i want to go to the seaside

"Seaside" - The Kooks to get me in the mood

I'm going to go to the seaside.  We leave on Tuesday morning (and have to be at the airport at 5.30).  We will see the sunrise as we take off (1time you had better not be late) so it is all very exciting for me.  I love, love, love to fly - Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein or New York - it does not matter to where.  It is still a flight.  When I did the booking about 2 months ago, Gill helped me find the best flights.  I investigated Velvet Sky and was very close to buying tickets from them but Gill found a better deal (she always does) on 1time (we are going to Durban, but) and returning on Mango.  Thank you Gill - that would have been a horrible way to start a holiday being stranded at the airport with tickets on a bankrupt airline.
We are only flying to Durban and not some faraway exotic location and we are not going for long.  We will be spending 4 days at Salt Rock on the north coast of KwaZulu Natal.  My friend Lesley and her boyfriend Wayne are already there and have this enormous beach house all to themselves from tomorrow so it seemed like a good idea to head up there and spend some time at the sea, especially since we did not get away at all at Christmas.

Michael grew up in Natal, he lived in Scottburgh and boarded at Kearsney.  He spent holidays at Salt Rock so he is keen to go back and see what he remembers from his teenage holidays.  Maybe his first love, Joan still lives in Salt Rock.  I will have to keep my eye on him.
I do not know Natal very well.  As a child I remember one holiday in Margate on the south coast with my mother's Johannesburg cousins who did caravaning holidays (as Gill would say with her very, very good "Melanie from SARS" South African accent "I can like to want to go on a holiday with my red Ford Fairlane, pulling my Bokkie caravan with floral curtains and a dishwashing stand")   I remember the camp site, the Ford Fairlane 500's that they all used to drive (their family nearly filled the campsite and you would eat at a different "home" every night (even although they were all in a row)), tripping over tent pegs, the smell of gas, the talent contests on the beach and being forced to do a dance with actions to "Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket" with an older "cousin" but most of all I remember learning how to boogie board for the first time, the wonderful waves and the warm water.  Those were the days when your mother made you wear a bathing cap and you could not swim for an hour and a half after having lunch!!
Uncle Clyde Aunt Claudette Uncle Dan's car I had one other trip to Durban in the early '90's but that was only to fly up, collect a car and drive straight back to Cape Town.  Then 5 years ago Michael and I also flew up to collect a new car, didn't spend any time in Durban but drove through to see Kearsney College and then went on to the Drakensberg and the Natal Midlands.  It was a great trip.
So it is time to get packing (and to try very hard not to pack everything "in case" - it is only 4 days after all), get through all my work tomorrow and get my files in an acceptable state for Gill.  She clips things together, uses post-it notes to mark pages, cross references and does "recons" whereas I use the "fan through the entire file" system.  It works for me but will drive her organised mind crazy.  Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day and I have to get up super early tomorrow to catch the best of the Oscars.  If you get up at 5, it is the perfect time to see the best bits live because even if you try not to hear, you will always hear the results or see the billboards (I don't like watching when I know the results).  I am mad with myself for not getting to see George Clooney in The Descendants (he must be disappointed in me too).
I have to pack my favourite Vanity Fair magazines (the last three copies at least) which I subscribe to but never get to read them anymore.  I have two great books to read.  I have just started "The Good Fairies of New York" by Martin Millar.
"Dinnie and overweight enemy of humanity, was the worst violinist in New York, but was practicing gamely when two cute little fairies stumbled through his fourth floor window and vomited on the carpet..."
Should be fun and has started well - hungover Scottish fairies on the run from their clan who find themselves in New York.  Not many people can see fairies, you know?  
I have the latest Lee Child as well and perhaps need to find a soppy love story to read as well.   
Things to do on holiday.  I will paint my nails and organise my new purse (thank you Hayley).  I will arrange my new cosmetics in my new make up bag (thank you Kathy).  I bought new sunglasses today but have not found a new handbag.  The handbag I can wait for but I need to get a camera tomorrow.   How can a girl who blogs go on holiday without a camera?  What if we bump into Joan?   I am so hoping our insurance broker is going to be able to sort out a payout for the stolen handbag but it is looking unlikely as the policy clearly states "handbags must be locked in the boot".  Still cross with myself about being so stupid.
I will send you messages of love and poems of the sea, if I can!!  I am going to be too busy to post tomorrow but I will be in touch.
So I get to fly on Tuesday, experience the north coast for the first time, swim in the sea and spend some quality time with Lesley.  The house is ten steps down to the beach, the water is going to be warm (perhaps the house has a boogie board) and I do not have to wear a bathing cap!!!