Something different.

We spent a lovely night in the bunker. The weather men had predicted a bit of rain and it did deliver. I was up sometime in the night to take a gout pill and heard the rain wetting Jackpot's hat. We are very pleased with our new room. 

At the 05h45 coffee break we looked out over the deck at the overcast weather. According to forecasters it was not going to change the whole day and the wind would pick up late in the day. Other than the sort of misty rain it was actually a nice temperature and not dreary. We had decided to go into PE to have a change of pace and scenery and took our time to do a bit of spit spot (cleaning). It is not a good idea to leave the dirt in the bin when one goes away, so that got priority.

I was aware of juiniors surfing competition at the beach this morning, but looking out from the deck I wondered if there were enough waves to hold the competition. I wanted to go down and have a look, so while Ingrid got onto the vacuum cleaner, I set off in Dusty for main beach and a look. One of my old school friends was supposed to be there as his son was competing. 

I missed the boys heat, but got to chat to Donald who I have not seen for approximately 26 years. Still a jolly person and he had recently suffered a shoulder operation. The waves were a little disappointing, but they were at least surfable. After about a half an hour I had met new people who have a holiday home at Cape St Francis, so maybe we will see them somewhere along the line. 

Back home Ingrid was sitting waiting and soon we had Dusty pointed toward PE. It is about an hours drive and all but one of the Stop/Go's were no longer in effect. When they work on the roads here they often have a stop/go as they need to close off 1 side of the highway and traffic can only travel on the open side, so they have to stop 1 side of the traffic for a while and let the other side go and then reverse the process. Today we had a hold up of 6 minutes which was pretty decent.

Just as we were entering town, I thought, perhaps we be clever and visit my Aunt and Uncle as their house was pretty much on the outskirts on entering the town. The navigator google mapped us and I steered Dusty toward their place. We must ahve spent a good 2 hours there just catching up a bit. They are apparently going to move pretty soon and were going in the afternoon to see if they could get a more definate date. My mother always gets on our case about visiting them and on our last visit we did not get to see them, so it was time.

Ingrid and I then drove to brothers house and he was just about to go out to visit his in laws with his son who had arrived home 2 days ago. J has just completed his degree at university and received his final result last week. His sister also passed her finals, I think for an honours degree. J had been to live in Malawi with his couzin and is gaining work experience. It was nice to see him again. We often compare J and Fleur as they are like two peas in a pod. 

Just like me, my twin brother has gout. His ankle and my toe. Lol, but not so funny! During the day the toe behaves, but at night he likes to have his say. Pills are doing the job, but they cannot heal the affected joint, only decrease the symptoms and the irritation. I had hope to be pretty much back to normal today, but it was not toe (on purpose - heehee) be.

We dropped out things and brother and J left to go visit family and Ingrid and I went for lunch. We decided to got he the beachfront and I had my thoughts on a place overlooking the ocean and the pier, but it seemed rather full, so we opted to go and see the new boardwalk mall across the road. There would be something for us there. We both had in Inflammation Juice as they call it. It was pineapple, orange, ginger, tumeric and carrot juice. Very tasty. We made it easy on the waiter and both ordered the avo and spinach with mozarella toasted sandwich on sourdough. I thought that this was fitting to break my 36 hour fast.

After lunch we felt like we needed a coffee and drove a short distance to another coffee shop in the next suburb. We were the only ones in the place and the barista said that is was late sunday afteroon and that is quite common that the customers were sparce. While we were drinking our coffees an elderly couple walked in and ordered coffee and a little snack. Scones with clotted cream and jam for him and a meusli muffin for her. 

I hear you asking? Too much information, but we stood up and Ingrid went to the toilet down the passage and the old man said jokingly, "Are you going to leave us all alone here?" Ingrid exited and I made a chirp about that we were thankful that they had come into the coffee shop as we were feeling a little lonely in the beginning. Next thing I know I am sitting down at their table and chatting to these complete strangers. After some time Ingrid re-enters the coffee shop from the other entrance and says "Oh there you are. I thought that you had gone directly to the car'. She also took a seat and we had a delightful conversation about their lives and their kids and their plans. He wants to pack up and go to the UK where they have a flat at the seaside and she is quite happy where they are as they have a network around them that fulfills their needs. We could see some similarities to our situation.

It is pretty interesting to find that people from here do not have a clue of the changes that have happened in Europe over the last few years and they see it as a Utopia. They are quite taken aback when they hear some of our stories. Old man says that he knows Holland as he travelled there frequently for work, but he knows the Holland of more than 10 years ago. It is not the same anymore. We left the coffee shop and it dawned on me that my wife was a changed woman. Maybe 5 years ago she would have made some comment about me just sitting down at a table talking to people and today she did not blink an eye and sat straight down and joined the conversation as if she had only just left the table for a short toilet break.

Back at 32 I fell into a deep sleep and Ingrid watched the last 3 episodes of her series on Netflix. I Was up for the last one and all was revealed and I did not have to watch 400 hours to find out who did it. It was Mr Plum with the candlestick in the Library!

Brother came home with wife and J and the dog. Dog goes almost everywhere with them. Speaking of dogs, Bo had bought our doggy Toby a new chew toy and had sent a video. He is quite proud on his new toy. Clever dog. Brother and family had eaten at the in laws and Ingrid and I had yoghurt with seasonal fruits. It was a good choice!

Blog and bed. My brother has been sneaky and he handed Ingrid a puzzle when they got home and she is off in the braai room with the puzzle on the pool table top piecing together the pieces. Just like her series, I might pop along when she is nearly finished and assist. Brother, the other puzzle fanatic, sneaks off every now and then to check on her progress.

To bed, to bed. This day is done.