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Writer's pictureCathie Rooyen

Domestic bliss

Tuesday 17th October 2023


Today was my last full day of the housesitting in the Bay. I took a while to wake up but once I did, I sparked around the house doing some cleaning and frightening the cats.


The morning mist gave way to some bright glimmers and around late afternoon I decided to go for a walk. It's amazing to think that places can become so familiar after 11 days and I pondered on the need for us humans to have automatic recognition and habits. It takes a lot of mental effort away once we've become familiar with our surroundings.


I've found on my travels that I'm really quite adaptable now after years of needing the same bed/pillow/bathroom. Before I started my journey, I read a book on '10 lessons for living location free' by my friend and life coach, Kate Emmerson. One of those tips was to spread your meager belongings in the space immediately because that familiarity will help. I must admit that I do this, and it definitely helps centre me.



I enjoy walking around a new area, feeling the different air, discovering the dogs, and in this case, admiring the bridges. Today they stood out big and bold, and because the weather was milder, it was lovely to stand for longer in awe. A huge ship blew it's foghorn and was brought into the bay escorted by two smaller tugboats. I wanted to watch it go under the red bridge, but it stopped midway, at what I'm later found out is a refueling station, called Hound Point. I love the internet because of this...

"...tanker loading export facility where oil is pumped from dalmeny tank farm...."

"Owned by Ineos after first being built by BP in 1975 and named after the legend of a hound who howled after its master died in the crusades..."


Because of the ship's size, I noticed the waves increase and it became rather dramatic for me on the path. After videoing a little bit, I thought it wise to get out of there just in case it came over the path and besides I'm not that brave, haha.


I stopped by at my uncle again. The heating was still on tropical, so I had a mini-vaycation in his lounge before I headed back to base.



I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in this lovely place, and a resident owl is calling now as I write this. It triggered a 5 year old memory of the very same uncle blowing through his hands to twit-tewoo for me, as we stayed overnight before we left Scotland for South Africa. Life let me have this time to recover from my flu bug, and enjoy the bridges and bus rides. Tomorrow I head back to Glasgow and a concert on Saturday night. I'm a lucky lady.







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