Part 2…Photos and info about our temporary home in The Villages, Florida….

Posted by worldwide-admin on May 3, 2023 with 0 Comment

The fully-equipped granite and stainless steel kitchen is terrific, although there isn’t a specific cupboard for food storage. I will use the storage closet in the hallway for packaged items.

After an awful night’s sleep, we were out of bed by 6:00 am. We had passport documents on our minds, and knowing we had to start the process today of preparing all the necessary paperwork must have impacted our ability to sleep. Tonight’s another night; hopefully, we’ll both get a good night’s rest.

Shortly after getting up and having our coffee, we began paying for CIBT, a passport and visa processing company we’d used in the past. The cost for both passports was over $1650, including US State Department fees, which were necessary to expedite the passports to ensure we got them sent to us in time for our departure in a few months.

The four-person dining room table is of excellent quality, with beautiful placemats and napkins.

Apparently, like in South Africa, passport renewal services are grossly backed-up, supposedly due to staff shortages from the pandemic. We couldn’t risk sending our applications directly to the State Department, which could take over 90 days to process.

We both cringed about paying such exorbitant fees, which have tripled in the past few years, but this was the only way to ensure we’d get the passports on time. The process is time-consuming and cumbersome, and we still have work to do. But, after this morning, we put a good dent in it. In the next week, we’ll deliver everything to a local FedEx store and send everything to the company.

The queen-sized bed is smaller than we’re used to, but it’s comfortable along with the bedding.

Also, this morning, our first Instacart grocery order was delivered. When the order arrived this morning (we placed the order last night), everything we ordered was there except for a few odds and ends, which we can pick up next time we go out. Again, we cringed at the fees for shopping online, but in comparison to renting a car in Florida when the golf cart doesn’t have enough room for a week’s groceries, it is well worth it.

So far, we’ve spent over $500 on groceries, although we have enough food to get us through the next ten days. We’re planning on going out to dinner on both Friday and Saturday nights, a habit we acquired going to Jabula on both nights. We have a schedule of activities, including live bands in The Village, that occur every night of the week. That should be fun, along with going out to dinner.

It’s a wonderful treat having a walk-in closet with lots of hangers.

We haven’t planned any social events yet, other than with our friends Karen and Rich, coming to stay overnight next Friday. In the next week or so, we’ll start contacting the many locals that contacted us to get together.

We’ve been starting our day on the lanai and ending it there in the evenings. In the past few days, we’ve been spending time on the screened lanai, where we can watch a mating pair of birds, overseeing the care of their chicks tucked into a dense bush in the back garden. It’s small but quite lovely. Of course, there are no animals to observe other than a few birds.

There is one dresser and one chest of drawers in the primary bedroom. I am using the tall chest of drawers, and Tom is using the other. Each had more room than we needed. The en suite bathroom is perfect. Tom is using the second full bath. It’s excellent for each of us to have our own bathroom.

With Florida heating up in the spring, we keep the central air on day and night but don’t change the temperatures the owner sets. It’s actually perfect for us, and we’re enjoying the comfort day and night. We’re both still a little sluggish from lack of sleep but overall are feeling well. With the time difference from South Africa, I have been napping here and there and need to stop doing this to ensure a good night’s sleep.

This house is very comfortable, and we like everything about it. The conveniences are way more than we’re used to. We’re in awe of the simplest things many take for granted. We’ll make every effort to ensure we don’t get spoiled by the extras we haven’t had for years.

More house photos will be coming tomorrow.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, May 3, 2013:

No photos were posted on this date ten years ago. For the posted story, please click here.

Part 1…Photos and info about our temporary home in The Villages, Florida….

Posted by worldwide-admin on May 2, 2023 with 0 Comment

At certain points along the golf cart path in The Villages, the scenery was lovely.

The house photos will begin tomorrow, but today we’re sharing photos from our first drive using the golf cart that came with the house to the closest shopping area in our Fernandina neighborhood of The Villages. It was pretty fun.

I am a little tentative right now after the Afib bout on the plane, but since we arrived, all is well. My heart rate and blood pressure are normal, with no issues whatsoever. Hopefully, it was a fluke. It may have been too soon to travel on a plane so close to the time I was released from the hospital, only four days earlier. The cardiologist gave me the OK to travel. My fingers are crossed that was the case. I have no interest in going to more doctors and having more pointless tests.

The golf cart paths are easy to navigate.

We had never used a golf cart except in Belize in 2013 when rental cars were outrageously priced. We rented a golf cart to get around when we discovered the first holiday home we rented was infested with insects and had running water only a few hours a day. We used the golf cart to drive to other properties until we eventually found the excellent property where we stayed for our remaining time in the country.

If you’re interested in reading that story about Belize, please see our archives for the first few days of February 2013. It was quite a strange experience when we first started out, but it ultimately resulted in a wonderful experience when we settled into the lovely Laru Beya property in Placencia, Belize.

Zoom in to see the golf cart traffic jam.

We only used the golf cart for a few days at that time. While here at The Villages, the golf cart will be our only means of transportation for almost three months. At first, before we got it going, we were hesitant that this form of transportation would be sufficient for us. But, after yesterday’s first outing, we feel okay about it and will do well getting around. It just takes a little longer than driving a car.

As it turned out, I downloaded a free app, The Villages, which provides easy directions to all locations. What was most important to us was the golf cart paths permitted for driving to any site. This app made it very easy for us to find our way to the restaurant where we had breakfast yesterday and found a Publix grocery store across the road.

The only problem with this particular Yamaha brand of golf cart which is in excellent condition is there is little room for groceries for the ride back to our place. This limits the number of groceries we can purchase at any given time. Now, we understand why so many residents use InstaCart and order groceries online. We may decide to do the same since I prefer to pick out our food. mainly meat and produce.

We inched closer to the row of golf carts and were moving along only a few minutes later.

Today, I am posting photos from our first drive with the golf cart, and tomorrow and for the next few days will add photos I took this morning of the interior and exterior of this lovely three-bedroom home. We love this property since it is in perfect condition, has central air, and is more equipped with supplies and “stuff” than any holiday home we’ve rented in the past.

Tomorrow, we’ll share photos of various storage areas in the house so you can see how thorough this owner is. Wow! It’s mind-boggling, and she told us we don’t have to replace anything we use while we’re here. Sure, we may run out of paper products and laundry soap, but we won’t have to purchase cleaning supplies and many toiletries she’s provided.

Tom had his eyes on the road while driving the golf cart.

We love sharing extraordinary holiday/vacation homes with our readers. We couldn’t be more thrilled with this property. If you are interested in renting this property in the future, you can find the listing here on VRBO.

Last night, Tom was still full from his huge breakfast at Bob Evans Farmhouse, while I had a small breakfast with an omelet. We purchased a whole-cooked chicken at the market and ate the dark meat with a salad last night. Tonight, we’re having soft-shelled tacos stuffed with leftover chicken for me and ground taco meat I’ll make for Tom. We’ll be using keto cheese taco shells we found at the market. They are only one carb each, so seeing how good they are will be interesting. I’d read about these taco shells but couldn’t find them in South Africa.

We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, May 2, 2013:

Sagrada Familia…Why is the Sagrada Familia so famous? Image result for Sagrada Familia La Sagrada Familia is a building that Gaudí masterfully designed. Despite not being finished, UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site in 1984 because of its unique architecture and how Gaudí created something so artistic and innovative. For more photos, please click here.

We made it to Florida, after a frightening experience on the long red-eye flight…

Posted by worldwide-admin on May 1, 2023 with 6 Comments

The lovely dining room is set in our beautiful new home in The Villages, Florida. More photos will follow tomorrow.

We are so grateful to have safely arrived in Florida after a terrifying event occurred on the 17-hour flight from Joburg to Atlanta. We’d had dinner at the airport restaurant, but the food was mediocre. I only had a grilled chicken salad and a pot of chamomile tea since I hadn’t had any wine since the heart event over a week ago.

Finally, after the five-hour layover, it was time to board the plane, and we were anxious to get to our seats and relax. We hadn’t booked our seats together. We booked a seat with two other empty seats beside us, which worked out for me but not for Tom, who was two rows directly behind me. Someone else had booked one of the three seats where Tom was situated, and he wasn’t ever able to lie down, although I was.

The flight took off about 20 minutes late, but the huge plane finally took off smoothly without incident. I was thrilled to have two empty seats next to me so that when I was tired enough, I could lie down on the three seats with the blankets and pillows provided for all three seats.

About half an hour into the flight, I noticed my pulse suddenly increased. It started at about 100 bpm and, within a short period, it had escalated to 160. OMG, I was terrified. I was afraid to have Tom get the blood pressure cuff out of the bag in my carry-on bag in the overhead compartment. My pulse alone was high enough to convince me that my blood pressure was equally high, and seeing it would only create more anxiety, possibly making it worse.

As stressful as the concept of this long journey was only three days after getting out of ICU in hospital, I felt very calm and at ease about traveling. Sure, I’d considered that something could occur on the plane, but I wasn’t stressing about it by any means. I knew it was afib and not an anxiety attack which I don’t experience.

As the event escalated, I imagined how awful it would be if I told the flight attendant I was having a heart-related crisis and the plane had to turn back. Oh, good grief, that would not be very good. Besides, even after deep breathing and working for hours to stay calm as my heart rate soared, I knew this was no panic attack.

There was nothing I could do but wait it out. I told Tom what was happening, and he checked on me often, worrying about what we’d do if this continued through the 17-hour flight. After the sixth hour, my pulse began to drop for short periods and eventually returned to normal. What an ordeal. No words can express how relieved I was when it settled down to a steady 65 beats per minute. at that point, I was exhausted and hadn’t slept a wink.

After my pulse returned to normal, I was grateful and watched a few movies, dozing off and on. Back in normal sinus rhythm, I was able to stretch out on three seats and sleep for a few hours. Almost 17 hours after the flight began, we landed in Atlanta for the five-hour layover until the next flight.

Much to my surprise, the time passed quickly, and we boarded the last flight from Atlanta to Orlando. I slept during the entire flight, sitting straight up, sandwiched in a center seat between two burly male passengers. I awoke moments before the flight ended, and we rushed to make our way to baggage in hopes of collecting our bags in time for our 6:00 pm pre-arrange shuttle to The Villages.

Although this particular flight was over 30 minutes late, we managed to make it to the shuttle in time for our 6:00 pm ride to The Villages. By 8:30 pm, in the dark, we exited the shuttle just in time to see the SpaceX shuttle launch from Cape Kennedy in the night sky. That was exciting.

Now, we’re situated in this gorgeous place, well-equipped with everything we could possibly need. In tomorrow’s post, we’ll share details of our new temporary home in this fantastic retirement community of The Villages.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, May 1, 2012:

This was the type of knife in our bin when we went through security in Barcelona, which was not our knife. A terrifying situation ensued. For details, please read here.

Final Kruger photos…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 15, 2023 with 0 Comment

It isn’t easy to fully appreciate the tiny size of this baby elephant in this photo. It was so sweet to see this little one.

On this date, one year ago, Covid-19 (Omicron) was detected on the cruise during the transatlantic crossing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Southampton, England. Five days later, we tested positive, along with many other passengers. We were extra careful upon hearing about the outbreak, but we still interacted with other guests during meals and at the bars at night. We weren’t careful enough.

It’s only been in the past two weeks, almost a full year later, that finally, I am free of most of the symptoms of long-haul Covid. I can confidently say that after a 10-day course of Prednisone, my headache and facial pain are gone, gone, gone. I’m still suffering from allergy symptoms, but mainly, I believe these started when I got Covid and haven’t gone away during this high allergy time in the bush.

Dust, dust mites, pollen, and grasses are the allergens that impact me the most after being tested over 40 years ago. I was on a seven-year regime of weekly immunological injections, but I believe that after all this time, the efficacy has worn off. At this point, leaving two weeks from today, I expect the allergy symptoms to diminish in short order once we leave the bush.

Doc Theo put me on a few new allergy meds that are keeping me from being miserable after the Prednisone wore off, which I’ll continue to take once we arrive in Florida, hoping I can eventually wean myself off of them. But Florida is also a hotbed of allergens, so we’ll see how it goes. At least, I’ll be well-armed with the few meds that I know help to some degree.

This time, leaving Marloth Park isn’t as hard as it’s been in the past, except for leaving our wonderful friends and, of course, our animal friends, mainly Norman, and family. Nina and Natalie have visited daily during the school holidays, but Nomran stayed away for one whole week, only returning at least five times yesterday. I can only imagine what he’d been eating.

A lone elephant was grazing in the grass..

Norman’s belly looked full. He’d been eating well…not necessarily healthfully, but certainly in volume. We knew he wasn’t hiding away during the commotion made by holidaymakers when almost every day, we saw photos of him on Facebook posted by tourists rather than locals whose names we would recognize and who often post animal photos on Marloth Park Sighting Page.

Norman and family are the only nyalas in Marloth Park, including their son Noah, who was forced to find a new territory of his own when Natalie was born five or six months ago. When visitors see them, they often take photos and post them on Facebook. So, Norman stayed away for seven days, but at least we felt comfortable that the lions hadn’t gotten to him when we saw the photos online.

When he showed up yesterday, I was beside myself with joy. Nina and Natalie were with him, and we fed them lots of pellets and healthy produce. I stayed busy off and on during the day, cutting up carrots and apples and tossing them to him and the girls as they patiently waited in the garden. If a nyala can look happy, Norman did, staring into my eyes, paying more attention to me than the food.

You may scoff at this assessment, but connecting with these animals here is not much different from connecting with your dog. In a short time, they learn the name we’ve given them and the sounds of our voices, even keywords that mean something special to them, such as food offerings and affection. No, we never touch him or the other animals.

Norman’s massive horns could eviscerate a human in seconds, as could any male bushbuck, kudu, male or female wildebeest, or other horned animals in the wild. A warthog’s tusks are razor-sharp; these and other animals could easily kill a human if provoked or even startled. We proceed with caution and respect for the fact that they are truly wild.

Many criticize the animals here for having an easy life in Marloth Park, with plenty of vegetation and humans feeding them pellets. But, there are numerous leopards and currently eight lions in Marloth Park. Carcasses are often found as remnants of a meal of a big cat kill. All the wildlife has to stay diligent in preventing being taken out. There are warning calls when such predators have been spotted, and we’ve heard those sounds from time to time.

Our last trip over the Crocodile Bridge as we exited Kruger National Park in the next 14 months.

We continue to hear from more and more residents of The Villages who’d like to get together, many of whom have been reading our site for years. One couple is from the town where we lived in Minnesota almost 11 years ago. Wow! This is exciting. Rita and Gerhard are connecting us with some old friends who live there. Please keep the messages coming from people who’ve found us through our site or other friends.

Tonight, we’re off to Jabula again for what surely will be another fun night like last night and others before that. We’re never disappointed, not in the people, not in the staff, and not in the fantastic food.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 15, 2022:

Tag: The Villages