"Meeu-nes" the Meeulanders' new braai at "Wingerd"

It has been a while since my last post but I'm afraid that nothing much has happened lately on two wheels and now as we head deeper into winter it's only going to get worse!

I mentioned a while ago that Janet and I have joined the Meeulanders mcc and last Thursday we attended the official opening of the indoor braai at the "Wingerd" pub and disco, the "Wingerd" is the adopted venue for the club's monthly meeting which takes place on the last Thursday of every month and it usually takes the form of a braai after the meeting, there are a couple of outside braais but as we are now moving into winter these will not be used or useable so Div., the club president initiated the building of an indoor braai in the bar which we would use and which could also be available to customers of the "Wingerd".

Div has recently been voted in as Pres for the second term, testament to his ability and he was certainly very proud and happy at the way the braai had turned out.

As soon as the braai was built it was taped off and closed to make sure that the Meeulanders would be the first people to use it, afterwards the "Wingerd" could use it for customers.

The club members started arriving from around 19h00 and the bar started doing a good trade, which for a Thursday evening must have been a bonus, in fact William, the owner gave each member of the club their first drink for free!

With much fanfare the braai was unveiled, "Meeu nes" - Seagull's nest, the Meeulander's emblem is a seagull in flight and as the club was sixteen years old Div decided that the person who drew the number sixteen from an ice bucket would be the one to light the first fire.

 It actually took ages before the number 16 came out, it seemed like Div was walking around for a long time  getting people to draw a number.

Here the newest member of the club has a go but it was eventually Linicia van den Berg who drew the lucky number,

and got to light the first braai fire in the Meeu nes, hopefully the first of many festive braais.

After that it was socialising, partying like only bikers know how to do, but I knew that it would be ages before they would start to braai and I work early so there was no way we were going to stay, also William was starting to pass shooters around!

 It became a very enjoyable social event and the heat from the fire was really heating up the room, this was definitely going to become a real benefit to the pub, if not as a braai but as a warm fire for the cold winter evenings.

Look at these two bikers; Daan and 'Cois (pronounced "Soy"), I am proud to call these two solid guys my friends and if you, reading this, are a biker you will have friends like these two guys and if you're not a biker and you don't know people like this, your loss I'm afraid - bikers are good people.

 The fire was built up and the bikers partied, it was just after 20h00 when I took this last picture and there was no way that we could stay for the braai, but luckily we had eaten before we arrived because I knew that it would be a late night. They were using "Rooikrans" firewood and from the size of that fire I think I could have gone back there and braaied steaks for lunch the next day! We bade our friends farewell and sensibly headed home, leaving them to their late evening braai. I hate being sensible but my alarm goes off very early in the morning and I have learnt from bitter experience.

Well done Div and the Meeulanders, our new club, for a very enjoyable social evening.