criplomats

We celebrated John’s birthday this week – happy birthday! It was pretty low-key although we did treat ourselves to pizza. We also celebrated the 250th birthday of the Marines at a fancy do at the Marriott Friday night. It was fun to get dressed up and out of the house a bit!

Otherwise the week was routine. I got back into my walking every morning, followed by yoga on You Tube, and I worked on some stressful insurance/Medicare paperwork (hopefully moving toward resolution!). I read Oliver Sacks’ “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat,” which was fascinating and finished

John and I binged on the latest season of “The Diplomat,” plus we got up to date on “Slow Horses” and “Down Cemetery Road.” Last night we binged on an excellent Nordic crime show, “The Asset” – lots of good tv right now.

Rainy season is starting to return to Guyana and the rains are breathtaking when they come. It rained so hard a few nights ago that water came in under the kitchen door. It will rain like crazy for 10 minutes, then stop abruptly and turn to sunshine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard such heavy rain!

We continue to enjoy the birdwatching around the house!

I headed back home to Guyana on Thursday morning, ready to see John and Flavia again! It was a long day, but fortunately I did not have any travel issues related to the government shutdown. We were delayed an hour or so in Houston due to a maintenance issue, which put me home well after 2:00AM (the Georgetown airport is over an hour from our house). But all in all, it was a smooth trip with a lot of lounge time in Houston — and I was able to read “The Impossible Fortune,” the latest Thursday Murder Club mystery by Richard Osman.

Last Sunday PeeWee invited Chuck and me for dinner — a nice evening catching up with interesting friends. I spent the day at home, doing a recommendation letter for a former foreign service officer and helping a friend of a friend with her citizenship case (interesting!).

Monday I had an eye doctor appointment with Dr. Hester in Little Rock (luckily no real problem, just advice to use more artificial tears), followed by lunch at Mary’s house (soup and bread, yummy). On the way home, I stopped for coffee with David and Alison, and ended up staying for grilled kebabs outside in the gazebo.

Heavy rain and thunder woke me up on Tuesday – it was lovely! I ventured out for yoga and to pick up a couple of things at Walmart. In the evening, I treated myself to take-out Mexican food with some TV.

Wednesday I cleaned the condo, then David and Alison dropped me off at a hotel near the airport. Ann drove down from Conway and we went to dinner at Root Cafe. It was a fun evening (chilly!) and we ran into an old friend from Hendrix, Sam B, with his wife and daughter.

Today John took me out for a good Indian lunch – it’s a nice lazy day and I’m happy to be home!

I spent the first part of the week getting our consumables shipment finalized, including picking up wine to include. The movers came on Wednesday – the photo shows one of the movers standing inside our single crate. We had 22 boxes total, most of them not as big as the ones sitting on the ground.

I had dinner with David and Alison two night this week (pizza and bbq, yum!). One evening I went to Kathy W’s apartment for happy hour. After touring her lovely complex and apartment, we sat outside by the (gorgeous) pool and had a glass of wine while catching up. Pam came down Friday and we started a Scrabble marathon that didn’t end until late afternoon Saturday! We particularly enjoyed playing all day Saturday while it poured rain outside.

I made it to yoga several times this week, with different subs filling in for Karen while she’s on vacation. I got my flu and COVID shots, too.

I watched several movies: “Bel Canto,” “The Lost Bus” with Hendrix alumni Ashlie Atkinson, ”The Good Nurse,” and “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” which I watched because it’s the same director as “Babygirl.”

The sunrises have been beautiful – I love the steam coming off the water in the photo above. But Friday’s sunrise was spectacular:

I also went on a few morning walks and enjoyed the wildlife!

I flew home Monday night to Hot Springs; David and Alison picked me up at the airport Tuesday late morning. It’s been a working trip so far – I wanted to unpack the household goods that were delivered to the condo in August after we left for Guyana and I’m putting together a consumables shipment. This is a special allowance that we get if we are posted in certain countries where it’s hard to get pantry items, cleaning supplies, etc. or where they are not of good quality (we had this allowance in Liberia, too). I’m amassing a pile of goods that movers will pick up and ship next week.

The weather has been great since I arrived. Yesterday a big storm moved through and left wonderfully chilly temps behind – I had to bundle up to sit outside this morning to drink my coffee and watch the sun rise!

Wednesday evening I went out with Alison and PeeWee for some shopping and dinner at The Goat. I binge-watched “The Pitt” and really enjoyed it. I also re-watched “The Undoing” and “Gone Girl,” and I watched “Adolescence” and “Babygirl” for the first time.

John sent me this photo of Flavia hanging out in my closet on my shoes and it kind of broke my heart. I miss them both!

The U.S. government shutdown continued this week. John, along with his colleagues around the world, continues to work, albeit without pay for now. The goats that came through the neighborhood on Wednesday did not seem to care. Nor did Flavia.

The week was pretty normal. As I did my daily walk around the neighborhood, I started listening to “Careless People,” by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Subtitled “A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” it’s a behind-the-scenes story of Facebook in its infancy by an employee (and former diplomat from New Zealand).

I had a fun catch-up call with Stacie in Paris on Wednesday. I worked on planning a trip to NYC in the spring, as well as a trip to the Amazon. John and I watched “The Woman in Cabin 10” this week, plus the old Inspector Linley series on PBS. Tonight we had a fun and tasty dinner at the Brazilian steakhouse near our house with Chris and his wife Mariella. I finished reading Hampton Sides’ captivating “In the Kingdom of Ice,” about the USS Jeanette and her ill-fated attempt to get to the North Pole from the Bering Strait in 1879 – 1882. It was fascinating and haunting.