Wind, stolen manhole covers and great food

The west coast has been very windy now for what seems like bloody ages, during November we lost two production days because it was just too windy to take the boat off the mooring, the southerlies have been pumping strong and that makes riding unpleasant too.

It seems to be never-ending, but at least there are some people who are enjoying the windy conditions, apparently Langebaan is crowded with foreign kite-surfers at the moment. This was the scene on the beach outside Pearly's restaurant last Tuesday afternoon when Janet and I sat sharing a bottle of wine on the veranda.

 Our kitchen is being renovated so the place is a mess and we have been eating out, a lot. We are fortunate to have a plethora of great, good and mediocre retaurants within a forty kilometer radius and Tuesday dinner was at A & J's Chinese at the Laguna Mall, delicious prawns in garlic and pepper and sizzling pork ribs with stir fry rice, lovely.

Today, Tuesday, was a public holiday and after a hectic day on the farm yesterday with the southerly pumping and customers clamouring for mussels, 2,25 tons of the stuff, it was wonderful to just stay in bed this morning.

We awoke to a calm day! Sun shining and no wind, can it be? Could we go for a ride? At about 10h30 we got the bike out and saddled up but already the wind was starting to blow again and as we headed out of town it was blowing strong and picking up. Bugger! We rode through Vredenburg and out to "Juffroeshoogte" where we had a beer, Janet suggested that as we were already out on the bike we might as well ride through to Langebaan for lunch and then go home, I had it in my mind to go back to the Oystercatcher so off we went.

By then the wind was stronger, pushing us around but there were a couple of other bikers out and about. I was hungry as we parked out side the restaurant.

I had intended riding a bit further than this but it really wasn't pleasant and this is one of the better restaurants anyway. It is owned by Charles who used to be the chef at Driftwoods so he knows his seafood.

 My excellent starter; deep fried calamari tubes and tentacles, if you've been reading my stuff you may remember that this is what I had the last time and it was just as good again. Janet had garlic butter snails and declared it to be one of the best she'd ever had.

 My main course, seared Norwegian Salmon, was absolutely delicious and as you can see it was served with wasabi and Chinese mayonnaise which as we all know is the best mayo in the world! 

Janet's main, curried chicken and prawns on tagliatelli was huge, in fact we have a meal of leftovers for tonight, and it too was outstanding. A really enjoyable meal of two starters, two mains, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and then two glasses of the same because the contents of the bottle seemed to have evaporated, came to just over R520 with the gratuity, excellent value in my book and we rode home replete and happy.

However this euphoric feeling was dispelled as we rode into Saldanha and saw that some scumbags had stolen up to twelve manhole covers from the side of the road heading into town. Obviously these covers would be too heavy for any one person to lift out of their frames and into a vehicle,

 these gaping steel-framed holes are in the rain channel right next to the road and have created a very dangerous situation. A car running through one of these would be seriously damaged, but a motorcycle hitting one of these would be too horrible to contemplate, a fact which is obviously of no concern to the oxygen thieves who removed them.

I reported this to the municipality immediately we arrived at home, I hope they do something before there is an accident. Anyway, in spite of this and in spite of the wind, a very pleasant day. Back to work tomorrow and still the wind pumps angrily outside my window.