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| A visitor |
It must have been good quality wine last evening because we both woke
from an excellent sleep with clear heads to the brightness of another glorious
day. Bit of wind to keep us cool, plenty of sun to warm us – and not a cloud in
sight.
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| Sunrise over the Hottentot's Holland mountains and Cape Flats |
I had said to my brothers last night that I had a short walk and that I
was going again today and both turned up at the foot of the path – well, Steve
did and Pad caught up with us a few minutes later – not too difficult as my
pace is similar to that of the donkeys that used to lumber up and down this
track before the roads were built with their loads for Hout Bay (Wood Bay) on
the other side of the mountains.
It was good walking with the brothers and we caught up on all manner of
news until I ran out of puff. I urged them onwards, but they turned with me and
we made our way back down the hill. Pad had to go to work, but Steve came down
with me to Dalebrook Pool for a wonderfully invigorating swim. We were lucky
that we had gone down early because the team was there to drain the pool, clean
it and whitewash the walls, something they do at low tide every month or two. Should
be OK for tomorrow, with two high tides to fill it before I get there.
There were a couple of people I knew down there, including a woman with
her old dog, a dog that had been a pup when we first met them. Now old, grey
and a lot better behaved, she greeted me, but I don’t think she remembered who
I was. That was not the case with Sue and Mike’s giant black poodle Coke.
Showing his advanced age of about thirteen years, nevertheless he walked
painfully towards me and nuzzled me the way he had always done. Lorna’s bull
terrier Jobe, who gives Coke a couple of years, nearly wagged his tail off and
couldn’t stop grinning at us when we visited her later in the day. We miss our
boys but feel sure they will be having a good time with their new pals at
Mornington Lodge.
Good coffee, good fruit and a bit of rye bread toasted made a good
breakfast and then we were off to get the goods for tonight’s braai – Sheelah
and Trevor came around. We told them it would be what we would call a sausage
sizzle in Australia.
Nothing fancy, just boerewors and wine – Sheelah provided the salad. It was
another lovely evening – we are so lucky with the weather and our situation
here where we can get a couple of pals on our own to catch up on their news,
something that is difficult to do if there is a crowd. Sadly three bottles of
wine succumbed – Sheelah doesn’t drink, otherwise no doubt there would have
been four.
But before we got to the braai, we went animal herding.
We had gone up to the Constantia Centre to get the goods for tonight and
on the way into the parking lot we saw that the Zimbabwean beadworkers had
expanded the considerable stock of work to include all manner of animals and
flowers and other brightly coloured work. Rab had spotted a good looking
giraffe and I liked the look of the sheep. These Zimbabwean artists are amazing
people. They gained their reputation in Zimbabwe with beautiful wood and
stone carvings, some of which we still have. Having left Zimbabwe and
their access to the raw materials they had used, they started making small
animals, fish etc in wire and beads. These small, and sometimes crude,
artefacts have morphed into much larger works with more detail – some of the
sheep are life size!
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| Chook and fruit |
After we had done our shopping we strolled over to see what they had. To
cut a long story short, Rab saw some metal worked bush pigs or warthogs. She
has always been fond of them because they remind her of her schnauzers with
their stance and whiskers. It is always amusing to see a warthog family running
through the bush – their tails are straight up in the air, like so many vehicle
aerials. I on the other hand thought the sheep were excellent. The beads are
worked in such a way that there is a texture to the fleece, while the faces of
the animals are smooth, as they are in the real thing. After some fierce bargaining we got the pair for R600 –
A$36 each; which left the chicken to deal with. The maker, Terence, had offered
us this rooster as we came up to the selling area. He was still working on it
and as he said, it was fresh from the oven. There were other chickens and
roosters, but Rab liked the colouring of this one, so we said we’d come back
and fetch it later, provided he gave us a good price. He was a better bargainer
than his brothers in the end, so the chook duly joined the other two animals.
Now all I have to do is find a way to get them home – they are each about the
size of Barnaby – or his size when we left. He may have grown by now.
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| Sal the Sheep and Wally Warthog get acquainted |
Then off to Lorna to get some laundry done and to have a bite to eat.
The kornspitz rolls are as nice as they ever were as is the local cheese, so it
was plain cheese rolls and chat for
lunch before we headed over the Steenberg via the Ou Kaapse Weg to cousin Sal
for afternoon tea. We wanted to see them before they left on the next of their
multiple trips planned for this year. This one will take them to Ireland, France
and Italy
before they return home at Easter. They travel even more than we do and we were
fortunate to be in town at the same time as they were. More talk, more
laughter, more to eat. Difficult to maintain my sylphlike figure at the moment.
ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER BRAAI Friday
March 9
There were clouds about this morning when I stuck my head out of the
window – could we be getting rain, in the Cape,
in March? Although I doubted it, the cloud cover and the wind direction would
have made the rock pools a chilly place to be, so I settled for a dip in the
cottage pool instead after a longer lie in and a bit of the cold wors left over
from last night on toast with more delicious fruit – a salad of melon,
raspberry, banana and fig – those figs!!! As the day progressed it turned into
another good one and the brothers in Kalk
Bay told me that it was
sunny and warm down there first thing so I missed out on my morning swim in the
sea.
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| Nothing like a kassler on a braai |
Lorna W and her sister Liz K are coming around for a meal tonight. I’m
happy to have another braai and although the original plan was to meet at a
restaurant, we both prefer the informality of a meal at ‘home’. Talking about food last night, Sheelah
mentioned that the German butcher a couple of suburbs away was still going
strong, so we headed his way and selected some good looking kassler ribs and
bratwurst for tonight – and for the braai on Sunday night. We also started
looking around for suitable container(s) for the animals. It isn’t the first
time I’ve had to get some odd purchase home and have become quite skilled at
finding solutions. After measuring them up individually and in various
combinations, we found a suitable plastic storage box which holds all three
snugly. We’ll pack our dirty washing around them to prevent any untoward
movement and as the box isn’t heavy, although it is a bit bulky, it shouldn’t
be a problem to get them home and into the garden to graze.
We also found a Christmas set of beaded reindeer and angels in one of
the drawers of the chest of drawers here and thought that would make a nice
gift for the girls so I popped up to see Terence, who was off duty today but I
spoke to his brother Bright. No worries he said – or at least the local
equivalent of that phrase – come by tomorrow and pick them up. Amazing turn
around time. We couldn’t agree a price without his brother being there, so no
doubt there will be a bit of haggling tomorrow.
The suburb where these lads operate and where the shopping centre is
located is Constantia and it is one of the ‘best’ locations in the Western Cape with only Clifton on the eastern side of the city and
Bishopscourt contenders for the top spot. It is often referred to as a mink and
manure suburb because even though it is only about 15 minutes to the centre of
Cape Town city, the properties are large enough to maintain stables and many is the time that the traffic
is held up for the ladies of the manor to cross the road on their morning ride.
The shopping centre is therefore a tremendous spot to sit and watch the passing
parade – women in high fashion – knee length boots for heaven’s sake in
mid-summer with the skin tight designer jeans on their broomstick frames. Many
look pretty anorexic to me, although at the other end of the scale there are
some enormous women with their muffin tops spilling over their jeans, which are
also skin tight but which resemble the rear end of en elephant in jeans when
seen from behind. All drive big and new vehicles. Huge four wheel drive SUVs
abound but there are probably more slinky Mercedes and the rather down market
BMWs around. Not as many fancy imports as you might see in equivalent parts of Melbourne, - I haven’t
yet seen a Ferrari although a rather nice Maserati flashed past us today.
One of the features of SAfrican life is the presence of car guards
wherever cars are parked in numbers. The prevalence of crime is the main reason
for their being there because they keep an eye out for any potential thieves.
But they also help people park and guide
them to empty spaces or hold the traffic for people to reverse out of the
parking places. They also help to defuse any potential incidents of ‘parking
rage’ by being scrupulously fair in allocating places if there is any
possibility of a dispute arising. They work on a ‘tip only’ basis paying some
organisation for the hire of their reflective vests and the right to work a
shift. There is a good deal of speculation as to how much they make. According
to one recent article an average tip at Constantia (which may be higher than
most locations) is R5, which is the largest coin in the current range of
currency. That would be about A$0.65c.
That doesn’t seem much, but then there is a good deal of traffic and each guard
has about 30 – 40 spaces to police. If the average stay at the centre is 45
minutes, as suggested, then in an 8 hour day the man could earn (gross) about
R2,000 (A$250) a day – not a bad figure in a country where the average annual
wage is about R24,000 (A$3,000).
Liz and Lorna duly turned up and we had a fine old evening with them.
They are both VERY outspoken widows, with VERY strong views on many a subject,
most of which tend to clash with our (and especially my) views. They enjoy a
good argument, so we had plenty – all in the highest spirits and with many a
laugh. I am still adjusting my cooking skills to the Namibian charcoal made
from the kameeldoring (camelthorn) tree which burns with an intense heat. I
overdid the sausages a bit the first night, took longer the second night and
had the fire running a bit hot tonight, so dinner was served a little earlier
than planned. I reckon I’ll have it a bit right by the time we have our last
braai here tomorrow.
Rab is now talking about possibly buying a Weber kettle here as it may
be cheaper than in Australia!
Not looking forward to shifting that along with our box full of animals and the
rest of the luggage. Rab reckons that we’ll have a lighter load going home
because of all the goods she brought for distribution to our pals and family.
They have certainly been disbursed, but as I mention carefully, they have, to a
large extent been replaced by local purchases. We’ll see.
The evening ended with my having to reverse Liz’s (manual) car up the
driveway so they could head home. She says she can’t reverse because she can’t
turn her head – I say should she be driving to which her response is
predictably “Of course, I don’t reverse very often.” Hmmmm……
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