GIRLS FREEDOM DAY TRIP

Last weekend, the Tuesday was Freedom day, so I, Cuzz Col and Kiwi Shaz decided to exercise our democratic rights by abandoning our men and heading off on a road trip.
Col had the whole thing planned. We set off on Saturday morning, car loaded to the hilt with more luggages actually required for a 3 night getaway, as well as Col’s delectable son A who was getting a lift up with us to spend the weekend with his girlfriend in Joeys. . The fact that we were going to spend the night at A’s girlfriends place was also handy. Poor A – he was rather brave, or very keen to see his girlfriend, to endure the journey from Durbs with 3 old tarts.
Anyway, we set off with eighties music blaring to our first destination, which was the Harrismith Wimpy for coffee and chocolate muffins – what a start to the trip!
We managed to negotiate our way through the Joberg traffic and roadwork’s to arrive at A’s girlfriends place. A and AG (Arns girlfriend) put on a lovely spread for supper for us – we thoroughly enjoyed being spoilt this way and having wine before and with our meal was not half bad either.
We all then proceeded to get dolled up to go to Gold reef city to see a show. Col had booked us in to see a musical called Sisters with Soul. Cover versions of all the best divas was performed by very talented artists who had us all jumping up and down, clapping our hands and belting out our versions of the songs also. This really boded well for a “sisters” weekend away. We were on the right track.
We then wended our back to AG’s place, removed our makeup, put on our winter jammies and retired to bed. Shaz got the guest room. Since Col and I are related we decided that we would share the fold out couch in the lounge, you know, keep it in the family like. I did warn her that no spooning would be tolerated. We managed to fall asleep, and she was very good – not one bit of spooning. In fact she did not move once during the whole night. I woke up several times to ensure that she was in fact breathing. At one point, I work up to discover that I had my knee in her back – which quickly withdrew in case she mistook it for something else. We started to come around well after 7 am, knowing that Shaz, who is an early bird, had probably been up since 5.30 am. Col and I had barely grunted a morning greeting to each other, when Shaz, delighted that we were now awake flew out of the spare room to greet us. In no time she had hopped under the covers with us both sitting up rather bleary eyed, only to have her dissolve into shrieks of laughter as both Col and I had put on matching pink pyjamas (unintentionally) and insulted us further by calling us Bim and Bam – It’s a kiwi thing apparently!
A and AG then served us all coffee and scrambled egg on toast in bed. There is definitely an advantage to have well trained children. After brekkies, we all abluted and got dolled up again to hit the Rosebank mall and the Roof market. Col decided that she was only going to wear her red high heeled tart shoes the entire weekend, come rain or shine, and this she did.
At the mall we met up with Cols old school mate Sharon, and had coffee and cake for lunch. Well, I was good, I had mint tea and toast. We then clomped of to the roof market which was enormous, and one needs a whole day to visit this market. In spite of our limited time however, all three of us managed to purchase something. We said our goddbyes to A and AG, as were were on our way to our next destination. We drove to a place past Brits, to Col’s famous author friend, who lives in a lovely tree house in a private game reserve. We arrived at the tree house to be welcomed by FN (famous novelist) and her husband K. They are a lovely Afrikaner couple, and were most welcoming and hospitable.
Of course, all us ladies immediately cracked open the wine and sat around the kitchen table – drinking and talking – which we are very good at – and filling each other in on everything nineteen to the dozen. While we were all yakking away, poor K quietly moved away and left us to get on with it. In no time at all, FN had effortlessly produced a lovely pasta supper. Husband K joined us, as we continued with our usual pastime of eating and drinking.
Because Kiwi Shaz is the oldest, she got the downstairs bedroom next to the bathroom. Col and I slept up in the loft with the squirrels. The next morning, we had breakfast and talked. Mid morning we had coffee and talked. We then had lunch and talked some more. FN then took us on a game drive and we were rewarded with sightings of kudu, wart hogs, bush buck, ground squirrels, hornbills and louries. The silence of the bush was magnificent – when we stopped talking that is. After the game drive, we headed back to the tree house, wrapped up in blankies and sat on the verandah reading magazines.
Then it was time for more wine, and more talking, during which FN knocked up a hearty beef stew and mashed potato dish. So we ate, and talked and drank. Once we were full, and sloshed, it was off to bed.
The next morning was our day of departure, which was very sad to leave our wonderful hosts and their hospitality. We said our goodbyes and headed off to Joeys to fetch A. I’m sure K must have heaved a huge sigh of relief.
On the way to fetch A, we took the scenic route to show her some sights, the most notable being the Hartebeespoort dam. We stopped at Tan Malies se winkel for real boere melk tert, which was lekker, when we finally got it as the idiot waiter brought it to us after we had finished our coffee – which was kak and cold. Anyway, we still got to sit in front of a fireplace at Tan Malies was lovely.
Suitably fortified with melktert, we set off to collect A, who was noticeably less cheerful on this return journey since he had to say goodbye to AG. Once the lovers had said goodbye we set off on our trip back home. The main topic of discussion in the car was what evil things we were going to do to our men on our arrival home. The journey home went well, A was a very good human Garmin and very studiously warned me of any speeding cameras, except I didn’t listen and was flashed at least once by a camera. We stopped at a Wimpy, somewhere near the Vaal River to eat as we were famished. We had declared earlier, after being stuffed by FN lovely home cooking, that were not going to eat another morsel, however we still managed to have the melktert at Tan Malies and lunch at the Wimpy.
We arrived at A’s destination to drop him off in PMB, only to find that he was locked out. Being a resourceful South African, he made a plan and climbed through the kitchen window to get in. Once he was in, we completed the last leg of the journey home to Durbs. All in all, we had a most successful freedom weekend jol, and have resolved that this is something we need to do every 3 months or so.