This week it will be 4 years since the inception of our Exit Plan.

This is the plan that was concocted up in that week when Colin and I decided to have a short mid-winter get away. Now, this was quite a milestone for us. It was our first holiday, on our own since our honeymoon. We were fortunate to have traveled quite a bit and we always did so with our sons. My mantra being, the best way to educate a child, is with tickets. Theater tickets, train tickets, plane tickets. By the time our sons left school, they were two well-traveled young men. And they have not stopped, with both of them still traveling every opportunity they have. But back to Colin and my holiday.

My Mother had just moved to Botrivier, and she needed some TLC from a daughter, as she had her own inevitable adjustment to make. Change is always exciting to plan, but less so when reality sets in. Colin and I flew down to Cape Town, hired a car, and set off to find our B&B in a town called Betty’s Bay. Colin has a fantastic sense of direction. Whether he is driving on the left-hand side of the road, or the right, reading road signs in German or Dutch, he will get us there. I need Google Maps – you know the one that talks to you. Not a paper map. I get lost with those. Neither of us had ever been to Betty’s Bay and as such drove right through the town, without noticing it. As we entered Kleinmond town, the one with the sense of direction was ready to admit defeat, and I could finally get out my Talking Dolla, who back tracked us to the correct town. That was our introduction to Betty’s Bay.

At the end of that week, as we were packing up to leave, I mentioned to Colin that I noticed quite a few properties for sale, and maybe we should start planning our Exit Plan. If you want the whole history behind this decision and how it came about, you need to read my very first ever chapter of the Cape Crawl. Never did we consciously decide that we would be settling in Betty’s Bay. In the end, it just turned out that way. And here we are.

Cat Stevens had great success with a song called Father and Son.

The song is about a heartbreaking exchange between a father and his son. The son wants to break away and shape a new life. The father can’t understand the son’s desire. In the song, the father tells his son:

Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy.

I was once like you are now, and I know that it’s not easy.

For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.

As with this song, it was time for Colin and me to grow old somewhere where we could be happy. It was, and still is, not easy. But we will still be here tomorrow, and our dream? Well, as for that dream, it is taking shape. Far too slowly, for my liking, but I have come to terms with that it will happen in God’s time, not mine. Until such time, I know that God has a plan for me. One more purpose that I need to follow.

I bumped into this quote today:

You did not come here to chase money, obsess over looks, indulge in meaningless pleasure, or destroy your body with poison. You came here to remember your true self…and to make a difference… You see, every time I want to regress and lose faith in our chasing our dream, something like this comes along, and reminds me of the big picture, the long haul, the ultimate destination. That wonderful Exit Plan.

But indulge me, I want to go back to Cat Stevens, because you see, he has quite a story to tell.

His birth name is Steven Demetre Georgiou. Today he is known as Yusuf Islam, but somewhere in the middle, he was for a brief period: Cat Stevens. He released his debut album in 1967, then in 1977 converted to Islam and stepped away from his musical career to pursue his spiritual leanings. He did make a comeback to pop music in 2006. By then, he dropped Islam from his name, using the name Yusuf only. In 2017 he reverted to including Cat Stevens into his stage name and called himself Yusuf Cat Stevens. Now this is where one must be careful not to confuse this stage name with one that sounds much the same to the lazy, assuming ear: Mufasa. At the risk of digressing, I wanted to say was that clearly Yusuf Cat was not going to get much airtime on the radio, and one that could get you confused with that other big cat, Mufasa. He was the good lion in Lion King, the movie. Mufasa’s nemesis was Scar. That ugly, mean lion, who spoke with Jeremy Iron’s deep, sensual baritone voice.  By the way, Jeremy Irons can sing very well. Quite suitably, he sang Mad Dogs and Englishmen at the Proms in 1999. The Proms is one of those great British institutions, which every music and stage lover will know. It has been referred to as the World’s largest, and most democratic musical festival.

All this talk of Yusuf and Mufasa brings me to another interesting name: Khan. Ooo! Don’t you just love it when I speak foreign? (Only a hard core South African Wimpy customer will get this one!) Khan Morbee is the lead singer of the Parlotones. At one point, it was believed that he had one of the most recognisable voices in the music industry. The Parlotones sang “We were just having fun”. It was not their best song. It is not the song that made them famous. But it is the song I like to sing when I reflect on our journey so far.

Despite everything: the challenges, the delays, the red tape, the hurry up and wait, the fact remains: We are just having fun.