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 #162 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…

Posted by worldwide-admin on September 1, 2020 with 0 Comment

In 2014, we traveled to Normandy, France, on a private small-group tour from the ship. At the time, I was less interested in touring Normandy than Tom. Tom was especially interested and passionate about visiting this historic site. However, everything changed once we arrived at the location, and I found it impossible not to be captured by the powerful message and presence of this critical cemetery and part of history.

Photos posted today are from this date in 2014 from this link.

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

Our small group of 12, riding in a van from the port, were less friendly than most small group tours we’d participated in in the past. As a result, we mostly toured the vast site on our own, later meeting with the group. The tour lasted over several hours as we walked from area to area, emotionally moved by everything we saw.

Tomorrow, we’ll share several more photos from the Normandy tour, but on this particular date on September 1, 2014, we’d posted only a few photos, for whatever reason, as shown.

With hotel rates increasing with more and more business people arriving from throughout the country, we’re currently booking for shorter periods when it seems we ccan’tbook for weeks at a time. It appears the rates are much higher for long periods, as opposed to short periods, as much as US $25, INR 1820 per night. We keep checking daily in an attempt to lock in better rates.

The region of Normandy is rich in history and charming for its appealing French architecture of the ccentury’spast.

Of course, it would be great if we could negotiate a better rate with the hotel. But, after attempting to do so, their prices wweren’tas good as we could get through Hotels.com on our site, after factoring in the “one free night with every ten nights “they provide. We did the math, and wwe’reahead using the website. However, the hotel provides us with a 30% discount on meals which helps.

Also, eal to all of our readers to use the links on our site for your Amazon and travel needs. We receive a small commission when booking through our links on our site. The pricing for you, using our site, is the same as yyou’dreceive if you go to these sites on your own and wwe’reprovided a small commission to offset a few of our website expenses. S so much appreciated. We received a number of inquiries from readers mentioning they have noreceivedng the automated email each day with our new daily post. It appears you will have to sign up again for our new site. We apologize for the inconvenience. There is a link entitled “Sign Up to Our Newsletter” at the top right of the main page, where you can enter your email address and will automatically receive the most recent post in your inbox. It takes a day or two to activate this, so; please check our link in the interim: www.worldwidewaftage.com.

The fog rolled into the Normandy region, as shown in our early morning two-hour drive.

Otherwise, everything seems to be working well on our site. Our developers continue to work in the background on a few issues that don’t impact your reading of the new daily post. I have a lot to learn about using WordPress while I spend at least an hour a day going back through the 3,000 old posts, making corrections.

There are a few items I ccan’tcorrect which are images of particular items wwe’dpurchased from time to time. WWe’dcopied the ads from Amazon or another site to illustrate what wwe’dpurchased. Now, those images are gone on the retail site, and I ccan’tseem to delete them from past posts. You may notice these from time to time. Please move past them, knowing there iisn’tanything we can do to resolve this issue.

As in many other areas of Europe, many homes and buildings are attached, each with its definitive front.

Mainly, these images were posted in the first few years of our world travels, in 2012 and 2013. IIt’sunfortunate that Blogger had so many issues over the years that require me to go back over every post. As mentioned, this process will take many months, doing a batch each day. In the interim, you can still read old posts without interruption.

II’mbehind today due to a few tasks that kept me busy; paying off the credit cards we do the first of each month; heading downstairs to the reception desk to pay the current bill, which took more time than it should have. And working on the corrections. I should have been done with ttoday’spost an hour ago.

The area is filled with tourists from all over the world.

Have a safe and fruitful day! I won the game with this word! (II’mreminded of the word “ruitful” when last night when I ccouldn’tsleep, I used this word when playing Scrabble with other online players).

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, September 1, 2019:

The greenery, the cliffs, and the white sand beach create a stunning scene at Swanpool. For more photos, please click here.

Day #161 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Mad about this…Are you, too?

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 31, 2020 with 0 Comment

We’re still working on a few issues on our new site. Mainly, we’ve been getting many email messages from readers who fortunately had access to our email addresses. They can’t load our link. To them, it appears we are down. Obviously, for those of you seeing our new posts each day, this is not an issue. However, many readers need to empty their “cache” to bring up our same web address: www.worldwidewaftage.com.

Today’s photos are from this date in 2014, as we boarded yet another cruise. Please see this link here for more.

We spotted several popular attractions on our way through London to the Harwich pier, including this church.

This transpired because we changed our hosting company from Blogger to Hostinger, although our web address didn’t change. Those readers’ computers or devices are “remembering” the old link pointing to the former hosting company. I hope somehow those readers who don’t have access to our email can figure out that we haven’t stopped posting and are still here, hoping to be so for more years to come.

Otherwise, all is moving along well. As mentioned earlier, I am going back through each of our 3,000 posts and correcting errors. I started making corrections beginning on the post on March 15, 2012. But, as of today, I am only up to October 12, 2012, with lots more to go. It takes at least an hour to edit 20 posts. I will be at this for months to come.

Buckingham Palace.

Between walking, posting, editing, and handling other general business stuff, my days are full until finally in the late afternoon. We can take a break to start streaming a few shows and escape from our confinement reality.

There’s a harsh reality that’s been on my mind, especially after reading the text in the “year-ago post” mentioned below in this post.

Big Ben was to the right in this shot, but I could not get the photo in traffic.

It wasn’t that I’d suddenly and miraculously started feeling better after enough time had passed since I’d had open-heart surgery in February 2019, which at that point had only been 6½ months earlier. It was because I was finally off three heart medications with side effects that were stripping me of any possibility of a quality of life.

At the rate I was going at that point, we’d surely have had to return to the US, for me to sign up for Medicare to become the proverbial patient, frequently visiting the doctor with a plethora of chronic symptoms and given more medication to treat those symptoms, rather than look at how these three drugs were impacting my life.

Ferris Wheel in London is referred to as the “Eye.”

It wasn’t easy to stop taking these drugs, and I didn’t do so lightly. I spent hundreds of hours in research, determining the potential risks if I stopped them. After following strict guidelines on how to wean off of these three drugs, finally, on this date one year ago, I was free.

The change in my pain levels and lack of mobility dramatically impacted my state of mind and hopefulness. After I stopped the drugs, I no longer needed to be lying down most of the day, no longer felt listless and sleepy, and could bound about the house with the similar zing in my step before I had the dreadful surgery.

A quick shot was taken from the taxi of the Tower of London.

Although my legs tire easily while walking due to persistent vascular disease, I continue to work past it, hoping someday this will improve. Otherwise, in the interim, other than a typical ache or pain here and there, not uncommon at my age, I feel good. No doubt, certain positions precipitate a pain in my chest where my sternum was wired back together, such as when getting in or out of bed. I expect this discomfort to last indefinitely.

However, I’m mad. Sure, I may have been given extra years of life having had triple cardiac bypass surgery with three arteries 100% blocked (heredity), and for that, I am grateful. But, I didn’t feel bad before the surgery, other than a pain in my jaw which ultimately proved to be the warning sign of cardiovascular disease. Women, pay attention. This is a common symptom for women, whereby men may be more inclined to have arm or chest pain.

Not sure as to the name of this memorial as we zoomed past.

In any case, why am I mad? Simple answer, folks, which many of you will relate to….time is passing while in lockdown, chipping away at any possible time I have left on this earth. I am 72 years old, and now, I have spent five months in lockdown in this hotel in Mumbai, India. We could be looking at five, six, or seven more months trapped here.

Will we end up wasting an entire year of our lives, at this later point lost, sitting in a hotel room, when we could be out seeing more of the world, more than we have in the past many years of world travel? What a waste of precious time! I believe this bothers me more now than it would have if I’d been 20, 30, 40 years old. But at 72, one could easily be wasting 10% or more of their time left on this earth.

A memorial near Buckingham Palace. With WiFi restrictions, we’re unable to look up the names of these monuments.

This is not intended to diminish the sorrow for those and their family members directly impacted by the horrors of COVID-19. My heart breaks for all of these people, as well as those who’ve lost their jobs, financial security, and countless families with children unable to attend school who are missing a vital aspect of their growth and development.

On top of that, the sad scenarios worldwide of wars, looting, rioting, shootings and unjust, befallen upon citizens and peacekeepers from every faction of life. It’s heartbreaking. There’s war transpiring in India right now at the India/’Chinese border. We live in trying times.

At last, our ship, Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas.

But, everything is relative. And a family stuck indoors without being able to go out to dinner, a movie, bowling, or sporting events, requiring their young children to wear masks and stay away from other people, has its own set of woes and frustrations. This can’t be good for their young emotional state, let alone that of their parents.

All we can do at this point is “our part” to avoid infecting others by social distancing, wearing masks, and making every attempt to stay safe and healthy until this scourge in human history eventually wafts away.

We always appreciate having a sofa in the cabin as opposed to lying on the bed when relaxing.

I pray for all of us, our safety, personal freedoms, and our dedication to hope for the future. Be well

Photo from one year ago today, August 31, 2019:

Colorful buildings create a pretty scene on the narrow roads in small towns in Cornwall. For more photos, please click here.

Day #159 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Using hotel rewards…

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 29, 2020 with 0 Comment

Note: We’re experiencing duplicate main photos in old posts, which our developers are working on resolving. Hopefully, soon this will be changed. Thank you so much for being patient as we muddle our way through “new site” challenges.

Today’s photos are from the National History Museum in South Kensington, London, England, on this date in 2014. Please see that link here.

The time to venture downstairs to the reception desk to pay our bill seems to come more quickly each month. Although we’re affording the costs of living in a hotel, we still cringe over the nightly rates for the room and evening meals. Breakfast is included. Taxes are 28% on top of the room rate. The tax for our meals is 18%.

This is an actual bee, and its size is shown.

No, we don’t have the expense of a rental car, entertainment (duh!), or wine and spirits, all by-products of being in lockdown now for over five months. The “rent” itself is higher than we usually pay for a holiday home, but in those cases, we must add the costs for a rental car, groceries, entertainment, and wine and spirits.

In essence, we’re paying less per month than we would have paid living in a holiday home. Of course, the perks are considerably less, if not non-existent. As we’ve mentioned repeatedly, we cannot access any of the hotel’s usual facilities, not the health club, the restaurant, the bar, the daily newspaper, and sadly no access to the pool or outdoors.

Photos through the glass are less vivid.

Subsequently, paying the monthly hotel bill (including dinners) at approximately US $4,000, INR 292514, is hardly a sum we relish in delivering. However, with the utmost gratitude, we’ve had a clean and safe environment during the trying times of COVID-19 while trapped in India. On top of the above sum, we pay for insurance, prescriptions, vitamins, website charges, streaming services (more now than usual), cloud storage fees, and a variety of odds and ends, mainly toiletries.

As members of Hotels.com, we’ve accumulated several “free” nights using the link on our site. The amounts determined by the value of the free nights are solely based on our average room rate for the nights we’ve recently used and paid, plus a nightly fee of US $10, INR 731.

Insect displays in the Charles Darwin research area of the museum.

We booked three free nights using Tom’s account from August 29 to August 31, 2020. Then we booked the first 12 nights in September using 12 free nights. All 15 nights reflect a shortage since the room rates and taxes were higher than the value we’d accumulated for each night. Thus, we paid US $481.08, INR 35181, for the 12-nights, including taxes, but not our meals for this period.

The room prices online vary nightly by quite a significant amount. We attempt to check pricing several times a day to ensure that we get the best possible price when we’re ready to book again. We’ve observed the nightly rates increasing and more and more time passes since the onset of the lockdown as more and more in-country flights become available and more in-country business travelers frequent this hotel.

Flying insects.

We have to accept the reality that we could be living here for many more months. There is nothing on the horizon on any news sources in India that international flights will be resumed any time soon. As of yesterday, India, in the number three position in the world, has more new cases and deaths from COVID-19 than the US or Brazil, both in the number one and two positions, respectively.

There were numerous paintings of animals from artists throughout the world.

These facts don’t bode well for India, allowing incoming and outgoing international flights. There are a few flights to the US, UK, and Dubai but, we aren’t interested in flying to any of these locations with the high incidence of the virus.

Nonetheless, we don’t forget for a minute that we are safe, in a clean and hygienic space, and have little responsibility other than to care for our personal needs, laundry, exercise while continuing to manage our site. I am working one hour a day on the edits on the past almost 3,000 posts, and although it’s cut into my much-needed free time, I’m getting through it day by day.

Stay safe and healthy. God bless.

Photo from one year ago today, August 29, 2019:

Ruins at the shoreline at an overlook in Falmouth, England. For more photos, please click here.

Day #156 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…A special thank you to our web developers in India…

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 26, 2020 with 0 Comment

Note: If you can read the posts on our new site on your smartphone, but not on your computer, laptop, or tablet, please empty your cache, and you’ll be able to see us on those devices. If you don’t know how to do this, please email me with the operating system you use (Windows, Chrome, Safari, etc.), and I will send you easy step-by-step instructions. Voila! The problem will be solved!

The staff at the reception desk are helpful and friendly, maintaining their cool when disgruntled guests complain about the WiFi charges.

Today’s photos are from this post on August 26, 2014, while we were in South Kensington, London, England staying in the lovely Regency Hotel. To maintain the continuity of the dates of the past photos we’re sharing, today’s hotel images may not be as attractive as those in the past and those upcoming in the future.

But, today’s post is not so much about England and more about the process of working with our fantastic web developers over the past few months, ironically located here in India. Here is some information about the company below:

“We are a digital marketing agency that specializes in optimizing websites to increase their visibility by improving their keyword rankings on search engines and promoting businesses on the social media platform to generate popularity and help establish them as a Brand. Our services include SEO, Social Media Marketing, PPC Marketing, Website Design and Development, Social Media Management, Hosting, Content and Maintenance, iPhone and Android Mobile Application, and many more.”

Although our room is more significant than a ship cabin, it’s small, as shown in this photo.

Almost a year ago, Kate, our dedicated representative and web developer, contacted me by email. Each year I get dozens of inquiries from such companies, asking us to work with them. With Blogger instituting many changes and the editing issues we’ve been experiencing for years, we knew we had to make a change.

Also, our prior web developer had long since gone out of business, and we had no one to ask when we were presented with issues. Also, our advertisers needed a new look as well as updated links. Long ago, when our former company suggested we switch to WordPress, a popular blog posting platform used by millions of businesses worldwide, I refused to do so when I feared long delays in making the transition and in losing the stats and readers we’d accumulated over the past eight years.

The lobby lounges are pleasant and comfortable. WiFi wasn’t available in the room.

When Blogger sent a message stating their platform was making changes in July 2020, we decided it was an excellent year to make the difficult transition. Also, we noticed Blogger was incompatible with many smartphones, making our site and our archives challenging to read and manipulate. This resulted in the necessity of posting a procedure for viewing our site on the phone at the top of every post, which is now no longer necessary. Our new phone platform is seamless and easy to view and manipulate.

Although Kate and I only communicated by email, there was something special about her responses to my endless questions. Ironically, when we first communicated almost a year ago, I had no idea their company who’d revised our site was located in India, one of many sister locations of the worldwide company, The SEO Company USA.

The hotel’s exit to the street.

It was only when we finally started working together in May, while already in lockdown in Mumbai for two months, that I put two and two together and realized that Kate and her company were located in Mumbai, not too far from our location. Small world. We couldn’t have made a better choice.

I would admit that the process would have been more straightforward if we had started a new site from scratch. Add the fact that I wasn’t the easiest person to work with under these circumstances: demanding, bossy, impatient, and persistent, making this process all the more challenging by my impatience, and constantly worrying about being able to continue to post to ensure our worldwide readers could continue to see new posts daily. This added to the stress of getting this accomplished.

An additional lounge area in the lobby.

However, Kate and her support developers remained calm, communicative, and patient with me throughout the detailed process. At times, I felt I was “yelling” in email messages. And yet, Kate and her staff remained steady and reassuring. Of course, the most challenging part has been in the past ten days when my dear sister Susan passed away in the middle of the night when only hours before we were going “live.”

A lack of sleep and the profound grief attributed to my persistence and impatience over this past week and a half, the most challenging time in this process. Had these dates not coincided, I am confident I could have stayed calm and patient, my usual demeanor. At that point, my only worry would have been getting the new posts uploaded daily to reassure our readers.

The lower-level dining room in the hotel where we had the included breakfast.

The concept of moving over almost 3,000 posts, and thousands of photos, was an outrageously complicated and time-consuming process, unheard of in the majority of most blogs and website development. We are in awe of our chosen company’s expert knowledge and determination in accomplishing this monumental task. All of our archives are organized and easily found and viewed in the links on the right side of the home page.

As of now, we’ve worked through most of the “kinks” and edits, and both Tom and I are confident we made the right choice. Kate and her company will continue to provide service over the first year at no additional fees if we request any changes or corrections.

The bar and lounge area adjacent to the dining room appears comfortable and inviting. The bar and restaurant staff have been kind and helpful in providing us with ice as we requested.

I won’t post the cost we’ve paid for this service. Each blogger/company’s needs are different, and the service is priced accordingly. But, I must add, we can’t imagine we would have been provided better pricing by any company in the world. The endless hours they worked, days, nights, and weekends, were beyond my comprehension. The prompt response to my endless inquiries made me wonder if Kate ever slept. She was always right there beside me through this process.

Should you have any website design, development, and optimization needs, this is the person and the company to contact:

Name: Kate Miller

Email ID: kate@theseocompanyusa.com

Website URL: https://www.theseocompanyusa.com/

Phone No: +91 8431344070

Luckily, guests can enter through the front of the building as the work is being done.

Kate uses Whatsapp, and thus, if you are not in India, communication will be accessible through this free downloadable worldwide app or email, if preferred. Despite the time difference, you won’t experience any difficulties in communicating. Kate and I only spoke on the phone once during this entire process. Instead, we communicated through email and texts.

We are grateful for the attention to detail and exemplary service we’ve been provided through this process. Thank you, Kate, and the staff for your expert work, patience, and diligence. Maybe now, we can sit back for the next eight years while we hopefully continue soon. In the interim, the daily posts will continue.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, August 26, 2019:

Arriving across the bay in Falmouth, England, we captured this view looking back to our holiday house. For more photos, please click here.

Day #155 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Yesterday marked 5 full months in this hotel…

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 25, 2020 with 0 Comment

Note: Our site is still coming together. There’s a huge white space being addressed in the bottom portion of the homepage, which we hope to have tightened up soon. This has been a work in progress which we’ll continue to fine-tune over time. In the interim, there will be a new post each day on our homepage in the upper left-hand corner below the headings. Feel free to comment on any posts. We are receiving many at this time. Thank you for your patience and for staying with us during this period, both during the upgrade and, of course, during this seemingly never-ending lockdown.

Today’s photos are from August 25, 2014, while we visited South Kensington, England.

And so we begin today’s post…

First off, no words can express how appreciative we are for the warm and loving wishes and prayers from readers worldwide for the loss of my dear sister, Susan. The comforting words have meant the world to us as we work through this challenging period of grief.

With the high cost of driving in London, most cars we see other than taxis are high-end vehicles, such as Lamborghini, Bentley, Ferrari, and Maserati.

Tom was also very close to Susan, and it was a big blow to him as well. Often, over the years, while she and I talked on the phone, he would participate in our lively conversation, yelling out humorous and enthusiastic morsels, often leaving the three of us in stitches. Our mutual love of travel, world affairs, philosophy, and ancestry kept conversations between the three of us quite entertaining. We will miss her, more than words can say.

There’s row after row of ornate white apartments in South Kensington.

And here we are, back to our routine of hotel living, definitely less stressful, now that most of the issues with our new site have been resolved and continue to be resolved. I’ve continued to walk approximately 30 miles, 48 km, each week through all this stress. Lately, it’s been a struggle, but I knew it was essential to continue.

We had no trouble finding the distant Laundromat, Bobo’s Bubbles.

Today’s photos are from this date, August 25, 2014, while we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves in South Kensington, England, staying in a beautiful hotel, The Regency, conveniently located to restaurants, museums, window shopping, and laundry, all of which we visited on foot. Taxi fare was expensive, and thus, we’d opted for this convenient location that never let us down.

The boulevard outside the Laundromat.

It was a long walk to the laundromat, but we filled an empty wheeling suitcase with dirty clothes. Tom wheeled while I navigated in and out of the streets to find the nearest facility. We sat in chairs while we waited for our clothes to wash and dry. We folded everything on a big table and neatly placed them in the suitcase. Able to use several washers at once allowed us to be back out on the street in about 90 minutes.

The Royal British Society of Sculptors.

Nowadays, with COVID-19, I doubt we’d want to visit a laundromat. In the future, most likely we’ll only choose holiday homes with at least a washer, a dryer being of less importance. Wow! I could sure use a washer right now. Although our clothes smell fresh from handwashing, the items we aren’t wearing, still sitting in our luggage, smell musty. Once we get somewhere other than here, we’ll have to wash every item in our bags.

On a walk on a Saturday while in London, we stumbled across a Farmer’s Market open from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm on weekends. The smells were amazing.

Ah, when will that be? It doesn’t appear international airports aren’t opening anytime soon, flying, at least not to any countries we’re interested in visiting. Yes, some flights to Dubai, the US, the UK, and a few other European countries. Still, they only allow Indian nationals to return to India or fly out for a specific reason, not including us. No flights are for general tourism at this point. South Africa is still in lockdown, and we can’t see flying there anytime soon.

If we could’ve cooked our meals in London, we’d have purchased some of the items for sale at this Farmers Market.

Friends we made on a cruise, who’d asked us for some advice when they began traveling the world over a year ago, have purchased a home in Florida and are busy outfitting a house they’ve bought with household goods and furniture. They had also sold everything they owned and now are starting all over. We are happy for them based on their enthusiasm to be settling back down.

The produce looked too perfect to be organic.

But, again, this is not us. We can not conceive of such a thing when we still, regardless of COVID-19, are hopeful for the future. We may not be able to cruise as often as we had in the past, nor will we visit any big cities where the virus is rampant. But, we still perceive many options will fuel the passion we both feel to see more of the world.

It was around 1:00 pm when we arrived. We wondered if these chickens had been sitting outside for the last four hours.

As mentioned in our heading yesterday, it was five full months ago since we checked into this hotel on March 24, 2020. Indeed no cause for celebration. We’re reminded how grateful we are to have avoided contracting the virus. Hospitals here are packed and scary. The overfilled private hospitals, which we heard this morning, have been forced to take the overflow from the public (free) hospitals. Patients are lying on cots, 12 or more to a room. It isn’t very comforting.

These baked goods looked appetizing!

We are grateful. And although this past week or more had been horrible with the loss of my dear sister and the stress of getting this site up and running, we are now settling back into our routine with a little more ease and hope for the future.

The larger bread was priced at US $8.12, 4.90 pounds.

Stay safe. Wear masks. Be grateful.

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Photo from one year ago today, August 25, 2019:

There is an endless array of shops and restaurants in this delightful area of Falmouth, England, one year ago. For more photos from this date, please click here.

Day #147 in lockdown Mumbai, India hotel…Travel on the Eurostar from Paris to London…First live post tomorrow…

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 17, 2020 with 0 Comment

The Eurostar train came into the station, which will travel under the English Channel to take us from Paris to London in 2014. Tom, my railroad guy, explained that the train is operated from either end, never having to turn around for the return trips. For more photos and the story, please click here.

Urgent note for today: My dear sister Susan passed away yesterday, and I have decided not to post on the new site today. I had little sleep for two nights, and my brain isn’t working at total capacity to learn an entirely new system today. Hopefully, tomorrow you’ll see our new site with a new post. Thank you!
Today’s photos are from the post from August 17, 2014, while in Paris, France. See the link here for more photos.

While we waited for the train.

Today, we’re sharing photos from our trip from Paris to London via the exciting Eurostar train, which travels under the English Channel. In years past, it was often referred to as the “Chunnel” but less so now as more and more travelers have used this good, efficient service, respecting its proper name.

It was an exciting mode of transportation for us first-timers when considering the engineering feat required to take six years to complete. It only takes 35 minutes for the train to travel through the under-the-ocean tunnel.

The station while we were still in Paris.

The entire train ride, including considerable above-ground travel on an outdoor track, requires 2 hours 36 minutes plus waiting time at the station and disembarkation at the destination point. In total, it was about a four-hour undertaking.

Tom was finally smiling again when I told him we wouldn’t have to “walk” the bags down steep steps.

For 25 exciting facts about Eurostar, please click here for comprehensive information that may particularly appeal to train buffs and those considering experiencing not only this fast means of travel between these two countries but also in its novelty factor as a sightseeing adventure in itself.

We were taken from our seats which were more comprehensive than airplane seats. I had pictured a four-seat configuration with a table in front of us, which was not the case with our seats.

Once we arrived in London, we took a taxi, one of those traditional “black cabs” as follows: “As well as setting the tone for the general proportions of all black cabs since, the Austin FX3 is also the reason why all London taxis tend to be black. … In 1958, the FX3 design evolved into the FX4, which still serves as the basis for the modern TX4 models.

The scenery along the tracks was mostly limited to industrial areas, although we passed a few areas of the French countryside.

We found taxi fare to be often more than the cost of dining out at most restaurants we visited while in London, as also the case in Paris. So once again, we walked everywhere.

A church steeple at a distance through the glare of the glass window.

Fortunately, by staying in the lovely area of South Kensington, it was an ideal location for walking with shops, restaurants, and museums less than 20 minutes from our excellent hotel, the historic Regency Hotel.

Cows. Not wildlife but, we enjoy seeing animals wherever we may be.

With expensive laundry service in both cities, we found laundromats within walking distance and waited while our clothes washed and dried. We waited until we had accumulated enough dirty laundry to warrant the walk with a rolling bag to the distance laundromats in both cities.

Within seconds of entering the tunnel, I took this shot of blackness, resulting in only the reflections of the seats in the glass.

If we were to have our laundry done by the hotel in Mumbai, our monthly laundry bill would easily top US $300, INR 22456. As mentioned, we hand wash our clothing every few days and only have jeans washed and dry by the hotel. Instead of wearing jeans, I’ve been wearing yoga pants each day which are easy to wash in the shower and hang to dry.

Within seconds of departing the tunnel. We were now in the UK.

As for comparing sightseeing between London and Paris, we both found Paris to be more exciting with better photo ops. Although we had many wonderful experiences in London, most of which we accomplished on foot.

We arrived in London at the St. Pancras station.

Would we return to either city? Probably not. We saw exactly what we wanted to see, and with it still fresh in our minds, it’s unlikely we’ll return for anything other than a short layover that may be required.

After exiting the train station, we had to walk a distance to the next street and around the corner to flag a taxi. No taxis were allowed to stop at the main entrance.

Hopefully, tomorrow, all will go well when our new site goes “live.” If we run into any problems, please check here for any issues that might impede the process.

There are lots of double-decker buses in London.

Have a good day!

Photo from one year ago today, August 17, 2019:

View over Tallinn, Estonia, as a port of call from the Baltic cruise, from a scenic overlook. For more, please click here.

Day #146 in lockdown Mumbai, India hotel…One day and counting to new site going “live”…Final expenses for Paris at end of post…..

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 16, 2020 with 0 Comment

Of course, we had to end with a repeat photo of the Eiffel Tower. It seems to have a personality of its own, offering varying views based on weather, crowds, and time of day.

Note: To all of our readers visiting our site via a smartphone, please click the “View web version” tab under the word “Home” at the bottom of the page to access the web version enabling you to access all of our archives on the right side of the page. We’ll be updating our site shortly, making these extra steps unnecessary. Thank you.

Today’s photos are from the post from August 16, 2014, while in Paris, France. See the link here for more photos.

Wow! The architecture was breathtaking.

Today’s post was prepared in record time after a fitful night’s sleep totaling no more than three hours combined. There’s no doubt in my mind that failure to have a good night’s sleep impeded my memory and ability to function mentally.

Hand-made pasta in the window of a local restaurant/deli.

Subsequently, I accidentally prepared tomorrow’s post instead of today’s, which I’m grateful to have done and can copy and post on our new site tomorrow morning (I hope without issues).

But, this fact left me facing preparing another post for today. Sure, I could have posted a notice stating “no post today.” But, in my desire for consistency and diligence, I didn’t want to do that.

There’s a pharmacy every few blocks.

What kept me awake most of the night was a sorrowful reality that my dear sister Susan’s life may be coming to an end in the next few days. I was back and forth on the phone during the night with my sister Julie and now, as we speak, she and our niece Kely, Susan’s daughter, along with Susan’s dear ex-husband Tom, are at her side.

I am so grateful she is not alone and has beloved family members at her side. She’s currently in a coma and highly sedated. The end is near. I’ve called several times to have the phone put up to her ear to tell her I love her and that although I can’t be with her, my love and my heart are right beside her.

We were able to flag down a taxi as we stood at this corner after dining at La Fontaine de Mars on Tuesday.

Sleep was elusive between the phone calls and texts, interspersed with crazy dreams, and this morning from 4:00 am on, I lay quietly in bed, preferring not to get up and awaken Tom. He hasn’t been sleeping well, and I didn’t want to awaken him.

With almost 13,000 restaurants listed on Trip Advisor in Paris, it’s tricky deciding on where to dine.

By 8:00 am, he awoke, and I got up, showered, dressed, and commenced on my first walk of the day. Sure, it would have been easy to forgo a day of walking, but one full day of laying around or sitting in a chair, hardly moving about, was certainly more harmful than continuing to maintain my walking schedule.

At this point, as I prepare the second post of the day when it’s already close to 1:00 pm, and I soon have to head out to work on the second half of the day’s walking goal.

Most of these perfect-looking fruit has been imported to Paris, as is the case in many other cities worldwide.

Lately, I’ve been hiding away after uploading the post, watching the Netflix TV series, “The 100.” If ever there’s been a day I’d like to hide away in a compelling series, this is it.

Beautiful fruit for sale along the boulevard.

With my error in preparing tomorrow’s post, if tonight proves to be another sleepless night, tomorrow I will be equipped with a completed post to upload to our new WordPress site. I can only hope it goes well.

Please, if you don’t see the new post, bear with me, as I’ll continue to work on it to get it uploaded by the end of the day, if at all possible. Fortunately, our web developer will be available if I have questions along the way.

In the city of Paris, we never saw a single freestanding home. All the housing consists of apartment buildings such as this. We’ve found living in apartments such as these unappealing to us. We’re glad we stayed in Paris for this shorter period than our usual two to three months. Apartments such as these are costly

So that’s it for today, folks, along with the final expenses for our 15-nights in Paris, is somewhat of a lackluster format. I had no energy to make it look better. But, surely, you get the drift here as shown below in the Euro exchange rate back in 2014:

Hotel: US $3352, EU 2511
Train & Taxi fare: US $211, EU 158
Tours: US $644, EU 483
Dining & Snacks: US $1438, EU 1077
Airfare & Bags: US $959, EU 719
Total: US 6604, EU 4948
Average Daily: US $413, EU 310

Carved door to a city business center.

Have a good day. Stay safe.

Photo from one year ago today, August 16, 2019:
There was no post one year ago today due to sightseeing in St. Petersburg. We’ll be back with more year-ago photos soon.

Day #145 in lockdown Mumbai, India hotel…Two days and counting until our new site is “live.”…Winding down photos and time spent in Paris.

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 15, 2020 with 0 Comment

When we finally had a relatively straightforward night, we got this shot from the balcony in our hotel room in Paris in 2014.

Today’s photos are from the post from August 15, 2014, while in Paris, France. See the link here for more photos.

Many historical buildings line the boulevards.

It was wonderful sharing our photos of Paris during our 16 days in the City of Light. Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up the last of those photos and share our total expenses, as we then move on to the next 16 days spent in London, after traveling on the Eurostar from Paris.

As we walked down a side street.

On Monday morning, our new website using WordPress instead of Blogger will go live before noon. It will be an entirely new learning curve for me after spending over eight years using Blogger.

As the proverbial food voyeur, I’ve always reveled in looking at pastries, especially in Paris.

After going through the instructions from our web developer, it appears to be more complicated than using Blogger. However, while continuing in the lockdown, this seems to be the best time for me to learn to use it with few distractions other than my hourly walks.

Good thing I can’t eat any of this. We’d have spent a fortune, and I’d have gained so much weight I wouldn’t fit into my clothing. As it turned out, we each lost a few pounds while in Paris.

No doubt, I am a little apprehensive about getting the first post uploaded. As a result, Monday’s post may be uploaded later than usual and may not include many photos while I spend most of my time on a learning curve. Surely, from there, I’ll learn more and more each day.

We’ve often tried to stay close to the water in our travels, such as the River Seine, which is within walking distance from our hotel. In London, we’ll be within walking distance of the Thames River.

If, for any reason, I am unable to get the first post uploaded on Monday, please check back later in the day or on Tuesday while I continue to work on accomplishing it.

Renovations on an archway over the River Seine.

We’re just about ready to wrap up the photos from our time in Paris in 2014, which, coincidentally, will be completed tomorrow (Sunday for us), leaving Monday’s post content up in the air for the new site.

A street view of the restaurant we visited on Tuesday night that we’d yet to post.

We’ll make sure we don’t miss posting any crucial photos from our trip to Eurostar (aka, the Chunnel) from Paris to London in 2014. It was quite a fantastic experience. We’re anxious to share once again, especially for our new readers who may not have seen it the first time around.

We loved this scene as the sky became blue.

Otherwise, all is quiet here. With the monsoon season occurring now, it rains almost every day, sometimes torrential, with accompanying thunder and lightning. We see endless news stories about floods throughout India and nearby Mumbai.

A bee was inside this flower, working on the nectar in the pistil.

Part of the ceiling at the end of a corridor that I walk daily is crumbling, and the carpeting is wet. The hotel’s maintenance staff is repairing this issue using powerful fans to dry the carpet, flooring, and ceiling above. Based on the almost constant rain, it’s hard to imagine they can repair the source of the water leaking into the building from an outdoor overhang.

This was the window in a tailor shop we spotted on one of our long days of walking.

Right now, the entire country of India and the city of Mumbai are wrapped up in managing COVID-19 which is raging like wildfire. Yesterday showed the highest number of new cases in one day in India at 65,609, more than anywhere in the world.

These “hop-on, hop-off” tourist buses are a good way for those who prefer not to walk to see many of the city’s sights. We’d intended to do a three-day pass, but with the rain on and off almost every day, we never booked it, fearful we’d pay and then be stuck inside the bus.

Yesterday, there were 990 new deaths, the third-highest in the world after the US and Brazil. Since the onset of the virus, the total number of deaths in India is 49,134, in the fourth-highest position in the world after the US, Brazil, and Mexico.

Dogs are allowed in restaurants in Paris. This well-behaved guy was next to us one evening during dinner.

India is locked down as tight as possible, but many aren’t observing the laws by social distancing and mask-wearing, as seen in many other countries throughout the world. When will this ever end?

A rose growing near the entrance to a bridge.

In the interim, we continue to maintain a positive frame of mind while focusing on staying healthy and fit.

May all of you stay healthy and fit!

Photo from one year ago today, August 15, 2019:

“The Gefion Fountain is a large fountain on the harbor front in Copenhagen, Denmark. It features a large-scale group of animal figures being driven by the Norse goddess Gefjon. It is located in Nordre Toldbod area next to Kastellet and immediately south of Langelinie.” For more photos, please click here.

Day #144 in lockdown Mumbai, India hotel…Dining in Paris…Lots of food photos..

Posted by worldwide-admin on August 14, 2020 with 0 Comment

La Fontaine de Mars restaurant is located in an upscale neighborhood from what we observed.

Note: To all of our readers visiting our site via a smartphone, please click the “View web version” tab under the word, “Home” at the bottom of the page to access the web version enabling you to access all of our archives on the right side of the page. We’ll be updating our site shortly, making these extra steps unnecessary. Thank you. Today’s photos are from the post from August 14, 2014, while in Paris, France. See the link here for more photos.

Tom wasn’t his usual smiley self while waiting for La Fontaine de Mars to open for our 7:30 reservation. Us old-timers always arrive too early. Why is that?

No doubt, if I could have ordered anything that appealed to me on the menu in French restaurants, my dining experience would have been considerably more exciting and interesting.

The staff was busy preparing for the evening’s usual totally booked tourist crowd, often Americans, from what we read online.

At that time in 2014, I wasn’t drinking wine and missed the opportunity to try a wide array of French wines. Also with my way of eating, required for my health, we never ordered a loaf of French bread, croissants, desserts, or pastries although it was tempting at times

This tiny room where we dined had seating for 16. The restaurant appeared to be a converted house with three of four rooms such as this on the second level, which we read was preferable to dining on the loud, busy main floor. However, some may prefer a more lively pace while dining.

With Tom’s sensitive taste buds and aversion to many spices and flavors, he didn’t take advantage of most French offerings. Then again, for us, during our world travels, dining out was never an important element.

This is the menu with prices in Euros. US $10 converts to EU $8.46 based on today’s rates.

We’ve found shopping for local fresh vegetables, meats, and cheeses, made cooking for ourselves a worthwhile undertaking, contributing to a wide array of meals we joyfully prepared and savored at our holiday home in any country.

The opposite side of the room in which we dined at La Fontaine de Mars. (I didn’t use the flash to avoid disturbing other diners).

Rarely, did we encounter difficulty in finding quality foods befitting our way of cooking and dining “at home.” The location where we had the most difficulty was while living in Diani Beach, Kenya for three months in 2013, where there were limited options for protein sources and the lack of availability of many cooking ingredients in the small Nakumatt Market.

My filet mignon on a bed of spinach. I moved over the steak and piled the sauce on the spinach. My way of eating encourages eating lots of fat excluding trans fat, and vegetable oils but includes animal fat, butter, coconut and olive oil, avocadoes, and nuts.

Also, the fact that the tiny galley kitchen couldn’t fit the two of us at once, cooking wasn’t as much fun as usual. We often dined out when many of the local upscale resorts had beautiful restaurants and fabulous, continental cuisine at affordable prices.

Tom’s filet mignon with fries and butter for the breadbasket His steak was very small.

We’d been advised to avoid the local restaurants on the main road, due to security risks and the possibility of becoming sick when our digestive systems weren’t adapted to certain risks.

By the time I remembered to take this photo, I’d already consumed half of this server of Bearnaise sauce.

Subsequently, only a year later we were in Paris with the opportunity to savor many exquisite dishes and yet, we were somewhat impeded by our own self-imposed issues.

Our bill which converted to US $85.11 at today’s rates.

That didn’t mean we didn’t enjoy the French restaurants. We did. We dined out every morning and evening since we stayed in a hotel without cooking facilities, often trying new restaurants, most within walking distance of our boutique hotel near the Eiffel Tower.

View from the upper level of La Fontaine de Mars from the steps to the upper level.

On a few occasions, we returned for a second visit to a particular restaurant when we found ourselves craving a repeat of a prior meal. Each time we selected a new restaurant, we perused reviews at TripAdvisor to ensure each location was rated high for quality, freshness, cleanliness, and service.

View of the back of Tom’s head and the busy first level which many diners prefer or where latecomers are seated. No reservations were held beyond 15 minutes of their scheduled time.

Although we dined at a few upscale restaurants, overall, we sought those in the middle range, to keep costs down. It was expensive in Paris for meals, hotels, transportation, tours, and services.

Another restaurant we visited in Paris, Bistrotters. Tom, as usual, was first in line, waiting for the restaurant to open at 7 pm.

In a few days, we’ll share our total expenses for the 16 nights in Paris, (not 15 as previously mentioned in error), providing a clear perspective of what one may expect for a mid-range experience in the city of lights (which most likely will be higher considering we were there six years ago).

Based on the lighting in Bistrotters, it was tough to get a good shot of the menu. Enlarging this photo will enable easier reading.

That’s all for today folks. After uploading this post, I’ll be studying two videos provided by our web developer on how to post and manipulate our new site which as it turns out will be going “live” on Monday morning, our time, allowing us the day to work out any kinks or issues throughout the day.

Tom enjoyed his first course of grilled chorizo.

Our web address will remain the same: www.worldwidewaftage.com and there will be nothing for you to do other than spend less than a minute familiarizing yourself with our new easy-to-use format.

The waiter was surprised when I ordered the foie gras based on my food restrictions. He felt it may be too fatty without bread or crackers. I found it to be extraordinary, the best foie gras I’ve ever had. That morning, I looked up a few recipes and if I can find duck liver anywhere, I think that once we’re situated again in a few months, I may attempt to make this.

Each day’s new post will be in plain view along with recent posts, archives, and advertising, easy to access using cell phones, laptops, computers, and tablets. No longer will cell phone users need to follow the special instructions at the top of each of our recent posts.

This plate provides a better perspective of the size of my portion of foie gras. In the middle were pickled tomatoes and a salad, both of which contained sugar in the dressing which I opted not to eat after taking a taste. The coarse salt and the cayenne pepper on the right of the plate were the perfect accompaniment.

Happy day to all!

Photo from one year ago today, August 14, 2019:

A port of call on the Baltic cruise enabled us to tour the city of Copenhagen, noticing many colorful buildings. For more photos from this city, please click here.

Tag: Mumbai