long time...

ja, so i haven't written anything for here in like two months.

i've been busy.

mainly kiddo-related stuff, and the uselessness of X in dealing with this son. i'm quite tempted to tell X to cease and desist in even bothering to phone kiddo because he keeps calling and saying he's going to do all of these things, and then.... nothing. just disappears. i seriously bonded with one of my cousins who went through something similar with her dad [my father's brother] on this very issue. she feels i should do exactly that, but the only reason that i haven't is because kiddo is 18 and has to make that choice for himself.

a few funny things are happening on crackbook these days. first of all, X keeps coming up under his dad's last name as a suggested friend. [X and his immediate younger brother have their mother's last name, and the youngest three kids have their dad's last name. kiddo looks a *lot* like X's dad, tho.] this is annoying. that said, i went through the photos and it seems that he's having a greeeeeeeeeeeat time in joburg, which is good. but, you know, he's going to need his kid one day, and basically, kid won't do anything to help him unless i say so. for the record, i've told him that he *should* help with X, just as i rocked up to be there to hold my mother's hand when she passed away last year, but i'm honestly not sure if he will, since X has never been much of a father to him.

also, i've just joined a group on crackbook of what seems to be primarily black hyper-travelers. it's time to dust off the passport and start moving around again, and i probably will once a) this residence permit is finished and b) my new house is ready.

i really want to go to maputo for "conception weekend" which is the end of this month [i know the day on which i was conceived], but i don't want to leave the country until i have my residence permit. also, it's actually busy season, work-wise, although i doubt i will have work on the friday and the monday, which are the days on which there are direct flights to maputo from cape town.

maputo can wait until i get my residence permit, as package deals are much, much cheaper for south african residents than for people without residence permits. ditto zanzibar. but eish, i've been waiting for almost four months. considering that i've applied for a retired person's permit, it's pretty clear that i meet the qualifications for obtaining a four-year permit, but the backlog of the hundreds of thousands of zimbabweans are holding things up. bah.

i also need to check up with the estate agent about the house i've just about. i know the son of the people from whom i've bought the house has come down to start to clear out the house, but i need them to keep me posted on the progress. i really want the workmen to start on the dependência as soon as those people move out on the 15th. [yes, the house has a dependência... i like the non-committal vagueness of how that sounds. but contextually, it basically means "servants' quarters" and i'll be renting that out.]

speaking of rentals, my mother's house is getting new tenants, which is nice, because i could really use that income, especially in my quest to shake out some equity from one of my other properties on this side.

ugh. oh well, time to go to the gym.

let's see if i can make posting a regular thing this time around....