Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

It’s been a few days since I last blogged. Now the family have returned to their respective homes life has got back to ‘normal’.

ie, hanging out with and helping the family here, getting on with the paperwork, some entertainment. Some random picks from among all this :

• Skype – Had a rare call from Sam.  He seems to be doing fine in Australia.  He’s definitely looking to extend his visa there and considering residence.  Looks like we may have lots of reasons to return to Australia.  Frequently.
• Taxes – got back to doing this.  Ran into some more road blocks and discovered I’d lost some previous work.  Progress remains slow.
• Future – done some planning for our exit from South Africa.  We’re thinking of a road trip down to Cape Town before flying out.  I’ve also booked into the regional lymphoma support group for their April meeting and the charities AGM in May.  Always good to get more informed.  My doctor is the keynote speaker for the AGM so I’ll see him again there.
• Made more progress towards announcement 3 which could now be hours or days away.  Or weeks.  I mention it now as we had a Twilight Zone moment.  We had to get a document notarized.  The only notary in town is a lawyer.  Ok, more $$$$, but it had to be done.  At the end of the session he said he doesn’t charge for notarizing (cue Twightlight Zone music).  A lawyer giving his time away free?  I’m still not sure we weren’t dreaming.  Nice chap though.
• Entertainment – We saw Les Mis last night.  Well produced movie and great acting.  Just not our thing.  I’ve got back to playing Ingress.  For those who have a remote idea (Frank – that’s you I think), while the family were here, the opposition took over all of Grahamstown.  They’ve been out of town enabling me to take the whole town back getting me to level 7.  Now I’ve been knocked back.  All fun.
• Shoulder – The impingement remains painful.  I’ve been back to the osteopath.  The previous injection has increased the range of motion before the pain really kicks in but no eliminated it.  The next step is physiotherapy.  There is no point starting that here so he wrote up a referral note which I can use in the UK.  Nothing more until then.

So it’s kind of life as usual.  Of course the main reason for being here at the moment is to be with my father who is quite ill.  He’s doing well and not in pain.  He is delighted with the latest development which is a home care visit each day, including a massage.  It’s fantastic being able to have this time together at this difficult time.

Having spent the night at Port Alfred we had an early start to get to Addo Elephant National Park. Avid blog readers will remember the pics from last year. But it’s hard not to visit as elephants are such marvellous creatures. And we weren’t disappointed. I’ll just let the pictures and video tell the story.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/oqLR9nV5sHY[/youtube]

After the park we sadly had to take Ben and Amy to the airport. They were off to Cape Town for the last three days of their vacation and it was time to part ways. Our time together had been brief but joyous. We could well be seeing them later this year as they seem keen on tying the knot sooner than later. Better still, it is highly likely Ben will be placed in London by his current firm for a year or two. Amy is excited by this as are we.

With a room now spare in Sue’s home in Grahamstown, Helen and I took Ben and Amy’s space (in Sarah’s room) for the next couple of nights. That first night we stayed up late (apparently) loosened by our efforts to trim the left over wine bottles from Sue’s recent 50th.