Mavimet's Weblog

I started planning a couple of vacations before I received the money from the sale of my house and those filled up my credit cards, preventing more plans until I actually had the funds in my bank account.

I am happy to say that I finally received my money about a week ago and it was pretty much exactly what I had figured it would be.  The lawyer had to get the money first to pay the realtor, themselves, the bank and other smaller amounts that apparently only they could pay.  I put more than 1/2 of that amount into a tax-free savings account to keep it safe from me spending too much.  😉

So – I have now finalized plans for a road trip to Vancouver and Vancouver Island next month and a trip to Kruger National Park in South Africa next year – plus, I had previously made plans for a one day trip to Churchill to see our northern critters in the wild.  After that I will probably be grounded again, with just enough funds left to pay my bills.

I bought myself a bed (soon to be delivered).  I have been sleeping on just the mattress on the floor since the move, when the movers were unable to bring the frame from the old bed.  I bought myself a small laptop so I can keep in touch with the world while I am away.  My previous travel computer was a tiny netbook  that was very slow and had an old Windows version.  If I can’t get online in South Africa, I will at least be able to download the pictures from my camera to keep my cards from filling up.

I have decided that the sofa I moved here with is going to go, in favour of a 2nd chair.  The sofa is very comfortable, but is just too big for the living room here.  The chair has been ordered and will be delivered next week.   I am seriously thinking I should have bought 2 chairs and let the old chair here go too.  This poor old chair lived though the mouse escapades a couple of years ago and although it is still quite comfortable, it isn’t in the best of shape any more.  If you are interested in the mouse story it has been summarized here.  It wasn’t mentioned in that story, but most of her time was spent in the old hide-a-bed (that was thrown out) and the chair that I brought here when I moved.

I have picked a National Park in Manitoba that I will soon start visiting on a regular basis to get another place in nature to hang out and take pictures.  Riding Mountain National Park is about a 4 hour drive from Winnipeg, so many of the trips will be with an overnight stay in order to see sunrises and sunsets as well as catch some early morning and evening critter sightings.  My first drive there will just be a one day trip.  I will spend a few hours there to get my bearings because it has been years since my last visit.  A main reason for this trip is to pick up an annual multi park pass, so that when I drive to Vancouver, I will already have the pass for Banff and Jasper National Parks.  I plan on stopping at those parks on the way home.  The bonus is that this year, all the annual passes are actually good for 2 years.  🙂