Had to spend the week in the Hague and got lucky! Graham, Karen and David joined me there from the Wednesday night. David and I had entered the City-Pier-City Half Marathon on the Saturday but I was feeling a bit mizzy because I didn't think that I was going to run but thought that we could all still have some fun in Den Haag and it would be quite an experience to watch the race and cheer David on by shouting rude things at him as he went past and perhaps Karen and I could even sneak a flash at him to see if he would disown us.
Well, what a week... when we weren't stuffing our faces, we were on our way to guzzle large quantities of food, or were rolling home after having shovelled barrowloads of grub down our gullets.....we started with Spare Ribs on the Wed night, moved on to an Argentinian Steakhouse (where we were served by a small Spaniard and a big bald Pakistani), then did Italian and ended on a Middle eastern note with a belly dancer and a hubbly-bubbly.
Whilst I slaved away at my desk trying to focus on grey screens and red error messages, the 3
of them explored the 'village' (apparently The Hague has never become a city so is Europe's biggest billage?). We had one lovely sunny day so they took themselves off to Scheveningen beachfront and settled into big comfy beanbags in a bright yellow bus (which doubled as a bar come tapas restaurant) and watched the North Sea rocking back and forth.
Graham did do some work of course! He brought his laptop and could log on to the Stock Exchange through wi-fi so he was bedroom ridden for most of the remaining days. Karen and David took themselves off to Amsterdam on the Friday and partook of some of the more interesting delicacies offered by some of the street cafes....so you can see how seriously David was taking this Half marathon..... his preparation was eating lots of rich food, carbo loading in creative ways and trying some new Dutch pastries.
Along the way he somehow persuaded me that I should start the Half marathon with him so that he would not start out too fast. It sounded like a reasonable idea, so I said yes, even though this was probably done somewhere between a few ribs, beers and a steak. The idea was that I would stop at 10km unless I got sore of course, in which case I would bale anyway.
Saturday dawned and we were held up at the start by someone being hit by a tram just after the starting line and then when they cleared that, some guy drove into a lamppost along the route so we had to wait for the Dutch police to clean up the flying Dutchmen! I reckon they were probably just perving all the lycra clad bodies bounding and bouncing along the roads and pavements.
We set off together and then David revved his engine up a bit and took off whilst I wobbled and snorted onto the 5km mark where I decided I felt fine enough to continue to the 10km mark, but when I got there, it was in the middle of nowhere and the only path out of the dunes was on the course, so I thought I would carry on until I found the main road where I could catch a tram back to Graham and Karen at the finish where we could cheer David home. But by the time I realised that I was at the tram spot, I had done 15km so thought I might as well finish the darn course so I hobbled onwards looking like a drunk pregant ostrich would probably look like if it ran backwards and didn't wear feathers in strategic places.
David was waiting with Karen and Graham and he had run a fantastic race where his last 5km were done in the shortest time out of all his splits. I think he is going to sell his special tapering plan to Runners World. hee hee...you had to be there...
Can you believe that none of us had remembered the camera so we had to rely on the official finish photies... The Lees did have a video camera but ...er...we thought we would post the feeneesh fottos instead. But they not workee now...mebbe tomorrow...
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Sunday, March 19, 2006
18th - 19th March 2006
I seemed to have a hectic week, not getting home at a normal time much but that's just part and parcel of working for a big company. We seem to have a lot of functions as well as the usual work stresses and strains. On Tuesday night I was at a farewell party in a Jamaican restaurant called 'Mr Jerk' , which was like an old cafe (not unlike Rose's tea lounge for the ex-Brakpannites). The food was great and really cheap and I had a drink that would probably result in 20 Hail Mary's if I were an Irish Catholic...it was called Guiness punch and comprised Guinness (there's a surprise) and condensed milk with a shot of nutmeg and something else.
On Wednesday night, Graham had some of his friends around from the traders' conference that he attended that weekend we spent in London near the Barbican. They all sat downstairs talking in tongues (to my ear) whilst I worked upstairs. Graham fixed some great snacks and I could just smell all these interesting things wafting up to the study so I sat drooling into my keyboard.
Then on Thursday night I met up with some ex colleauges and we went to a Cuban restaurant near Moorgate (north of the river sort of near Liverpool str) for Happy hour, which turned out to be 3 hours long and I have no idea what we poisoned ourselves with but at least I didn't feel cold when I ventured outside and had the giggles until I got on the train and my peace was disturbed by some smartly dressed young guy trying to puke into the rubbish bin behind my seat. He then gave up trying to control the projectile ratatouille and lay down on the carpet and let it flow from his mouth like the Orange River in flood! Yugh!! Needless to say, I changed carriages.
On Friday, Graham popped into London for a seminar in the afternoon so we decided to go out on the town that night and sleep over. I had the name and place of this blues bar just off Soho where we were going to listen to da muzak! However poor G decided to walk back from his seminar, which was near the Tower. It is a beautiful walk but rather far when you aren't wearing your running shoes and a little more tedious when you have to clench buttocks and teeth to keep out that bitter wind howling along the Thames! By the time he got to me (near the Eye / Westminster), he was feeling a bit tired and then I dragged him upriver to a place near the old Tate (around the corner from the Morpeth Arms which used to be a pub run by Jay and his dad a few years ago.) Along the way my work boots started hurting me and my eyes were streaming from the cold! My hat kept threatening to blow off, so eventually I took it off and immediately got frost bite on my ears.
We got to the hotel which had this 'Spring promo' on so our rate included dinner, bed & breakfast so we had dinner there. After Graham's surprise that a 'rack of ribs; in London was equal to 3 weenie lamb chops, we were too tired to go out, so went upstairs and flipped through about 20 channels of TV until we fell asleep....so much for a night on the town!
Got to rush now. Off to the Hague tonight but at least this time G is coming to join me from Wed so it should be fun and perhaps I will see more of the city besides work, restaurants and gyms..
On Wednesday night, Graham had some of his friends around from the traders' conference that he attended that weekend we spent in London near the Barbican. They all sat downstairs talking in tongues (to my ear) whilst I worked upstairs. Graham fixed some great snacks and I could just smell all these interesting things wafting up to the study so I sat drooling into my keyboard.
Then on Thursday night I met up with some ex colleauges and we went to a Cuban restaurant near Moorgate (north of the river sort of near Liverpool str) for Happy hour, which turned out to be 3 hours long and I have no idea what we poisoned ourselves with but at least I didn't feel cold when I ventured outside and had the giggles until I got on the train and my peace was disturbed by some smartly dressed young guy trying to puke into the rubbish bin behind my seat. He then gave up trying to control the projectile ratatouille and lay down on the carpet and let it flow from his mouth like the Orange River in flood! Yugh!! Needless to say, I changed carriages.
On Friday, Graham popped into London for a seminar in the afternoon so we decided to go out on the town that night and sleep over. I had the name and place of this blues bar just off Soho where we were going to listen to da muzak! However poor G decided to walk back from his seminar, which was near the Tower. It is a beautiful walk but rather far when you aren't wearing your running shoes and a little more tedious when you have to clench buttocks and teeth to keep out that bitter wind howling along the Thames! By the time he got to me (near the Eye / Westminster), he was feeling a bit tired and then I dragged him upriver to a place near the old Tate (around the corner from the Morpeth Arms which used to be a pub run by Jay and his dad a few years ago.) Along the way my work boots started hurting me and my eyes were streaming from the cold! My hat kept threatening to blow off, so eventually I took it off and immediately got frost bite on my ears.
We got to the hotel which had this 'Spring promo' on so our rate included dinner, bed & breakfast so we had dinner there. After Graham's surprise that a 'rack of ribs; in London was equal to 3 weenie lamb chops, we were too tired to go out, so went upstairs and flipped through about 20 channels of TV until we fell asleep....so much for a night on the town!
Got to rush now. Off to the Hague tonight but at least this time G is coming to join me from Wed so it should be fun and perhaps I will see more of the city besides work, restaurants and gyms..
Sunday, March 12, 2006
11-12 March - Signs of Spring & Starfish Dinner 0
Karin drove down to spend the weekend with us. Last night we joined up with Cobus and Wendy and assorted family members to go to a Starfish dinner. It was arranged by a travel agent who nominated Starfish as a charity to receive x% of the ticket takings. It was pretty weird hearing 'foreigners' selling SA as the best place on earth to visit, however the marketing blurbs were a bit surreal coming straight after the Starfish presentation on Aids orphans in the same country. We had a good time though and I won a case of Castle Lager!! Then today we went off to Cobus and Wendy for a braai, oh that long forgotten smell of charcoal and crisping flesh...hmmmmm.
We were initially going to sit down to watch the French vs England 6 Nations' game but had tuned into the SA vs Oz ODI at Wanderers earlier. I could not believe that someone could get over 400 at Wanderers and thought it was unbeatable. We were hoping that the South Africans would start using some sangoma magic or have Modjaji on their books to try and force a draw. Of course we never counted on Herchelle Gibbs.
Graham reckoned we had to win because Gibbs probably had a bet riding on the game, we still had the nerve to laugh at Graham, but now I am left wondering about that!! But it was a thriller and I would have given anything to be in Jozi today just for a few hours. They could even have taken my car out of the carpark as usual, I wouldn't have minded. Weather is still grey, drizzly and cold although Graham has been hit with early hayfever. It seems kind of unfair that we are still feeling that cold in our bones and have to suffer a spring affliction. Someone needs to tell the weatherman that it is time to take the snow and sleet and bugger off.
11-12 March - Signs of Spring & Starfish Dinner 3
Jenny, Karin and Graham tuck in. There was a guy selling footballs in the colours of the SA flag as part of the World Cup promo. For every ball that is bought, one gets sent back to some kids in SA. The other one gets worn as stylish headgear around the dinner table. The balls came with their own miniature pumps, so of course we rather enjoyed our own sophisticated humour about jokes like 'n pomp's 'n pomp ou maat.
11-12 March - Signs of Spring & Starfish Dinner 2
Enjoying the grub (and trying to get the English waitress to say 'sosatie'). Cobus and Wendy have their niece Karen visiting from SA. Wendy's sister-in-law's sister (don't worry, we understand it), Sue was also down for the weekend. Here are Cobus and Wendy; Caryn and Bjorn & Cobus and Sue. We had to laugh at Bjorn. He kindly agreed to carry the prize winning case of Castle to the car for us, but on the way we went to check out the 'local diksco', with UV lights and all. Cobus walked into the club with the castle laden Bjorn behind him. The South African waiter at the door couldn't believe his eyes! In the cold grey mist shores of the Thames in Runnymede, here was some oke walking into a club with a case of Castle. You aren't allowed to take your own hooch into a club and there was Bjorn not even trying to sneak a half jack of Irish mist in, just a few small lagers...
11-12 March - Signs of Spring & Starfish Dinner 1
Graham and the Laudin girls, dressed to go out. We were surprised to see that Karin had legs and I can't remember the last time that I saw her in a dress!! 
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)