1 week later.

It has been a while since my last confession. Still Jobless and so is the wife. We are woken every morning by the beautiful sound of the common blackbird. Both Ingrid and I absolutely love his varied bird talk. He is a real pleasure in the morning and evenings. The evenings seem to last rather long at the moment. Sunset is currently 21h20. This means that even after work (if one worked), one could still have a good 4 hours of light before the curtains close.

We are now a week into our "normal" lives and I have to admit that life here is not too bad if the weather is good. We seem to both be quite happy to be "home", and our little house in the suburbs suits us down to the ground. We moved about 2 years ago from a fabulously modern and "alles erop en eraan" house to here and are still very happy here. We obvioulsy made a few adjustments and a braai room was one of my necessities.

The weather so far has been pretty kind to us thus far. Long days and relatively good weather and a bit of sunshine has not been the norm here, at least before we left. Dreary and wet weather manipulated days were the usual and that does not really make one that happy. Today we are sitting outside in the garden with the sun streaming down and our shorts and T-shirts. Who could ask for anything more?

Seeing our kids and the doggy has been a bonus for us. We chatted to the kids online via Whatsapp video calling, but having them physically here is quite different. Fleur is about an hour away and she was home for the weekend, but we will see her again this weekend when we go out that way. She is currently doing an internship at the vacation park where we had our vaction house for 12 years. A bit of nostaliga for her! Unfortunately she got her hand jammed between the horses butt and the wall last week when the horse got a fright and moved suddenly. It seems to be on the mend, although she still has a lot of difficulty with strength in that hand.

Bo is busy with her thesis which has to be turned in at the end of this month. As a result she has let me know that she will not work in the practice untul she is done. She had already told me this when we were on vacation and I thought that she was not being serious. Look between H and L on your keyboard. LOL! I had to ask my young colleague what this meant J, K??? He did not even have to think twice. JK = joking!. Learnt something new.

So anyhow, she went to work on Monday morning for her final shift this month and phoned to say that the Chiropractor that is working for me is sick. Can I fill in for him? Up in the morning and off to school Happy Monday morning people. I made enough time to make a cup of coffee and took to the challenge. I had been awake quite a bit last night thinking of how to approach the new situation. We have a colleague now, but do I keep him and how do I then fit in to the grand scheme, or do I just do everything myself. I would like to opt for the first option, but find that I would need to invest in that, whereas doing everything on my own again would mean status quo. Time will tell of course.

I can only say that I had a wonderful day at work. It really is my thing to throw those people around on the table and crack their bones, mostly because I know that our bodies need the health benefits that Chiropractic can offer on a regular basis. The corner stones of health I feel are Nutrition, Chiropractic, Dental Health and Keeping moving. Thankfully I can offer people something that will help them to live healthier lives.

We have had our frist braai! On Tuesday night the fire roared and the coals did their job to perfection. My South African braai makes a world of difference and the wood makes for wonderful coals. Funny I am smelling a neighbour somewhere is just starting his fire. I love that smell! How nice is it to sit outside and eat at our table. Maybe we should have plugged in the lights for that extra romatic effect, but I guess we did not think about it.

Yesterday I went to work as the receptionist Bo. Some people said that I looked different and my reply was that it is amazing these days what a bit of cosmetic surgery can do....!!! heehee. I have found that it has been a very positive experience to have worked both as the chiropractor on Monday and as the receptionist on Wednesday morning. Both have given me an insight into the inner workings of the prectice currently. Finger on the pulse as it were. This has brought some insights and shown me the changes that we need to make and the options that we need to explore. Analytical me was in my element! Been there, seen that, time to implement! Work in progress.

I am not so focussed on the business model anymore, but efficiency is my strong point. How can we streamline and make life easier for myself, my workers and our patients? It is good to know that the production line person that I was when I was younger has now matured and the material benefits will accompany the natural energy, if this makes sense..

Last night I joined the training for the local lifesaving club. Ski training on the "inside river" in Dordrecht, The Wantij. This waterway has an open link to the final destination the Oosterschelde (with I think 2 man made dam/dyke water barriers to regulaate the in and outflow of water). Generally it is against the current on the way there and with the current on the return journey. We eventaully did jsut over 8km in total (I now know for future reference) and I had a bit of a battle with our local young gun Robin Kuiphof who gives me a bit of a head start for our interval sprints, but somehow he has a bit more power than me. It is good for me to train with him, but I need to try to think of an option to challenge him more. WIP (Work in progress).

I found out that the National Life saving Championships is in about 6 weeks time. It is weird that it is already the month of May and I have the feeling that they year is only beginning. I have missed something somehow, perhaps. I am not too worried about this year as there is not European Championships. Next year I will probably train in South Africa if we are there again in the 1st quarter. Taking it easy this year. Fleur is in Renesse which is one of the  kite surfing meccas of the world so I hope to combine a frequent kite session with a visit to my child. We are planning to go and visit her on Saturday, but there will not be any wind to kite, so I will get my first training session in for the lifesaving Nationals.

UPDATE: Ingrid. Unfrotunately since we have been back the issues that Ingrid had with her joints has returned. Not quite like last year, but predominantly her shoulder. She has also had problems with her hands and knee, but thankfully that has subsided. The shoulder is the current issue. I so wish that I could do something for her, or for that matter anyone else is welcome to lend a healing/helping hand. We really are stumped as to the cause. We know the effect, but what is the trigger???? She went for the full blood test and x-rays of her hands and feet and the x-ray results are that there has been a decline in some joints and her blood work show an elevated inflammation. Where are you coming from???? I mean if there is 1 person who is trying their best to live healthily it is that wife of mine. Hats off to you love!

Fast forward to tonight. First things first. It has been a peach of a day here in Holland. Apparently also in the UK. Ingrid went to lie down as she is feeling fluey and sister in law from the UK phoned her. Basically the chat was dominated by the way of life in the UK (and here in Northern Europe) and sister in law put it in words. This is not a lifestyle! Here we do not live. Strange as it seems, we think that we have a life here, but somehow this is not true. 

Ingrid had tried to explain that to the South African that we met there. They are all on about the problems that there are in Africa, but we know both worlds and I think that both Ingrid and I, and my brother and his wife would gladly choose for the problems in Africa. It really is difficult to explain, but our lives here are too regulated and we get punished too quickly for any transgression. Life in Africa is somewhat harsher in terms of services, but it is the chaos (another word is freedom) that is so wonderful about being in Africa. Rules are rules, but rules are not rules! 

Our future is uncertain. Do we emmigrate to South Africa? Do we settle for the mini sabattical? Both places feel like home, but 1 more than the other! 

As we get older, the more we hunker for FREEDOM!  We wait and see....