hey hey!!! can you belive it: was fine this morning - wooo! i even manaed to get up a lot earlier than necessary! we had to be on the bus at 10 but i was up and completely packed and having my breakfast at 8.30.. all this rush was because gray had said there was an internet cafe in the mall and i was REALLY anxious to let all you guys know what was going on, that i'm alive and relatively well lol and to hear some gossip from your end because i miss you all lots... in the end it was me andrew and vif and mai who made the 20 min trek only to find that the computer point wasnt working because of the construction work argh! - was not impressed!!! we had to leave to get back to the tuck at 20 to 10 but we had all agreed to meet then but mai was no where to be seen!.. we sent andrew off in search which we stayed in case she turned up but at 10 to and still a no show we HAD to go to get to the bus on time. we left a message with the lady at the info point asking her to tell mai where we'd going and how to get back etc etc and we set off feeling rather bad. luckily we saw her walking just behind us so we waited for her to catch up and made it back running aaaall the way! patrick gray and ferdie were still loading the truck very tentatively around "THE DOG" and we were all huddled inside the breakfast room. andrew made the great mistake of walking with his water bottle just visible and was consequently chased round the yard before seeking solace with us in the dining room! or so he thought... the dog had actually managed to run all the way back throught the kitchen. we all just laughed as he prowled around looking for the now very hidden bottle. there were 2 new people as well as mai who joined us there. they are heather and jon. they are both origionally american. jon still lives in washington dc and is very tall and big lol - you can imagine him as one of those jocks from all the american films. heather has apparently lived in london for 6 years. i cant remember where abouts she is living now but she used to live near clapham junction and therefore knows the bedford. (for the benefit of you "non-balhamers" this is the local pub as it were by the stn). jon is a bit like you dad - you can hear his voice a mile off! today was a drive day again but the guys put on some music and we were all singing and tapping along to yellow submarine and such lol. i, as usual :oS, was asleep for some of it (gray and everyone are soooo cruel - they took a sleeping pic!!!) but we arrived mid-afternoon at a lodge in gobabis which seemed very nice. it took me and mai who were sharing a good 10 mins to work out how to open our sliding door: it appeared that there was just a stiffness to ours which we worked out in the end! we then had some free time to lounge around and rest which i have to say was needed despite the sleep on the truck!... later on it was animal feeding time - they seemed to keep camels, cheetach and a leopard there in like a 50 hectare enclosure: i'm sure not at all why but we were allowed to go and watch with was really cool. camel were 1st - they really are the ugliest things (apart from reenies dog). it was 2 males on heat... one of the attractive (NOT) feature of this is nice white spit bubbles they bllow... mmmmm i hear you say lol, exactly!!! well moving on: cheetahs next and then leopard. they all scrambled for their food and actually got fairly aggressive. there were about 4 cheetahs and only 1 leopard... this is because leopards are very solitary animals where as cheetahs are pack animals. there are very subtle differences between the two which you probably all know but i wasnt sure of! cheetahs are much slimmer and their legs are longer. their heads are smaller and their spots are very definitely round. the leopards are more interrupted, she's fatter, has no man whatsoever (cheetahs suprisingly do - very small and sleek granted - the leopards tail is longer than the combined length of its head and torso where as the cheetahs is just shorter! but yeh tht was cool. it then started to get pretty cold so we all huddled round the fire gray and the lads had made in preparation for the braai. was again really good - we had MASSIVE pork chops, gray was joking that patrick had bought us a whole pig, and braaid some cabbage and half pumpkins stuffed with mushrooms and cheeseL mmmmmm!!! ferdies secret recipe... this scrounging cat stole my sausage :o( was well annoyed!!! grrr lol. anyway as the fre died so did we one by one as we retired to bed and that where i am now - very nice and snuggly. will write more tomorra night night miss ya, cant wait to see ya m xxxxxxxxxx