Saturday
Dear Elsie
One of the things I’ve been smiling about today, my Els is how you told me “You’re the preciousest!” It’s one of the things I say often – mainly to the cats – but also to you when I see you, “You’re precious” but I think when I left yesterday I said, “You’re the preciousest” and that’s what you told me I was. So cute! It certainly made me smile today.
Today was the day we went up and down the stairs many times. From about November last year, I always knew today, 6th January, would be an extra busy day. All the guests left – both family and the Airbnb guests in the Seaview Apartment. Just after 7.30am, Jess, Gerrie and family drove away on their long trip back to Johannesburg.
They are staying tonight in the middle of nowhere, Karoo. Actually, it’s Strydomburg which I had never heard of until yesterday.
Strydomburg is about 30 minutes from Hopetown on the way to Kimberley. If they turn right at Hopetown and drive for another 30 minutes they will get to the famous enclave of Orania which is a bit of a curiosity. It has its own currency – the Ora. I remember Stacey and Adrian passing through Orania when Adrian moved to Cape Town in 2007. The Karoo is hot, arid and pretty featureless so I’m not sure I would be interested in Orania or anywhere else in the Karoo. I need the coast. The fresh sea air. The cool breeze. And the mountains. It will be interesting to hear if the family get to visit it.
For us, we started cleaning the Seaview Apartment. When Ruth arrived, she took over. I did all the linen – 4 loads of laundry. She finished the one and then went to clean the cottage. She was done by about 3.30pm. The guests from the Little Lookout went to Cape Point and then returned to move into the Seaview. Tomorrow, I’ll sort out the LL. There were some firsts today. The guests who stayed in the LL had booked the Seaview Apartment and the Cottage for this month (on Airbnb), but needed to come 2 days earlier. By the time they told us that, we were on Whatsapp, so we arranged it directly. It’s the first time we have had Airbnb guests come stay with us off Airbnb before their booking started. And it’s the first time, we’ve had such a big changeover of guests on one day.
Mike & I have also been talking about which airline to use to fly home from Copenhagen. Initially, it was to be KLM and try the day flight, but on further thought, it’s a pretty bad idea because we have to be at the airport at 3am and accommodation in Copenhagen is frightfully expensive. Also, KLM only arrive in Cape Town at 9.25pm so it’s a very long day. We’ve looked at Turkish Air – they fly at 7pm from Copenhagen – get to Istanbul around 11pm and then fly at about 2am to Cape Town, arriving at 11.45am. It would take us 16 hours or so to get home which is pretty good. The other consideration is to arrive in Copenhagen the day before the cruise. This is sound cruise advice which I overlooked and booked our Easyjet flight to get in on the day of the cruise. What if there’s a strike or a storm? Any major delay could result in us missing the first 2 days of the cruise which would be expensive. To change the flight to a day earlier will cost R1000 but for peace of mind it may be worth it. We can discuss further when Julian comes next week.
We have now collapsed in a heap and will start watching the Crown later, something we have been planning to do for weeks.
It’s been a satisfying day.
Psalm 6:9
The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.
It’s not about now. We are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂