I look at him. “Permanently?”, I ask. Because surely that is not what he means. Already all the implications of that have run through my mind at the speed of light.
“That is the idea - it is a fantastic opportunity and you know how I love the Cape”, says aforementioned husband.
Yes, I think. I also love the Cape and every time I used to visit Jess here before she came back to Pretoria, I would, I admit, think how lovely it would be to live here. But that does not mean that I thought about it so seriously that I was going to up and move my 53 year life from Pretoria to the Cape.
I burst into tears. “That is exactly the reaction I told my boss I was going to get”, says he.
I immediately say the obvious things - what about our home / the kids / my parents / my job / our church / the dogs / my hairdresser - nail salon - dentist - doctor - vet / all the places I know / a city I grew up in / my friends / my best friend .... the list was endless. A whole shopping basket.
He tried to set it out in a positive manner. The office would be at the Waterfront in a beautiful vdevelopment under construction. I could look for a place in the Southern Suburbs. The dogs would obviously come with. Think how often my parents could come and visit. And my friends. And my best friend. New hairdressers etc can be found. There is so much for you to do in Cape Town .... he really tried. In hindsight it must have been awful for him. He was so excited and here I am just collapsing in a heap at the prospect. He must have felt there was a huge struggle lying ahead. As the months ticked by, it became more and more of a reality, but my joy was very very slow in appearing.
He had to go back to work in Jhb the next day and I stayed at Sondela with Nic and a friend for the next 4 days. I was miserable. All I could think of was moving to a place where I knew no-one except my best friends’s best friend (yes that was weird I know) . Hubby would go to work every day with colleagues and I would just be alone.
I came home and we never spoke of it again. Perhaps if I ignored it, it would go away. As the development got closer and closer to completion, hubby was travelling up and down to CT all the time, pursuing business and looking at the progress with his boss. The date kept moving .... first Jan, then March and then July and boom ..... suddenly a fantastic offer came up for furnished offices in Stellenbosch, the lease was signed and 1 April became the day. He told me that he was not going to drive and sit in the traffic forever from the Southern Suburbs as he had already spent a lifetime sitting in the traffic to Jhb for 2 hours morning and night. He loved Gordons Bay.
In the middle of March hubby and I flew down to Gordons Bay to look at houses. We spent 2 days in Cape Town while he worked and I meandered everywhere. We got to Gordons Bay. All I could think of was seaside village. Somewhat like Umdloti. But this sea, this sea is unlike anything I have seen except in Mauritius. Still, flat and on sunny days, as turquoise and navy swirled as you can imagine. But it was a seaside village. The main street along the beach had a book shop, coffee shop, all sorts of everything shop, an icecream shop, a vintage shop, an incredible fish take out shop, a hairdresser, a few little eateries and a shop of gemstones, reiki and other stuff. Oh and a vape shop. That is all the walking distance stuff. By car you will find a short distance away 3 brands of supermarkets, a Woolies Foodmarket, Clicks, Pep, SpecSavers, the usual takeaways and one or two more. No big retailers, no movies, no other shops, no branded shops, no big clothes shops, no Mr Price - for that you have to drive to Somerset West ..... about 20ish minutes away where there is a big mall with every shop you could want in it and surrounded by the other upmarket stores and shopping centres . My great love however was that I had googled GB and found that they had a 2nd hand book store. This book store is more like a book hypermarket in an old house by the beach ..... it is mind blowing the amount of stock.
I clearly remember sitting at the little coffee place on the beach, tears running down my face and telling hubby “I will never fit in here” ... I am not used to living where there actually is nothing and maybe I am too loud for Gordons Bay.
How God must have laughed as he looked down at me, thinking my child if only you knew. Do not worry about tomorrow - I am already there and I know the plans I have for you.
In between hearing that we need to move, and March, two major things happened. I finished off at my job at the end of December, so that meant I did not have the trauma of having to leave my job to move.
Later on, a lot of stuff happened and my best friend and I parted ways. It did not matter whether I was moving or not. I was shattered. And I miss that friendship all the time. I like to think that person misses the friendship as well.
So the end of March rolled around. Him, Nic and I packed up everything he needed to take and set off on a road trip to GB. We slept over at Colesberg and Nic got to see an entire side of our beautiful country that he had never seen before. Eug had by a stroke of luck found out that the owner of the guesthouse we stayed in in March, was not only an estate agent, but also had a beautiful place 100m from the beach, which she agreed to rent to Eug for 5 months. Jess flew down when we got here and we spent the 4 days getting groceries and unpacking and sorting Eug. We walked on the beach morning and night, I made my mandatory visit to the book shop and us 3 returned home with a serious collection of books. Suddenly it seemed a bit more homely. I was at the coffee shop everyday. We bought incense and gem necklaces at the beach shop ... we explored the neighbour hood. Suddenly I found my heart turning. It was everything that my childhood city was not. Quiet. Absolutely beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the water. This little area on the beach road is where everyone hangs out and it was creeping into my heart. The thought of walking our dogs on the beach. The sense of community. The cleanest place I have seen. The lack of insane taxis.
We went home. For Easter hubby came home for 2 days. Then at the end of April Nic went to him for 10 days. I have been here for the past week. And just like this, I now call 2 places home. Here and Pretoria. I have explored and know everything around here. The coffee shop people all know me by name. When I come here they remember me. The bookstore staff recognise me. I also always come home with piles of books and when I go to GB I take piles of books for them.
I have already located a new nail and massage and everything else place - Gordons Bay Wellness - I went there today and was astounded to find that her life was so much like mine ... her husband came to work in the Cape. He relocated from Gauteng alone and they followed afterwards, just like us. Even more bizarre was that she not only grew up in the suburb we stay in in Pretoria but in the same street, just a block away. Sometimes you just click with someone. They laugh like you, they chat like you. Somewhere in my heart I think that this is going to grow into a lovely friendship. She has also told me where I should cut my hair. Good sign. From her I also learnt where hubby can go and renew his licence disk and get a CEY number plate.
So now? Now I am sad to leave tonight .... to leave my hubby and to leave GB. I have a renewed sense of urgency to pack up 23 years of stuff in our house and get the damn painting finished. It has to be put on the market because I cannot move until it is sold.
“The company feels that there are great growth opportunities for it in the Cape” says hubby whilst we are sitting on the stoep of our chalet in Sondela Lodge about 9 months ago. “They want me to go and start up the business from scratch and then be the boss of it”.
“Oh what an exciting and wonderful new adventure for us”. That is what I should have said.
Be good to yourselves.
c’est la vie xxxxx
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