There has been a dearth of riding opportunities of late, nothing specific just various things conspiring to keep me off the bike. Generally the weather has been fantastic but a lot of times we have had to use the bakkie (pick-up) because we've had to carry a load or shop for things that were too big for the bike. The last occasion was a trip down to Capetown where we bought a couple of camping chairs and a twelve bottle case of our favourite weekend libation; JC LeRoux sparkling Suvignon Blanc the elixir of the early morning spa bath.
Just last weekend we were invited to a braai at friends Rene' and Bronx, they live in Durbanville which is a lovely road trip of some two hours distant and I started looking forward to some two wheel time. Come the day, a bright sunny and calm one ideal for a nice ride but unfortuantely in my "pre-flight" checks I noticed that the back tyre was looking a bit dodgy, spinning the wheel I found an area where the rubber was just staring to shred a little. In utter dismay I informed Janet that we would have to travel by car, damn!
We had a very pleasant weekend, a good braai and nice people but I missed out on a good ride - organise new rubber soonest!
Thursday an opportunity to ride through to Vredenburg arose and I phoned my friend Terence at the Bike Tyre Centre, "Yes come through I've got some nice tyres for you."
He recommended "Shinko" dual compounds, hard middle soft sides for touring bikes so I decided to try them, Terence also advised me to replace the front before any more long trips and as I'm going to a rally in Gansbaai in two weeks time I thought it better to change the front as well. The price was very reasonable at R2,700 for both so I'll see how they feel on the breakfast run with the Meeulanders on Sunday.
On the braai side of things I have been experimenting for an upcoming Seafood day that we are having, one of my trials that came out rather well was "Fish balls", (I'll bet you didn't know that fish had them?!)
I managed to get some fresh "Jacopever" from the local fish shop, de-boned, shredded, seasoned and mixed with an equal amount of mashed potatoes, then rolled into small balls and into egg, rolled in bread crumbs then into the deep fryer for a minute or two. They were as good as they look here, my friends are going to enjoy them.
For our dinner I prepared some "skewered" prawns brushed with lemon, butter, garlic sauce which we ate with Janet's excellent savoury rice, a bloody good meal.
My weekend started off well as usual with our Friday afternoon pool games at the "Rooikraans Pub", most of the time it is just me and Frank but these past two occasions have seen a good and rowdy group of biker friends joining in. What a pleasant way to spend a Friday afternoon, I love the bullshit and banter and of course the pool games, the afternoon sets me up for the weekend and I am always very disappointed if for some reason we cannot get together.
I have some rides coming up, as I said I'm going to join the locals for a breakfast run on Sunday, Janet has work to catch up on so I will drop her off on the way and collect her afterwards, we're going to Darling so it's only a short run but it should be good.
Then on Friday 14th February I'm going to the "Freedom Road" Rally in Gansbaai, this is the rally run by the Christian Motorcycle Association which used to be held in Stillbay, I think this is the second year at the new venue which is not as far so we'll see what that is like, there's a good crowd of local bikers going, something to look forward to and I'll keep you posted.
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