Saturday 18 July.
It was out for a walk again this morning before breakfast. We went round Edinburgh Rd and down the hill to Norwood which was a new road for us to take to the Spar supermarket. We went over the main road and along Commercial Rd to the bridge crossing the main road then went all the way back up the hill via Miller and Abingdon home. It was a good walk and there are always hills to keep us fit. It had been about an hour's walk when we got back and we met Steve on his way out for a walk. He told us that he played a bowls competition at 'Tweni yesterday and they had all kinds of weather, cold at the start, then rain and warm by the afternoon. The weather today was cold when we were walking but it was beginning to heat up and looked promising for a beautiful day.
Alex was down at Scottburgh for the car show and was staying at the Blue Marlin hotel there. He said he might come down to visit us but we hadn't heard from him and we wanted to go this morning out to buy paint. Moira called him on the phone and he said he was on his way to 'Twini but that we had time before he got there to go out for the paint. We went out straight away and checked at the 'Paint Pot' in Port Shepstone first, but they were too expensive. Instead we went up to the Builder's Merchants next to the tile warehouse. They had a good selection and we got 20 litres of white matt finish and a roller for R700.
We came straight back after our purchases and soon Alex was phoning for us to open the gate into the complex. We had a cup of tea and sat and chatted until it was time to go out for lunch, we were going to Fish on the River. Alex had brought the 'fix-a-floor' tube of adhesive for fixing the hollow tiles. Unfortunately it needed a calking gun, like that used to apply silicone sealant, to apply the adhesive and we didn't have one. We decided to go to the little hardware store in the Oribi Plaza for a gun before heading on for lunch. The Plaza was busy but we got a parking spot near the entrance to the mall and we were in and out quickly and got the calking gun. The restaurant was quite busy and we had to park the car outside on the river bank. It was now very sunny and warm so we got a seat outside. We all had fish and chips and a beer. It was very nice and the fish, hake, is excellent.
 |
| Alex and Moira at 'Fish on the River' |
When we got home again Alex didn't stay but headed back to Scottburgh. We will see him again tomorrow when we go to the car show. As soon as we got in I turned on the TV for the 'Tour' but didn't pay much attention as I wanted to try out the 'fix-a-floor'. I picked 3 tiles together that were hollow sounding and as instructed drilled holes in the middle of the edges through the grouting. I then stuck the nozzle of the tube into each hole in turn and pressed the trigger on the gun to inject the adhesive. I was to keep pressing until the hole filled or the adhesive came out some of the other holes. It didn't happen and the fluid just kept going in until the tube was empty. I put the tool box which is heavy on top of the tiles to apply some pressure overnight to help binding. I was somewhat disappointed as even if this is successful one tube at R200 to do three tiles will end up very expensive. I decided to go back to cutting through the grouting then lifting the tiles, chisel out the cement and relay. It is a long tedious job but a lot cheaper. I made a start on this and lifted two tiles after cutting the grout. I spent about 15 minute spells through the rest of the afternoon and evening chiselling away.
When I was able to sit and watch the cycling I saw there was a 20 man breakaway about 6 minutes ahead of the main peleton. They were on the climb up Cote de Sauveterre but nobody was attacking in either group. The main peleton with Sky setting the pace seemed happy to let the leading bunch have the race and made no serious attempts to reduce the gap. The real drama was left for the final short steep ascent to the Cote de la Croix Neuve. The front group began to disintegrate and two stronger climbers rode clear over the top. The finish was flat on an airfield and the two Frenchmen Berbet and Pinot seemed to have the race between them as they sprinted for the line. Suddenly from nowhere an Englishman from the Wirrel, Steve Cummings, came flying past them to claim the win. He was riding for the South African team MTN Qhubeka and it happened on Mandela Day! There was action in the main bunch on the same final hill. Quintana broke clear, Nibali followed and Froome appeared to have been left. But Froome slowly clawed his way back then Nibali struggled. Quintana and Froome finished together but the big loser was van Garderen who dropped from 2nd to 3rd place with Quintana leapfrogging him. Nibali and Contador also lost time to Valverde who moved up in the GC. The route today had been through the gorges of the river Tarn. This is the area of the Robert Louis Stevenson Walk part of which we did a few years ago. The scenery of the cliffs and gorge was truly magnificent.
 |
| Cliffs and gorge of River Tarn |
After the cycling I checked on the cricket. England hadn't done too badly and were all out for 312. Australia were now in for there second innings and doing well again. At close they were 108 without loss. England are now 362 behind and will be doing well if they can salvage anything from this match. Next I turned over for the golf and it was a bit confusing as there were still golfers who were well over par that should have missed the cut. It turned out that play was stopped in the morning with the ones still trying to complete their second round matches from yesterday. There was tremendous winds and the balls wouldn't remain in place on the greens for putting. The weather had cleared up later and they were out again still attempting to complete the second rounds. All the third round matches will be played tomorrow and the Open extended for the final day to Monday. It was difficult to figure out who was in the lead.
Later in the evening there was one in the Oxford detective series 'Lewis'. It was on at 9 pm and finished at 10 pm which was strange as this programme was usually 2 hours long. It turned out that it has been split in two but there was no indication when the second half was to be broadcast. It was quite good and surprisingly we hadn't seen it before.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment