Voting day, a bonus midweek break

Well as I mentioned before, today was local government election day and a public holiday and our plan had been to get up early, go and vote and then spend the day either with a braai or a bike ride. Things do not always go according to plan and we woke up rather late! We took it easy and started off with one of our favourite weekend rituals; the bottle of bubbly in the spa bath where a lot of our best discussions take place, today was no exception and having noticed that it appeared to be a lovely day we decided to go out for a ride.

Having finished our ablutions I gave Frank a call to see if he was up for a ride; "Hey buddy let's ride down to the Viper lounge for a drink and then have lunch." I suggested, "Yeah ok." was his immediate reply and we agreed to meet at the Engen One Stop at 11h00.

So there we were at 10h30, our patriotic duty completed, at the One Stop enjoying a cup of Wimpy coffee and waiting for Frank to arrive.

I think I have told you already that I do not own a car, I sold it more than ten years ago now because it was just not getting used and it was taking up garage space that belonged to the motorbike. I know for a fact that if I did not have a motorbike there is no way that I would drive a car all the way to Capetown just to have a couple of beers and a lunch, I would drive to the closest restaurant. With a motorbike it's all about the journey and not the destination but with a car it's the destination via the shortest possible route.

We had a fantastic ride, I have already said that the R27 is a pretty boring road but it was a lovely day, quite overcast and cool and there was no wind, the road was not too busy and we were able to move it along at a decent pace and after an hour's riding we pulled into the parking space outside the Viper lounge.

Does that handbag really go with that outfit? At first the place was pretty quiet but it soon started filling up and we enjoyed a couple of beers and a chat with old and new friends, I made a point of telling Dieter the owner of the place that I was parking the big red machine right in front to lend the place a touch of class!

Lunch time and the guys light a braai fire in the car park, braai packs are on sale in the pub but we fancied a more formal meal.

As usual there were lots of Harley Davidsons around, here's one with the rebel flag. There are always a lot of people wandering around looking at the bikes and my BMW and Frank's Yamaha FJR attracted their fair share of attention.

Are these two at opposite ends of the scale or what? A Harley Heritage Softail and a Suzuki Hayabusa.

Just around the corner is one of my favourite restaurants; the Ocean Basket, one of many in the franchise group and we left the bikes and strolled around for lunch. Frank gets his glass of wine from our attentive waiter (sorry I didn't get his name) who looked after us very well.

I always have the same meal; the platter for one and I love it, I mean just look at that! Mussels, prawns, Angel fish fillet, calamari tubes and tentacles, chips and rice with a delicious lemon butter sauce, wonderful stuff! I ate every single scrap as well as a couple of prawns from Janet's plate that she couldn't finish, I was well satiated after that meal.

The ride back was just as enjoyable, a good fast run with the weather just as nice as it was on the way down. We are fortunate here in that although it certainly is winter now we still get lovely riding weather, and man do we take advantage of it.

How many pubs do you go to where the landlord comes out to welcome you personally? After our enjoyable ride we pulled into the parking in front of the Phoenix bar to be greeted by Danny and it wasn't long before the pool games were on the go!

Watch out once the cigar comes out Danny means business!

Here he threatens Frank with the cue, "If you beat me, I'm gonna beat you!"

Frank made this difficult black ball shot to take that particular game from Danny. We had two beers and a very pleasant couple of games of pool and then it was time to head for home.

Outside the bar we have a fairly complicated ritual of getting Janet's helmet on but we've got it taped by now. It had been a really enjoyable day, a bonus midweek break and Frank paid for the lunch too. If only more Wednesdays could be like this.