Somehow we only managed to get to bed after 03:00 on Saturday morning and after five or so hours it was up and at them as I realized that we don’t have any food or drink at the GB flat which is a major catastrophe considering that we had Claire and Riley passed out on the couches in the lounge. So with everyone asleep around me, I sneaked out the front door and made my way over to Pick ‘n Pay to stock up on some supplies.
As it is, I should perhaps not have bothered at all as Claire and Riley kind of skipped breakfast anyway, instead getting up, getting dressed and going off to gym – a kind of dedication that Chantelle and I can only dream of :)
The morning passed by quite quickly in all honesty with me once more stuck into the mess that is the man room, trying to sort a path out of all my junk that has been steadily piling up there now. Luckily our flat became a little lighter when Andrea showed up with Albert’s bakkie in tow and dragged off a sizeable pile of all her stuff that we had been using to recreate Mt. Fuji on our patio, meaning that we could at last take a little step back and admire the space that we are soon going to be turning into “home”. Chantelle already has her interior designer hat firmly in place and is coming up with sweeping plans that involves black, white and a furry mat.
My workflow for the day received a bit of a blow when we got a phone call from Claire a little later, asking us if we wanted to join them for lunch in Gordon’s Bay seeing as they were still in the area. It turned out that Claire’s friends in Pringle Bay had let them down and so to pass the time, we became the final option. No matter, who turns away friends and family who have come out to our corner of the world anyway? It is going to be pretty scarce occurrence so we had best pounce on all opportunities that come our way! :)
Chantelle organized for us to all meet up at The Tavern, a quaint little sea-themed pub sitting in the old harbour next to Bikini Beach, and so after rushing to get ready, we darted out to go and meet up with Claire and Riley who were already sitting and waiting for us. Managing to avoid getting blown off the road by the crazy strong wind that was gusting through Gordon’s Bay (as always), we reached the pub in good health and quickly discovered that Claire and Riley had abandoned the upstairs open deck, seeking refuge inside the rickety old building instead. So surrounded by tranquil blue shades of paint adorned by all sorts of colourful plaster fishies, we got down to the serious business of choosing what to chow for lunch.
As always Chantelle headed straight for the calamari (which she will rue one day when a tentacle reaches out and grabs her I tell you!), Claire and Riley opted for the chicken burgers and I went straight (more or less) for a basket of crumbed chicken strips – not very fishy, I know. While the four of us had a great time chatting and talking nonsense, we didn’t have such a great time waiting for our food. Our particularly short waitress turned out to be one of the worst waitresses I’ve ever had serve me and by the end of the day I was seriously considering “short-changing” her on the bill. Just a “little” payback if you know what I mean! ;)
(As it is, the silly girl even managed to forget the portable credit card machine on our table after processing our bill! The perfect cherry on the cake for her)
Disappointed in that we had managed to create a bad impression of GB eating venues to Claire and Riley, we parted ways and made our way back to the flat for… you guessed it… more unpacking and packing. *sigh* Wait, actually, we didn’t do that. Chantelle reminded me that we still needed to do a spot of shopping, so we jetted off to a rather quiet Somerset Mall where we browsed for our missing carpet at House and Home and priced the washing machines for good measure. As it is, I think we have found our match in a little 6kg LG machine that is shallower in depth than most other machines and should fit rather nicely under our open counter space. The window shopping done, it was time for the real thing as we entered Game intent on buying a nice shiny steel dustbin for the kitchen. Girding my loins, I boldly stepped into the store and promptly walked out clutching two sets of shiny stainless steel, heavy duty cutlery, a bread box and a copy of Tiger Woods 07 for Ryan.
Thankfully no dustbin had managed to woo my wallet in time.
Not wishing to abuse my debit card anymore than what I absolutely had to, I grabbed Chantelled and raced off back to the flat to get my work done. Or at least that was the plan, because truth be told we did not have all that much time left to us anyway.
19:00 and we needed to be back in Bellville to join up with Malcolm and Andri for supper with them and little old Corban (probably the REAL reason why Chantelle wanted to meet up with them in the first place!) On arrival and one nappy change later, we were treated to a delicious supper (although it could have done without the twirly noodles and mushrooms in my humble opinion) and were soon talking the evening away, covering all topics from application selling to iridology and our upcoming outing to Madame Zingara’s in April to boot. However, after a fairly lengthy stay, eventually fatigue got the best of everyone (well, us mainly) and we bid them a fond farewell, heading back to my rather empty flat for a well deserved, good night’s rest.
Well, it would have been a good night’s rest if it wasn’t for the strangest muscle spasm that gripped my right tricep in the meanest of vices in the early hours of Sunday morning, causing me to writhe around in pain for a good half an hour, swearing like a sailor and generally scaring Chantelle out of her own good night’s sleep. So with that extremely painful and excruciatingly long period behind me, I didn’t get the best of rests and as it ended up, needed to traverse the whole of Sunday with a generally stiff and painful right arm.
Wonderful :(