I didn't make any New Years Resolutions for 2010 because generally by January 15th I have already broken them all and feel like an absolute failure. As a result I spiral into a combination of hibernation/ winter-depression fueled by failure to complete goals I had drunkenly proclaimed to strangers at midnight that I would accomplish. This in itself is weird. What other holiday do we get drunk and then proclaim resolutions of heroic and epic proportions; resolutions that if we were sober we would never even attempt. For example I am unlikely to write the great American novel as I can't even regularly upkeep a blog.
As a a result of said hibernation the winter weight is gained so along with feelings of failure I now have a body not fit for public viewing. So in order to avoid all this I decided no resolutions that I am bound to break, and as I live in the Caribbean hopefully they'll be no winter blues. No resolutions in 2010, but I would like to become a more interesting person. I felt like the end of 2009 ended with me obsessing on the state of our poor little island car. As I am not that into cars anyway it's weird I was so fixated, but I was like a woman obsessed telling anyone who would stand still our car troubles. I am sure people at cocktail parties dodged me and I am now pegged as that crazy woman who had her tires stolen, has gone through 5 thieving mechanics and had to start her car with a house key due to some sort of hot wiring device she doesn't understand, yet insists on boring people to death with the story while trying to explain in detail just how this was done. Maybe it's because I like money and sushi and had very little of either due to the car situation that I became so fixated, but anyway I began boring myself with my car drivel so in 2010 I have no concrete resolutions other than a desire to be more interesting. How I'll do this I am not sure, but becoming a more interesting person is my quest for 2010.
One of the things John and I did at the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, that I thought was interesting, was a trip to Africa. The plan was to spend our first married Christmas in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia where we first met, and to travel to Capetown for NYE and spend some time in Malawi, John's home which has recently been made famous by Madonna and her adopted brood little David Banda and Mercy.
To me the Luangwa Valley is the most magical place on earth. I LOVE it and as a life resolution I want to live there again one day. So, there it is ...my big resolution... which I have now soberly proclaimed on the web, but as I only have 4 readers not too much pressure to keep...but this is one resolution I do plan to keep. As it's a life resolution we hopefully have plenty of time, but there is a ten year plan starting to take place which is exciting!
A trip to the Valley is like stepping back in time as you can see if you look at our video posted below (I've gone from boring car stories to boring sideshows, quest to become more interesting needs to start immediately!) One of the funniest/ scariest parts of traveling to the Valley is the flight over. If you fly from Malawi as we did, you actually have to step on a scale in the airport to be weighed. A lovely woman comes out from behind the airline counter with an old fashioned scale, and I promise you, starts weighing baggage on this scale a process I have to confess I was skeptical of and made me a little nervous because I wasn't sure you would actually get an accurate reading using this method. It got even stranger when all the passengers had to step on the scale to be weighed. She duly noted all our weights in her notebook and presumably added them together and then said we were safe to fly. None of us were all that convinced that we were in fact safe to fly, so to ease ours minds we headed over to the "bar" I'll use this term loosely as it's actually a secret room in the top of the Malawi airport which if you have local knowledge you know to knock and wait about 5 minutes before a surly Malawian woman comes to take your order. After we found the surly Malawian we ordered 'greens' (Carlsberg beer) and increased our weight but lessened our inhibitions for the 45 minute flight to the Valley. As a side note after we saw the pilots who looked all of 18 we all wished we had, had a little more liquid courage.
In spite of being overweight and being flown by teenagers (one whom we later found out had Malaria at the time) we arrived safely in the Valley and piled into the range rover with Freddie, our host, stopping multiple times to greet familiar faces, visit the police station for a chat about fingerprinting ( police station brings back memories, but that's for another blog posting) and most importantly we stopped off for cold Mosi , the Zambian local beer. The full name is actually Mosi-oa -Tunya which literally means the 'smoke that thunders' and is named after Victoria Falls.
After a mosi or two we finally arrived at the Luangwa House, or Shrek's House http://www.robinpopesafaris.net/luangwa-safari-house/. While we enjoyed our game drives, the best game viewing we had was from the deck of Luangwa House. Christmas Day the elephants came in and we spent all morning and afternoon watching about 70 elephants play in our backyard. For a first married Christmas we set the bar high. Watching elephants while sipping gin and tonics as the sun sets over Africa is going to be hard to beat, but as I'm on a quest to become more interesting it will be fun trying to top it!
While I officially set no resolutions John and I did some future planning and we did this activity http://www.anthonyfernando.com/2010/01/05/new-year-resolutions-with-a-twist/ which was fun, scary and exciting. I recommend you try it as it may make for a more fulfilling and interesting 2010!
