Busy week and National Braai Day public holiday

It has been a busy week, darling friend Linda came up for her birthday which was on Tuesday and I did a Lamb potjie and Sadza for her and her son and my sister and brother in law, for those who don't know "potjie" is an Afrikaans word for the cast iron pot in which different types of stews are made and "sadza" is a stiff maize porridge which appears to be similar to American "grits". The only difference is that we take a handful and roll it into a ball and dip it into the gravy, a true test of whether it has been made properly is that it must not stick to your hand.

I learnt to make sadza a thousand years ago in Rhodesia as a young man and still enjoy making it for my friends today.

Today (Thursday) is a public holiday; Heritage Day which has turned into National Braai Day supported by our beloved "Arch"; Desmond Tutu who is known to love a braai.

Mike and Loretta, my brother in law and sister showed us how to use our bread maker, which we've had for a while but never used and the result was a wonderful loaf of bread;

We decided to start the day with an early "egg and bacon butty" for breakfast, and what a breakfast that was! There's something special about the aroma of frying bacon that gets the juices flowing.

 

 

 

That breakfast kept us going for the rest of the morning but by midday we were ready for a snack, Janet produced some garlic crumbed mussels which we all enjoyed so much that I forgot to take any photographs! The next menu item however was smoked Angel fish which I did remember;

Served with fresh brown bread it went down a treat. This fish is readily available here on the Cape west coast and I get it often, lovely for smoking it is also good baked in the oven.

We went out during the morning to see the local bikers taking part in the Heritage Day parade, bikers are prepared to give of their time to support local initiatives and this was one of them.

The bikers gather, in the centre is our Club President; Divi talking to one of the organisers, any of you who have been involved in one of these parades know how difficult it is for bikers to follow a marching band, it involves lots and lots of clutch and brake work and is very tiresome but they did a brilliant job, herewith some photos of the participants;

 Lady biker (and don't we all love a lady on her own bike?) on a late 70's model Honda, check out the whitewall back tyre!

 Divi and Carlo in the background on the Harley.

 My Bro. Gerrie, a biker from the old days in Jo'burg on his Yamaha.

 Daan on his FJR, he left his 1800 Goldwing at home.

My old rally buddy Frank on his FJR.

 Here are some pictures of the guys struggling with their clutches, trying to ride slowly behind the parade which is not what bikers are used to! Well done guys.