Wheildon

in those days (the late 80s), when the world still had regular seasons, winters in the village were taken seriously.  it rained, it was freezing cold and snow fell regularly on ‘abdul's kop’.

one winter, after two weeks of grotty weather, the sun decided to appear.

on this day, ginny announced that the cottage needed airing.  all three front ‘happy’ doors were thrown open and every single piece of furniture was carted outside.

during a break for a cup of tea on the back stoep, we heard a car pull up in the front of the cottage.  much chatter could be heard from that direction.  it was not unusual for visitors to arrive unannounced, so we waited for our friends to wander through and join us.

some minutes ticked by until a portly old chap, quite out of breath, appeared, red-faced and sweating profusely.  in a broad yorkshire accent he asked for help, looking like he was just about to have a heart attack.  i leapt to my feet to lend a hand.  i followed him back inside, straight through the cottage and out of the front door.

i was alarmed to see some of our furniture — washstands and some spindle-backed chairs — neatly piled onto his bakkie.  his lady companions were happily seated on our front bench, patting our dogs who, bless them, had not barked once while this wholesale robbery was taking place.  the old fellow complained that it was very unprofessional of us not to have had the goods marked.  he was put out that not one item had a price on it.

ginny's explanation that spring cleaning was under way brought hoots of laughter from the old ducks on the bench.

we unloaded our stuff and smartly put everything back inside.  yorkshire drove off with the ladies still giggling.  he was a champion.  straight back and stiff upper lip.  no wonder the english won the war.

one other occasion is worth a mention.  our neighbours had a restaurant in their cottage.  a lovely sign ‘FRIENDS’ was fixed to the wall next to the front door.  on friday and saturday nights the restaurant was open for weekend trade.

one friday night, when the rain was bucketing down, we had pals over for supper and chats.  our two cars and theirs were parked out front.  in the dark a car pulled up, followed by shrieks and yells as two young people tried to avoid muddy puddles and getting drenched as they crashed in through the front door.  they brushed water from their hair and hung their coats on our hall stand.  once in the sitting room they looked around for somewhere to sit and asked what was on the menu.  i said that we had finished supper but i was sure there were some leftovers in the fridge, if they would like to help themselves.

there was a stunned silence, everyone holding their breath.  at the first stifled giggle, the sitting room erupted and we all had a good laugh.  the number of cars parked out front had confused them.  so what?  this was a part of country living that made life great fun and well worth while.  the youngsters fled, apologising for their mistake.

a bottle of red wine was presented to us the next day.

definitely worth the error.