Right Place, Right Time

2017-10-04 | puppy1952

The Earl and I needed to see our accountant in Stellenbosch last Friday. Not wanting to do an overnighter we set off bright and early on the two and half hour drive that would get us our appointment on time. As luck would have it the Rapport Holiday Show started in Stellenbosch that day too. We’re having a caravan built by Gecko in Haenertsburg and as they had a stand at the show we thought it might be a good idea to check it out and see if there was anything else we needed while there.

It was almost midday by the time we got to the show and all we’d consumed was a good cup of coffee offered to us by the accountant. We chatted to Keith and Alison, took some measurements, ordered an aircon and a storage bag and then headed off to look for food. Well foolishly we’d come without cash and the food vendors didn’t have card facilities so we decided to head back home with the intention of stopping in Franschoek for lunch.

This is what I caravan kitchen will look like

Did I mention it was a beautiful day and the drive there and back over the mountain passes was stunning.

Franschhoek is an hour’s drive from Stellenbosch and we were listening to Pippa Hudson on Cape Talk as we drove. I was getting hungrier and hungrier and then she interviewed Pieter de Villiers – a local chocolate maker! Pippa – please – I was drooling! I had never heard of de Villiers chocolate and it is only available from certain Woolworths outlets or his own chocolate cafes. Living in Struisbaai I would not have easy access to this delicious sounding chocolate – Probably just as well as I am a Banter and only occasionally eat 70% dark chocolate – But ooh I was dying for some as I listened to this mouth watering interview.

Pieter only uses UTZ certified cocoa beans grown in Africa. UTZ certified stands for sustainable farming and better opportunities for farmers, their families and our planet.

Everything is made from scratch – from sourcing and roasting their own cocoa and coffee beans, to making their own ice cream and a wide selection of confections. His wrappers are also very special and have an African look.

We were five minutes away from Franschhoek when the interview ended and we’d discovered that there just happened to be a De Villiers Chocolate cafe in town!

I said to Earl, “I’m having lunch at De Villiers Chocolate Café.”

“You can’t!” he said “You’re banting.”

“So what,” I said “This is serendipitous. I am meant to have chocolate today. I need chocolate today. Why else would I hear this interview just as I’m entering a place where that cafe is calling to me.”

Well of course I didn’t exactly have lunch at the café – we first dined at MC, googled the address of the café and then went there for coffee. My two favourite things in life – coffee and chocolate. Preferably together.

Lunch at MC for Earl was springbok pie and Eggs Benedict for me – the Banting version.

Franschoek is the prettiest town in South Africa and has wonderful eateries

The cafe where you can taste before you buy

The patio area

Coffee for me, ice cream for The Earl, and all the ‘lekkergoed’ we bought

The coffee was excellent, the ice cream delicious and I walked away with a packet of drinking chocolate, three slabs of 70% chocolate – the cinnamon and chili is to die for – and two bars of chocolate nougat.

Yes I was certainly in exactly the right place at the right time.

De Villiers Chocolate

Retiring Adventurously – Downtimes and Uptimes

2015-02-16 | puppy1952

I don’t do sick and I don’t do old. Give me a crying baby or a mischievous child or even a whole crowd of them and I will cope with the greatest of ease. I say I don’t do the former but that’s not quite true – of course I will deal with whatever I have to at any particular moment – but it’s way out of my comfort zone. So when the beloved awoke with a shivering fever and a rebellious tummy on Monday morning I was not well pleased. There was no escaping to the classroom with the words take yourself off to the doctor and drink plenty of fluids. Just as well because there was no way he was going to cope with this one on his own. I was all dressed and ready for gym but had to abandon that plan and drive the invalid shaking almost to convulsions to the doctors – why don’t they do house calls anymore? He was hurriedly ushered into a treatment room where he lay in his gown wrapped in a blue blanket which he insisted I tuck firmly under his freezing feet. It was a hot day but he was shivering as if he were at the South Pole. I feel so helpless in these situations. My ministrations limited as they are seem not to help and all I can do is just stand there and wait for the worst. The young doctor – they get younger as I get older- I’m sure this one was still in his teens – came in after what seemed hours but was only 10 minutes. After asking all the right questions and pressing in all the right places he put Earl on a drip and instructed him to lie there for the next hour. It was 9 o’clock. “I’ll just make it to gym then,” I said “I’ll pick you up when I’m done?” “Don’t leave me,” he wailed. So that put paid to that escape plan.
Much to my relief the drip worked and the shivering stopped and my ailing man fell asleep. I sat ‘monitoring’ him while checking Facebook and emails on my iPhone. I’m a woman I can multitask!
The hour dragged by and then he was released with a script for a pharmacy of drugs. I made sure he was comfortable, showered and changed – I had to get out of my gym clothes – then headed to the mall to get the script filled out. Then back to the invalid, dosed him with 4 different drugs, made sure he was comfortable and asleep then escaped to have tea with Carol. He was much better on my return but still slept most of the day and all that night. On Tuesday he got up for part of the day, did some things that needed doing then collapsed into bed exhausted and wondered why! I am pleased to report that by Wednesday all was back to normal!

On Tuesday I was up before the crack of dawn and out of the house before 6:00 am. My destination? – Home Affairs. I was determined to be in the front of the queue as I had to get a new I.D. Document – the old one went Awol somewhere between the Vodocom Shop at our local mall and The Kruger National Park in June last year. My passport although valid gives problems at border posts by refusing to scan. It happened in Australia and then again in Namibia so I thought it best if I was to be crossing African borders to get a new one in order to avoid delays and an excuse to arrest me! Home Affairs is notorious for its long queues and it is not uncommon to spent an entire day waiting to be processed. Their offices open at 7:30 am and I arrived at Maynard Mall parking at 6:20 am delighted that I would be very near the front. But oh no – the parking was closed – and I was fourth in that queue. There was much hooting and tooting until somebody came to explain that the rules had changed. The parking garage and the mall would only be opened at 7. There was nothing to be done so I switched up the radio and sat an waited knowing that there would also be a queue on the pavement and at the other parking garage over the road! By the time I had parked and raced for the escalator I was number 61 in queue to get into the offices! Admittedly the queue did move quite quickly and it was 8:30 when I finally made it in. Then there another number issued, a wait in the pay desk queue – R400 for the passport – ID – Free for over 60s! From there to the photobooth and a grumpy photographer barking unfriendly commands – take off your glasses – don’t smile! From there you had to wait for your number to be called. I found it all quite amusing. The queue consisted of rows of chairs and you had to move up every minute or so as you came closer to your turn. It was like being on a conveyer belt. I didn’t dare take photographs in case I was expelled! Finally, I reached the front row and then my number was called. This time a friendly and efficient assistant. My fingerprints were taken digitally and I had to sign on a digital device too. It was all done and dusted by quarter to ten – only three and a half hours. The good news is that on Friday afternoon I received an SMS to say my ID is ready for collection! Wow! But I shall wait for the Passport to be ready and collect them together. The estimated time is between 2 and 6 weeks. Maybe I will be lucky!

On the bright side, Earl recovered quickly and on Wednesday dropped the Fortuner off at Gus’s house and he and Andrew went to Stellenbosch to fetch the Land Rover Discovery 4! Earl is very pleased with the new vehicle. Before he drove it away, Martin spent two hours teaching him all the amazing features of the car. What wonderful service. Such a difference to the experience we had with the Volkswagen Caravelle. Fifteen years ago there were very few of them in the country. We researched it thoroughly and decided that it was the car we wanted and went off to a showroom in town to have a look. Nobody appeared to help us. I clapped my hands and yelled – Please come and sell me this car! A bored young man appeared and when I asked him to show me all the features he shrugged his shoulders and made a half-hearted effort at showing me a few things. He had no idea how to move the seats and was clearly ignorant of anything about the vehicle. If I hadn’t wanted it so badly I would not have bought it. We walked out and went to another dealership and asked them to contact that one to get the car for us. For all these fifteen years we have never been completely satisfied with Volkswagen’s service. Hopefully we will continue to have a better experience with Land Rover!

The Caravan ready for action

The new vehicle

From behind

Test Drive

My turn to drive

On Friday Earl heard that the yellow-fin tuna were in the bay and biting so he rushed to finish some stuff he was doing on the caravan and he and Yassin dashed off to see what they could catch! They were well pleased with the results and returned just in time for Earl and me to meet our friends for a dinner date at Brasserie in Tokai! We had a stunning evening.

Yassin with one of the yellow-fin tuna

Celebrating Heather’s birthday

Saturday was Valentine’s Day but because we’d been out the evening before we decided to not to go out on a romantic date. In any case we had lovely fresh fish for sashimi. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry as did ours when we were informed after waking from an afternoon nap that the teens were having a Valentine’s Braai that evening. We decided therefore to go off for a sunset picnic with our fish and salad but this plan too was thwarted when I discovered that the 6 teens were alone, had no braai wood and nobody had brought meat! No – I could not leave them alone with their chips and Coke – so we found ourselves entertaining 5 boys and a girl with an impromptu sashimi evening. Now some of those kids are used to our strange tastes and love to eat our weird food. But the girl and one lad looked horrified at the fare before them. “Don’t panic,” I said. ‘Just have one taste and if you really don’t like it, Grandpa will give sear some tuna for you”. The young lady agreed that it did not taste bad at all but she really would prefer it cooked. The lad had tried in our home previously and just said – cooked for me please! The rest of them tucked in and cleaned the platters.

Jay the handsome host

Tucking in

Seared to perfection

A relief not to have to eat raw fish!

Earl worked on the caravan on Sunday and I went off to a bird club outing with my friend Priscilla. We thought we had plenty of time to get to Stellenbosch but found that we could not get to Baden Powell Drive because of a marathon of some sort blocking the route. So we had to detour over the freeway and onto the N2 which made us a few minutes late. The rest of the group were nowhere in sight but a quick phone got Simon returning to find us and soon we were enjoying th walk along with the other. The birding wasn’t great but the walk in Assegaibos is wonderful.

Simon rescued us

The group looking at something in the trees

The majestic mountains

A beautiful setting

Our leader and his wife relaxing at the picnic site Thanks for leading on your birthday, John!

We ended the week with a braai at Heather and Peter’s and forgot all about the early disasters of the week!

Our hostess with host in the background

Gearing up for the Adventurous Life Style

2015-01-31 | puppy1952

Change is something I love and I embrace it with enthusiasm and excitement. I am the optimist in our relationship and tend not to look at the things that can go wrong. My beloved on the other hand has ‘Panic Guts’ for a middle name. Yes he likes travel and adventure but his over developed sense of responsibility gets in the way of his enjoying the process. While I embrace each new development with enthusiasm and a naive belief than nothing can go wrong, he looks deeply into all the possible pitfalls and panics when things do not run as smoothly as he would like. Thus there is a balance when we are embarking on something new – he rushing around organising the details and I enthusing while trying to calm his rising panic.

We are, you see, planning our new life. As do many retirees of our age we want to travel. But travel is expensive and when one is no longer earning the big bucks one has to adapt to the circumstances. No more luxurious languishing in air conditioned bungalows with en suite bathrooms, fluffy white towels and fitted kitchens. That was fine for the annual three-week holiday.

Why don’t we convert the Caravelle into a campervan,” I suggest one day. “And get a big tent that you can stand up inside in. Then we can leave the tent set up while we drive around.

A proper campervan with queen size bed, en suite bathroom, microwave oven and TV is his preference. Reality check …… fabulous as they are they do not travel well on corrugated gravel roads such as are encountered in the Kgalagadi National Park. No we need a good 4×4 for the type of off-road travelling we like to do and some sort of camping apparatus that you could leave set up.

Baboons and Monkeys are a problem to consider so canvas tents might also prove to be problematic for the clever primates of today. We finally decide upon an Off Road Caravan and after much chatting to friends and researching with Mr Google we have settle for the Imagine Comfortvan.

The Toyota Fortuner that my beloved now drives is a manual. Travelling slowly when bird watching and searching for game requires much use of the clutch and gears – not good on an aging and aching knees. Soooo a new vehicle needs to be purchased – but which one . The Toyota Land Cruiser is number one on the wish list but second hand automatics are simply unavailable. Land Rover’s reliability record we are warned by those in the know, is much to be desired. Hands are held up in horror and we are strongly advised not to go that route! Well – off to Mr Google again. Much research on forums brought up a conclusion that their reputation has improved. Land Rover Discovery 3 has bad press but Land Rover Discovery 4 – wonderful according to those who have one! Yes, we decide, this is our best option.

Now to shop for said items. We want a Discovery 4 with less than 100 000 0n the clock. Mr Google is once again consulted and we two days, visiting agents looking at cars and negotiating deals.

The Comfortvan is easy. They are built in Pretoria but we find an agent on small farm near Tygerberg Zoo and he has one right there for the taking. We have some good offers for trading in the Fortuner but decide to sign a deal with Martin at Land Rover Stellenbosch. A Land Rover Discovery 4 SE 2011 model with 100 000 km on the clock!

It is Thursday afternoon. All is going very smoothly, all the ducks are in a row, with the minimum of worry on the part of my darling husband until the doorbell rings and there stands Gus. Upon hearing that we are trading in the Fortuner he says, “Rather sell it to me!”

Now this will give us much needed extra funds! But Gus must make a final decision by 7 tomorrow morning. He must consult with his accountant and get his Jacqui’s approval. She is the one after all who will be driving the vehicle.

Earl starts to fret – tomorrow we are signing the papers. The dealer does not want to wait until February to do the transaction as it will in some way affect tax or some such reason. So decisions and organising of finance has to be done very quickly.

Friday morning finds us setting off to Stellenbosch at the rude hour of 7:00 a.m. Earl phones Gus – he has a meeting to attend and will get back to us. We meet with our accountant at 8, sort out our tax and go in search of breakfast. Stellenbosch is a university town and is bustling. We negotiate traffic and miraculously find a parking spot right next to a pavement cafe that reminds me of those I frequented in Paris. Of course I order coffee and a croissant that any self respecting Parisian would approve of. Earl has egg and bacon!

At 9 we meet with Martin and explain the Gus situation. Not a problem – he does the paper work, leaves out the figures and gets Earl to sign. Still no word from our “alles sal regkom” Gus.

Our next port of call is the Caravan place. The paperwork goes smoothly. We go and look at the van and sort out what added extras we might need. I take some photographs.

The dog is not an added extra

The interior is tiny but functional – table folds out in front of mirror – doubles as a dressing table and computer nook. Packing space under the bench.

It has an indoor shower!

Loads of packing space

The kitchen is on the outside and has plenty of hidey holes for appliances and food.

Lift to cover to reveal a sink and two plate gas stove

Lift the cover to reveal the sink and two-plate gas stove

Gus phones to say his accountant says it’s a good idea to get the vehicle. We drive to his house so Jacqui can drive the car and give her approval. She loves it but wonders if they can organise the funds in time. Gus will see what he can organise and get back to us!

Martin wants to finalise the deal before 3 pm and Gus calls with his decision at 2:30. Yes he will buy the Fortuner!

Earl is suffering from extreme anxiety and I am laughing all the way to the bank to organise the transferring of funds. It’s the last straw for my anxious man when we find that it will take 2 days to transfer from the Money Market account into the savings account before we can transfer to Land Rover. If there is nothing you can do about it why fret? After I prevent him from having a heart attack he phones Martin who says Tuesday will be fine! But the pain in the chest remains and will probably only go away on Thursday when the Landy and Caravan are safely in our driveway! No seriously, everything has worked out well and we are both ecstatically happy. Can’t wait for Thursday! Maybe we will book in somewhere for our first caravanning weekend!

Long Weekend Break – From Pioneer in the Semi-desert to Luxury by the Sea

2013-03-24 | puppy1952

It was a spur of the moment decision. Thursday was a holiday – Human Rights Day – and Friday was an off day for schools. Of course, it took a while for this to sink into my significant others head! ” So,” he said on Wednesday morning suddenly realising that we should have planned earlier – “What shall we do this weekend?” “Too late, now,” was my pessimistic reply although I am usually the optimistic one in this relationship. “Everything will be booked up!” – including our house in Struisbaai which friends were to occupy for the South League competition.

It was therefore a bit of a surprise when SO sent me a text at school – “Booked for Bizansgat.” Bizansgat would be in the middle of The Karoo halfway between Ceres and Sutherland. I had an appointment with a parent after school and still had to pack! As it turned out she didn’t pitch up – for the second time – so I got home at 3 and we left half an our later.

But I needn’t have worried because my Procard holding husband booked us into a Protea hotel in Stellenbosch for our first night – two for the price of one. He had been trying for years to get a good deal on his Procard but was always told, “We only hold certain rooms for Procard holders and they’re all booked!’ Ja right! Well this time they must have been tired of him complaining about it being an unfair system and that having paid all that money to have this privileged card he should be able to get any room whenever he wanted. So yes – they must have had complaints from other Procard holders because there was, “No problem, Sir – any time is a good time Sir – we have changed the rules, Sir!”

The room was comfortable and had a lovely sitting room and kitchenette – we could have self-catered but we didn’t. Perhaps we should have because the set menu was mediocre.

On Thursday we decided not to do breakfast at the hotel. We still needed to shop for Bizansgat after which we went to a great little coffee shop and had muffins and cappuccino.

The Karoo was hot! The Karoo was dusty! The Karoo was – well semi-desert and beautiful! How can one describe the flatness, the low, scrawny scrub and unique flat topped koppies. The colours – 50 shades of khaki – muted, dusky greens, pinks and mauves and peaceful! Then there are the birds. The dusty coloured, difficult to identify, confusing Karoo birds. We love them although it is a challenge to find them so well camouflaged and blending into the landscape. We didn’t find too many but enjoyed those we did see.

Bizansgat is a special little hide away. It is on a sheep farm and Petrus the shepherd was there to greet us with his dog Tes – a scrawny border collie with a very waggy tail. She deserted her boss and took up duty guarding us for the duration of our stay.

Bizansgat’s Welcome Sign

Miles of nothing surrounded us

Tes on guard in front of our humble abode

The bedroom

A corner of the kitchen

Another corner of the kitchen with crockery from the past

The last time we stayed in Pioneershuisie, it was winter and there had been some rain. The stream then was flowing and the duck pond was full. Now it was dry and we didn’t even see the usual geese that wake most visitors in the early hours of the morning. Birdlife was pretty thin too. We found Cape Bunting, Karoo chats – lots, Karoo long-billed lark, white-throated canaries and mouse birds. Birds of prey were lesser kestrel, rock kestrel and Pale Chanting Goshawks.

White-throated canary

Cape Bunting

Karoo Longbilled Lark

We braaied our chops in the little skerm and afterwards washed up in the outhouse created just for this purpose. The huisie doesn’t have a bathroom either so ablutions were done in the outhouse alongside. There are other dormitories where groups can stay and they share these ablutions – but we were the only people there.

My Personal Chef

Die Wasklip

The Ablution Block was spotless

One’s every comfort was catered for

Tes was intrigued by the bird calls coming from my laptop!

In the relative cool of the evening we sat outdoors to watch the stars – oh wow – in a place like this they are so much brighter. Indoors it was really hot. We needn’t have brought our bedding as we lay atop the bed with no need even for a sheet. BUT – the mosquitoes! In spite of lashings of BUG-OFF – they buzzed like helicopters all night and by morning it looked like we had chicken pox!

In the morning we went for a drive and got a good eyeful of Karoo scenery, spotted a couple of steenbok and birds and then returned, deciding that although we love this place the heat was a bit much. Earl was fighting a cold and felt he could do with some luxury – enough of outhouse showers and loo’s for this old chap!

Fifty Shades of Khaki

The Dusty Road heading towards the gorgeous Karoo style mountains

Typical Karoo Scene – not the PCG on the windmill

Pale Chanting Goshawks are common in this neck of the woods

Pale Chanting Goshawks are common in this neck of the semi-desert

Karoo Chat

Immature Pale Chanting Goshawk

Rock Kestrel

The competition in Struisbaai was cancelled so our friends did not go up for the weekend. We thought, therefore, that we’d go and stay in our comfy holiday house for the rest of the weekend. The drive through the Motagu/Bonnivale area was very picturesque.

The Robertson Valley

What a shock when we arrived to find that our house had in the meantime been let out by the agents! WE WERE HOMELESS!

Plan B – A couple of old well-known Agulhas houses have been taken over by Sanparks and we’ve been dying to spend a weekend in one of them in the new Agulhas National Park Rest Camp. But our luck was out – fully booked!

Plan C – Arniston Hotel and Spar – another item on our bucket list – so guess where our rent money went!

Arniston is just a half hour drive from Struisbaai. The birding on the way is usually quite good but it was getting dark so little was seen. The hotel is Four Star so not the cheapest place to stay. We booked a room with a ‘pool view’ as we didn’t think seeing the sea warranted the exorbitant fee. Well, when we arrived they said, “We’ve upgraded you to a sea view room – no extra cost!” Well – thank you very much!

The Sea View

Our room was fab-u-lous! Well I am a bit of a pleb and don’t often stay in luxury hotels so fluffy white towels tend to do it for me. And after all, I was expecting to spend this weekend like a voortrekker.

En route we had stopped at Bonnievale for lunch so had coffee and buns in our room for supper. We were provided with filter coffee making facilities which was just so grand!

Luxury Suite

The next day it was a breakfast to die for. Imagine smoked salmon and croissants to start your day! That was my choice from the vast buffet on offer. I didn’t even bother with the egg order. Chocolate chip muffin with my coffee was an added delight.

Starting off with fresh fruit before the final indulgence

At 10 o’clock we booked into the Ginkgo Spa for full body massages. We were given a hot cinnamon drink and then shown to the change rooms where we were given a locker to hang up our clothes. We donned gowns and slippers – the latter we could keep. A comb was another free gift. The massage was stunning and we were then shown to a rest room where we could lie on lounges and drink herbal tea or minted water until we felt like leaving. Oh bliss!

We spent the afternoon chilling – Earl needed to get rid of his cold – so an afternoon in front of TV was called for. I fiddled around on my computer preparing stuff for next term – it could have waited but its nice to work when there’s no pressure.

Dinner was divine – Butternut soup followed by a delicious salmon with creamy wine sauce and pasta for Earl and pork with tomato based sauce and pasta for me. Our plates were too full and we couldn’t finish and dessert was forfeited too. The chocci on the pillow was quite enough thank you.

This morning the whole breakfast thing was repeated and then we packed and reluctantly left for Struisbaai where Earl went to work fixing the rebellious sprinkler system!

We then took the scenic route home and did a spot of bird watching.