It’s raining men or what not to buy as a gift?

A gift to myself - a holiday in Mozambique

The current but one topic is “It’s raining men”. It is a song written by Paul Jabara and Paul Shaffer in 1979, and originally recorded by The Weather Girls in 1982.

It happened to be playing on my car radio as we left for a holiday over the Easter weekend. We left on Thursday to avoid the traffic that would flood our roads on Good Friday. I was also somewhat guilt ridden as I had not yet written my weekly hubmob hub.

Car trouble

But I should have known! The last time I took a long weekend we had car trouble. (Click on the link for the full story on that one). As I pulled out of my garage at home, still stressed from packing the boot (known as a trunk to some of you) with all the necessities for a 4 day break, I noticed that the car was telling me I had a failed tail light!. Great start!.

First stop was now the dealership to check on the problem. Well the trunk was full to the gills and the overflow was on the back seat. Lord only knows why dearly beloved needs to bring more clothing and goods on a four day trip than we took with when we went to Europe on our cruise last year! After partially unpacking the overflowing boot, it was no great problem, the light was replaced and off we went.

Our Plan

Our plan was to leave Thursday, miss the traffic and overnight in Nelspruit on the way to Mozambique. My brother-in-law and his spouse were to meet us early the next morning and we planned to travel in convoy over the border into Mozambique. So far so good! But... while ,we were relaxing over a light lunch at a well known stopover place called “Milly’s”, as we had “broken the back” of the journey and were nearly in Nelspruit, we got a call on our cell phone only to be told that due to unforeseen circumstances, “they” would no longer be coming!

As you can imagine we were not too chuffed at this situation. The accommodation was already booked and we would have had to go on alone.

Dinner as compensation

At any rate we went on to our Hotel In Nelspruit and went out for a Dinner at Salt , but were a little disappointed perhaps our holiday mood had somewhat evaporated.

More Car trouble

The next morning on getting into the car, we noticed that the “engine management” light had come on the dashboard. Well that meant no further holiday. I phoned the emergency assistance number and spent the morning in the local dealership, which the Emergency assist man had opened up. Everything was closed tighter than a drum in this small town on Good Friday!. Even the local shopping centre was partially closed. I had offloaded my dearly beloved at the shopping centre, so that she would not have to be subjected to the hanging about in the garage.

In the event the car required  major repair but “should get me home”. We spent another night in Nelspruit and limped home on Saturday.

The car is still in the Garage and I am having some serious words about this vehicle that has been nothing bu trouble since I bought it. See a long weekend for more sad details.

Dinner as compensation again

So we did not have a great gift to ourselves. We did however, have a great dinner on Friday night at a brilliant restaurant called “The Orange”. We had Tomato tart (Her) and Goose liver in Merlot reduction (me) for starters, As an entrée we had Duck Confit (Her) and Sirlion with Marrow bone (me) with crepe suzettes and coffee. Brilliant meal and apparently we lucked into on of the best restaurants in the country by shear serendipity.

So do not buy a weekend away or a new car for your man (or yourself if you are man).