Executive Summary: - Books finished: Kaffir Boy - Animals seen: Ostrich, Rottweiler - Visited grandparents gravesite - Had close encounter with a famous South African musician, just not that famous that anyone actually knew who he was - Started to work out that Afrikaans is actually spoken commonly Trip to Welkom - Day 2 Dad said Welkom is like Nebraska. He's not wrong (well, Nebraska with biltong shops and the aforementioned razor wire). We drove 2 hours...

Thursday we arrived in Johannesburg and were met by Dad's childhood friend, Ian, and his wife Jackie. Quick digression for a key story about the next few days - Dad was born in 1949 in Eshowe, Natal province to Luther & Lillian Reinertsen, Lutheran missionaries that lived in South Africa from 1946. By the time Dad was about 7 his family had moved to a town called Welkom in the gold fields of the Orange Free State. They lived here until Luther & Lillian...

I had 2 weeks in the heartland to get myself organised and recover from the stress of the last 2 months. Jet lag was not kind to me this time around and I took a good 4-5 days to get adjusted. After a great weekend with Aunt Monica, McKenzie and Grandma visiting it was time for a new set of lists - and panicking. I decided to buy a netbook on somewhat of a whim, which may or may not prove to be a good idea as I get used to lugging stuff around the globe. It's onl...

The Lazy Way of Blogging by Using Facebook Status Updates Sarah Reinertsen... is in the departure lounge and has nothing else to do on her list (well except get chinese visa thursday morning...) (11/3/09) has bid Australia farewell (for now) and arrived in Iowa (13/3/09) is really sick of jet lag...it's worse than usual (15/3/09) is at liberty. (16/3/09) is back in Iowa - I have heard Ace of Base, Gin Blossoms, Rush and Foreigner ...

I was probably looking to stir up sentiment, similar to how someone looks for meaning in their horoscopes (ahem) - but my trip from Adelaide to the airport and off to Sydney seemed to replay my 12 years of Australian experiences. Start at the Austral - a classic Adelaide pub, of course, where else to go for a last pint of pale. Then up O'Connell Street and past the Oxford, which we frequented about a decade ago and haven't been to since, and into Prospect - where...