Whew! What a scorcher!

Friday was freezing, but we woke on Saturday to a real scorcher! It was a beautiful day. We spent some time driving round the local area, checking out the museum and library and we also found a pub, so I drove Les there for a pint at six o’clock. It was just like Saturday teatime in the Railway Inn back home! I had boring old soda water, of course, due to driving and the medication. Sunday was also a beautiful day. The people round the corner had an afternoon Christmas party in their garden and it was really strange to be slathering on the sun tan oil whilst listening to “Good King Wenceslas” at full blast on their karaoke machine! Doubt if they’ve ever walked in snow “deep and crisp and even” But…just when you think you’ve cracked it…. I was woken at 2.15a.m. this morning by thunder and torrential rain! I could also hear an ominous gurgling coming from the ensuite. This morning, after we had both showered and with washing machine and dishwasher on full throttle, I went outside and was met by water streaming up out of the drain! Quick phonecall and the plumber arrived with his entourage (within 10 minutes of call to maintenance, how’s that for service!) After a lengthy debate and one phonecall in Zulu or Xhosa, including the English words “Big problem”, the maintenance manager phoned back to say it was an external problem which would be fixed outside of our gate, it was nothing to do with our personal ablutions! I thought nothing further was happening but as I passed by I noticed a great big navvy’s pick at our front gate. Statement of intent or what! The rain has dried up and it is quite warm now although a little breezy.
I have discovered a new (to me) singer out here, Johnny Clegg. He looks a bit like Bruce Springsteen and sounds a bit like Paul Simon. Turns out he was born in Rochdale! He sings with an African backing chorus and I think he’s really good. You can check him out on www.johnnyclegg.com . I have bought his latest CD and we are going to see him in a couple of weeks, he is playing at a venue about 15 minutes from here. He was also playing at the 46664 concert here in Joburg on Saturday, but although it was live on TV, we didn’t get to see it. Les was foutering with the remote control again…
So Saturday evening was spent playing cards. Les won. Hmph.
Now to culinary matters. We had ostrich fillet a week ago and to be honest it wasn’t as tender as the stuff from Aldi back home. So I made a casserole of the rest. Here it is called a sishebo and I used jikelele powder to season and flavour it. It was delicious! On Friday, it is the work night out and it is a bit different from the usual knees up in Scotland. We are going to a cookery school where we will be paired off to cook our dinner then all sit down to eat it. I will let you know how that goes.
My philosophy class has finished for the summer but there is an outing on Saturday which I might be able to go on. I don’t know yet if there will be a place for me as of course the others booked ages ago. I’d like to go along,to hear the speaker of course,but also to see a bit of Pretoria.Apparently that is the place to go to see all the jacaranda trees which have brilliant purple blooms at this time of year. I have seen a few round here, but in Pretoria the streets are lined with them, it seems.