Autumnal rambling

Not a lot happening, just rambling on. Winter is on it's way, yesterday it was 5⁰ C all day,chilly, and grey and overcast, the same today. It was raining, or trying I should say, when I had to cycle to work at five thirty, why can't Liz use the bike sometimes? It is now dark just after four in the afternoon, so I ride to work in high viz gear and flashing lights everywhere, except on top of my head, although that might be a good idea too. I managed to overtake six cars on my bike, boy was I knackered after all that effort, and excited, I was nearly at work when they all flashed past me, they must have cleared the road quite quickly! I 'hoovered' the lawn this weekend, well I think it was called mowing, but it involved the recovery of a lot of leaves, the lawn looks quite good at the moment and hopefully that will be the last cut until May next year, unless the dandelions get too leggy again. The roads are getting really dirty around here so I am probably going to have to wash the bike. Liz had a large awning given to her by a 'friend' from work, no 'friend' of mine, grrr. “Miles will put that up in no time”, she told her, ha ha. The weather might be suitable next year some time, I have put it in the garage for safekeeping, along with everything else, probably wont be able to locate it, with a bit of luck. That huge cupboard I put up in the bathroom is now full and the girls are still buying make-up and hair care products, I don't understand it, I have only one bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap, oh and underarm 'stuff', and the three foot square, one foot deep cupboard is not enough, perhaps if I put my bits on top there will be enough room? I have found out that our cats are not that fond of frozen prawns, you would think they would suck them up and keep them in their mouth until they are defrosted, but, no, they want the useless human who gave it to them to defrost it, well tough it isn't going to happen, so suck it up! We knew it was cold the other day when the cats got into bed with us for our afternoon nap, these cats need some serious psychiatric help, or is it us that need the help? Liz and Catriona found where I had hidden the left over chocolates and scoffed most of them before I saw them, the remaining three or four chocolates and twenty or so suckers are now secreted safely, I hope. They were both comatose on settees and chairs, surrounded by ripped chocolate wrappers, in Liz' case snoring, but in both cases full to the brim with chocolates, the chocolate dribbling down their chins, that's the last time I leave chocolates in such a vulnerable place, I shall have to get a lockable place for them.

Ramblings

Well, quite a week at work. We have had a few women related problems from customers at the filling statation this week and an organ recital with the 'old dragon'.

On Sunday morning the old dragon phoned to see if we would like to go to an organ recital at the Peterborough college, apparently she couldn't find it the last time. We toddled off to the show with her, and found the venue OK, parking was not a problem, as all the other folks were fighting over the disabled parking spaces! We had a whole car park to choose from, what a treat, we were also the youngest attending, with the average age appearing to be around eighty. The recital was a Wurlitzer organ recital with the organist rising out of a whole in the floor of the stage. There was an old upright piano, that had been painted white, that was synchronised to the organ. The event was entertaining and we even had tea, out of polystyrene cups and biscuits at half time, what a way to spend a wet dreary Sunday afternoon.

We have had a couple of interesting female customers at the garage this week. A lady, in a flashy Mercedes convertible spent an inordinate amount of time on £1.09 on the pump, before she went on, I was a bit concerned that possibly the pump had broken down, when she came into the kiosk I found out what the 'problem' was. “ Did you know that when you put in a litre of fuel your pump registers £1,09, it is the same at Sainsburys?” , well I was flabergasted, the fuel price is £1,08.9per litre. I have now had time to mull over this comment and feel I should have suggested she tried some Marmite for her PMT, as it is full of vitamin B or something, that reduces stress. That was our first interesting customer, the next was a little old lady, who asked if we could get someone to fill up her car for her as her late husband used to do it, I organised it for her, she confided in me that her fuel gauge was faulty as it said the car was full, she was going to the garage afterwards to get it fixed. The car was refuelled, it took a whole three litres! I said to the old lady that I felt she could believe the fuel gauge in future and it would not be necessary for her to go to the garage, I am not sure she believed me. That should give folks a bit to think about 'til the next time.

Robyn in Oxford

Well that's another week, or so, gone. On the 8th October we went off to Oxford to see our youngest offspring. I decided to go via Milton Keynes, as it looked 'down' on the maps and going via Northampton felt like we were going 'up'. The Milton Keynes route took hours because a stretch of the A1 was closed from Huntingdon to St Neots, nearly all the motorway! The road past Milton Keynes was a bit slow with roadworks most of the way and a 40mph speed limit, if you could go that fast. The trip to Oxford took about three hours and we took a bit of a circuitous route to Robyn's residence. We were able to find the road etc quite well and didn't have too much of a problem locating her house. Robyn was delighted to see us and Martin, her boyfriend, was also there, he seemed happy too. We went for a little tour of Oxford, parked in a pay and display car park in Cowling and walked from there, we needed the loo, old people, so had to go in to a bar and have some coffee in order to enjoy their facilities. The coffee appeared to be a bit of a challenge to the barman, in spite of the really fancy espresso coffee machine behind the bar, we were almost tempted to send Robyn in to help, but he managed to find a qualified coffee person and we all enjoyed a very nice coffee and 'break', the people in the bar were Italian and seemed to speak very little English, they did not understand Shona or Afrikaans either! Oxford seemed to be suffering the usual roadwork upheaval, thank god we walked. The streets were busy with pedestrians and loads of cyclists, even people in formal wear or smartly dressed young ladies in high heals in bikes, a sight I haven't seen before, even in Africa. There were bikes chained to railings etc and some appeared to have been there for quite a while. Oxford was very picturesque, in spite of all the traffic, and we both enjoyed our little stroll, Liz even managed to find some charity shops to browse whilst Robyn and Martin stood outside smouldering, (smoking?). Martin made a few interesting observations, as you can see from the picture above. There were some South African influences in Oxford as well.We eventually returned to base and Liz cooked up the beef roast that Robyn had bought for us to have. Three of Robyn's room mates appeared out of the woodwork and dinner for four was dinner for seven, every one enjoyed the roast beef and lovely 'home made' Yorkshire pudding from a supermarket. Apparently the girls wanted to know when we would be back. We slept on an inflatable mattress that Liz brought along, however next time I shall opt for the floor. The mattress deflated slowly during the night, which meant that when Liz got up, for the loo in the night and came back, she launched me in the air as she got back into bed, I nearly hit the ceiling, so I just rolled onto the floor and was more comfortable there, god knows what a water bed would have been like. The next day Liz and a couple of the girls went to the church that Robyn could not find. Robyn was given the task of locating a church for Liz which she battled with, until she found out that it was almost directly across the road from her house! We left on a damp morning and returned to Forty Foot via Northampton, it only took two hours.

Halloween

Well what a party! Liz once again decided to celebrate Halloween at home, under the stars, she likes to personally greet the little trick or treaters. Liz dressed up in the gear that she wore to scare the customers at her work on Friday. She took the usual time to apply makeup and looked no different to usual to my untrained eye, judge for yourself. They let her out of the shop and she came across and 'scared ' a few of our customers at the garage, then went to the local nursry school, over the road, they were delighted and enjoyed the basket of sweeties she took along.The turnout, of trick or treaters, was a little disappointing this year, with only a few turning up, we had loads of sweets left over, I have hidden them to ration folks, otherwise they might lead to tooth decay and other horrible disease, well you never know. We had a great braai, with boerewors, hamburger patties and sadza (mealie meal). Liz did make some mashed potatoes, for those who did not like sadza, we had the mash fried for breakfast, no sadza left, however, I'll need a larger pot next time. We had a fire on the Weber fireplace, it was a smouldering success, but the smoke was not so good, Melly and Melvin brought us some wood and coal for the fire, we even had a few fireworks, left over from a wet Guy Fawkes last year. The coal was some smokeful coal for the fire as well, this was not such a welcome addition to the fire, it was some that Melly had bought on their trip to Wales, they could not understand why the people seemed so happy when they bought it, we all know why now, our streaming eyes did eventually clear up. I think the picture gives a good idea of the smoke scream. We had a little drink fountain going as well, with white wine OJ and grenadine to keep the theme of the evening. Liz got dressed for the occasion, I think it was hard to tell, so did the others, I didn't, I was braaing and did not want to ruin anything. Louise an Matt joined us along with Catriona and her current companion. Philip and Amy pitched up with a little 'pumpkin', Liz' grandson Harry. Harry is now nearly one year old and seems a delightful little chap, he enjoyed a marshmallow, which melted in his hot little hand, but not the ones cooked over the fire by his dad. The evening was dry, but a little chilly and the moon was wreathed in a fog of cloud “oooooh scarry!”. We all enjoyed some of Liz's meringues and cream and a few Kahlua coffees, what a way to go.

Saturday 19th September

Louise and Matt invited Liz to join them on trip to Woburn Safari Park on Friday, she agreed, then Louise,after some thought, invited me to join them on Saturday instead. This invitation was made with an ulterior motive, we would use my car, obviously Louise had visions of monkeys swinging from their car's wing mirrors, dad's car was a better option, no family feeling there then, hah, hah! We used our car and Louise brought their satnav, as there were road works and the A1 was closed. We had to use the back roads through to St Neots, then back on to the A1. Liz kept noticing apples on trees alongside the road near St Neots, nobody else saw them, once Liz put her glasses on she no longer saw them either, shame, because she said the were quite large. We did use it a couple of times, although it was confused when we appeared to drive on non existent roads "at the roundabout take the thecond exit", the wretched machine had a lisp! We had to turn it off as the lisp was a bit off putting. Having made it to Woburn Safari park, without too much help from the lisping satnav we started to enjoy the game, there were a few gemsbok and eland in the first area, with a couple of Rhinos lying down some distance from the road, we got to see them a bit closer later. There was some sort of longhorn bull that everyone was queuing up in their cars to see,I think it was there to act as a calming influence for the Rhinos. We went through the black bear area and tiger enclosure to the vast lion enclosure. The lions were mostly just lying around, as big cats do although there was one, on a platform that took a bit of interest in the cars and you could see her mentally licking her lips, we got a few pictures and left the area for more tranquil surroundings. There was a large picnic area and various arenas in the centre of the park, we went of to see the lemurs feeding as this was what Louise was desperate to see, the went and watched the squirrel monkeys, they were desperate to get to the visitors, but the keepers had water in squirt containers to chase them away with, they are naturally very active and curious and thought this was a great game. We took a drive through the monkey enclosure on the way out, but they did not leap on our car, it was, no doubt, too old not modern enough for today's more discerning primate, they wouldn't want to be seen dead on it! The trip back to Forty Foot was quite quick and uneventful.

The anniversary etc

Well the anniversary has been and gone, 50 years, er 30 years, whoops! The weather gods were kind to us, no rain, everything went swimmingly braaied wors and hamburger patties and the obligatory chicken with the sadza side dish for veg. The idea was that Liz would not do a lot, but that did not work. We even had a chocolate fountain for those who desperately wanted a chocolate fix, but the most popular feature was a "cocktail fountain" that some kind peson gave as an anniversary present. We had difficulty getting some guests to move away from it until they had drunk it dry and tested the lowest levels at which it would still function. I can see that this fountain will be a regular feature of any more parties that we have. Michael brought his squeeze box, so we had a little impromptu singing, there were a few religious dities thrown in, but they soon passed and we did the "cornetto" song, known as Santa Lucia, to which I was able to ad-lib a few words, some folks thought the alcohol had got to me, but Liz knew better, no swearing of undying love from me, real men just don't do that except when they are in their cups.
Liz is now much better and almost fully back on form, after her operation, but there will now be no more brothers and sisters for Catriona! We went to the auctions yesterday, and bought very little, a few pots, which I am thinking of tying to my bike, it should create an interesting image. There was one old chap who bought about four boxes of "miscellaneous household goods", (more pots and pans and glass things) for a pound, just for some loose tea, he was travelling home by bus and the boxes were about the size of banana boxes, so I offered to take the rest and see that it was disposed of, gulp. We managed to get everything in the car, just. We drove off to Asda, clinking and rattling, to do the shopping, I managed to leave some room, but we will have to eat a bit sparingly this week, I hope we don't die of hunger. We met our friend Brenda at the auction and she gave me the coffee sachets, for my Senseo coffee machine I had bought at an auction, that I had asked her to get for me in France. I now have enough coffee to see me through the next year, at least, no more instant for me for quite a while, I wonder if Asda will take back the 100gram jar I bought last week? Liz had a wonderful time sorting through our £3 purchase from the auctions, we now have a lovely new set of stainless steel pots and the charity shop has a lovely old set of stainless steel pots and glass trinkets. We also got a new mini stereo system with turntable in the boxes, Liz has spirited that away to her music room where we have a few vinyl and concrete discs, oh the sounds of those wonderful scratchy Amanda Lear and Donovan records will be echoing around the house again, perhaps.

Developments for August

Cat has bought herself a second hand Toyota Celica, that's got the Mazda story out of the way, at least. She is delighted with it and has even taken Robyn to Oxford in it to move her possessions into storage, any excuse to drive it. The car is a silver one and is not the new angular shape, but the rounder old shape, it looks quite good.

I strolled into the kitchen to do the dishes, (Liz makes me do them!), and was happily pottering around when, glancing at the cats' bowl on the floor I noticed that a broom head had fallen into it, I thought this was strange as we don't have a broom! The bristles moved and my mind took a mighty leap and assumed that we had a hedge hog in the cat bowl. We thought it was dead, at first, as it hardly twitched, Liz thought it had stuck to the molasses that she put in there with the cat food, in case Soolie ate any, this apparently helps her with the fur balls, the hedge hog would not have a hair ball problem any more. I picked up the bowl and placed it outside so that the animal could return to its home, under our shed. Liz placed a bowl with some bolognaise in it next to the hedge hog, for which the cat was grateful, as she dived in to it and had to be shoved to one side. The cat did not understand all the excitement as she sees the hedge hog quite often and is not all that interested in it, humans are weird. The hedge hog, Cyril, we think, slowly got out of the cat bowl and attempted to fade away under the shed without us seeing him or realising he was gone, hah, he got a little stuck trying to ease his way through some tines on the fork leaning against the wall, too much cat food and molasses!

Michael arrived at about nine on Thursday night from Scotland, so we had a wee impromptu perty, work was a bit hectic and the alarm rang early at five, still the Brazilian Brahma lager was more than drinkable and made an ideal nightcap.

I will place pictures here soon, watch this space. Off to work again.

6th August

Well the weather has not improved much, loads of rain, so much that the animals are starting to leave the bush and heading for the drier roads! On Friday night I hit a muntjac, which made a mess of my plastic car bumper, what ever happened to the old chrome plated ones we used to have on cars? Luckily the damage was confined to the bumper and none of the rest of the car's bodywork was damaged. The lawnmower has also given up the ghost as well, but the grass is still growing, damn! I took Liz for a check up after her operation and she has been given the all clear to return to work from Monday. This is a bit of a relief, as she was getting bored and brown, she still has to be cautious with heavy lifting etc. We have an auction to go to this weekend, so hopefully there will be a lawnmower there, or something else we would not be able to live without.

We will have been married for thirty years on the 22^nd and Liz is planning on a “perty”, we have yet another gazebo, this one looks substantial, so maybe we will be able to braai under it even if it rains. Catriona reckons she wants to buy a Mazda M5 for about £600 in perfect working condition, we have told her to up her meds, she will more than likely get one in good condition for £6000.

Party time

It was party time at the old home last Saturday, although the weather was looking a little dubious on the Friday. There was lightning and bucketing rain galore, it felt as though we were back in Salisbury. The front lawn was flooded for a while, and it is on a slope, and there were people knocking boats together quickly and I am sure I saw someone with several pair of animals, all very worrying. I even went to work by car, although a motor launch was looking increasingly like a viable option. Saturday dawned as a typical grey and overcast day, so it looked as though the party was on. There were no ambitious plans, in view of Liz's recent operation. The plan was strictly limited to lots of booze and food, that is several pints of cider and gallons of lager. I braaied hamburgers, chicken, sausages and some boerewors that was hiding in the deep freeze. Liz made a sauce and I knocked up some sadza ( miellie pap, or maize meal) for our friends (victims), this is now expected at any of our braais and some of our pals are now actually contemplating buying some Iwiza No 1 for their own larders, we'll convert them yet. We did braai some Norfolk chicken, a local product, once it was done it was basted with some of Liz's home-made marinade, so that it wasn't too burnt, marinades tend to blacken the meat, Liz likes it black though, so I have to make sure at least one piece is really black just for her, everyone else wants normal burnt meat, that is quite easy. The sadza making is now attracting an audience and soon I'll have to autograph the stirring stick for people, perhaps I should trademark the process, ha ha, I think everyone was starving , as it was about eight o'clock. I may have to try the traditional African method of a bowl of water, for the hands, the sadza and a bowl with gravy for dipping, mm-mm, there's an idea, maybe next time, to hell with fondue dinners, sadza dinners here we come! We also had a few bags of tortilla chips and a dip to nibble on while people waited to eat. The folks started to pitch up at about four-ish, the party soon got under way, I had a few beers left over from Louise and Matt's wedding, anniversary beer, Boddington's, I am not too fond of it, but someone drank it and suffered no ill effects, so not too bad then. One of the guests was a three year old who tried to feed the fish a glass of drink, she also got to feed them properly and they came up with a lot of splashing to the surface and made her a little wet. Some of our guests did the dishes, something that has been my job for the last few weeks, so I was really grateful.

The cat flap was broken and needed to be replaced, another little job I had put off a few days, why don't cats learn to open doors like everyone else? I finally got round to it last week, Liz was impressed, the cats weren't! One was trapped outside for hours, and when a human finally opened the door, she bolted in and we found her bolted to the bed. The cats were very wary of the new flap, they knew it would attack them as the went through it. Even Liz was convinced it was smaller than the old one and the cats would get stuck, hah, well they didn't and now they come and go as usual, another crisis overcome.

July 09

Liz is well on the way to recovery, thank goodness, I am getting tired of cooking, how does she do it? Liz still has both her legs, so the op was ok then. She had to go for a scan and was a little worried she may have liver cancer or similar and would have to give up booze, catastrophe! She went for the scan, no cancer, phew, just a large resident gallstone, she had been building it for some time. Liz now knows the cause of all her indigestion, so bring on the booze and Rennies! She has been going for healthy walks in the afternoon, although recently it has been raining. We have invested in a new mattress and the old one was placed outside, we asked Cat if she could move it in case it got wet, she said “Don’t you want a water bed?”, so much for that.

My pushbike has been making a strange creaking sound, rather like it’s owner, so I had to take it to the “bike doctor”, he had to keep it in for two nights, I asked whether they had a courtesy bike, but they didn’t, so it’s back to the car for a couple of days (sigh). We have a fish with a slight case of fin rot in the pond so I decided to go to a garden centre near Eye in Peterborough to get some muti for it. They seem to be doing some road work in that area, so a three mile stretch of road became ten, winding miles of detour, still it was an outing for the ‘invalid’ and it was a garden centre. We have had a few lovely hot days, but now it is cooling down and there are the odd showers, summer is here, global warming, huh.

Weekend in France

Catriona and I went to France for the weekend, Liz declined as she was still recuperating, so we left her in Louise’s care. We took off from the house at about two thirty and, after long delays on the M25 made it to the harbour in Dover at just after five thirty. Our car was searched by customs at Dover, this was the first time this had happened to me on leaving the UK, nothing was found in the car or under it and we were able to go, we drove straight on to the ferry. Catriona could not contain her excitement, it was her first trip to France. The trip took about an hour and forty minutes and we had to find our way out of Dunkirk and off down the N16 to Boulogne. We found the B & B hotel there to stay at. When we arrived at the hotel it was after 9pm and the gate was closed, someone else went and pressed a button and the gate opened so we drove in to the booking in machine to check up on accommodation, they had a room with two single beds, but for 57 euros, we thought that was a bit dear so decided to try elsewhere. We tried to leave but found the automatic gates closed and a sign saying that in order to get out we had to put our room number! We now had a problem, no room, this meant that we had to get a room, damn, these French are cunning little devils and their hard sell technique was very good! We went back to the machine, and when I checked, found a room for only 46 euros, they had dropped their price even though they had us captive, fools! We booked the room and stayed the night, it was after ten so we just read a book and went to sleep.

The next morning we made good our escape and went to Montreuil-sur-mer. It was market day so we had to park near the church as the main square was full. We wandered around the market and bought some lovely cherries and a few apricots, we also bought a cooked chicken from a stall holder, there were live chickens, ducks and goslings, but we thought the cooked one a better option. We bought a sliced bloomer and some fizzy water and went and enjoyed a bit of a buffet lunch in the car at Etaples near Le Touquet. The lunch was very good and we did not even have to add the salt we had bought to the chicken as it was quite well spiced, the French don’t care if we ‘ave a ‘eart attack while eating their food, bless them. We drove off to Merlimont to walk on the beach a little, it was a lovely day, and the folks were out with their chiens and enfants all over. The lifeguards on the beach had quad bikes to get around as they had a large area to cover. There was a lovely al fresco restaurant there, but we had already had our magnificent meal of rotisserie chicken.

We went and had a couple of ice cream deserts at Macdonalds in Cucq, I don’t know how the French pronounce that, but they must have quite a sense of humour, it is also the place to go for a loo break, as the toilets are of an international standard and not the hole in the ground type. We went back to Montreuil-sur-mer and found a hotel to book in to. The reception person took us to a room with a double bed, gasp, we declined, so he found one with two singles, better. We went out and had a couple of pizza type dishes at an open air restaurant on the market square, washed down with a couple of Leffe beers. We retired to our beds a little worn out only to be woken at four in the morning by four young French men dancing on a temporary stage and making a hell of a noise, they were trying to wake up the whole town, this was not enough, however, so they resorted to turning on a throbbing drumbeat CD in their car and playing it full ball while they drove around the square, I don’t know about anybody else in the town, but it certainly woke us up!

Liz goes to hospital

Well for those not in the know, Liz went in for her op on Thursday at 11am, and was still sending me text messages at half past one. Her op was all over by ten that night as she sent me another couple of text messages then. She had a couple of ‘girls’ from work visiting her on Friday, who said she was quite fine and was texting people like mad, in spite of the sign above her head saying cell phones were not allowed, hah, Liz doesn’t read notices, she is too busy. Yesterday, Saturday, was auction day, but I saw nothing we could not live without, so gave it a miss. We went to see Liz in the afternoon, four of us, we met Ria and her daughter there and when we arrived there was S J there as well, two visitors per bed, hah. Ria had even prepared a lovely bowl of flowers for Liz, these were also against the rules, she may contract something terrible from them, flower flu perhaps? We brought the ‘poison’ flowers home with us, whatever happened to the good old days when you could take flowers to cheer up the sick, now you have to wash your hands at the door and swear on a stack of bibles that you don’t know anyone from Mexico, know where it is or even seen a pig sneeze, before you can visited the sick. We finally got through all these obstacles and saw Liz lying on her bed, phone clutched in her hand, finger poised, with the ‘don’t use mobile phone’ sign just above her head. Liz was feeling a little listless and her temperature was up, it is now back to normal, she says in her text this morning! The ward she was in was as hot as hell, she probably had heat fatigue! I have been left in charge and have already had a disagreement with the washing machine, I think I put the soap in the fabric softener slot, so I put some more in another slot, we will probably have ‘frothy’ not ‘fluffy’ clothes, but what the hell it should be interesting. We thank god I can cook, roast duck tonight, egg bacon and black pudding for breakfast, speaking of which I am getting hungry. The blasted sun is shining again today so I am going to have to go to the garage and get out the lawnmower, after hanging up the frothy washing and feeding the fish, talking of which…. The fluffy cat came in with very damp hind quarters the other day, I accused Liz of washing her because she had a dirty behind, it has happened to the cat before, but she vehemently denied it. I went to have a look at the pond and noticed that the surround, at one end was wet, so she must have slipped whilst getting a drink of water from the pond, we put more water in so that she wont have to scrabble too high to get out next time, we don’t want the liner damaged!

South African holiday 2

Well it’s raining here in ‘sunny’ Cambridgeshire, so more on our SA trip…..

When we found our destination at Marloth Park, a private game reserve on the Kruger park border, we were delighted with the five bedroom self catering lodge. The house was one of many in the park which was teaming with warthogiiii, impala and other game. We had to wait for the caretaker to come and open up for us, so we took a look around the house and Matt found an unlocked door, this set off an alarm, so he rapidly closed it, security pitched up five minutes later, so we knew that their response time was good, and we were able to convince them that we had a legitimate reason for being there! The bedrooms all had en suite bathrooms and there was a lovely large kitchen and dining room. There was a gas braai and also and open fire area and braai area next to the house, should we wish to cook outside. There was a lovely pool and Liz was in it as soon as the house was unlocked. Louise thought the warthogs were quite cute and made a lip smacking sound to call one, it came, she left, rapidly, wild animals with huge tusks are not as cuddly as cats apparently. We enjoyed a lovely braai with pork ribs, some wors and rump steak, Matt ate the pork, his training to eat pork coming along nicely. We enjoyed the dinner a few Windhoek beers and a bottle of wine on the veranda in the balmy air, listening to the bark of the impala rams in the distance, what a great time to be in Africa! We were up and off at six the next morning for a quick pre-breakfast drive around the park to see what game was around. We spotted a few warthogs, impala and zebra and more warthogs. We went to the game fence next to the Kruger, but only spotted a few buffalo about a mile away and a couple of impala, again. We returned to the lodge for some lovely egg and bacon rolls cooked by yours truly, they were perfect. We were about to start the cleanup when the housekeeper arrived and said the dishes were her job, we didn’t need telling twice. After breakfast it was in to Triona’s car and off to Kruger via the Crocodile Gate. The route was along a dirt road lined with banana and avocado pear plantations.

Guess where we've been!

Well one look at the picture at the top should give you an idea of one of our destinations. We had a great time during the merry month of May, sunshine all the way and hardly a cloud on the horizon. I would just like to thank all our generous friends and family for the wonderful way they treated us and fed and watered us during our whirlwind tour.

We landed at Jo’burg at 9:15 pm, 0n the 9^th of May for the start of our best holiday ever, and Robyn landed ten minutes later, in spite of her flight leaving five minutes earlier, we had a good tail ‘wind’. Triona picked us up and took us to her house via all the road repairs, preparations for the World cup soccer in 2010. Triona lived just down the road from a huge entertainment Casino complex called Monte Casino, what a joint! There were people everywhere and you could buy almost anything at the traffic lights, mobile phone chargers, shirts sun glasses etc, the new SA has certainly changed and you had to be careful not to knock over these new entrepreneurs. When we got to Triona’s house the chicken were all in bed in the trees, so not a good idea to park under them. Sunday was a fairly relaxed day, although we were taken to see Monte Casino, and the party got a little separated from each other and Liz from some precious Rands. We found it quite illuminating, but were quite glad to get back to the house where we were able to have a braai, a few bits of wors and some steak went on to the braai and Liz went into the pool, in spite of everyone protesting that it was winter, hah, they don’t know what cold is. Monday morning dawned and at about ten-ish we were on our way to the Kruger game reserve. Once we had cleared Jo’burg and Pretoria we had nice open, toll, roads. There seemed to be toll roads everywhere, and loads of traffic. We stopped at Machadadorp for a lunch break and bought our first lot of buttermilk rusks, yet another new taste for Matt. We stopped to take a few pictures along the way and at one place we had to leave in a hurry as a nanny, who was hitch hiking, thought we had stopped to pick her up, but our car was full, she was still running as we went around the next corner in the road, two kilometres away, shame! There seem to be new employment opportunities in South Africa now as they do not have electronic warning signs for road works, the warning is usually given by someone listlessly waving a red flag it must be very exhausting for them!The scenery was certainly very spectacular going down to Kruger. We stopped at Nelspruit to get food and drink supplies for our stay in the self catering house on the border of Kruger. This took a while as we had some tough decisions to make and once again bought pork for the braai, in spite of Matt saying he was not a pork fan. End of part one more to follow…………..

The Mini rally

Mass mini rally, drive through Forty Foot!






The fanciest mini.



The last miniNot a mini, what's that doing here?

Summer and minis

The end of April saw a rally of old minis driving through Forty Foot, and this year I managed to get a few pictures.Summer is here and the birds are singing, and running and hiding! We took a trip to the auctions on Saturday and on the way home I spotted some partridges browsing sedately in a field beside the road, so I decided to stop and take a picture of them. Well, as soon as I got out of the car and the camera started, they were half way to Peterborough, talk about Olympic runners, Liz was hysterical, and I was a little frustrated, but took a couple of long distance pictures anyway little blighters, who knew they could move so fast. The long weekend has been pretty miserable here, weather wise. We got a couple of bargains at the auction and are now the proud owners of his and hers coffee machines, I splashed out and bought a Philips Senseo for £1, spare no expense, when we tried it it worked!

Philip and Amy came round on Saturday with Harry, so Liz was delighted, we had a braai at about sixish, luckily it had a lid so nothing got wet. We have done quite a few braais, but it has been lonely out there, talk about the loneliness of the long distance runner, it’s more like the loneliness of the English braaivleis cooker, with everyone peering (I said peering) at me through the kitchen window, drooling, what a sad bunch!

The days have started to warm up and the ride home from work is much pleasanter although still chilly , the early mornings still require gloves though. Liz had to move Catriona's car this morning, as it was parked behind our car and she needed to get to work, the car alarm went off, this at 05:30 am, the cats shot in through the cat flap and went thundering up the stairs and dived under the bed, they must have thought we were being attacked. The cat's ears were right back and their bellies dragging on the ground with eyes bulging in fear, after a frantic search we found the right keys and disabled the alarm. I gather that none of our neighbours were late for work this morning.

I finally cut the grass on the front lawns and hedge as well, the rest will have to wait until tomorrow as I am working tonight. I had to cut the grass because we lost a cat in it yesterday, and we were quite fond of it, we found it! The back lawn is now done and Liz is so pleased she wants a party, although there is rain forecast for the weekend. There was one black mark against me as I 'strimmed' the bottom of a clematis, damn, I guess I'll have to open my own beers for a bit. We fire up the braai to celebrate and even ate outside, it was quite a pleasant night, Liz knocked up a nice Victoria sponge cake with jam and cream in the centre for dessert. Liz decide it was 'spot on' time for the cats again! The fluffy cat didn't think this was the right decision, but she got done anyway. We sent Catriona in search of Sooty, she was sleeping happily on our bed, but came down when called, who says cats don't come when they are called. I had the job of holding her while Liz put themuti on her head, Sooty was not interested and put up such a fight that I thought her head would pop off, as she tried to back out of my 'death grip' around her neck which seemed to be stretching, if I didn't let her go, so I released her and we had to catch her again. The cats were finally done an they still 'speak' to us. The road to work is now quite picturesque, with everything in bloom. I now get to ride to work in daylight as well and as the weather has warmed up we are feeding the fish once again. The wild life has perked up around here and on one of my trips to work I had to wait for a pair of swans to cross the road, not a bird to argue with when you are on a push bike, they did give me the fluffy eyeball, but carried on anyway.

March,spring!

Well I have had a few days off, go to finish leave before the end of March. It will soon be May and a trip to South Africa. I finished chopping up the two trees we cut down a couple of weeks ago, I managed to get all the small bits into three green bins, and the other bits are chopped up for firewood for a friend of ours, who has a wood fired stove. The garden now looks clearer, so I guess it is almost lawnmower time, argh! The birds were fairly chirruping while I chopped up the trees, so I guess they were a bit fed up with the destruction of their perches. I spent the day going to Cambridge and Saffron Walden, what a lovely day it was too. It as the first time I had actually been in to Cambridge for many years, boy had it changed, I wandered around the city for a bit enjoying the lovely warm weather, along with quite a few other people. I went on to Saffron Walden in the hopes of getting some boerewors from a butcher there, but they had none until Thursday, damn! I went in to one of the butchers in town and found that they could do some for me, I collect it tomorrow and start braaing Friday night. Got the wors, three kgs, it lasted about 5 minutes, it was very good and we braaied it over the weekend and during the week. Liz stood inside and watched, the weather was still a little fresh, overcoats needed whilst braaing.

We went to a couple of auctions during the month and now have a few more items we can't live without, ornaments etc.(sigh!) We went to Asda at Corby after one of these auctions and had the joy of experiencing a fire alarm. The people shopping were not disturbed and didn't even rush for the doors, we moved to the doors and out whilst the locals just moved outside and stood right at the doors, talk about death wish. The fire brigade was pretty quick in arriving and we were soon back in and spending our money, quite a few folks had abandoned their shopping and left the shop all together.

Late winter

Well we have survived the lovely snowy weather, its all gone now and we are starting to get summery weather, cold with rain. This will make my ride into work a little more pleasant. Robyn and Martin went off to Belgium for the Valentine's weekend, and we haven't seen Catriona since Friday, perhaps she has run away from home. Liz has the week of and several tins of paint have arrived in the kitchen, ohh dear. I think she wants to paint the kitchen red or something, because there does seem to be an awful lot of red paint, such an agressive colour, blue would be better, but that is a bit cold for this weather. Liz finished the kitchen and has started baking again, carrot cakes etc, the electricity bill wasn't too bad, she is quite struck by Robyn's boyfriend, Martin, and even bakes cakes for him! (only little ones though) Well some time has passed since I started writing this little bit. I have cracked open a small bottle of French lager, apologies to the German audience! Liz has finished painting the kitchen. We now have one red wall and the rest is magnolia or something, off white really.
We have cut down two trees in the back garden and, having done that, I am now busy cutting them up for firewood. This is taking a while as it has been a little chilly out of late. The weather now appears to be warming. We have been to a few auctions recently and have added more to the house contents, Liz has a few red bits of kitchenware to go with the new look red kitchen, a red colander and a red coffee pot. We have now started to have a couple of braais and we even found a few lamb burgers in the freezer from the wedding and some boerewors. We had a few friends around for a braai last night and cracked open a nice little bottle of pinotage, that went down really well. I braaied the wors etc and we even had a wood fire going in the brazier that Liz bought a couple of years ago, but it was still a bit too chilly to sit outside and eat, but hopefully this will change soon. We should soon be able to engage in outside activities. My morning rides, to work, are now in early morning light and I even saw a muntjac, an animal not unlike a duiker, and hare one morning, they looked a bit dazed by the sight of a fat-ish human on a bicycle riding by, but they should soon get used to it. There are now motorbikes starting to zoom around the place so spring is on the way. I must go and get another beer, that last one was quite good, a Dutch lager would be better, but alas there are none on the premisses, no biltong either, only salted peanuts. Ah that's better, the beer seems a bit warm though, still cooler than any beers left in the Shashi river ever were, it looks as though I am going to have to turn on the fridge again soon! The fish in the pond have started to get restless to and are starting to feed off the algae, we will have to start feeding them soon, we did lose one during the winter.

Weather report

Well, as you may or may not know, there has been a lot of snow around. Our snow arrived last Thursday in the early hours and Liz made me ride my new push bike to 'school' in it. I managed about fifty yards through this village and then walked the remaining, nearly, two miles and rode the last one hundred metres. It is a good job bike lights are not dynamo driven any more, otherwise it would have been in the dark! It was a whiteout at work, very christmas card like. There were some cowboys practicing 4 wheel drifting in the car park, they didn't hit anyone, but could have, it is no wonder we have all these safety regulations here. People around here couldn't get to work, so they came to the Co-op instead, to play, the car park was full through to the weekend, so the shop must have felt like it was Christmas all over again. The garage was fairly quiet and I had to do a double shift, so I was able to 'beg' a lift home from Liz, I even had to drive, talk about a slave driver. Friday was also snowy, but I had the car, so not so bad although it did come teaming down at home time. The carwash was out of commision, as you can see. Peterborough was very icy on Saturday and relatively quiet when we went in, there was plenty of parking as the car parks were thick with frozen snow, I didn't see any yellow snow however, for those who are interested. There was even a city council truck gritting the pedestrian areas.

Philip and Amy christened our grandson on Sunday, Harry Michael is now an official catholic. They arrived at the church on time, even the priest was surprised, so we were able to get on and I did not have to spend too long in that uncomfortable environment, my eyebrows started to curl and there were scorch marks on my coat afterwards. There was a celebration at the Ramsey Mereside village hall, but no booze, more regulations. Louise and Matt were also there and the priest even joined our table at the christening, he had to as Liz is the church organist. I had to talk to him, but we kept the discussion down to steam trains, there was a new one completed this week up north and it came through Peterborough on Saturday(phew!). I gather he also likes riding a motorcycle in the good weather, he is about seventy and has a pace maker, so there is still hope for some of our older motorcycling friends, you know who you are! We finished and came home at 3pm, in time to watch the Six Nations match between Wales and Scotland, Wales won, but only just. I bet all you folks in Africa must be sick with envy of our weaher. The black cat is not too impressed as she doesn't like her nethers being chilly when she takes a loo break, but the fluffy cat couldn't give a cat's arse, or something, she loves it, as it brings the birds closer to the house, meals on wings. The black cat has just come in, she is damp, it must be raining, she is sitting on my papers, shoulders hunched and glowereing, just to make sure I know how unhappy she is with the weather, what a neurotic cat! That will have to do, we have Valentine's day coming up on Saturday with a dance at the village hall and also an auction in Oundle on Saturday morning, wow what a busy weekend we are going to have!