…by The Naked Barista… 28 June 2016
Pretoria is fast becoming home to us.
Oops!!!
I cannot believe that I just wrote that…
I have to admit that we were only motivated by the jobs to come and stay here for such a long period of time… but now… after being here for nearly two months, it is safe to say that we are definitely enjoying being here…
We were very excited to see our beautiful friend, Zel, from the Garden Route, when she came to fetch her sister’s children to fly with them back to their grandmother.
Our friend Ruan, collected her at the airport and we had a braai at our newest friend, Tania’s home.
We met Tania at Afrika Burn this year and as it turns out she lives around the corner from where we have accommodation. We also met her two beautiful little girls.
Ruan delighted us with his skills, as he is currently the best braaier in my opinion. Not only is he good with a fire for a braai, he has also recently started playing with fire pois entertaining us as he definitely understands fire.
Ruan has a huge Costume rental shop in Pretoria and when I had the privelage of a walk through, I was amazed at the awesome variety. I definitely can recommend this to anyone in need of a costume to rent.
We were delighted to be invited to house sit for our friend, Jam (Jannelie).
- Jam has a very stylish and super cosy townhouse and we were very pleased to be able to rest peacefully for a while. Our only ‘chore’ was to take care of Sam (above), absolutely adorable.…what a pleasure…
Jannelie creates exquisite jewellery (find her facebook page ‘Something Jam’ jewellery for some of her stunning creations). I am superblessed to have received some stunning pieces as presents and wear them with gratitude.
Saturday morning, we at last had some chill time at the townhouse. Sam is absolutely adorable…he is like a live cuddly toy and he has super skills to hypnotise us with his eyes to have us meet his every need.
On Friday, we had to stop in at B’s uncle’s house, which we have also been invited to house sit. Nick has stunning Koi fish which need to be fed while they are in Mozambique.
He has remarried while he was living in Mozambique for the past nine years. Over these past nine years we have been invited many times to visit them in Mosambique, but this is still top on our wishlist and we have decided to achieve this soonest.
Recently they have purchased another beautiful home in Constantia Park.
We had a meeting at their home to see what their needs are for the house sitting.
We were cordially invited for dinner and as we had all our belongings in the car to go to Jam’s townhouse and it was late and we had not planned dinner as yet, we thankfully accepted the invitation.
We have fallen into a tradition of our friend Ruan to have a braai night every Wednesday. We met new friends Frans and Liezel here. We feel honoured with Liezel’s invite to a Secret Soiree in one of her friend’s garden in Monument Park with the band Georgetown.
Saturday afternoon we went to a Secret Soirree. It was the perfect day…with a lazy winter sun shining through the soft clouds. We had bubbly and I was amazed at how talented the musicians of the ‘Georgetown’ band was.
We had a good chat with them encouraging them to come and entertain us in the Garden Route as we have so many friends with the perfect venues.
We waited until the very last song and then we hurried back home to our cosy chill space at Jam’s lovely townhouse. En route we stopped for a take away pizza at Toni’s. I was pleasantly surprised with the vibey ambience as we sat at the stylish circular bar in the middle of the restaurant. We had a lovely glass of red wine and small talked while we waited.
Sam obviously joined us as we watched movie and ate pizza in our cosy chilled surroundings.
Sunday morning we had a delightful lazy start.
Ever since my health issues, we have been doing our own research as to what could have happened with my body.
We have a few friends, who have done an Iboga plant healing experience. We have been looking into this ourselves and therefore we watched “The Reality of Truth”. Knowledge is power as the Bible says. This movie was a real eye opener.
Eventually…we had to pack up as we were driving to Carltonville to take ‘rebar’ through to B’s cousin Jaco, who he has asked to help out with a new worksite in Magaliesburg.
On our way to Carltonville, we had to once again remind ourselves how blessed we were to be living in Sedgefield for the last 20 years.
Gratitude begets more gratitude as we have the best of both worlds living in Sedgefield, but being able to travel everywhere else.
The road there is dusty, flat, brown and dry…
We were mixing pleasure with business as we went for a braai with B and Jaco’s other cousin, Roelf and his lovely wife, Annemarie. Jaco and his three children would meet us there. We were looking forward to see the family, but especially the kids whom we have not seen in a few years.
Jaco and his children, Arno, Zellindie and Jaco junior are very dear to us as they stayed with us for awhile when the kids were much younger. Jaco bought a coffee shop in our hometown, Sedgefield many years ago.
We were absolutely amazed at how fast the children have grown up. They were adults now…
We had a great time.
That side of the family are all into Big Game hunting and we obviously had to target practice after lunch.
I was handed the gun to have a shot myself. I only received this one shot as I surprised everyone including myself when I nailed it right on target first and only shot.
We had a marvelous day with the family and Annemarie made us each a delicious Don Pedro before we left for the long drive homeward.
It was awesome to reconnect with the family. Superblessed to be gifted four bags of delicious warthog cheese grillers which would come in handy as we are having so many braais.
So…we have moved into our new accommodations looking after the Koi fish. The house is much bigger than we have been used to for the last month and a half and very stylish. We are feeling superblessed as we are living in luxury…we even have under floor heating which is an absolute blessing as it is very cold here at the moment. The beautiful garden is filled with birds and I am loving my alone time here.
We were invited on a hiking trail at Grootkloof, but at this point, the sites are coming towards inspection time and B is working very hard to finalise his work to satisfaction. Therefore, we do not have much freedom for roaming about.
We did however join our friends, Skillie, Alda and Ruan at Capital Craft on Saturday afternoon to have dinner and watch the rugby game. Obviously some more friends of our friends joined and we had a very good time. Capital Craft serves some good food and the vibe is totally great.
Sunday we joined them at the Voortrekker Monument to see Park Acoustics.
Our friend Ruan organised the tickets for us.
How amazing it was to be a part of such a lively occasion with talented musicians and such an enthusiastic crowd of fans…a variety of colour in all forms.
We are truly blessed with the most amazing friends which fills our life with enjoyment. We even had the pleasure to see our friend, Dean, who moved to Johannesburg from Knysna. Dean is very dear to my heart and we share the same birthdate with a ‘few’ years in between.
Came evening, we witnessed a beautiful sunset overlooking Pretoria.
We are aiming to spend some more magical moments with these friends on the weekend of 8, 9 10 July. We are so blessed to be able to rent a house at Leeupoort from the Mother of our friend, Jam.
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And so our weekend away at Leeupoort have come and gone… We were very excited to leave on Friday after collecting Jam from her townhouse.
We drove Bella Bella route and through Warmbad. B had lived in Warmbad as a little boy and shared a few of his adventures with us. Sounds like a naughty boy as they always slipped into the warmbaths for free.
Our mates were already waiting for us when we arrived. It was getting dark fast, but luckily they had already made a glorious fire.
We had the keys for the house with us. After unlocking, veryone proceeded to unpack and get ourselves ready for a real good time…
…obviously starting with a braai.
We took turns with the meals throughout the weekend and we ate so very well. Everyone outdone themselves and every meal was a feast.
On Saturday morning, Alda and myself went for a lovely walk exploring Leeupoort. Skillie welcomed us back with an eagerly accepted Bloody Mary.
Skillie and Alda made us an awesome breakfast and all of us decided to add some bubbly. Champagne breakfasts are the best as it’s a good start for an awesome day. We set up tables under the beautiful trees and it was divine.
Later we all went for an euphoric walk and Alda instigated a ‘boeresport bokdrol’ spitting competition. We were all in stitches.
Saturday afternoon was our turn to prepare food and we made a lip smacking ’potjiekos’. Actually B brewed it and I was more of a chopping and cleaning assistant.
We saw the most stunning sunset together. For me, every sunset is different, but how much more special it is when shared with a group of beautiful friends…
Later that evening we thought we heard music. We had seen an advertisement of the ‘Boere orkes’ being at Leeupoort. We all decided that a ‘sokkie’ (dancing) would be great fun, so we jumped into our vehicle with our desert, Boplaas Cape Vintage Port in hand and followed the music.
We were disappointed as there was no one to be seen at the venue. The music we heard came from the farm workers cottages on the other side of the road and could only be accessed on the outside of the entrance gates.
We were blessed with beautiful weather the entire weekend. Even 10 0’clock on Saturday evening when we were looking for the advertised ‘Boere orkes’ and the jacuzi…entrance fee being R6. We never found it, but had so much fun searching for it…
…not everything we do can be published…
Everything were locked though and after a few ’tries’, we gave up and decided to go back to our own campsite.
We socialized till the wee morning hours as the fire blazed…
Sunday we were very slow to pack up. Nobody wanted to end this awesome weekend.
The delicious potjie of the previous day provided us with breakfast again.
Jannelie made us delicious ‘Boerewors rolls’ for lunch and we had so much leftover food.
Leeupoort is really a gem and we could not believe when Jannelie told us that she had not been there for the last five years.
The wild animals are very chilled and actually comes up right to our campsite…
It is also heaven for ‘Birdwatchers’ as we saw and heard such a wide variety.
The wildlife here is not so wild at all…
It was late afternoon on Sunday when we took our last photos and said our fond farewells knowing that we would do this again soonest…
If you would like to visit this amazing place, contact Tarien de Villiers at 0825606444…magical…
We had so much fun and laughter the entire weekend. The house is definitely true to its name being “Tambotievreugde”. (joy)
Gratitude for being Superblessed!