Getting ready... Mallorca :-)

Dear all,

After some fun goodbye drinks at the office , packing my stuff and reorganizing part of my house (see pictures) I left Amsterdam at the end of September to spend about 4 weeks in Mallorca with Toni. It has been great to spend more time with each other and it sometimes nearly seems normal (boring :-)) now to say see you tonight or " hey, will you join tonight for drinks with my friends?"
But I won't lie and obviously " la convivencia, living together,

samenwonen" is not a Pink Cloud (haha does that exist in English:-?) everyday. But overall I am happy :-) and lucky!

My first days in Mallorca were memorable, within the first 48 hours I managed to break a glass table at Toni's house and cut my middle finger quite badly with an anchovy can.. But in the end nothing really worrying and all was good. Yes, yes.. I can imagine most of you laughing and yes my boyfriend was not impressed with my huisvrouw/housewife/ ama de casa skills. :-) I am nearly forgetting that I was welcomed in my first few days in Mallorca with a great surprise lunch with some friends in Selva (a little village on Mallorca) organized by Toni, thanx darling :-)!

Looking back it has been a good decision to come to Mallorca first before heading off to Africa straight away. I notice now that I needed

to disconnect ("onthaasten") a lot more than I thought. Caught the flu the first week, slept for hours and needed to get used to the feeling of not " having to do anything" and sometimes even feeling useless because I was not being productive all the time. It surely feels different than a 2 week holiday.

In my first weeks here I was also very lucky to visit Sevilla. I had never been in the south of Spain before and I have to say it was beautiful. With a bit of a push from me (:-)) Toni was happy to also do some real touristy things like the red bus. Great few days. Thank you Primo Henry por un lunch muy divertido, Mariano for some good beers and Reyes and Dani for a great experience in Jerez. And..I learned Toni to play Yatzee ( dice game) which will come in handy during Africa time on the campsites.

It is only 12 days left until I step in a plane to Southern Africa.. I am

sooo excited. Still have a few things to arrange though. Like for example my last Rabius vaccination and my beloved boyfriend found out last night he has a passport that expired in April 2013.. soo we need to get moving.

I am slowely getting used to a slower pace and enjoying the sunny and mild weather. Doing some Bikhram yoga during the week and this Sundag I am running a 10 km run through Palma.
It is also nice after more than 15 years of living abroad to suddenly have my parents close by again. Just for a short coffee or a meeting up in town for a stroll through the Corte Ingles... Overall already this first 3 weeks have been great!

Probably my next post will be from SA!

Besos!!