A lovely braai at the Semple's.

Saturday 4 July.

 

Alex was going to dog training this morning. It was at Gillooly's Farm over near Eastgate. Moira was going with him for two reasons: 1) to find out how to get to the podiatrist on Monday. His consulting rooms are near Eastgate shopping mall. With the change in the roads and the construction of toll roads we weren't sure which off-ramp to take from the freeway and 2) to see her friend, Sandra Granham, who also goes to the training centre with her dog. They left just at 8:15 am just after breakfast, I stayed in and washed and dried the dishes that were left from last night.

 

Once the kitchen was tidy I shaved and showered. For the rest of the morning I worked on the 'Telegraph' prize crossword then downloaded the pictures I took last night in the pub on to the computer. I posted one of the photos on Facebook with the comment 'An Afprod re-union?'. It got comments from Steve Verity, Paul Masters and Jaco Grobler who all worked at African Products.

 

They returned just after mid-day. Moira had seen her friend and had a good chat, she also got the route figured out to the podiatrist. After we had lunch I spent the time reading my book until 2:30 pm when we went out. We had been invited to Lynne snd Donnie Semple's for a braai. On the way we stopped at Pick-n-Pay for bread, milk and tea and some Amstel beer for Alex and Castle lager to take to the braai.

 

We arrived at the Semples at the same time as Neville and Cheryl Bird who were also invited to the braai. We sat outside on their huge lawn beside the covered-in swimming pool where Lynne gives her swimming lessons. We sat in the sun and had crisps and drinks while Donnie was busy cooking the meat. Jarryd their son was there as well, the last rime we saw him he was a thin little lad now he has filled out with broad shoulders and muscular biceps not doubt from all his swimming and gym work. He had taken a sabbatical of 2 months from work and had been touring around the USA, he had only recently got back. We spent the time taking about running, in particular the Comrades Marathon that Lynne ran a month ago, her 17th. She is going to keep going until she completes 20, known as a 'double green'. Neville has cut down on his running and has no intention of attempting the Comrades again and goes down to race each year to spectate. He has suffered three bouts of pneumonia over the last year and now has trouble at might in bed with sweating and has to get up a number of times to change into dry night wear. Donnie has run a few marathons and a couple of Comrades but Cheryl doesn't run at all.

An enjoyable braai

 

When the food was ready we moved to the stoop and sat around the table. The meat; steak, sausage and ribs were excellent and there was mixed salad and potato salad to go with it. We finished off with fruit salad and iced cream for dessert. It was very nice and again we end up eating too much. It was beginning to get cold again as the sun set and I took some pictures before we moved indoors. It was a lot warmed there due to the underfloor heating. We spent another hour chatting about different sports, the Tour de France and Wimbledon mainly and the doping by athletes. Lynne made a cup of tea for us all before heading home about 7:30 pm. It had been a great afternoon in good company and we remembered how enjoyable a braai was.

 

When we got home Alex turned the TV to the sports channel to watch the Andy Murray match from Wimbledon. He won the first two sets easily but at the beginning of the third his opponent, Seppi from Italy, called on the trainer for a shin injury. The match was stopped for about 15 minutes while he received treatment. At the restart he won 6 games in a row and won the set 6-1. Murray was all over the place and appeared he had a shoulder injury. He called the trainer on and had his shoulder manipulated for 10 minutes. It was then a repeat of what followed the last stoppage but this time it was Murray who won 6 games on the trot to take the 4th set and the match. It was 10 pm when the game finished and we went straight to bed.

 

 

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