Wednesday 13th February

I have decided to go back on my writing and post them. I was waiting to try and make it more interesting with photos but I am having problems getting the photos from my phone to the lap top and then into the blog - so here goes - a catch up of a few days - apologies for no pictures at this stage but at least it will get me up to date with my thoughts, posted in sequence as they were written.....

Wednesday 13^th February 2019

Once again I awake to a beautiful blue day of sunshine and calm – birds calling and the waves gently rolling out on the reef. We’ve started noting the tide times – it was high tide at 7.02 this morning – not that we noticed as we are generally still fast asleep then. I have been battling a little to get to sleep but it is a pattern that started quite a while ago – I am getting enough sleep though for sure as once I do fall asleep  I have been waking at between 9 and 10 in the morning!!!!  In addition the night time perambulations are on the decrease so that’s a huge relief!! Habits are hard to break. I have also noticed that I am dreaming again – at first I guess not surprisingly about packing up rooms in a house with my mum, and Fay and Beulah, then of me getting ready to snorkel with Johannesburg friends whom I have not seen for ages, then of my sister Fay and her now deceased husband, Rudd who (in my dream) were diving and swimming – none of this surprises me as I have been thinking a lot about Fay and Rudd since we arrived.  They sold their home in Tasmania and spent 7 years travelling around Australia in a smart RV that had it all AND towed a little 4 x 4 two seater that they ventured off the track in as it had all the camping and fishing gear as well as a rubber dingy tied to it.   Sadly I can’t swap stories with her as she has since had a stroke and is not able to speak but I do think a lot about them and the amazing times they must have had.    Dreams can be fun places to revisit family and friends – I enjoy the feeling of closeness I have when I awake.

So I am writing on the patio at the long table set to one side. The gardener is busy with the sieve taking out the coral flowers and leaves that have fallen into the water since he did it yesterday! The fans are whirring above me, my legs and arms are covered with INSECT O, the mossie spray we brought from Greyton which very effectively and of course ecologically, keeps the mossies away!!  And so another day stretches wondrously ahead of us ….   yesterday I spoke to my Tennis Tarts book club gals while they were having this month’s book club and someone asked me if I thought I might get bored here. Interesting as it had not occurred to me that we could ‘get bored’.  So my answer at this stage is no, not at all. So what is boredom – I’ve looked it up – a lack of enthusiasm among other things – and I can’t see that happening – as long as there is energy and movement in this body surely and a beach and a changing sea and a pool to fall into right here on my doorstep, busses a short walk away, places to explore I can’t see boredom happening. I guess boredom is also a state of mind.

There are five swallows that spend the night resting at the top of a pillar on the patio. At first we noticed three sheltering there. John got very concerned and put off the light near them and turned off the fan on that side. A couple of nights later another two joined them, sitting on the struts of the awning.

I love the timelessness of this point in our lives. If we don’t get to it today, then there is always tomorrow. When we are not doing or planning on doing, we notice more – and so as I emerge from the toll of the last months and maybe years, I feel my clock steadying, my senses noticing, my thoughts slowing, my juices moving, my eyes opening – and a slight realization of less judgement in my mind as I look at things – more acceptance of this is what is, rather than this is what I would prefer to to be….

No doubt, suffering is what we experience when we want things to be different from what they are – be it the weather, the place, the waves, the temperature, the taste….. the experience, the person….

But yesterday we ventured out at low tide with our snorkels, goggles and fins! John wearing his smart new shortie wet suit and me in an old surfing vest of Josh’s!  We entered the sea directly in front of the house. I took my boogie board which worked perfectly for me as I get nervous when the water is deep. It also meant I had something to keep me afloat as I lay across it whilst snorkeling. We had to go quite far out to get to the reef – the water was so clear and we saw lots of little fish. I was excited to see a small shoal – about ten or so – of fish jumping in and out of the water – really speedy fellows!  We headed towards the pole that Percy had told me about – it turned out to be a very encrusted anchor wedged into a rock with a pole and a piece of fabric attached to it. In my attempts to grab the pole I sort of sat on the rocks and immediately felt a stinging sensation on my bottom!! It wasn’t painful but did result in red welts which I covered with some Australian pawpaw balm which seems to have sorted it out! I was very glad that I was wearing the vest as the top of my legs got a bit burnt – something to watch out for.  So I would say that it was a successful foray into the ocean for our first snorkeling attempt! I think we will follow Percy’s advice next time and enter the sea further up the beach.

Let’s see if I can post a few pics to break the monotony of only words!

More photos from Black River on Wednesday 13th Feb 2019

The view of the beach looking north - we will need to walk as far as you can see to get to the spot Percy says is the best place to enter to access the reef

The view looking south - where we walked quite far, mostly John walked and I wallowed

Right in front of us - you can see the line of white waves breaking on the reef where we snorkeled yesterday

The house seen from the outdoor shower which gives a trickle of fresh water most days!

John rinsing his wet suit in the pool after THE snorkel

The gazebo for sundowners

 Pru in Josh's surfing vest and snorkeling attire - eat your heart out Ursula!!!!  I wish!!!!!

Yay I did it!! Luke says he is going to smarten up my blog site!! So watch this space.....

Thoughts and doings from our island home

Wednesday 13^th February 2019

Once again I awake to a beautiful blue day of sunshine and calm – birds calling and the waves gently rolling out on the reef. We’ve started noting the tide times – it was high tide at 7.02 this morning – not that we noticed as we are generally still fast asleep then. I have been battling a little to get to sleep but it is a pattern that started quite a while ago – I am getting enough sleep though for sure as once I do fall asleep  I have been waking at between 9 and 10 in the morning!!!!  In addition the night time perambulations are on the decrease so that’s a huge relief!! Habits are hard to break. I have also noticed that I am dreaming again – at first I guess not surprisingly about packing up rooms in a house with my mum, and Fay and Beulah, then of me getting ready to snorkel with Johannesburg friends whom I have not seen for ages, then of my sister Fay and her now deceased husband, Rudd who (in my dream) were diving and swimming – none of this surprises me as I have been thinking a lot about Fay and Rudd since we arrived.  They sold their home in Tasmania and spent 7 years travelling around Australia in a smart RV that had it all AND towed a little 4 x 4 two seater that they ventured off the track in as it had all the camping and fishing gear as well as a rubber dingy tied to it.   Sadly I can’t swap stories with her as she has since had a stroke and is not able to speak but I do think a lot about them and the amazing times they must have had.    Dreams can be fun places to revisit family and friends – I enjoy the feeling of closeness I have when I awake.

So I am writing on the patio at the long table set to one side. The gardener is busy with the sieve taking out the coral flowers and leaves that have fallen into the water since he did it yesterday! The fans are whirring above me, my legs and arms are covered with INSECT O, the mossie spray we brought from Greyton which very effectively and of course ecologically, keeps the mossies away!!  And so another day stretches wondrously ahead of us ….   yesterday I spoke to my Tennis Tarts book club gals while they were having this month’s book club and someone asked me if I thought I might get bored here. Interesting as it had not occurred to me that we could ‘get bored’.  So my answer at this stage is no, not at all. So what is boredom – I’ve looked it up – a lack of enthusiasm among other things – and I can’t see that happening – as long as there is energy and movement in this body surely and a beach and a changing sea and a pool to fall into right here on my doorstep, busses a short walk away, places to explore I can’t see boredom happening. I guess boredom is also a state of mind.

There are five swallows that spend the night resting at the top of a pillar on the patio. At first we noticed three sheltering there. John got very concerned and put off the light near them and turned off the fan on that side. A couple of nights later another two joined them, sitting on the struts of the awning.

I love the timelessness of this point in our lives. If we don’t get to it today, then there is always tomorrow. When we are not doing or planning on doing, we notice more – and so as I emerge from the toll of the last months and maybe years, I feel my clock steadying, my senses noticing, my thoughts slowing, my juices moving, my eyes opening – and a slight realization of less judgement in my mind as I look at things – more acceptance of this is what is, rather than this is what I would prefer to to be….

No doubt, suffering is what we experience when we want things to be different from what they are – be it the weather, the place, the waves, the temperature, the taste….. the experience, the person….

But yesterday we ventured out at low tide with our snorkels, goggles and fins! John wearing his smart new shortie wet suit and me in an old surfing vest of Josh’s!  We entered the sea directly in front of the house. I took my boogie board which worked perfectly for me as I get nervous when the water is deep. It also meant I had something to keep me afloat as I lay across it whilst snorkeling. We had to go quite far out to get to the reef – the water was so clear and we saw lots of little fish. I was excited to see a small shoal – about ten or so – of fish jumping in and out of the water – really speedy fellows!  We headed towards the pole that Percy had told me about – it turned out to be a very encrusted anchor wedged into a rock with a pole and a piece of fabric attached to it. In my attempts to grab the pole I sort of sat on the rocks and immediately felt a stinging sensation on my bottom!! It wasn’t painful but did result in red welts which I covered with some Australian pawpaw balm which seems to have sorted it out! I was very glad that I was wearing the vest as the top of my legs got a bit burnt – something to watch out for.  So I would say that it was a successful foray into the ocean for our first snorkeling attempt! I think we will follow Percy’s advice next time and enter the sea further up the beach.

Let’s see if I can post a few pics to break the monotony of only words! 

                                                             The squatters moving in!!!

 Will post this while its still here!! Then post the other pics!!

And a few more pics!!

The view from the patio - I took the sunset pic standing under the palm tree

Sherpa John carrying the dive gear bag with the shopping in it - serious business!!

Another serious pic as we wait for the bus!!!

All fall down in the pool - groceries duly unpacked - yay!

Access to the beach ….

I'm so wary of suddenly deleting everything!! I'll post these now and add more of the house tomorrow - night night

A couple of pics from Mauritius

Sunset on our 7th night - taken from the lawn in front of the house. I'm still figuring out when the best time to snorkel on the reef is. We went out today  just in front of the house but the reef felt too far away and I got nervous! You can see the reef in the photo - its supposed to be high tide now when I took the photo - waves do break on the reef but I think that happens at low tide when it is shallower and the water hits the reef.  Yesterday I took a walk northwards on the beach and met Percy a local, who showed me where to get to the reef by wading about 50 metres from the shore. He said one then snorkels (south) along the reef for about 45 minutes before coming out closer to our home. So the plan is to give that a go tomorrow.   He also told me where to boogie board - catch the bus to the church (about 4 or 5 stops away) and take any road to the beach and there are the waves of Tamarin bay - even better if you walk across the Black river and catch them on the other side of the river!! Then you can have a beer - 2 pounds at the hotel!!

So lets see what tomorrow holds for us - today after our aborted snorkel we went for a walk to the south of the house  - with me swimming quite a lot of the time - we are slowly getting tanned and hopefully getting fitter! Peace continues to reign! 

First blog from Mauritius 2019

Saturday 9^th February 2019

So we have been here since Monday the 4^th Feb. Such a time of peace and simplicity – whenever in my life have I ever felt this untaxed!!There is nothing that has to be done, nothing that can’t wait, nothing that demands my attention, not one should – not one I must do this – or I haven’t done that or finished this…. A sense of utter timelessness, of I will do this when the moment feels right or I will do this now as this feels good …

It begs the question about how we live our lives – however more to the point – how thankful I am to be in this incredible position of ’being here now’ – right now - of no sense of yesterday or tomorrow but right now and here in this moment – sitting on the verandah and pouring my thoughts into my key board.

This morning we heard that Loqi, our black kitty, had taken her last breathe – gently and peacefully in the Glencairn vet – held by Denise and Shaun and guided by Dylan our vet. What an incredible companion she has been to us and in particular to John as she has kept him company through all the months while I traveled to be with Luke and Mel in Seoul, and Ghana and journeyed off to Nepal, India and Vermont. Thank you Loqi for your quiet and steadfast presence for the last 19 years. What a gal.

Now we are here in Mauritius – for those who don’t know the background – in a nutshell – we sold our beautiful home in Simon’s Town in July last year to two couples from Zimbabwe who wanted us to continue to live in it til the end of January. During this time we decided that we would make the most of this time of being footloose, fancy free and homeless to travel and visit family. So we have spent the last 5 months packing up, redistributing, selling and giving away what we didn’t want to put in storage! What a liberating experience – especially as it coincided with our son, Josh and his wife, KL setting up a B n B so much went straight into that – wonderful when your children are very happy to receive your furniture and goodies!  But as organized as we felt we were and even with that amount of time to do everything, it was definitely the most physically exhausting thing we have ever done!! John reckons he has never worked as hard in his life – for me it was like setting up a Montessori prepared environment or doing all nighters getting the student’s portfolios ready for verification!!  John’s garage presented the biggest challenge – but even on the day the movers came  - 30^th January, we were still packing boxes while they loaded them onto the truck!! It just never seemed to end – where does all this stuff come from and why the hell do we have it all!!! By the end of the day John had made an agreement with the moving people that they could have all that was in his garage if they just made sure it was empty by the end of the 31^st!!! So a great solution for all – they definitely scored and you know what, we definitely did too as heavens knows where all that stuff would have been put once we set up home again!!! 

So this is the plan – we stay in Mauritius until May 31^st, then back to Cape Town for a few days with Josh and KL in Greyton while we sort out a few loose ends in CT, before flying off to Vancouver on June 17^th to see our older son, Luke, his wife, Mel and their two girls; as well as my sister, Kathleen and her husband, Richard in the San Francisco Bay area until September 30^th.   By then we will hopefully know where we want to spend the next phase of our lives – maybe back in Simons Town or in Greyton or on another island!! – we’ll see….

We are renting a really comfortable home which belongs to the family of a good friend of mine.  So fortunate – it has everything we need and more, is right on the beach and has a beautiful sparkling pool off the verandah to fall into. The beach is through a gate about 100 metres away across the lawn. The house is set between the beach and another row of houses behind us, which front onto the main road where the bus stops! So an easy walk away is the bus stop and a Food Lovers Marker where we can do small shops. There are also a few restaurants within walking distance which we have yet to sample. We need to catch the bus to do a more extensive shop – to a centre called London Way – a R5.00 bus fare away!!! So it’s a case of if we can’t carry it – don’t buy it!!  John has ventured out twice with his huge dive gear bag on his back and come back looking like a sherpa laden with provisions – I was hands free so I could record it all and find the money to give the bus conductor!!! What a peaceful experience – not like the yelling guys touting for passengers in  Kathmandu and Delhi or the constant honking of the taxi drivers in Lagos and Accra. Very sedate and gentle by comparison – but the same dripping heat!! 

So to recap a bit – we finally left 8 Horatio Way in Simons Town at 8.30 pm on Thursday January 31st!! We had planned on leaving my car with friends who live on a wine farm in Stellenbsoch to then drive though in John’s car to Greyton to spend three nights with  Josh and Kate Louise. That was when we imagined we would hand over the keys to the new owners at 1 pm – no ways!!  We had help getting the house ship shape and finally handed over the keys at 4pm. By the time we were ready to leave it was too late to drive through to Greyton. We also had to take both cars to Greyton as we were piled high with more stuff to give to the Greyton Red Cross Society, stuff  to leave in the cars while they  were parked on the farm in Stellenbosch, and  of course our bags for Mauritius. We were finally rescued by friends in Somerset West who gave this homeless couple a place to put our weary heads for the night!!! Talk about the best laid plans gaun oft awry!!!

We set off in the two cars, a day late, on Friday February 1^st for Greyton – a peaceful run except that we were pulled over at some point by cops who were checking car and driving licenses…. Ha ha – when asked to produce them I confidently dug into my wallet only to find no ID and license – I had given them to John when he applied for my International driver’s license!! He couldn’t find his original and had only a copy in his wallet!! John then pointed to the mountain of stuff next to and behind him in the car and said the original was in this lot somewhere!! I, in the meantime found my stuff together with my international license which was in my bag – so they told John that it was illegal to make a copy and then very tolerantly waved us on wishing us all the best for our adventure!!

We then spent a very relaxed two nights in Greyton – we were fortunately able to unpack everything directly into Josh and KL’s B n B as their weekend guests had cancelled – what a blessing as we could spread out and sort everything into the different piles and not choke up their space in the house!!!!  

After a leisurely breakfast in Greyton, we had a teary goodbye with Josh and Kl and set off in convoy for Stellenbosch.  Judith and Bill had arranged a farewell late lunch for us with some close friends which was wonderful. The guys disconnected the car batteries and then covered the cars with their car covers and we finally collapsed into bed for our last nights sleep!! Four o clock saw us being driven to the airport by Judith’s friendly Uber man. One last hurdle – check in!! and a hurdle it turned out to be!!  Our return date was May31st but the airline computer would not accept our reservation as one can be given a visa for only 90 days not 120 days as our ticket needed!! Much angst later and running close to boarding time, we were able to change our return date to April 30^th!! Add a few or not so few bucks and voila!!! Annoying but at least we were now finally on our way!!

The flight to Johannesburg and then the next to Mauritius was comfortable and effortless and then hey presto we were in beautiful Mauritius where we were met by Gilbert our pre-arranged taxi driver.

The beach house is managed by Nathalie, my friend’s  niece. She organized the taxi and had thoughtfully left a roast chook and a few basic supplies in the fridge for us. She showed us around, explaining that Tuesday and Wednesday were the Chinese new year so no shops would be open. We are also being very spoilt by having Natasha who comes in for a couple of hours each day to wave a magic wand around!!! So we don’t even have to worry about basic chores  - seems like we have no ’petty round of irritating concerns and duties’ at all!! This was the prayer, attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, which my dad used to quote at every assembly when he was the head master of my primary school, which for some reason I have never forgotten!

John is having many opportunities to practice, and improve, his French. This was one of the reasons for choosing Mauritius – to give him the chance to finally be fluent in French.  Natasha has told him that his French is ‘not too good!!’ but it has certainly made a difference in that he can make himself understood and understand enough of what is said to him!!! We have ventured out three times – well John has – on the first night we walked to Food Lovers to stock with a few essentials. We then fell into a heap and wallowed for Tuesday and Wednesday – falling in and out of the pool and taking short strolls on the beach. I waded out towards the reef – some 200 or more metres in thigh deep water. There are no waves breaking near or on the shore (to catch waves on my boogie board - my reason for an island holiday), however they do break at the reef – some definitely large enough to give me a ride if I can catch them that way out!!!  We have seen very few people on the beach or in the water in front of the house. Maybe one or two people each day!! One kayaker, one stand up ski-er, a couple of snorklers, a couple of fishing boats… so this is certainly a place for us to unwind, to find ourselves, to reconnect, to reflect, to replenish and definitely to restore!

So far we have spent the days reading, snoozing, dipping, eating, drinking copious amount of tonic water,  playing cards – watch this space as the great elevens series between JR and Pru takes place!! I have battled a bit to get to sleep at night but had a better night last night after we went shopping and found a baby down pillow to replace the one I left behind in Stellenbosch!! John is the earlier riser with me finally emerging at some time before ten!!!   We eat when our tummies tell us to and spend very little time looking at the time – John has removed his watch. I am playing bridge and patience on my laptop and John has started writing and of course spends some time watching TV.

So a miraculous feeling of timelessness and quiet – as we remain in contact with family and friends through whattssap. As yet I have not thought about our life in Simons Town at all  - at this stage  I read the news on the social groups with relief and a feeling of it being from a different time zone and certainly a different life…. Not better, not worse, just then and now this is now…..

I will attempt to add photos to this later – right now its time for a break and another cup of tea!!!