I am blessed to be in a marriage to an adventurous soul. I commune with means that every moment possibly turns into the comedic amazing race. We have been fortunate to make time for the holidays he enjoys, tempered with highlights courtesy of me. Up until Holiday Season 2017, it’s been local is lekker. We started with The Hawt Tour, road tripping through Springbok to the Augrabies Waterfalls. On the way back we stayed a night in Brandvlei. The next was named Die Nat Toer. This meant flying to Durban and driving through the Midlands to the Drakensberg and to Centurion before flying home. It came as a no brainer that the next trip was either Desert or Snow. I chose snow!
The thought of visiting Santa’s hometown never entered my mind. The trip we took north culminated in the most magical and historically rich trips of my life. Flying on Qatar Airlines into Doha and then onto Helsinki. This provided a calm and order panacea of precision. Being the never book a thing, kind of people, it was shocking to do this. But we also needed visas to be – so we capitulated and booked Airbnb.
And a lovely apartment in Lauttasaari welcomed two frozen penguins just before Christmas. Seeing heated floors and a steaming hot shower after the drought in Cape Town, my eyes shone with glee. First we were off to explore through the snow to the closest grocery store to see what I could find. Lots to see and plenty of interesting items to try. My dream job would definitely include new product investigation for a chain supermarket of sorts!
The crunchy snow beneath my feet felt wonderful until it became brown sludge and the thought of landing on my behind filled my mind with dread. It’s definitely an art, this standing up straight!