wedding in paradise: part one

part one: the getting there

10.
10 is the number of vehicles it took to get the 4 of us and our camping trailer/tent to and from my youngest brothers wedding.

Our Jeep literally blew a gasket 2/3 of the way there. Leaving us hot and pissed off at a small filling station late afternoon Friday. It felt bleak until we realised that the carloads of dread-locked ukulele-playing smiling people pulling in around us were going the same way - to the wedding!

We shared orange ice lollies and break-down stories and 'how do you know so 'n so's' until my middle brother and sister-in-law pulled in - unlikely cavalry in their small red car stuffed full of hired sound gear.

The garage was managed by a small town gem, a friendly guy who seemed to want nothing more than to get us back on the road. He quickly arranged for us to hire a buddy's big Colt bakkie for the rest of the journey and enthusiastically started helping to unhitch the trailer.
When his eagerness resulted in the jockey wheel coming off in his hand, he quickly arranged for another buddy to pop round with his welder, while Husband looked ready to blow a gasket of his own and my brother and I stifled an extremely ill-timed and unadvised fit of the giggles.
This was back when we were still laughing.

We elected to send the girls on ahead with my brother. We knew Granny was waiting at the wedding destination and as it was getting late and we'd been on the road for 4 hours by then we thought it best to get them out of the equation.
Thank god we did.

Having swapped the girls for all the sound gear they set off, the welder got to work and shortly after our back-up vehicle arrived.
It was ... dodgy, to say the least.
Back on the road we wiggled and jiggled, reminding ourselves that we didn't have much further to go, grateful for being back on the road.

The sun was properly setting as we turned off the tar and on to the winding gravel road - a good 45 minutes 'til we got there.
Maybe longer, we thought, as the Colt repeatedly jumped out of gear on the corrugated dirt, the trailer sliding and drifting alarmingly behind us.
Things were tense, and stifling hot in the cab, all the windows closed against the billows of dust, visibility poor and tinged blood-red from the last of the dusk. I was grateful I couldn't really see the immense drop at my side.

Up the last big hill, up and up, gears jumping, engine whining, trailer balking. We knew the Colt could do it but 'can you see the needle for the temp gauge?' Husband shouts above the rattle.
Up and up we push, both his hands on the wheel, mine on the gear stick, eyes jumping between the road and the dash. 'Where the fuck is the fucking needle??'
And then flatly, 'Nevermind' as clouds of steam emit from the bonnet, white and starkly visible against the orange and brown of dust and despair.

The Colt blew a gasket 11 km from our destination.

Fuuuuuuuuck.

I hitched a lift in with more wedding guests passing by and a kind uncle and hero brother went back to fetch Husband and the trailer.

My beloved mother had fed and bedded our children. Someone made us cups of tea and silently delivered them to us, pitching our tent in the dark.
Husband went straight to bed, deaf to the djembe drums and reminiscent laughter around the campsite.

I should have done the same, already on my first set of meds for pharyngitis and broken from the days challenges, but I needed to unwind a bit and instead walked softly around the campsite in the dark, gazing up at the stars, enjoying the soft mountain air and getting excited for the real business of the weekend: the wedding!

to be continued ....

I ...

 ... have been very preoccupied and absent from this here blog ...

 ... had a good laugh at this yesterday, McNulty reading Pride & Prejudice, have you ever? (thanks SuperFi!) ...

 ... say thanks Ext, for the shout-out, she's becoming a real Souf Efriken, what with driving atrociously and complaining about her maid ...

 ... feel sorry for our leaky pup, who is confined to the tiled areas of the house whilst still on heat, and hasn't been getting as many walks as she deserves (due to my reluctance to fight off packs of horny mongrels in the park) ...

 ... am starting to feel overwhelmed by the piles of clutter in my home. Sometimes, late at night, I feel like they're watching me, and rubbing their little cluttery hands together with proprietal glee ...

 ... am too tired at the end of each day to deal with them and have started thinking it may be simpler just to charge them rent ...

 ... would desperately love to own this book, as much for myself as for Frieda (scroll along the link, well worth the read) ...

 ... optimistically put my wheelie bin out on the pavement every morning, and then bring it in, still full, every night. Power to the People and all that but dear god let this municipal strike end soon and the rubbish men get back to work!

 ... have been thoroughly enjoying Postcrossing. Introduced by B (thank you!), I've only sent and received a few cards, but it's been fun (and can I just say I'm kinda glad it's not just Americans I'm meeting ... )

 ... felt like James Bond this week when I went, with a friend, to fetch her car off the train from Joburg. We got to drive along the platform (the actual platform) of Cape Town station, narrowly wedged between a train and the station pillars, pedestrians with wheelie suitcases throwing themselves out of our path. Any minute I could've veered sharp left onto the tracks and raced after some evil villan. Alas, there was no need ...

 ... saw the 'Ghost Squad' in action today when a traffic officer on an unmarked motorbike pulled a taxi [or, 'lethal van packed full of people' - Ext again] over for 'rat-running' down my suburban road. Frieda and I cheered from the gate. Well, cheered quietly that is, those taxi drivers are mean ... (mental note to self: seriously no chatting on the phone while driving. Seriously.)

 ... am so proud of my little brother, who left today to present his PhD paper at an ESA conference in Albuquerque. He has such a very big brain. To hide how intimidated I am I just keep quoting Bugs Bunny and giggling ...

7 random things & a bunch of pics

It's obviously meme season here in the blogosphere, I got tagged for another one by McGillicutty (confession: I cut 'n pasted her name from her blog 'cos I knew I'd spell it wrong otherwise ... ), in which I must share 7 random things about myself, and a picture (or many). And I love random. So here goes ...

1. My biggest vanity are my feet.

I've been wearing the rings since 1998.
They're heavy silver, made by one of my best friends
and given to me by my beloved Husband
(then the beloved Squeeze ... ).

2. I once followed a really bad BMW driver into KFC and berated him in front of everyone in the queue for driving like a c*nt. Then I turned on my heel and marched out to my vintage Beetle praying to all the gods of Cool that she'd uncharacteristically start for the first time. She did.

3. My proudest recent achievements have been persuading my picky-eater daughter to eat dry All-Bran Flakes by calling them ... wait for it ... Breakfast Chips. Sheer brilliance.
I also, after 7 nights in a row of her eating pesto on spaghetti (and only if we called the pasta noodles), beat her at her own game and duped her into eating risotto by calling it 'little tiny noodles' (to be said in a cutesy-pie voice). She wolfed it down. Go Parents!

4. I judge people by their hands. Not like I have standards of hygiene or anything, just that I kind of know whether I'll like someone or not by their hands. I have definite 'types' of hand which I dislike, or that I make (sub)conscious judgements about. Very occasionally I'm surprised to find that someone I really like has hands on The List. This almost makes me like them more.

5. I could eat curry & roti every. single. day. I've always been a fan but when I was pregnant I developed a serious addiction. I ate a particularly good veg curry with roti just before going to the hospital to have Frieda, I called Husband and asked him to bring one home for me after my waters broke and I knew we were in for a long night. Luckily I married a man who makes a mean curry ...

6. I've recently gained far too much self-righteous satisfaction from blatantly spying on someone on Facebook. Nothing unethical, but privacy settings exist- if someone's too stupid to activate them then don't blame me ...

7. We once took part in the Cape Town Aeolian Bike Ride. You've got to see it to believe it.

(http://aeolian-ride.info/) 

I hereby tag the first 3 weeps to read this post. Or something. Thanks McJillyCutie!

randomness

So I'm muuuuuch better. (And starting my posts with 'so' again it seems.)

God it's amazing what getting it all out of your system does for you, the only thing better than a good moan is a good cry and having had both I'm back on form.

A quiet weekend. A spot of gardening, spot of baking - chocolate banana bread with almonds and white chocolate chips... yes I know I'm moaning about my weight but goddamn these bananas have got to be used, and I did a big forest walk today ok? Sheez...

Also a bit of cutting and sticking - a silly little cover for my recipe book...

Frieda & I walked on the promenade and she nearly got abducted by seagulls.... 

And someone parked this beauty in our road for the whole of Saturday;

Which reminded me of this beauty...

Oh, and that was a lovely little car too.

Actually I lie, that was a bitch of a little car who failed me repeatedly; threatened to kill me with noxious fumes, never started, very nearly took me off De Waal drive a number of times... but god she was cute with her chrome creamness, red leather interior and genuine 1969 loveliness. But by the time that young med student sucker took her off my hands, 2000 I think it was, I was more than happy to see her go, hadn't missed her for a second and hardly thought about her again, until yesterday...