Fantastic birthday…Eight days and counting…

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We spent a few days at Poipu Beach in Kauai, which we visited ten years ago on my birthday, staying in a lovely hotel.

Yesterday, we had a wonderful day on my birthday. The day was light and fun as we chatted on the phone with several friends and family members. I was thrilled to see messages from many worldwide readers, musical messages, and online cards.

I even received a thoughtful snail mail paper card from friends Kathy and Don in Hawaii, whom we will see in Marloth Park in a few weeks. We all arranged our visits to South Africa to coincide, and we’re so excited to be able to spend time with them and our other countless friends in the magical place.

At 4:15, an Uber picked us up and drove us to Richard’s home. We then took off in his vehicle to drive to Texas Roadhouse, where the four of us had drinks and a delightful dinner. We love that place! They certainly give their customers plenty of fresh, well-prepared food with many sides. Tom loves their buns but doesn’t care for the honey-cinnamon-sweetened whipped butter. He had no trouble getting regular butter after asking the server.

After dinner, we returned to Richard’s home to watch the second half of the US/Canada hockey game. Then, we sat at the dining table and played an entertaining board game, Mind the Gap, a generational trivia game. We laughed the entire time we played. When we said goodbye to the two of them, I felt a twinge of sadness, knowing we may not return to Nevada for a few more years with our upcoming busy world travel itinerary. But, as always, we’ll stay in touch.

At around 11:00 pm, we ordered another Uber at half the price we’d paid earlier during rush hour and returned to our condo. We never fell asleep until around 1:00 am, and I awoke around 7:00, feeling tired and too lazy to get out of bed. I lingered until 9:00 am and finally got up to shower, dress, and make bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Today is an easy day. We are heading out for dinner tonight, most likely to The Pub, which is located at the bottom of one flight of stairs from the floor on which our unit is located. The exit, with a keypad entrance code, is a short walk down the hallway. It takes about two minutes to walk to The Pub.

This morning, I wrote to Louise asking her to get three bags of pellets from the pellet guy who comes to her offices weekly, two bags for us, and one for Kathy and Don. Also, she will get us a few groceries for our first morning’s breakfast and repellent, which I apply three times a day. Although it’s heading into winter there soon, there are mozzies year-round, which, of course, are worse in the summer months,

We don’t use malaria medication since we are there too long. It’s unhealthy to take that medication for extended periods since it has some side effects. However, using repellent several times a day on exposed skin is a necessary precaution and works quite well. While using it, I rarely get bitten. On the other hand, Tom never gets bitten, even without using repellent around the clock. On humid “buggie” nights, he may put some repellent around his neck and ankles.

We constantly change into long pants when sitting outside at night. Even when it’s hot, I wear long pants or jeans. The less DEET one uses, the better, and I don’t want to be lathering the only repellent that works for me on my legs three times a day. Skin products are easily absorbed into one’s system. I’ve read that people with blood type O, which I am, are more prone to mosquito bites. Tom is type A.

That’s it for today, folks. We’ll be back with more as we approach our departure date.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, February 21, 2015:

This rooster in Kauai wanted to jump into the car with me after I’d made clucking sounds. For more photos, please click here.

We’re back after a wonderful weekend…Big changes I’ve made…

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The Speakeasy in the Village in Lake Las Vegas has a hidden room, which can be accessed by moving a section of this bookcase, typical of speakeasies in the 1920s.
Ah, it’s a good Monday for several reasons. We have secured the house in Penguin, Tasmania, for next March and April; our laundry is washed and dried; tonight’s dinner is prepped except for the salad I’ll make soon; and this morning, when I weighed myself, I realized I had lost 5 pounds in the past month.

Since I took all those heart rhythm drugs, I gained weight when my body slowed down so much that I was barely able to move. Once we arrived here almost a month ago, I went on a rampage to get fit and lose the 20 pounds I’d gained in the past 18 months from sheer inactivity and perhaps overeating (still low carb) to soothe my weary state of mind and body.

We sat at this bar while we enjoyed our drinks and later moved to the quaint dining room for dinner, shown below,

On several occasions in the past 18 months, I mentioned trying to lose weight, but I failed miserably when the weight just wouldn’t come off. I knew I had to make adjustments in my workout routine, which wasn’t vigorous enough, and reduce the “amounts” of foods I was eating, not so much related to “what” I was eating since my diet already consisted of eating salads and healthy non-starchy vegetables, fish chicken and beef and Greek unsweetened yogurt.

A grand piano was to the far right in this quaint dining room where we enjoyed our dinner.

I knew I had to adjust the above to lose weight. Here’s what I did that finally resulted in losing 5 pounds, most of which was in the past two weeks:

FOOD

  1. I reduced the amount of yogurt I ate. I’d often have some for breakfast and more as a snack after dinner. Too much dairy prevented me from losing weight.
  2. Stop eating anything once I was done with dinner. We usually eat around 5:00 pm, and once I take the last bite, I don’t eat another morsel until breakfast the next day, usually around 10:00 am. That provides me with at least a 16-hour fasting window each day.
  3. If I feel like having a glass of wine, I have it at 3:00 pm and sip it until dinner. After dinner, I only drink water or unsweetened iced tea. At first, I felt hungry a few hours after dinner, but I fought off the temptation to have something, and soon the hunger dissipated.
  4. I reduced the amount of salad I ate with dinner each night. I ate too much salad to get full when I was not eating any starchy side dishes, which made my digestion uncomfortable. Now, after dinner, I don’t feel uncomfortably full.
  5. Tom’s bacon cheeseburger and shoestring fries as we dined in the dining room.

    My Caesar salad was topped with a good-sized blackened salmon fillet. It was delicious after I picked off the croutons I’d asked to be excluded but didn’t make a fuss when they weren’t removed.

EXERCISE:

  1. I changed my exercise routine, knowing I wouldn’t have any exercise equipment when we arrived in South Africa. Five days a week, I do a routine of walking indoors while stopping every two minutes to do various heart-pounding exercises, continuing for 12 minutes. It’s the most conducive way to get my heart rate up sufficiently to do my heart some good. Walking alone isn’t enough. My 76-year-old knees don’t invite running or walking at a fast pace.
  2. Two days a week, I use the exercise bike in the fitness center, biking as fast as I can in intervals of the highest resistance, such as in HIIT (high-intensity interval training) for 15 minutes. On February 1st, I will wean myself off the bike and increase the indoor routine, ramping it up to 20 minutes daily.
  3. I’ve become more conscientious of getting up and moving around every 30 minutes during the day when I may be sitting by saving particular household tasks for those intervals. I set the alarm for every 30 minutes up until 5:00 pm when we have dinner and relax for the evening.
    The long staircase to the upper-level cigar smoking lounge.

    The bar in the smoking lounge.

SLEEP

  1. I’ve always been a poor sleeper. In the past month, I have focused on staying off my phone when and if I am awake during the night. Now, I can get at least 8 hours of sleep each night, making me feel much better during the day.
    The humidor with cigars for sale.

    The upstairs cigar lounge.

All of the above takes a lot of motivation and commitment every day. But, as they say, I tackle it “one day at a time.” In the past week, after almost a month of this new routine, I’ve noticed about a 25% improvement in my walking ability. This is my biggest motivator, and I must continue at this pace to ensure it improves further.

A cozy sitting area in the cigar lounge.

No, it’s not easy. But if we want to continue traveling, I must work harder on my health than ever before. I am now reminded of all the years I worked out this hard and how good it was for me.

Today’s photos are from our delightful Friday night dinner at The Speakeasy, where we dined for the first time. It was such fun, and we look forward to returning shortly. On Saturday night, we dined at The Pub. In both instances, we chatted with locals, which only added to the experience.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, January 13, 2015:

This photo of the snorkeler was somewhat confusing. Could they have been conducting some research? For more photos, please click here.

Fun time last night…Busy Sunday cooking, football and working out…

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Selfie…the two of us at The Pub last night in Lake Las Vegas.

A patron at The Pub spoke to us only when he wasn’t paying attention and bumped into me to apologize when we were looking for a table. We arrived at 5:15 pm, and the place was packed. If we’d arrived 30 minutes later, we wouldn’t have been able to get a table.

If we prefer to have a drink at this bar before dinner, we’ll have to arrive by 4:00 or 4:30 or come on a different day of the week, not Saturday night. Many TV screens broadcast football games, but no one seemed to pay attention. The loud voices made us chuckle. This certainly is a busy pub, aptly named. No doubt, we’ll go there again in the future.

This guy was standing in a little area with two bar stools, but they weren’t at the bar.

The drinks were priced for happy hour at $6 each. Tom had two beers, and I had two small glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon. Tom had a Reuben sandwich with fries included, and I had a grilled buffalo chicken salad with blue cheese dressing.

After ordering our drinks, we were content and engaged in lively chatter between us. It was nice to get out of the house and be in different surroundings, as much as we love the condo.

There was no room at the bar, so we selected a table. Minutes after our arrival, the place was packed.

We slept late this morning, and I didn’t start prepping tonight’s dinner until 10:00 am with a cup of coffee. It is a complicated recipe, and I spent almost two hours in the kitchen. I sat down to prepare today’s post only a short time ago and have yet to make my second cup of coffee.

Once I am done here, Tom can use my laptop to broadcast today’s football games. I’m only interested in the second game, with Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, which is on until 3:30 pm. That gives me plenty of time to make the salad to go with dinner and work out in the fitness center. Now, as I write here, it’s only 1:00 pm.

This was my buffalo grilled chicken salad with blue cheese and dressing.

If I’d got up earlier, I’d have more time to get everything done by 3:30, but since we began traveling the world, we don’t feel compelled to get up at any particular time unless we have specific plans. Tom is always up before me, but I am always awake before him. I read the news on my phone in the mornings or reply to emails and texts from family, friends, and readers, never feeling any pressure to accomplish this.

We love the leisurely pace of our lives right now. So little is required besides the basic daily housekeeping and cooking tasks. I do most of it, except Tom takes care of the dishes and trash and helps with the weekly cleaning day, which we decided is Friday.

Tom’s Reuben sandwich with fries.

We’ll also do the cleaning when we get to Arizona on April 1st for about six weeks. But when we get to Minnesota, we’ll be in a hotel with a living room and kitchen, which will be cleaned for us. I love not having to clean! Of course, once we get to Marloth Park in mid-June, once again, we’ll have our dear Zef and Vusi, who clean daily when there is so much dust from the wildlife, stopping by.

That’s it for today, folks. Now, I need to relinquish my laptop for the football games since Tom’s computer won’t work with the HDMI, regardless of what we try to do to fix it. Soon, he needs a replacement laptop, and perhaps next time, we’ll buy him one with an HDMI outlet.

Our bill with the 18% tip was $70.79, about $20 less than we paid last Saturday at Luna Rossa, which was a better meal. I ordered two glasses of wine when the first glass was only about 3oz. I asked for a stemmed glass since I don’t care to drink wine in a water glass, and the waitperson brought me a champagne glass, which was fine.

Have a fantastic day, and be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, January 21, 2014

Wow! Bourke’s Luck Potholes in South Africa was our favorite. For more photos, please click here.

Feeling good…Enjoying life and each other…Are other patrons friendly in public venues in the US?…

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Dawn and Leon are dear friends and owners of Jabula. This photo was taken on the day of my 75th birthday when the four of us went out to lunch when my birthday party, which they also attended, was a few days later.

With our coughs almost completely gone., we’re both feeling great and grateful at the same time. We had an excellent night’s sleep, and after a few cups of coffee, we are ready to tackle the day.

Today, I won’t be chopping and dicing for dinner since we’re heading out to a restaurant in The Village, down the one flight of stairs to the lovely area. We were heading to The Pub at the bottom of the steps when we found their menu appealing to both of us. We’re hoping it’s good since their prices are reasonable, and we may decide to dine there more often than once a week.

Tomorrow, we’ll report what we’ve discovered with photos and comments about the environment and the food. It appears to be somewhat of a sports bar, which we don’t mind at all. Hopefully, it will be a friendly place where we can chat with a few other locals and visitors to the area. But, our expectations regarding socializing in a restaurant in the US are in check. In all the years we lived in Minnesota (Tom, all of his life), we seldom chatted with other patrons in any public venue.

An occasional “hello” in passing while walking was all we could ever expect. On occasion, someone would talk to me at the supermarket, but never at the health club or any other public environment. I will always remember the time I met a lovely woman at a CVS pharmacy, and we chatted for 30 minutes.

And yet, we can recall during our world travels when we conversed with other patrons, and there were few countries where this transpired. You may say, “Do we make an effort to converse with others?”

And yes, we do. We are both friendly and approachable when we say hello and smile at other patrons, encouraging conversation. But our friendly approach is often ignored when the person turns away. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but they are few and far between.

The number one most friendly environment we’ve experienced in our world travels has been on most cruises, with only three cruises we’ve found to be less so….the Mekong River cruise in 2016, the Antarctica cruise in 2018, and, again, most recently, on The Galapagos Islands cruise. In each case, the passenger count was low: 60 passengers, 160 passengers, and 14 passengers, respectively. (No offense intended for any of the few passengers on those three cruises with whom we may have interacted occasionally and thoroughly enjoyed).

Cruises with larger passenger counts seem the most friendly, perhaps mainly based on the numbers. However, we have had exceptional social experiences on cruises, making many friends with whom we remain close.

Then, of course, the most friendly of all has been at Jabula Lodge and Restaurant in Marloth Park. South Africa. I know we’ve mentioned this repeatedly, but there is nowhere like it in the world that we have seen during our over 11 years of travel or…even in our old lives. Is it any wonder that we are looking forward to our return?

The food, the ambiance, Dawn and Leon, the owners, and all of the locals whom we’ve come to know over the years we spent sitting at the most fun bar in the world. We often equate it to the same kind of bar many of us watched on the old TV show, Cheers, “Where everyone knows your name!”

So, we don’t expect the restaurant and pub where we’ll dine tonight to be anything like Jabula, but as we have in the past, we will thoroughly enjoy each other’s companionship, lively chatter, and hopefully good food.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, January 20, 2014:

Tom was thrilled once again to be back on the water since it was seven months since our last cruise. We were on the Blyde River on a tour of the Blyde River Canyon in South Africa. For more, please click here.