breakfast | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

Here is my contribution to this week’s Share Your World from Cee

Where do you eat breakfast?

Funny you should ask, because this is my favourite meal of the day and it is usually quite an elaborate affair. I seldom eat breakfast in bed. I like to be up and dressed and seated at the table. Usually my darling husband cooks it for me, at least twice weekly we go to our favourite coffee shop where they don’t even ask what we want as the just know, and on rare occasions I am the chef. Properly brewed coffee is essential and no matter where I am the quality of the breakfast is greatly influenced by the quality of the coffee! If the weather is good I like it al fresco, if it’s in a cold place a roaring fire helps otherwise a lovely ambience indoors will do.

Typical Shipwreck Coffee Shop Breakfast – Fried eggs, bacon, cheese grillers tomato and coffee

Scrambled Eggs Al Fresco at my garden picnic table

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want have a evening with?

My ideal evening is in the bush with friends who enjoy it as much as I do. There is nothing to beat, sitting outside your caravan, watching the flaming sun sink beneath the horizon, listening the sounds of the wild, glass of wine in hand exchanging stories about the day’s adventures. Priceless!

My fantasy companion would be Sir David Attenborough because I would love to chat to him about his lifetime of doing wildlife documentaries. What a fascinating life he has had. How lucky we are to be able to spend any number of evenings watching said documentaries!

If you could be a tree or plant, what would you be?

I would choose to be a Baobab Tree. She is the queen of trees. You cannot miss her standing proud on the African Savannah demanding to be admired. Not only would I be a wonderful sight to behold I would also be permanently among the wildlife that I love so much and I would be a great asset to their lives. Because the baobab has many useful properties, it is widely known as the Tree of Life. How wonderful to be a Life-giving Tree.

Baobab products are useful to mankind as among other stuff soap, rubber, glue, traditional medicine and cream of tartar are made from their products. But best of all it creates it’s own ecosystem and provides food and shelter for animals, birds and insects.

It is a deciduous tree so during the dry winters it has no leaves and its bare branches look like roots hence it’s nickname – the upside down tree.

In Winter it is The Upside Down Tree

In Summer It dons it’s leafy finery

What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

The Earl and I left Struisbaai at 6 am this morning and considering the state of his health one year ago I appreciate how fit and well his is now. He coped well with the driving and we made sure to stop frequently. We are overnighting in Middelburg in the Eastern Cape and will do another day’s drive to Kokstad tomorrow. This is the start of a three month trip away and I will be blogging about our adventures as often as I can during this time.

Some great questions again from Cee’s Share Your World

Here are my answers

If you were given the opportunity to ride in a helicopter you would go?

For many years I suffered from aviophobia so even getting onto a Boeing was a challenge. So in 1999 when the opportunity to take a ride over The Great Barrier Reef arose I was most reluctant. But my FOMO (fear of missing out) won out in the end and I boarded that scary craft and have never regretted it.

When I saw the copter coming in to land on a floating platform in the middle of the Pacific I nearly backed out. So glad I didn’t because it’s the perfect way to fly – far less frightening than an airbus.

The Scary Helicopter

The view was certainly worth it

What are some of your favorite types of proteins to eat? (meat, seafood, eggs, soy, cheese, nuts)

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day so I’d have to say egg and bacon! Also I am a South African and The Braai (barbeque) is part of our culture – there is nothing nicer than chops and boerewors grilled over the coals!

Fried eggs on a bed of home grown spinach and served with bacon and grilled cherry tomatoes. I live with a wonderful chef!

010 Braai 2014-01-26 03-31-08 AM 4000x3000

The braai ritual in progress

What would be your preference, awake before dawn, at dawn, or awake before noon?

Most of my life I was an Early to Bed, Early to Rise kind of girl. I never had any trouble getting up at six o’clock or earlier be it weekend or not. Now that I’m retired and not following a proper routine I find I go to bed later and therefore rise later too. However, when in the bush – it’s back to early to rise! Nothing nicer than sunrise in the game reserve.

001 Giraffe in the sunrise Namutoni Etosha

One wouldn’t want to oversleep and miss this

What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

This week I have appreciated the place where I live. Our harbour is so pretty and the spring weather is getting me outdoors more often.

On my walk on Sunday I went along the main road then along the board walk to the beach and back to the harbour. When I looked out to sea I thought I spotted a seal in the shallows but when I got closer it had disappeared. I chatted to my friend Earnest who is always hanging out at the harbour and he said yes indeed my eyes were not playing tricks on me. There had been one swimming around for a while. We haven’t seen a seal in the harbour for some time. As I continued toward the next boardwalk I heard a splash and there was Sealy coming up onto the rocks in front of the restaurant car park. I yelled for Earnest and he was thrilled to get this excellent view of this lovely sea creature too. It wasn’t long before a small crowd gathered and were snapping away with cameras and cell phones. I only had my phone but rang Hubby to bring my Canon which he did. Two young guys were trying to take a selfie so I offered and they were thrilled to have themselves with a seal in the background. It was such fun.