Empty nest

It did rain in the night, but we were not bothered by it. Turned over and back to lala land. At dawn the sun had taken a break and the cloud cover was all encompassing. The waves had dropped to a mere knee high and we were at the coffee cups early.

At 08h30 Ingrid went off to her Pilates class and that hour and a bit seemed to fly by at Jackpot. A bit of time on the phone, doing the pots and pans and a general kitchen clean so that everything was ready to be used again. Now that I see the pan on the stove it might go for a little treament in the garage tomorrow, The base of the pan is warped and it keels over to one side when placed on the burner. A bit of gentle persuasion with the rubber mallet might get it back to a reasonably normal shape. I am sure that Warpie (the pan) will not enjoy his treatment, but will be pleased to be a new improved version of his current self!

Helicopter resumed its flying up and down from the wreck today and later in the day I saw black smoke bellowing from the wreck. The binoculars confirmed FIRE on board! I was not ready to assume that it was not planned and that was confirmed on an app group later in the day. One of my paddle people has a son who works as a safety officer on a boat just off shore to the wreck and he confirmed my suspicions. 

After a shower and a cup of coffee and some brekkie Ingrid got ready for a trip to town for groceries. I was on the hunt for a pair of tracksuit pants as it was a little colder than normal and a pair of trousers is too formal for me to wear at home. In the Village we did the groceries and then went to the outlet shop as we had heard that they sell last of stock at a reduced price. Sadly the shop was closed on Easter Monday. No sweat pants for Glen.

We had decided against eating out for breakfast as we were of the opinion that it would be too busy at the local restaurants as it was Easter monday and people were probably thinking, go out for brekkie, pack the car and head off back home. At Granny's pool it was less busy than I had thought so we sat and had a coffee overlooking the ocean and were treated to that wonderful view. With the wind direction we were well sheltered and sat taking out time with our coffees.

I had planned a boerie roll (times 2) for lunch, cooked boerewors on a hotdog roll with some butter and tomato sauce and Ingrid would do something else. We stopped off at Margie Y to look at her cat. She had boasted last night that she had such a beautiful cat and that we should come and take a look. Their house is on the main road going to Jackpot so it was a pretty easy ask. She was not lying it was a fine looking feline. Before we knew it we had been there for over an hour. We got a tip from Andrew for tomorrow . The wind is apparently going to howl so a little road trip we might take.

I was so looking forward to my boerewors roll and cooked the boerie in Warpie, buttered my rolls and spread the tomatoe sauce. My fok! They had said on the packaging that the wors had more pepper and coriander than usual. Moer toe (swearing) I think that chef tripped with his pepper bag and tipped about half a kilogram of pepper into that wors. My eyes were watering and my mouth was burning. My last rolls was peanut butter and honey. Now that tasted good!

Ingrid and I were tired for some reason and went to bed. Ingrid would read and perhaps have a sleep. It was raining pretty hard out and I think that I was gone in 4 seconds and about a minute later Ingrid lay her book down and we drifted off into death sleep the both of us. An hour or so later we both awoke out of our coma. Why that deep sleep? It was wonderful. Water and coffee to wake brain and the rest. 

We watched the helicopter for a bit as the rain had stopped and the fire seemed to be out. I sat at the computer and did the second half of our sums for the month of March. I would like to see what our expenses are per month to get an idea of the cost of living here so that if we are to repeat this some time we can budget for it. Month 2 as expected was cheaper than month 1 and I think that the costs incurred would be a real indication of what we would normally spend if we were here again (+ inflation of course). I am pretty happy with the number on the bottom line. 

I called Ingrid over and we discussed the number and our feelings to date. I can firmly say that we know that we would like to do this every year at least health benefit wise and stress level wise. Low stress here in this outpost. We obviously chat to people about coming here regularly for an extended period and people mention the problems here. They are unaware of the problems we face in  Holland and seem to think that that is Utopia. Maybe 5 years ago, but times have definately changed there. We have family here and a few friends. That seems enough for us for now.

Health diary wise the climate seems to agree with Ingrid. In may we go into test phase 2. What will the summer climate in Holland do for Ingrid and her joints?