SAD!

Hello Everyone. Just finished our first dinner here in Holland. Back in the land of the WEF! Sorry, but I will have to wrap my mind around the fact that our government no longer is for the people, but following the agenda of the WEF. We spoke with Uncle Ed from PE and I too have a hard head as to the future generation and what they will have to face. SAD! So we could go on forever about that or as normal people do, and would like to do, just get on with living our life and most of all, Living our BEST life!

And that we did!!!! 3 months of living our best life. 3 months of living in OUR world. 3 months of FUN in the sun. 3 months of MOTHER NATURE! Yesterday we were in CSF and were treated to a beautiful morning. A day to treasure with wonderful weather.

Ingrid and I began early with the final packing of odds and ends, a vacuum of Jackpot, doing the last load of washing from yesterday and stripping out bed from last night. General cleaning of almost everything, the bathrooms, the bedrooms and the lounge and kitchen. Thankfully Mother in law in law could finish up the last little things or get someone to do it, but we left Jackpot with a heavy heart. Time to say goodbye and lock the door and put on the alarm for the last time. SAD!

After a farewell to mother in law in law we left CFS in Dusty and drove off toward PE. I asked Ingrid if we should stop off at our favourite restaurant, the Ramblin Rose and I already knew that I needn't have even asked the question. Affirmative. Dusty knows the way and soon we were parked at the Restaurant and were surprisingly the only guests at that time (08h30). Even the waitress asked if we had thought that they were open as it was unusual to have so few customers. It did not bother us in the least.

Ingrid offered that it was a public holiday, so that could be the reason. To our best knowledge tourists usually come out of hiding at around 10h00 and it was a public holiday to boot! Coffee and a last brekkie from Craig and his staff and we were happy to walk to Dusty and drive to PE for the last time this holiday. Before we left another table had joined us at the Rose. A family with young children. That fits the profile. Kids are usually up early so we found it logical that they were the next group of customers at the Rose (and probably any other place that was open on this public holiday). Sad to leave Jackpot. Sad to leave CSF. Sad to leave St Francis, but up, up and away. PE awaits! The drive to PE seemed to take longer than usual, but soon we were pulling up at the gate to Mom's place. Hi Mom!

We dropped off her things that we had brought from Jackpot and I checked her TV connection. She had once again had an issue with running out of data, but brother had told me that perthe 1st of the month that would once again be active. Checked it... Yes, it worked. No stress.  I can not actually remember my Mom crying, but she teared up as did Ingrid to the next time today. Sad to say goodbye to Mom! See you soon Mother!

Mom had tried to get us to go and look at the puppy that she had seen at the Animal Welfare, but Ingrid was very good and told her that it was not the clever option. A puppy requires a lot of work and if Mom keels over or goes to the great beyond, what would become of the puppy? Good advice Ingrid! Mom put it out of her mind. A doggy will appear when the time is right we are sure.

From Mom we went to brothers house. Not much to do there. Brother was thinking of having a midday beer, but also going looking for oysters as the tide would be right in about 45 minutes. Ingrid and I sat outside on the lounge set and enjoyed the beautiful day under the African sky. 1,2,3 it is time to go. Into the VW bus and doggy had to go too. Ingrid and I, brother and Niece and doggy. I drove to the beachfront as brother had an overuse injury to his wrist. At the beach we embarked and went to the rocks to look for those slimey suckers. No such luck as the tide was still a little too high. Abort. Abort! 

It was almost time to light the fire for the afternoon braai and Ingrid and I went to the supermarket to buy the needed ingredients for the meal. Dad and Mom were invited, but Mom did not answer her phone. Snooze, you loose! I lit the fire and got a talking to by niece about that there was a good probability that brother would comment on the fire and give advice as to how to do it properly. Indeed. I got a lecture. I can not say that he is wrong, but my way would have worked, but only taken a bit longer.

Dad arrived with some red champagne and milk stout to make a Red Velvet. This is a mixture of the two. I am not one to say no to champagne at the worst of time. Lovely stuff! We braaied and I drank a few and then it was time to eat. Yum, one can not beat a braai at the best of times. Brother can braai rather well. Yum and Yum. A bit of meat and a great salad made by niece. Thank you all!

Sad to leave brother and family. Over the last 20 odd years we have not really spent time alone with them and this time we spent quite a bit of quality time with brother and family and we both actually loved it so much. Also for the first time we got to know niece who in fact is a sort of carbon copy of Bo. They really are very similar in thought processes. Very similar! The things that she said make us think that it is coming out of Bo's mouth. Too similar those two. But Sad! I reversed out of their driveway and felt a tinge of emotion. Bye brother. Bye family. Till the next time. C U next time! (Brother will laugh - inside joke).

Sad, but content. We were leaving our Beloved Africa, but going home to our beloved young ones and our doggy, our real family! I could perhaps write a novel on family and how important it is. Important to the younger generation, but equally important to the older generation. We witnessed this 1st hand with Andrew and Margie and also with Nicki and David. I am a bit emotional about how deep those bonds can go and how special it is that those bonds exist and are actually are set in stone. They have it and we have it! Blessed are we!! More input required for other people.

Sad to say goodbye to our trusty steed Dusty. She certainly was a gem and took us to where we wanted to go, over highways, over byways, over potholed roads, over sand tracks, over farm roads. She was a trooper! Goodybye Dusty. We parked her in a parking bay, handed in the keys and that was that. Time to head to check in for our 1st trip to Johannesburg.

Flysafair was pretty quick with a short queue and our baggage was just on the limit weight wise. With hand baggage only we were also soon through the xray control thingy and had to wait about 45 minutes to board. I just find it fascinating how people will queue for 45 minutes before they are even called for boarding. I guess that is human nature. 97% stand in the queue and 3% wait until the queue has disappeared and then they board. The plane was chokka block full and we boarded from the rear of the aricraft. Sit, buckle up and before we knew it we were speeding down the runway and waiting for rotation ( i think that is the term for pull on the yoke to initiate take off).

Our 1st flight to Johannesburg is usually 1 hr 40 minutes, but with a tail wind the pilots communicated that it would be 1 hr and 20 minutes. It gave us a little bit of exta leeway for our connection to Amsterdam. Our Amsterdam flight had been delayed by 30 minutes, so that suited us fine too. At Johannesburg we picked up our baggage and made out way to the check in for our International flight. The signage was not very helpfull as it was either A or B. We were unsure as to if we needed to be in A or B. Best to ask. Our helpers pointed us to the rigth place and we were 2nd in line for check in to Amsterdam.

Now we had an hour to kill and were a but peckish. As per our last experience with flying KLM we are usually the last plane to leave Johannesburg and most of the shops and restaurants are closed. We found 1 that was open and they had a sit down or take away section. We decided to sit down to pass the time in a bit of comfort, but the waitress told us that we could only order from the take away section as the kitchen was closed. Weird and odd this. Why seat people if you know that they can not order anything? Very strange. Ingrid ordered a baguette and a drink. I opted for the drink only. At the end of the day we shared her meal as it was too much for her. Maagies vol, oogies toe (Full stomach, droopy eyelids). Ingrid was half asleep.

We had upgraded our seats at check in to Economy Comfort. That meant an extra 10cm legroom and we could recline our seat an extra 5cm. Amahoela. (I will continue tomorrow as Fleur has just arrived home!!!!)