M.A.C in Africa: South Africa I'm hooooooome!

31st August 2012... BIG day. I don't think I've ever felt so nervous, excited, happy and sad all in one day! After months of planning and saving, the day finally came to say goodbye to all my friends and colleagues in Dubai and embark on my adventure to South Africa!

Leaving Dubai certainly marked the end of an era for me... 3 fantastic years full of memories, so many wonderful people and my first proper post university job at HSBC. I can't possibly sum up my time Dubai in one little blog post, but I feel so lucky to have met all the people I did, many of whom will be friends for life. I certainly had the best send off anyone could ever ask for, and felt so overwhelmed with all the love and good wishes from everyone, both leaving work and saying goodbye to friends. In fact it made me question why on earth I was leaving at all! All the kind words of encouragement will stay with me forever though, as will some of the advice... haha particularly the many ideas on how to avoid getting eaten by a lion, and Nadia's suggestion to bring Pif Paf to get rid of the bugs.

Floods of tears and loads of hugs later however, I found myself sitting on my Emirates flight to Johannesburg. Caro, Catherine and Alan can vouch for the size of my extremely large backpack that I managed to smuggle onto the flight as hand luggage, although I think the flight crew had the last laugh as they watched me buckle under the weight of it trying to lift it into the overhead compartment. (Thanks so much you three for taking me to the airport, meant alot x) Having partied until 2 in the morning (cheers Kim, Fran, Katie, Emma, Caro and Catherine!), by the time my flight left at 4am I was exhausted and passed out, so it went by pretty fast.

South Africa, I'm hoooooome!

Definitely fair to say I transformed into a small excited child by the time I got off the plane, and walked through the "South African citizens" section at passport control with a huge smile, glancing around me all the while to make sure everyone could see me (it took me 5 months to get my SA passport and so you can imagine I was very excited when it finally came!). It was so great to see Aunty Merry's face as I emerged at the other end, and I felt at long last that I was home.

I've had a fantastic and extremely productive first few days here in Jo'burg, and managed to tick off almost my entire to-do list in just a few hours. I'm now the proud owner of an ID book (that makes me a real safa now), a local mobile number and even a bank account, complete with card and pin (haha in your face Tom who had to wait 3 weeks for his in Botswana!!) Driving around and seeing Jo'burg again has also been good fun, although trying to get my bearings and remember directions has been less successful. The outdoor shops here are also absolutely amazing, with everything you could ever possibly dream of (Caro, I acknowledge that you would not agree with this statement).

I've got another week here to spent some QT with my Aunty Merry and catch up with old friends before travelling up to Botswana to see Tom. Tomorrow we're going to a convention show called the Getaway show (http://show.getaway.co.za/gauteng-getaway-show/) which is a huge outdoor/ adventure event with stalls, photography workshops etc - hoping to pick up some cool equipment and clothes/shoes for the bush, so excited about that!

Signing off now to go sit in the sunny garden for sunset and perhaps a lovely glass of wine and watch the birds (my new favourite is the "hardy dar" bird with its distinctive cry which visits the garden here, looks a bit like a bigger, less fuzzy kiwi bird (if your drunk, aunty merry suggested)!)

Missing everyone loads and love to you all xxxx