Swampscott, New England and almost 40 years

We are back in the USA for a few months having paid the deposit on a house and waiting for the final signing of the deed next week.  Next year we will be using the house as a "holiday home" and primary residence while we work through the bureaucracy of getting residence permits for both of us to stay for longer than the currently mandated maximum of 90 days for every 180.

Today is an anniversary of how long my fellow traveler and I have been traveling together.  Anne and I
met when I was working my first job at Nombulelo secondary school, she joined us a few weeks into the year and immediately caught my attention with her infectious laugh and distinctive way of dressing.  At the time it reminded me of students at my Alma Mata (UCT) but her style of dress is distinctively her own I later realized.

This was 39 years ago.  I moved in with Anne and her two little girls in December 1984

 and we haven't spend more than a few weeks apart since then - the apart time being mandated by travel for work and my exploratory trip to England and the USA when we decided in 1999 that we wanted to find somewhere else to live.

We were married officially a few years after I moved in to live with her.  Two witnesses (colleagues at our school) and our little girls who were pulled without notice from school to come to the ceremony at the local magistrate's court with us.  Afterwards we stood under a tree across the road for a wedding photograph.

 A few years later we welcomed our twins into the family and watched them grow.  In 2001 we moved from South Africa

leaving our oldest daughter living with her boyfriend and taking the three younger children to Boston where I had found work.

It has been 22 years since we made that first move.  Anne insisted on joining me in Boston as soon as I had found a house to rent rather than wait the few months I suggested I might need to get things properly squared away for them.  We all slept on blow-up mattresses as we stocked the house with furniture and learned how to dress for the frigid winter weather.

The last year has been full of travel.  Anne and I have been constant companions, barely spending hours apart, let alone weeks or months. 

She is a good partner to have on a trip - the long one we have decided to take through life, these trips into destinations unknown and the short trips we have done with almost (probably more than) 40 beds and AirBnbs.

And now 22 years later we are contemplating another big move to Portugal where most things will be strange and where we have the interesting task of learning another language while navigating the culture and lifestyle.

Anne will get a residence permit first while I travel again on a tourist visa.  I'll be able to apply for a residence permit once Anne's is granted.

Our new house

 Happy Anniversary to "minha linda esposa".