Well, that header is obviously a lie! I am still my usual disorganised self who procrastinates too much, tries to multitask too much and enjoys a lovely glass (or cup) of wine. I meant to get a Happy Christmas & New Year blog written in the bush, but that obviously didn’t happen, so here I am – back in Denmark and finally prioritising this on my to do list!
Being back at Singita for what was my shortest visit so far was a little odd to be honest. My remit there was quite different this time – I was doing a lot less facilitating and training myself and instead focusing on coaching and Train the Trainer activities for some of the management team members to be able to deliver my content to a new group of learners going forward.
And that is because I have decided not to take on this new group. It has been three years so far working with this wonderful company and I have enjoyed every moment of it – what an opportunity… but I am phasing out my on-property work with Singita. I will be back there in a few months, but after that I will mainly be focusing on services which I can do from anywhere like consultancy, training programme design & development, train the trainer and plenty of coaching.
This will allow me to find new clients to start a new journey with… which I am very excited about! Anyway I digress…
Christmas in the bush! Of course it was always going to be different without the usual traditions and my family – but it was a very good different. I had chosen the camp where I wanted to spend Christmas and it was based on the fact that it’s my favourite of all the Singita camps in Tanzania and that three of my promoted students are now running that camp as a Tanzanian leadership team – and I wanted to celebrate that with them!
They were also very excited to have me there and to understand a little more about what a Danish xmas entails – it’s a different day, there’s weird food, we dance around the xmas tree etc. But of course, none of that would happen – or…? I did celebrate Christmas on the 24th & there was a little weird food!
The day started with a cup of tea with the beautiful sunrise & bird song. Worked in the morning and then took the afternoon off to pamper myself a little with a bath & a bottle of bubbles.
In the evening, I helped get ready for the guests to come for a Christmas Eve celebration and then I made risengrød for my dinner! (a rice pudding with a butter, sugar & cinnamon topping)… which I cooked half in the kitchen to the joy of the chefs and half in my bed, which made the chefs think I was crazy!
And that was that – I was in bed relatively early after chatting a little to my family – but I had thoroughly enjoyed my day!
New Year’s was a non-event – I worked and was in bed by 10:30pm!
In between the work and the festivities, I was also super lucky to get out on a few game drives and I just love every single one of them as much as the last one… I never tire of being in nature and experiencing the animals up close. I can absolutely understand how much the guides enjoy their work – so amazing!
But no more bush or animals for the next couple of months at least… I am wrapped up warm here in Denmark and just hoping to see the sun once in a while in between the hours and hours of grey & dark skies.
The reason for choosing to spend winter in northern Europe is because my mum is having a back operation, so I am here to support, cook & clean etc. I am happy that I will also be able to do some coaching work from here, so that the bank account does not suffer too much.
At the same time I am working on ideas for drumming up some new business – Ooooooh I am bad at marketing & selling… but working hard on becoming more comfortable with it. Ideas welcome… my sister suggested sports betting as a secondary income, but I think I’ll pass – haha – so other ideas, please!
BETINA IN AFRICA 