Archive for September 25th, 2022

» posted on Sunday, September 25th, 2022 by Linda Lou Burton

The Pause Button

Linda Lou Burton posting from Zanzibar Serena Hotel, Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania – The telephone was ringing. I left my peaceful spot on the porch, wondering who would be calling so early on a Sunday morning. It was the front desk. “Your Tour Guide is in the lobby,” I was informed. Still in my jammies, I hastily threw on yesterday’s clothes, grabbed all the Globus info, and headed down the hall. A smiling man wearing a Fisherman’s Tours badge, said “Good morning, Madame. I am Said, and I have come to take you on the Walking Tour of the city.” I shook my head and began my apology. “I am so sorry! I guess the message didn’t get through. I told our Transport Driver yesterday we wanted to have a day of rest and do our tours tomorrow. I am very sorry for the inconvenience. We are just too tired to do anything today! Plus, we want to change the tours that were picked for us. I can’t do the walking City Tour, and we both want to go to a Spice Farm instead of walking in the Jozani Forest as you have scheduled, but we need to do that tomorrow. Can we please arrange that? I talked to the Globus main office about these changes months ago, but they told me I’d need to work with you directly once I got here.” Said was most agreeable and kind, as I kept apologizing for his troubles. We agreed on 9 AM tomorrow for Rick to do the Walking Tour of the City, with the driver getting me to one of the places I wanted to visit, the Zanzibar Coffee House. Then lunch, and an afternoon tour of a spice farm, which would take us farther inland on the island. We said our farewells, “Until tomorrow, then.”

Rick was still sitting on the porch when I returned. “A whole day of nothing planned!” I said. “For the first time in sixteen days, we can do just what we want to do, when we want to do it. And that includes doing nothing.” “Sounds like a plan to me!” he replied. Here’s what we did.

Watched the boats go by.
Watched the tide go out.
Watched people walking on the beach.
Watched people pretending to swim in the ocean.
Watched the tide come in.
Wandered around our pool.
Wandered the hotel grounds.
Ate lunch in the Baharia Restaurant with open-air windows overlooking the beach.
Took pictures of the flowers.
Took pictures of the people. (And yes, the gal in the scruffy jeans shorts is the one in the teeny-weeny bikini, surprise!)

It’s hard to do ABSOLUTELY nothing. As our gang-mate Ed said often, while we were on safari, “There’s always something to look at.” Even when you hit the pause button.