Hectic few weeks

Haven't updated in a while as things have been unbelievably busy lately. Recap:

Went through to South Africa for Ian's aunt's funeral, which was pretty awful, but at least we did get to see a lot of Ian's family, including his parents who we haven't seen since we got married. That was an insanely busy time, including a day trip to our last site (a 5 hour drive either way) to pick up our stuff and my poor cat, Grimma, who'd been living there for a couple of months. She was very glad to see us, until she realised it was going to mean a trip in the back of the truck and a visit to the vet when she got to Johannesburg... This life style certainly doesn't do our pets any good and we're seriously having to think about finding new ho,es for them, which is enough to break my heart.

We're in the last three weeks of our drilling programme at Matsitama, so tensions are starting to run a little high, especially as one of our geologists has just left, in true dramatic style. Mathieu, our resident Frenchman (hope you're reading this, Lenoir!!) was heading off to take up his new position in New Caledonia, so we thought we'd give him a night to remember in Francistown. Well, the night (most of which cannot be recalled) culminated in him losing his wallet containing his passport, credit cards, etc. Don't think he'll ever forget his time in Botswana after that.

Have just been told that we'll probably be based in Tsumeb in Namibia from the beginning of next year, which sounds good. It's a tiny little town right next to the Etosha National Park. We're keen as neither of us has been to Namibia before. Everyone we know who has been says it's incredible. So life changes yet again...