What could possibly go wrong when a group of women go away for a weekend?
Nothing. If you plan well.
If you don’t plan well, it could be a disaster.
T arrived to fetch me. The weekend was a celebration for her birthday.
You got the directions, she asked?
Nope, I said. Thought you’d get them.
Ah, okay. No problem, D will have them.
D didn’t have them. Neither did S or K or J or…
We googled the directions. It took a while.
As we were about to leave I remembered I hadn’t picked up the quiche. My lunch contribution.
Oh please just go via xxx so I can pick up the quiche, I asked.
Shit, T said. I also bought a quiche.
D said she too had a quiche.
Who has breakfast, I asked. Dinner? The second dinner?
Ooops.
Anyway. We finally arrived, albeit a little bit late. Seven women, seventeen bottles of champagne, three quiches, zero flashlights.
We had no idea there wouldn’t be electricity, said all of us.
Which was odd given it’s all over the website, but ANYWAY…
We opened the champagne. We went for a walk up the mountain. We left the kitchen door open. The monkeys got in. We semi sorted out the mess. We swam. We opened more champagne. One of us may have peed in the pool. All of us may have swum naked. We took pics and admired each other’s bodies and showed each other our perfect tits even though they’re not so perfect anymore.
And then we sat under the wild olive trees and sang Happy Birthday. We ate red velvet cake. We licked icing off our fingers.
And off the knife.
And somehow the knife, very very sharp and glinting in the sun, became the talking stick.
And we had one of those conversations where everything comes together. We stopped talking about eye cream and wrinkles and tummy tucks. We stopped talking over one another. We started on the real stuff. About us. Our fears. Our thoughts. Our dreams. And our loves.
We’ve been friends for years, all us girls. We talk. But there are things we leave out. Things that seem too scary to voice. Secrets we keep. Stories we don’t share.
We shared. Somehow the knife, the stick, made us courageous. We were honest. We bared our souls. We shed some tears.
We respected one another’s words. And we trusted.
As the sun went down the light changed. The sky turned a beautiful pink. The air smelled like vanilla. It was perfect. We listened as the crickets started chirping. We listened as the baboon gave their final night calls.
And we listened to each other.
Without judgement, without advice and without agenda.
We just shared and listened.
And then the monkeys came back into the kitchen and there was a bit of pandemonium and it was pitch black and it was funny and we were laughing and we were crying and they got away with the quiches and nobody really cared.
We still had champagne.
We lay on our backs and sipped and it grew quiet and we whispered a little and looked at the stars.
And knew we had love.
Tons of it.
Tons.
Advice for a girls’ weekend:
Get directions
Check who’s bringing the toothpaste
Zip up your tents
Buy fruit if it’s on your list
And milk, coffee, tea, sugar, eggs, bacon and chocolate
Talk. It helps.
Remember other people want to talk
And that some people are shy
Talk very quietly if you wake up early
Drink water in between champagne.
Use moisturiser.
Go naked.
And know that you’re all in it together.
Bitches.
Lindani is in The Waterberg. We stayed in the Molope Tented Camp which is divine. It sleeps eight, is self catering although you can order meals, totally private, completely delicious and very well priced. Three and a bit hours out of Johannesburg.
far too often people talk at each other…not to each other. friendship where acceptance is the binding force is magical to the soul
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Amen.
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That is what friendship is all about – having a blast and forming great memories and “tons of love”. Great post.
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thank you. and yes!
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Sounds like a great, honest weekend – and I love the knife photo 🙂
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me too! except someone just told me it looked like a surfboard hovering over a kettle!!
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hahaha Nooooo! 😀
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Sounds amazing!
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it was great. living in a big city is cool but sometimes you just gotta get away.
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Skinny dipping in the wilds sounds sooo much better I agree 😉
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i’ll swim naked anywhere!
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Anywhere?
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I do take those kind of risks!
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Naughty girl 😉
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Sounds like an amazing trip. I envy you. I have girlfriends from all across the US but few here since we moved. None of my girlfriends know each other because they are all from different parts of my life and from the many different states we have lived in due to my husbands jobs. I am glad you have such good friends and always know how lucky you are to have them nearby.
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I am lucky.
And cheers – to friendship!
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Damn those monkeys for stealing the quiche! This sounds like a wonderful time, especially the talking part. It’s good to share the deep things, helps take a little of the burden off when you share it.
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absolutely. i read something today about fear. that once you make a decision about something, the fear goes. also a good one to remember.
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I’ve found that a decision diminishes my fear, but doesn’t take it away. I’ll take the diminishing, though. And some fear helps keep me on my toes.
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I do girls long weekends every summer with a group of friends. We also bring way too much booze and not enough planning goes into it. But we stay in hotels and there are no monkeys :{
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you’ll have to come to Africa for your next weekend away!
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This sounds like a thoroughly awesome time away from it all. I am glad they monkeys didn’t get dangerous.
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I think the monkeys were more scared of us than we were of them!
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Cheers to friendship indeed!
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Amen.
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Ah, it’s red velvet cake! I thought you’d killed someone!
Glad you had a nice girly weekend 🙂 xxx
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This sounds like a most excellent girls weekend ever. Fuck being well organised, chaos seems to have brought about an excellent result.
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