[Caroline]

August 2006

This morning when I was having my morning coffee in bed I felt a tickling feeling up my abdomen, at first I thought it was just my imagination but then I realized that it had to be an ant or something. You can imagine my reaction when I zipped up my top and found a spider the size of a 10 Rand coin staring at me! My new white duvet cover is no longer white but splattered with brown patches from where the coffee spilled.

We registered at the local medical center today. They asked to see our passports and they took copies of Peter and Michael’s passports/visa but not mine and the children’s because we have European passports. We were requested to fill out a ‘NHS family doctor service registration’ and a ‘patient health review family history’ form. Nothing complicated and the staff were very friendly.

We also stopped to check out the local recreation centre which has got a gym, squash courts and pool etc. I got all excited and pleaded to join straight away and Peter (being the sport that he is) signed up with me. I’m sure that there are moments when he really does regret having married me-this would have been one of those moments (he’s not very fond of exercise).

Peter has turned into quite the handyman, he managed to assemble 2 sets of cupboards-ok so it’s a little wobbly and there are a few screws sticking out here and there but it does the job.

We had an interesting experience today- sometime during the afternoon a van stopped at our gate selling frozen fish. It turned out to be not only frozen fish but ‘ready to cook meals’ as well. Peter thinks that the owners must be mad to let a young guy drive around the country side in a brand new vehicle just to sell some fish but obviously it must be a viable business. Apparently he comes around every 3 months unless you place an order to deliver.

I also opened a bank account today-it was quite easy-nothing hectic. The nice part is that there are no charges on a ‘classic’ account-not even for writing out cheques.

The local library is really nice and has got a lovely children’s section not to mention other references. They even have play station games, DVD’s and videos. Of course my youngest had to chose a book about spiders!

[duames]

caroline , it is wonderfull to read your posts , i've been here too long and take these things for granted , the nhs is a godsend , in sa the same level of care could leave you filing for bankruptcy