Weekend In Cape Town.

Car NOT customs released on Friday, added to which, some bright soul at the depot, who had never seen the Tuareg ignition system, had, placed the ignition key into the dashboard and rammed it straight through same, failing to understand that once key is in place, you push a button on driver console, to start engine.
Repairs to be arranged along with Air co and battery, as this is dead as a Do-Do,having stood idle for 9 weeks. None of this will happen before customs decide to clear it in their own sweet time. Perhaps on Monday.
Managed [at least] to collect South African sat nav disc from VW in Cape Town…..just don’t have the car to put it in!
Already in a stew about navigating around Cape Town/collecting Little/finding hotel etc.
Decided to hire a a manual polo without air co,[Huge error of judgment] in all fairness, it was the only vehicle that Budget Rent a car, had un booked on a Friday.
Just in time to navigate my way to through Cape Town suburbs to Rondebosch, [to collect Little].The success of this first navigation is solely thanks to Marikas instance, on Thursday night, that I take her mobile satnav [just in case..best laid plans and all that!]How right she was.

Picked up Little from school, very happy to see each other. Plenty of big cuddles, and he was full of bravado about his first two weeks of boarding.[ Stiff upper lip or what, I knew that the truth would either burst out or eek at at some point over the weekend.]
The hotel we had booked, was about 15 kilometers to the north west of C.T and on the beach[Bossys recommendation], With the aid of Marikas sat nav and Littles brilliant sense of direction, we did find it, but, after my loosing the plot several times…11 year old boys love to fiddle with all things electronic and he became worryingly obsessed with the sat nav,within seconds of getting in the car .
I was in such a lather by this time,[added to which the heat in the car was oppressive as a result of the lack of air co] if Edwin even looked the sat nav I would screech at him …JUST DON’T GO THERE!!. By the time we arrived at the hotel, he was doing teenage rolly eyes at me, and I was like a spitting serpent, and both of us had sweat rolling from our brows. [Couldn’t open the windows because we couldn’t hear sat nav instructions!]
A glass of wine [or two!]over supper helped.
As promised it was Edwins weekend and having given Saturdays activities a great deal of thought, he opted to go to Century City, a huge shopping mall and theme park, the following day.
I went to bed with tummy churning at the thought of driving through C.T again and finding this place. Also very conscious that it was Finns 20th birthday the next day , and Tommy was due to have his operation on Monday [lots of emotional stuff starting to bubble] However, determined not to spoil our weekend, gave myself a good mental slapping and resolved not to allow myself to get so stressed over the navigational issues again.

On Saturday,Little & I DID have a great day, we managed to talk with Finn and Tommy at breakfast time, and I managed to remain calm throughout the tortuous day [only for me,Little was in heaven!] at the huge mall and theme park, we returned safely to the hotel in time to swim, walk on the ever so white beach and watch a stunning sunset over Cape Town before departing for a Thai restaurant on the beach , just down from the hotel.. It was at this point Little decided that he would reveal the true depth of his despair….so sad. Whilst the boarding element is different he seems to be holding his own, however he is so conscious of handling a new language that his other work has backlogged….. further…. being the chatterbox that he is, has managed to accumulate 4 punishments during the week for talking in class. To his complete horror these punishments were generated by the boys that he considered he had made friends with, and who are positively encouraged to [in Edwin speak] snitch on each other. He was overwhelmed by the work that he had to do and by the sudden realization that he couldn’t trust anyone. Even the little Thai waitresses were weeping for him. I was torn between feeling so sorry for him and reminding him that the answer to his immediate problems lay in NOT talking in class.
Having discussed the situation for some time, he resolved to not talk in class, re focus on the outstanding work and forgive his friends for something that the school demands of them [he refuses outright, to tow the line on snitching on his friends though] I resolved to have a chat to Ham [whoops Maam] on Sunday night and then talk with his housemaster during the week. So tears were dried and we jointly decided to make the best of the rest of the weekend.

Sunday we managed to find our Polo parked [quite accidentally] next to a huge Lamborghini garage, in the middle of C.T ..Little in heaven!!, then off to the aquarium in C.T which is just fab,after a late lunch we returned to the hotel and suddenly the weekend was over, and along with its departure came the return of my satnav nerves…. torrid trip back to school ……JUST DON’T GO NEAR THE SATNAV!!!!
Long talk with Ham, whilst Little getting jimbos on, and I left him waving bravely at the dormitory window.
So much for the no tears rule, thank the lord the lady on the sat nav kept her head…as mine was elsewhere, during my route back to the hotel.

Went to bed, praying that Tommies op would go well and [rather selfishly] that the Tuareg would be released, because more than anything I wanted to be back in the flat with Bossy and Bee and find my grown up self again. Spoke to a very quiet Tom, who had to be in the hospital for 7.30 the following morning, and then to Finn who was busy getting ticket prices to ZA for his Christmas trip,which cheered me up a great deal. Resolved that the latest that I would leave C.T was midday for the 8 ish hour drive home,as there was NO WAY I would drive those roads in the dark.