Updated: Written: November 27, 2014 This will be our eighth Thanksgiving away from my friends in the States. I have decided to just keep adding tidbits to the post as the years pass. I feel a bit nostalgic about it. Memories abound! Every year, my best friend would fly in from Bermuda. I met her …
Updated:
Reverse culture shock was very worrying to me prior to our return trip to the U.S. Having been away for the last several years, I was afraid that we would have a hard time adjusting to a return back to the States.
[the_ad id=”13767″]
Thankfully, it was not as bad as it could have been. The gods smiled upon us and made things easy. A lot of my relatives are extremely happy right now. I had been complaining a lot.
That was extremely quick! 2016 seems to have come and gone in a flash. It seems like just yesterday l was reflecting on 2015 and our plans for the new year. Here l am again with a wrap-up of our fun and travel filled year. We have enjoyed sharing the year with you and hope to keep on doing that in the new year. By my calculation, the longest we stayed at home in Seville at any one time was three weeks and our longest trip was 33 days! We couldn’t have done it without the absolutely wonderful pet sitters we found through my favorite company, Housesitmatch. I highly recommend them to any homeowner, and nope.. I am not being paid to say that, just a grateful client 🙂 .
I still miss my father. Everyday. I rarely talk about my loss to people. He died almost 21 years ago at the age of 72. It’s hard for me to believe that so much time has passed. The memory of his death is still so vivid in my mind. I thought he was invincible.
My father ate right, didn’t smoke, exercised and had the biggest heart ever, almost to a fault. It would take him and my mum 5 full days to finish one bottle of Guinness. One phone call at work shattered my world.
My father had suddenly started bleeding about 3 weeks prior. They were unable to treat him in Nigeria. It was ultimately colon cancer. Even though the doctors suspected it, they had no equipment to make a proper diagnosis. The decision was made to transfer his care to a London hospital.
Unfortunately, a visa was only granted to my mother. My siblings were all refused visas. One of the curses of having a third world passport is that you are often denied entry to the first world countries. They just assume that people will go and never return. I still get pissed when people say “anyone can travel”. I am happy that medical tourism exists. He was packed with ice and put on a plane.