Days of sun and braais

Well it is approaching sunset here (15:30),while I sit staring aimlessly at my computer screen, Liz is upstairs in bed with 'flu' (cold really, but does not sound as dramatic), I bet he only gets a quarter of the bed too. I am reminded of one of our many meals that we had at our friends open air restaurant on the beach side in Langebaan. The view out over the bay was magnificent with a few large round bald rocks just below before the sea started to rush in on the small pebbly beaches, if you could call them that, they were really small, the hill covered in fynbos , small bushed ( scrub to the rest of the world). We would sit there quietly sipping an ice cold beer, or a glass of dry white wine, contemplating the thought of a few fresh garlic mussels or a lovely piece of braaied snoek. There was also the chance of a Hottentot fish and maybe even some wors if we were really lucky. The cook fires in the centre of the restaurant had burnt down to coals and the chef had put on the fish to cook, gently basting it with lemon butter. The whole floor area was covered in fine white beach sand, it was open air after all and by the sea! The only shade was provide by some old netting strung up between poles, above some crudely made tables, running along the leading edge of the restaurant area overlooking the sea. The tables were in a semi circle at the front and a few tables at the rear of the restaurant. The view was of small yachts and the odd motor boat zipping around the bay, with the distant sight of an oil tanker or fishing boat on the horizon, heading into or out of Saldanha, it was the largest natural harbour in the area. The seagulls flying, almost suspended above us, into the wind in the clear blue sky. There is a plate with some home made bread and a knob of butter to chew on between courses. The snoek was delicious with just the lemon butter, but Liz would put a glob of smooth apricot jam on it, mm mm. This was one fish that she liked to eat like this as there are not too many bones and you can't miss them, they are like giant tooth picks, wouldn't like to get one of those stuck in my throat. It was really hot and dry, no sign of rain, pass the beer, ah those glory days! The customers are all gone so we can relax with our friends and Liz gets another beer glass full of ice with red wine for Janet, and a bitterly cold Castle for Andrew, I try to get her to put in less ice more wine, what the hell we are on holiday , but Janet is not having it. I lend a hand clearing away some of the debris and then we go and sit down on the seats, made of old railway sleepers, again to have another sip of lager, it truly is a nectar on a warm day. Most of the days seemed to be warm and dry, ah why ever did we leave! Paradise does also have its problems and tax men though.
Well, I'll leave with those thoughts and think about supper, cup o' soup, or a frozen pizza (sigh!) no mussels or snoek here, too damp and cold to braai.

Christmas weather

Well Saturday morning was a little frosty and I had to get a new pump for the fish pond. Once the car was defrosted we went to Crowland to a garden centre to get the new pump. When we arrived at the centre it was very quiet and looked as though it was having a closing down sale, such was the devastation after the Christmas eve rush. We reached a decision on which pump to buy and gapped it for home. The pond had defrosted slightly so that I wasn't putting my hands into a block of ice, although it still felt pretty chilly and it must have taken my hands at least an hour to defrost! I was quite surprised to find that my hands' natural colour was a paler pink rather than red and blue! The fish seem happier now that the water is moving again, although I think they should have a heater for next year, poor things, only fish in the freezer should be that cold.
It is Sunday and I had to cremate some breakfast(pictured) for Liz. I was unable to post a picture of fish on a braai like some of our friends, just some 'blackened' pudding! Still a little chilly outside and I will no doubt have to go to work tomorrow in the ice.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year

Christmas 2008

Well that is Christmas over. Liz and I spent a relatively quiet Christmas day at home. Matt and Louise and Philip, Amy and the new arrival Harry, were around to see us on Christmas eve, so we had a full house. Liz fed them all excluding Harry of course. Christmas day started quietly although Liz was bouncing about on the bed at six thirty, bursting to get up, so we did (sigh!), later she put her little prayer mat in the car and rushed off somewhere religieous at 9am. She was back at 10:30 and we had some pudding, made of pigs blood, and a few slices off the pigs belly and smoked ( from Germany, for those who are really interested, Adi). I threw in a couple of unborn chickens and voila, ( sorry for the French) breakfast was served. After that magnificent repast we did not want to move, but we did. We were off to see the old dragon and Lindsay at midday for a Christmas meal. We went round and spent a few hours with them and mother even dragged out some old 'Rhodesia Herald' newspapers from May 1978, detailing the attack on the Montclair,when I was shot. It made thrilling reading and I may post a copy on this blog, or I may not, wait and see. The old dragon gave me one of those fluffy hats with ear flaps, which I put on and everyone just collapsed to the floor in helpless heaps for some reason, mother was unable to stand upright for at least ten minutes! (ha ha!)

Catriona's 'Kung flu' and Christmas

We went to watch Catriona attain a new belt in her 'kung flu' class in Huntingdon on Sunday.Ok, so it was actualy Tang soo do, or something, anyway we watched her kick the hell out of a board and the six guys holding it. I though, mistakenly it would appear, that when your kids got older you didn't have to go to their school do's any more, that would appear to be a big mistake on my part, a parent's duties neeevvvveeer end! It was quite intersting as there were people of all size there from two foot to over six foot tall, most kicking the hell out of each other, or at least simulating it.There were a couple of little chaps of about two foot tall who were having a real go at each other at one stage, boy were they keen!

Christmas is rapidly approaching and Liz has erected one of our trees in the lounge, which is now pretty full. The tree is a five foot one and is covered in sufficient decorations for a ten foot one, you know what LIz is like! We have decided that this year the alien space ships will have to find their own way to earth, as we are not putting lights in the garden. Liz has developed a new craze, candle power decorations, the fire department is on standby. We have a whole row of little houses lit by candles on the window ledge.

News update Oct/Nov '08

Well, I see its ages since I last put anything on this blog, so here goes....
July was a busy time for us, with the organisation of Louise and Matt's wedding. Louise got married on the 26th, possibly the only dry weekend of the summer. We had the reception in the back garden as you may have seen from our pictures. Mum and Dad did the catering, with a little help from friends. I braaied boerewors, chicken and burgers, not a pork sausage in sight and, of course, made some sadza. The 'locals' enjoyed that and couldn't get enough sadza. Louise and Matt went off for their honeymoon at about six and then it was party time, Liz's brother, Michael, got out his accordion and we partied into the night. Louise was upset when she saw the pictures and wished she had stayed, tough.The whole thing went extremely well and did not cost a fortune, Louise said she wanted a recycle wedding, the tables only cost a pound at the auctions and the cutlery and crockery was also extremely cheap, we even got glasses, the most expensive item was, not Louise's dress, but the stainless steel braai, even that was reasonably priced. Friends of Liz's, from the church, lent us a nice big marquee that covered nearly the whole garden. Liz made the wedding cake, fruit for the older generation, in spite of Louise and Matt's objections and a chocolate cake for Matt, they were excellent. Louise and Matt had great fun cutting the cake, it seems the icing was almost an inch thick!
Autumn, or is it winter, has arrived and all the leaves are falling. Robyn has now started at an Oxford Uni, she is doing a course in hospitality, which we had advised against, but she is headstrong. She has managed to arrange her own student loan etc, phew! She seems to be coping well and we have actually seen her a few times, so far. Louise and Matt have continued their globe trotting with a weekend trip to Cyprus. They enjoyed it, but should have had a car to explore the countryside.
I have started a job as a petrol jockey at the local Co-op garage and ride in on my push bike to work in the mornings, very healthy! This is ok on a 'normal' morning but very exhausting for an old man on windy days, the ride can sometimes double to four miles. The location of the station is saving us a fortune in fuel costs! I start at 0630 in the morning, so at this time of year it is very dark, but I do have a very high viz coat that is not 'breathable', so I perspire quite a lot, hopefully this will result in weight loss, although there seem to be no signs of that at the moment. The going was a bit hectic to start, but is getting easier. I must admit when I do the evening shift I cheat and take the car, which we seem to fill up only once a month.
Liz did her usual thing for Halloween and dressed up as a witch, (not much make-up required). She got Catriona out of bed at five in the morning to draw a spider and web on her cheek. We went to a party on the Saturday night following halloween and were treated to some fireworks, before the heavens opened, god bless England! Liz did invite everyone to our mansion to continue the firworks a fortnight later, damned Baileys, but it wasn't neccessary, again a sigh of relief, as most of the garden has trees in it.
We went to a SA braai in October and met quite a few South African and Rhodesian people, we had a great time and so did anyone sitting near us, Liz was force feeding a cream liqueur drink down a few people's throats, something she is good at, and by eleven, when we were ready to leave, everyone was quite merry. The do was attended by about 100 people and there were even a few that we knew, most were Afrikaans speaking and were quite impressed with Liz's ability to speak and understand it considering her weak grasp of English. It was nice to have braaied boerewors and sosaties and mealie bread. We even bought a packet of tomato Fritos, talk about nostalgia. There was some, very energetic, long arm dancing, but we opted for the slower versions. The braai was held on a plaas outside St Ives, we are looking forward to the next one. The party was held in a huge barn and had a very SA feel to it, we felt as though we were back in Saldanha.
We took a little weekend trip to Edinburgh on the 6th November to see Liz's brother Michael and partner Sophie, much alcohol was consumed and a great time was had by all. The streets of Edinburgh are being dug up at the moment for trams, so it was great fun driving around. We went to a 90th birthday on the Friday night, the old boy didn't look a day over sixty, these Scotts men! On Saturday night we went to watch Michael beat the hell out of his drums at the local pub, and he even got Liz to sing a couple of numbers, for those in the know that was quite a feat. She went down quite well, I think everyone was anaesthetised, although a couple of folks realy enjoyed her performance.
My mother decided to go to SA for a three week sun break, this has whet our appetite, so maybe next year......
Philip and Amy are now the parents of a son and have decided that we may talk to them. Liz has rushed around there a few time and the child is expecting her to buy him a new sports car any day now, and he isn't even crawling yet (sigh!)

May Holidays

Liz and I went, with Louise and Mat, to look at braais for the wedding at a shop on the A17 near Holbeach. We found our way there without a satnav! On the way we were stopped near Doddington by a small family of stoats crossing the road. Most of the cars on the road stopped for them, only some lunatics went careering on! There were some people who got out of their cars to 'usher' them across the road. They are long and low slung, and about the size of a small rat, the dachsund of the rat family, they semed quite myopic and didn't seem to notice the cars until they were almost on top of them. I was unable to get pictures as it was all over too quickly. They looked quite cute with their little white faces and round ears. This was quite an exciting start to the day and gave us all something to think about. Liz got Mat and Louise clearing up the area around the pond for the wedding at the end of July. We were able to braai twice on Saturday, but none since, although even they were diffcult with a force 9 gale force wind blowing!

We are experiencing another 'holiday' weekend, Saturday was fine, but the rest of the weekend has been wet, windy and cold, the central heating keeps kicking in because of the cold. All we can hear in the house is the radio and the gentle snoring of the cats, thank goodness for double glazing. We did manage to squeeze in two braaing sessions on Saturday, so all was not lost. A new stainless steel braai has been ordered in readyness for Louise and Mat's wedding, and when it arrives it will need a lot of testing.

Robyn and Martin arrived back from their trip to darkest Africa, not enough time to travel to Jo'burg, they will have to make another trip. Martin now has a taste for Africa and is dying to return. Robyn did not want to come home, as I found out during one call from her while she was away.They had a great time while staying with Andrew and Janet in Saldanha.

The weather has been quite balmy the last couple of weekends. I have been to a few boot sales recently. I went to one in Huntingdon and did quite well, although at one stage I was eyeing someone selling anti-depressants. I won a raffle they had there, the prize was £35, so the depression disappeared. Last Saturday I found a boot sale in St Ives, so Liz and I went along, just after seven in the morning. We got a nice shady spot on the field where it was and did a nice little trade, we cleared over £50, so were quite happy, having spent a constructive Saturday. I went to the boot sale in Huntingdon on Sunday and when I got home Liz told me we had to go and see Brenda in Aldwincle, she had her eleven week old grandson there, so much for a few beers and a nice braai, what is it about women and babies? We finally got home at about eight, and boy did that beer taste great! Who knows what next weekend will bring, an auction for one thing, but what next?

Robyn is now in SA, we know, she phoned us on Friday night to ask for directions, talk about ET! She must have found her way, because there were no headlines in the SA press about lost Brit tourists. The pond has finally been completed, after umpteen years. The fish are all in their new home and undergoing intensive training. They have to learn to come when people get near their home, and not duck under the lilies, it gets pretty crowded under them, at times, and the pond looks empty, talk about skittish. The cats now have a bit more of a challenge seeing them and their paws are not long enough to catch them. Mat and Louise have erected and arch, for the wedding, in the garden and Liz has moved some clematis under it, so hopefully it will be a riot of flowers in time for the wedding. There should be pictures of all this lot on the ‘picasa’ site by the time people read this.

Ramblings of the minds

Just a small tale for those interested:-

There is a law in this country that if you run over an animal you are not allowed to pick it up to eat, but the vehicle behind is allowed to do so! Bearing this in mind, the old dragon was able to get a duck off the side of the road the other day. The creature was, of course, not to badly damaged, although it would never be able to ‘quack’ again. We had a lengthy discussion, some days later, about how duck can be tough if it was stressed when it was killed! A duck hit from behind whilst walking on the road should be quite nice and tender, no stress. Why were the ducks we had as children not tough then? The sight of a big calloused foot coming down on our neck and the hand around the throat must have been quite stressful for the ducks ( 'qwaaackgh') It was suggested that if they were hung they would be much more tender. This brings visions of blindfolded ducks being urged up to the gallows, blindfolded, with a pointed stick. ‘Thunk qwaaaargh!’

A couple of weeks ago we went to a garage sale at Brenda and Francis' house in Aldwincle . Then last Saturday we went to a boot sale in Brigstock, Northamptonshire . That was quite entertaining and quite a large sale. The sale was on a Saturday, and Brenda was not quite sure about the timings., they turned out to be 06:30 to 12 noon, so quite early then. Brenda was a little shocked when we said we would meet at their house at 07:00, she used a rude word! We did make it to the boot sale just after seven and were about the fiftieth car there, quite a good sign considering the overcast and cool weather. We did a steady business, selling mainly books, although I think jackets and scarves would have done better, it got progressively cooler as the day went on, so much for global warming. The village was quite picturesque and the sale was on the local cricket field. The 'do' was quite well attended so we had no chance of being bored. We were parked behind an old boy from Corby, who originally came from Bo'ness in Scotland about three miles from Linlithgow, so we had a quiz on the pubs etc from Linlithgow which helped fill the time. Brenda eventually arrived at about 08:30 and brought us a few of her things to sell. After the boot sale we went to Brenda's house for lunch and that was the weekend taken care of. Sunday rained all day, so that was a write off.

It has been a bit quiet recently with my contract expiring at the end of March. I have done a few odd jobs around the house and garden. I have now completed the outer shell of the pond I have been building.This should have made Louise happy as it now means there is now a bit more neatness to the garden. I will be testing the pond liner this weekend, once the cement has had a chance to set, or is it dry? The cats seem to be fascinated by it, although I feel they may be disappointed when it gets filled with water.The weather warmed up a bit this week, so I turned off the heating for the season, ha, I had to turn it on again today. The cats were having a look at the fish in the old pond and I noticed the fluffy one leap backwards into the air, as they do, so one of our vicious fish must have 'charged' her. Sooty, the black one,'rushed to help her fight off the vicious attack. You will notice, of course, that she is sneaking up from behind a huge plant pot.

Louise is starting to get warmed up for her wedding she says she is starting to feel like a ' bridezilla' we are having a quiet wedding reception and braai for a few family and friends, not a huge wedding at all, about 30 people. We will be catering here at home in our own back garden. She has told me to buy a new braai for the occasion. We shall, no doubt, be braaing lots of boerewors and maybe even a few lamb chops. The wedding will be on the 26th July, we hope this summer is better than last year, not too much rain. She and Mat are planning to honeymoon in the USA, Mat wanted to hire a Mustang for a trip across the country. Louise and Mat took us someplace on the A1 to look at gazebos, somewhere near Scotland it seemed, although it was just outside Birmingham, it did feel like a long way. The place was selling 'antique' furniture, including a 'genuine antique ' wooden wine case for a mere £12,50! I think we must be doing something wrong, just think what we could get for an old Chateau Libertas case. We went slightly astray on the way home and missed our turning, so as I said to Liz we got lost fast, as all the traffic on the dual carriage way around us was doing a steady 70mph, oh well. We did manage to get home ok, via Leicester. Liz is on a diet to lose weight for this event.

Robyn has got other things on her mind, as usual. She is heading for SA on the 8th May, so can't think about anything else. She has borrowed one of our books on Afrikaans and set her current amour the task of learning it all on the flight over, what a clever guy. I gather they have paid deposit for a Corsa while they are there. They have only got seventeen days over there, so everything will be a little rushed. Robyn is hoping to go to Brooks university in Oxford to do a hospitality course, in spite of advice to the contrary, hopefully with assistance from the government.

Ah well another rainy day outside