Regte, egte braaivleis!

Today was a lay preacher’s Sunday again, which relieved Nick of his duties for the day. He left at the normal time to get to Sandy Bay, because Teddy was preaching there and needed a musician. He was home by 10.30 though, and then we launched into our plan for the day which was to have a braai. By 11 he had the fire going, and I sat outside crocheting while Nick did some chipping away at some plaster, to uncover the red stones underneath, by the kitchen window. I advised him that he should not really be undertaking such work on a Sunday, but he said he enjoys it so it’s not work – it was relaxing for him. We had our BBQ with potato salad, pineapple, tossed salad (with actual fresh tomato, lettuce and feta), t-bone steaks, and boerewors. It was such a great experience having a braai for a Sunday lunch! I don’t think we’ve had it that way since being here, where it used to be almost a weekly occurrence in SA, with friends or family. I have to share the potato salad story with you though. You see, the local potatoes tend to be wormy. When I’m peeling them raw, I have to bore in quite deep to get rid of the worms, but after boiling the potatoes in their jackets as one does for potato salad, the worms come out quite easily. You can actually pull them out in one piece, although of course they are cooked. One particular potato had a whole worm family, including grandparents and second cousins twice-removed. We only got about one or two usuable cubes from that one. I didn’t tell Nick until afterwards, so he and the boys didn’t think anything was unusual.

After the braai and cleaning up, we mucked about the house for a while until it was time to go to Jane’s house for Zara’s party. I could kick myself for not taking the camera! There were about 20 or more kids, and although Jane had hired a jumping castle, it was raining for a large part of the afternoon, so the kids were in and out the house, utter pandemonium and noise. A lot of the parents stayed, so there were those extra bodies milling about too. Fortunately Jane has a huge house, with two reception rooms downstairs, and a large covered veranda around the front and side. She had loads of food prepared, so it was actually very nice. The kids did eventually get a chance to jump on the castle during a break in the weather which was super fun for them.

The RMS is now about 9 days behind schedule, still in the UK, something to do with the turbo blowers giving out in the Bay of Biscay. It seems they might have to actually cancel one of the voyages, because it doesn’t seem possible that they will be able to make up the time. No one really knows at this point what’s going to happen. Apparently it was out of commission for three months once for repairs!! Let’s hope that this doesn’t repeat itself.