We are on the move…London, here we come…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 28, 2022 with 0 Comment

Neither of us feels like embarking on a 90-minute drive to Gatwick in London. It’s a “bank holiday” weekend, and the traffic will be fierce, although we may be going in the opposite direction of the holidaymakers heading out of town and hopefully will miss some of it.

How are we feeling? We are both still coughing a lot and are tired and out of sorts. But, we have no doubt we are no longer contagious since it’s been ten days since the onset of our first symptoms.

Later today, we’ll arrive at the Courtyard by Marriott close to the Gatwick Airport, where we’ll stay until we test negative and feel safe to book a flight to Minneapolis.

Ironically, when we were in lockdown in India for ten months in 2020, we stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott. We’ve been in this hotel in Southampton for one week as of today. It’s beginning to feel like that time in lockdown when we dine in our room.

But, this time, we’ve been sick with no long walks in the corridors or marching up and down steps for exercise.

It seems that Covid-19 requires an enormous amount of time resting regardless of the variant. We have had no desire to get out and exercise. Although, Tom has gone out three times; once to go to the ship to report we wouldn’t be embarking, and twice to the chemist; once for cough medicine and cough drops, and the second time to buy more Covid-19 tests.

We have nine tests, four we’d purchased on the ship using up our remaining cabin credit that can be used for travel, and five more in one pack Tom bought yesterday for our personal use. We’ll test with the five-pack first, and once we get a negative result, we’ll test with the travel-ready kits for use for the flights.

It will be nice to get to another hotel. We’ve had the same dinner the past six nights in a row, and something different will be great. The options on the menu here have been limited for my way of eating and especially limited for what Tom will eat. Many of the items on the menu are vegetarian, which doesn’t work for either of us, or are high in carbs which don’t work for me.

Even during times of illness, I still stick to my way of eating with the utmost care. I wouldn’t want to increase inflammation by eating high inflammatory foods such as sugar, grains, and starches. Overall, neither of us has had much of an appetite, so the past few days, we’ve only had dinner.

We’re heading down to the lobby with our bags and checking out while we wait for our driver, who’s supposed to arrive in 30 minutes. Hopefully, he’ll arrive as planned so we can be on our way.

Next time we write, which will be tomorrow, we’ll be posting from London and our new location.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 28, 2021:

We’ve named this male bushbuck Thick Neck when we observed his neck is considerably more significant than the other males. For more photos, please click here.

We have a plan…Two days and counting, on the move…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 26, 2022 with 0 Comment

Yummy-looking treats were left in our cabin during the cruise. Of course, I didn’t eat them, but surprisingly neither did Tom.

It’s exhausting whatever we do right now: bending over to pick up and put on my shoes, going downstairs to order our dinner, or waiting in the lobby while the housekeeper cleans our room. This morning we both hand-washed some of our clothes while taking a shower. It took everything we had to wring out the wet items and hang them up.

Sure, we could use the laundry service, but my pair of pajamas that I hand washed would have cost the following for the two pieces: GBP 12.00, US $15.26. I think I paid less than that amount for those PJs when Old Navy had a sale years ago. A single tee-shirt is GBP 5.95, US $7.57. Again, we didn’t pay a lot more for our tee shirts.

Recently, I purchased about ten tee shirts of excellent quality from Amazon for US $17.99 each that most likely will last me for years. It makes no sense to have them laundered and dried in a too-hot clothes dryer by the hotel’s laundry service. We rarely dry our clothes in a dryer as we travel the world. Hanging them makes them last twice as long.

It reminded us of those ten long months we spent in lockdown in India when we hand-washed our clothes. We each only wore three outfits and recycled them over and over again. It was a wise decision at the time, and we’re finding it to be a smart one now.

In the past 24 hours, we devised a plan to allow us to see family as planned and avoid losing much on booked airfare and hotels. With this plan, the only fight we’ll lose is the one we booked from New York to Minneapolis when the Queen Mary 2, the sailing we missed due to having Covid, disembarks on May 1.

We have researched how long after testing positive and being sick with Covid, we might expect a negative test. It can be as little as five days or as long as months. Instead, we will book a flight out of Gatwick directly to Minneapolis once we test negative.

If we can’t get a negative test after we’ve recovered, the airlines will accept a doctor’s letter stating we are no longer contagious and are safe to travel. This letter will be in lieu of a negative test. Of course, we don’t want to be stuck in England for weeks or months if one or both of us can’t produce a negative test, which can happen.

That being said, we are hopeful we’ll both test negative by May 1, a mere five days from today. Are we still sick? Yep. Coughing and exhaustion are the significant symptoms right now. But, a lot can happen in five days. Five days ago, we were isolated on the ship, first testing positive and feeling awful. We’re greatly improved from that point.

This Thursday, a driver will pick us up at this hotel at 11:00 am and transport us from Southampton to London to a Courtyard by Marriott near the Gatwick airport. It’s a 90-minute drive. The cost of this private transport is GBP 200, UD $254.31, pricey by any standards. But, based on how we were feeling, the thought of going by train and dealing with our bags was unbearable. We’d rather spend money on this than on laundry.

We hoped to arrive in Minneapolis on May 1, but a few days longer won’t be a problem. This weekend is a “bank holiday” in England, and the airport could be chaotic. We won’t book a flight until we both test negative or get a doctor’s letter. Of course, neither of us cares to fly until we feel a little better, so staying a few days longer won’t be an issue.

The only time constraint facing us during this period in the US is our booked flight and hotel to Las Vegas/Henderson on May 15. Surely, we’ll make that fight and our booked fight back to South Africa on May 22. One way or another, it will all work out.

There it is, folks, a solution to our current dilemma, albeit with a few twists and turns along the way.

Your comments and best wishes mean the world to us! Thanks to so many of our readers who wrote with tips for Covid and suggestions on making this exit work for us. We figured out a solution that works for us in due time in our usual way.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 26, 2021:

This is our boy, Torn Ear. Enlarge the photo to see his left ear is torn. For more photos, please click here.

Second Covid test is positive…No cruise for us…Now what?…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 24, 2022 with 0 Comment

Tom placed four bananas in the window to ripen. This reminded us of the ten months we spent in lockdown in Mumbai, India in 2020 when Tom was served four bananas a day, often unripened like these. Yikes!

After a fitful night of coughing, I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed, shower, dress, and begin the process of taking one more online Covid-19 test, which requires contacting a live person through the Navica app and eMed, monitoring the test with me.

I knew it would be positive the second time we did the self-test in the past 24 hours. I still have many Covid-19 symptoms, whether Omicron or another variant. My throat is red and raw, my voice gravely and unrecognizable, and the cough…Well, the cough…It’s brutal.

It’s only been four days since I first tested positive on the ship. The tiredness is still prevalent, but the achy painfulness has waned, the headache and the feverish sensation that lasted for days. What did we expect?

Even if I tested negative today, I wondered how I could possibly get on the Queen Mary 2, manage to walk the long corridors, dress for dinner, and participate in events and fancy dinners. I could barely keep my head up to eat a few bites for breakfast this morning. It has hit me hard.

No, I don’t need to go to a doctor or hospital. I had a worse virus in South Africa in 2021 when I had trouble breathing and yet had a negative Covid test. The electric nebulizer and medication are helping tremendously, and today, for the first time since this began almost a week ago, I feel like the dry cough is loosening up a bit.

This also reminds us of those ten months in India with not much view from the hotel room window.

When I can get a negative test, we can fly to the US, which is up for grabs. Since we had to cancel today’s cruise on the Queen Mary 2, we’ll now have to fly to Minnesota from Southampton once I can manage a negative test. Tom is well on the mend. We didn’t use another test on him since his symptoms were almost gone. If one of us tested positive we couldn’t go on the cruise anyway. Why use up another test kit?

We will not wait for the next sailing on May 8th. If I test negative within a week, we’ll arrive in Minneapolis by May 1 as planned, head to Nevada on May 15, and then fly from Nevada to South Africa on May 22. We’d lose all the bookings we made in the US during May since we’d have to move fights, hotels, etc. Most likely, we’ll lose the airfare from New York to Minneapolis anyway. We didn’t want to compound the situation.

At this point, until I test negative, we can’t plan anything. We extended this hotel room for four more nights when I will test again. If it’s still positive at that point, we’ll extend it again. There’s nothing else we can do. It’s out of our control. In the interim, I’m resting, eating healthy foods, and treating the symptoms to the best of my ability.

They say Omicron is like a bad cold, at worst. It is not like any cold I’ve ever had. It’s sneaky. It’s insidious. And for some, it’s relentless. I only hope it is over soon.

This morning, when we couldn’t reach a live person at Cunard Cruise Line to report we won’t be going on the cruise, Tom decided to walk to the port to report it to a representative. We were concerned about them not perceiving us as a “no show,” negating our opportunity for a future cruise credit which they promise for positive Covid results.

Tom just now returned after a frustrating time at the port but managed to show my test results and our cruise documents to a representative who hopefully will document our reasons for not boarding.

We will keep you updated as we work our way through yet another challenging time in our world travels. Nope, we’re not considering giving up! (In case you were wondering).

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 24, 2021:

Everybody was busy munching on Big Daddy’s fallen tree. For more photos, please click here.

Day #164 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Busy day today…

Posted by worldwide-admin on September 3, 2020 with 0 Comment

We can often count on our routine to get us through another day, and in part, today won’t be much different. Add a few new tasks, and suddenly I feel busy, as we may have been in times before COVID-19.

Today’s photos were from this date in 2014 when our ship docked in England, enabling us to take a tour of Stonehenge. See this link for details.

Alternate view of Stonehenge.

I can’t wait for the busy days in the future once we leave India, including cooking, laundry, household tasks, and sightseeing. Heading out every two days to take photos added to our level of activity, and of course, weekly trips for shopping and other errands often occupied our days.

An additional rock had been discovered.

At this point, we realize and accept we may not be able to get back into South Africa until after the first of the year. Of course, if we ever get back to Marloth Park, we will easily spend an entire day fussing over the visiting wildlife, chopping carrots and apples for them, and later chopping and dicing vegetables for our meals. Gosh, I miss all of that.

Tom at Stonehenge.

But, as time passes, we can see other countries may be possible for us while we wait for the borders to open in S.A. At this point, it’s all about being able to fly out of India and head to a country close in or close to the African continent.

Me, at Stonehenge. It was raining, and we were fairly soaked.

It would have been possible to walk my goal of 10,000 steps a day simply by partaking in day-to-day activities in our old lives. It has taken several months for me to build the stamina that I lost after heart surgery. Still, finally, all these months later, I genuinely believe I will be able to go forward in a way similar to life before February 2019.

When I think back to a year ago, while we were in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, I had a terrible time walking to the local restaurant/pub, all uphill. Now, it would be considerably more manageable. For us, exercising has been an unexpected benefit of being in lockdown, basically forcing us to get moving instead of sitting all day.

Birds at Stonehenge.

Back to today’s photos. The June 2020 discoveries were made by archaeologists regarding the origination of these unusual rock formations as described here from this article:

“June 22, 2020: The mystery near and around Stonehenge keeps growing. According to an announcement from the University of Bradford, the latest revelation is the discovery of a ring of at least 20 prehistoric shafts about 2 miles from the famous Neolithic site of immense upright stones.

‘Astonishing discovery’ near Stonehenge offers new insight into Neolithic ancestors. Research on the pits at Durrington was undertaken by a consortium of archaeologists as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project. #DurringtonPits @gaffney_v https://bit.ly/2Nig6UX

Archaeologists say the “astonishing” shafts in Durrington Walls date back to 2500 B.C. and form a circle more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter. Each measure up to 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter and 5 meters (16 feet) deep.

Researchers say there may have been more than 30 of the shafts at one time.

Alternate view.

“The area around Stonehenge is among the most studied archaeological landscapes on Earth, and, remarkably, the application of new technology can still lead to the discovery of such a massive prehistoric structure which, currently, is significantly larger than any comparative prehistoric monument that we know of in Britain, at least,” said Professor Vincent Gaffney of the University of Bradford.

View from the opposite side.

The research was conducted by a consortium of archaeologists as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project. The University of Bradford was the lead institution, joined by Vienna’s Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology; the Universities of Birmingham, St. Andrews and Warwick; the University of Wales Trinity Saint Davids; and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre at the University of Glasgow.”

Large stone recovered from the area to illustrate the massive size of the stones.

This discovery doesn’t definitively explain how the rock formations were constructed. Still, it perhaps gives future scientists a little more information to add to their repertoire of data accumulated over the past few centuries. It will be interesting to see if more information rises to the surface in our lifetime.

Zoom in to read this text of the skeletal remains of a man found in Stonehenge.

In any case, we certainly enjoyed seeing the famous rock formations when we were allowed to walk on a paved pathway surrounding the area. For more on this, please see our post from September 3, 2014, here.

More skeletal remains were found in Stonehenge.

For today, I’m glad I had the above information to add to today’s post since I’m in somewhat of a rush to get to work on some tasks, details of which we’ll share later.

Have a pleasant day.

Photo from one year ago today, September 3, 2019:

Entrance to the Church of St. Mylor in the sleepy town of Mylor, Cornwall. For more photos, please click here.

Day #158 in lockdown in Mumbai, India Hotel…Cleaning up old posts…

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 28, 2020 with 0 Comment

Note; We hope everyone can find our site. I have no way to get a message to our readers who may be having trouble getting our usual link to load due to the necessity of emptying the cache on your browser. Your computer remembers our old hosting site, Blogger, and not our new hosting site, Hostinger, making it impossible for you to log in. If you clear your cache, the problem will be resolved, and no harm is done to your other settings. I have contacted our web developer to see if there is a way we can handle this on our end, but I don’t think there will be. We only hope you’ve found a way to find us. We still are at www.worldwidewaftage.com.

Enjoy our photos, yet again from South Kensington, London from this date in 2014, and found at this link. There are numerous food photos on this particular post from dining out in the area.

A prehistoric creature, at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London.

Since our new site went live, a few issues occurred that prompted me to make a tough decision to go back through every one of almost 3000 posts to correct any errors. There are 147 pages of 17-18 posts each. I will have to go through each post, one by one. I started yesterday from the first post on March 15, 2012, and have completed two of the 147 pages. I plan to do one page per day.

This is referred to as a Football Fish.

Another issue is that all old posts show a duplicate of the main photo at the top of each page. I’ve contacted our web developers today to see if they can correct this. Hopefully, soon this will be resolved. Please be patient with us as we work through this issue and a few other remaining issues.

More fish from rivers, lakes, and streams.

At this rate, if I do one page of 17 posts per day, I will complete the editing process in about five months. I finished this same process of correcting old posts about four years ago. However, with the recent transition to the new site, many lines and paragraph issues occurred. Also, in reviewing old posts, I’ve realized I’d missed many grammar and spelling errors in my past mission to correct the mistakes. Now, my goal is to correct everything. No doubt, it’s a daunting task which each day will take about an hour.

A lizard that puffs up the frill around the neck to scare off predators. This could not be very safe.

At first, I thought I’d do this each day before preparing each new post. But now, two days later, I realize I’d instead do it first thing in the morning. It’s not a pleasant task, like preparing a new post is for me. I’ve always been one to get the complex functions out of the way first thing in the morning, leaving me free to enjoy the remainder of the day’s tasks.

“Jaws!”

I was very disappointed to see how many errors there were in the old posts. I had no control over the line and paragraph spacing going wonky in the transition. But, the typos and grammar errors were all on me. It’s frustrating to face a 3,000 post string of errors when I think back over how hard I’d tried at the time to prepare each post correctly.

Komodo Dragons are found on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, and Flores. We’ll be spending four months in Bali, Indonesia, in 2016, where tourists have spotted Komodo Dragons on occasion. Komodo Dragons are of the species of Monitor Lizards, two of which lived in our yard in Marloth Park, South Africa. Please see this link to see our photos when they made a rare appearance by the pool.

I do not doubt this new process; I’ll still miss a few corrections; Fortunately, WordPress, as opposed to Blogger. Is more aggressive in reminding writers to type correctly and avoid making errors. This is a tremendous help. I’ve been using the apps Gingerly and Grammarly the past few years, but even they have missed several mistakes I’d made.

More marine life.

I give myself a break on this because I realize I am preparing the equivalent of an essay 365 days a year, at times during challenging and stressful periods, comparable to those most recently. These scenarios are a breeding ground for making errors.

We saw a smaller version of similar crabs at the beach in Kenya which is on the eastern coast in Africa. They moved so quickly. We couldn’t get a photo.

I laugh when texting family and friends over spellcheck changing words to unintelligible words and phrases, often leaving me in stitches. Then again, I usually type incorrectly since I’m slow when texting on my phone. I bet many of you relate to this laugh-worthy scenario.

Many of us lobster enthusiasts would appreciate a lobster of this size on a platter.

We love technology. But, technology is only as good as our skills to use it. I am not adept at web development, although I played a significant role in designing our new site. I am slow at typing, even after all these years of banging away on a keyboard. I pick away at a keyboard in a meager attempt to avoid typing errors. Even that hasn’t worked so well.

After many visits by Zebras in our yard in South Africa, seeing this lifelike rendition made me miss them. Click this link to see Zebras that visited us in South Africa.

I am hoping to get done early enough today to watch an episode of The 100 on Netflix before 3:00 pm when Tom and I try to have time to start streaming a few shows together. We’ll see how it goes. Of course, whatever I do is interrupted by the necessity of walking every hour for at least ½ mile, .8 km, to reach my daily goal of 5 miles, 8 km.

We saw Rhinos in the wild in Kenya. Some of the displays of Rhino were taxidermy. There was a sign stating that the horns had been removed and replaced with man-materials. Please click here for a few of our Rhino photos from Kenya.

Through all this recent sadness over the loss of my sister and the stress of getting this site up and running, I’ve never missed a day of walking. Knowing this may be beneficial for my heart is my sole motivator. Consistency is important.

Ah, my heart did a flip flop when Tom spotted this warthog. The first time either of us had ever seen a warthog was in October 2013, in the Masai Mara, Kenya, while on safari. Of course, later in South Africa, we joyfully saw them each day. Click here for the first time we saw a live warthog (scroll down the page).

Have a healthy and peaceful day!

Photo from one year ago today, August 28, 2019:

While on a walk in the quaint town of Falmouth, Cornwall, England, we encountered these vegetables for sale in a front garden. We selected a zucchini and a small pumpkin. We left the money in a jar sitting on the table. For more photos, please click here.

Travel day today…Tom’s tiger video…New booking in UK…”Baaaath, England…here we come on May 2nd!…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 5, 2020 with 0 Comment

Tom made this video while bouncing around in the safari vehicle, a bit jittery but worth watching.

Bath, England, is the largest city in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. In 2011, the population was 88,859. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles west of London and 11 miles southeast of Bristol. The city became a World Heritage site in 1987.

We have always heard that Bath is a fabulous historic town. We’re looking forward to exploring.

When we realized we had six months until our cruise from Lisbon to Cape Town sailing on November 10, 2020, from the time we arrived in Greenwich, England (near London) on May 2, 2020, it made sense to stay in the UK or at least four months to comply with the Schengen visa restrictions.
The UK isn’t a part of the strict policy of the Schengen visa, and we can stay anywhere in the UK for up to six months. Ideally, we’d have been able to tour Europe during those six months, but the restrictions only allow us to stay in other countries in Europe for a maximum of 90 days during any 180 days. That’s too limiting for our lifestyle.

The modern kitchen in the holiday home in Bath. Everything we need to begin cooking again after over a three-month hiatus from cooking as we traveled India and cruised.

Subsequently, we’ll stay in England and Scotland for approximately four months and Spain and Portugal for one month each. Although we’ve already been to both of these countries, we’ll be delighted to stay during these periods.

The living room is small but has adequate seating for the two of us.

As a result, we’ve started booking holiday homes beginning with England. Yesterday, we wrapped up a little house in Bath (pronounced Baaaaaath by the British) on HomeAway for a 30 night period. Very soon, we’ll book another place in the Cotswolds for another 30 days beginning on June 1.

We were surprised to find easy availability for houses in these particular areas, but we believe Conoravirus has resulted in less travel throughout the world. Since we can’t stay “home” to avoid the risks, we continue in our world travels, avoiding areas of most concern. In other words, we won’t be heading to China at any time soon.

Another view of the cozy living room.

The house in Bath is small, but it’s an expensive area, and we do fine in small spaces. Plus, we need to “lick our wounds” after this expensive India tour, including the Maharajas Express train and the two upcoming pricey cruises, especially the upcoming Viking Sun ocean cruise. Previously, Viking was known for their river cruises and have now built ocean-going ships, but they are more expensive than most cruises.

The bed is only a double, but we’ve managed this scenario many times in our travels.

Next month’s Viking cruise is 29 days, a long time to be at sea, obviously adding to the cost. Still, it does include unlimited internet, beverages, excursions, and meals in specialty restaurants. We’ll bear the only added expenses of US $30, IDR 2192.34 a day, in tips for the 29 days. We’ll have a $600, IDR 43853, cabin credit we can use toward the ends.

The total number of passengers is 930, with a crew of 465. Surely that number of staff will result in excellent service, which we expect from experience with Viking when we cruised the Mekong River with them in July 2016. There were only 54 passengers on the river cruise, but we had an exceptional experience visiting Vietnam and Cambodia.

The guest room where we’ll store our luggage.

Today is yet another travel day, but this is the second to last time we’ll have to fly to India. Road trips seem so much less exhausting and with waiting time (except for the traffic). We left the hotel at 1:00 pm and won’t arrive at our hotel in Chennai until 10:00 pm tonight. Long day…

May your day and evening be pleasant and rewarding.

Photo from one year ago today, March 5, 2019:

Little stopped by this morning to check out the pellet situation. As always, it was good. For more photos, please click here.

Boarded the ship today and soon we’ll begin sailing across the Atlantic to the USA!…

Posted by worldwide-admin on October 24, 2019 with 0 Comment

Our cabin, friendly and tidy before our luggage arrives.

Fascinating Fact of the Day About Southampton, England: From this site:

“Archaeological finds suggest that the area has been inhabited since the stone age.[15] Following the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 and the conquering of the local Britons in AD 70, the fortress settlement of Clausentum was established. It was an important trading port and defensive outpost of Winchester, at the site of modern Bitterne Manor. Clausentum was defended by a wall and two ditches and is thought to have contained a bathhouse. Clausentum was not abandoned until around 410. The Anglo-Saxons formed a new, larger settlement across the Itchen centered on the St Mary’s area of the city. The settlement was known as Hamwic, which evolved into Hamtun and then Hampton. Archaeological excavations of this site have uncovered one of the best collections of Saxon artifacts in Europe. It is from this town that the county of Hampshire gets its name. Viking raids from 840 onwards contributed to the decline of Hamwic in the 9th century, and by the 10th century, a fortified settlement, which became medieval Southampton, had been established.”

After a light breakfast in the hotel’s dining room, we returned to our room to close the bags and be ready to head out the door. We ordered a taxi to take us to the cruise terminal at 10:45 am, which is a little early, but we’ve gone to the airport this early in the past, and it’s always worked out.

Alternate view of our balcony cabin. We’re always OK with the small space since we only sleep here.

This was our first time sailing from Southampton, and we had no idea what to expect. As I write this from our hotel room, we’re hoping the Wi-Fi on the ship will be active at the time of boarding, enabling us to complete today’s post, including a few photos of the ship, Celebrity Silhouette.

With approximately 2900 passengers booked for this cruise. Check-in may be slow but nothing compared to the bigger ships with several thousand more passengers. We have avoided those vast ships.

However, with our Elite(priority) status, we can get into a faster-moving queue, which considerably speeds up the process. The porters take all of our bags away at check-in, leaving us to carry only a computer bag which we don’t want out of our sight and the blue cloth bag containing a camera and a few other essentials.

Another cloudy, rainy day in Southampton harbor.

After boarding, most often, we head to the cafeteria or Cafe al Bacio for beverages. This is when socializing begins. Onboard the ship, we don’t dine as early as we usually do when preparing our meals. Depending on how much fun we’re having elsewhere, we strive to be seated at a shared table by 7:30 or 8:00 pm.

Generally, we won’t receive our luggage to our cabin until close to dinner or after that. Thus, we’re wearing clothing suitable for tonight’s dinner in the main dining room, not dressy but less casual than we might wear on any day.

The muster drill transpires today at 3:15 pm when emergency instructions are delivered by ship staff. Each cabin has its designated muster drill area, outside on the deck, in a restaurant, or at the theatre.

The lounge area is on the same level as our cabin. It’s unlikely we’ll ever sit here.

Once the muster drill is over, which usually requires about 40 minutes, we are free for the remainder of the evening when the fun picks up where we left off, mid-day.

We check-in for the cruise and boarded the ship. The check-in process was seamless, with no hitches whatsoever. Within minutes of arriving at the cruise terminal, our bags were whisked away.

Tom went to the internet cafe and set up both of our accounts, and now with a good signal, we could finish today’s post. Thanks for your patience in the late posting.

Each day, we’ll be back with more photos and updates on the cruise and the ports of call we visit.

Back at you soon. Have a fantastic weekend!

Photo from one year ago today, October 24, 2018:

Last night’s full moon over Marloth Park. For more photos, please click here.

Southampton, England…A great hotel for two nights…

Posted by worldwide-admin on October 23, 2019 with 0 Comment

Image result for leonardo royal southampton grand harbour

The Leonardo Southampton Royal Grand Harbour hotel. (Not our photos).

Fascinating Fact of the Day About Southampton, England:

From this site:

“Southampton is a port city on England’s south coast. It’s home to the SeaCity Museum, with an interactive model of the Titanic, which departed from Southampton in 1912. Nearby, Southampton City Art Gallery specializes in modern British art. Solent Sky Museum features vintage aircraft like the iconic Spitfire. Tudor House & Garden displays artifacts covering over 800 years of history, including a penny-farthing bike.”

The hotel we selected in Southampton for two nights is the Leonardo Royal Southampton Grand Harbour is located only minutes from the cruise terminal. For these dates, the nightly rate is GBP 180, US $231.

The hotel at night.

We used accumulated points in Expedia and only paid GBP 145.50, US $187.06 for both nights in a king room with breakfast included, which we prepaid at booking.

Yesterday, taking our time on the drive and stopping for a light lunch, we arrived at the hotel later than expected. Subsequently, we dined in the hotel’s restaurant. Unfortunately, the lovely couple, Kim and Keith, whom we’d planned to meet for dinner, canceled due to Kim’s lousy cold. They didn’t want us to catch it, which we appreciated. There are plenty of germs on cruises as it is.

One of the many seating areas in the hotel.

As typical for hotels, the meal in the restaurant was good, not great, with prices commensurate with what we’ve observed in the UK these past few months. Tonight, we may go out or dine in the bar, which has an excellent menu for my way of eating.

Food is not so important to us when we have the cruise ahead of us where they’ll make everything befitting my restricted diet. In any case, we don’t make cruising about the food.

For us, it’s the opportunity to socialize with other travelers from all over the world that make cruising unique—now, situated in the hotel bar preparing today’s post at a table close to an electric outlet without much social interaction. We’ll make up for it soon enough.

My fast dying laptop (almost five years old) requires that I work with it plugged in with the battery on its last leg. On the upcoming cruise, we’ll have to find a spot close to an outlet.

Typical English breakfast served buffet-style in the main dining room.

We’ve been able to find an excellent place to sit near an outlet on several past cruises. Cruising on this particular ship, Celebrity Silhouette is new to us, and we’re hopeful we’ll find a spot close to all the action.

We prefer not to be isolated when working on the post, especially when other passengers stop by to chat. It may take six or seven hours for me to complete one post with all the interruptions, but we love the interactions with other passengers and, from time to time, crew members.

Cruise ships are often waiting in this harbor for enthusiastic cruise passengers.

It’s funny how passengers will say when they see us working on our laptops, “Couldn’t you have left the work at home?”

We laugh and often say, “This is “home” at the moment.”

Yes, we continue with our daily tasks, handling photos, the posts, financial matters, banking, and so forth wherever we may be at any given time. It’s the nature of our peculiar lifestyle.

I don’t have anything in the way of photos today. It’s raining, and we don’t care to walk in the rain, nor do we want to pay a taxi to take us around when we’ve already returned the rental car.

This is where we’re seated now as we prepare today’s post.

Yesterday, when we arrived and couldn’t get a signal on the phone and thus we drove around Southampton (population 253,651) and had a good look. After these quiet months in the English (and Wales) countryside, it’s a lovely city with too much traffic and commotion for us.

The cruise will be the perfect segue back to a crowded environment. Afterward, we’ll be on Minnesota highways with plenty of traffic, horn honking, and impatient drivers, typical for any large city.

Map of our hotel and its proximity to the harbor. Regardless of the weather, we’ll still have to take a taxi to the cruise terminal.

We always say the most courteous drivers in the world are in South Africa. The slower vehicles always move to the shoulder to let others pass on both highways and dirt roads. We’ve never ceased to be amazed by this phenomenon.

(Yeah, I know…I miss it, and every day I wonder if immigration will allow us to return and if we can rent the Orange house again…and then if “you know who” will return to see me.)

Well, folks, tomorrow is another “day-in-the-life” of these two nomads as we board yet another cruise, this time a transatlantic crossing.

Happy hump day to all the working people, and happy any day to the retirees!

Photo from one year ago today, October 23, 2018:

Single file, from matriarch to baby. For more photos, please click here.

Final expenses for two months in UK…Favorite photos….

Posted by worldwide-admin on October 22, 2019 with 0 Comment

The four of us in front of a large fireplace.

From this site

Fascinating Fact of the Day about Chepstow:

“Chepstow is located on the west bank of the River Wye, some 3 miles (4.8 km) north of its confluence with the Severn estuary. To the north of the town, the Wye passes through a limestone gorge, and there are limestone cliffs at Chepstow both north and south of the town centre and on the opposite (east) side of the river. The town is overlooked by the inland cliffs at Wyndcliff near St Arvans, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the town, and, from parts of the town, the Severn estuary and its bridges can be seen. The historic centre of Chepstow occupies part of a bend in the River Wye, and slopes up from the river to the town centre and beyond. As well as cliffs used for rock climbing, percolation of acidic groundwater has dissolved limestone to produce caves in the area, including Otter Hole, one of the longest cave systems in Britain and noted for its mineral deposits. The climate of the town is affected by its position close to the Severn estuary.

The bedrock of Chepstow is limestone, mudstone, and sandstone, overlain in places with some gravels and the clay and silt of the river’s tidal flats, which are of marine origin and up to two million years old. Most of the rock was produced in a warm, tropical marine environment when Europe was closer to the equator. The rock of Sedbury cliffs and those under Chepstow Castle are carboniferous limestones, hundreds of metres deep in the area, made of particles and shells of sea creatures from 330-360 million years ago. Layered outcrops of darker Black Rock limestone, which makes up a broad part of Chepstow’s bedrock, are very clear in cliffs along Craig Yr Afon, part of the Wales Coast Path extending from Wyebank Road, and by the link road from Bulwark Road to the M48, where the looser reddish Mercia Mudstone (which extends under Bulwark and Sedbury and forms the cliffs at the Severn) and the lighter Hunts Bay limestone are also seen.

The River Wye at Chepstow has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world.[18] The river was established as a boundary between England and Wales by Athelstan in 928. However, after the Norman conquest, areas east of the Wye, within the former Saxon royal manor of Tidenham and including Beachley, Tutshill, Sedbury, and Tidenham Chase, were included within the lordship of Striguil or Chepstow. In 1536, the river was confirmed as the boundary between Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. Since the early 19th century, housing development has continued on the east bank of the river opposite Chepstow, at Tutshill and Sedbury. Those areas, though located in England rather than Wales, are now effectively suburbs of the town.”

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By crossing this bridge, near the Boat Inn Restaurant in Chepstow, we left Wales and entered England.

Here are our total expenses for the 62-nights we spent in the UK.:

Expense	US Dollar	GBP
4 Holiday Rentals	$ 8,381.40	$ 6,426.17
Southampton Hotel (2)	$ 276.94	$ 213.35
Car Rental + Fuel	$ 1,985.64	$ 1,529.73
Dining Out	$ 675.07	$ 520.07
Groceries	$ 1,502.48	$ 1,157.50
Pharmacy	$ 478.20	$ 368.40
Tours	$ 42.00	$ 32.36
Total	$13,341.73	$10,247.58
Avg Daily- 62 ngts	$ 215.19	$ 165.28

When we look back over the past two months, mostly spent in England and most recently in Wales, we can’s help but smile, grateful that we changed our usual plan of staying in one location for longer periods.

The two weeks in Falmouth overlooking the Atlantic Ocean’s Falmouth Bay, the two weeks we lived on a farm in both St. Teath, Cornwall and then three more weeks on a farm in Witheridge Tiverton Devon and then in Chepstow, Wales have all been outstanding experiences.

This breathtaking renovated room in Chepstow Castle, may have been used as a bedroom.

These shorter-term stays have definitely inspired us to continue booking short term stays as we move forward into the future. The next bookings we are yet to arrange are for India beginning in February after our upcoming train tour on the Maharajas Express, a luxury train journey from Mumbai to Delhi.

As mentioned earlier, we decided to stay in hotels during our almost two remaining months after the six-night train excursion. Our next booked adventure is a Viking Ocean cruise from Mumbai India on April 3, 2020, ending in Greenwich, England on May 2, 2010.

The four of us in front of the Raglan Castle.

From there, at this point, we have no plans other than the cruise on November 10, 2020, departing from Lisbon, Portugal, ending on December 2, 2020, in Cape Town, South Africa. We’ve yet to hear back from immigration if they’ll let us return.

The two castles presented a different perspective of life in medieval times.

Once we hear from immigration, we’ll be able to book plans between May 2020 and December 2020. It makes no sense to book anything until we know if we can return to South Africa.

In the interim, right now we’re thinking in terms of the upcoming two nights in Southampton and the upcoming 15-night cruise to the US. Tonight, while in Southampton, we are having dinner with Kim and Keith who found us and our site from reading Tom’s posts on Cruise Critic several years ago.

Ken and Tom at Chepstow Castle.

As the time nears to our two months in the US, we get excited at the prospect of seeing family and friends in Minnesota, Nevada, and Arizona. We’ve yet to book flights for these locations, preferring to “play it by ear” while we’re there. It will all work out, one way or another.

In a matter of moments, we’ll be heading out the door to make the two-hour drive from Monmouthshire to Southampton and begin the next phase of our travels.

Our two castle tours were delightful, especially with friends Linda and Ken

We’re so grateful to be in a position to continue to treasure our life of world travel for however long we can and for the opportunity to share it all with our readers.

We’ll be back tomorrow from the Leonardo Royal Southampton Grand Harbour hotel, a stone’s throw from the cruise terminal, rated four stars. It looks fabulous online at this link. Of course, we add photos in a few days.

We were very content with our Shirenewton rental, conveniently located to downtown Chepstow.

As for our above total expenses for the 62-nights we spent in the UK, we’ve yet to add fuel for the trip to Southampton and meals for two days, nor the upcoming cruise. We’ll do a separate “total expenses” when the cruise ends.

May your day be rich in experience and love.

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Photo from one year ago today, October 22, 2018:

The next day Tom and I and Tom and Lois visited Lisa at her home in Marloth Park where, as a volunteer with Wild & Free, she rescues and releases bush babies. Such dedication. For more photos, please click here.

Final full day in Wales…Packed and ready for Southampton…

Posted by worldwide-admin on October 21, 2019 with 0 Comment

Out to lunch at the Cripple Creek Inn with Linda and Ken after visiting Raglan Castle.

From this site: Fascinating Fact of the Day about Chepstow:
New housing development in the twentieth century took place to the north and south of the town centre, and more recently beyond the A466 road to the west of the town. The town developed rapidly after the opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966, which replaced the car ferry between Beachley and Aust and allowed easier commuting between Chepstow and larger centres including Bristol and Cardiff. Over £2 million was invested in regenerating the town centre in 2004–05. This scheme, which includes sculptures and other public art, encountered some local criticism over its high cost but gained several national awards reflecting its high design quality. The area beside the river has also been landscaped in association with a flood defense scheme.

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We’re wrapping up the 11 days we spent in Wales. Our bags are packed in a manner that will make it easy to unpack for the cruise. The final bag to close is the third supplies and toiletries bag and the backpack with our laptops.

Overnight last night I backed up my computer on our portable hard drive which surprises me it still works after purchasing it seven years ago. I’ve already backed up everything to one of two clouds and thus, regardless of digital crashes, we’re covered.

In the past 24 hours, I did a lot of consolidating removing packaging of various new unopened items to already opened items, making more space in the bag. We do this regularly but I hadn’t done it since we arrived in the UK two months ago.

Linda and Ken each had the duck breast.

As of the end of today, we’ll have eaten most of the food we had on hand since we have no intention of taking food with us onto the cruise, especially based on the fact we’ll be flying to Minnesota (from Fort Lauderdale) in a mere 2½ weeks. That’s hard to believe how quickly the time has passed.

After I finish today’s post and we’ve had our final late afternoon meal, I’ll begin working on the final expenses for these past two months, entering totals in tomorrow’s post and also on our spreadsheet.

A few days ago we each ordered the latest and greatest Google phones which will serve us well in years to come. We’ll no longer have to buy SIM cards. This phone is capable of affordable short term calling and data in 200 countries.

Once the phones arrive we’ll sign up for Google Fi which has a pay-as-you-go plan that works for us. They aren’t long term contracts with flat monthly fees but rather plans where we purchase calling and data as needed. It automatically “kicks-in” when necessary.

Tom’s Italian chicken pasta lunch with garlic bread, of course.

With frequent use of our laptops using WiFi provided in holiday homes, we don’t have much need for data on phones other than for navigation while driving. With Google Fi, we’ll only use the phone feature for short calls from wherever we may be in the world since there are fees based on the country we are in.

We’ll continue to use Skype and Messenger for free calls. We plan to cancel our current phone number plan with Skype which enabled us to make calls to any landlines or cell phones anywhere in the world. But, there too there are monthly fees and costs for any calls that aren’t Skype to Skype.

The plan is such that Tom and I will need to use What’s App or Messenger to call each other. Otherwise, we’d have to each pay $.20 a minute based on our combined plan, which can add up quickly. Texts are free so we may text one another while we’re apart anywhere in the world.

My delicious lunch with three grilled scallops and a few slices of gluten-free sausage.

With my current phone almost completely dead, I’m looking forward to being able to add apps. My current phone even with an added data card doesn’t allow for the addition of many apps. With the new 128 gig phone, I am looking forward to downloading every app I choose.

We’re signing off for today to get back to packing some odds and ends and soon get to work on tomorrow’s post. We’re leaving at 10:00 am and will upload the post before we depart. We’ll see you tomorrow with the “numbers” and some favorite photos.

Happy Monday!

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Photo from one year ago today, October 21, 2018:

This male stole the warthog kill from the females, eventually leaving the remains for the hungry females. For more photos, please click here.

Tag: England