At this point, we have four cruises booked. The first three are back to back, back to back, and back to back for 42 nights on the same ship. We’ve been looking forward to this lengthy and exciting itinerary for a long time. It will bring us back to South Africa via Cape Town a few days before Tom’s birthday and Christmas.
We’ll have kept this house in our absence, preventing us from the necessity of moving into another house when we return, which we may not like as much as this one. As we settle in more and more each day, we’re finding that this is the perfect environment for us. It fulfills all of our needs and desires.
It’s not uncommon in Africa for a shortage of electric outlets in houses and for switches for the existing lights to be in odd locations, far from where one might expect them to be. Yes, there were a few workarounds we had to make to make it suitable for us. But, with Louise and Danie’s help, we have it all figured out.
But, in the almost two weeks since we arrived, everything has worked out, and we are as content as we could be in a holiday rental. Subsequently, we have no desire to move to a different house during the year we’ll be living here, except for the trips we must make for visa stamps and, as mentioned, upcoming cruises.
So now, after contracting Covid-19 which we believe was Omicron, and having such awful cases, especially with Tom ending up with pneumonia, we can’t help but wonder what will happen going forward when we begin to cruise again in five months.
When listening to cruising podcasts the past week, there’s a lot of talk about requiring masks to be worn while on board a ship except when eating and drinking, which wasn’t the case on this last cruise when we became infected. But couldn’t one become infected while in the dining rooms with hundreds of guests at any given seating?
There’s no easy answer, and I must admit, I am concerned about getting Covid again while on a ship. What if we became ill on the first week or two of the 42-nighter? That would be a nightmare. At this point, with cruising rules changing, we can’t be assured we’d get our money back. We’re still waiting on a refund from Azamara for over US $8000, ZAR 122950. This was for the cruise formerly planned to go to Ukraine. We all know what happened there.
We’re hoping that Covid will die down a little more between now and then. But, it doesn’t necessarily look like that could happen. Ah, these times we live in! How peculiar it is!
Today, Monday is a quiet day. We have no plans other than to cook a roast on the braai, with rice for Tom, avocados stuffed with seafood salad for me, and coleslaw salad. This morning, I made low-carb homemade ketchup, which we’ll use for the roast beef, burgers, and other meats. I prepped everything else for dinner, making it easy later on in the day.
Tom enjoyed his homemade blueberry muffins each morning with his coffee while I’ve been savoring my homemade low-carb blueberry scones, a rare treat to my morning coffee. We don’t eat anything the remainder of the day unless we get starving. We’ll have some meat and quality cheeses to hold us until dinner, but that rarely is necessary.
Since Tom lost so much weight and is feeling good, he’s been able to eat the high-carb muffins I made for him using regular flour and sugar. He’s been able to keep the weight off since we arrived. We’ll see how that goes. We both continually strive to keep weight off since we don’t want to have to replace our clothes for bigger sizes, nor do we want the potential health risks of carrying excess weight. It’s a constant struggle when we both love good food so much.
Be healthy and enjoy life!
Photo from one year ago today, June 6, 2021:
