I was to visit Irma for five days before leaving for Johannesburg, where I would visit with my eldest sister Lida before flying of to Heathrow, from where I would take the train to Stirling, the closest station to Strathyre, where I had my lovely summer job.
While I was at Irma's, her good friend Estelle let fall that she wished to see what Haarlem was like, and it was decided that we would all go down for two days before me leaving. The Vitara was packed to full capacity with food, sleeping bags, dogs, three kids, and four grown-ups, including Susan, another friend, who was not the Haarlem type, being highly polished, highly educated, and highly nervous of everything not quite up to standard, or squeeking clean! At the back of the Vitara was Kristani and Kiana, the hyperventilating Hendrix, and the smelly Tembi, and also the bedding for the three extra people. On the back seat together with all the food at our feet, and wherever there was a space, was  myself and Estelle's boy Stephen, with a small space left for Susan. The other two ladies were happily sitting in front, the fresh air from the vent blowing nicely into there faces.
Now, Tembi, that ugly little mite I showed before in a blog, was about eleven years, and with her thick Rasta-like coat, she sweated easily, giving off a stench vile enough to make one retch, while Hendrix, with saliva running from his poor gasping mouth, of course was known for his sulpherous and highly flammable farts when in distress!
Susan was picked up last, and I saw her nose twitch a bitty disgustedly on getting in beside the poor Stephen, who was sitting like a sardine in a tin jar between us! Off we went, but just past the garage before going into the Outeniqua pass, Susan, after a nervous fart from poor Hendrix, shouted in a very high pitched voice for Irma to stop! Irma swerved onto the shoulder, not knowing what made Susan so adamant to stop, and then came a thin wail from the afflicted lady: 'Take me home NOW!' Irma and Estelle looked back, queerying with their eyes this command, but of course they did not have the foggiest idea of what was going on in the back, and tried to convince Susan to just relax! Susan was unconvincable, so we turned back and dropped her at her house. She was out of the car like a bullet from a gun, and stood on the pavement waving us off looking very happy indeed, albeit a bitty green around the gills, and unknown to her, a nice and shiny blob of saliva on her hair and her back!
The rest of the trip would have been even worse than it was if a sudden deluge of rain didn't cool the car down a bit. The back windows could open only about two inches, Irma explaining that it never could open further! The poor kids in the back with the animals were indeed having a hard time, as Hendrix, fighting to get over the seat and to the front, was now covering everything in saliva, even the kids, Tembi, and Stephen and my backs. After the rain Hendrix relaxed a bit, and went off in an exhausted sleep, and when the heat went down a bit, and Tembi stopped perspiring, we all were a little bit more comfy, but far from happy.
Estelle gave one look at the holes in the floor, and after hearing the scuffling below, she pronounced that she would sleep on the cement floor in the kitchen! I knew she wanted to sleep in my house, but my co-op friend had told me not to enter for at least a week after spraying the poison for the wood bugs.
After we all had a cold shower in Irma's house, mine being out of bounds, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the river, and under the huge old Pepper tree, and later made a huge bonfire and had a Snoek barbeque, A Snoek is a fish mostly found in Sout African waters and I think mainly on the West Coast. It has a lot of bones, but these are so big that it is very easy to take out. With Snoek we usually have Sweet Potatoes that we cook with lots of sugar, butter and a pinch both of ginger and cinnamon. This is put on a very low heat, and every time the water boils away, a little more water is put in, until you have a kind of caramalised Sweet Potato! It is Yummy, especially with the Snoek! We then also have a green salad, and some crisply fried potatoes, or a potbrood (pot bread), that is baked in a black iron pot covered with hot coals! Delish!!!
Us South Africans do love our sweet veggie together with our food, although the youngsters eat much more healthier than us!
The trip back to George was to say the least, a journey straight from hell, as just after lunch, Estelle became restless, and wanted to go immediately, and all my and the kid's pleadings fell on deaf ears, Irma I think so irritated by this bickering, that she capitulated, and said yes, let us start back! If somebody had never felt this Karroo sun burn down, they just can't understand just how scorching it is, especially at two in the afternoon! We haven't travelled far when the dolls started dancing, an old South African  idiom used when some kind of trouble starts! Poor Hendrix became absolutely miserable, trying to get over the seat and over me and Stephen to where the lovely fresh air was blowing into Irma and Estelle's faces. He just also had his lunch, so his farting became even stronger than when we came, and Tembi, although she also had a swim in the river, was sweating like she was in a sauna, giving off a smell that I can not begin to describe! I am known as a big grumbler, and I was grumbling now, telling Estelle that she was sitting pretty safe, not having to endure the stenches, and that she was heartless, and in the midst of this, Hendrix deposited his lunch on my back, and on Stephen's shoulder, and then I grumbled, while the poor girls were trying to clean us up! Needless to say, I was a bitty stiff with Estelle when we dropped her and Stephen off, and never saw her for the next two years!