Man, what an awesome relaxed weekend I return from today. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t coax Chantelle into going out on Friday evening to catch G.I. Joe with me, meaning that we ended up spending Friday at home on the couch, watching movies and TV and just lazing about in general which is always cool because we (and when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘me’) seldom make time just to exist and do nothing else.
Saturday morning however was a completely different story as I managed to get Chantelle up and at ’em nice and early and off we toddled on an invigorating hour and a half walk that rewarded us with some absolutely splendid aerial views of Gordon’s Bay, plus the feel good factor of having strolled for a good 5.5 km (though it was a bit dejecting for Chantelle who had reckoned we must have covered at least 9 km!). All in all, the perfect way to prepare for next weekend’s Blisters for Bread charity walk.
Then, after a nice breakfast of eggs and toast that C whipped up for us, it was back to the flat for me where I set about spending most of the late morning and early afternoon tidying up the flat, washing the dishes, doing the laundry and ironing all my shirts that have been lying un-ironed for well over two weeks now (*hangs head in shame*). Finally, after all that boring manual labour, I was rather sad to discover that there wasn’t all that much free personal time left over, and so I did what I could and fitted a quick session of Grand Theft Auto in, but then it was time to pack the Jetta and shoot off back to the guest house where we were to get ready to receive our guests for the weekend, Trish, Karl, Retha and Miguel.
Despite being mildly thrown by both couples’ tardiness at holding to the agreed upon arrival time (:P), I still managed to produce a fantastic braai result thanks to my skilled tongmaster routine, something for which I long basked in the glory of the praise going around the table. Unfortunately for me though, the focus quickly shifted back to Chantelle once she whipped out the apple tart and custard she had so dutifully prepared for our consumption, topped off with some Trish-special malva pudding that had somehow survived the trip here (and had been the cause of Karl dumping the bike and coming through with the car instead – apparently travelling by bike with malva pudding tagging along is somewhat of an art, one not often practised it would seem).
Thoroughly stuffed from our gourmet peckings, we then decided to brave the cold and horrible wind that had decided to whip up and go for a late night stroll down to the harbour wall, a journey that would prove too demanding for Trish and Karl, but which for the rest managed to provide quite an awesome view of the stars and the bay but at the same time, quite a disconcerting feeling of being pushed around by the rather blustery wind that was pushing us along the pier!
Back at the guest house and there was still time for some more chatter and a little coffee, followed by bed time for the entire troop, though I had to resign myself to travelling all the way back to the flat, thanks to Chantelle’s and my policy of not sleeping under the same roof until we’re married still being in full effect.
Sunday morning and I found myself waking up to the sweet sounds of silence thanks to Eskom’s planned network maintenance programme, the result of which being a Gordon’s Bay that was sitting without electricity from 06:00 the morning until 18:00 the evening! Despite the inconvenience of it all though, Chantelle still managed to come up with a delightful breakfast for all of those seated around the sunny dining room table and by the time we were finished, we pretty much were all ready for an afternoon nap, that’s how heavy our overladen stomachs were! :)
At this point Karl and Trish decided to take their leave of us and head off back to Bellville in order to tend to Cottontail, while Retha and Miguel decided to join us in our quest to lunch in Franschhoek for the day, resulting in the perfect lazy Sunday afternoon drive, with the four of us packed inside Miguel’s brand new gigantic blue Hilux bakkie, he and myself up front and the two girls fast asleep in the back.
On arrival we set about blending in with all the other tourists that were enjoying the gorgeous sunny weather in that part of the world, ambling along the main street and ducking into all the wonderful little tourist-orientated shops and attractions (obviously NOT skipping out on Chantelle’s favourite Belgian chocolate store where she indeed laid her grubby little paws on yet more Pistachio-flavoured chocolates), before finally stumbling back and grabbing a table at Col’cachios where we enjoyed the most divine pizza as per usual.
Needless to say, at this stage the day was beginning to pass us by rather quickly, and so we were forced to jump back into the bakkie and return, though that said, the girls certainly didn’t seem to mind this all too much as they once more proceeded to snore all the way from Franschhoek right the way through to Gordon’s Bay!
Retha and Miguel were then finally forced to leave us (after some more apple tart of course) and we locked up the guest house and headed off to Pick ‘n Pay to do a quick spot of grocery shopping, before returning home and ending the weekend off by dozing off in front of the silly romantic comedy “Maid of Honour” and then followed up by a good dose of season 9 “Top Gear”, which thankfully appears to be all new to me, and the rather zany 1967 Casino Royale, an action comedy starring Peter Sellers and Woody Allen which is simply too off the wall for mere words! :D
And that’s that. Talk about a nice and relaxing weekend, the likes of which I’m sure you’ll struggle to beat! ;)