Day 18 of 35 days in quarantine

Halfway? I certainly hope so. I'm going shopping tomorrow morning, there's something to look forward to! Sad isn't it? Under normal circumstances I try to avoid going shopping. Will we ever get back to the old "normal" again? I think things are going to change.

Let me tell you about the braai we had yesterday, I haven't got anything else to talk about and it was a good one even if I do say so myself. I would have loved to have had a couple of mates around too though.

Cheers, happy Easter!

Fire on the go, ons gaan nou braai

I should have been smiling in that picture, but with concentrating on setting up the camera, getting back to my chair, picking up my glass and holding my stomach in I just didn't have time!

First on the coals some lamb's tails, with garlic, lemon pepper and rosemary and braaiied crispy.

These make a delicious starter which we had with our second last bottle of Fernskloof Pinotage Rose' which we bought a long time ago on one of our trips, I cannot remember exactly where we bought it but on the back label is it states;

"Fernskloof cellar is situated in the arid Prince Albert Valley. The name takes after a shady kloof that is abundant with beautiful ferns and stalactites. This has been the home of the Le Grange family for the past six generations. Our wish is that this wine will be an enjoyable experience for you. Here's to health and to all things significant and worth toiling over."

It certainly is a lovely wine, a medium dry rose', neither of us enjoy sweet wine. I know the Prince Albert Valley area having ridden there many times, I hope I get to go there again.

I built the fire back up and went to the kitchen to make up a batch of "Sadza", it is made with maize meal and elbow grease and was a Rhodesian staple, now Zimbabwean if they can get it. When I say "elbow grease" I mean that the traditional way of making it requires stirring small quantities of the powder at a time into boiling water until it gradually thickens up. You have to stir continuously while adding the meal as well as other flavouring, a good bit of salt and I also use Aromat spice. 

The idea is that the sadza is stiff enough to take a bit in your hand, roll it into a tight lump without it sticking to your hand, that is the test of a good sadza, and then you dip it into the gravy. We eat a bit like that before putting it on a plate, it is particularly good with boerewors and a tomato and onion relish, which is what we did.

 Karoo lamb chops on the coals and some nice local boerewors on the flame, time to eat.

The finished meal, a collaboration between us, clockwise from top; Karoo leg chop, pork and beef boerewors, bottom centre an egg/mayonnaise salad - a particular favourite of mine and bottom left the sadza doused with a tasty tomato and onion relish. It really was good, we love a braai and let me tell you that is not unusual here in South Africa, the braai is a way of life.

Cheers for now, stay home. If you want to see the pictures full size, click on them.

Day 17 of 35 days in quarantine

The quarantine period has been extended until the end of April, so far. So now we have eighteen days to go instead of three. I was expecting it, I did not think the original three weeks would be enough but it is getting tiresome and during the course of this coming week we are going to run out of booze! That's going to be serious, we can go to the shops to buy food and essentials but bottle stores remain closed. Cigarettes are also not being sold, I fail to see the logic in this, if people have to stay home let them be calm and happy! We'll manage I suppose, at least we don't smoke.

We have another problem coming up though, we are/were in the middle of making arrangements to emigrate to the UK, our house has been sold although the sale has not gone through yet we were supposed to have been out of the house at the end of April, I have delayed this until the end of May now to give us time to sell our stuff, we can't do anything until people are able to move around. I don't know what's going to happen if this lockdown is extended further. Oh well it's out of our hands, we'll just have to wait and see.

The Meeulanders President called for another check in to make sure that we are all good so we dutifully stood in front of the camera again, I am really going to miss these people and the way things are going I am now wondering if I'll be able to ride with them again. My club brother Murray is buying my bike and he's going to want it soon, I really hope to get a ride or two in during May before handing it over.

Pres. Anto and Rinette

Sampie and Kathy

Roleyn and Gilbert

Jeanre' and Jannie

Antoinette and Willie

Laureen and Murray

Linicia and Sooi

Stephen

Stefanie and Henrico

Us

Heine and Gerda

Cheers my family, all good so far. It seems like ages since we have been together. We need to ride! I need to go shopping again this week so I will go up to the Mall on the bike, it's not very far, about ten kms so a twenty km round trip - looking forward to that!

Stay safe everyone, stay home as far as possible and keep washing your hands. Strange times we are living through at the moment and one wonders what the world will be like when we come out of this, what social habits will change, we'll see.

Day 9 of 21 days in quarantine

Going back briefly to day 8; our Club President, Anton called for a "Virtual drink together" at 18h00, we were to take a selfie of ourselves drinking a shooter and post the photos to our facebook page. It turned out to be a wonderfully uplifting experience. I have mentioned that I have been missing my mates, my club brothers and this was just what I needed, it wasn't quite the same as being in their company playing pool and talking shit or riding with them but it affirmed the brotherhood and the camaraderie upon which I thrive. These are the photos that were posted;

Pres Anton and 1st lady Rinette

Kathy and Sampie

Laureen and Vice Murray

Prospects Gilbert and Roleyn

Sooi and Linicia

Janet and myself

Stefanie and Henrico

Antoinette and Willie

Bev and Road Captain Daan

Metjie and Adrie

KTM and Stephen

Heine and Gerda

Johan aka Koos aka Cactus Jack

Most of the members are shown here, some couldn't take part for various reasons such as Uncle Frank who is so technologically challenged that his old Nokia phone is only good for calls and sms and he won't change it. We are assured that he had a shooter at the prescribed time though. Great people.

Now back to today, Saturday 4th and Cimeron Mcc called for a National Bikers Braai Day so Janet and I took part - as I said; having a braai anytime is no hardship.

We had our colours on as requested at the start but it was too hot to keep them on, just for these pictures and then we took them off. "Ons gaan nou braai!"

I started with marinated baby chicken on low heat, gotta cook them right through, nobody likes their chicken medium rare. I built the heat up after a while to brown them nicely on the outside.

The chicken goes into the aluminium (aloominum for my American friends) pan to rest and finish cooking while I built the heat up for Karoo lamb chops.

Karoo lamb chops

Veranda furniture's been sold

The lamb chops have to be done properly with the fat nice and crispy, meanwhile Janet got the sides ready and we had a very good braai lunch. I didn't have any boerewors unfortunately so that has gone on the list for my excursion next week, a braai is not considered a proper braai without "boerie" but it was damn good even if I do say so myself.

Day 8 of 21 days in quarantine

Apologies for not posting on day 6 and day 7 but there was really nothing to write about. It's getting a bit boring. I posted this on my facebook page this morning;

~"It's day 8 and I have a bit of cabin fever, it wouldn't be so bad if the weather was terrible but it's not, it's beautiful and my motorbike is standing idle, covered up. I would love to ride.
Today I would be going to the Phoenix bar to play pool with my mates in the afternoon and Sunday would have been our monthly breakfast run. Truth be told I am missing the company of other men, don't misunderstand me Janet and I get along very well, we do not fight or argue and we do talk shit quite often but the banter and bullshit that goes on between men is something different.

13 days to go! (Hopefully, what if they extend the lockdown?)"~

I got a lot of sympathetic likes and comments, it seems the guys are feeling it. This is unprecedented, being retired I do stay at home a lot but up until now I have been able to go out when I wanted to. Now we're being forced to stay at home and I don't like it. It's not only me though, it's affecting my brothers too, just look at these pictures that came up on facebook this morning;

Club Pres Anton caught doing housework

While V.P. Murray was out riding

 We have a "Biker's National Braai Day" tomorrow which we're all going to get involved in, this was suggested on one of the biker pages; have a braai at home at lunch time and post pictures of yourselves wearing your colours. It'll be fun and we don't need much of an excuse to have a braai anyway.

I'm probably going to have to venture out sometime during the coming week, out into the virus infested badlands. I will take my life in my hands in order to secure much needed supplies for our survival. It's going to be hell but it has to be done.

High tech PPE consists of a mask made out of one of Janet's shoulder pads with a panty liner stuck on the inside, and no it's not going to stick to my moustache! Wish me luck. Stay safe.

Day 5 of 21 days in quaratine

I had to take the garbage out this morning, what excitement! As I wheeled the bin out I saw a neighbour about five houses down doing the same and we waved to each other, then the guy directly across the road came out and I shouted "Good morning" to him, he called "Morning, morning." back and I retreated into the sanctuary of my own home, wow! Excitement at the social contact welling in my chest.

Janet and I had a serious discussion this morning about our wine stock. After making calculations based on the empties that went out with the garbage we will run out before the 17th April if we carry on imbibing at our current rate! Unfortunately alcohol is not considered a necessity so during lockdown we cannot buy more, we are going to try and reduce our consumption to two glasses per night at dinner time. Let's see how that goes, I'm not very confident but as I said we have beer and whisky. I think when the bottle stores re open the queue will be longer than it was on the day before the lockdown!

Bikers on social media are calling for a 30 second engine rev at 16h00 today to show our solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus, I am in two minds about this, on the one hand I'm happy to start my bike up for the battery's sake and I will rev it but on the other hand us bikers already get on Joe Public's nerves with noisy antics. They will not have read about why this is happening because it has been passed around all the biker pages which they do not read, so as far as they are concerned it will just be "those bloody bikers making a noise again!" We'll see what dominates the pages later and in the morning.

A far more appealing notice went out a little while ago; Cimarron MCC in Capetown has suggested a National biker braai day on Saturday 4th April, we will braai in our own backyards and take selfies at our braai wearing our colours which we can post later on facebook. We will definitely take part in this, we enjoy a braai anyway.

The day has passed quietly but we read with dismay and a twinge of trepidation that one coronavirus death has taken place in the Saldanha Bay area. Stay in your homes people.

I was going through my old photographs, scanning and downloading from old albums so I thought I would post a few here. These are from my time in the BSAPolice force in  the then Rhodesia, which incidentally at that time was the breadbasket of the African continent and which now is Zimbabwe, the basket case. I digress, this is where my love of motorcycles began;

In those days the girls wore mini skirts

Two Traffic Department Constables on Yamaha RD350s

Motorcycle escort with BSA 650s

Patrol Officer and Constable

My late friend Paul Weinel on the Matchless 500

District Policeman at base camp on patrol

Those were the days and I am proud to have served in one of the best Police forces in the world.