Last night saw Chantelle and I make our first trip out of the Somerset West confines, well past Somerset Mall and all the way to Bellvile, to join up with the Montgomery clan at Chantelle’s parent’s place for a big get together.
One of the cousins, Al, is leaving for England this morning and so last night was declared the big going away party and as such saw Monty, Cheryl, Rob, Nola ma, Gail, Peter, Nick, Angie, Al, Chantelle and myself all converge on the Montgomery’s back stoep where we all raided the beer fridge, drank all the wine (four bottles or so) and polished off anything that moved. (Well, almost anything. Both Mishka and Ginger the cats managed to escape with their lives)
The meal of choice for the evening was the good old Weber chicken, a delicacy that the Montgomery clan are particularly well known for and as always the meat was a succulent and tender as a baby’s bottom (not that I know how tender a baby’s bottom is of course. Or at least, that’s what I tell the cops anyway). Not to be outdone by Monty and Rob’s chicken making skills, Cheryl stepped up to the plate and whipped up some delicious potato bake and salad, but then went for the kill by preparing a killer light and fluffy orange pudding with cream (both the regular and iced version) for dessert. Sheer delight I tell you!
For some or other reason the younger generation seemed intent on sampling the crisp, wintery chill in the air of the evening, even Al who is probably going to be landing in snow this evening (I told him he should rather hope they land on the runway instead of the snow), smoking cigarette after cigarette and shivering throughout the ordeal. If it wasn’t for the copious amount of beer to keep warm, I don’t know if we would have made it in all honesty…
The meal itself was a talkative, fun affair and everyone had a blast talking about almost everything under the sun and when it was all said and done, the old people snuck off on pretence of taking the gran back to the home, leaving us do take care of the mountain of dishes that had emerged from the table.
As Nick so rightfully put it, women seem to love cleaning up because it was none other than Chantelle and Angie that got stuck into the washing up first, with the rest of the boys only joining after receiving a ton of death glares from the ladies.
As much fun as the doing the dishes was, it wasn’t nearly as interesting as the Manchester United verses AS Roma game on the telly and it wasn’t soon before we had sneaked off and plonked ourselves firmly down on the couches to take in the last twenty minutes of the game. Much to my delight and others’ mire, Manchester United took the evening 1-0 with a sublime headed goal from Tevez, capping an already enjoyable evening for me.
In the end it was a great send-off for Al as yet another young white South African leaves our shores for good (well he does have an ancestral visa which makes things so much more easier) and everyone had a great evening in some good company :)
It is just a pity that it was such a long trek home last night! And we are doing it this evening again. And tomorrow night. And on Saturday afternoon…