RSA Visit 2012

By Peter -Petter-Bowyer

We flew to Cape Town arriving there on Tuesday 13 March. Four days in Somerset West with Gregg Todd and much travelling around the beautiful Cape we visited Air Force friends and relatives. I do not have shots of the many Air Force friends we met at Tony Cowell and Johnny Ness’ pub. I did however have this photograph of our meeting with Mick and Anne McLaren at their home in Fish Hoek

    Cape Town was followed by the long drive to Mossel Bay. With Greg leading in his lovely VW we followed in our little hire-car for a memorable luncheon stop near Heidelburg meeting Air Force friends Moira and Eddie Wilkinson, Lynne, Mark and son Frazer McLean plus Marion and Mike Mulligan.

Heildelburg - Eddie and Moira Wilkinson, Mike and Marion Mulligan, PB and Beryl, Mark, Frazer and Lynne McLean, Greg Todd

    In Mossel Bay we spent four fantastic days with Sandy and John Blythe-Wood in their truly magnificent home which has a view to die for.
 

We then moved on to visit my girlie cousins Sandra and Carol-Lynn and their husbands in Port Elizabeth and Bathurst before driving on to my brother’s home on Haartbeesport Dam, stopping a night in Bloemfontein.

Before leaving Port Elizabeth we met up with Roy Morris (below) who we had not seen since Air Force days back in late 1970s.

    Brother Tony and his wife Bee spoiled us generously with a wonderful visit to their game farm, massages in the Health and Beauty Spar they own, a flight in Tony’s Sirrus SR22 and a lovely lunch on his barge in a private cove across the water on Haartbeest Dam. Tony lent us his Toyota Landcruiser for a fantastic and memorable visit to Di (was Mrs. Ted Brent) and husband Al Hattingh in Nelspruit. There we met up with Jan, recent widow of Peter Knobel.

    Di, Jan, PB and Beryl

Tony and I visited Eddy and Trish Norris for a how-goes-it meeting by three Old Boys from Umtali High School. We were most interested to see the place from which the plethora of ORAFS communications enters and exits. There we found Eddy bandaged up following an unfortunate fall he had some days earlier. Trish plied us with tea and tasty food whilst we reminisced on maters numerous. 

Trish’s desire to convert a room (visible in background) into a proper work-station and library caused my generous brother to give the Norris couple a financial gift towards this venture. Like all of us who so enjoy ORAFS, Tony needed to give tangible support.

We arrived in London on time and found Debbie waiting for us with warm coats and her cheery smile. On the drive home we learned of electrical power failures in our home which started a day after we had left for RSA. These persisted in spite of a number of electrician visits, trip-outs have occurred daily. An Isolator Switch is needed for the electricians to undertake an in depth investigation but, due to bureaucracy rulings, this could only be undertaken by our energy provider – potentially inducing a 10 day delay - bloody sickening. Fortunately however, Debbie’s persistence and appeals for her elderly parents did the trick. The isolator switch was installed yesterday with a four-day wait that will have the electrician back for an in-depth investigation that, hopefully, clears away electrical failures.

In the meanwhile our frozen foods continue to be accommodated by our next-door neighbour and Bill Galloway (who, though living in Norwich, willingly responded to Debbie’s appeal from Shropshire on 14 March). Both parties were here for dinner last night and Bill slept over.

End

Thanks to PB for sharing his photos and memories with ORAFs. Special thanks to you and Tony for your visit and heartfelt thanks to Tony for his assistance.

To view PB's visit to the AFA (Cape) Pub please visit the link below.

http://rhodesianforcesreunions.blogspot.com/2012/03/peter-and-beryl-petter-bowyer-visit.html

Also see http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3029311332845561777#editor/target=post;postID=1363276939634730327

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