Limerick, or Ode to Africa.

In Zimbabwe there's a man
Who a great little country ran
Yes, he ran it to the ground
And now rumbling tummies is the only sound
And he has hardly a fan.

In South Africa there's a chap
Who's taken a great country right off the map
From thriving, but mistaken
It's now just lost and broken
Fortunately he's on his last lap!

The future in Africa looks bleak
But if our ancestors could speak
They'd say "all Africans pull together
And vote for a man who will bring good weather
And not an illiterate sneak!"

Comment from the author of this post: I know this is terrible poetry, and I can do much better, honest, but who can be inspired by such a mess-up?

Image can be found here.

Home and Away

It's been more than two years since we decided we had had enough of the constant crime, lack of job opportunities and general unsavoury conditions back home. Our logical choice for a new home was New Zealand, as Paul was born here. Within months we had resigned from our jobs, sold furniture, packed our bags and here we are.

Here are the twins on arrival
at the airport, surrounded by
our worldly belongings
-all 7 suitcases of them!

It has not always been easy. Like many others we started with a couple of plastic chairs, borrowed mattresses and a hastily bought second-hand station wagon.

The first shopping expedition was both overwhelming and exciting. I remember standing in the bread aisle at Pack & Save, totally lost as to which bread was the best to buy. I bought a tin of Nescafe for $20, thinking it was a bargain, and later realising that I had made a conversion error (we were still buying with our precious few Rands) and that it was equivalent to the price of about 6 tins of Riccoffy back home. That tin of coffee lasted for ages - we were too stingy to use it!

Life in New Zealand is very different from that in South Africa. The greatest difference is the lack of crime. The annual crime statistics have just been released, and there have been 46 murders in the past year - in the entire country! I can live with that!