18 August 2019 – the date of my last publication.

Since then and until recently, Deon and I became absorbed in our practices.  Deon is a Psychological Counsellor, and I was the owner of Kip McGrath Education Centres, Durbanville.

Deon and Sandra

Our usual outings on Fridays came to a halt as we preferred to take the day off and relax at home, most of the times.  I must admit that I also became a bit lazy writing about our outings, edit the photographs, etc.

Covid-19  struck in 2020 and at the same time Deon has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma.  After treatment and a stem cell  transplant, Deon is now in remission.  During last year we realized that we were living in a much too large house for our needs and that we were ready for semi-retirement in a much smaller house.

Our house in Durbanville

The next question was where the retirement home would be.  We fell in love with the Western Cape, especially with the small town of Greyton in the Overberg.  After searching for property in Greyton, we found the perfect house in The Country Village, Greyton.  We put our house in Durbanville on the market and after a couple of months, we were on our way to start living our new life in this beautiful town, recently declared the Town of The Year, 2021. 

On our way to Greyton

Our biggest challenge was transporting our cat, Leica, to Greyton.  We stayed over at a guest house the day before we moved into our home, and Leica behaved like the perfect traveler and guest.  He had a big scare when he saw a horse in the street outside the guest house.  I must admit that it is a bit strange to suddenly have to watch out for horses in the road while driving in Greyton.

Leica in Guest House

Adapting to the life in a small town is easier than we thought.  We are currently very busy getting everything in place in our new house.  A renovating project is looming – after the last project at our previous home, which took six months or longer, we vowed never to find ourselves in a situation where we must renovate again,but here we go again.  It is always worth the effort when the project had been completed.

Greyton

We are also planning to get involved in the community – I would love to be a volunteer at Ears, the donkey sanctuary.  Deon has started with counselling again and I will soon be offering remedial therapy for learners in town as well as online.  I have also watched the latest TV series of Jan, our Michelin star chef in Paris, who now also has a restaurant in the Kalahari.  In the program someone mentions that there is probably a lost city in the Kalahari, which interests me.  I researched the history of Ancient Egypt for a Masters Degree, therefore doing research about the lost city of the Kalahari should be very interesting.

And then, of course, I will be blogging again about our beautiful surroundings, the restaurants and adventures in our new environment.  The first restaurant, our favourite, that I will write about, is Abbey Rose in Main Street, Greyton, with its own tiny chapel.

Abbey Rose Restaurant