A long, long time ago back in the very late 80's the Longhair and I finally did the deed and got married in her folk's garden on the 27th of December 1989. Afterwards it was down to the ABYC for a spot of seafood and a couple of drinks with mates and family who had come from far, like Sunridge Park. Towards the end of a long sunny magnificent day we finally worked out that everyone was staying as they were waiting for us to leave on our honeymoon - silly us actually thinking that our Wedding Day was ours to do as we please.

Well it is now 19 years down the line (if we had murdered each other or the TV License inspector we would have been out on good behaviour by now!) and we have our pigeon pair and presently, the house is full with the Kaapse Mense.

Christmas was stunning with moi outdoing himself with a leg of lamb, chicken, duck and a pork neck that were ALL the most tender that anyone has ever tasted (except the Father in Law of course, but after getting him to put his false teeth in, all was good in the world again!).

Now after 19 years of ball and chaining, the old romantic wedding anniversary thing has been done to death, with us looking deeply into each others eyes over candlelight and then going home and taking advantage of each other so we thought a couple hundred prawns for supper with our visitors would be great and the Longhair and I would slip off to the Yacht Club for a quiet lunch and a few beers in the afternoon - revisiting the scene of the crime so to speak.

Strike One for us - the Chartroom phone wasn't answered and the message that I left not returned - quite a bum show for someone who is supposed to have a certain amount of influence at the old yachting establishment. No matter, we thought we would just pop down and barge in.

On the way our heads were turned and we decided to grace the newly revamped Parliament Street area with our august presence rather and visit an old friend in Angelos.

The vibe was going on with people sitting outside and we looked forward to a jolly old time after notifying a waitress (I can't bring myself to say waitron as she didn't look like any Ron that I know) that we were sitting outside in the sun and would appreciate two icy cold Fanta Browns pretty chop chop as the thirst was starting to bite. Angelos have a pretty good location in Parliament Street and have done some pretty decent stuff to make the sidewalk area attractive. As perspiration starting pooling in the plumbers crack and my thirst was becoming mighty a gentleman just to my left offered up a sage comment; "I have been waiting TWENTY TWO minutes for service and will be going in three minutes if I am not attended to pretty smartly". The couple to our right had a good old moan at their waitress (No, it wasn't Ron!) about the fact that her spaghetti looked more like spaghetti-o's out of a can than the promised Linguine. By now the aforementioned perspiration began to turn to little droplets of icy water as my feverish mind contemplated an afternoon of crappy service and the very real possibility of never getting any icy cold Fanta Browns.

We gave them five more minutes and skeddadled.

Strike Two for us and a MAJOR STRIKE AGAINST Angelos crappy service.

And off we toddled down the road to search for that elusive frosty and just the teensiest hint of good service.

The first place that still had it's kitchen open was Cafe Blend and we asked for two frostys chop chop and "Hallelujah" they were on our table in a flash. The longhair settled on a Tramezini and I did the Schwarma thing, both of which were served quickly and consumed with gusto. Four beers later and we were out of there ONLY Eighty Five bucks lighter in the pocket.

If Cafe Blend can stand it we will descend on them soon for breakfast with our Kapenaar Familie in tow.

Met a Neil Hetherington at Cafe Blend who tells me that he is soon to start directing a feature film in Port Elizabeth, accompanying him at his table were, artist Phumla Citeko and costume designer Edwin Duruwe.