Problem solving.

Not much of a story for yesterday. We were up with the sparrows again and drank the compulsory cup of cofffe out on the porch at brother's house. It was a pretty decent day outside. Brother and wife left for work and we left to go down to the beachfront and to Dad's to pick him up for breakfast. It was a short drive from his place to the Boardwalk where we sat upstairs on the balcony looking over the pier and ocean. Really nice setting to begin the day. And the breakfast was good and healthy. Good coffee and we sat for quite a long time chatting about a few different topics and it really was pleasant. Alf, our waiter was on the ball.

I finally called time out after receiving a call from my daughter Fleur who was filling in in the practice for Bo. There was an odd problem with the computer system and I got a bit panicky as this was odd. My analytical mind was going at the speed of light and I needed to get back to my laptop to see wtf was going on. I was already contemplating calling Nerd 911 to help us with the problem. On the way home the cogs and gears came up with the solution and I was hoping that it was going to be as simple as I was hoping. Thankfully it was. Somehow one of the user accounts had been corrupted and it was a question of renaming it back to the original and Bob was my Uncle! Problem fixed in 2 minutes. I guess it was good that we had the drive to brothers as I could analyse the different options. Sorted! Packing to come back to Jackpot was a 2 minute affair as we had only packed for 2 nights and it was shove and close. Done. 

Problem 2 of the day was not a surprise as we knew that Ingrids data bundle on her phone was going to expire. I was prepared to purchase a new bundle for her and had got the required steps from the Cellular provider guy when I purchased my new bundle a few days ago. It was going to be easy. Dial *137#, option 1, option 1, purchase. Not so fast buddy. "You have insufficient funds to purchase". mmm. How and where can I load funds? Thankfully the cellular shop is on the way back to Jackpot, so we were planning a stop there to get this sorted out.

We stopped off at a place that we had seen the day before on our hunt for a coffee shop that was open after 2pm, the Food Lovers Market. Yikes, I think that I could have spent my whole salary and yours there. The produce all looked fabulous. We had to keep our hands on the trolley to stop ourselfs from making rash purchases. If I was going to shop for a week or month I know where I am going!

On the way home Ingrid asked if I still knew which turnoff we needed to take to miss the stop/go traffic control. On our trip into town they had closed off the on and off ramps for our usual bypass, so it was fortunate that she thought of it on the return journey as I would have driven through to the usual turnoff and had to continue straight into the jaws of the stop/go system and probably added 30-45 minutes extra to our time. Good navigator girl!

The bypass route takes us around the back of Jeffreys Bay and past the mall. When Jeffreys came into sight I could see that there was a bit of swell and waves and decided to detour through the town and go to the beach, Super Tubes as this is a world famous surfing mecca and with good waves we could watch some good surfing. Not only were we treated to some good surfing, there was a small pod of dolphins just behind the waves. They circled the same area for all of the time that we were there, so they probably had a school of fish that they were feasting on. We were not the only people enjoying the sights before us. Marvel at our Mother Nature! Magnificent!! It is difficult to tear oneself away as you think, 1 more sighting (when the breach the surface) and then we will go. I think that we said that about 20 times.

Into Dusty and off to the Cellular shop. It took longer to wait in the queue than to get the new bundle sorted and loaded onto Ingrid's phone. Nathan is very efficient and polite and helpful. He is an asset to that shop. I could see that Ingrid was antsy and I was eager to get home, but this turned out to be more of a hangry type of thing for both of us. I did not want to go sit down and order lunch, but I knew that Ingrid needed it and afterwards it was just what I needed too. Boy that changed our mood for the better.

Back to Jackpot for a bit of an afternooner and later Ingrid gave me the look when I announced that she must go get ready. What for? For our swim. of course. 1,2,3 bikini and towel and we set off for the beach. Just like in Jeffreys the surf was up here too. Nice big clean waves and of course there were a lot of surfers in the water. I took the boogie board out of the car boot and Ingrid said, not for her. As per usual the last week or so, the water is pretty cold. Still not freezing, but chilly enough. Once my head has gone underwater I find that I am pretty okay witht the colder water. I had the boogie board and caught a broken wave to shore. Ingrid had said that she was not going to board, but I passed her the board and she was like , no man! I called her wave, This one, and off she went to the sea shore. One more, one more, one more! My wife was enjoying her session and I was enjoying watching her.

It really is fantastic how that cold and chill changes the body chemistry and the skin tingles, but the mind is refreshed and you feel light and alive! We love our afternoon swim! 

After our shower and glass of wine Ingrid's phone peeped with the message that load shedding was going to start in an hours time. We had not thought of load shedding and it was going to be a difficult one, from 7-9pm. Our dinner plans involved the use of the oven for our potatoes. Long story short, we did not get enough time on the potatoes and they were half raw when load shedding started. TIme for candles and our little led light. TIme to alter the menu. Mushrooms on toast with Hallumi cheese. Toast I hear you ask? No electricity and yet toast? Yip toast made in the frying pan. It was not what we had planned in our heads, but it filled the gap.

The TV still works on the battery so we watched an episode of gold rush white water. Simple TV. When the lights came back on we were ready for bed.  We had not really noticed that load shedding has stopped as we had all the light switches on off but When I was checking that all of the windows and doors were shut and locked I noticed the light outside the garage was on. Ping. We have electricity. Up to bed and although we were expecting some rain last night, we chanced it as rain on the tin roof is normally quite soothing. Well, it was for a while. Down to the bunker for a wonderful nights slumber!