Finally, sunshine!…Vancouver is a beautiful city!…

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Overlooking the South Tower of the Sheraton Wall Centre with the bay in the background.

Yesterday, we were thrilled to get out on a sunny day. The first stop on the agenda was a trip to a computer repair store to have Tom’s files transferred to his new laptop. His old touchscreen was severely cracked from dropping it months ago, made worse by another fall at the cruise terminal. When touchscreens go bad there is no way to manipulate the cursor, even using the keyboard, making it impossible for us to do the transfer.

We were in awe of the sunset views over the bay.

The cost for the transfer and loading Outlook (which he prefers to use) was a total of US $120.92, CAD $132.50, a bargain considering that included purchasing Office and Outlook. Tom’s relieved, to say the least, especially when all of his contacts in Outlook are all intact.  

The job only took a few hours. While we waited, we found a local restaurant, Joe’s Grill, where we had a decent lunch for under US $30, CAD $33.00, a bargain in Vancouver.

Sunset has been amazing now that the clouds have cleared.

As our time in Vancouver, winds down and as much as we “should” go out sightseeing, we just don’t feel like it.  Lately, we’ve done so much sightseeing, a reprieve is in order. 

Tom, deep in thought in the Member’s Lounge, listening to his favorite Minnesota radio podcast, Garage Logic. 

For us, this lovely city is a stopping point to prepare for our upcoming cruise to Hawaii to sail across the Pacific Ocean (in part) to our upcoming home for almost seven months on four of the Hawaiian islands. I suppose it’s comparable to one going “home” to repack to prepare for another “vacation.” For us, it’s just our lives, not a vacation.

What a rose!

We have no home to return to for repacking more weather-friendly clothes. We’ll wash and dry what we have, neatly folding it and placing it right back in the same, now well-worn luggage to be prepared for the next adventure. As difficult as this may sound, it is not. 

Tom purchased two bottles of Brandy from a local government-owned liquor store in Vancouver for our arrival in Hawaii where the cost will be considerably higher. The cost was US $56.71. Usually, he drinks Courvoisier(cognac), but one small bottle was US $63.88, CAD $70.

Although the past almost two months have required an enormous amount of moving about, we giggle over how often we’ve moved in such a short time which includes:

  • Madeira to Paris – flight, two weeks in Paris
  • Paris to London – Eurostar train, two weeks in London
  • London to Harwich to a transatlantic cruise – shuttle to Harwich, two-week cruise with several excursions
  • Cruise ending in Boston – three days in a hotel in Boston
  • Boston to Vancouver – flight, six days in a condo in Vancouver
  • Vancouver to Hawaii (upcoming in three days) – 12 days at sea, ending in Honolulu, Oahu where we’ll stay for 11 days, then on to Maui for six weeks, Big Island for six weeks, Kauai for four months
The green cast was generated from taking photos through the tinted windows.

This is a lot of packing and unpacking over a period of only 10 months. Surprisingly, so far, we haven’t minded. Both of us can now pack or unpack in less than 30 minutes, making the comings and goings relatively low stress.

More fountains in the hotel gardens.

We’ve developed a routine that when it’s time to leave, each of us easily slides into our unspoken part with ease and coordination. Once in a while, Tom gets grumpy on packing and moving day. I ignore him and go about my share of the tasks. Invariably, once on our way, he settles down, smiley and happy. It goes with the territory. I doubt he’ll ever change.

Neatly trimmed pavers in the hotel courtyard.

A long time ago, I learned that “we are who we are” and unless something profoundly inspires us to change, we don’t. We’re both found that in this relationship, we accept each other’s peculiarities and eccentricities. People never change as a result of nagging, complaining, or whining which neither of us is inclined to do.

As the clouds began to clear we were able to see the houses on the hills.

Don’t think for a minute that I’m easy to live with. Although I’m cheerful and calm most of the time, I have particular ways of doing things. Tom is extremely tolerant of me, never complaining about my eccentricities. Mostly, his frustrations are as a result of “things” not happening as planned or expected.   

Flowers blooming everywhere in Vancouver.

Once again, we’re in the Member’s Lounge, overlooking the city of Vancouver on a perfectly sunny day. The views around us are all the more unreal on a clear day.

Life is good.

                                              Photo from one year ago, September 21, 2013:

One year ago on this date, we dined at a local restaurant in Kenya, the Blue Marlin, located on the beach of the Indian Ocean. We were the only diners in the entire restaurant from the time we arrived until we departed a few hours later. We had a fabulous time. For details, please click here.

Boston…Tom watched a Vikings game…They lost…How unusual?…New laptop for Tom…Costco, here we come!

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The entrance to One Bistro Bar and Restaurant at Four Points by Sheraton Norwood. Excellent!

Within minutes of checking into the fabulous Four Points by Sheraton Norwood near Boston, we turned on the high definition TV so Tom could watch his first Minnesota Vikings game in almost a year. 

He missed four of last season’s games when the app he’d purchased to view games wouldn’t work in South Africa no matter how hard we tried. How ironic that the Minnesota Vikings were playing Boston’s New England Patriots yesterday. Too bad Minnesota lost once again, not surprisingly so with the loss of Adrian Peterson.

There’s never been a restaurant that we’ve visited worldwide that better accommodated my way of eating as in last night’s dinner at One Bistro at Four Points by Sheraton in Norwood, MA. We hope for one more dinner before we depart on Wednesday. 

In any case, he was thrilled to watch the game while I stayed busy getting a few toiletries out of the smaller bag that we’ll need here in Boston over the next few days. We have no plans to unpack the large bags.

The long impeccable hallway to our huge room, the largest, most well-equipped hotel room we’ve had in two years of travel.

Today, Cousin Phyllis offered to drop off our laundry when there wasn’t enough time yesterday. Almost completely out of clean clothes, we’re wearing the same clothes we wore yesterday, not an unusual occurrence in this crazy life of ours.

While at the cruise terminal, we dropped Tom’s laptop bag and his already broken screen finally took its final hit. He needs a new laptop. Today, we’re heading to the closest Costco to renew our old membership and purchase Tom a new laptop.  I’ve decided to live with the HP laptop I’d purchased in South Africa after I, too, dropped the old laptop, breaking the screen. 

The lush garden veranda at the hotel. 

In the past few days, we purchased a new camera on the cruise which was priced better than the online price at Costco, a Canon Power Shot SX50 HS, priced at US $369 (cost of the camera was not included on yesterday’s total bill for the cruise). I never imagined I’d purchase digital equipment on a cruise when everything they sell is usually overpriced. 

The camera, tax, and duty-free were priced at US $30 less than the competition resulting in an overall savings of approximately US $60. Let’s face it, every few years, we’ll need a new camera and laptops with the tough wear and tear in traveling the world. 

Another view of the veranda.

A more expensive heavier SLR camera is not necessary to achieve the quality of photos we find to be acceptable for our site.Plus, the lighter weight camera prevents me from upsetting my now healing shoulder injury of many moons ago.

Quickly, I’m learning to use the new camera and its zillions of settings. I enjoy experimenting using more advanced settings other than always using selecting “auto.” Now that I’m learning to take moderately decent photos, it’s fun to play around.

It’s late in the season for blooms but, I managed to capture these.

As for the new laptop for Tom, he prefers another Acer Touchscreen with a 15.3″ lighted keyboard. He doesn’t save much on his hard drive so he doesn’t require the giant specs that I do. We should be able to find him a perfect solution under US $700. His laptop lasted almost two years.

Other purchases today? Yep, embarrassing as this is to say, I need to purchase two new bras. I’ve owned only two bras these past two years, rotating and washing them often. They’ve finally bit the dust. Today will be my first foray to Victoria’s Secret store in two years. In any funny way, I’m kind of excited.

Let’s face it, the USA is opulent in ways we’d long ago forgotten. We’re enjoying our time at the hotel in awe of all the things we’d taken for granted when we lived in the US.  It doesn’t inspire us to return but, as in many places we’ve visited, we relish in the surroundings.

After that, we’ll make a quick trip to a Walgreen’s, which I’ve also missed, for a few toiletries, new power toothbrushes, and a few cosmetic items. It’s been difficult, if not impossible, to purchase some of the simplest products while outside the US these past 20 months.

How do we feel to be back on US soil? I’d expected to feel elated or, if nothing else, a little in awe. Instead, we both agreed…we love our simple life in often remote locations. The traffic, the noise, and the commotion we encountered at the cruise terminal and later at the car rental area at Logan Airport only confirmed our decision to live differently than in our past life. No offense is intended for those who live in big cities or surrounding areas. We all strive to find our “place in this world” wherever that may be.

The sun was filtering into the hotel lobby early this morning.

We aren’t the people we used to be. Although, we must admit that when we entered our huge modern hotel room, our mouths were agape at the amenities that have been far removed from our reality these past few years. We don’t require as much as in the past much of which years ago, we easily took for granted.

Last night, we dined at the hotel’s highly recommend restaurant, One Bistro, with Cousin Phyllis for the best meal I’d had in ages. (Contact Kelli Boyer at Four Points by Sheraton for conventions, parties, and group functions). Fabulous food!

The beautiful breakfast buffet in the hotel.  Perhaps, we’ll try this on Wednesday before we fly to Vancouver.

Phyllis had so sweetly left an awaiting gift bag of goodies for us at the desk to receive when we checked in.  Filled with nuts, cheese, bottled water, and magazines (to read on our upcoming flight on Wednesday to Vancouver), we couldn’t have been more appreciative. She knows exactly what works for us as she too, reads our daily posts. 

Hopefully today, we’ll see 95-year-old Uncle Bernie, spending quality time with him and Phyllis over these two short days in Boston. Photos will follow of our time with them.

We won’t have time for sightseeing while we’re in Boston. Someday, we hope to return when the time comes to tour the US but, that’s way down the road. We still have so much world left to see.

                                       Photo from one year ago today, September 15, 2013:

It’s hard to believe that it was a year ago that we dined at Ali Barbour’s Cave Restaurant in Diani Beach, Kenya. For details of that date, please click here.

New road trip photos…Departure in 7 days…A year ago…Anticipating nine months in Africa…

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Purple flowers, blue sea.  Lovely.

Since purchasing the HP laptop in South Africa I’ve had trouble with the keyboard. The letter “i” continues to stick although I’ve learned to press hard in order for it to work. 

There’s a substantial Catholic population on the island. It’s not unusual to spot a shrine of the Virgin Mary in public areas such as this.

A new problem started a few days ago. When I write a word with the letter “P” in it, the “P” moves to another position in the word such as this:  “hpoto” instead of “photo.” Now I have to be conscientious of every word that I type that has a “P” in it. Go figure. 

A small fishing boat anchored to a buoy.

We’ll both need new laptops when we arrive in Boston in September. At that point, my laptop will only be seven months old. It’s frustrating. 

View from a road at a high elevation to the village below showing the boat in the above photo.

I know that many think that a tablet will work for us but unless there’s a new model with a large enough monitor to satisfy us both, we’ll end up buying two more laptops. Tom’s two-year-old laptop has a broken monitor he’s been dealing with for months. There goes another US $2000, EU $1485.26.

These old stone tunnels are common throughout Madeira.

This morning I had an awful time logging on when I ended up having to use the on-screen keyboard to enter my password. I’m totally convinced that a quality laptop suitable for travel is yet to be designed. I’ve seen a few “rugged” styles but they are very heavy. Oxymoron.

Many areas neighborhoods consist of large homes, often owned by foreigners and ex-pats.

Today, when Judite arrives for the final time, we’re heading out for our last grocery shopping trip needing only a few items to get us through the next six dinners. Today, we didn’t buy produce from the truck when we heard it drive past when all we need is lettuce, cabbage, and carrots which we’ll buy at the supermarket.

As we drove through a village, this bell tower warranted a stop.

In the past several days, I’ve done some clearing and cleaning of items in my smaller of the two bags, which contains medical supplies, a few camera supplies, toiletries, and cosmetic items, lightening the load by a few pounds. Tom is down to bare bones unable to lighten his large bag. The second smaller bag holds our heavy boots and all of our shoes. 

There are a few sandy beaches on the island. Most are rocky such as this.

I’m considering getting rid of my large handbag which I only use on travel days. The bag itself is heavy. If I’m able to fit the vital items to the carry on duffel bag, we’d be down to the following carry on: one duffel, one laptop bag, and the cloth bag of prescriptions (in case our luggage is lost). We shall see if I can pull this off once we start packing.

Tom got a kick out of this sign for an Irish Sports Bar with a photo of a camel on the sign. We couldn’t quite grasp the significance of the camel and Irish.  There aren’t any camels in Ireland, are there?

Today, we’re sharing photos from another road trip. Driving around this magical island always offers us new and interesting scenery that we’re always anxious to share with our readers.

This village was decorated for the upcoming banana festival which occurred over this past weekend.

We both have a tendency to temper our enthusiasm as the time to leave nears, knowing that we have a full travel day ahead of us. We’ll be especially relieved when this upcoming travel day is over with all of the political unrest in the world.

Have a wonderful day!

                                              Photo from one year ago today, July 24, 2013:

A borrowed photo of Diani Beach, Kenya as we wrote about our fears and apprehension of living in Africa for nine months which at that point one year ago today, was only six weeks away. Now, looking back some of our fears were warranted such as cobras on the veranda, horrifying insects, and living with only an outdoor living room. In any case, worrying certainly provided little insight into that which we experienced. For details of that date, please click here.

Tom is sick…No repellent anywhere…Two weeks and counting…A scary story from one year ago today…

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As mentioned on prior posts, most of the vendors don’t allow photos of their wares. All the photos of products in the souks have been taken while on the move, rarely stopping and never being able to focus the camera, often shooting without looking into the lens. As a result, many of our photos taken in the souk are blurry.

Tom is rarely ill. Yesterday morning, he awoke with a horrible sore throat. Within hours he was coughing, feverish, and feeling miserable. 

Having already told Adil that we’d be dining out, we had no option but to do just that. The thought of the long walk to a restaurant was daunting when one is so ill. On top of that, stubborn man that he is, Tom insisted that we find insect repellent for me by checking out every pharmacy in the Medina.

A less crowded spot in a souk.

Although I kept telling him to forget about the repellent, he insisted we continue to walk in one direction and then off to another to each of the four pharmacies we’ve seen in the Medina. I wasn’t sick, but even I didn’t want to walk that far in the heat.

With the necessity of me staying covered wearing BugsAway clothing to avoid being bit by sand flies, it was scorching in the sun in the Big Square, wearing the jeans, long sleeve shirt and heavy socks.   

Tom, not feeling well, led the way as I followed behind. Usually, we hold hands as he drags me through the crowds. We agreed that hand holding made no sense with his illness.

His constant sniffing, coughing, and wheezing were not only hard to hear but also somewhat annoying. His determination to find repellent was equally annoying. What were sandfly bites compared to his current state of health? We were quite a pair.

This was one of those situations where a couple could easily become snappy and irritable. Somehow we made the hour-long search tolerable except for the hard reality…insect repellent doesn’t exist in Marrakech. 

It’s not unusual to see popular clothing styles in the souks when many items are imported.

Finally, we gave up looking and began the long walk back toward the restaurant. Oh, that we could find a place for carryout food to bring back in order to avoid his constant coughing, sneezing, sighing, and moaning in the restaurant. We picked a table in the darkened back room. I felt so badly for him, wishing there was something that I could do.

Returning to the riad after dinner after endless “barksters” trying to get us to buy something, we were more than relieved to be back. We hunkered down, watched a few shows, and for the first time since we left the US, we slept in separate bedrooms in an attempt to keep me from catching it. Oh, please. I’d better not catch this illness!

It’s odd to see these blue jeans in the souk. Many of the locals wear this style.

He slept in the yellow room in a twin bed, leaving the master bedroom which was already set up to reduce the infestation of the sand flies. Feeling hot from wearing Tom’s long sleeve shirt to bed, I didn’t sleep more than three or four hours. 

Also, easily able to hear him coughing and choking in the other room, I was frequently awakened by his sounds, all the while worrying about him. He doesn’t do “sick” very well, as is the case with most men (no gender discrimination intended).

The stands in the Big Square. On a relatively quiet mid-week late afternoon, the vendors waited for customers.

The rooster living next door didn’t start crowing quite as early this morning so I managed to sneak in extra 45 minutes of sleep until the pigeons began their usual wing-flapping into the open courtyard, cooing all the while.  Rooster crowing, wings flapping, cooing, rooster crowing, wings, flapping, call to prayer, rooster crowing…I lumbered out of bed more exhausted than when I went to bed last night. Tom was still sleeping.

Sadly, he’s feeling no better today but he’s not worse which is encouraging. Hopefully, in a few days, he’ll be on the mend.

These dried fruits and nuts create an eye-appealing display. Most of the nuts are unsalted. On the right is a tray of essential oils, quality undetermined.

Of course, we’ll dine in tonight continuing to do so until he returns to health. As for the repellent, forget about it! I’ll buy it when we get to Madeira where hopefully more products will be available. In the interim, the long sleeve bug repellent shirts, jeans, and socks with be my daily attire, heat, and all. Getting more bites on my hands is unavoidable. I have to live with this.

Two weeks from today, we’ll be leaving Morocco, ready to embrace our new home for the next two and a half months. OK. We’ll be ready.

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Photo from one year ago today, May 1, 2013:

Not our photo. It was this type of knife that was slipped onto one of our plastic trays as they went through security in Barcelona. We were on a back-to-back cruise and had to get off the ship to later re-board. Of course, security pounced all over us, assuming it was our knife. Very scary situation. For details of Part 1 of the story, please click here.

Internet issues continue…Unedited post was uploaded…Yikes!…Final mountain photos…Great photo from one year ago!

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Corner shops we passed on the mountain road.

Late last night, when the Internet appeared to have improved I reread yesterday’s post finding numerous errors I thought I’d already corrected. Usually, when writing a new post, I write directly into blogger.com, reviewing each line and making any corrections before uploading it. After I’ve reviewed it making corrections, Tom also checks it for errors. At times, we both miss errors that neither of us nor spell-check spotted.

The handmade wares offered by the locals are a common sight along the highway.

Due to the poor signal yesterday, none of my corrections were saved resulting in my uploading the unedited version. All-day, I was unable to get back into the site to verify its status to ensure the corrections took. Imagine my frustrations when I discovered that all of my errors were uploaded which may have created some difficulty for our readers. 

A more elaborate housing style pops up in the landscape. It appears there’s a river beyond these homes.

Hopefully, whatever precipitated the vastly slowed Internet connection appears to have improved to some extent last night, enabling me to go back into the site and make the corrections as originally intended. I apologize for this annoying inconvenience.

Once again, the blue sky appeared as a backdrop to the colorful hills.

Frustrating. If during the next 31 days, you don’t see a post on any given day, most likely it is due to the fact that we cannot get online. A few times on Sunday, I was able to get into Facebook, but not on into many of my other most frequently viewed sites. 

Wrought with motion sickness, I took all of these photos through the closed window in the vehicle.  It was too much effort to open the power window.

Of course, email requires less bandwidth and is readily available with the weakest of signals. Feel free to email me with questions or comments if you don’t see a post.

The landscape is lined with power lines.

With future plans in the works, we’ve had difficulty getting into the specific sites at certain times in order to look up cruises, flights, and vacation rentals. Booking the flights for our family for Hawaii in December has also been a challenge with this same issue as well.

The scenery was desolate at times.

Today, we’ll be booking our flights and rental car for Madeira. How dependent we’ve become on the Internet!  Without it, we’d have had little interest in traveling the world. How did travelers manage in the past? Or, a hundred years ago? I can’t imagine.

The red color of the earth is seen throughout Morocco is due to the high iron content.

As an avid reader, I’ve often had to try for days to upload a book I’ve ordered for the Kindle app on my phone.  Also, with only two English speaking news channels on the TV, we are dependent on the Internet to provide our entertainment during quieter times. 

Uploading shows from Graboid may take an hour to upload a single one-hour TV show requiring that we upload them during the night when the Internet traffic is low.

Another housing development.

Unquestionably, the thick walls of the Medina and in the riad have a bearing on the ability to get a clear signal.  I have no doubt that outside the Medina there’s a tremendous improvement.

Breathtaking scenery.

However, as we’ve written in the past, we’ve had issues with the strength of the signal all over the world, some countries more than others. The strongest signals we’ve had have been using XCOM Global’s MiFi rental. 

More breathtaking scenery.

Unfortunately, there are two limitations in using XCOM Global that are limiting for us; the allowance of only 250 megabytes per day, not nearly enough for our combined usage which is upwards of one gigabyte (1000 Mb) per day and, the cost at US $395 a month which is high considering the limited usage.

With the rainy spring season, the grass was green and crisp against the iron-rich soils.

We each have our own hotspots that we can’t use in some countries, including Morocco. By purchasing SIM cards that we install into the hotspots, we were able to get a good signal for example in Kenya. However, when we first arrived in Morocco, we visited several cell stores none of which carried the necessary SIM cards. With a router and service provided in the riad utilizing local Internet service, our only option has been to use it.

When we looked across this railing, it was hard to imagine that we were on that section of the road only a few minutes earlier.

Many homes we’ve rented have routers that are included in the rent. When inquiring about a prospective rental, our first question is about the availability and quality of the signal. So far, everyone has been straight with us, explaining the occasional outages and periods of poor signals that occur during the high traffic periods.

I’d wish I hadn’t had motion sickness which prevented me from fully embracing the beauty of the scenery. However, I’m grateful to have taken the photos I did since we’re enjoying seeing them now.

Luckily, this morning I was easily able to get into our site, hopefully catching my errors before uploading today’s post to the Internet. There’s no doubt that on occasion, we’ll have posting issues along with errors that we fail to catch. Although it’s somewhat embarrassing to leave errors in our wake, I accept that its a reality of posting every day.

Moving quickly while I shot this photo of what I believe to be sheep.

Writing every day is comparable to writing a school essay each and every day, hoping to get a passing grade.  Add the cumbersome task of adding photos and it can take time. It’s a case of errors waiting to happen, both mine and those predicted by the strength of the Internet. 

Another case of the road we’d traveled minutes ago.

I try not to stress about any of it. The sheer pleasure of documenting our lives during this exciting time and sharing it with readers all over the world is motivating and never feels as if its a task. Except perhaps, yesterday and other days when the signal is too poor to post or make corrections.

It amazed us how well these roads were made through these steep mountains with elevations up to over 14,000 feet, 4267 meters. At one point we were at 10,000 feet, 3048 meters suffering no ill effect from the altitude. 

Thanks for reading. Thanks for returning to read. Our lives are all the more meaningful with our readers traveling along with us.
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Photo from one year ago today, April 14, 2013:

Still on a back-to-back cruise on the Carnival Liberty as it left Miami, we giggled as we spotted the Norwegian Epic ahead of us, the ship we’d be boarding in Barcelona, Spain one week later. The story from that date describes how we managed to move to another cabin after not sleeping for several nights due to the loud noise from the disco one floor below us making our bed shake until 3:00 am. For details of that story, please click here.

Returned to Khaya Umdani from Nelspruit with new laptop…Vervet Monkey invasion photos…Great trip with only a few scary moments…

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Many times we’ve seen Vervet Monkeys holding their babies, most often from a distance. Rarely staying still long enough for a photo we were so excited to get these shots at Khaya Umdani. We’d left yogurt out overnight for the bush babies, forgetting to bring it back inside in the morning. Suddenly, we were surrounded by over a dozen monkeys only feet from us. I asked Tom to avoid scaring them off until I got a few photos that we share with our readers today.

Becoming familiar with a new keyboard is tricky as I write today’s post. I’m not manually adept, as we so well know from my dropping habits. As a senior in high school my typing class teacher suggested I drop out after three weeks to avoid ruining an otherwise excellent grade point average. I was on the verge of flunking typing.

Check out that pink ear, which later changes to black as they mature. Many of these photos were taken while I stayed put on my chair at the table on the veranda for fear of scaring them off.

I’d still flunk today. After working on computers since the 1970’s when at that time, they filled a room, I’ve yet to master the skill of typing without often looking at the keys.

They were as fascinated in us as we were in them.  However, if one of these gets inside the house, they are horribly destructive.  We chose not to eat anything outside to keep them at bay.  All windows and doors must be closed or guarded to keep them outside.

The problem now revolves around the fact that my new laptop (keep in mind, I had few options at the Incredible Connection store n Nelspruit), doesn’t have a lighted keyboard, as did the broken laptop. Plus the placement of the keys is different enough to make me struggle as I type here now.

Sitting on a log, thinking about plans for the day!

But, we have proven that you can “teach an old dog new tricks” and soon I’ll do at least as well as I did on the old laptop. Do I like the new one? Other than the lack of the lighted keyboard, it has everything I need. What did I get? An HP (not my first brand choice) Pavilion 15-n213si Intel TouchSmart Notebook PC (Energy Star).  I’m OK with it.

“Shall I eat this or not?”

How’s my installation going? Good so far, except I’m having trouble downloading MS Office. I had the discs, but lost the Product Key, thought I had it. Alas, I have no choice but to repurchase. I had a very old version anyway, seven years old. I guess it is time to bite the bullet and upgrade. With all of our Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and email folders in Outlook with all of our future reservations, Office is a must.

This character jumped up on the fence around a first floor storage area.  At this point, Tom was determined to scoot them on their way. It only took a few waves of his hands and loud noises to send them on their way. For several hours, they hung around the yard, watching us.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as downloading Office and getting a new Product Key. When trying to do so over a period of several hours last night, Microsoft picked up that I’m in South Africa and won’t let me change the location to enable me the use a credit card to make the purchase. The address used for billing on the credit card needs to match up with our US address. It defaults to SA. I tried everything to change it.

Once we arrived back in Marloth Park, it didn’t take long to spot this mom and baby Zebra on the side of the road.

Today, using Skype I’ll call to get it resolved. I’d thought of using a VPN (virtual private network) so that it will always appear my entry into websites in from the US, but they slow down the WiFi signal which is not acceptable with the already slow connections in most locations.

Notice the little dark spot on the interior of the baby’s left leg.  These dark spots grow as they grow and provide a cushion for the hooves when lying down to sleep.  Oh, Mother Nature, you didn’t miss a beat!

Overall, the trip to Nelspruit went better than expected. We encountered only one major construction delay where we didn’t move for 30 minutes. Many drivers had shut off their vehicles, getting out to move their legs with several peeing in the tall grass. 

Soon, they were on their way and so were we, anxious to return to Khaya Umdani.

I asked Okee Dokee if it was illegal to pee on the side of the road. You know, “indecent exposure” in many counties could result in going to jail and/or fines. She looked at me as if I was nuts saying, “Of course not!  Where would one go during frequent delays on the roads?” Had I been wearing my Africa boots, I may have done the same. 

A wildebeest on the side of the road refused to pick up her head for a good photo. Both male and female wildebeest have horns.

Oddly, once we arrived at the Riverside Mall where the store was located, the power was off in the entire mall, the stores all dark. For a moment, I allowed myself to think the worst, mentioning my apprehension to Okee Dokee. I couldn’t help but remember the mall bombing in Nairobi, Kenya while we were living there, imaging that the power may have been shut down by the evil perpetrators before setting off the horrifying explosives that killed many.

Tentatively, we continued on, searching for the store. How would I purchase a computer in the dark and, how would I pay for it, if the POS stations weren’t working in the power outage? Alas, moments before reaching the store, the power returned as we both sighed in relief.

Our helpful and knowledgeable rep at Incredible Connection, Borgani Mbuyane, (Ph:0829368182), whom I’d spoken to the prior day on the phone, was not only warm and welcoming when we arrived but quick to respond to my inquiries. 

With only two choices fulfilling my objectives of one terabyte memory, a 15.6 touch screen, and hopefully Intel CORE i5, no more than 20 minutes later, we were out the door, laptop box in hand.

The cost was only slightly higher than that which we’d paid in the US. With the tax included the total cost was US $983.61, ZAR $10999. Avoiding shipping and customs fees, made this a bargain. This unexpected expense was softened by the fact that we are well under budget for our time in South Africa.

On the return drive we stopped for the vendors on the side of the road, shortly outside of Nelspruit to purchase macadamia nuts and a bag of 10 beautiful huge avocados for US $3.58, ZAR $40 for the entire bag!

It was only 2:45 pm when we returned to Khaya Umdani. Gone less than five hours, it was the longest Tom and I have been apart in 16 months! It was good to see him!

Now, Thursday morning, we’re situated on the veranda for the day until Okee Dokee returns to take us to Ngwenya for dinner tonight to watch the wildlife and sunset over the Crocodile River. Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll return with exciting photos.

Although without a computer for only two days, it feels good to be back!

Have a great day!

Off to Nelspruit to purchase a laptop…A frustrating 24 hours…I admit it, clumsy me!…

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It was yesterday morning, about this time, that I turned on my screen-damaged laptop to discover an error message warning that it was about to crash. It suggested I run a backup and a subsequent system restore.

The problem was that I couldn’t get a live screen that would allow either to occur. (I won’t bore you with the details on performing either of those, which many of you know and some do not).

After several hours of trying to reboot over and over, I finally got in and was able to backup all my valuable Outlook email, photos, and all files to our two terabytes external hard-drive. However, the system restore utility wouldn’t work. By 5:00 pm, all of my data was on the external hard drive after a stressful day.

During the lengthy “waiting” periods for the system to reboot, I used Tom’s computer to search for possible online resources in order to purchase either a tablet or a laptop locally. The reasons for the necessity of purchasing locally is explained in yesterday’s post.

Louise and Danie each stopped by during this period, offering suggestions that were helpful, saving a considerable amount of more time trying to shop online, which proved to be pointless. Without my own South Africa ID# on one of the two possible sites, I wasn’t able to place an order. The other site indicated a 10 day shipping period after it left their facility for another three to five days. We could be gone by the time it would arrive.

Louise suggested I call the location in Nelspruit, Incredible Connection, the largest digital equipment store in the area, order and pay over the phone and she’d sent a courier to pick it up who charges a minimal cost. I was hopeful after hearing this.

After she left, I called the store to discover phone orders are simply not a possibility, due to the risk of fraud from stolen credit and debit cards. I get this, but was further frustrated. My only option was to go to Nelspruit, an all-day outing, certainly not my choice while we’re so enjoying our continuing time at Khaya Umdani. So it goes.

As for the iPad concept or tablet concept many of you may suggest for me: With all the travel and financial documents and spreadsheets that we have saved on the external hard drive using both Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook, there is no way I’d want to spend the time to make this available in an Apple or other non-MS Windows-based product. I love these products, have used them for years and at this point, don’t want to change. 

On many occasions, I’ve sent a Microsoft based document to others using an iPad or other tablets only to discover they are unable to open them. We’ve found that family members are also unable to use Skype with an adequate connection using an iPad or tablet.

During last night’s fitful sleep, I made the decision that I must purchase a new laptop. Undoubtedly, based on research online at the website, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll have the most current models. Computers are not manufactured here in South Africa. Everything is imported, requiring import fees and VAT taxes (value-added tax).

This may not be an uncommon dilemma for the business traveler with this same predicament; a broken or stolen laptop or tablet. What do they do? Most likely, what I’m doing today, traveling to the big city to make a new purchase.

Right now, I’m using Tom’s laptop which he uses throughout the day checking on financial matters, communicating with family and friends, and updating his favorite hobby, ancestry.com. I didn’t feel it was fair to use his computer for too long.

Last night, we watched a movie on his laptop after I’d downloaded all the saved TV shows and movies onto the external hard drive. With the loss of only a few apps that are nagging at me, I can now live with the fact that this morning, my almost totally defunct laptop will not let me access anything at all. It’s OK. I can now say goodbye.

On the return drive from Nelspruit with Okee Dokee (Tom is not going with us), I’ll stop at the little house and retrieve the disks for the above Microsoft products. 

We expect to return by 5:00 or 6:00 pm. I’ll make dinner and then begin the process of reinstalling all the apps I need and transferring only the necessary data I need to function. There’s no need to use up many gigs of storage with our 1000’s of photos. They can remain in both Dropbox and on the hard drive for double security.  Perhaps, I’ll even load all the files on whatever cloud comes with the laptop that I purchase.

Hopefully, when I write tomorrow and post some amazing awaiting photos, I’ll feel at ease knowing this is behind me. In the past year, I’ve dropped both my new expensive smartphone and a laptop, breaking them both. What’s the deal? Clumsy perhaps? Or simply, too preoccupied to pay enough attention to things in my hands? Most likely, both of these. 

After all, isn’t clumsiness, just not paying attention? I suppose it is. Can I train myself to pay more attention as to what is in my hands? I don’t drop dishes, glasses, or other items. Just expensive digital equipment. I’m certainly motivated to change after these two harrowing experiences.

I always justify the breaking of these two pieces of vital equipment, by saying, “It could be worse.” And, without a doubt, we’re grateful that it wasn’t. Very grateful.

Tomorrow, we’ll be back into our usual routine of taking photos, posting online, and cheerfully going about our remaining 23 days in Marloth Park. The time is flying!

Minimal post today!…Computer crashed…Heading to Nelspruit tomorrow morning to make a purchase…Back on Wednesday afternoon…

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Nothing gets me more riled up than computer problems. It crashed, most likely as a result of recently dropping it. I spent the entire morning trying to find a way to purchase a new laptop or a tablet befitting my needs, only to become totally frustrated.

Ordering a device online is tricky for several reasons.  Fast shipping from the US is expensive. Last 13 pound, 5.9 kg box cost US $458, ZAR $5121.50. Plus, the computer would have to go through customs upon arrival for more fees.

My only alternative, if we’re not willing to spend the above and more, is to make a purchase in South Africa. It’s impossible to order online since all online in-country purchases require a name matching South Africa ID#, comparable to a US social security number. One cannot “borrow” a number.

The handwriting is on the wall. Calling the largest computer store in Nelspruit this morning they confirmed there is no alternative but to make the purchase in person.

Tomorrow morning at 10 am, Okee Dokee will drive me on a long trip to the store. Tom will remain behind at Khaya Umdani. With massive amounts of road construction, the former 90-minute drive may take upwards of three hours each way.

Upon returning from Nelspruit, I’ll post an update as to whether I have time to post tomorrow or if it will have to wait until Thursday.

I have managed to save all of our photos and files in Dropbox and have some amazing new photos of our recent Vervet Monkey raid!

Back soon.

OMG!…I dropped my laptop and broke it!!…What now?…Plus, a funny video!…Photos from the river at dusk…

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Sunset at dinner on the Crocodile River. Notice the Crocodile swimming across the river in the lower left. We watched for a considerable time, hoping he’d exit the river. Instead, he languished in the water, eyes revealed while waiting for his dinner.

Wednesday afternoon, while carrying my laptop from the first floor to the second-floor loft which we use as a living room on hot days, (it has AC), for no reason at all, the laptop fell from my hands dropping onto the stone floor.

This lower-right corner of my laptop broke when I dropped it, disabling the touchscreen feature. There are numerous hairline cracks throughout the remainder of the screen.

Horrified, I bent down to pick it up, as shards of glass skittered about the floor. Oh, oh. I felt sick to my stomach as it set it down to see how severe the damage and if it would still work.

The sky over the Crocodile River manages to be more beautiful than many other areas.

Immediately turning it on, I was amazed to find it working. The damage was to the touchscreen which no longer works and there are cracks across the screen affecting the viewing of the screen. It was clear that I’d need a replacement.

As the night fell, with the distance across the crocodile, it was tough to get clear shots. This was the first time we’d seen more than one waterbuck at a time.

Tom and I have each had our own computers since 1992, when we decided that sharing was not an option when we both enjoyed being online simultaneously, frequently talking, laughing, and sharing tidbits of information we gleaned in the process. 

Sorry for the blur. These photos were taken from a vast distance near dark.

Now, 22 years later, we are online at about the same time, ensuring neither of us is ever annoyed when the other is spending extended periods online. Currently spending a half a day, each day, writing here and posting photos, and, later working on photos for the next day, there’s absolutely no way we would or could share.

Luckily, this funny video intended to offset some of my angst over dropping my laptop on the stone floor, breaking the touchscreen monitor. 
Wednesday, when my 14-month-old Acer Windows 8, 15.6″ Touchscreen laptop hit the floor, the thought of having to share with Tom in order to continue writing our story, was the first thought in my mind. 

If it was completely destroyed, all of my files were backed up to the free cloud, Dropbox, leaving me with no worries about losing the 1000’s of photos and documents relative to our travels and financial matters.

View from the veranda of the Serene Oasis Restaurant as we watched the Crocodile cross the river from the Marloth Park side to the Kruger National Park side.

For Tom, as a part-time researcher and proofreader for our site, having to share his computer would result in our world becoming upside down until we could figure out a replacement. Looking online I panicked when a comparable replacement with fast international shipping would be well over US $1000, ZAR $10,921. 

A waterbuck and white bird hanging out on the river bank.

Our laptops serve as not only a source of writing about our world travels, but also as a means of staying in touch with family and friends, banking, financial matters, tracking our expenses, and current and future planning.  Plus, without watching TV, it’s a significant source of entertainment when we’re not out and about.

When one only cooks dinner four times per week, has the house cleaned by others twice a week, has all the laundry washed, dried, and folded by others twice a week, one must have a source of distraction for several hours each day rather than staring into space. These services were all included in our rental.

A pair of waterbucks, posing from afar.

Our primary source of entertainment each day since arriving in Marloth Park on December 1st has been the glorious experience of sitting outside on the veranda, waiting for wildlife to visit. Although much of our time is spent scanning the bush, we still have ample hours to peruse online while we wait.

Yes, we do go out no less than three or four days/nights each week, loving every moment. We all have some downtime to fill. Perhaps for us, with no household chores to tackle, no lawn to mow, no garden to weed, no snow to shovel, we have more free time than most. I’m not complaining. We love it!

Five waterbucks walked across this shallow area of the Crocodile River to visit this island.

We discovered that purchasing a comparable laptop online, presented its own share of issues: international shipping and customs fees, add as much as 25% to the price. Also, a mailed computer could easily get stuck in customs upon entering South Africa, never arriving before we leave in five weeks.

If anything were to go wrong with the replacement, dealing with it from afar would be cumbersome when Skype is our only means of making phone calls. 

After all this time, I still haven’t had the broken screen on my smartphone repaired after I dropped it on the cement by the pool in Belize last March. With the inconvenience of arranging for service from outside the US, it wasn’t worth the trouble. Yeah, I know. I’m clumsy, breaking both a phone and a laptop in one 12 month period.  Tom says I’m “a bull in a China shop.”

Finally, darkness fell and we went indoors for dinner.

Bless his heart, Tom didn’t say a negative word.He knew I was torturing myself enough for both of us.He offered to swap laptops with me, but I refused. Why should he have to deal with this? 

We contacted Louise, our lovely property manager, asking if there was a nearby computer store. Alas, we were in luck. She told us that there was a quality store in Komatipoort and to ask for her friend Jorge. We were heading there for groceries anyway, so this was perfect. 

Off we went at noon with Okee Dokee. She knew exactly where the computer store was located, tucked away down a long alley in the back of other stores. If we’d still had a rental car, we’d have had a heck of a time finding it.

Meeting with Jorge, I explained all the specs I wanted, basically a newer model replacement of my touchscreen computer which sells online in the US for around US $700, ZAR $7705.39. Jorge, a very kind man, said he’d call or text later in the day when he got a quote for the replacement.

A few hours later, Jorge sent a text with the price for the replacement, which proved to be twice our original cost, twice the current price online in the US. His price was US $1350, ZAR $14,860, all-inclusive. I flinched.  Yes, this would avoid shipping and some customs fees. And, we may have considered it, if it had been any other brand name than offered, not worthy of a bashing mention here.

Later, back at home, I decided to make a serious assessment to determine if I could live with the damaged computer. Last night, we watched a movie after returning home from dinner. After a while, we got used to the cracks in the center of the screen.

I can still use the computer using keystrokes to maneuver, as opposed to the ease of using the former touchscreen. I can get past the cracks and the continuous dropping of small shards of glass. I can make it work until we get to Boston in less than eight months where we’ll make a new purchase if it holds up until then.

At least it wasn’t a snake bite. Or, a centipede sting! In the realm of things, having to pay for a replacement laptop is merely an annoyance and unexpected expense. By the time we get to Boston, our laptops will be two years old anyway and we both may be due for a replacement. 

We’ve been very blessed in our travels these past 15 months. Who’s to complain? Not I!

Part 2, Departure plan in place..Step by step process…Handling of leftover supplies…

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It would be ideal if we could use all of the foodstuffs, cleaning supplies, and paper products that we acquired when spending up to three months at each location. Each time we move into a new location, we’ve found that we spend a fair sum to stock the new home with the basic necessities. 

Our goals are simple; don’t be wasteful and, don’t be wasteful with our money. However, we must admit that we’ll be leaving many items behind that are both impractical and costly to pack.

Although we try to gauge how much of any item we’ll use, it is frustrating to have purchased grocery items we never used, ingredients for a specific recipe that we never made but purchased with the best intentions. It is those very items that often filled our kitchen cabinets anyway, stuff we may never use, eventually to be donated or thrown away? Besides, no matter where we live, I’m not exempt from the occasional “impulse purchase.” 

When we arrived here, I jumped at the chance to purchase a large bottle of organic “real” vanilla extract for KES $520.50, US $5.76.  ‘d hoped to find unsweetened “real” chocolate so I could make our favorite sugar free, low carb fudge. Never found the chocolate. Never opened the bottle of vanilla. So it goes. I won’t bore you with several other such items we’ll be leaving behind. 

Then, there’s the bigger expense that we’ve incurred while in Kenya, the purchase of “scratch-off” cards for data to “top off” our Kenya SIM cards for our two MiFi devices for Internet connectivity. These are useless to us once we leave Kenya. They don’t work outside the country, typical for SIM cards in most countries, tricky for us world travelers. 

Another area of concern is the disposal of clothing that has either worn out or we’ve found to have no occasion to wear.

The question for today:  How will we dispose of leftover, unused, unwanted, and no longer relevant items which we have no desire or intention of packing?

The food items will be left behind informing Hesborn or Jeremiah to take any of the items they’ll use and either leave the balance for future renters or if they choose, for Hans and Jeri.

When we left Italy, we’d posted photos of a pile of clothing and shoes we’d left behind for Lisa and Luca, the kindly landlords, to either keep, give to family or friends, or to donate which they gladly offered when we mentioned this dilemma. 

The clothing, yet to be sorted, is much smaller now that we’ve narrowed our clothing down to one large suitcase each. Some worn items will be tossed. In a concerted effort to reduce the weight of our bags, we’ve decided to ship ahead a few boxes utilizing the Ukunda post office that will allow us to insure the contents of the boxes.  Alfred will drive us to Ukunda on Friday to ship them off.

At this point, we have no idea as to the cost to ship these boxes within the continent. The fact that we’re willing to ship them by the slowest possible method to save on the cost should result in our receiving them within a month or so, which is fine for us. 

Why not toss these items? The biggest issue is the difficulty in finding clothing to fit me. I’m tall and wear an odd size. My inseam is 35″ (88 cm). Do I want to take the time to find a pair of pants or dress long enough not to embarrass myself? No. In all of the countries we’ve visited thus far, the women are shorter than I (here’s a chart of the average heights of men and women worldwide).

In only nine months I’ll need the to-be-shipped clothing items and shoes for two upcoming cruises. One of the highlights of cruising for us is dining in the main dining areas which typically don’t allow jeans or shorts. 

We don’t want to be forced to eat at the buffet for dinner due to our lack of proper clothing, which we’ve only done twice on our eight prior cruises, each time, much to our dismay; once when returning late from an excursion with the main dining room closed and another, on the night of a Minnesota Vikings Playoff game when we loaded trays filled with food to take to our cabin to watch the game. (The TV signal was lost almost entirely throughout the game and, surprisingly, ha, Minnesota lost).

Yes, I know in a prior post, I’d mentioned my willingness to forgo style and selection in my attire. But when on cruises, one surely desires to get their money’s worth of the meals already included in the fare in the main dining areas. Were it not for this fact, I’d gladly dispose of my few remaining dresses, and matching sandals. In any case, we’re shipping all of those. 

We’d already ditched all of our “formal attire” for the dress-up nights, falling back on our basic inventory for those evenings since formal wear is not mandatory on most cruises. 

In essence, it’s clothing and shoes that we’re shipping. I have six pairs of shoes in my possession and my beloved safari boots. That’s all I own: one pair of Keds leather slip ons, one pair of tan 3″ heels, one pair of water shoes, plus three pairs of Clark’s sandals: black, beige and white. (I left my bulky workout shoes in Italy.  These can easily be replaced once we’re near a health club again).

Tom, on the other hand, has four pairs of shoes: one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of water shoes and two pairs of Cole Haan, one dressy, one casual, and of course, his safari boots. 

Start adding up shoes alone and they consume an entire carry on bag. Ah, the challenges of stuff, continues to play a role in our lives, although considerably less than it used to.

The end result of our clothing issues;  we’re shipping ahead enough weight in shoes and clothing, weighing everything on our portable scale, in order to avoid paying excess baggage fees when we fly to South Africa a week from today. Once these boxes are shipped, we’ll share how much we paid for the shipping.

The final items that we’ve contemplated over these past few weeks, was the remaining data left on our SIM cards on my MiFis. As of today, Tom has 8.7 gigabytes, remaining and I have 9.1 gigabytes remaining, more than enough for Tom to watch the Minnesota Vikings game and for me to download several TV shows and movies. 

We carefully tracked our data usage since arriving in Kenya, in an effort to ensure we didn’t leave the country with too much paid-for but unused data. 

We’ve determined, via our recordkeeping that our combined average daily usage is approximately .5 gigabytes resulting in our ability to save enough data for the layover at the Nairobi airport.  Once we arrive in Johannesburg our devices will no longer work containing the Kenya SIM cards.

We’re pleased that in the past month, it wasn’t necessary to purchase additional data by carefully monitoring our usage:  no videos other than downloaded TV shows for our evening entertainment and Tom’s Minnesota Vikings games. Avoiding the download of Facebook videos was most instrumental in us having ample data to get us through this next week. 

Yes, we still may have unused data remaining at the end, which we hope to use to download movies and TV shows.

So, there it is folks.  The process of winding down appears more complicated than it is. It requires careful thought and planning, neither of which is foreign to us.  As we maneuver our way to yet another country in our ongoing quest for exploration and wonder, we can smile, knowing that we’re doing everything we can to make the transition as stress-free as possible.