Another viewpoint

[The Macdougald's family friend, Judy, is visiting from Johanasburg]

Dear family and friends,

Many thanks for the e-mails and sms's. They have been a great encouragement to Ian and Di.

It is 7.30 pm and feels like 4pm! It only gets dark here at about 10pm and gets light at about 6am. I am sitting outside in the manicured garden next to the waterfall listening to the soothing sound of water and the twittering birds! What a wonderful life!

We all had a wonderful 4 days in Holland,MI - I kept pinching myself as it really is beautiful. For those who enjoy sailing, boating, fishing or cycling -this is the place for you! We had a Barbecue with the people from the Timeshare the afternoon we left. It was obviously a typical American Barbecue with Hot dogs, hamburgers and Bratwurst with the usual salads and then Choc Chip Cookies for desert. I felt sad saying goodbye to these amazing people and this beautiful piece of "Paradise"!

We had an uneventful trip back, enjoying the beautiful scenery and had a pit stop at Starbucks - Wends, I had the Chai Latte you recommended - it was delicious Di coped well with the time away. Holland is one of her favourite places, so she was happy there. She had to work out when she was going up and down the stairs as this truly exhausts her and she could only manage this twice a day.

The Hospice nurse came on Friday morning and was pleased with where Di is at. Di is not sleeping as well as she should now, so she upped the sleeping tablet which is the lowest dose you can take, but it is too much and Di battled to wake up this morning and has felt tired today, so she will go back to the lower dose. She has never taken sleeping tablets before, so her system is not used to them. her feet have swollen, so she is trying to walk more and drink more. Di needed more tablets so we went through to Brian's House, which is the Hospice where Di spent 2 nights. What a beautiful place! It is half an hour from their home and was recommended to them by the Ann Arbor Hospital. It was built in memory of Brian Stroud - an actor from New York who died from Aids. It is beautiful inside- painted murals in bright colours. Each bedroom has a specific theme and only 1 patient is allocated per bedroom. The Hospice Doctor is a friendly man and the staff are also. As nice and patient friendly as this place is, I hope Di never has to go there!

We drove through Bay City ( birth place of Madonna). It is an older city with mixed housing. It was a Lumber Baron's Town and has some interesting history.

I drove for the first time today to the Food Store and managed fine. The only close shave I had was going a little too close to a parked car near Ian's house. Otherwise, I found the "wrong side" of the road for South Africans, fine. I will have to drive when Ian is away, so I have to familiarise myself now! The Food Store was enormous and has everything that you could possibly need in it. The selection is stupendous! Another amazing observation was that people leave their handbags (purses) in the trolley(cart) and nobody takes it and you can go through a self check out and scan your own goods and pay the machine with cash or a credit card - mind blowing!!!

Happy July 4th to all the Americans! Ian and Fiona will be celebrating their 1st American Independence Day as American Citizens!

Until next time, lots of love to all of you, Ian, Di and Judy.