Countries « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Building Our Temporary Home

by steve, on April 17th, 2013 (UK)

A few more things have been ordered and delivered to make life comfortable here in our flat. We now have a washing machine, TV and PVR (so we don’t get locked into a timetable). Some smaller items (like drying stands, bathroom cabinets, etc.) are also in and installed. In amongst all this we’ve had the pleasure of Bao’s company for a couple of days. A lot less gets done when she’s around but that doesn’t matter at all. We have a few pics and video but we’ll put them together next week once she heads off to Australia. We also were visited by another of Helen’s sisters which was a pleasure.

I’ve had a couple of visits to the local GPs. One was to have my bite looked at. I was definitely infected. Good old penicillin was prescribed and it’s done a lot of good. The doctor also accepted the referral from the specialist in South Africa for my shoulder ‘impingement’ and agreed to arrange a physio. This morning, Helen and I had an extended visit with our assigned GP to fill him in on the past year, the arrangements we’ve already made here in the UK, and other issues (like my knees which are beginning to cause trouble). He agreed the approach we’d take to get on Prof. Linch’s books and ordered a referral letter which will connect them up and get the communications going. He also ordered X-Rays for my knees to see if anything is developing. Progress of a sorts. I think establishing the lines of communication was the biggest result as that can only help later on.

Helen and I also met up with the local ‘chapter’ of the Lymphoma Association at a nearby garden center restaurant. We met a number of carers and patients at various stages of experience from wait and see, to pre-chemo, to many year post remission. As ever, amongst our little group of fellow experiencees (my new word) the get together was jovial and upbeat and we met some interesting people. We didn’t get to spend time with nearly everyone and are looking forward to meeting the group again.

We are marching through the admin. Whole rafts of organisations being contacted to register our change of domicality / address / phone numbers, etc. Particularly with the financial institutions, each has a different way to accomplish this so it’s a bit of a chore tracking all the various streams of activity. A little way into this I realized we’ll be doing it all again by year end so I back tracked and started making detailed records of everything I was doing so it will be a lot easier next time. One thing we’ve learned, and got pretty annoyed about, is the shift towards premium rate phone numbers for all customer support here in the guise of free phone numbers. It seems everyone is doing it. After spending years in so many different countries, we’ve arrived back to what seems to be a rip off culture. Maybe it’s just a part of land life that’s evolved in our absence that we’re just going to learn how to accommodate. And don’t get me onto how we’ve been scammed by the car hire company.

Looking ahead. More family visits. Bao again tomorrow and the last of Helen’s sisters to meet. Nephew Simon is flying down from Edinburgh to help us buy a car. Next Monday is a big day as it is our first appointment with Prof. Linch to continue my Lymphoma care and, more importantly, begin to advance our understanding of prospects which in turn will feed into our other streams of thought.

We have not yet looked at other houses but while out and about we’ve been taking side trips to get superficial looks at some of the nearby towns and villages. Immediate settlement and family have taken priority for the last week and continue to do so. I’m guessing that sometime next week we’ll be in a position to begin looking at individual houses and looking at towns in detail.

Back in the UK

by steve, on April 12th, 2013 (UK)

Our flight from Cape Town was delayed a couple of hours which was a good thing really as those two hours were taken away from the five hours we had schedule to wait in the Doha departure lounge between planes. We arrived more or less on time to the usual delight of the queues at Heathrow to get out.

We ran into unexpected challenges at the car hire company as we’ve been away so long we didn’t show up on the UK credit checking system (so couldn’t use our UK credit card to pay) and our US credit card couldn’t be accepted (at first) because we couldn’t prove we had flights booked to the US (which we don’t have of course). It’s all part of the tightening of the credit rules here but it’s frustrating to find ourselves, yet again, a non-entity in a civilized country. After an hour and a £1,000 deposit we had our car.

We drove to Helen’s sister’s (Betty) home where we were warmly welcomed by her and John (who had turned up to welcome us) and stayed the next two nights. Yesterday Helen’s elder sister, Joanna, visited – it was great to see her too.

Since we arrived we’ve been ‘rebooting’ ourselves slowly back into the UK. We’ve taken over our one bedroom rental property in Chesham and are staying there for the next few months while we work everything out. We’ve got a mobile phone number, internet, a TV ordered and food in the fridge. Helen has unpacked a lot of our stuff.

I’ve been to see the doctor as sometime in South Africa my cheek (the face that is) was bitten a few times by an insect and has since become infected. I’m now on antibiotics but have an ugly scab and swelling. We need to take pictures for our driving licences and I’m reluctant to get this done until the swelling has receded and we can apply makeup to hide the scabs. Yach. The doctor also accepted the referral written by the South African specialist for a physio for my shoulder. So this will be set up on the NHS. Yay. As this was a rushed visit it wasn’t with our assigned doctor so another appointment is booked to see him so he can learn my full history.

Looking ahead our goal is to settle here in the UK. Unless I go back to work for a big business, I am uninsurable (health wise) in the US and my current plan only allows us to be covered for six months in the year. If the coin toss on my future lands badly then Helen will need to be near her family.

There are three major streams of thought that are all interrelated that will play out and mutually evolve over the next few months.

First is my full engagement with the health system here in the UK. This gets into gear on the 24th of this month when we visit Prof David Linch who is now in charge of my health with respect to my lymphoma. What transpires on that front and what we learn will affect our decisions elsewhere.

Second is work. We don’t want to sit at home watching the TV so we both imagine some form of outside commitment. This includes the possibility of going back to work. All we’re sure about at this point is we don’t want to make any immediate commitments and when we do we want a lot of flexibility as we still want travel and experience the world, even if we can’t do it on Dignity.

Third is establishing a home. Where, what and how much will be influenced by the other streams as they will be influenced by this one. We can’t put these in any particular order as there is no natural sequence. We just have to let our thinking evolve as we go.

So that means we visit the doctors, we talk about prospects, I have my scans, we evolve with the results. We visit friends, we network for work ideas, we wait for the right thing. We visit towns and house prospects around us, we learn more about the area, we research, we get out and about. Along the way we will settle back into the land life, discover our new needs and hopefully and final settle into a new home by the end of the year.

The things we buy now we try and fit in with our possible futures. For instance, the TV we ordered will do well in our future bedroom, even if not a perfect fit for the flat living room. The first car we will buy will be one fit for a couple touring the UK (and possibly Europe) but be OK for me to commute in.

It’s all kind of fun but there’s a lot of work to do.

In the short term we hope to spend some time with Bao. She’s been a bit unwell recently but we expect to see her later today. We’ve seen video of her and she’s now walking so we’re looking forward to seeing how she’s change since we saw her in South Africa.

Last Two Days in South Africa

by steve, on April 12th, 2013 (Albatross III, South Africa)

On our last day but one we decided to go to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Our legs were still screaming from the walk down the mountain a couple of days earlier so we practised being very old folk and keeping mostly on the gentle paths and avoiding steps as much as possible. It was a peaceful interlude allowing ourselves some time to think about the days ahead. We barely covered a fraction of the gardens as they were vast. Several visits would be required to get a sense of the place.

We returned to our lodgings for 2-3 hours to rest and to pack. In the evening we went to the V&A docks area. Our first stop was the marina just in case there was someone there who we knew. There weren’t but it was nice to be down by the water. It was a bittersweet experience though as it is already beginning to look like another life, one which we sometimes find it hard to believe we’ve experienced for ourselves. We ate out in the docks area.

Upon awaking on our final day we discovered an email from South African friends of ours (Ruth and Rob on Albatross III) who are now domiciled in New Zealand. We first met them, briefly, when we were in the Rosarios in Colombia and then many times across the Pacific (including New Zealand). They have a daughter, Savannah, in Cape Town who they asked us to go and see. The biggest sacrifice cruisers make is separation from their families so we knew how much this request meant. So we dumped some admin on my sister (sorry Sue) to make time to go and give their daughter a surprise visit and proxy hugs from her Mum. We then visited the District 6 museum in town followed by a walk in The Company Gardens.

Soon, our time was up. It was back to the lodgings, pick up our luggage and off to the airport, drop off the hire car, and take the long flights home to the UK.

Off to Cape Town

by steve, on April 8th, 2013 (South Africa)

After an absolutely divine breakfast in Swellendam (I hope I’m putting on weight) we were off to Cape Town. The weekend weather forecast has Friday as the best weather so we were keen to get to Cape Town in good time and visit the top of Table Mountain that day.

On arrival at our accommodation, Parker Cottage, our host was very helpful ordering us a taxi, cable car tickets and getting our luggage into our room so we could leave almost immediately.

The weather held with blue skies and cool wind. Having had a few bad days down here the top was packed with tourists (of which I have to reluctantly realize we are among). But we walked the loop at the top before leaping off on our next adventure.

And leaping off aptly describes what we did as we had booked to abseil off the top of the mountain. They claim to be the highest commercial abseil in the world and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is true. The descent was 112m all in all starting from over 1000m above sea level. Prepping and practise took some time. We were in no hurry. Leaning back over the edge was not a comfortable experience. However, waving to the camera for the commercial pics loosened us up and soon we were on our descent.

The first third was down a rocky face where, if we wanted to, we could kick away from the rocks as James Bond might. One of us declined to do this. After this first third we found ourselves in thin air having to descend the last 70m or so straight down to the helper below. We were both pleased to put our feet down on terra firma but pleased we’d done this. There’s not a lot of thrills left but this one was new. My first regret was allowing my tee-shirt to ride up and ending up with a couple of burns on my side (see pics).

110m from the top of Table Mountain is nowhere convenient at all so we had to scramble along the vague rocky path to meet a series of paths which converged on the top. We had already ascended 60m (in total) by the time we had the choice to complete the final 50m or descend by path. We decided on the latter and that sort of leads us to our second regret. The path we took down was basically uneven, steep, rocky steps. Half way down our legs were killing us. By the bottom I’d lost my tee-shirt and had had enough. We thumbed a lift to where we could catch a taxi back to the ‘cottage’.

There we soaked the sweat off in the most energetic shower we’ve probably ever seen. Nice. For the evening meal we went to a nearby restaurant where we had a mixed experience. The steaks were delicious but the service poor, including Helen getting two dirty glasses. Not good.

On Saturday we woke to screaming thighs. It was horrible. So we chose to do a tour of the peninsular by car. We visited a market in Haut Bay, the penguins over by Boulder Beach and even exercised our weary limbs at Cape Point.

We drove the west coastal road close to sunset getting some terrific views and ended up eating fresh seafood at The Codfather restaurant. As we’re nearing the end of our multi-year sojourn, I splashed out on crayfish. I think back to the two we were given in Kelefesia in exchange for razors and crap rum (Frank, remember?). The were worth several $100 in a western restaurant. Different economies.

Another day has passed but I’m behind on my updates so I’ll leave you for now with the pics up until this point.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpBXv0cVjV4[/youtube]

Tomorrow we fly back to the UK. It feels like the end of something but I must get focussed on it being the beginning of something new and exciting.

Swellendam

by steve, on April 5th, 2013 (South Africa)

After a hearty breakfast we were soon off on the near three hour trip to Swellendam through fantastic scenery and mountain passes. This part of South Africa is turning out to be very picturesque and the towns immaculate. Even small towns like Barrydale which we reluctantly drove by made us feel we could have stopped there for at least a day.

Swellendam, the third town populated by Europeans in South Africa, is more of the same. We pulled into our lodging, the Old Thatch Lodge, and soon met the owner. We learned our room had been booked by the folks who’d been there the night before and that we’d be bumped to the honeymoon suite. She also suggested a few things to do in town and soon we were off.

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We first visited the Sulina Faerie Sanctuary. This sort of thing is not our normal port of call but we’re trying out different things. Young girls (and some boys) would would be enchanted here. The adult perspective, we understand, is that the lady of the house, a couple of decades ago, started seeing / hearing from the faeries around her. She started making porcelain figures of them and planting them around the garden. This obsession turned into an attraction and now a museum and shop, the profits of which all go to charity. So we understand.

Next stop was a light lunch at Pennantwing where we both had the most delicious apple strudles.

Then we were off to the Drostdy Museum which portrayed a little of the history of the town. This is all very much original Dutch territory so a lot of the history is told from their perspective which makes it all the more interesting.

With our minds full of wonder we picked up some food for the evening and settled in for the rest of the afternoon / evening. The common area for the lodge has a real fire which the owner sets and we light if we want. Helen and I feasted on Brie and Salmon rolls accompanied by some Calitzdorp red plonk in front of a nice fire watching an old TV show on the laptop. A different type of heaven to what we’ve been used to over the last few years but a wonderful way to spend the evening nonetheless.

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Last Two Days in South Africa

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Swellendam