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

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More artwork from the cruise ship.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be well.

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

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

One day and counting…On the move…A new drug for Covid-19 treatment…

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Another piece of art was offered for sale at the ship’s auctions.

I can’t tell you how many readers have written about the new drug treatment for Covid-19, Paxlovid. At first, my sister Julie wrote and suggested we get our hands on this drug. Since then, countless readers have written with the same suggestion.

But, that isn’t as easy to do as you’d think in the UK. First, we’d have to find a doctor willing to prescribe it, and secondly, we’d have had to be seen in person by a doctor.

Here’s some information about this drug from a reliable site:

1. How does Paxlovid work?

Paxlovid is an antiviral therapy that consists of two separate medications packaged together. When you take your three-pill dose, two of those pills will be nirmatrelvir, the drug that inhibits the SARS-CoV-2 protein from replicating. The other is ritonavir, a drug that was once used to treat HIV/AIDS but is now used to boost levels of antiviral medicines. 

As a COVID-19 treatment, ritonavir essentially shuts down nirmatrelvir’s metabolism in the liver so that it doesn’t move out of your body as quickly, which means it can work longer—giving it a boost to help fight the infection.

2. When should I take Paxlovid?

You have to take Paxlovid within five days of developing symptoms.

Like all antivirals, Paxlovid works best early in an illness—in this case, within the first five days of symptom onset, says Jeffrey Topal, MD, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist who is involved in determining COVID-19 treatment protocols for Yale-New Haven Hospital patients.

“Once you’ve been ill with the virus for more than a week, the damage done to the body in a severe case can’t be undone by the antiviral,” he says.

3. How often do I take Paxlovid?

You take three Paxlovid pills twice a day for five days for a full course that adds up to 30 pills. It helps that the pills are packaged in a “dose card,” basically a medication blister pack that allows you to punch out the pills as needed.

4. Is Paxlovid similar to Tamiflu?

“I think it’s a good comparison,” says Dr. Roberts. Tamiflu is an antiviral drug that reduces flu symptoms. Both are prescription-only oral antiviral pills given early in illness.

Tamiflu is taken twice a day for five days, and it must be started within 48 hours of flu onset. “When you give a patient Tamiflu beyond that, it doesn’t really change the course of their flu,” Dr. Roberts says.

But there are also differences between the two, starting with the way they were studied, Dr. Topal adds. Researchers showed that Paxlovid can prevent hospitalization and death. But since influenza causes fewer severe cases, clinical trials focused on whether Tamiflu could shorten the length of flu illness—which it did, he says.

5. Can anyone get a Paxlovid prescription?

The FDA authorized Paxlovid for people ages 12 and older who weigh at least 88 pounds. But in order to qualify for a prescription, you must also have had a positive COVID-19 test result and be at high risk for developing severe COVID-19. 

That means you must either have certain underlying conditions (including cancer, diabetes, obesity, or others) or be an older adult (more than 81% of COVID-19 deaths occur in people over age 65). The more underlying medical conditions a person has, the higher their risk for developing a severe case of COVID-19, according to the CDC.

The hope is that the restrictions will be relaxed over time. The FDA granted the EUA in December, just as a staggering number of people were infected with Omicron and the need for care skyrocketed, leading to supply issues.

However, the supply has improved so that patients who meet the criteria for Paxlovid can now easily receive it, adds Dr. Topal.

6. How well does Paxlovid work?

When it applied for FDA authorization, Pfizer presented data from a clinical trial conducted between mid-July and early December in 2021. The data showed that participants (all of whom were vaccinated) who were given Paxlovid were 89% less likely to develop severe illness and death compared to trial participants who received a placebo. (While the recommendation is to take Paxlovid within five days of symptom onset, participants in the clinical trial took the drug within three days.)

Scientists will continue to study the drug’s effectiveness as it is used to treat patients in the real world.

7. What do we know about how Paxlovid works in kids?

Pfizer launched a clinical trial in March to study the safety and efficacy of Paxlovid in children and teenagers ages 6 to 17 who have COVID-19 symptoms and test positive for the virus, and who are neither hospitalized nor at risk for severe disease.

While Paxlovid is authorized for use in adolescents and teenagers ages 12 and up, and weighing at least 88 pounds, that age group wasn’t tested in the original clinical trial. But because many children reach 88 pounds—considered to be an adult weight—the FDA has allowed extensions of EUAs for medications such as monoclonal antibodies and remdesivir in younger age groups, adds Dr. Topal.

“Based on the pharmacokinetics of the drugs in Paxlovid, the differences in metabolism and excretion—liver and kidney function specifically—of these drugs in this age group are thought to be similar to that of adults,” Dr. Topal says.

8. Does Paxlovid work against Omicron?

Paxlovid’s clinical trials took place before Omicron became predominant, but Pfizer says the drug works against the highly contagious variant. So far at least three laboratory-based studies claim to back this up—two of those studies were conducted by Pfizer, while the third was done by Pfizer in partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. These studies have not yet been published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

9. What are the side effects of Paxlovid?

Most people who take Paxlovid should not experience serious side effects, explains Dr. Roberts. “Paxlovid is usually very well-tolerated,” he says. Common side effects, which are usually mild, include:

  • Altered or impaired sense of taste
  • Diarrhea
  • Increased blood pressure
  • Muscle aches

Since Paxlovid is cleared by the kidneys, dose adjustments may be required for patients with mild-to-moderate kidney disease, explains Dr. Topal. “For patients with severe kidney disease—or who are on dialysis—or those with severe liver disease, Paxlovid is not recommended; the levels of the drug can become too high and could cause increased side effects,” he says. “For these patients, molnupiravir may be another oral option for treatment.”

It’s worth noting that Paxlovid is still being studied, so it is possible that all of the risks are not yet known. (The FDA has provided a fact sheet on Paxlovid with a full list of known side effects.)

10. Can I take Paxlovid if I’m taking other medications?

There is a long list of medications Paxlovid may interact with, and in some cases, doctors may not prescribe Paxlovid because these interactions may cause serious complications.

The list of drugs that Paxlovid interacts with includes some organ anti-rejection drugs that transplant patients take, as well as more common drugs like some used to treat heart arrhythmias. Paxlovid also decreases the metabolism of anticoagulants, or blood thinners, that many older adults depend on, driving up levels of those medications in the body to a point where they are unsafe, Dr. Topal explains.

It also interacts with cholesterol-lowering medications like Lipitor, but that’s less challenging for patients to overcome. “If you stop taking your Lipitor for five days, nothing bad is going to happen,” he adds.

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, the FDA recommends discussing your options and specific situation with your health care provider, since there is no experience using the drug in these populations. If you could become pregnant, it’s recommended that you use effective barrier contraception or do not have sexual activity while taking Paxlovid. 

11. If I’m not eligible for Paxlovid, is there something else I can take?

For those who are unable to receive Paxlovid—perhaps because it would interact with another medication—there are other alternative therapies, such as molnupiravir, the other oral medication, as well as sotrovimab and remdesivir, which are IV medications.

The NIH recommends the following treatments, in order, for people at risk for severe disease:

  • Paxlovid
  • sotrovimab (Xevudy)
  • remdesivir (Veklury)
  • molnupiravir

But comparisons or rankings such as these are tricky, adds Dr. Topal. “None of these drugs were studied head-to-head or with the same variants,” he says.

And then there is the matter of availability and resources. “Remdesivir, for example, requires three days of IV therapy in the outpatient setting, which is very resource-intensive. Thus, some hospitals won’t offer it,” says Dr. Topal. “But sotrovimab, which is a single injection, is readily available.”

12. Do I still need to be “up to date” on vaccination if Paxlovid is available?

Vaccination remains a key part of prevention, even as more drugs become available, says Dr. Topal. He pictures prevention as an upside-down pyramid. Vaccination, mitigation efforts, such as masking, and testing would be at the base—and medications at the top point.

“Early testing is key to making these drugs work,” he says. “It’s always been the Achilles’ heel of these antiviral drugs that most people don’t get tested—or they don’t have access to testing.

He encourages taking a test even if you think you only have a cold or allergies—and if you can get one. “Home testing is a huge part of the way to really ‘operationalize’ these medications,” he says, adding that while home tests may not be as highly sensitive as the laboratory-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, they are still very helpful in making a diagnosis.

Dr. Topal says people also should remember that Paxlovid, even with its high efficacy, is not perfect, and even if it were, viruses can mutate and develop resistance to antiviral medications. “Will some people still be hospitalized? Yes—no medication is perfect,” he says. “But for many high-risk patients, this medication can really reduce that risk.”

If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and think you are eligible for a treatment, you can visit the government Test-to-Treat Locater. You can use the site to search for the places near you where you can fill a COVID-19 prescription, or identify sites that provide testing, medical care, and COVID-19 medications. 

Information provided in Yale Medicine articles is for general informational purposes only. No content in the articles should ever be used as a substitute for medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinicians. Always seek the individual advice of your health care provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition.”

As always, we state emphatically to contact your health care professional to access your personal medical situation.

 With over 100,000 new cases in the UK each week, getting an appointment through the NHS would have been impossible. When we were here in 2019 and needed a prescription refill, it took me days of phone calls and frustration to finally get an appointment. It is the same for citizens of the UK and the national health system.

As it turned out, this drug must be taken within three days of a positive test, and by the time I heard about this, this three-day window had passed. By the time we would have been able to secure an appointment, five or more days would have passed. Besides, at the time, we were too sick to be making calls all day and eventually heading out for an appointment. It just didn’t work out.

We are on the mend. Only the tiredness and cough remain, each improving a little each day. There is nothing more we can do at this point.

We would love to be able to return to South Africa with a supply of Paxlovid but based on restrictions in prescribing this drug. There is no way this will be possible.

However, I would like to get another booster before we leave the US, preferably not another J & J but a different brand. I am not entirely confident about J & J providing the protection we need.

Are we hesitant about cruising after this experience? Sure. It would be hard not to be. But that doesn’t mean we will cancel all of our remaining cruises. However, we do ask ourselves what we could have done differently.

We know the answer. It was too close contact with many groups of passengers. How do we avoid that? Did we stay up too late on most nights when we had such fun? We are very social. Surely, that’s what caused us to catch the virus. Then again, that’s a significant factor in us enjoying cruises. How do we work around that?

There is no easy answer. We’ve been safe in South Africa for the past 14 months. We’ve flown on several occasions. We visited the US and Zambia for visa stamps without issue. Certainly, our exposure resulted from being aboard a cruise ship of 1288 passengers.

Tomorrow morning the driver will pick us up to take us to London. If we have time, I will post before we leave or in the hotel once we arrive.

Note: We are working on getting the automatic emails working again. You may get two exact posts today since I sent one manually and our hosting company sent another. So sorry for this inconvenience.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 27, 2021:

This is One Wart. He only has one wart on the left side of his face and none on the right. Hence, his name. For more photos, please click here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be well.

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

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

Hanging in…Hanging on…

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Unusual artwork that was for sale on the ship.

No, this is not easy. But whoever said being long-term nomads would be easy? Who would have known when the concept of permanent home-free world travel only came into the limelight in the past decade? No one could have anticipated a worldwide pandemic that has changed everything for people like us.

Stuck in this hotel room in Southampton, England, with the exact room configuration in the hotel in Mumbai, India, where we spent ten months in lockdown in 2020, gives us the creeps. But, what can we do? It’s the way it is, and we’ve chosen to make the best of it.

We’re busy determining what we’ll do if we get negative Covid tests by Thursday. Can we make the fight scheduled from New York to Minneapolis on May 1? Can we get a flight from London to New York to catch that flight? In our research, it appears we’ll have to fly from London to New York one day earlier, spend the night in a hotel, and fly from New York to Minneapolis on May 1 as originally planned.

However, as Tom is conducting research online as I write here, it may be best to forfeit that flight from New York and book an entirely new flight to Minneapolis from London. If that’s the case, regardless of how we test, we could leave for London on Thursday when our reservation at this hotel ends.

Once we test negative, we can book a last-minute flight and be on our way to Minneapolis, perhaps even making it there on our initially planned date of May 1. The rates at this hotel are doubling this weekend because it is a “bank holiday.” We’d be better off paying for a hotel in London close to the airport.

Of course, everything will remain up in the air until we take those two Covid tests on Thursday. We are both feeling a little better today, although we are coughing a lot. The headache and body aches are gone, but I still have a sore throat. I have the feeling I won’t test negative until the sore throat is gone. It’s 50% better than when I was first tested as positive and getting better each day.

In any case, we’d like to leave this hotel by Thursday. It makes sense to get closer to London, near the airport, than to wait here. We are 90 minutes by car from London. We’ll arrange a private shuttle.

Hopefully, we will be feeling well enough to manage the long drive and handle our bags as necessary by Thursday. We are both optimistic in this regard.

As for today, we’ll continue to research our options but based on the progress we’ve made thus far today; we’ll have a plan in place by tomorrow’s post.

Have an excellent day. We’ll be back with you soon.

Photo from one year ago today, April 25, 2021:

Two duikers at night. For more photos, please click here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be well.

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

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

Part 2…You can run, but you can’t hide…We couldn’t escape it!…

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We still are experiencing symptoms of Covid, but in the past 24 hours, we have noticed a vast improvement. We no longer have headaches, brain fog, sore throats, and coughing. We both still feel tired, but a quick nap now and then seems to help. Hopefully, by tomorrow, we’ll both test negative and can proceed with the upcoming cruise as planned.

Tom suggested we wait to document our potential backup plans should we test positive on Saturday and Sunday. Thus, we haven’t planned what we’ll do if the Sunday test is positive. It will be over a week for Tom and one day short of a week for me, so we are hopeful.

At this point, Tom is trying to stay optimistic that we’ll be able to board the ship, while I am not so sure. Having to change everything would be time-consuming and frustrating. Nonetheless, we both are hopeful we can proceed with our plans.

While in Southampton, we’d intended to meet with friends/readers for dinner, but now she has Covid and has been suffering from similar symptoms but is also on the upswing. Based on my pre-existing cardiovascular disease, my biggest concern was that it may hit me hard. That concern has dissipated as I am feeling on the mend.

Since I don’t eat fast food, finding a suitable meal was tricky. Last night for dinner, we ordered takeaway food from Deliveroo, a food delivery service here in England. Tom’s food arrived from TGI Fridays without issue. Deliveroo failed to deliver my meal from a different restaurant.

I contacted Deliveroo to explain that my food hadn’t arrived, and they said the driver waited at the hotel for nine minutes and we never came down. I instructed the front desk to call us when the food arrived. Either the driver didn’t come inside, or the reception desk staff didn’t contact me as required. Now the company will not issue a refund. This frustrates me.

For my dinner, I ordered food from the restaurant/bar in the hotel, which proved to be an excellent meal, albeit pricey. But, after yesterday’s delivery fiasco, we’ve decided to eat in the hotel this evening. We wore our masks to breakfast and will do the same for dinner if we choose to eat in the bar at a distant table. The incubation period for Omicron is about three days, which we have passed, but still, we are being careful to avoid others.

In contacting the corporate office, supposedly, they are working on a resolution. If I don’t hear back today, I’ll have no choice but to get the credit card company we used to see if they can do something about it. Most often, they can. We’ll see how that rolls out—another minor annoyance to address.

Of course, while we are here in Southampton, we won’t be doing any sightseeing as initially planned. There’s no way we are feeling chipper enough to venture out, nor would we under the circumstances. We’re comfortable in this hotel room and only hope our last night here will be tomorrow.

So that’s it for now, folks. We won’t know our test results until tomorrow night when we do the test, but we will report the results here as soon as we know them.

Thanks to our readers who have written to us with the warmest of wishes for a speedy recovery so we can continue with our plans in the future. There aren’t many photos to share right now, and honestly, I do not feel up to taking any right now.

Be well.

Big Daddy is such a handsome animal. Photo from one year ago today, April 22, 2021:

We purchased six of these two-test self-administer kits using our unused cabin credit while on the ship

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

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Our cabin, friendly and tidy before our luggage arrives.

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

“Archaeological finds suggest that the area has been inhabited since the stone age.[15] Following the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 and the conquering of the local Britons in AD 70, the fortress settlement of Clausentum was established. It was an important trading port and defensive outpost of Winchester, at the site of modern Bitterne Manor. Clausentum was defended by a wall and two ditches and is thought to have contained a bathhouse. Clausentum was not abandoned until around 410. The Anglo-Saxons formed a new, larger settlement across the Itchen centered on the St Mary’s area of the city. The settlement was known as Hamwic, which evolved into Hamtun and then Hampton. Archaeological excavations of this site have uncovered one of the best collections of Saxon artifacts in Europe. It is from this town that the county of Hampshire gets its name. Viking raids from 840 onwards contributed to the decline of Hamwic in the 9th century, and by the 10th century, a fortified settlement, which became medieval Southampton, had been established.”
After a light breakfast in the hotel’s dining room, we returned to our room to close the bags and be ready to head out the door. We ordered a taxi to take us to the cruise terminal at 10:45 am, which is a little early, but we’ve gone to the airport this early in the past, and it’s always worked out.
Alternate view of our balcony cabin.  We’re always OK with the small space since we only sleep here.

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

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

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

Another cloudy, rainy day in Southampton harbor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back at you soon. Have a fantastic weekend!

Photo from one year ago today, October 24, 2018:
Last night’s full moon over Marloth Park. For more photos, please click here.

Southampton, England…A great hotel for two nights…

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The Leonardo Southampton Royal Grand Harbour hotel. (Not our photos).
Fascinating Fact of the Day About Southampton, England:

From this site:

“Southampton is a port city on England’s south coast. It’s home to the SeaCity Museum, with an interactive model of the Titanic, which departed from Southampton in 1912. Nearby, Southampton City Art Gallery specializes in modern British art. Solent Sky Museum features vintage aircraft like the iconic Spitfire. Tudor House & Garden displays artifacts covering over 800 years of history, including a penny-farthing bike.”
The hotel we selected in Southampton for two nights is the Leonardo Royal  Southampton Grand Harbour is located only minutes from the cruise terminal. For these dates, the nightly rate is GBP 180, US $231.  
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The hotel at night.

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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