counter and got my boarding pass.  I walked away clutching this "golden" ticket and all i could think was "my children would be so proud of me" lol.

So there I was with plenty of time to hit the bathroom for a change of clothes and a freshen up, and to take a walk around the ginormous shopping mall (after i had made double sure that i knew where my next boarding gate was) Now i can at least say i  have been to Harrods lol. In hindsight I am sorry that i didn't take any pics at the time, but i was so focussed on finding my way, that doing the tourist thing was the last thing on my mind.

The flight from London to Raleigh (the airport closest to where Carla and Jake live) felt really long, although it was the shorter of the 2 flights.  I was fortunate enough to have an empty seat next to me so had a bit of extra space. My MP3 player was put to good use, although i did have to constantly remind myself not to start singing out loud as i tend to do when i have both earphones in.

Finally, i heard the "we are approximately 30 minutes away from Raleigh" announcement, although i knew it would still take some time after landing to get through passport control and all the other annoying but necessary procedures, and of course, after landing, my first mission was to find the nearest bathroom and not head straight for passport control.  My bladder not being the most cooperative of organs and has a mind of it's own lol, so after that 10 minute delay, i was way back in the queue when i finally got there. 

Funny how one's mind starts working overtime while standing in a slow moving queue (or have i just watched too many movies?)  I started imagining being hauled off to some interrogation room, being stripped of all my clothing and then ending up in some isolated jail cell in the middle of nowhere, totally convinced that i had something illegal in my luggage.  What i ended up with was a customs official, with the most stunning green eyes (yup, i am a sucker for green eyes) who welcomed me to the USA, wished me a wonderful time with my daughter, and directed me to where i needed to go to collect my bags :)

All that now needed to be done was grab a trolley, get my bags and finally walk through the automated doors into the Arrival section where Jake, Carla and Luke had been patiently waiting (well maybe Luke wasn't being that patient, but he is only 2 lol) for over an hour......

A long wait for a 2 year old and a 8 and a half month pregnant mama

C'mon now Gogga, where are you ??

And here she comes !

Happy Hello's