Tuesday 30 June.
After our cup of tea and a read of the paper in bed we showered and I made the breakfast. Moira said she wanted to get away for the airport by 9 am but by 8:30 am she was rushing me to get going. As everything was tidy and the dishes put away I agreed we might as well get going. Moira moved the car out of the garage and I closed the doors and fitted the stops on the runners, nobody should be able to get in by that route.
We stopped at the ATM machine at the Spar to get money to pay for petrol as the filling stations didn't accept cards before and we didn't know if this had changed. Moira stopped at Petrocity about 30 km from Shaka Zulu airport and filled the tank. It only required 25 litres, it has been very economical. There was no problems when we returned the car, it was checked over and the attendant was satisfied that there weren't any dents or scratches.
In the departures hall Moira put our reference number into the machine and it printed out our boarding passes. Next we checked in our two small cases before heading through security. I had the day-pack and removed the iPad and laptop before sending it through the scanner. Again everything was OK and we made our way to the departure gate where we waited for over an hour before boarding.
The flight rook just under an hour to get to Jo'burg and it was an uneventful journey. Moira had made sandwiches and packed an apple for lunch and we ordered a coffee to go with it. We spent the rest of the time reading free newspapers we had picked up before boarding. As soon as we landed Moira phoned Alex and he said he pick us up at the departures 'stop-and-drop' point. I stood on the pavement with our bags while Moira went to the edge of the parked cars to watch for Alex arriving. He was later than expected because of heavy traffic but soon we were on our way to his house in Boksburg. Alex was working today and just dropped us off before heading back to Brakpan work.
We sat outside in the back garden with a cup of tea. The weather was lovely with a bright blue sky and a warm sun. In the UK at the moment they are having a heat wave with temperatures up at nearly 30*C but the conditions here are just about perfect though it may get cold at night. I gave Tom a call and he was at home, I said we would walk over to pay him a visit in half an hour. Alex had left us the use of his BMW but we decided to walk. It took us exactly the 30 minutes to get to Tom's. We sat in his bar where we drank beer and chatted about our health and operations, African Products and our families. Rita came in later, she had been to the laundry to get here washing done, she hadn't managed to get it dried at the weekend as it had rained. It was an enjoyable afternoon mulling over old times. Alex had told us that the dinner was cooking steadily all afternoon in his slow-cooker and would be ready at 5:30 pm when the power was forecast to be cut. As we were told to be back by that time we were going to leave for the half hour walk but Tom said he wold drive us back and we continued chatting. Tom has got a new car, a fancy sleek Volvo, the dashboard was like the instrument panel on an aircraft with computers and gadgets.
We got back a few minutes before Alex and the threatened power outage didn't materialise. The meal was ready, it was ox tail casseroled with lots of vegetables and a meaty gravy. We had it with potatoes and a red Shiraz wine to wash it down. Moira and I washed up afterwards then we settled in the lounge to watch TV. It had turned cold when the sun went down but Alex had a couple of heaters going that soon warmed the place up. We watched 'The Chase' and 'Millionaire' quizzes then we were both feeling tired, I eventually dozed off in the chair. When I wakened again it was about 9 pm and we both decided to get to bed. It was cold in the bed room but Moira had brought our heavy pyjamas and they kept us warm.
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