Saturday 31 December 1983 – New Years in Ringwood
I must say I
find the Californian wines very pleasant to drink but a little acid – I woke up
during the night and had to take a Peptobismol. Mind you that might have had
something to do with the quantity consumed because Uli also seemed a little shaky this
morning.
The original
plan for today was for Uli to take us shopping but when we all got together
over breakfast the plan had changed and Nora was to be our chauffeuse while Uli
cooked dinner and tidied the house. They had invited five people around for
dinner to see the New Year in. Nora and I shot off at about 08.20 to get some
boxes at the Post Office so we could pack and send the books and Matt’s more
bulky toys. Of course the PO only opened at
09.00 so we had to hang around for a while down there. Since the Grand Union
was open we popped in and did a bit of shopping – once again it was fascinating
to see the incredible variety of goods on sale. Multiple choices everywhere.
We got back
about 09.20 and packed the boxes as fully as I could. The parcels weighed 18
and 19 lbs respectively and cost $42 in postage. Hope they make it in good
nick. No doubt we will have a schlep in getting them through Customs in Zimbabwe. (Everything arrived in good order and there
were no problems with Customs – no duty payable!) Having dropped the parcels off we set off for
Willowbrook Shopping Mall which Rab fancied. Nora was less keen because she was
a bit nervous about driving there without Uli, but Rab was adamant so naturally
we went there.
It was a
tremendous shopping centre (we didn’t
know the term “mall” back then) and enormous number of shops as well as
some excellent department stores so Rab was in her element. The only parts I
enjoyed were some very good ice creams and a nice schwarma (known here as a
gyro) on pita for lunch. We finally got back at about 17.00 to find that Uli
had been out to do the rest of the shopping and had got everything done with
the help of Nora’s mother.
I got on
with the final packing and tidying up as we are leaving early tomorrow. I
managed to fit everything in and had just finished when I heard the guests
arriving. Kirsty from Uli’s office and Rene her husband plus his mother and two
old neighbours from across the road. Pandemonium was reigning when I got
upstairs with Rocky hurtling around and barking furiously. I introduced myself,
Rene and I re-arranged the furniture so there were enough seats and drinks were
soon to hand.
It was a
little odd and we were fascinated to learn that the neighbours had never seen,
tasted or heard of curry which was part of the meal Uli had prepared. Rene and
Kirsty were very good company and the evening was a pleasant one. When the
witching hour approached Uli was fiddling around trying to find a radio station
and open the champagne at the same time. I suggested we should go through and
watch the television which we did. It was quite something to see the apple come
down in Times Square – the crowd was estimated
at 500,000.
The party
was a little sedate and Matt was most disappointed. He recalls with nostalgia
the very noisy parties we used to have in Cape Town with Queen at full volume.
We finally got to bed at about 01.30.
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