Drywalls and drainage

The house is really beginning to move forward now. After getting the framing up for the drywalling today the spaces suddenly begin to take on meaning. The Bedroom 2 en suite and the guest toilet are no longer concepts that reside in my head - they are real spaces …………… and we have now been able to finally establish exactly how the drainage, waste water and fitting layouts are going to work in respect of the confined under-floor spaces. The drainage run down to the new septic tank is complete and we start digging the tank hole tomorrow. Meanwhile we will get the guest room shower base in place in the morning and begin fibreglassing so that we can get the wall sheeting into place. Most of the electrical conduiting has been plastered in and by lunch time tomorrow we will begin the wall construction finishing on the bathroom and bedroom 3 en-suite, and get the roof on - hopefully all by the end of the week……………..hold thumbs and wish us luck.

On Saturday last the Ploughman’s had what was ostensibly a “Solstice” party …………. covering as a 55th birthday party for Michelle. They had a really good thrash that followed the rugby - Belly dancers, various other dance idioms by the local ladies, a really hilarious set by Patrick and the guys, a very tasty pig on the spit and some great disco music in the barn. All in all a very enjoyable ‘Jol’. 

(As an aside: We took along a salad, a packet of Doritos, our ‘picnic bag’ with plates, knives, forks etc., …………… butter and rolls  and so on …….. only to get back to the table to find a lady who had parked off, opened everything, helped herself to a plate, knife and fork, opened the salad and Doritos, used all the butter on a couple of the rolls and well and truly “dug” in to everything we had brought along ……………. and totally un-phased at my query as to how she could do this, simply carried on helping herself with me sitting right there. What do you do?????)

With the Grahamstown National Arts Festival starting next week, exhibitors and artists are beginning to arrive in the area from all over South Africa  - and the world ………. and I believe that as always, Bathurst is “first” port of call for drinks and meals, so the next couple of weeks should see quite an influx one way and another. We are busy planning one or two days there ………. co-ordinating shows, exhibitions, concerts and trying to fit everything together so as to get as much as possible in on the days that we will be able to visit……………..hoping against hope that by the time we get round to making our bookings there are still a couple of slots left.  Really looking forward to it all …………… though from my point of view, as long as we are able to get into a couple of the jazz cafe gigs I will be entirely happy. Watch this space for updates and reviews!!!!!!!

Sunday Farmers' Market Vendor

Sunday Farmers' Market Vendor

Sunday Farmers' Market Vendor

Sunday Farmers' Market Vendor

Sunday Farmers' Market Vendor (The Troubador - Poetry while you wait)

The girls performing at Michelle's party

Michelle (Right) enjoying the entertainment

Patrick (Michelle's hubby - left) leading the pack of wild dogs in dance

And last but not least ....... the stud walls on their way up

Summer's coming

Well, here we go folks - with the winter solstice happening today we can all look forward to longer and warmer days in the coming months. Isn't that a wonderful thought ............. certainly worth a smile.

In my last posting I spoke about Anne and Barry's Sunday music evenings at the Bistro and encouraged you all to join the fun ........ well here are a few pics taken last Sunday's happening to help whet the appetite.

Enjoy!

Their biggest fan

Barry

Anne

In the mood

Bistro patrons

Anne and Barry in full voice

The very photogenic Bistro

OK - so it happens!

I just spent the last two hours or more writing today’s Blog insert, only to do something that allowed me to overwrite it all with the pictures that I intended posting. What a  *#@%//(). 

I was going to print a really serious expletive here in big bold letters, but I reckon that that is part of what Bathurst does for you …………… it slows you down sufficiently to overcome these violent urges, and allows you instead to quietly start all over again.

The week has had its ups and downs, with Monday starting with a ‘down’.  I had spent the best part of the weekend telling friends how fortunate I had been to find the bricklayer/plasterer that I had working with me …………. how good he was, how trustworthy and reliable …………….. only to have him turn all of that upside down first thing Monday morning. He didn’t pitch for work (as had happened on four previous occasions over the last three weeks), so I called him to find out what the problem was ………. it was car problems as usual - I asked if he had any idea what time he would be in as I wanted to know whether to re-allocate his assistant, or let him go for the day. I was not impolite - I was not annoyed - I even asked if there was anything I could do to help. Shortly after 10am while I was doing my mail at the Bistro he arrived on site, packed his tools, and apparently hurled a few choice insults my way before leaving with his appointed assistant. I tried calling him four times, only to be “skelled” out from a dizzy height in a totally non-understandable colloquial idiom, and not given a chance to respond in any form whatsoever before having the phone disconnected. Nothing made any sense, and I sincerely hope that anyone reading this blog who may know him will pass on the message that I would dearly love to continue working with him if we can somehow find our way over this ridiculous hurdle.

I have found another artisan who seems equally capable - but I really do dislike parting ways under such dubious and inexplicable circumstances. I have also re-employed the assistant that he removed from the site, and do hope that at some stage he will make the effort to contact me to resolve matters.

So much for the ‘downs’. On Saturday we took the opportunity to run through to Grahamstown for K-Day, and went to watch the local Kingswood / St. Andrews first team rugby derby. What an absolute pleasure! Great rugby (very often better than the Provincial stuff that TV forces upon us), and what an amazing vibe, with the St.Andrews ground filled to absolute capacity with what must have been every single pupil from both schools as well as those from DSG plus every single parent, grandparent and friend in the surrounding districts.

We made it back to the Ploughman’s Pub just in time to have Eskom load-shed just as the National Anthem’s finished …………. fortunately one of the customers had an IPad with a DSTV connection that allowed us to watch in miniature until Patrick and Kai managed to set up a generator that got us back online just as England went into a 12 - 0 lead. Happily it never stayed that way and we all enjoyed a good win.

Sunday (Fathers’ Day), saw us enjoy a great braai at the Davidson’s house in Port Alfred with Jordan playing surrogate son and doing all the work before joining Pat and I with a couple of his ranger mates at the Bistro in Bathurst where we were fortunate enough to hear proprietors Anne and Barry play a very special brand of country ‘idiom’ music (my description), that had us all enthralled. Anne’s sets on the accordion backed by Barry’s intricate rhythm and bass backing on his acoustic guitar …………… all enhanced by some really beautiful vocals, made it something very special. I encourage everyone who is able to make the effort to bring a bottle of wine and visit the Bistro at around 6pm on a Sunday evening and spend and hour or two enjoying a very special brand of music. You really won’t be sorry.

Pat has managed to pull a lot of shape out of pure chaos into the garden at 6 York road, and I think that once the house is complete it will really compliment what she is doing. Jesse seems to love it more each day, bounding out of the car as we arrive and running hither and thither until virtually exhausted. I remember how Chavane’s Boxer, Georgie, used to love to run ………….. what Jesse does is similar, and just writing about Georgie’s enthusiasm brings tears to my eyes ……………. it is a joy to watch.

Monday evening saw us join the “Office” group for snacks and drinks at Howard’s very beautiful home with its 67km view across Port Alfred and the Indian Ocean. A lovely, friendly, bunch of people that have really made us feel very welcome in this amazing little village. I encourage all those of you that have never visited here to start making plans immediately. It really is a blast……… beautiful, affordable and full of stunning little nooks and crannies……………..during lunch today we followed a track that took us entirely unknowingly down to a gorgeous little dam on the Kowie river in the midst of the most incredible landscape and views ……… what a place to picnic and paddle - we will definitely be going back (after all it is only 10 minutes away).

Anne and Glen McCreath wearing red in support of Kingswood at K-Day

Kingswood on a charge

Up and at it

Pat working the garden

Plastering reveals and soffits

The Banana Orchard

The new outside loo built from throw-away materials

MONDAY, Monday!

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? On Saturday the Boks (or should I say Faf), beat the English at Ellis Park ……….. on Sunday the Boks Sevens clinched the World Title (again by beating the English), in Paris. Rafa won the French Open for the 11th time, beating a very worthy young opponent in three straight sets - Bafana Bafana beat Botswana 3:0 ……………… almost everything went my way: only Lewis let me down at the Canadian Grand Prix - but I don’t suppose one can expect to win ‘em all?The Test we shared with the Ploughman’s regulars, as we did most of the Sevens, except that Rosemary and Charmain joined us for a braai there, and we had a lekker gesellig early afternoon in the company of the Albany Vintage Motor guys and girls who came through to the Ploughman from Grahamstown for lunch. It really is such a nice place to while away a few hours ……………. proprietors Patrick and Michelle are so cool - laid back and welcoming - friendly (but isn’t everyone here?), fellow overlanders (though they have considerably more African miles under their belts than we do, having been all the way up to Ethiopia and other countries on a similar parallel),  and Michelle has some fascinating tales to tell to willing listeners like us.

Some of the cars at the Albany day out at the Ploughman's Pub in Bathurst

Sunday afternoon Braai time at the Ploughman's Pub - bring your own - or buy a braaipack!

Pat, Rosemary and Charmain watching the Paris Sevens

The house is going well - all of the windows and doors are in and all of the internal reveals and soffits are plastered. On Monday (today), Basie tackled the fireplace and entrance hall reveals and soffits ………….. Tuesday he will nail the internal door and window cills. This guy is good ………. one of the best bricklayer/plasterer men I have ever had the pleasure to work with. He knows his business - and gets on with it - consulting with me only after the fact …………. when everything is done correctly and there is no space for adverse comment. The guy he brought along with him as a “Handlanger” …… ‘So-So’ by name, has also proved to be an absolute pleasure to work with, and I will make every effort to keep him on the books as things (hopefully), move forward. So-So’s brother, Dumesane, has also joined the team and is working with Pat on the garden which needs a shit load of work after years of neglect …………… he has a basic knowledge, which is good, and which Pat finds re-assuring as she moves forward on this one-acre project. It is so exciting as we see all of the crap disappear and structured beds with beautiful Poinsettias, Frangipani’s, Agapanthus, and a whole host of other plants which we have yet to get to know, begin to take shape.


Once there was a yacht - which I though was a hole in the sea that had money poured into it …………….  but this little project is really challenging the bank account from every conceivable angle, and it has become extremely important that I begin to find work to cover the shortfalls that present themselves on a daily basis ………….. so hold thumbs everyone ………… and here I appeal yet again to the very Reverend Brother Donald Kennedy: Please put us back on the Prayer Wheel Donald - we need all the help we can get…………………you, probably more than most others know exactly where we are coming from!!!!!!!

Today we moved the water pump - a basic, simple exercise - but when done it simply wouldn’t work ……… why not????? I drained it - flushed it - dismantled it ……. and it still ain’t working …… why not??????? We also moved the WC to the new outside unit we have built to manage poops while we rip the guts out of the inside of the bathrooms and kitchen, and the flush system refuses to seal ……. why not?????? So tomorrow we tackle these details again and hope we can get through with a few less ripped fingernails and hammer-slammed hands than I suffered today - meanwhile everyone on site will simply have to manage with buckets of water for flushing. What I really expected to be a two hour job took the entire day ……….. and it ain’t working properly yet! One really shouldn’t tackle these tasks on a Monday.

Right across the road from the house we have a place called the Bistro …….. which is attached to a “bits ’n pieces” store which I believe has been there forever. The Bistro is owned and run by Liz and Anne - and they do everything you need to get through the day beautifully (especially the waffles which I have a very soft spot for)…….. and for next to nothing. You pay for the coffee what you think it is worth ………….. and if you want to you can pay a bit extra “forward” for someone else who can’t afford it on the day - all you do is put up a tag and they help themselves. A really cool system. Today I found out (I don’t read posters), that Anne and her hubby do really cool, laid back live music there on Sunday evenings with candles and all kinds of soft, happy stuff ………… so we will definitely be there next Sunday evening to give it all a feel. If you’re around and reading this ………. why not join us?

Every day we enjoy our stay at the McCreath farm more and more. The cottage has really grown on us and the sunrises and sunsets have become a very special part of our lives, as have the Nguni cattle, the horses, the dogs  and the donkeys. The early morning and late evening walks with Jesse are special times for both her and us. She seems to think she is a pointer as she gets out there and lifts one foreleg,  and with raised head  and tail assesses the horizon for something to consider or charge down …………. before taking off at full speed in her chosen direction, leaping and sprinting before skidding to a stop and turning around to sprint back to where we are waiting. Quite definitely a dog’s life!

The cottage on the McCreath farm where we are staying ........ simply beautiful!

The horses outside the cottage walking away into the sunset

CHRONICLES??????

The way this Blog is headed I suspect that it may at some stage become necessary to change its name from Spirit of Place to something like “The Bathurst Chronicles”, but I suspect that it is still a little early for that…………….it may well serve to infuriate rather than engender, and the last thing I want to do is infuriate anyone in this quite magical little village.

On Sunday morning I arrived at the Farmers’ Market just as it was beginning to pour with rain - enough time though to grab a bottle of honey from Rory and Carol and a couple of pancakes for breakfast from Sandy before nipping into her studio to get out of the rain and a chance to find out a little more about the absolutely awful happenings of the night before from Brian - less than a hundred metres from their house. There was a break-in apparently at around 3am ………. things happened and the owner of the house was stabbed in the chest sustaining a punctured lung, while his wife was fatally hit on the head with a rock. I shan’t mention names at this stage, but they were well known in the village, and Pat had been introduced to her just the evening before at the Ploughman’s Pub where she handled the Friday Night draw.  Shocking in the extreme ………….. wasteful and tragic in every sense, we can only hope that the perpetrators are apprehended quickly and receive their just deserts.

On the house front we have been tackling a whole host of bits and pieces  - working around the chaos that is furniture and boxes piled virtually to the ceilings in every room as best we can and getting as close to ready for the installation of the doors and windows …….. promised for Tuesday. Can this be true - let’s sincerely hope so, as the two week delivery date has already expanded to four weeks and is holding up progress in more ways than I want to mention here……………everything else though is pretty much on track, including the tidying up of the garden…………. with just one small and unfortunate hitch: On Wednesday last week Pat began feeling pretty grotty. Initially we thought is might be a hangover from the flu jab that she had just before leaving Cape Town ………… but then it began presenting in ways that she had experienced before, and by this morning she was convinced that it was Tick Bite Fever. We made the necessary enquiries regarding a doctor via the ever helpful Rosemary and Charmaigne (the sisters nee Rainier, and friends it seems almost forever), and by midday Pat was with the doctor. Yup! The dreaded Tick Bite Fever. Thinking we would go for a little bite, and joined by Rosemary, Pat began feeling increasingly awful, to the point where we decided to forego a bite of any description and get her home ASAP, only to have her get violently ill just as we entered Bathurst. Here’s hoping that the prescription works at lightning speed - it really isn’t any fun seeing her in this condition.

Jesse continues to think that she has been born again and landed in Doggie-heaven. Aside from the fact that she has all day to run around the garden at the new house, each morning and evening immediately after her meal I take her out onto the farm and let her off the lead. Head high she surveys the never-ending landscape and takes off at full tilt in one or other direction, running until she realises that somewhere back there I have been left behind - only to come charging back ……. before heading off again towards another horizon. She has been introduced to the cattle and the donkeys - still needs to understand though that they are much bigger than her and have a predilection to kick small, cheeky animals …………. particularly the donkeys, who don’t much appreciate her trying to take the carrots that I feed them out of their mouths. The Bathurst chickens …….. the ones that roam the streets …….. she has yet to realise are not for chasing. She hasn’t managed to catch one yet, but that too, I am afraid, may just be a matter of time.

No longer having DSTV, keeping up with sports is becoming increasingly more difficult, carrying with it the risk of being identified as a barfly ………. the pubs being the purveyors of the necessary screenings that one needs to keep track of to stay up to speed. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), the Bok’s loss to Wales in Washington was too late to warrant a screening anywhere in Bathurst, and the cold and wet Sunday afternoon made staying in preferable to going out in search of a Bok/Fiji 7’s final …………… another one which we sadly lost. I did however manage to sneak into the Pig ’n Whistle pub for the last three laps of the Moto GP and watch the “Old Man” - the “Doctor” -  grab another magnificent podium. Isn’t he quite amazing? For the French Open I am going to have to rely on News 24, but feel entirely sure that one way or another I will catch all of the England tests - happily running the risk of being anointed ‘Barfly’ …………… Go Rassie!