Countdown to Férias

Or perhaps I should say countdown to holidays, for the non-lusophone out there. Whatever the language, the point is I CAN'T WAIT!

The office where I am currently doing long-term consulting (so long-term it resembles a full-time job) is closing for 2 weeks, so that means I get to work from home for a few days to wrap up a couple of reports and proposals, then take the rest of the time off.

This is the first year since moving to Moz that Rico and I will spend the holidays here. We usually either visit family (in the US or Brasil), or take a trip on our own, like we did with the Great South Africa Road Trip of 2006/07. This year, however, with all the traveling we've already done for the wedding, our honeymoon and for work, neither of us is particularly in the mood to venture far from home. I have no idea what Maputo is like for the end of the year, but I am looking forward to it.

Here is a list I made the other day (bored at work!) of things I'd like to do while on holiday:

• Eat at the fish market
• Go to Catembe
• Go to Inhaca and Ilha dos Portugueses
• Read Nikon camera manual
• Do a photo excursion day in Maputo
• Finish Rico’s birthday dhow mosaic collage
• Bleach shower curtain
• Eat at Tio Jorge’s on road to Boane
• Go to the pool at Terminus
• Read “The Kite Runner”
• Buy small plant pots – replant herbs on verandah
• Make bulk cat food
• Blog Vietnam photos
• Exercise daily – pilates, walk/jog, squash
• Clean out closet for donations
• Hang art in guest room
• Frame Vietnam prints, rest of Dad’s photos, mirror
• Go to Núcleo de Árte
• Go to National Art Museum
• Go to National Geology Museum

In addition to all the things on this list, I'm quite excited about having friends visit over the New Year. My childhood friend H. and her friend C. - both fresh from having worked very, very hard on the Obama campaign - are coming to Southern Africa for a holiday of their own. They will spend a couple nights in Maputo, and I'm already planning the places we will visit together. It's always fun to play tourist in the city where you live!

It's funny, I can already feel the city shifting into end-of-year mode. Parking lots and offices are noticeably emptier (nearly everything grinds to a halt in Maputo between 15 December and 15 January), there are throngs of people on the beaches during the day thanks to school holidays, restaurants and malls are packed, and there are already lots of tourists milling about - mostly South Africans stopping for a jaunt in ex-LM before heading up to the beaches in Gaza and Inhambane.

Only 2 more days!