It's all in the planning, the excitement is mounting.

 A clear blue sky, the sun is doing it's best to send warmth on this chilly February Monday. Another month draws to a close in 2023. Is it just me or are the days shorter than last year? Just kidding - well sort of. I somehow feel that I achieve less per day this year than I did last. Why is that? I know in all reasoning that this is ridiculous. There are still 24 hours in the day and seven days in a week. Maybe it's because it is February and there are only 28 days, making the reality of another month dawning just that much sooner than I anticipated. Who knows? I won't go on about it - just thought I'd 'throw it in the group' letting you ponder should you feel so inclined. It is Monday after all! 🤣

This time last year our spring holidays were taking shape quite nicely thank you. We do plan to be away again the month of May this year, and finally yesterday we took the first step to make sure we commit and continue our research and plan accordingly. We are aware of the possibilities, the possible limitations and the age we are, that we need to take and make opportunities when they present themselves. As I mentioned: Time is of the essence! Exciting stuff. I can almost get the feeling the holiday has started - the preparation being part and parcel of the whole experience.

Our last 'big' trip, Re-tour de France, was a great success and I guess we will be measuring this one against it. Despite that being quite unfair. Different country, different rules, different expectations. It would be like comparing apples with oranges. Couldn't make myself say pears - so traditional! 😂

It will again be a road trip. My flying experience of September and December are still a vivid memory and long distance flights enough without wanting to find myself being catapulted once again into that open air space. Keeping the feet ( and rubber) firmly on the ground. I am looking forward to the driving part. More challenges I am sure. Nice thing is when traveling in one's own car, it is comfortable and reliable. I know its quirks. Rentals are an enigma, the unknown quantity. 🚘

Right now we are looking for our second stop, a place to lay our heads to rest and working out for how many days. There is so much to see, explore and enjoy. No, I am not going to disclose the destination just yet. Keeping it exciting. 🪙

So thank you February for being a not too wild a winter month. I'm enjoying the longer daylight hours and the new buds on the trees, the pristine snowflakes and bright crocuses bobbing their delicate heads above the ground. Winter hasn't left the building yet, I am aware of that. Anything can stil happen to make it want to stay and gather strength. We have had no snow to really speak of so that's still very possible. Still, no use conjuring up the whims of Mother Nature. What will be will be. 

🏖️ 🌋 ☔️ ☃️

Should you wish to enjoy some spring from your armchair, here is the link to the:

Playlist of our French get-away!

Till next time

Be Good                    Be Kind                  Keep smiling

Arms to hug and hold me.

 May 2019 - my last hug and glimpse of my dearest darling children en grandchildren.

2020: My trip on hold: Who would have thought the world would change so dramatically in such a short space in time.

2022: Finally:  Arms to hold me, hugs to give

I've lived back  in the country of my birth from 1 July 2000. In that time I have flown back to my second home,  to Aotearoa/ New Zealand and Australia on average every 15 months, till 2019 that is.  My planned trip for the end of 2020 was put on hold. Not only because of Corona but also due to the restricted access one had to a much desired entry ticket to get into Aotearoa/New Zealand. The government had closed its doors to keep its people safe and operated a sort of lucky dip for those needing/wanting to go home. I didn't participate. Left the space I might take up for those with even more pressing needs. This doesn't make me a saint, just felt uncomfortable in case I got 'lucky' and someone needing to be with their dying parent, wedding or birth event lost out. And I've not even mentioned to huge costs of the quarantine hotels.

The virus hasn't gone but the immediate danger, the heaviness of the pandemic has subsided. Yes, one can still become very ill. Some may even not survive but most will. Thankful for the vaccination available is all I can say. After purchasing my ticket, which due to the fuel costs and other related reasons why had risen dramatically,  and applying for my Traveler's Declaration now required before entry I am now able to fly to hug and hold once again. I have NEVER been away from my children for this length of time. It was hard. Emotionally I coped, only just, having the support of many around me who helpen me through dark periods. I am so grateful for these support groups. Reading about more pressing and devastatingly sad cases I felt guilty at times about my own misery. Grateful too was I that there were no serious issues why I might have felt the pressing desire and need to be with my children. Great disasters were spared us. Many were not that fortunate.

So, looking forward and with renewed joy in my heart I am preparing to venture across the miles, different rules, new airport as I am taking an airline new to me. I believe masks will be required all the way: all 24-26 hours roughly which it will take to reach my destination. That'll be a challenge. At the end of that: 

arms which will embrace me. And that's the moment I yearn for. 

Be good - be kind - keep smiling.

Timing is everything- sometimes!

 

I'm not normally that focussed on the time issue ( except when it comes to appointments that is) It is just that lately we have been so busy doing so many things that I wonder how we manage it all. I seem to be getting lots more done and yet my pile of things to do isn't reducing at all. The more I do the more there is to do. Does that make sense at all? Probably not! Just a ramble that is running through my mind at the moment.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, where ever you are at, at the time of reading this ramble. I'm working my way through a few chores at the moment and they are taking longer than I anticipated. How do you cope with issues like this? I am also easily distracted for some obscure reason. Maybe I need a holiday 😂! Just kidding or am I? 

Talking about holidays, I have managed to post 7 videos so far of our Re-tour de France road trip on my YouTube channel. Such fun and good memories. Number 8 is in the pipeline- almost done. Why did we give it that title? Well because we started in the Netherlands, 'at the top' so to speak, and made a round trip returning to the same spot on the highway where we left. So we thought this quite an appropriate and fun title.

Five weeks on the road. Ten different places to lay one's head at night. All of them on my own pillow I might add. I take it everywhere. Can't sleep properly on someone else's pillow. Which brings to mind a trip to Australia I had many years ago. Yes even Down Under has seen me place my head on my own pillow. Till it became harder to get it into my overfull suitcase. 

My then wee grandson of 4 decided he wanted to keep me close each night so he confiscated my pillow and kept it for many a year on his bed. So lovely and heart warming.

Which brings me to the next subject: Where will my pillow take me to next? My last trip to visit my children was in 2019 with the intention of being back there at the end of 2020. We all know why that didn't happen. Less said the better. So it has been a struggle coping with the loss of physical contact over a much longer period of time that I ever have had away from my children. I am fully aware that there were harder, sadder and more gut wrenching struggles for many. It isn't that I want sympathy or am presenting myself as a victim. Just stating a fact. Yes, there is internet- yes there is light at the end of this long and dark tunnel. So I am now actively planning a trip to my other homeland, the one where I bore my children, where my parents are laid to rest and where a huge part of my life tells its story. 

This week will see me having a conversation with a travel agent, I am not prepared to book my own trip like I have done in the past. Too risky. It will see me blow off the dust of my pasport and relocate my NZ driver's license. It will see my bank balance shrink horrifically. It will also add another list of chores. But most of all, it will cause those pre-trip butterflies to return, those emotions of reconnecting with my own upsurge and take hold. It will most likely also cause disruption to my sleep despite my head being on my own pillow, due to the anticipation of what lies ahead. 

I guess that might just be why, I am easily distracted, can't get through all the lists like I am used to and already causing the fluttering in my being even though the ticket hasn't even been booked yet. So I am trying to keep occupied, to keep my mind on things to distract me. The editing I need to still do will be part of my therapy to keep my wits about me. The two children's books I want to complete before I leave need attention too. Plenty to do - now I must get on with them. No more rambling. Till next time.

In the meantime, enjoy the videos. It was a fantastic trip and we saw such beauty all around us. I am pleased to be able to share that with you. 

Be good    Be kind    Keep smiling

This is the link to my YT channel 

Roaming the Gloaming

 Hello there, here I am again, good to see you back reading my blog! 

It’s funny how one thought leads to another, just as one event links itself to another. Cause and effect. Forget the butter at the supermarket then you can forget the baking plans you had at home. Some people are creative in that situation and manage to conjure up an alternative to the forgotten butter and overcome the hurdle. A new plan is made, adjustments all round and the cake tasted great. Who knew!

Bit of a simple example. There are many more, far more reaching and impacting but let’s keep it simple. At 6:40 am no one is expecting me to write a theses or are they? Just kidding. This cause and effect, or have an alternative plan, or thoughts chasing thoughts came to development due to a news item last week and it popped up again yesterday.

Monkeypox disease I believe it is called. It made me feel uncomfortable. A de ja vu feeling crept over me. Now in various parts of the world this viral disease is manifesting itself. Sort of out of nowhere, the land of origin is known, but lo and behold it is becoming wider spread than ever before. It has traveled! Just like you and I do when we decide to move from one place to another. Or when the wind blows and transferes pollen, seeds, odours. When storms bring Sahara sand from the Sahara to places far removed and reminds us there are dryer places in our world, closer than we realise. That sand storms happen.  

That de ja vu wasn’t surprising. Let’s face it, I will not be the only one who is caught out thinking, “No,  not another illness we can’t contain?” People travel. I’m doing that right now.  What am I leaving behind and/ or taking back? Am I even leaving anything behind other than my footsteps and impressions by those we’ve met? Am I taking more back than photos, impressions, memories and maybe a wine and cheese or two?

It was end of September to mid October 2019. For three weeks we were in France. We stayed in the Morvan for a week and two weeks in the Cévennes. ( I’ll put the link below) Wonderful holiday it was. We traveled there and traveled back. In June 2020 I had plans to travel to Cornwall and Devon with my friend, who lives in New Zealand by the way, so she had even more traveling to do than I, being just across the pond from the UK. Then round September I would go visit my children and grandchildren again. My last visit being early March to mid May 2019. Plans were forged. Travel, we humans travel. Some more than others I admit, but travel we do. Short and long distances. Not just for a holiday. Some travel for work. World wide.

What do we take and leave behind and what do we bring back? So there is my thought chasing a thought. To travel and learn, be enthralled at what one sees, experiences? Or do we stay in our own environment and not take anything with us or leave anything behind?

I’m an optimistic realist/ realistic optimist! We have choices to make based on not only our own needs but also for the ‘common good’. Now it is no use blaming Bill Gates and the micro chip ( sorry had to get in). We only have humanism to look at as far as responsibility is concerned. We make the choices. 

The world became populated because people traveled. In search of food, comfort, a space of their own. People mingled, groups were formed and split up…more movement. Diaspora, the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland. Our feet have been a mode of transport since time began. Are we able to not travel? What will that achieve? Like the butter, what could be our alternative? To still have the cake(travel) but no butter. I guess like we are experiencing now it is the use of vaccines. If you want to travel, then there will be the need to protect not only one’s self but vaccinate for the common good. Is that the answer or is it No More Travel?

Be good - be kind - keep smiling ( now there’s a thought!)

Talk about traveling: Check out this link to my channel OmaFarAway.

France 2019: 

Further away than ever- but doing a come back.

Good morning, glad you could join me

It has been a while. I have suppressed the urge to write, well no not suppressed so much as not made the space to sit and put into words what I had on my heart. Combined with the fact that I was making videos for on a YouTube channel ( by the same name-OmaFaraway). Like everyone else, I also have 24 hours in my day to fill. For some reason that's not hard and my energy level isn't what it was when I was 50.

I am an OmaFarAway. That implies that I am somewhat separated from my grand+children. And as these past months have been plagued by a world wide pandemic, I feel even more separated than ever. Traveling is not an option at present. You see, I have to travel half way round the world, from the Northern Hemisphere to Down Under to see those I love so dearly.

It's been a hard year for many that I feel almost a gene, a sort of shame, to mention my own woes. I am healthy and plan on keeping it that way. My children and grandchildren too are fine and safe. As safe as one can be in life. The emotions that play a big role in my daily thoughts are those of frustration and loss. It is hard to deal with, especially in times of celebration like this past festive season or with birthdays and special events. Not that I only miss being around them then. Those are cherry on the cake moments. Oh how I'd like to be a fly on the wall in their homes sometimes, just to get a sneak view of what's happening. How are they doing?

It are uncertain times. Not that life is certain, but this pandemic has highlighted many things, including the difficulty of living far away from those who mean so much. A simple solution? No, there isn't one. That too is life. I am where I am and they are where they need to be as well. Roll on the time machine, the Tardis from Doctor Who, or the 'Beam me up Scotty" from Star Trek. I would make use of those options like a shot.

Well, that's my 5 cents worth for today. Be safe, be happy and keep smiling.