CB radio's

Have you ever used one of these, they are such fun.  I lived in a small town and it was great entertainment.

I had it setup next my bed, in my car, and in the shop where I worked.  This was pre-cellphone.  I know you probably cannot imagine life without cellphones, but it existed.

My CB (Citizen Band radio), could be anywhere, it was a bit clumbersome, but it put you in touch with everyone in the community that was connected and possible new friends.

You would chat for hours about anything and everything, there was its own lingo. You had a name which was a handle, you used this name to identify yourself and would talk to the other buddies.

When driving in your car, you would ask the person where they were so that you could meet up and chat and that was called eye-balling (see) you.

I remember the passion for this type of communication being so popular.  One child had a father who was a job involved radios, and such like. Well, the whole family had radio's. Dad had one in his work vehicle and office, Mom was on the Base station, needless to say she had the strongest radio around and would "bleed" over all the channels when you spoke, the only way it worked was to invite her to chat with you..... The eldest son had one in his vehicle too.  The younger two had hand mobiles which also worked.  But the cutest one was the youngest.

One day while chatting he and I chatted for the first time, and he wanted to know where he could meet up and chat. I of course, was at work and suggested that he come around to the shop. Well he came and parked across the road.  I was finally going to meet the "voice".

I would have imagined, at least 5ft 10in, good-looking, dark hair, well spoken, good manners, and a fair car.  By now you have gathered I am somewhat of a romantic.

The call came in "Fairlady, where are you? Seagull here, what is your 10/7?" I went outside and looked up and down the Main road, as it was a Sunday afternoon and very quiet.  There was no cars in the road.  I went back inside to speak to Seagull and say that I could not see him and that he was probably in the wrong place - he had this smile in his voice.  He assured me that he was in the right spot and that I was just not looking correctly.

Duly I went out again and when I looked up the road again, there was only a lad on a bicycle with this very long aerial attached to his bike.  No. No-one was there.  I went back to the radio and called him up again and said that I could only see someone on a bicycle, "That is me," he said.

Well, we laughed and laughed, he came in and we chatted and had a ice-cream and we really became good friends. He ended up being my brother in law years later.

made "Melkkos"

Years ago as a young wife, my cooking skills were not so great, I mean if you have a husband who at your wedding reception, decides to tell the guests to not take all the food, as my wife can't cook.....

Needless to say we setup home in a place called Kathu.  Where?   It is in the Northern Cape, far from anything, to make matters worse when we lived there, the only grocer store and shop was run by the mine.

There was a petrol station and that was pretty much everything in the town.  There were obviously the schools, churches and homes, but not shops at this stage.

Well the point of this story was you were either employed by Iscor or SA Railways.  The nice part was we were lucky enough to have a lovely house, not much furniture yet, and we had a boarder who moved in with us.

He was young man who came from a large family and had a mother that could cook.  He came from a fishing village on the West Coast and was a lovely Afrikaans lad, Koos.

He had been missing home, and was saying that his mom had made him his favorite dish to spoil him and he was missing his mom real bad.

Needless to say his favorite dish was "Melkkos", I had never heard of this. But not one to back down from a good deed. I thought I would surprise him and make his favorite dish. 

Well, out came the trusty "Cook and Enjoy" , recipe book, filled with lots of South African recipes. Koos had left for work.  I had some time on my hands. 

It was a Friday and those were the days of petrol restrictions.  Petrol pumps closed  on Friday  evenings and reopened on Monday mornings. Kathu was a good 10 hours drive from the West Coast.

So I decided to get started with project surprise.  The recipe was read and re-read.  All the ingredients we had in the pantry so no issues there. I had to make a dough, I was so excited it sounded easy enough.  Make a dough, cut some strips, make a custard (thin), cook the dough strips in the custard.

How hard could this be, it was brilliant my dough came out fantastically, I rolled it out and cut finger sized strips as per instruction.  These flat long snakes were good looking.  I was feeling really proud of myself.  I had done everything right according to me.

These long strips were quite thick now, they seemed to have risen quite nicely and all I had to do was pop them into the custard mixture to cook.

This was working out so well, these thick snakes in the custard.  Well Koos came home and I could not wait to tell him, I had a surprise, he had, had a particularly bad day at work so I was really pleased that I would be making him feel better.

I called the guys for supper and dished up the meal in these big porridge bowls.  Just imagine a bowl of really thick Cobras in a bowl of custard.  Koos sat and stared at his bowl of food and asked what it was, I told him it was "Melkkos", he was not impressed.  He excused himself from the table went to his room, packed his bags and said goodbye.  He left to go home to the Coast, but what he forgot was that he could not get petrol.

He sat at he petrol station for hours making a terrible racket on his hooter, trying to get someone to open up the petrol station.  He did not come back to our home.  Instead he slept over at someone else and left Kathu and his job on the Monday morning.  Moral of the story, don't let me cook "Melkkos"

Egg Challenge 2020

 

Well Lock down fun, we are having the Adult Easter Egg Challenge,  it started as a way to pass the time.
You line up three shot glasses and a chaser.

There is a specific order of drinks, first shot glass is a raw egg, second shot glass has dry sugar in, the third glass has a shot of choice. The last glass is your drink of choice, which you down. Now nominate a couple of friends or family to partake in the challenge.

 You should video tape the whole challenge and send your video to the person who challenged you.

 Well needless to say this kept our family really busy for a full afternoon.

Friends in Orania, Johannesburg, Langebaan, Saldanha, Tableview, Bothasig, Plattekloof and the Southern Suburbs

What to do on Lockdown

Looting food which has been donated

The looting of donated food is a dreadful thing.  The injustices of the world is crazy.
Food was donated a few years ago to Mozambique.  I was living there at the time.
It was a strange time, there was flooding and travel was impossible to get anywhere, the water covered everything.

We had to get our food from different sources, we were lucky enough to have friends who could send us food parcels via South Africa, but they had to fly it in to us.  We lived in the Inhambane province at that stage. Road travel was limited to the central part of town, We were cut off from from the other towns.

The sad part is that the local Mozambican at that stage, were sustenance farmers,  they live off their produce and if they have more than they can use, they trade amongst themselves or sell it at the local markets.

Well, the floods happened, homes were lost, people were dying and help was pouring in from the NGO's  and other Organizations.

From rubber ducks with outboard motors, to help with rescue's.  Food was sent in by the bags full.  At a time like this rice and mielie meal is distributed to the locals and all who need, this is a gift for the people.

However a time like this power is a dreadful thing.  Whenever the power hungry person steps up, there is a money driven opportunity for them to make money.  Well make money they did.  They sold the free rice to people who had nothing, nowhere to live, just nothing.

The saddest thing I had ever seen was a old lady who had walked for miles to get to the distribution point with her bowls to take back food to where she came from.   She had walked for miles in water to get to the town, where it was being distributed.

This "Director" as they like to be called would not give her the food as she did not have the monies to pay for the rice and mielie meal, he sent her away, not bothered.  I was nearby and saw what had happened and had to ask someone else to go and "buy" and give it to her.  It was dreadful.  That was not the only one that I saw that he turned away that day.  But the stories came out.  He was never taken to task about it.

What we heard is that there were warehouses in Maputo that had such a lot of donations in the warehouse that was never distributed to the needy, but instead was sold to the people who were in charge of making sure it was distributed.

Nothing was proven of course, this is Africa, but is it not sad, that one person's downfall is another man's ill gotten gain.

Joyriding and been caught

My friend had bought herself a 125cc Honda, it was her transport of choice.
Oh, how she loved this motorbike.

It started to give a problem nothing major, but something was not right with the motor and duly my hubby said he would look it over, service the motorbike for her.
He serviced the motorbike and we had for a few days to make sure that it was all good.

Me, being me had been having a few motorbike lessons, but admittedly not the greatest rider yet..... decided to take the motorbike down to the store that we owned which was only a few kilometers down the road.I thought I would travel the back roads to the store and it should be all ok.

Well, very excited at the thought, I went to put on my leather jacket, boots and got the full face helmet. Just needed the keys and I would be on my way.

I pushed the bike out into the road, put on the helmet, key into the ignition and turned on, now to kick start and the motorbike and it would roar to life.  I did all that I had been taught, felt so confident, hubby would be so proud of me when I arrived at the store.

The motorbike started I am traveling along steadily, no issue, one four  way stop ahead,  I stop, pull away and onto the second  four way stop.

This is where it all changes, I stopped and a Traffic Officer pulls up alongside of me, guilt rushing through me, making me nervous, suddenly feeling very hot, my mask is starting to steam up. I fidget, pretend to check my pockets willing him to move and be on his way.

In my nervousness the motorbike splutters, I over rev it with brake on and it dies on me. I now have to restart the motorbike, and it won't start.  It obviously had an IDIOT problem. By now the dear Officer had pulled his vehicle over  and was on his way to me. He had this knowing grin on his face asked me to show him my license.

Well of course, I did not have it on me, because I did not have one. I had to tell the truth that I had also taken the bike without permission too.

By now, the helmet was off, the leather jacket was too hot. My embarrassment and frustration at the impending fine and trouble that I was in, was too much.

The fine was given and I had to return back home which was two blocks away.  To add to my humiliation, the Traffic Officer must have called it in and a second car arrived on the scene and I had to start the bike and take it home. They had a field day laughing at my antics.

Needless to say I was in a bit of doggy doo  with powers that be, my hubby and friend.

The best was yet to come about three weeks later my innocent friend was out riding on a Saturday afternoon and she was merrily traveling along and was pulled over by a Traffic Officer with  flashing blue lights and siren asking her to pull over. 

The Officer wanted to check her driver's license. He wanted to know how long she had her motorbike as, he had seen another lady on the same bike three weeks back, and she had no license.....

Needless to say she was ok and had everything in place, he remembered the motor
bike, number plate and the fact that it was a girl that was the rider.

Been to Orania

Well, I had never heard of the place, let alone been there.
What an eye-opener, I loved it.
The whole experience is not what I expected at all.  There is nothing that the people of  Orania cannot do. There are shops, computers, Netflix, churches, wow!

I loved the fact that you are part of a community.  We in the City seem to have lost that a community feeling. Looking out for each other, caring.

You can have your morning coffee on the proverbial "stoep" and see your neighbours walking or driving to work. You greet each other.  It is just the right thing to do. You want to greet, no forced smiles.

You come home after work and the children are playing in the streets, riding bicycle and chasing each other around.People pottering in there gardens.  Walking, riding bicycles, chatting with each other. You feel so safe.

It was really hot, while I was there, the Town swimming pool was open for us all to go and swim.
What a difference. From the Pastor, to the Town Clerk, the Cleaners and Gardeners, all were there.
Residents recycle, look after the environment, are healthier and have less stress.

This really sounds like Utopia, but the strange thing is, you expect the average age of the citizens to be at least 60 years old, but strangely enough the average age is 35 years old.
Yes the quality of life is what it is about.  You can drive to the larger cities, but you don't really need to do that.

Life has meaning, you come away with a sense of pride.

One of the many people I met there, who was not at all what I expected.  It was a young lady, with many tattoo's, not to be judgemental, I wondered how this lady came to be living in this community.
Only to be told by her that she was a music major and played the Violin of all things, not using those talents right now. But gainfully employed. Everyone has a job, no-one needs to be unemployed there.

What I learnt, they know how to have fun, one of the many things, runs, cycle rides, stock cars, pub crawls.  Just normal life.....

So just as I learnt, do not judge a book by its cover or its environment! There are different ways to live, and its stunning. Well worth the visit.  If you have something to offer the Town, well worth the stay.