Right, I know it's been a terribly long time and anyone who was for some strange reason actually reading this blog gave up...but it will all make sense in the long run, I promise.

You see, some changes are about to ensue, and I'd like to reflect them in my blog. The problem is, I like this blog for what it is...an African Ramble, even if occasionally I pause in my rambling. So what I decided to do was to start a second blog...

My Masters research project topic is now just about settled - "Automatic Detection of Age and Gender Pretence in Blogs" is the working title, though I'll probably end up concentrating more on age, just because fewer brilliant people seem to have given it a go. Have been puting some stuff together so that when I do get the blog concentrating on my research up, it'll start at a run, rather than the slow crawl this one has been. What I want to use it for is as a running commentary on my project, that hopefully people will give me feedback on. Plus it allows me to include all the little language/tech things that make me go a bit tingly. Think it will be fun and useful for me too.

So where does that leave this blog? Still going...and I will be updating more regularly, now that work is going quite smoothly and we won't be in a terrible panic all the time!

Ok, then, let's start with a bit of a recap:

We're all settled in to Tsumeb now - have made friends, found out where to drink and what's good on the menu at the Makalani and Minen Hotels (I would recommend the Chicken Sophie at the Makalani...). We even have a Namibian member of the family - our little pup Eddie, who comes to us direct from the Tsumeb SPCA.

So, here, for your enjoyment, are some piccies. The clouds in Tsumeb are for some reason incredibly beautiful, so it's hard to resist taking photos!

Our house is kind of funky (particularly it's very applicable Rhodes purple...), but our garden could really do with some attention - this is the best bit. All the houses here look exactly the same (old mining houses), so they have to go all out on the details to distinguish between them...you should see some of the other colours!

I wish it was possible to show how incredibly long our office is, but the pic just doesn't do it justice. If you look really carefully, there is a person at the far end of the picture - that's Andries, the 84 year old geo who is still working here (and flying his plane on the weekends). After 6 months, we still have no idea what he actually does, but have an inkling it has something to do with sharpening pencils.

Since my hubby stole all the good pics to put on his blog (and I don't want to copy!) I'll finish there, but will get up my post on our amazing trip around Namibia last month up before his...hehe.