It’s Christmas eve and a very different one to the one we spent last year in Grenada.
Mike and I still need to get Ann’s dongle. The shops are getting crowded and the parking areas right by the shops are filling up so we leave the car at the Waterfront (too far for most people to walk to the town centre – all 10 minutes of it) and walk up to the shops. Amazingly, everyone else seems to have decided to buy dongles as Christmas presents and at this late stage, we can’t get one anywhere as the promised supplies have not turned up. We end up buying her a hard disk which we will fill with films that she can watch through the TV to wile away the hours she spends on the sofa in the middle of the night when she can’t sleep.
I do the last bits of food shopping. There are no sprouts to be found anywhere (thank goodness as I thought the last ones here were tasteless – no frost on them) but I manage to get everything else including a pair of ready readers (Victoria will kill me). I also manage to slip another pair of flip flops into my shopping basket in Marks/Woolies while Mike isn’t looking. Well, they are 30% off and just the colour I want!
I go to the jewellers where they clean and polish my gold and diamond bracelet. While there, I risk pointing out a rather nice mabe pearl and mother of pearl ring and (trying my luck here) unsubtly hint what a lovely present it would make. Unfortunately Mike thinks it looks like a hideous piece of plastic so it’s a non starter.
We speak to Bev. She, Moe and Eline are driving to us from Cape Town - Eline arrived early in the morning from Perth. As they will probably arrive around the time we are picking up Jutta and Jochem from the airport at George so I tell them to stop somewhere for lunch.
I drive to George to take the rental car back and Mike follows me in Terry’s car. We arrive at the airport on time but Jutta and Jochem’s flight arrives nearly 20 minutes early and they are standing there waiting for us. As usual, Jutta is freezing. It has been warmer in Cape Town and the weather this far along the cape is a bit of a shock. Unfortunately it starts to drizzle as we drive back. Great. They say it always rains on Christmas day here – let’s hope they are wrong this year.
We have just got back to house when Bev, Moe and Eline arrive. We cannot believe what comes out of the boot of the car. Champagne, white wine, red wine, cheeses, smoked fish and turkey, chutneys, dips, nuts, olives, crisps and two huge cakes. I’ve never known such foodie generosity.
They all stop for a drink and a guided tour of the house. I just wish the weather was better. By now Jutta and Bev are so cold I lend them a cashmere shawl and fleece to warm them up while we pose for photos in the somewhat brisk wind on Ann and Terry’s veranda.
By the time we take them all to Simola, the drizzle has turned to rain. Being the guests, Jutta, Jochem and Eline get a lift down in a buggy and we follow in the car, having been told that it’s too far to walk. We discover that it’s about 200 yards!
The apartment they have booked, however, is fantastic and its heating system is impressive. As the porter is desperately trying to show them around, Jutta insists on him putting all the heating on – all the under-floor heating systems and the big gas fire in the lounge. The hotel apartment is bigger than ours in the UK and stylishly turned out right down to the very last detail. Jutta produces Christmas decorations from her bag and proceeds to do up the lounge then some more wine comes out.
Mindful that Mike has to drive back, we leave and head for home. Jutta, Jochem and Eline have dinner in the hotel but Bev and Moe join us later for dinner at Ann’s where the relatively simple dinner of smoked chicken and salad is finished off with a slab of the delicious baked cheesecake that Bev and Moe brought with them from Cape Town.
The evening ends there for us but Bev and Moe go back to Simola where a few more bottles are cracked open. Christmas eve is very big in Germany!
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