Brief history of us

Herewith a (very brief) bit of context to this blog:

On finding ourselves pregnant, my husband (cameraperson Brad Bestelink) and I vowed that it would have precisely no impact on our perfect lifestyle. We filmed wildlife in the wild places in Okavango Delta, Botswana, living the life that others only dreamed about. The decision to have kids was not taken lightly, and eventually after much angst and gnashing of teeth, I capitulated based solely on the fact that I didn't want to regret not having had kids once it was too late. I saw out my pregnancy in Botswana, bouncing around in the filming vehicle, work as usual, pretending not to be pregnant. Brad and I would lie on the roof of our filming vehicle at sunset discussing how we would simply strap a baby chair between our seats in the filming vehicle and nothing would change. Needless to say, we were wrong. 

The arrival of Rio upheaved everything. I was immediately flung into that weird ‘mother’ space of insecurity, doubt, neurosis, sleeplessness and general hysteria. The idea of taking my tiny baby to the wilds of Botswana was not one I relished and I clung with both hands to my support system – mother, friends (who for the most part had proceeded down this path prior to me), paediatrician and many cuppaccinos, all of which were in Johannesburg. Although based in Johannesburg, and then Durban, we spent about 6 months of his first 5 years in Botswana. Keita was born 3 years after Rio and just before she turned 2, at the beginning of 2009, I was ready to leave the relative comforts of city life and head for Moremi Game Reserve, with Frannette (aka Mom Too) in tow. She is my au pair, PA, brain, moral supporter, finder-of-all-things, and all together ridiculously-happy-person, without whom my life would be much diminished. 

This blog was created to deal with the endless requests by people to “tell me what you are doing out there” and “what is life like out there” and “how do you cope with small kids out there”. Also it helps keep me sane (sort of).