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!)
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!)
