DAD'S VISIT AND GOODBYE'S

MY DAD AND I
DAD, LEO AND MY BOYS
DAD AND LEO

After a very emotional visit a hurdle or rather a roller coaster ride has come to an end. I dreaded this weekend as I did not know how I would handle the visit. It was so mixed with feelings of joy (to have all my boys with me...) laughter when my dad reminisces over stories of the past and my youth, thankfulness for having the opportunity to see my dad still with all faculties working and relief for knowing I could tel him personally that I love him and that he taught me so much in life. Good and not so good......
he did his best to be upbeat for the boys and to still have his humor intact. he tired very quickly and we had at most about 3 hours, spread over the day, to talk and visit. I took him out to lunch every day and he was a real trooper as he never missed the opportunity to "gat skuur" This is one thing he taught me well and that was to drive and enjoy travelling in a car. I love driving and tend to think that I am a good driver..........I am Loreta gatskuur van Dijk
He was a terrible one for car trips with time keeping and management.. We had to get up at the most unholy hours to leave on our holiday trips. The packing was a total other story. We got plastic bags from a fertilizer factory for our clothes. Shit he was worse than an airline on how much we can take along................. We got 5kg max...........The space in the car was kept for his fishing tackle and fishing "paraphernalia". He had lots of that.......and NOT packed in plastic bags either!!!!!!!!! When we left home the next stop was for petrol when he car needed it....You had to wee and get takeaway in the same time as the car was filled up......... Mind you take away was never on the agenda as we had "padkos" hell I hate "pad kos" to this day.... I thought, and still do, that a hamburger from a cafe is so much better............. We would rush to get to the border at 06h00 when the gates opened. Then rush again to get to our destination...... He never enjoyed the trip to get there. he is still like that today . He is "end line" driven in all he does. BUT we had fantastic holidays. Mostly n Mozambique and later in the Transkei.
He told my boys stories of me as a child. They lapped up every word.....They just wanted the goss of when I was naughty. He could not give them much in that department as I was always on his good side and he did spoil me very much. Much more than the other 4 siblings.
I was the youngest by far and maybe he had had his terrible tempers with the other 4 sibling older than me. I was very lucky in this regard as from the other stories of my brothers and sister he was a real tiran in their younger days. I did not know him like that at all. I was privileged to have known my dad as "lekker" I did not try my luck with him as he could get a look in the eye that told you "beware"
He shared stories of his childhood with my boys and I got tears in my eyes to hear what he had to go through as a young child. His parents were not the most love able people......he had a shitty childhood. To just mention one story that really got to me was when he was about 8 years old his parents sent him to live with his grandparents. Details of why I think was due to his parents having marital and financial problems. His grand father had a taxi service and took people from the train station to hotels or home. This was in Kimberley which can go to -5 Celsius in the winter. He had to handle the luggage.....Alone. When all luggage was loaded he had to sit in the spare wheel which is outside the car on the back and hold on. Mostly these trips were at 03h00 in the morning. next morning he had to go to school.....No wonder he did not even finish grade 10 (Standard 8 in the olden days) Oh boy I would have not done the school number as well.
I must say his ego has always been a huge problem for him. he admits it today. He would destroy anybody or any thing that interferes with his "ego" or self image. He is not proud of that at all today. maybe here is a lesson for me as not to be so self opinionated..............or self obsessed....(say me with my own blog.....................)
This morning how ever we all knew the time had come to say goodbye. I did not handle that one very well. I tried my best not to cry too much but could not...He was a little upset to see me crying and he was very tearful himself.......but as always totally in control.
he has deteriorated very much as Hannes and I saw him about 6 weeks ago. He is Ok with the thought of dying and even said he wants to be cremated ( also made jokes of what we should do with his ashes.................)
My boys handled it well although I could see they were not very happy and chirpy. Rossi drove us to PE to catch our flights back home.
IN PE I took Dian for a wizz around PE just to see the university campus as he is thinking of studying there next year. I say wizz as that is the sound the car made passing the buildings. We had a plane to catch.
Oh boy our flight out of PE was late. I had a turn around in Johannesburg of 1hour 40 minutes between flights. We landed at lanseria airport form PE and had to get to Oliver Tambo international for our Durban flight. I had pre arranged a car and driver to get us there.
We did high speed on the highway (thankfully no fines) and literally jumped out the car and ran for the next flight. nearly did not make it as the flight had already closed and it took all the fight and tears and aggression left in me to get boarded on the next plane. Well all was well as we did make the flight and got to Durban in time for me to still drop Dian at school and take the 2 hour journey back home.
I got home at 22h30. Bushed and buggered and then I had e-mails galore to sort and mail to open........ Never a dull moment this side hey.
Good to know all my boys are safe and sound in there respective little holes and me back at "Home"

Tomorrow i start planning to pack the "doos" that I want to send to Dubai with excess stuff needed in Dubai. Like electric frying pans, snorkeling gear, extra clothes of mine, maybe Hannes drill (he requested it) I might even send some ornaments . Weight here is a problem as I have only got a quote for 20kg........... I hate packing lightly.............but will have to as it is very expensive. I can take more in December when I go to Dubai.

We tried to Skype Hannes when we were with my dad to show him the technology and also for Hannes to be part of our visit.. Technology was not my friend at all. The skype had a delay of 20 seconds...........Gees that is a conversation killer of note. We can see Hannes waiting for the words and BOOM it hits him and we already have either forgotten or started a new conversation. Confusing and frustrating is an understatement. This was done with state of the art 3G portable/disposable/wireless/cell / and any other name you can think of technology. If the sales person was close by he would have had a modem stuck so high up his **** they would have thought to take out his tonsils...............................
Hannes did a road trip this weekend that has passed up or down the coast with an Italian friend...........I could not even hear about the road trip with this skype problem.
OK all for now...........