Today deserves a dispatch because it is big brother Stuart's 65th birthday and he therefore officially becomes an even bigger burden on the State! Actually, between the four of us here three are now a burden on the system but for me, it will be a number of years yet before I receive the benefit of my 38 years in full time work. It is also extremely useful that one of us still has all of their faculties available and is therefore in a position to see that his charges all take their tablets at the correct time and are also back to our home here in Cape Town and tucked up and in bed before 10pm! Fortunately none of them are yet in a position of needing a story read to them!
Oh but what a lovely day we have had today courtesy of big bro's first pension payment. You see to celebrate the occasion he booked for the four of us to have a picnic under the magnificent camphor trees in Vergelegen. This is a stunning vineyard in a dream location and the picnic provided under the trees was outstandingly delicious from first bite to last. Even better when complimented by a bottle of the vineyard's finest bubbly together with a crisp but very light Sauvignon Blanc.
Linda and I had enjoyed this experience previously at Vergelegen but the enjoyment today went completely off the scale because of sharing the occasion with Stuart and Terri. Or was it just the fact that he paid??? No it wasn't. The three hours we spent over lunch was a pure joy and I hope the photos attached today perhaps reflect a little of this wonderful experience.
And so South Africa continues to delight with breathtaking scenery, delicious food and great company and to think that we are still less than a week into this trip.
Before I sign off today, I do need to counterbalance some of my previous blogs and particular the deference shown to big bro over the style and particularly the quality of his written word compared to mine. You see I have now observed his approach alongside my own and to say we are a myriad of light years apart is an understatement.
Basically as reported before, I am from the Ernie Wise school of writing but Stuart, his heroes are the likes of Neville Cardus (Google him) and Michael Parkinson who wrote a superb column in the Sunday Times for years.
The secret of these two gentlemen is that they would write, re-write and then re-write again and again until they felt the article merited their signatures and so it is with my big brother. Instead of writing as the words spill out of his brain and then his mouth a la Alistair, he actually crafts the blog over a period of five to seven days only being satisfied with perfection before he publishes! No wonder I felt mine were/are so inferior!!
And so adopting his style from here on in, the next update you should expect is a week on Friday!
The truth is out and I now feel a lot less thick than I did two days ago...
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