Alphen aan den Rijn – 22 January 2024

Lisa and I are going to South Africa in two days and I notice a kind of peace coming over me, a kind of calm. I realize I haven’t been on a plane in over two years; Lisa has more KLM points than I do! Who would have ever thought that.

So on Wednesday we leave for Cape Town and we will be back in May. Tom looks after our house and his own cat. The plans are fairly clear in the coming weeks because we have some agreements that we have to keep. For example, I first have to find out if the camper is still working properly. The car part is fine because brother-in-law Julian had it checked last month, but the camper part is a bit more unclear. I’m looking forward to doing this actually.

The usual things like arranging the phone and calling credit are also just fun activities.

Then we will have to pick up my mother-in-law in Dysselsdorp and take her to Cape Town. Farrah is getting married in February in Cape Town and of course my mother-in-law will be there. We still have to rent a house near Cape Town but that will be fine.

At the beginning of March we will leave together for Namibia and Botswana, but the route is still uncertain. I’ll figure that out!

The past year has been emotional and those emotions are still working through now. First of all, of course, Tamara’s housing problem, which solved itself fantastically in September 2023 with her house in Gouda. There are dark clouds on the horizon for our housing project in Alphen and I am worried about how this will turn out in the end.

Of course, we also have our concerns about our other two children.

Last week I received an app from my business partner that I won’t write too much about here. Those who know him know what happened and for those who don’t, he’s still alive!

We also have a lot of grief about our mutual friends who no longer allow the light in their eyes.

Banks will never be my friends, but I have to say that I had more positive than negative experiences this year.

Enough has been written about the situation in the world and you know my opinion on this.

Fortunately, I exercise a lot (walking) and that does me a lot of good. Listening to podcasts endlessly gives me peace of mind and the combination with walking is very nice.

At the end of 2023, I took the plunge and closed my company, at least the subsidiary I worked with. As of December 31, 2023, I no longer have a job and no income from work and that was a long time ago.

But this morning I felt a peace come over me and that is of course because there is a deadline coming. From Wednesday I will be gone and I have to focus on the tasks that are there, in South Africa and I have to let go of what is here. And that gives me peace of mind and calms me down.

I will be writing and uploading photos on this website regularly in the coming weeks