Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, these are the ramblings and musings of an (upper) middle aged biker and if you enjoy braais, (barbeques) beers and motorbikes then hopefully you will enjoy what Janet and I do; we do lots of braais, we drink lots of beer and we tour South Africa on our motorbike, which at the moment is a BMW R1200RT. Join us, read about what we do and please leave us your comments.



Saturday, December 21, 2013

A quiet and simple meal, but a braai nonetheless

Saturday, a bit windy but warm and sunny so I decided to have a braai. I've been taking flak from a couple of my friends since I bought my gas braai for the back veranda so I decided to let them see that if the weather's good I still do a traditional braai. I didn't invite them, I just let them see.
My contention is that with the gas braai outside on my back veranda I can still do outside cooking even if the weather's bad and in fact Janet used the gas cooker to do her amazing sweetcorn fritters.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here. I have just recently bought a new braai to replace an old one that Janet and Linda managed to ruin with a huge bonfire, but enough of that, so I lit a big fire in it this morning to burn off all of the new paint and to get it ready for cooking lunch.
It's a handy size, made out of half an old geyser with a grid and legs that fold up and can be secured underneath and for which I paid R480 - a bargain for me because I am not capable of making something like that.
Once my fire was ready I slapped on a lovely slab of lamb rib, my favourite meat. I am a meat eater, I eat all meat but I really think that lamb is the one.
Once the rib section was browned well on both sides I took it off and sliced it into individual ribs,
 These then go back onto the grid to be seasoned and "crisped", I used Aromat, garlic flakes, green onion spice, mixed herbs and lemon pepper and kept turning them until they were nice and crispy. We ate the ribs as a starter and then I braaiied a lovely piece of boerewors which Linda got for us, absolutely delicious, boerewors is a South African staple and you will hardly ever find a braai here without some boerewors sizzling on the grid as the juices drip onto the coals.
In fact there is nothing quite like the smell of boerewors on the braai to get the taste buds tingling and in many a supermarket car park the smell of "boerie" greets you on most Saturday and Sunday mornings as vendors greet the morning shoppers offering them the ubiquitous boerewors rolls.
So lunch was a relatively simple affair today, but it was delicious as those type of affairs often are. We relaxed on the back veranda and enjoyed each others company, drank some good wine and partook of a simple meal and we'll do it again soon you can bet on that!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Eye Candy at West Coast Yamaha

Nothing much been happening lately bike-wise, we have been to Capetown on two consecutive weekends but they were both shopping/collecting trips so we were not able to go on the bike. Altogether now..........."Awwww"!
Whilst down there last weekend we visited the famous "Chappies" (Chapman's Peak Hotel) for lunch and this machine was parked outside;
a rather cool looking trike but what was interesting was that it had a CFG registration number, that is the Saldanha/Vredenburg area where I live, but I have certainly never seen this one before. The hotel dining room and veranda was absolutely crowded so I didn't see anyone who could have been the owner, curiouser and curiouser.
Last Friday afternoon we started the weekend off with our usual pool games at the Rooikraans pub, I met Frank at the West Coast Yamaha shop beforehand to check out the new stock just arrived, new motorbikes are serious eye-candy.
A brace of aggressive looking R1s, just look at that face! These things look fast just standing still.
The new 1300FJR, I rode one a couple of months ago about which I bragged in an earlier post, what a powerful sports tourer that one is!
The very tall 660 Tenere' standing next to it's bigger brother the 1200 Super Tenere', the latter machine I also rode and wrote about some time ago, a very nice machine.
That 660 is a very interesting bike but its sales must be restricted by the fact that it is incredibly high, I am tall and I was able to put my feet flat on the ground on either side of the bike but my legs were almost straight, anyone slightly shorter would have a serious problem, I'm not sure how I feel about that machine, maybe I'll get a chance to ride one, it's a nice looking bike for sure.
It seems like Stephen, one of the Meeulanders Club members who has appeared in photographs several times in various stories here was also impressed with the new models, he is selling his cruiser and has bought a new Super Tenere'. Congratulations brother, enjoy!
I feel a serious need to get back out onto the road on two wheels, maybe this coming weekend?

Friday, December 6, 2013

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela - Tata Madiba - 1918 to 2013 Rest in Peace Tata.
A sad day, 6th December 2013, the day I heard that Madiba had passed away. A day of sadness, relief, gratitude and hope; sadness obviously, relief that his own suffering was over and he was at peace, gratitude for the enormous legacy that he has left us and hope that all South Africans can live up to that legacy.
Who could ever forget that amazing moment? What an incredible man he was and we South Africans are the beneficiaries of his legacy, all of us.