Break from Reality

Well, Happy 2007 to all :) Wow, I cannot believe it's a brand spanking new year already. And what an unexpected year 2006 turned out to be ...

And so begins the first post of the year:
I went to the farm for the weekend with Varen. It was fantastic. The farm is a truly beautiful and serene place, which made it so easy to forget the hustle & bustle of day to day life in Jhb. And thankfully for me, I could escape reality for a few days and not think about all that's happened in the past year or feel guilty or sad about Bean.

We left work at around midday on Friday and went on a mad shopping spree, thank goodness we had a list. Who can believe we were so organised?! But, when there's no Woolies down the road, i guess you have to be. Even when we go to Millers, we can at least pop into Simonstown for some forgotten item but there's no such luxury at the farm, apparently.

After filling the boot & the backseat of his little polo, we were on our way :) It was a fairly uneventful journey down into the Free State. For those of you looking at a map (would you really?), the farm is somewhere between Senekal & Rosendal.

As I said, the farm is beautiful and the farm house is just as you would expect, but with a few fabulous mod cons thrown in for good measure. Front stoops and wooden floors, high ceilings and sash windows. With a handful of cows & sheep, naturally (it is a farm, after all) ... but no piggies :( So, all round perfect. Friday evening was quite relaxed, we enjoyed a bottle of wine with some lovely pasta (hey, what do you know, I can cook!) and watched Eddy Izzard on dstv - that guy is hysterical!

Saturday morning we were up fairly early - it happens quite by accident on a farm, I assure you! And after a full egg breakfast cooked up by the man (I'm not that good a cook ;) ), we set off for Clarens. It seems to the Free State's very own little Riebeck. Very arty with creative little shops, galleries and coffee shops. It's a cute town and we had a nice lunch and a bit of a wander around, popping in at every single little shop in true philly-style. And of course, enjoyed the spectacular scenery on the drive there & back as well.

That evening we had a snacky picnic dinner, enjoyed a beautiful farm sunset and realised just how seriously we had over-catered for the long weekend. But the food was good and we enjoyed a wide variety, although perhaps a few too many vegetables for him tho ;) Later we watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days on dstv - it was that or Mission Impossible, he really must be trying to impress!

Sunday was a truly lazy day and was mostly spent in the sun & under the trees on the lush grass in the garden reading our books. And I did my last completely stupid (and unintentional!) thing of 2006, I got sunburned. I am now a luminous shade of pink over most of my body :P Oh well, what can you do? Invest in a vat of after-sun, but other than that, not much. After lunch (yummy sandwiches!) we took the quad-bike for a ride and he showed me the rest of the farm, the bucks and the shallow dam. Also got to get up close (sort of) with a whole herd of cows, with their young ones! After that we went to see one of the very new-born cows and even got to touch it ... yay!

Then we had a bit of an afternoon nap, the sun seemed to have sapped all energy and we did have to stay up late to see in the new year, after all! That evening we had a late braai, that turned out perfectly much to his surprise ;) and again barely made a dent in the mass of food we'd bought for the meal. But, it was good and we enjoyed another bottle of good wine (Springfield Estate, my new favourite!). We had a quiet New Year as we sat chatting waiting for 2007 to arrive. And when it did, we cracked open a fabulous bottle of Champagne to celebrate.

And it was mostly good, I did have a brief freak-out when reflecting on 2006 and all that had happened. It had some truly brilliant moments, Egypt being the winner by far and it obviously some really low points more recently. But I survived it and that's what I'm hoping for in 2007 as well: emotional stability & survival ;) On a less cynical note, I'm not making any resolutions, it's not my thing and there is still so much residual 2006 to get over.

But it's getting better and I hope Bean had a good New Years celebration too. It's the first one in 3 years we haven't spent together. And I do feel some guilt over the fact that I was away, with another boy, enjoying myself. But that guilt comes from society which dictates that I should still be in mourning and a social recluse after the failure of such a lengthy, solid relationship. But I'm not, I'm out and about and trying to enjoy the good things that come along and have a little fun and smile. Because Bean & I are over, it's not going to change and life needs to move forward. It might sound callous, but it's not, it's practical. I've been thru so much emotion with this and I will probably still have pangs of sadness, even pangs of "What happened?" but it was my decision and I need to move forward from it. So I squashed as much of the guilt as possible and enjoyed my fabulous weekend away :)

Monday morning we were up surprisingly early again (considering what time we got to bed) and had a relaxed morning soaking up the last of the country-ness and quiet (and as little sun as possible!) before heading back to Jhb after our lunch of leftovers. It was definitely the end of year break I needed (having not had any time off from work), I feel completely recharged and relaxed and although I'd very much like not to be at work today, most people are still on leave and things here are still fairly slow.

Loulou got back from her holiday last night too, so Honey (how cute is she -->) was thrilled. It was good to not be alone in the house again (although I was sorry to lose Hon snoozing at my feet during the night!) and nice to briefly catch up, no doubt there'll be more of that this evening. The fish survived my weekend away and I hope they're getting used to their new home in my bedroom. Otherwise, here's a final goodbye to 2006 & bring on 2007 ...