Happy Easter to those who observe the holiday….Happy Passover… and other holidays celebrated worldwide…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 9, 2023 with 0 Comment

Happy Easter to all of our family, readers, and friends worldwide who celebrate Easter.

After a hectic morning, cooking for tonight’s Easter dinner for the two of us, embarking on a longer walk than usual, and doing a few loads of laundry on an outrageously humid day, I have run out of steam, and it’s only noon as I write here now. It’s the humidity that’s gotten to me when today the temperature will be a high of 92F, 33, but the dew point will be a ridiculous 79. See the comment below from the National Weather Service:

“What dew point is uncomfortable?

General comfort levels USING DEW POINT that can be expected during the summer months: less than or equal to 55: dry and comfortable. between 55 and 65: becoming “sticky” with muggy evenings. greater than or equal to 65: lots of moisture in the air, becoming oppressive.”

2. “How high can the dew point go?

The dew point can never be higher than the air temperature. Similarly, as the air temperature rises and/or the dew point drops, the relative humidity decreases because the air is getting farther away from saturation.”

3. “What dew point is it hard to breathe?

66-70 is uncomfortable. 71-75 is oppressive. Higher than 76 is miserable.”

Thus, even if the temperature isn’t high, the dew point can make us miserable, as indicated above. Today is one of those days, and my inclination is to hide away in the bedroom with the fan and aircon running. But I won’t. I’ll stay out here on the veranda, hoping some of our wildlife friends will stop by.

With the holidaymakers here for Easter weekend, many aren’t leaving until tomorrow or Tuesday, so we may not see them until then. Good grief, it’s been two days since we’ve seen Norman and his family, and I have two bowls of “Norman’s lunch” waiting for his arrival, staying cool in the refrigerator. Certainly, Nina and Natalie are partaking of treats offered by the holidaymakers, which may or may not be appropriate for their digestive tracts.

Some human food may result in severe illness or be fatal to some animals, and we fear this is happening whenever the park is as busy as it is right now. Visitors aren’t educated about the well-being of the animals, or they don’t care, which is insufferable. To think of one of these precious creatures dying in the bush after eating mealie (corn) or other grain products is heartbreaking.

As for today being Easter, we decided to stay home, away from the crowds, and maintain our lovely peaceful existence on one of those days we aren’t being social with anyone but one another.

When searching online this morning about Easter, I stumbled across this site which has 20 Easter Traditions Worldwide that you may enjoy, which are lighthearted and not necessarily religious for those who don’t celebrate. We posted the first five of the 20 below, but if they interest you, click here to see the balance from Woman’s Day Magazine. (Not our photos. Getty Images).

easter traditions eating ham and deviled eggs

Getty Images

1. “Eating Ham and Deviled Eggs

The Easter Bunny isn’t the only one with a thing for eggs. Many people in America sit down around a dinner table laden with holiday favorites like ham and deviled eggs, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.

Ham became a popular dinner choice years ago, mainly by default, since the pigs that went to slaughter in the fall would’ve had plenty of time to cure over those long winter months, making them ready for eating just as spring rolled around.

Similarly, deviled eggs are a popular choice because of the way eggs are used symbolically throughout the holiday as a symbol of rebirth.

easter traditions wearing easter bonnets

Getty Images

2. Wearing Easter Bonnets

Another Easter tradition in America is the donning of the Easter bonnet. This fancy hat became a popular addition to Sunday church attire because it represents a commitment to renewal when paired with new Easter clothes.

These head coverings are loosely tied with the end of Lent when they would be purchased assumably after a period of frugal financing where such luxuries were typically not purchased.

They’re also a great Easter craft for kids who want to DIY their way to a new holiday hat. In fact, at the height of their popularity in the 1990s, department stores would often sell kits for children, who would then enter their hats into a contest.

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3. Dining on Hot Cross Buns

In New Zealand and parts of Australia, hot cross buns are more than just a tune you must learn as a kid; they’re an Easter favorite. The island countries enjoy eating these dense treats on Easter during their meteorological fall.

Once you know that Easter comes right before their winter, it makes more sense that they’d be drawn to this bit of comfort food over the holiday.

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4. Dyeing Easter Eggs Red

In Greece, those who celebrate Easter through the Orthodox church forego the typical mix of colors when it comes time to dye eggs, instead focusing on a singular shade: red.

The crimson-hued eggs are doubly symbolic since they use the eggs to represent rebirth and the color red for Jesus’ blood, marking the triumphant return of the son of God.

People can get creative with their red eggs, creating different shades, intricate designs, and more.

Getty Images

5. Starting a Bonfire

In some parts of Europe, people will celebrate Easter by striking a match. In Northwestern European communities, it’s common to kick off a two-day celebration that begins on Sunday by starting a bonfire.

These fires are aptly named Easter Fires and were initially set to help chase the darkness of winter away. Over the years, they’ve become a fun way for community members to come together and celebrate the coming spring.

We have to imagine that they’ve kept their popularity over the years thanks to being the first big gathering following weeks of winter solitude.”

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 9, 2022:

Our balcony cabin on Celebrity Silhouette while still in Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. For more photos, please click here.

Planning a party at a party…Oh, oh…is this a good idea?…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 8, 2023 with 0 Comment

Not quite a Big Daddy with his horns still growing, this male sipped from the pool.

Danie always jokes when he says, “Don’t plan a party at a party.” Invariably, this often happens to us. It’s hard to avoid planning other social events while at a social event. One is more relaxed after a glass of something while hugs and lively conversations ensue, creating a party-inducing scenario.

Last night while at Jabula with the bar filled with many patrons who’d attended my 75th birthday party in February, Dawn and Leon suggested we have a farewell party poolside at their place. We resisted at first, but everyone said they’d attend and that having a farewell party was a must-do when we’ll be gone so long.

As of 11:00 am, the invitations have been sent, and although some of our friends have left the bush for a while, we’re expecting about 20 guests. As always, we could have invited more, but the space is limited, and we don’t want it to be too much work for Dawn, Leon, and the staff.

A young male kudu on the left and a female on the right.

We chose Thursday, April 20, at 1600 hrs., 4:00 pm, and asked everyone to bring meat to braai and their drinks while Dawn had her kitchen staff make salads and sides, including the ever-popular South African dish, pap and Sheeba. Here’s a link for details on how to prepare this staple dish served at most social events.

Neither Tom nor I eat pap and Sheeba. Tom won’t like it (I never tried it), and I can’t eat it with the sugar and corn in the recipe. I’d love this if I could eat these ingredients, but I’ve never tried it. (When it comes to living a keto lifestyle, even a bite is too much).

The other sides will be vegetables in one form or another. People in South Africa are used to bringing their drinks to parties. It is more the “norm” than not, and we’ve become quite accustomed to doing this. When in the US over the past several years, we’ve noticed that most often, the hosts provide drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

This forkl of kudus entered the garden looking for pellets. Due to the Easter holiday weekend, there are few visitors right now. It will pick up again on Tuesday.

With the high cost of alcoholic beverages in the US, I believe more people would entertain at their homes if they didn’t always provide ample wine, beer, and other drinks. Also, asking guests to bring their meat is as popular as it gets. When getting people together for socializing, it makes sense to let guests bring their meat and drinks.

Traditional, old-fashioned roles are observed here, more than we’ve seen in the US and other countries, especially today. Also, it seems that in South Africa, men gather around the braai, drinking beer and carrying on lively conversations. At the same time, the women often spend time together at picnic tables and hovering in the kitchen.

When the food is ready, typically in South Africa, the couples sit together while everyone dines on the delicious braai meats and side dishes.

We often see kudus when no other wildlife is around.

One of the reasons I prefer not to bring meat to a braai is because Tom often overcooks my meat when he’s having such a good time talking with the “guys” while hovering over the braai. At the last “bring your meat” party we attended a few weeks ago, I made chicken salad and coleslaw ahead of time for both of us, which worked out perfectly for us. Tom could still chat at the braai and didn’t have to worry about cooking our meat.

Even here at the house, he doesn’t love cooking meat on the braai. Often, he puts the meat on while I keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn’t get overcooked. It works out better if the meat is the type to slow cook. Let’s face it; Tom doesn’t care to do the cooking. But he does all the dishes, and I’ll cook anytime to avoid doing dishes.

We’ll have a dishwasher when we get to Florida and won’t have to worry so much about using electricity without load-shedding impacting electric costs. It will be great to use a clothes dryer once again. Also, it will be fun to shop at grocery stores where we can get some of the grocery items we can’t find here. It’s been a while since we had such conveniences.

Hmmm…We’re both OK about leaving at the end of the month and capping off our wonderful time here in the bush with friends at our farewell party. We couldn’t ask for more of a send-off. As of the completion of today’s post, almost everyone we’ve invited to our farewell party has RSVP’d.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 8, 2022:

Celebrity Silhouette Itinerary, Current Position, Ship Review | CruiseMapper — One year ago today, we boarded Celebrity Silhouette for a transatlantic cruise. We got Covid-19 during the last two days of the cruise and had to cancel our next cruise while still testing positive and being very ill. For more, please click here.

Figuring solutions for potential obstacles…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 7, 2023 with 0 Comment

Earl has been visiting each evening. Wildebeests are the only animals that poop in our garden. The rest go out into the bush.

The most imminent topic on our minds right now is getting our passports renewed as soon as we arrive in the US. We’ll arrive at our holiday home in the evening on April 30, hoping to get a good night’s sleep so we’ll be refreshed when we awake on Monday, May 1.

Once we get unpacked and settled that morning, we’ll begin applying for our new 10-year passports. We’ve decided to use a company in Washington, DC, since passport applications are also running behind in the US, again blaming the pandemic for this problem.

One of our kind readers, Cheryl, wrote to remind us by submitting a USA Today article about how the US is behind in processing applications. Although we were aware of this, which contributed to our concern about getting the passports on time for our cruise on August 1, we did considerable research.

We decided we needed to bite the bullet and pay for a passport/visa processing company to get them back on time. We will choose to receive the passports in 8 to 10 business days. The cost for this speedy service will be around US $1500, ZAR 27347 for both of us. We know this is an outrageous amount of money for this service.

You may ask, why did we wait so long? We’ve certainly known this date was coming up. If we don’t have the new passports on the sailing date, we wouldn’t be allowed to board the ship. We were informed we could apply in South Africa at the US Consulate. When their website wasn’t working to process our applications, we knew we had to devise another plan.

Then, suddenly, we were informed we had to leave early due to visa extension issues in South Africa, and everything changed. We should have done it while we were in the US in November, but we weren’t there long enough to receive them in time to fly back to South Africa. Ah, the dilemmas of world travel. We accept these realities and our responsibility for sometimes not being on the ball quite enough. Stuff happens.

Ruffles on the right side of the garden.

I can’t believe I managed to do the posts daily, let alone complicated paperwork. Most likely, I blame myself the most since I had a headache for 11 months since we got Covid-19 last April 20, and I couldn’t discipline myself sufficiently to get this done. I spent most days inactive and unmotivated.

The headache now? It’s gone! After a ten-day cycle of Prednisone and ingesting multiple allergy medications, I finally feel free of the headache. However, I am still feeling some allergy symptoms once I tapered off the drug while still taking all of the other meds. I feel confident once we leave the bush, my symptoms will improve significantly when free of all the dust, pollen, grasses, and dust mites prevalent in this area.

When we return in 14 months, it will be winter here when allergies aren’t quite as bad. We’ll see how that goes at that time. Once we return, we don’t plan to stay longer than six months simply when we aren’t interested in dealing with these immigration issues. We’ll do one visa “run” to get a new 90-day visa stamp, but we aren’t interested in doing more.

We’ve been taking our walks each morning after breakfast and are pleased we can increase the distance a little each day. Tom does fine and could walk for hours, but I still have problems with my legs hurting, making long distances an issue. Hopefully, as we walk more and more, this will improve. It feels good to be moving around once again.

Tonight, we’re off to Jabula for dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll have three weeks remaining until we depart, and we’ll continue to go right up until the last night since we leave on a Saturday. It will be unusual when dining out in Florida. Most likely, we’ll dine out twice a week while we’re there with over 100 restaurants from which to choose, all a golf cart drive away. That should be fun.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 22, 2022:

The new watch face on my Fitbit Sense. How appropriate is that? I didn’t walk much yesterday when I took this photo, and we were too busy with other tasks. For more, please click here.

We’re all set to go except for packing…Posting plans for 90 days The Villages in Florida…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 6, 2023 with 4 Comments

This morning, filling my 28-day pill case with my three prescription meds and vitamins, I started organizing and assessing how many tablets I’ll need to last while we’re gone for 14 months. I still have a little remaining inventory, and when Doc Theo writes me a one-year prescription for the others, I’ll be good to go until we return in mid-June 2024.

I disposed of a massive batch of useless packaging materials and reduced the amount to bring with us, which I’ll do again when I get the years’ worth next week. As for the supplements I take, I will buy those in Florida, most likely from Costco or Amazon. There’s no point in paying to haul those with us.

Each day, I plan to go through a cupboard or drawer to thin out what we’ll need to bring, what we can toss, and those items we’ll leave behind in the black plastic bins in the storage room. Again, there’s no point in paying to bring all the spices and condiments we’ve accumulated in the past 11 months in this house.

We’re trying to use up as much food as possible and won’t be grocery shopping again unless we need a few items for our meals, such as bacon, eggs, and salad ingredients. We’re working our way through all the meat in the freezer.

On top of that, we have lots of wine left from my birthday party, but each time we have sundowners, I have one small glass of regular wine (not light) and perhaps have a second glass of low-alcohol wine with 75% less alcohol than traditional wine. We’ll store the rest of the unopened bottles for our return, along with some items Tom drinks. All of that will stay fresh without a problem.

Also, we’re both leaving some clothing behind. When we return, it will be winter, and we’ll need some warm clothing. However, we’ll need warm clothing for the upcoming cruises to Norway, Greenland, and Iceland, where it will be cool even during the summer months. Also, it could begin to be cool when we arrive in Boston and Minnesota in September.

Johnny was on the other side of the garden while his mom was visiting. He seems to like it better on that side.

One thing I am looking forward to while living in Florida is easy-to-access products we use for cooking and general items one may pick up at a Costco or Target store. Plus, we’ll be able to place orders from Amazon and receive orders while staying at The Villages.

Speaking of The Villages, as mentioned in yesterday’s post and today’s heading, we look forward to sharing the details of what life will be like while living in one of the most popular and desired retirement communities in the United States. We’ll share photos, pricing, and information about many of the venues we’ll experience at our leisure, including dining out, shopping, and entertainment.

Perhaps our expectations are too high for meeting people. We plan to partake in as many activities as possible to improve the odds of making new friends. Plus, we expect some of our readers to live there, and we’re hoping those who do will contact us for dinner or a drink out at our location. How fun that will be! Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you are there and when we can meet.

Jasmine and Gordy seem to get along quite well. Could he be Johnny’s dad?

Even if you live outside The Villages and if it’s convenient, perhaps you could visit us for sundowners on the veranda at our new place. We also have a lot of old friends who live in central Florida, and we hope to get together with some of you while we’re there if it works out for them.

Of course, we plan to see friends Karen and Rich at some point. Karen’s mom Donna lives nearby, so surely we’ll see each other when they get together. Many of our “snow bird” friends will have left Florida for the summer months, and we won’t be able to visit with them. But we’ll see how it goes. Some may stay through May. We’ll be leaving at the end of July.

Once we arrive, we’ll be busy getting our passport applications mailed to the US State Department. We’ve already completed the forms, so all we have to do is send them to the appropriate address. Once we get one good night’s sleep, this will be on our agenda.

This morning, after an excellent breakfast and a few tasks completed, including booking transport from the Orlando International Airport to our holiday home for US $33, ZAR 600 per person, we went for our walk, which we’ll continue until we leave and pick up again, once we arrive and get a night’s sleep in Florida. It feels good to be walking again, but it may take a while to build my stamina after being relatively inactive this past year.

The weather has begun to cool considerably. No longer are we plagued with zillions of insects and courageously high humidity. This could change in a day. After all, TIA and one never knows.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 6, 2022:

Tom’s photos of this morning’s sunrise from the veranda of our bedroom at Karen and Rich’s home in Florida. For more photos, please click here.

New travel plans revealed….Leaving South Africa in 24 days, not returning for over a year…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 5, 2023 with 4 Comments

Earl has been stopping by for the past several days.

We knew this time would come…that we’d be leaving Marloth Park for an extended period. We do this knowing we’ll be back in about 14 months after many adventures in between. It’s about time we get back out into the world! It’s been quite enjoyable spending the past few years, off and on, in Marloth Park, but the rest of the world awaits us.

When speaking with the immigration attorney, she emphatically stated we have to leave South Africa on or before April 30, or we will be considered “undesirables,” which would ban us from returning for five years. We wouldn’t qualify for another waiver after we’d already used that option after I had open heart surgery in 2019. We have no choice but to leave.

Baby nyala Natalie is so adorable. She’s growing up so fast.

The interpretation of the new dictates imposed by immigration for pending visa extension applications, like ours, is unclear, but we can’t take any chances. One never knows for certain what will happen when trying to leave the country.

Secondly, we have discovered we cannot apply for our new 10-year passports at the US Consulate in Pretoria, which we also planned to do while here. It was entirely doable before the pandemic, but now the phone at the US Consulate doesn’t get answered regardless of when we call and how long we let it ring. The website claims we can apply for an appointment online. This is impossible. The link doesn’t work. TIA.

Mom Nina is in the forefront with Natalie outside the little fence.

I called the US Embassy, and they refused to help, saying that a US passport applicant must go through the consulate. What a mess! We’d have to leave even if we could have stayed longer. Our 10-year passports expired in 2021, and now our 4-year passport expires in January 2024. The upcoming cruises we’ve booked require at least six months remaining until the passports expire to board the ships.

As a result of both of these scenarios, we knew we had no choice but to leave. Since it’s not easy getting US passports in foreign countries unless on a short-term emergency basis, which is not us, we also knew we needed to return to the US to renew the 10-year passports.

So the question became, where do we go in the US for three months? We’ll be spending time with family in Minnesota and Nevada in September after the completion of two of the cruises. Holiday homes are priced out of our budget in Minnesota and Nevada, and since we have three months to fill until the first cruise on August 1, we decided to step outside the box and try something entirely new.

Nina and Natalie usually visit together. From time to time, Natalie hangs out with her dad Norman.

A long time ago, we watched a documentary about The Villages in central Florida and were fascinated by all it offered seniors. Where could we go that would be fun socially, perhaps near other seniors? But, for us, this is merely a stop along the way to fill these three months and not a “look-see” for any potential plans for the future.

To stay in some arbitrary US location and try to meet people and have a social life right away it’s tough in the US and many other countries. It’s not as if strangers try to make new friends when they’re out and about. After living there all of our lives except the past 10-plus years, we know this. By leaving Marloth Park, we are leaving many wonderful friends behind.

Nina and Norman enjoying breakfast at our house.

We had a busy social life in the US, but it had taken years to build relationships, unlike when people were ultra-friendly and welcoming. We thought if we went to a retirement community with lots of activities, we might be able to enjoy a busy social life during those three months. The obvious answer was The Villages for the three-month stint.

We got to work researching at VRBO, our preferred holiday home site, and researched exclusively for The Villages, which was easy to do. When we started seeing very nice golf carts that were often included in the rental, we wondered…was it possible we could avoid the expense of a rental car? Every possible shopping and entertainment venue, restaurant, and more were within a short drive using the golf carts allowed on all streets within the community.

Yesterday, we signed up for a three-month rental of a three-bedroom, two-full-bath property with a golf cart that we’ll be moving into on April 30. We’ll be departing 90 days later to head to Scotland for the first of two upcoming cruises on August 1.As mentioned above, we’ll be back in the US in September to see family. Afterward, we’ll be off to South America for many months, including a cruise from Quito, Ecuador, to the Galapagos Islands.

We booked our flight from Nelspruit to Johannesburg to Atlanta to Orlando for April 29. The journey will take about 30 hours, with the long overnight flight of 16 hours and 50 minutes from Joburg to Atlanta, a flight we’ve become very familiar with. We no longer anticipate it with dread. We know what to expect…lots of movies, little sleep, and terrible food. We don’t like to eat in the middle of the night anyway. Oh well.

Tomorrow, we’ll share details of our posting objectives during the three months. This will be an entirely new perspective for our site that may be of particular interest to seniors, with many photos included.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 5, 2022:

Not a lot has to be said about a beautiful sunset. It speaks for itself. This is in front of our friends Karen and Rich’s Apollo Beach, Florida house. For more photos, please click here.

Busy booking into the future…Details coming tomorrow…Routines…Delilah’s new baby…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 4, 2023 with 0 Comment

Only moments ago, these three giraffes zipped through the garden so fast it was hard to take a photo.

We haven’t felt this excited about booking into the future in a long time. Although we’ve left South Africa several times since we arrived in January 2021 during the pandemic, most likely, we’ll be gone for one year, returning with much enthusiasm at the time. Today, we’re finalizing the details and will get back to you in tomorrow’s post, outlining everything we’ve booked and why we’ve booked them.

A lot will transpire over the next year, and soon, we’ll update our itinerary to post here. This morning, we were busy researching and handling bookings since I find once I’ve uploaded the post, I want to be off of my laptop and have less motivation to research than I do first thing in the morning.

I’ve always been a morning worker, with my mind fresh and alert, allowing me to zero in on important projects. But, by early afternoon, my interest fades, and lighter work is more appropriate. Also, this morning, I baked a double batch of my flax and coconut bread, which I have every morning with two fried eggs and keto barbecue sauce, a weird combination I’ve come to love.

Tom always has four eggs and about five pieces of streaky bacon, all of which I cook for him, making my meal simultaneously. I’ve gone a good routine and can knock off the two plates of food in about six minutes. I cook Tom’s eggs in a large skillet and mine in a little non-stick pan. He likes his eggs over-easy, and I like mine well done.

Tom gets up a lot earlier than me and usually has keto blueberry bread with coffee when he first gets up, and we have breakfast a few hours later. The bacon cooks on a plate (no paper towel) for 5½ minutes on high in the microwave while the two pans of eggs are cooking on the gas stove top. The single piece of keto bread is popped into the toaster and is done when the eggs are done. It’s all a great start to the day.

Today, we did our walk before having breakfast since Vusi arrived to clean earlier than usual, and we thought it would be nice for him if we were out of the way. It all worked out. When we returned from the house, Vusi was just about done.

Please zoom in to see his adorable budding horns.

The keto bread loaf is out of the oven, and I’ve already sliced it into 24 pieces, placing them into sandwich bags of three and freezing them. I take out one bag every three days and use one slice daily, keeping it in the refrigerator. With the humidity here, it keeps better in the fridge for a few days rather than sitting out. Toasting makes it taste perfect.

Oh, I love the simplicity of our daily lives. The routines are rewarding and familiar, while the amazing interspersed travel experiences and adventures are a welcome break from that routine, often making us appreciate it all the more.

Each step of the way in our travels is cherished for its uniqueness and opportunity to expand our horizons, our knowledge, and our vast experiences over these past 10½ years since we began, totally oblivious to what the future held. Now, all this time later, with many tumbles along the way, we feel more in touch with our lives, each other, and the world around us than we ever imagined.

Ruffles, due to her ruffled ears, stopped by again this morning.

Sure, sometimes it’s tough, and sometimes decisions are hard to make, as you’ll see in tomorrow’s post. But, somehow, we always manage to figure out our next best move and carry on with love and hope in our hearts for a full and rewarding future, for however long we’re granted to continue in this dream of ongoing world travel.

We’ve even surprised ourselves that it’s been so long. We never imagined we’d travel for more than a few years, let alone for as long as it’s been now.

Oops, I just had to jump up to take the main photo today, three giraffes walking through our garden. What could be more heavenly?

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 4, 2022:

Tom hadn’t eaten baked beans in years. Along with the chicken and ribs, green beans, and salad, it was a perfect meal at Karen and Rich’s Apollo Beach, Florida home. For more photos, please click here.

Busy Monday…Time to do passport renewals…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 3, 2023 with 0 Comment

An adorable young male kudu was resting in the shade. Notice his tiny spikes of budding horns. Cute, eh?

We have a lot of work to do today. Today’s post will be short and to the point, as opposed to my usual chattering on and on. We’ve already had breakfast, gone for our walk, and I’ve made a fresh salad for tonight’s dinner. Last night, we thoroughly enjoyed my slow-cooked lamb neck (I ate half of it) and Tom’s separate big pot of roasted short ribs; it was all finger-licking good.

It’s not easy to eat those two types of meat without using one’s fingers when the meat is tender and falling off the bone. When meat in South Africa is butchered, they leave on a lot of fat that locals savor as a specialty. As Americans, we’re used to well-trimmed meat with little fat and don’t quite have a taste for the fatty portions.

As a result, as we ate, we used our fingers, me more than Tom, to ensure we got every delectable portion of the meat minus the fatty parts. It was one of the tastiest dinners we’ve had lately, although many have been quite good. Louise and Danie introduced me to lamb neck when they invited me for dinner at their home while Tom was away. I loved it!

When Tom returned from the US, we went to the local meat market in the Bush Centre, and I was able to buy a lamb neck. It was ZAR 150, US $8.38, enough to feed me for two nights, unlike when I dined with Louise and Danie, and I ate the entire thing in one sitting! For me, it was like eating candy.

After dinner, we sat outdoors for a while until the mozzies got bad and then headed indoors to stream a few shows and call it a night. Since today, I took the last dose of Prednisone; my sleep has been fitful the past ten days since I started the medication. It tends to cause insomnia. Last night, I slept through the night for a total of 7 hours and 38 minutes, according to my Fitbit. This is the most sleep I’ve had in weeks.

Nina, Norman, and Natalie have been in the garden several times each day. Note the two kudus in the background.

This morning on our walk, I noticed I had more stamina for the first time, and we went a little further. After being immobile this past year with this head and sinus thing, I spent too much time lounging, never getting much exercise. I feel more confident walking fast and getting my heart rate up after knowing my cardiac condition is excellent after Friday’s stress test. Gosh, peace of mind is worth everything.

For many, a spiritual aspect of our lives is vital to our sense of well-being. We always say if one has their health, they have everything, but as seniors who’ve lived long and full lives, we know this is only true in part. Many other life circumstances make us feel like we have everything; good relationships, financial stability, an active social life, mental health, physical health, and well-being.

If one of these above areas is lacking, we can find ourselves unhappy and distraught, even if we have good health. Occasionally, any of us may be wrought with sorrow associated with the loss of any of the above. As resilient human beings, we have it within our power through love, support, spiritual resources, and sheer will and determination to overcome such sorrows in time.

It’s not easy, by no means, but we all possess the ability to learn, to grow, to recover. and eventually, to move on. When I think back to times when the challenges felt like they were too many to conquer, somehow, most often out of a sense of responsibility, I muddled my way through, as all of you have done at different times in your lives as well.

Now, we’re off to work on the passports, and we’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 3, 2022:

Tom and Lois (who visited us in Marloth Park in October 2018) and the two of us at the biker bar, Nav-A-Gator Bar and Grill, in Arcadia, Florida. For more photos, please click here.

A new day, a new dawn…Great relief and peace of mind…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 2, 2023 with 0 Comment

This is Chevy, an impala who spends most of his time in our garden. We try to avoid giving pellets to impalas since there are too many to feed. But Chevy often gets in on the action with the other wildlife.

Waking this morning with a smile on my face made me realize how important it was to have those medical tests done and receive such good results for both of us. Then, I thought of the new immigration ruling that allows us to stay in South Africa until we leave for the cruise at the end of July, almost four months from now.

Of course, we’ll confirm this with the lawyer tomorrow, but based on the wording in the new document, it appears to be accurate information. Knowing these two unique aspects of our lives, we’re able to sit back and relax for the remainder of the time we’ll be here.

Sure, we could leave early and go to Scotland a few months before sailing out of Edinburgh. Still, after considerable research, we were dismayed over the high cost of spending the summer months in Scotland, a country with a short summer season of warm weather.

This is bushbuck, Tulip. Tulip is probably pregnant again. Her calf, Lilac, now visits on her own without her mom.

It would have been fun to spend time there, but we always like to live in a lovely house, and we’d have had to sacrifice too much to do so. Since the onset of our travels, and after a few holiday decisions we later regretted, we’ve come to a place where the property we rent must fulfill our objectives.

As a result, we have to consider the cost of holiday homes before we start booking flights and other events. It was the same reason we decided against staying in England in the past few years…the UK, in general, is pricey these days, much more than when we visited in the past.

This has been the case with many holiday rentals worldwide since the pandemic. Yes, if a tourist takes a one- or two-week trip to anywhere in the world, they can typically find suitable holiday homes via companies such as VRBO and AirBnB or even affordable hotels.

Big Daddy, on a mad dash to catch up with a female he’s been sniffing.

At this point, after our extended stay in Mumbai in lockdown for ten months, we have little interest in long-term hotel stays. Although, we’ll always stay in hotels in the US when we visit family in Nevada and Minnesota and during short stays in specific countries as part of our ongoing itinerary.

When we arrive in Scotland at the end of July, we’ll be staying in a hotel for a few nights, preferably close to the cruise terminal. After checking hotel prices in Edinburgh during that time frame, it appears that hotel prices close to the terminal average of around US $300 per night, not a price we’d be willing to pay for longer than one or two nights.

We’d love to share new adventures from our original departure date of June 8, leaving us about seven weeks until embarking on the cruise. But, based on the cruises we’ve booked for the future and those increased costs, it makes a lot of financial sense for us to stay in Marloth Park during those additional weeks.

Last night was another fun night at Jabula. This morning, I am focused on making a special Sunday dinner; roasted lamb neck for me and short ribs for Tom with whole carrots, whole mushrooms, and onions, all well seasoned. We have everything roasting in the oven until no later than 3:00 pm,1500 hrs. We are unable to use the oven during load-shedding.

Before load-shedding begins, everything will be done, and I’ll take the pans out of the oven to eat later on. Most likely, as hot as it is today, the pans will retain the heat, and we won’t have to reheat our plates to eat our meal, with rice for Tom and salad for both of us.

Have a great Sunday, and be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 2, 2022:

A small buoy must have been attached to the tail of the frequent manatee visitors, making it easier for the tourists to spot. For more photos, please click here.

Immigration changed the rules again…Oops…Tom spilled iced tea on his laptop…Medical test results!!!…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 1, 2023 with 2 Comments

A lone zebra stopped by, but a short time later, a few friends joined her.

Based on a new document posted in the past 24 hours, it appears that Home Affairs will allow visa extension candidates who filed before March 31, 2023, to stay in the country until December 31. I forwarded the new document to the attorney and will speak with her on Monday to verify the amendment to the last agreement stating we had to clear out by April 30.

Hopefully, they don’t make any further changes impacting our preferred departure dates, which are up in the air right now. What a relief this would be if this new document is accurate. We’ll report back here accordingly.

Tom spilled his entire mug of iced tea on his laptop a short time ago. It’s supposed to be water-resistant, so we’ll see how that goes in the next few hours. I looked online, and if necessary, he can replace it at Takealot.com and have a new one in four or five days. He’d be lost without it.

Zebras are heading down the driveway to continue on their pellet search.

Yesterday morning, we met with Doc Theo for Tom’s aortic aneurysm screening and blood test results, followed by his cardiac stress test. Theo was delighted to tell Tom he was in tip-top shape. His tests were all normal. He did fantastic on the stress test. Theo couldn’t believe how Tom was so young for his age, taking no medication and having no known medical conditions.

I was a little anxious as Tom was having his stress test on the treadmill. I hadn’t had any cardiac tests since the surgery four years ago. I knew that at some point I’d have to be tested but put it off, justifying it with the fact I’ve had no cardiac symptoms.

When Tom was done, after the glowing reports from Theo, Tom stepped out to the waiting room, knowing I’d be a little more anxious with him watching me perform the test. I was worried that since I had Covid-19 last April, suffering from the headache, facial pain, and allergies, I had been relatively inactive over the past year. I was fearful I wouldn’t be able to handle the required pace on the treadmill.

A few giraffes quickly moved through the garden.

Other than running around the house performing household tasks and cooking, I’ve spent the better part of each day sitting. It was hard to feel like exercising, although I tried many times when I had the darned headache and couldn’t seem to get motivated.

But, once I got going on the treadmill, all wired up for the EKG, comforted by Theo that he wouldn’t push me too hard, I took off and could keep up without an issue. He pressed me to do the test up to my maximum heart rate for my age. All the while, he kept reassuring me I was doing great and that the results printing on the machine were all looking perfectly normal.

When all was said and done, he gave me a clean bill of health. There wasn’t a single issue during the test or after during the cool-down period. I was pleased and so relieved! Theo said there was nothing on the printout that indicated I’d ever had heart surgery or had any issues at this time. Maybe I’ll be one of those lucky heart surgery patients that never need more surgery or stents down the road.

Tom is willing to walk with me twice a day, once in the morning and another in the afternoon. Theo suggested we both start exercising regularly to maintain our good health. This morning, we took our first walk out on the dirt road, watching for lions or any other wildlife who may be out and about. After I build stamina, most likely, we will do one long walk in the morning after breakfast and be done with it for the day. We’ll see how it goes.

Last night, we had a fabulous time at Jabula. David always reserves our two usual seats at the bar. Our food was perfect, and the Cheers-like bar occupied every barstool. We knew everyone there. That’s what makes it so much fun, but we always love meeting newcomers.

We were back home by 8:30 pm, 2030 hrs., bellies full, and we were ready to hunker down for the night. We watched a show, but I fell asleep at the end. After that short nap, I had trouble sleeping and was awake for a few hours. A nap may be on the agenda later today, before or after the second walk.

We are very grateful for the immigration news (if it doesn’t change again), the results of our medical tests, and to be enjoying our lives more than ever with this new peace of mind.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 1, 2022:

Month: April 2023