On Monday this blog was twelve years old, my first post was on 1st June 2008. This month I'll be closing it down, if this is not the last post then whatever I write next will be. I've been battling with poor readership for years and have been on the verge of closing it before but have persisted, but now we're leaving home and hopefully with in the next couple of months we're leaving the country. I have been very disheartened with poor pageviews. I average 23 views per post and I get very few comments so it seems like I'm wasting my time. Comments are one of the ways by which the blogger can a ..read more

Since the end of March when we went into this totally unnecessary and extremely harsh lockdown we have not been able to buy alcohol, now the Government has decided that as we have been good boys we will be able to buy alcohol again from Monday 1st June - hallelujah! I will not be going on Monday though, it will be chaos although maybe I'll go down there to get some photos.  Also I would like them to sell out of all their stale stock and get some fresh in.  The smokers have evidently not behaved themselves and will continue to be punished by not being able to buy cigarettes or tobacc ..read more

Remember how I told you that we're down to drinking leftovers in the booze cabinet because bottle stores have been closed since the end of March? Why "they" decided that people should not be allowed to drink or smoke during lockdown is anyone's guess. We do have our suspicions about the cigarette ruling though, about officials involved with the black market trade in cigarettes making a fortune but we don't smoke and as this is not a political blog I will avoid that topic. I digress, I have been drinking Schnapps, lemon juice and soda water because that's what we have, it's acceptable but not ..read more

Friday we are going from level 5 to level 4 lockdown, I don't think it is going to make a lot of difference to us. Everyone has to wear a mask when out of the house or in the shops etc., it looks like cigarettes will be on sale but still no alcohol. There will be no recreational travel allowed and a curfew between 20h00 and 05h00 will be in effect, draconian measures limiting our freedom, measures which may even be unnecessary but what can we do? Along with a great many other people we are now trying out a wine recipe; two cups of white sugar, four litres of pure red grape juice and one packe ..read more

So three days to go and then they are apparently going to start phasing out the lockdown so that we can slowly get back to normal, I don't think it's going to affect us much yet, we still won't be able to buy booze and recreational travel is still prohibited. Luckily friends and family have helped out with the booze problem. After complaining online about my booze predicament our Club Pres., Anton gave me a bottle of whisky and two other brothers; Gerrie and Murray offered me wine and whisky, that is what the brotherhood is all about, we take care of each other. I managed to buy a nice big S ..read more

I'm experiencing cabin fever, the trouble is this damn virus, because of its public relations makes me feel apprehensive when I go through to the shops. Non of the other viruses that affected us; SARS, Ebola, Swine flu etc., had the impact that this Chinese one has because they weren't promoted and publicized by self proclaimed experts on social media the way this one has been. You can't go on line without seeing all manner of contradictory messages and dire warnings of impending doom, take for example the way it started off with panic buying of toilet paper of all things, why? There are peopl ..read more

Well here we are only (hopefully) ten days to go and since I last posted the wine's finished, the beer's finished, there's only half the whisky left and so we'll start scratching through the left overs. Otherwise we are both well and keeping our spirits up. (Excuse the pun!) There's not much to report, I spend a lot of time on my computer and we binge watch Netflix and YouTube. I have thousands of photographs which I am sorting through, many of them are club photos which I am putting together and copying for the club before we go, that is keeping me busy. Almost ninety folders to be copied on ..read more

This is a food blog as well as a biking and beer blog and as the biking has been curtailed somewhat I will write a bit more about food. Also of concern is that fact that I have only four quarts of beer left, the wine is down to the last five litres, as well as one bottle of Merlot and one bottle of Pinotage Rose',  I have one bottle of whisky and then we're down to odds and sods in the cupboard. The last two weeks are going to be tough. But I digress, I was talking about food. After the braai on Sunday we had quite a bit of sadza left over which we wrapped in clingwrap to stop it from de ..read more

Halfway? I certainly hope so. I'm going shopping tomorrow morning, there's something to look forward to! Sad isn't it? Under normal circumstances I try to avoid going shopping. Will we ever get back to the old "normal" again? I think things are going to change. Let me tell you about the braai we had yesterday, I haven't got anything else to talk about and it was a good one even if I do say so myself. I would have loved to have had a couple of mates around too though. Cheers, happy Easter! Fire on the go, ons gaan nou braai I should have been smiling in that pict ..read more