Ninth Book Club meeting, pool and Tequila at the Phoenix bar.

It's definitely getting colder here! Winter's on it's way and although we can ride in winter, the weather doesn't get that bad but we have winter rain so it can get pretty miserable. You have to choose your days.

These are the worthy bikers who assembled for the ninth running of the Book Club last Wednesday, from left; Anton, Willie, Murray and myself. Daan was away up country, Johan was off sick and Sooi could not make it but as we have always said; it doesn't matter how many attend as long as we ride.

We enjoyed a drink and a chat at the Phoenix bar as usual and then saddled up to ride through to the Beach Club in Saldanha.

This is an attractive venue right on the beach and I wanted to discuss the September Dart run with the owner, we plan to use the venue as one of the stops on the run.

After a short break at the Beach Club we rode through to Saint Helena Bay, to the Cove Hotel which is planned as the end venue on the Dart run this year. From this you will be able to see that the book club is not just a drinking run, but that we also conduct our business during the course of the run.

We had a very pleasant afternoon, I left ahead of Murray who was still busy chatting to Anton and had a thoroughly enjoyable ride home. As I blasted away from the traffic lights at the Weskus Mall I noticed blue flashing lights in my rear view mirror, they were quite far behind me and were probably not chasing me but I fancied that they might be. 

"If they are chasing me that means that they did not get my number." I reasoned so I decided not to hang around and find out and increased my speed through the home-going traffic on the double lane road. That was an exhilarating ride! I left the blue lights far behind, as I said they may not have been after me, I was just having a bit of fun.

My favourite pub, you hear about it often in these stories, will be hosting a birthday party for me and Frank and our combined ages will be 148 years! Can you believe it?  Those of you who can make it, pop in and visit, give us a kiss and have a drink with us. It should be fun.

Janet and I are going over to the UK for just over six weeks on Tuesday so there may be a few gaps in posts here on the blog. We will certainly braai and we will drink beers but I doubt that there will be much concerning motorbikes although you never know. I will still post from over there though so stay with me.

Talking about the Phoenix bar, I went there as usual on Friday afternoon to play pool with my mates and the place was quite crowded. I enjoyed a good few games and a couple of drinks and then I got a shouted summons from Anna the owner, "You are leaving soon, you have to have a drink with us!" and a tequila shot was thrust into my hand.

From previous occasions they know that I hate tequila! There's no getting away from it though, take it like a man! Not long after that I had to have another with Eduardo and Christopher, I returned muttering obscenities to the pool table. "Guys, how the hell am I going to get out of here?" I pleaded but there was no sympathy for my plight.

Soon it was time to head home, I gathered my stuff, said goodbye to my buds and headed for the door at a brisk pace, unfortunately you have to go past the bar to get out and as I drew near I heard; "Hey Pussy, come here!"  You guessed it, another Tequila!  That party is going to be a serious "jol" and I will definitely claim one of the bunks that Eduardo has for visiting bikers.

You can easily understand why the place is my favourite, most of the customers are bikers although it is not limited to bikers, the owners are bikers and it is the home of the local Gypsy Jokers chapter, a great bunch of guys. If you have not visited it yet, make a point of doing so, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Cheers for now, the next post will be from the UK and they are heading for summer! I will miss my biking friends though.

We attend the Megaforce back patch party

Being President of a bike club means a lot of work, running a club and being responsible for organizing events takes up a lot of time but it can also mean getting some advantages that ordinary members do not get, for example I was called upon to act as "ladies tee shirt duster" during the ladies brick lifting competition at the Megaforce back patch party on Saturday. I know, right! I performed my duty with the utmost diligence.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At 13h00 thirteen members of the club gathered for a drink, along with Gypsy Jokers members who would also be attending the event at the Phoenix biker bar in Vredenburg, at about 13h30 we rode in a group a short distance down the road to the Rooikraans bar where the event was taking place.

The Megaforce brotherhood is already a national group with it's head in Pretoria, there has been a moratorium in place for the forming of new clubs and chapters so they had to wait before being able to officially form the Westcoast Chapter and wear the westcoast back patch. This period had ended and this was the occasion that we were attending.  

On our arrival "Weskus Kallie" was entertaining the crowd inside and the games were about to start in the beer garden. The joint was buzzing, most local clubs were well represented.

"Weskus Kallie"

Hot day, shade at a premium

They started off with a ladies "brick lifting" competiton and there are some tough biker ladies!

and this was where I came in. They had to do several lifts with one more brick getting added each time, the competition was eventually won by a Megaforce lady.

Janet, Murray and Kathy enjoy a joke

Nice afternoon, good booze prices

Then it was time for the official patching to take place which was carried out by the National Vice President who had come down from Pretoria for the event.

Petrus, the President was first to receive the colours

followed by Romano, the Vice President.

Sgt at arms

other officers and ladies

The proud Pres gives a short speech

after which he had to drink a strafdop!

We will be seeing these new Megaforce Westcoast back patches at all the events and jols in the Western Cape for sure, mark my words. They have already attracted a lot of new, younger members and they already have a vibrancy and dedication about them.

Congratulations guys and girls, it was a very enjoyable event and very well organized and we look forward to sharing the road and the jols with you.

Blankets and soup ingredients handed over to 'Feed a child' initiative

Winter is fast approaching this part of the world and it gets pretty cold here, with the knowledge that there are hundreds of people desperately in need of assistance, bike clubs usually hold a "blanket run" this time of the year. Earlier I had heard of a charity called 'Feed-a-child" run by a local lady which hands out blankets and does a soup kitchen, they had been advertising for people to donate blankets and soup ingredients.

I put this to the members of the club at our previous meeting and with customary biker generosity they brought a lovely pile with them to the next meeting.

I made an appointment with Anita to hand the blankets over and then posted on our whatsapp group for club members to come and join me, Murray the vice Pres brought a couple of bags of curtains and towels that had been given to him.

Anita Senekal, an international award winner, runs the charity and was very happy to receive the bikers' generous donation, however she said that she is still very far short of what is needed for this winter, still needing some 500 to 600 more blankets as well as more soup ingredients.

 

 If there are any other bike clubs out there looking for someone to help this winter, give me a shout and I'll put you in touch with her.