Wednesday 8 July.
I made a cup of tea and we had in bed while reading the newspaper on out iPads for half an hour. At 7:30 am we got ready and set out for a fast walk. It was the same route as we have done previously, up round Bird Rd. to Pope and Edinburgh Rds. and home. It took us just 30 minutes to complete the circuit which was faster than before but we can go even quicker as Moira isn't quite fit yet. Our new orthotics are working all right and mine are very comfortable.
I made the breakfast while Moira had a shower. Once finished our meal I washed up the dishes then had my shower, Moira went out shopping. I got a hammer and a screw driver to start removing the ceramic tiles that had lifted and cracked. There were two in the back bedroom and one in the bathroom. The bedroom ones had lifted badly and cracked but there wasn't any difficulty removing them. But the bathroom one just had a large crack in the corner and I had to give it a thump with the hammer to break it up and lever the pieces out with the screw driver. I loosened the grouting round the tiles and vacuumed up the dust. There is just the tile adhesive that was set hard and needs chiselling out before I can lay replacements that we have in the cupboard.
I made a cup of tea and settled down to listen to some of the music we had put on the Notebook at Alex's. I plugged the external speakers we have into the computer and I was able to power them through the USB port. I pressed the play all button and there were hundreds of tunes that began to play one after the other. Moira got in while I was relaxing and working on today's crossword. She had stocked up with food for the week and had gone to the bank for the tax certificate on interest received so that I could start my returns to SARS. The certificates aren't be available until next week for some reason. While at the bank she enquired about a new card for loading with foreign currencies like the one we use when we go to France and Spain, the 'Fairfax' card. Unfortunately you can only load the card at the bank before leaving SA and not online like the 'Fairfax', so we aren't going to bother with it.
We had an early lunch as we were going to play bowls. Moira had bought some 'wors' at the butchers, these were the farmhouse variety and were less greasy and salty than the last ones. They were nice on crusty French bread. We played at Southport again, we are assured a game there. Moira and I played together with Marnie our skip, that was who I played with last time and got thrashed. I thought it was going to be a repeat when we lost 6 shots on the first end. Our skip doesn't seem to understand the strategy of cutting loses. After that it settled down to a more competitive game with just one shot either way on each end. After tea the skips continuous driving came to our advantage when with her last shot on one end she picked up the jack and took it to the back of the green where we had another three bowls waiting, that gave us a 4 shot boost. At the end we still lost but only by 3 shots, an improvement on last time. Moira played a steady game and I am now beginning to get my line right. The green was very slow today after the recent rains but it was warm today and as it dried it got faster. As we were both on the losing side the opposition bought us a drink afterwards and didn't want one in return. We got home at 5 pm.
We caught the final hour of today's 5th stage of the Tour De France. It was 189.5 km from Arras to Amiens and a flat stage. There was about 40 km to go and the teams were working on getting into position for the final sprint. The Quickstep team of Mark Cavendish seemed to be set up nicely in a line as the came into the final few kilometres but on the final stretch Cav lost his lead out man Mark Renshaw and was on his own. He made a strong effort but was again pipped on the line and finished third. The German, Greipel, won his second sprint stage.
Moira had bought fillet steaks as well as wors at the butchers today. They were a good size and nice and thick, they only cost about the equivalent of £3. We had them with boiled potatoes, cauliflower in white sauce and mushrooms. Moira had cooked them medium and they were delicious.
After the cycling I turned the TV over for the cricket. It was the first test in the Ashes series. England were batting and doing reasonably well. They lost a few wickets earlier in the day but Root settled things and was 134 when he lost his wicket. At the close they were up at 343 for 7, not too bad a start. The first test was being played at the Cardiff cricket ground and we recognised it beside the river Taffe. There was the river path that ran along outside the ground that we used to walk from Margaret's to the caravan site.
Once the cricket was over it was more sport, tennis from Wimbledon. Andy Murray had played his quarter final match earlier and won in straight sets. He plays Federer in the semi final. The match that was on was another quarter final game between Wawrinka from Switzerland and the Frenchman Gasquet. The Swiss player is the rising star of tennis and has taken over from Federer as the Swiss Champion, he won the French Open earlier this year. When I turned it on they were 2-2 in sets and Gasquet was serving for the match at 5-3 but he lost his service game and it went with service in the final set until the Frenchman won an exciting set 11-9 and the match. He now plays Djokovic in the other semi final.
After all the sporting excitement I turned on to the Country music channel again and relaxed with my book until it was time for bed.
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