We have finally gotten our act into gear and we are starting the daily blog posts again, and fittingly on Mum's birthday! First thing we did when we woke up was wish Mum a happy birthday. A little while later we got a call from Bobby on Mum's phone about Snolly and the cost of the repairs. He had managed to source new brake pads for the front tires, but had not been able to find a new brake disk for the front right tire that had been worn down very badly. We could go and pick Snolly up any time after 12:00 when the work would be completed.
Mum then left to go to her Tuesday Pilates session, and Dan made a long list of all of the things we needed to do before we leave Lusaka tomorrow and venture off on our very long drive to Kolmanskop, a diamond ghost town on the coast of Namibia. While Mum was out, Justina and I set to work on baking her a birthday cake, only we were not making a cake but rather a poppy seed bread she had been looking at making for a while. I guided Justina through the process of making the bread and let her get on with the majority of the baking because she adores cooking so much. The recipe made quite a lot of batter, more than mums one loaf tin could cope with, so we used cupcake tins too.
Once the loaf and cupcakes had cooled down we drizzled them with the icing sugar mix and left it to soak into the cake. As we were finished we heard the gate and though it was mum coming home, but it turned out to be Dad, coming home with a terrible toothache. I put him to bed with some muti and his laptop and then got ready to go out. Mum came home and we gave her the birthday cake, which was delicious, before she and I headed out to go and get Snolly. Dan stayed home to work through the things that needed done from our list.
Mum and I drove in the Lexus to the car garage, and drove through some mad traffic along the way. The people of Lusaka drive like lunatics! When we got there and met with Bobby he explained that even though he had been unable to source a new brake disk, it should be safe enough for us to drive back down to Cape Town with what disk we had left. He had not filed it down either, as it was really quite thin, we had no idea how much damage we had done! Once I had paid him the K2000 for the parts and his time, mum and I set off in convoy to the nearest police station.
I wanted to get a police report about the theft of our iPhone so that we could claim for it on insurance. It took a lot of wangling to get the man on the desk to be bothered to help us, but eventually our charm won him over. We manoeuvred our way out of the horrendously potholed dirt car park and headed back down the main road where mum went straight home while I went to fill up the car. After topping up the diesel I drove the wrong way into Arcades shopping centre car park because I was just too lazy to go the whole way round to the entrance in the horrendous rush hour traffic. What was meant to be a quick trip into Spar turned into a 20 shopping trip, because even though I had just popped in to buy Mum some J C Le Roux champagne and some nougat for her birthday, the queues were dreadful! None of the cash registers seemed to be working, nor were the cashiers doing anything to fix the situation.
Before heading home I stopped into the Emirates office to try to change our flights again. Dan and I had spoken about taking a little bit more time to drive down through Namibia and do more along the way, so we wanted to change our departure date from the XXXX we had changed it to before, and instead to the weekend just after that, so we could have a little more time in Cape Town with Chantel and more time to do the drive down the west coast of Southern Africa. When I got there and explained to the woman that I wanted to change our dates again, I was met with a vacant stare. She explained to me that because we had already changed our flights the week before, it would cost us upwards of £700 to change them again. I was absolutely livid when I heard this and called over the woman who had helped us before to explain why she had said we were allowed multiple free changes whereas now it was only the one. That we had already used!
After explaining my displeasure with their customer service I left the office and drove home. While I was out Dan had a conversation with the Saint, the St Andrews university paper, about our immigration issues. It may not help us in the slightest but at least our story being out there will hopefully inform others about the changes to the law and help them to plan for these changes and not be blindsided as we were. Dan and I finished up all of our packing, and we downsized quite a few items that we had not really used throughout our trip. We have all of the clothes and shoes and other odds and ends to Justina, because even if she has no use for any of the items I'm sure she can find people who will be happy to receive them.
She was simply delighted with everything, especially some of the tips I had given her as we are a similar size! Mum took a photograph of Justina and I out on the porch for her to keep. She is really the sweetest lady, I'm going to miss her so much! After Justina left for the day, Dan and I figured out a way to get the Beale silver tray back to the UK, and wrapped it in our blanket to be able to take it as hand luggage. It won't fit into any of our bags as it is too wide, but hopefully it will be alright as a carry on.
To celebrate Mum's birthday we drove in Dad's car to a restaurant called Marlin Restaurant, located inside the Lusaka Club next to the golf course. It was a lovey place decorated in a Chinese style, and we were lead to our reserved table in one corner next to a partition. After our waiter had handed us the menus and we had decided what we wanted for dinner, mum noticed that Natasha and her husband were just a few tables away from us enjoying a meal. What a coincidence!
We gave mum her presents at the dinner table, mostly lots of nougat as it is atrociously expensive in Lusaka but there was a brilliant offer on in one of the supermarkets so we stocked her up. We also gave her the bottle of JC Le Roux champagne and a book, amongst other things. Dad had fish for dinner, whereas Dan, Mum and myself all had the divine steak, and I can very highly recommend the mushroom sauce! The three of us shared a bottle of merlot as Dad was driving. We finished dinner happy and full and drove home for our last night in Lusaka at Mum and Dads, a bittersweet moment for us as we were very sad to leave but also excited to see what Namibia has to offer!
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