My time in Belgium was just wonderful, and during the week when Karel was at work, Irma and self took busses and trains all over, and we did a fair amount of walking. But I was now quite fit, and with the tablets that slowed down my heartrate, I didn't get so tired anymore! What a blessing!
Then it was decided of course that we would go berry picking along the riverbanks, but as it is quite far, we had to use the bicycles. Kiana left hers for me, and as I was last on a bicycle a bout fifteen years ago when I worked in Holland, I was a bit of a scared cat, and eyed this two wheeled monster with apprehension!
The morning arrived for our first excursion, and I was maar a bitty shaking when I took the handles to push this scary thing from the garage, and almost fainted when I saw the amount of older men already seated in the sun in front of Rico's pub, just across the road from where we were to take off!
I hyperventilated! Badly! The reason for half of my fear was the cobbled road that I had to cross, right in front of this audience, and this audience were watching us with interest while sipping their early morning coffee. Well, I hope it was coffee! I could see in my mind's eye how I would give a few pedals, and then my wheels will be caught between the cobbles, and having done no peddling on cobbles before, I would bite the dust, or is it cobbles, and seeing the smiles already on the audience's faces, I just knew that that would be of big enjoyment to them.
Irma cycled across the road, and stood at the corner in front of the bakery, trying to cajole me take the plunge. I was sweating and shaking, but now the old men had joined Irma in her quest to get me across the road, and they were shouting all kinds of helpful hints at me, so, after shivering once more, I took a very deep breath, and set of! By the grace of all the gods I stayed upright, and with the sound of loud clapping and shouting, I rounded the corner, and out of their sight!
All went well for the first few minutes, until a car came from the front, and I had nowhere to go, as there were cars parked along the very narrow road. Irma was some way ahead of me, and although both she and Karel had tried to imprint it in my brain that cyclists always have right of way in Belgium, I panicked, and jumped off the bicycle. The car stood facing me, and the driver and his passenger was giving me some strange finger signs, but I thought to myself, oh, bugger off, and just go! They didn't go, and iRma, who had by this time looked back and saw my dilemma, had come back, and told me that the car was waiting for me to go! So I pushed the bike passed them, and I could see their incredulous faces staring at me, but at least I was rid of them!

The thieves were caught within three days, as they had stashed their loot up in the mountain, not knowing that some of the villagers had seen them do it. There were four of them, all quite young, and I felt sad, as the youngsters here grow up with parents that are drunk the whole week-end, and with nothing to do, they soon get into trouble when they fall into the hands of the drug lords. Tic is a very popular drug used by the youth, and the drug lords get the kids used to the drugs, then use them to do the break-ins, and they then get payed with drugs!
Jan came back from Johannesburg, and broke the news that he was thinking of moving to Capetown, not immediately, but by the end of the year. I was upset, as the baby, well toddler, is so close to me, and to take the kids away would break my heart.
But first I was going to visit Irma and Karel in Belgium for two months.
Trienkie, my youngest have the most amazing husband, who said he would look after the kids, and she could go with me, and stay for ten days!
The flight to Belgium was fraught with upheavel and bad bally luck. Firstly our flight from Capetown was delayed, and we had to be put on another flight, as we had the flight from Johannesburg to Abu Dabhi to catch, and our plane had some or other pain!
Then we were delayed at the Abu Dabhi airport for eight hours, and we were very tired and bleary eyed when at last we landed at Brussels.
But it was a wonderful time, and while Trienkie was there, we did a lot of trips to show her around, and the highlite was of course to drink our pintje! That is a pint of Belgium beer of course. I just love the old towns and villages, and Karel drove us to Dinant, where we had a look at a small village called le Roux, which is where my family came from, mother being a le Roux. I sometimes get sad, thinking that my forefathers were driven from France because they were protestants, they then went to Belgium, and from there they were sent to Africa, and left!
Bush had to look after the onions, well, he just had to water them, and it would be ready to harvest when I came back!
Knowing that Jan would be moving to Capetown also when I got back, I was feeling really upset, but soon got over it for the time being, as Irma insisted that we go berry picking, but to get to the river, we had to cycle! Oh good heavens, I did not look forward to Trienkie's leaving, as then we would take to the roads on the bicycles!

I had heard somebody run away in the direction of the river when I talked to the cat, and the others that was still in the house must have gone there too, as they couldn't go out in front. When the police came they were all gone, and after extensive searching up and down the river, they did not find any thieves, but they did find Jan's bicycle stowed away underneath some brush!
I was in a state, as now the house was open to every thief around, but the two policemen and Gary kind of balanced the doors in the opening, and we stacked some furniture against it on the inside. But I was worried, as the thieves could come back when the police and Gary left, knowing that I would be inside my own house, and couldn't see what was happening at Jan's place.
I had decided to only phone Jan in the morning, as it was of no use unsettling him, as he was six hundred kilometers away, and I did not want him to jump in the car and drive home in a fury!
Nothing much was taken, as I had surprised them, and they had to flee without their loot. A lot of stuff was packed together at the door that was taken out, ready to be taken away, and by the amount of stuff I knew that they must have been waiting for a small truck to take it away. All over the house were heaps of burned paper, I suppose the paper having been lit to see, as they dared not put any lights on. They could easily have put the house on fire, as the wooden floor in the kitchen was badly scarred where they had lit some paper!
The next morning I waited in vain for the police to come and take my statement, as they suggested the previous night.
Two days later Jan had to go to Johannesburg for work, and I was so scared to stay alone with the two kids, worrying that the thieves would see that Jan was away again, and come back for their loot, as we were still waiting for Elliot the builder to come and help Jan put the doors back. Of the police there was yet no sign, and they never came to take my statement, and send for the fingerprint guy.So I took a huge rock, tied it securely to a rope, and suspended this over the top step leading up to the veranda, with a thin piece of gut tied to a chair spanning the same step about a foot from the floor,  as a trigger when pushed against with a foot!
Knew it would probably not work, but it made me feel a lot better, although for the three nights Jan was away, I did not get a lot of sleep. I was safe enough with the kids in my own home, but as this people do such a lot of damage when looting, I worried about Jan's stuff!
As the police in Haarlem seemed to have disappeared, never answering their phone, I decided to phone Uniondale police station, and they were horrified that our police never even took a statement, or get fingerprints taken, and less than an hour later, they were at my door. They had a hearty laugh about my device to flatten the thieves with a rock, but after they had a good look at it, told me that is wasn't a bad invention at all!

Jan was now becoming quite serious about Erna, the woman he had met some weeks before, and he was driving up and down to Capetown over week-ends. As it is about six hundred kl to capetown, I was in a state of nervous worry all the time. South African roads could be the most dangerous in the world, and we have a lot of road deaths. The causes of this is mostly drunken driving, unlicensed drivers, and of course the mini taxis. This taxis, that can seat about ten people, were usually overloaded to a point where the driver could have no control over the steering. Many people die almost daily in this mini bus taxis, and the causes are always either overloading, or negligence. One taxi that had gone off the road in the Eastern Cape had thirty six passengers instead of the ten it was licensed for. Most of the people died, but this did not stop the overloading, or the negligence.
I went to my friend Louise in Uniondale to watch the Wimbledon tennis, and had to come home in the dark, something I never do when Jan was away. On opening the gate I saw that it was tampered with, but as the cattle always try to push it open for a little nibble at our plants and vegies, I did not take too much notice.
Jan's cat was waiting for me, and he was maauwing so loud and and distressfully, that I decided to go over to their house and feed the cat before unlocking my house.
Jan's house has a long veranda at the back, that span the whole length of the house. The moon was almost full, so I could see good enough, and proceeded to fill the cat's bowl from the tin holder, but something was troubling me, although I did not immediately grasped what that was. But I knew that my eyes had caught sight of something strange, and as I looked around, I saw that the huge sliding doors were standing against the wall, and a big hole where they should have been.
That was when I heard a noise inside the house, and the next moment I also heard somebody running away.
The doors all came out onto this veranda, and I was at the furthest one, with no escape if the person or persons came out of the doors they had removed, and I knew that nobody would hear me scream!
If anybody's feet ever had wings, as the saying goes, mine had wings that night, as I just kind of glided down the steps, and over the many flowers and a rockery, quite missing the path!
I had two locks to undo at my house, but as I was trembling like a bally jelly, it was very difficult, and by the time I was safely locked inside, I was a wreck. I phoned Gary as he was the closest, and he undertook to phone the police, and within minutes he was at my house with his shotgun.
As usual, our police took their time, so Gary phoned them and said to be there in five minutes, or he was going to shoot the perpetrators. That shook them up, as most of them are in cahoots with the thieving lot, as I well knew. When we first bought our places, somebody broke into my bathroom where Irma had stored her things, her house not having doors yet, and although nothing was ever found, one of the cleaning women for the police came to tell us that they were using Irma's kettle in the office! She was too scared to say much, and she begged us not to name her as the person who told us.
On inquiry, they laughed their bally heads off, and told us that they had clubbed together to buy this expensive kettle, and there was nothing we could do about it!

We are having some foul weather, and it is so cold at night that I sleep with a thick woolly scarf around my neck, and woolly gloves.The frost in the mornings are so heavy that my place look like it had snowed during the night! I have lost a lot of my young shrubs, and even my broadbeans that is supposed to be frost resistant, were lying flat and stiff this morning. The only things that is not at all affected by this frost, are my onion seedlings, which are almost ready to plant out. It could have been done the previous week, but one of the farmers told me that the soil is still to cold, and the tender seedlings would not be able to establish themselves quickly enough to survive. Made sense to me, so we postponed the planting.
I have now started on a new war against the moles to help my strawberries survive that little pests, and that is to dig long furrows, put some shading net in, then fill it with soil, fold the netting over to cover the soil, and plant the strawberries in small holes cut into the shading net. It  is done by many farmers to protect their crops, but of course they use commercial stuff,and I now hope that mine will also survive! Of course there is still Sheila's bally peacock, and this beauty is already eyeing my beds with greedy eyes, hoping for some good feasts in the near future. But I have my catapult always at the ready, as I use it to scare of the cats that are always on the prowl for a nice little bird! And I must say, I have become pretty efficient in the use of that weapon! And I have collected a box full of small pebbles!
Baby Emil is now big, and very, very busy, and poor Berty, who took a lot of chances by keeping him in the cot while she watched telly, had quite a hard time. No more standing crying in the cot, as the little man had worked out how to pull himself up onto the top rails, then sliding down on the other side, and voila, he was a free baby! Not always without mishap, as he had a few healthy blue bumps as witness to his escape efforts! Berty tried for a while to keep him quiet and in the cot by giving him bottle after bottle, until his dad got sniff in the nose, after catching her giving him milk when he was supposed to get his lunch.
A lively exchange of words followed, and Jan told her to either start doing her job, or go. He then took the telly out of the family room to keep temptation away from her, and for a few days she was just a wee bit unfriendly, but soon perked up when we took no notice.
It was going on for two years since the boys escaped the accident in which their mother died, and I cry a lot for them, as it is so sad that the little Emil will never know his mum! Andreas have luckily no after effects, and his broken arm and leg, and also his cracked scull had mended nicely. The bit above his eyebrow, where a piece of bone had to be planted in, is now without any scarring!