Social Butterfly

Last night I arrived home from work and just stared at the fire. There was no energy left to read, write or even let my eyeballs be amused by the flickering images on the TV. Why? you may ask and the reason is very simple - too much socialising in too short a space of time. Gone are the days when I had to force myself to stay at home one night a week.

Friday night we met George, Yvonne and Tony to go and see a movie. We were going to see Spiderman 3 but the girls weren't so keen so we ended up seeing pirates of the caribbean 3 which was ok. The movie had everything but somehow missed the mark but I can't point to any one glaring weakness and yet we all came away somewhat unsatisfied. Maybe what it missed was the freshness of the first one.

Saturday we had invited Jason, Cathy, Rob, Vivette, Ross and Alida as well as assorted children around for an early dinner. I made a roast lamb in the weber which, I am told, was delicious. Very enjoyable evening, lots of laughter and several bottles of wine demolished. I think everyone else enjoyed it too. Ross, Jason and Rob are all cut from the same cloth, they all love pain and the more of it, the better. Jason is now trying to talk me into doing the comrades which, while my mind is kind of partial to, my body is most definitely not. After a while on the back foot I decided to get on the attack and suggested that we do the "Freedom Challenge Race" which is the 92km comrades run and the next day you start the 2200km mountain bike ride towards Cape Town and if that isn't enough - to finish it off you do the 5 day Berg River canoe marathon. How is that for extreme. Jason wasn't quite so keen and the conversation changed tack.

Sunday we went paddling with Tony and no, we still haven't fallen in, before meeting Pippa and Glynne for supper. Glynne ran to the restaurant - he's not well but then most triathletes aren't. Quite enjoyed the paddling but it is going to take some time before my hands get the calouses required for paddling. I even managed to get some photographs of Caron who, if you don't know, is extremely camera shy. I had her in a fix, either she could smile and be sweet or swim in the 4 deg. C water. Smile and be sweet it was.


Notice how tony is posing for the photograph.


Safely back at the side of the dam.

Monday I met Carl and Wayne for whisky and cigars at Katzies. There was only the three of us instead of the usual five to eight. About 21:00 a good looking girl of east european origin walked up to us and handed out cards advertising "The lounge" which is a lap dance club which is a euphemism in itself but I do happen to know where it is because my offices are less than 100m from their front door. The look on Waynes face when he was informed what it was was, as mastercard would say, priceless. Wayne is a christian pastor so probably not part of the primary target market.

Round and round the puddle

I haven't mentioned, I think, that we are now the proud owners of a K2 Kayak which we can use to paddle around Emmarentia Dam which is a tiny puddle of water not far from us. The kayak is over 6m long so putting it onto the roofracks means that there is over a metre of kayak sticking out over each end of the car and driving the car with the kayak on top makes me feel like I am about to put the bow through some hapless cars back window. On Sunday afternoon we packed the kayak up, fetched Hannah and went paddling mostly expecting to fall in which I am happy to say, we didn't do. Things are a bit wobbly at the moment and we are only just beginning to get the hang of how to actually paddle - it ain't the easiest of things in the whole world. In all we did five laps, three with Caron and two with Hannah and I can see how this could become quite a strenuous sport. Just after Hannah's second lap when we pulled to the shore there was a grey haired guy who turned out to be Bill, the Dabulamanzi kayaking coach, who reprimanded us for not having Hannah in a life jacket. After having reprimanded us, he then proceeded to explain the basics of how to paddle and it isn't the same as what I've read in a book on paddling. Really quite enjoying this and Caron is not quite as tense as she was the first time, I think next time I'm going to force a capsize so we can just get it over and done with. Bill confirmed that we had purchased exactly the right kayak which was a relief because when one is new to something one is never quite sure whether to believe the salesman or not so if you want to take up kayaking, I would recommend Canoe Concepts. I'm sure we're going to be doing some more paddling next weekend with more children so I am going to have to buy some lifejackets before the weekend.
While we were paddling around, a couple who were picnicing beside the dam had their umbrella blow over and into the water. It landed upside down and the wind carried it ever further from the shore so we headed it off in the kayak and returned it to them. The next lap, the umbrella was in exactly the same position on the shore just waiting for the next gust. Some people obviously don't learn. It was surprising how fast the upside down umbrella moved over the water and I felt a bit like a boy scout - my good deed done for the day.