Happy Birthday To Rob!

Our house seems empty and very quiet now!

Last Thursday we were invaded by family! A very enjoyable but rare occurrence! I mentioned that Rob's sister and her husband were coming to stay from Australia. As well as Bev and John, we had Angie and Vanessa and Catherine here to represent the younger generation, so we dotted them around in various sleeping areas! Angie and Vanessa 'camped' in the caravan and Catherine had the fold-down-couch-bed in the 'loft'! (Her husband Stu stayed at home to cat-sit so he missed the whole experience), John and Bev had the spare room, and Rob and I remained in our room. And Alfie was confused by the whole thing as he didn't know where to sleep first! And the cats scattered.......

Did I mention the occasion?

Rob celebrated his 70th birthday.

The Birthday Boy!

He actually celebrated for about two weeks, as before they arrived here, he flew to Johannesburg and met John and Bev off the Aussie flight, met up with their sons and partners, and had a huge family dinner on the Tuesday night. Then they all trekked to Kruger Park for a few days before heading to the Cape. The boys and their partners couldn't make the Cape leg so they missed the big celebrations!

The whole family!

And Alfie was bathed and conditioned for the occasion!

Alfie not looking too impressed!!

G'Day Mates!

G'day cobbers!

And the reason for the above? Rob's family will be visiting from Cairns in Australia, so I thought that I would help them to feel at home by slipping a few phrases into the conversation so they don't feel too confused by our South African slang!! I googled (what else?) and found a few very helpful sites and lists, so I decided to share a few with you all. Interestingly, there are a lot of words and phrases that we share with them, so that will make life a lot easier!! (Although, some, on the other hand, are vastly different i.e 'root')

This may be a tad small to read actually!

And here begins the lesson....      

        Arvo: afternoon
Barbie: barbeque  
        Bogan: redneck, an uncultured person. According to the Australian show Bogan Hunters, a real bogan sports a flanno (flannel shirt), a mullet, missing teeth, homemade tattoos (preferably of the Australian Flag or the Southern Cross), and has an excess of Australia paraphernalia. This "species of local wildlife" can be found by following their easily distinguishable tracks from burnouts or the smell of marijuana. (Hmmm, I know where we can see plenty of these people!)
  Bottle-O: bottle shop, liquor store
  Chockers: very full
  Esky: cooler, insulated food and drink container
  Fair Dinkum: true, real, genuine
  Grommet: young surfer
  Mozzie: mosquito
  Pash: a long passionate kiss. A pash rash is red irritated skin as the result of a heavy make-out session with someone with a beard.

No worries mate!

  Ripper: really great
  Roo: kangaroo. A baby roo, still in the pouch, is known as a Joey
  Root: sexual intercourse. This one can get really get foreigners in trouble. There are numerous stories about Americans coming to Australia telling people how they love to "root for their team." If you come to Australia, you would want to use the word "barrack" instead. On the same note, a "wombat" is someone who eats roots and leaves.
Servo: gas station. In Australia, a gas station is called a petrol station. If you ask for gas, don’t be surprised if someone farts. (That happens here all the time, the fart bit!)
  She’ll be right: everything will be all right
  Sickie: sick day. If you take a day off work when you are not actually sick it’s called chucking a sickie.
  Slab: 24-pack of beer
  Sook: to sulk. If someone calls you a sook, it is because they think you are whinging
  Stubbie holder: koozie or cooler. A stubbie holder is a polystyrene insulated holder for a stubbie, which is a 375ml bottle of beer.
  Sweet as: sweet, awesome. Aussies will often put ‘as’ at the end of adjectives to give it emphasis. Other examples include lazy as, lovely as, fast as and common as.
  Ta: thank you
  Togs: swim suit
  Tradie: a tradesman. Most of the tradies have nicknames too, including brickie (bricklayer), truckie (truckdriver), sparky (electrician), garbo (garbage collector) and chippie (carpenter).
  Ute: Utility vehicle, pickup truck
  Whinge: whine

So, its going to be ripper to have Rob's rellies from Oz for a bit. They had the bonzer idea to visit for his birthday, so let's hope they don't come a gutser when they are here. If the weather is fair dinkum, we shall have a barbie one arvo, which makes me think, strewth I hope we have enough tucker and stubbies to go round! And while we are waiting for the grub, we'll have a good yabber! I must remember to buy some chockies for afters.

And we shall celebrate Rob's 70th in style.

After all, his blood is worth bottling!

Hooroo for now mates.

Boats, Cats and Crayfish!

Sorry that this is a tad late, I seem to be saying that a lot lately...

Today Rob and I took ourselves off to lunch. The reason being that we met eighteen years ago, on the 19 February 1998 to be precise!! Mutual friends decided that we 'deserved each other' (we are still trying to work that out...) and finally managed to get us in the same place at the same time. It has been a wonderful eighteen years with Rob, and hopefully we shall celebrate a lot more years together before we shuffle off this mortal coil.

So, off we went to Paternoster to a fabulous restaurant that is literally on the beach. Called 'Voorstrandt Restaurant'  (it really does mean on the beach), it is a bright green and red corrugated iron building that serves some of the best seafood around!

Voorstrandt Restaurant.

While we were there we watched at least fifteen fishing boats race to shore and our waiter told us that they were offloading crayfish! Closely watched by the fisheries men I might add. Each boat was being followed by a cloud of gulls fighting and squabbling over the debris that was being thrown over the sides as the crayfish were being cleaned ready for sale.

Somewhere out there are fishing boats!!!!! Our view from the restaurant.

The sea was a calm, flat line, the beach was clean and empty with a few dogs racing up and down on the sand and it reminded us of the first time we drove into Paternoster, many years ago now. The beach stretches for a good few kilometres and the wind blew my straw sun-hat off my head, onto its brim and sent it bowling along the sand with me in hot pursuit! Right past the restaurant! Once I had retrieved it, we sauntered back with me trying not to pant, and had our first taste of their delicious meals.

Crayfish being offloaded.

Anyway, today, once we had completed our meal, we drove to the beach where the boats were by now empty and lolling around on the sand, waiting patiently until they head out again tomorrow.

And the reason we are not waiting until Friday to celebrate? Well, I am a granny, and grannies babysit.

Tomorrow I am driving to Catherine and Stuart as they are going away for the weekend.

So I shall be 'babysitting' the three littlies.......William, Harry and Jemima.

Jemima is the tabby. William is behind.....or is it Harry?

Their much loved and well travelled cats!

And then I shall stay on for a few days after they return to 'kuier' properly!

Congratulations and Celebrations!

I know that I promised a Food Report for my last blog, but cats got in the way as they so often do!
So, better late than never, and before I forget completely, here it is!

Rob and I both celebrate our birthdays in May, and friends of ours have their Wedding Anniversary in May as well, so it seemed a good idea to combine them all and head off to celebrate (commiserate?) the whole lot. We wanted to try somewhere new that was not too far away but one of our favourite places in Paternoster was closed for renovations. So, off we set to Yzerfontein. I must admit that we went with some trepidation as Rob had read some write-ups about the restaurant and they were not very complimentary! But our friends Dee and Daan had been recently and were very happy with the food and service and setting, and as they were the Anniversary couple, we decided to give it a go.

And we were not disappointed! At all!

The view from our table

The setting is right on the sea, and the weather was perfect, the waves were crashing in and one brave lady was surfing! I tried to remember whether it's every seven or eight (or maybe even every six) waves that is a big one, but I kept losing count, probably the wine! Which was also very tasty I might add!

We were greeted by a rotund Jack Russell who took a liking to us all (or was ready for lunch too) and spent some time under the table, but we were all very good and didn't share any lunch with him.

Surprises and Celebrations!

Isn’t technology wonderful? When you read this in ‘real time’ next week, I shall have written it last week…………But, thanks to Rob and the power of forward planning, it’s all on time and perfectly done!

Puzzled? Let me explain!

On Wednesday the 2 April, I am slipping secretly into Spain with my daughter! Why secretly you may be asking? Well, it's my son Andrew's fortieth birthday on the 3 April, so it seemed a good idea to combine a visit to my far-flung children and enjoy a birthday celebration at the same time! He had some idea that we would be there for his birthday, as I had hinted last year that I would hopefully be visiting in March or April as the weather was perfect at that time of year, both in Madrid and in Dubai.

Then Irina (Andrew's wife) mentioned that it would be a wonderful surprise for him if we simply arrived without telling him (this is familiar territory, I tried it with my sister last year and ended up giving the game away, remember?) Catherine and I thought about it and agreed, and so, the back-peddling, deception and re-planning began!

Dopey keeping my case safe from harm!

I Made It!

Well, I survived two flights! And, although I didn't actually enjoy either, I have to admit that for the most part they were turbulence-free, even the descending through cloud part when I arrived in Durban, and climbing through cloud when I left on Sunday lunchtime. And, apart from the child who sat in front crying and the child who sat behind kicking my seat the whole way, they were really stress-free! I must admit that I kept an eye on the wing though, as my sister said, 'just make sure that the rivets don't pop out!'

Dopey, making sure that I packed properly for my holiday!

But, how quickly a holiday goes. It seemed to stretch in front of us forever, but the days flew by. A visit to the dentist seems to last for hours, even days, but a holiday goes before you have time to unpack! As soon as we got home, thanks to Shirley who was our very competent driver, we cracked open a bottle of bubbly (the first of many actually!). Boscombe, their very large dog who is as soft as butter, howled as soon as the bottle was brought out of the 'fridge, he knew that there would be a cork for him to retrieve from the garden.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, here I am, another year older and deeper in debt!! Not the debt bit thank goodness, but the year older is true. Yesterday was my birthday and mine began at midnight precisely!! Rob and I watched a movie and finally got to bed on Thursday night at about 11.15. Then we tossed and turned, hips ached and shoulders twinged. The dogs around us were disturbed by something and so we lay trying to get to sleep. I heard Rob's phone beep once or twice but by that time I was drifting off. Suddenly the peace was shattered by Rob serenading me as his mobile clicked over from Thursday to Friday! I think that's my very first midnight serenade! Dare I say I also hope that it's the last!!

The birthday girl! (Pics thanks to Rob)

Although it was really my turn to make the coffee (being an even number day), Rob brought me coffee in bed, and then the phone calls started! I felt like the Queen as I sat in bed chatting to family and friends and replying to text messages from afar. For me, the best part of my birthday is that it is my day alone, I am not sharing it with the whole country, no Valentine's hype, just me, me, me! It becomes an excuse to leave the housework, have a glass of wine with lunch, forget the washing and ironing and leave the leaves piled up on the veranda! (Most of those things are a daily thing with me, but there's no guilt on a birthday!)

Happy Valentine's Week!

No, I really did mean Valentine Week!

I happened to Google ‘Valentine’s Day’ and came up with a complete week of celebration! When on earth did that happen?
Have a look below:

Rose Day  (Valentine Week – Day 1 | Celebrated on 7 February) This is obviously the day that a fortune is spent on a bunch of long-stemmed roses! Red of course. If the red are sold out or you need to take out a mortgage to pay for them, then pink will do!

Propose Day  (Valentine Week – Day 2 | Celebrated on 8 February) If she/he likes the roses, then it appears that a proposal follows today! On one knee of course! If the answer is ‘no’, then skip to 15th February!

Chocolate Day  (Valentine Week – Day 3 | Celebrated on 9 February) Here you can hide the ring in a box of chocolates and hope that she/he doesn’t: a) swallow it because a teeny diamond is all that is affordable these days or b) hate chocolates and gives the box to a friend!

Teddy Bear Day  (Valentine Week – Day 4 | Celebrated on 10 February) If b) (see above) happened, then you will need to buy a teddy bear and attach another ring, or in the case of a) attach a promissory note to re-do the ring thing once she/he has re-cycled it!

Promise Day  (Valentine Week – Day 5 | Celebrated on 11 February) See above, or promise never to buy chocolates again.

Kiss Day  (Valentine Week – Day 6 | Celebrated on 12 February) This is a freebie day as it costs you nothing…………………in theory! But is it only one kiss, or is it a day of kissing? Could be tiring with all that puckering going on!

Hug Day  (Valentine Week – Day 7 | Celebrated on 13 February) See Day 6 above! Without the puckering!

Valentine’s Day  (Celebrated on 14 February) What is left? Just hand over a card! And of course a dinner with all the trimmings!

No-one is really sure of the origin of Valentine’s Day, but it was celebrated as far back as the 1600’s in the UK. From 1750 the tradition of sending notes and cards and chocolates and flowers started, but that was celebrated on one day only and that’s how I have always thought of it.

It just shows you how out of date I really am!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Diamond Jubilee!

Rob and I spent the whole weekend, more or less, in front of the 'telly'. Not for sport (although we did loudly cheer the Stormers win over the Blue Bulls ha ha!), but to watch Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Although she became Queen on 2 February 1952, the actual Coronation took place the following year on 2 June 1953.

The Royal Family (Thanks to Wikipedia)

A reign of 60 years, and I remember Coronation Day!

Look at the BBC camera!

Die Kaapse Klopse!

Talking of Public Holidays (well I was a while ago!), remember I mentioned 'Tweede Nuwejaar' or second New Year on January 2? That is the day that hosts one of the most unique and colourful events in Cape Town's year. The 'Kaapse Klopse' or 'Cape Minstrel Carnival' is rooted deep in Cape Town's history and is traditionally the day when brightly costumed troupes take to the streets to entertain the crowds and to compete against each other. The specially designed costumes are hand made from satin and silk and can cost up to R350 each! The brighter the better though, and prizes are awarded for costumes, choirs and bands. The member’s ages range from 5 years to 80 years, and while the older members usually make the music, the younger ones dance and sing. The leader of the troupe must be agile enough to walk and dance in front and keep the pace going for hours!

Thanks to Ricardo Kleine News 24