so these last few months were fraught with fun drama, as i sorted myself through my mother's hoardy house and found out that if i never wanted to work again, i don't have to.
but now i'm back in south africa. i treated myself to flying business class on british airways, and their departure lounge in philadelphia, and arrivals and departure lounges in terminal 5 at london heathrow were just... spectacular.
i ended up with a free southern african flight on BA, just getting here, as i received 15,000 extra miles because my entertainment system wasn't working well. 15k miles, plus the 14.5k i got for just flying here = more than enough for a round trip flight to, oh, vic falls or harare if i so desired.
i'm heading to brazil for new years, tenatively speaking. i might change my mind and only go to zim or mauritius, but who knows -- i actually think i want to party it up in brazil. i haven't been there since 2000, and it's about time. that said, i'm going to get clobbered by the exchange rate -- in 2000, it was nearly 4 reais to the dollar; at the moment, it's R$1,66 to the dollar. ouch!
i'm in a new posh flat in the city center, one that used to be offices. to that end, it is fully wired with cat5, which means that my computers don't have to live anywhere near my router. the cross street is strand street, and because i've lived in london, "i live on the strand" has already come out of my mouth more than once. oops. it's going to be pretty painful when i go to renew my lease, as the exchange rate is looking like it will be 10% worse than what it is now, and my rent will go up 10%. bah. time to start saving now.
over the next few days i'll post about a fun customs-related issue i'm having, and how it's being resolved.
but yes, i am in fact back home. yup, home.
