Christmas cheer and a Christmas wish for you all

Sunday, a lovely calm day started out with a very moderate temperature, an ideal day for riding a motorbike. We met up with other club members at Juffroushoogte for a trip through to Lambert's Bay to visit the good ladies at "Cool Kidz" safe home. The group ended up being seven members and four visitors and as we headed out onto the R27 the only downside to the whole day was that we were in our bakkie! (pick-up, ute)

The reason for this unfortunate situation was that through the kindness and generosity of biker friends and family there was quite a load of groceries and clothing to be delivered, some Christmas cheer for the hard working people at the home.

We met up with the riders at around the halfway point just before Eland's Bay for the traditional "tea break".

Floors pulling in

Anton and Rinette on the Indian and Koos

Sampie and Kathy

Heine and Gerda

Gerda pours the tea

Cheers, nothing like a nice cuppa!

We spent about an hour with Tanya and Irene and the babies at "Cool Kidz", a huge thank you to all of you who so generously donated the food, clothing and cash and helped make their Christmas just that little bit better. 

As restaurants in Lambert's Bay were fully booked we went back to Vensterklip just outside of Eland's Bay for a beer or two and something to eat. We've stopped there many times, it is a pleasant, rustic place and welcoming to bikers. The food prices are reasonable and the food is good, perhaps because it was busy we had to wait for over an hour for our food but nobody had any trains to catch so we were relaxed.

Anton and Rinette making me jealous

Riding through Dwaarskersbos

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas (and if you don't celebrate Christmas, don't take offense have a great weekend), peace love and prosperity and may the coming year bring everything that you wish for yourselves.

I sincerely thank you for supporting this blog, stay safe out there and keep the shiny side up LH&R

A backyard braai and the fourth Book Club

This past Sunday was a typical summer's day, hot and calm with very little wind to cool things down. I had contemplated taking Janet out for a ride but just the thought of getting into the riding gear gave me pause, then I thought "What about a braai?" Janet was already getting into her comfy clothes, "Bring me a beer while you're at it." - decision made. Plenty of time for the meat to defrost while I got things ready.

We both really enjoy our backyard area and have made it into a comfy refuge which promotes a feeling of "being on holiday" when we're out there relaxing or braaiing, both of which we do pretty often.

I prepared some sweetcorn miellies and hasselback potatoes which went on as soon as I lit the fire so that they would have time to cook properly, I get major comeback from Janet if my potatoes are hard or glassy! Then my chicken leg and thigh portions went on and when they were close to ready I banked up the coals and put my Karoo lamb chops on. 

If you've been reading this stuff you'll know that I love Karoo lamb chops!

Everyone knows that the fat on the lamb chops has to be caramelized and crispy so I lowered the grid and built up the coals some more. What a lekker lunch that was! My potatoes passed with flying colours too!

Wednesday saw the fourth meeting of the Book Club and I met up with Willie at the Pirate's Bar in Langebaan, actually just outside of the town and this time it was only the two of us and as Willie was on his third run he qualified for the coveted "Book Club" breast flash.
While we were there chatting I started getting Whatsapp messages from Anton and Heine asking where we were, they were on their way back from Capetown and would join us.
I heard the deep throb of an unfamiliar sounding motorcycle arriving and went outside to have a look and there was Anton with his latest acquisition;

A beautiful pearl white Indian Chieftain that he had just bought and ridden back, the photos don't do it justice, there is an iridescent gold sparkle in the paint that flickers in the sunlight, truly an amazing looking machine.

There's a lot of chrome to polish there on that big 1800cc mill!  Congratulations Anton may you enjoy many hundreds of happy miles on that lovely bike.

 Willie (left) with Heine and Gerda enjoying a drink with us at Pirate's before they all headed for home.

You can see Anton's Book Club badge on his jacket, Willie and I moved on to "Zizi's" in Langebaan for an A.B.F., I try to stay away from Langebaan in December because it is crazy crowded with tourists. I enjoyed a nice cruise home around the bay, happy after a day out on the bike with my friends.

We have a trip out to Lambert's Bay planned for Sunday where we will visit the "Cool Kidz" safe house with some supplies and a bit of Christmas cheer and I'll tell you all about that, I don't expect that many of the Club members will be going with now as it is family time.

Christmas "Bring 'n braai" at my house

Sunday we attended the biker church service at Lighuis in Vredenburg and then club members were invited to bring and braai at our house in Saldanha. For my overseas readers who might not know the concept, the "bring 'n braai" is quite popular here when large groups get together and the host doesn't have to bear the cost of supplying food and booze for everyone, they bring their own meat and drinks. Janet made two salads and Kathy brought a dish of her lovely miellie pap tert, one of my favourites made with miellie meal, cheese and bacon. (How can it be bad with ingredients like that?!)

I went down to the harbour on Friday and collected a bag of fresh mussels from Blue Ocean Mussels to give my guests a lovely starter, I lit the fires at 10h00 and they started to gather.

As host it's my duty to check quality!

They soon gathered around

The mussels were lovely, I still enjoy eating them and the fact that I can get them fresh whenever I want is one of the advantages of living in Saldanha.

After the mussels it was time to start braaing, it was a very hot day but everyone got stuck in.

Everyone braais their own meat

Sampie and Metjie

Laureen braais for Murray

Stefanie and Elsje

Nearly ready

Seeking shelter from the heat Metjie and Daan retreated into the forrest.

Henrico chatting Janet up

Festive group

Afterwards everyone sat on the verandah and we enjoyed the  comfortable banter that usually follows a good meal.

Frank, Henrico, Metjie and Gerrie

Adrie, Bev and Daan

Gerrie and Monika demonstrate the bug

and everyone has a go at it

We ended off with Janet's very popular "Millionaire's shortbread" which didn't last for very long at all. It was a great party, a happy and festive group. People started leaving after that except for Frank, I eventually kicked him out at 18h00!
Remember to click on the photos to see them full size, and if you feel so inclined don't forget to vote for this blog, just click on the button on the right. We'll speak again soon, stay safe.

More good work from the bikers on the West coast

On the same weekend as the Christmas party other bike clubs were involved in good deeds as is usually the case, on Saturday the local "Ancorr" riders went out to the old age home, "Huis Wittekruin" in Vredenburg and did a braai lunch for the residents.

First they took some of the old folks for a little bit of a ride, other members helped them to get onto the bikes, this must have been very exciting for them and a wonderful thing for the bikers to do.

After that they prepared the lunch.

Bikers love to braai anyway, here they were doing the boerewors and chops for the residents, I spotted some Brandy and Coke on the table there, that was probably not for the elderly folk!😼😼

There were a few speeches and Christmas wishes and then the food was served'

That's a good looking plate of food, very well done to the Ancorr riders for this excellent effort, this is what biking is all about isn't it? I'm sure the elderly residents of Huis Wittekruin thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

After the Biker church service on Sunday members of the West Coast Motorcycle Association (WMA) rode out to "Eiland Huis", the home for children with special needs in Saint Helena Bay and presented a cheque for R6,000 to the manager,

From left Dennis, Heine, Barbara, Mike, Cornelia and Anton present the cheque to the house manager. This was part of the funds raised at the recent WMA dayjol about which I reported earlier.

This is just a small part of the good work that bikers continue to do for their communities.

Third Book Club meet and an excellent Christmas Party

It's almost the middle of December now and the biking calendar is thinning out, not many more scheduled events left although I am sure there will be plenty more riding. We have good friends Alan and Gill coming to stay with us for a few days from December 30th, they are riding from Mossel Bay and we're going to meet up at a self catering chalet in Tulbagh, we'll stay two nights, they arrive on the Sunday for one night, during which I am sure much alcohol will be consumed, much meat will be burned and much "kak"will be spoken and then we will ride back to our house together, looking forward to that.

In the meantime the world famous "Book Club" met for the third time last Wednesday and although only three of us could make it, we had a great ride and a lot more intellectual discourse.

Anton, Daan and I met at our usual place, the Phoenix Bar and from there we had a very pleasant ride through to the "Soverby Lapa" just before Dwaarskersbos.  It started out hot in Vredenburg but as we got to the Lapa there was a chilly wind blowing in off the sea, we had a couple there and then headed back to Velddrif and to the "Wielhuis", the home of the Clique Mcc.

Anton and Daan outside the Wielhuis, another nice biker bar

It was at this meeting that Anton and Daan were presented with the coveted and highly sought after Book Club flash, it was agreed that the other two members would receive theirs on the occasion of their third meeting. 

 

Saturday was the day set aside for the Gypsy Jokers Christmas party which saw bikers from all over gathering at the Phoenix bar from 14h00 for an afternoon and night of raucous fun and camaraderie. I had been pacing myself for this one and arrived at around 16h30,

the party was in full swing and from what I could see, quite well attended although bikers would continue pouring throughout the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately there were apparently three other events on in Capetown that day which would keep quite a lot of the Cape riders away.

I went in for a cold beer and spent time meeting and greeting.

 

Anna and Odette were kept busy behind the bar and DJ Splinter, who is a member of the Meeulanders Mcc, kept the crowd happy with his excellent music, it certainly was a festive bunch of people.

In the early evening the pots, which had obviously been simmering gently from early in the day were ready and bikers were served a delicious helping of beef stew and rice, it really was very good and was a clever move giving the guys something to line the stomachs.

Capetown bikers put up tents to stay over

Then Anton arrived and bought shooters

Then the afternoon took a sinister turn as one of the Gypsy Jokers prospects was paraded through the crowd, due for a "lynching" later that evening, unfortunately I didn't get to see that. By 19h30 I decided that I had better call it a day and head for home, I had another party to prepare for the following day, a braai with the Meeulanders at home and I'll tell you about that shortly.
It had been a very pleasant afternoon, congratulations to Eduardo and the local chapter of the Gypsy Jokers for the excellent work they obviously did putting the event together, biking in the West Coast and the Western Cape is alive and well.