Johan SA Trip 22

My mom had a most remarkable woman looking after her: Grace. Super attentive, caring, and loving. I was so glad that I decided to give a bag I was designing, to her.  (I could not finish it at home, so I still had to finish stitching two seams, and she saw how I was making it by hand.)

My mom was a prolific painter in her younger days.  I have photographed many of them before, but I realized the ones hanging on her walls, have yet to be documented: The visit proved to beat real summer visit, with daytime temperatures staying around 27C and minimums rarely getting below 17C. An open door and windows are the cooling systems in many of the houses and a safety gate in front of the door, advertises that you are not open to burglary.    The crime rate in South Africa is still very high!

Being barefoot 24\7, no matter where you go, is a real blessing!   Nobody seem to even notice - except one last in a mall.   She walked past me with two small kids, caught my eye, pointed at my feet, and then gave me the thumbs up! I don't even think about being barefoot at all. On my way back to the house, I took a few minutes of video just to show what that looks like in my mom's suburb. 

My mom in the recliner that also helps her get up from the chair - the whole thing told forward to get her in an almost standin position. I got time to finish the leather bag I made for my mom's caregiver, Grace.

My mom had an early appointment at the dentist and I went in with her.   It was my old dentist from 24 years ago!   And he and a few staff members still recognized me. We then stopped at an opthalmologist for an on the spur of the moment eye test.  We did order a new pair of glasses. By now we were hungry and ate at the Wimpy - a nice setting with big windows - you feel like you are almost eating outside: My diabetes prevented my from ordering one of these! A day like this totally exhausts my mom, but she really enjoyed the eating out.

My mom in the front of the house. To our surprise, Telkom sent out two guys to replace the DSL line that brings the internet into the house.   And they were just standardly replacing it with fibre optic cable. This prevents copper wire attracting lightning and also copper theft (something that has been happening since the nineties). It is so nice seeing the summer green plants. We could not remember the name of this shrub - after 30 plus years it now looks more like a tree. The next two photos were taken in the back yard. And this is the local wildlife in the back yard:

Mom had a Vit B injection at the pharmacy. I found the Wi-Fi router to be faulty - no power.  After various visits to Telkom stores (not all of them had technicians), I bought a new one, installed it and found no signal comes to the router. I called Telkom and they said they would test the DSL line.   I did not have much hope. But the next day........ I had time to look around in mom's garden, and took these photos:

Arrived in Amsterdam 8 hours after departure. Spent three hours walking around on Schipol airport. Fairly quiet and some of the booths were just opening up at seven in the morning. On my second flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg, I saw snow, central African drought, and a beautiful sunset. I arrived well after 11 Monday evening and slept in a hotel on the airport.   Of course, my room was at the end of this hellish passage:

What a start to my trip to visit my mom in South Africa! I thought I had all my ducks in a row beforehand. But the lab at the clinic decided to ignore the instructions the lab girl put on there to expedite the results. I was at the airport already and had still not received it. Various phonecalls during the day ended in a black hole.  Everybody was super helpful and friendly, but to no avail. I was so stressed that midday through the day I started stuttering. There was an agent on the airport that could help me with rebooking - same flights, next day. So six o'clock that night I receive my negative COVID test. The flights were uneventful - fortunately not very full, so I always had two seats to myself.