Day 68 - Not at Work

 

Lockdown Day 68 - Level 3 Day 2 - Sigh, I supposed to be at work, making a living but here I find myself at home still while many have gone back to work. All I know God is in control and I must have faith. I am good at what I do and I am starting to get responses to enquiries. Yesterday I helped a company set up their AdWords account. Today I went to the Labour Department only to be turned away because they are only opening up to new applications next week. Spoke to my lawyer about my CCMA application. Chatted with a potential client who was referred to me by a blues musician And by afternoon I found myself watching Dr John Campbell on the television. 

We enjoy John as he gives down to earth news and advice about what is happening in this sorry Corona virus world we live in. And no he is not frowning at my stinky feet as they are not stinky at all. Talking about the CoVid-19, it looks like that it is getting too close for comfort. Lynda's dad who is 85 and in a retirement village in Cape Town was taken to hospital today. He is very frail and is running a temperature. He has cancer as a comorbidity which makes his case a little worrying. Now we wait for the test results.

 

Day 9 - Dr John Campbell

Lockdown Day 9 - The weather is still miserable which helps staying indoors during lock down here in Johannesburg. Spent some time in the office with Paddy following me around being so happy that daddy's home all the time. He loves lock down. Here I am catching up what is happening in the new coronavirus world with Dr John Campbell.

Pool Sand

 

As part of getting our swimming pool back to normal, I decided that we have to change the filter sand after some advice from Dael. So yesterday I bought some pool sand, only 1 bag and should have bought 2 bags, but how was I to know, so anyway this meant we had to wash the existing sand and use it to top back up to the right level.

But before doing this we had to get most of the sand out of the filter by hand as I think that is the only way you can do it unless the pool guys have a special undisclosed method. So here is John and I taking turns scooping the sand out.

After washing evey thing, we placed the clean sandfilter back and reconnected before pouring the new sand in first. Then we added the best of the washed sand back and trashed the rest into the garden. With the filter back inline, it has started doing a better job of filtering the water. Soon we can be back to swimming again.

Jelly Babies

Well this will be second year end function of the year, the RNW staff Year End which was held at Piccolo across the border in Krugersdorp. We enjoyed the company, the atmosphere except the food took way too long. I suppose we shouldn't complain as we were a rather large table. Since I was the designated driver, I had to watch as jelly babies started flowing. Oh dear this is going to be a long night. Somehow I have to excuse myself as my bed is calling. I will leave the parting to the young ugns.

Cold Biker

The gate buzzer rang and expecting our gardener John, I went out to open up for him and found John on top of a bike. John arrived on top of his newly required Pulser 180cc motorcycle looking as cold as can be any biker can be in the middle of winter.

John the Poolman

I felt sickened whenever I glanced over towards my pool and couldn’t wait for John my gardener to arrive today for him to work his magic on my pool. From this condition back to a sparkling pool, I would like to say that John just waved his hands over the waters and it miraculously changed but he does now what he is doing, garden and pool wise. After this I might have to change his title from Gardener to the poolman.

How do you make an Espetada?

John came up from Bethlehem; no not place where Jesus was born but a similar town in the Free State that you could ask if any good thing is able to come out of Bethlehem. But John, a Madeiran from Bethlehem is family and he makes awesome espetadas. So how do you make an espetada?

First you need the right kind of beef which is cut into large cubes.

Once the meat is all cut up into good sized chunks, garlic is chopped up.

Since John doesn’t have bay leaf sticks, but these large skewers, he crushes bay leaves with the garlic.

Course salt is poured onto the garlic bay leaves and is mixed together.

The meat is then skewered onto the large skewers that John carries around with him. I don't think John goes anywhere without his large skewers although I don't think he would have been allowed to take them when he visited Madeira last year.

Once the beef are all loaded, the salt mixture is then rubbed onto the meat.

The espetadas are then placed onto a hot grill and in no time juicy cubes of meat are ready to eat. The not too over done espetadas are scrumptious. A little on the salty side for me but I love putting the hot meat on a freshly buttered roll and uhmmm... mouth watering yummies.

Iconic Christmas

Family means a lot to me even though I am not one who enjoys too much family company but on Christmas Day family means the most to me especially big family gatherings. During today’s Christmas lunch at Marco and Robynne’s home, Robynne handed me her phone to take a photo of the family and this is the iconic photo taken.

From left to right are Marco, Shekinah, Kojak, John, Joshua, Bradley, Dael, Lynda, and Robynne all in different poses. Sadly Hilton, Matthew, Rebekah and I were out of the photo. Hopefully next year I will rectify that.

Hey Granddad, why did you leave me out?

So as for my family pictured above and those who are not, we wish you all a meaningful Christmas with much peace, joy and most of all, LOVE in abundance.

John

We have just started our second week in our new home, some sense of order is started to take shape around the still unpacked boxes.

John, shown above, was the previous owner’s gardener and since he already knows the garden and we've been told that he is a swimming pool wizard, we decided to give him a try. Just in time as the pool is in need of some attention after a week of neglect while we have been trying to sort our lives out.

Scooter Rally at Hartbeespoort Dam

It all started this morning with coffee at Scoots in Fourways and a phone call to get Bruce out of bed at 08:30. Five intrepid riders set out to join SA Scooters' 4th Scooter Rally through the small town of Hartebeespoort which is situated next to the dam wall of Hartebeespoort Dam. From left to right in the above photo is myself representing the Posers SC on the black Vespa ET4, Bruce from Aces SC on the copper plated Vespa P200E, Shawn from Vesparados SC on black Vespa Sprint, John on a silver LML Star Deluxe and Joe from Aces SC on a cream Lambretta TV175.

We set out on a leisurely ride north, had breakfast at a bikers dive then joined about 300 other scooters for the ride through Harties which ended up at a resort just outside the town. Here the SA Scooters had organized scooter soccer, a barrel race, a slowest race, a longest wheelie, an oval race and the most beautiful scooter competition. Two other Posers from Pretoria, Charlie on a Vespa GT250 and her husband Dudley on a Vespa P200E, joined us at Harties just before the mass ride. There weren’t as many scooters as last year but there were many more Vespas this time with our numbers boosted by about 10 Vespas from Roodepoort.

The funniest yet scariest part of our ride into the country side was right at the beginning when we stopped at a fuelling station Broadaces Shopping Centre and the attendant started filling Bruce's P200E not into the tank but into a hole in the frame. With about approximately three litres of fuel flowing over the engine and hot exhaust onto the floor before the attendant realized his mistake.

After the scooter rally Bruce, Shawn and Joe headed for a B&B near Skeerpoort while Charlie and Dudley returned to Pretoria and John and I back to Johannesburg. I'll post some images onto a Facebook album soon.

Bonny and Clyde

Bonny and Clyde, well not quite but one out of two aren't bad. I sound like a old song by Meatloaf. Anyway these two, Bonny and John, are friends of mine who are engaged to be married next year. After picking up Matthew we all met at Cresta Shopping Mall to book for the Barnyard and afterwards went for drinks and naturally supper.

One circle

In times like these I have surrounded myself with circles of friends. This is one of them, Yvonne, Dennis, John, Bonny, Jacqueline, Morne and Debbie. My work contract is uncertain and I'm moving into the cottage.

Deadline creeping closer

While my deadline was ever so closer and I find myself about halfway through. This morning I received an SMS from Willie last night that my photo, Early bird which is on the Gautrain website was displayed on TV. He said that it was on some Kyknet programme about the Gautrain. The deadline did not stop me going to BBC this morning. At BBC I met my three friends Petra, Rob and John.

Maurizo

Ah, I have not seen Maurizo for a long time. He has been away for a while. He joined us at BBC to have a Men’s Breakfast. It was good to sit down and chat with him over a scrumptious breakfast. Behind him to the left are Trevor, the back of John and Gary with his “What a Potjie” t-shirt. On the right, I am not sure who the person with his back to me is except for Jason on the far right.

Father Ted

Spring is in the air with the expected last cold front on its way. I started the day admiring all the flowers on my way to the Men’s Ministry. Here is Ted from the men’s group with John in the background. Afterwards we dropped Matthew off at the Youth Mountaineering Club of South Africa practice climb and went off to the bank and Post Office. Later on in the day we watched the Springboks kick some Aussie butt and took Maxy to dog training.

Four moods in anticitation

Rachel, Petra, Rob and John

Saturday Men's Group

Back: John and Doug
Front: David and Frank

Three wise men

John, Keith and Tom

Meeting of old friends

Daphne, John and Beryl

The Launch of Metal Cross

From Left to right: Nic, Nigel, Maurizio, Rob (hidden), Frans, Douglas (hidden),
Glen (hidden), John, Keith, Tom, Merville, Leon, Dave, Wayne and Frank