So the weekend has come and gone, and with it went my internet connection! I don't know why or how, but it seems to be working again now... So I'm gonna do a quick update of what has happened these past few days. Unfortunately, this update will feature no photos, so if you are just here looking for some more pictures you're just going to have to wait!
Friday 17 June: After a forgettable day(literally, all I can recall is buying chicken at the butcher and playing mini-soccer in our living room against Adam), we got ourselves ready and went out for dinner with Adam's brother, his fiance and Adam's dad. We went to a pub not far from Goring and were treated to a lovely meal. Mostly everyone had fish, but Adam and I went for the ribs! Nothing beats red meat... We were also introduced to an ale called 'hobgoblin', which I thought was like a watered-down version of Guiness, and it was quite nice. The rest of the night was spent playing Kings, but I went to bed early because I was expecting a big day on Saturday...
Saturday 18 June: After waking up first for probably the first time, I set out on my walk to work! I won't lie, I was quite nervous but really excited to be going to my first day at work in England! The place was about 3 miles away from us, and with no idea of how long it would take me to walk 3 miles, I gave myself 90 minutes to work with... The walk took me out of Goring and out through the various fields and farms, which were occupied solely by pigs and hundreds, if not thousands, of crows! I don't know if that is a common sight here or what, but it was a bit freaky to be walking amongst so many of those giant black birds!
I eventually (±50 min) made it to my destination - a warehouse which stored all the equipment, vans and food for Nyala catering. Nyala are a catering company that specialise in South African food and, more specifically, braais! I met the manager (Matthew), who showed me around for a while and then gave me my uniform the day - black chef's pants, a black golf shirt and a black chef's jacket. It was all pretty cool, and because i was there early I got to have a good look around the place before I started.
Eventually I was introduced to Rob, a short guy with a huge jew-fro, who was gonna be my co-worker for the day. They gave us a checklist of things we needed to pack for the event we would be working, and we set about packing our van with all the necessary stuff and food! After packing it all in and making sure it was secure, we set out to Chesham, an area about an hour away from us and not far from London.
We did get stuck in a bit of traffic but made it to the party just on time. It was a lady's 40th birthday party, and we would be catering for 60 people. They had ordered a hog roast (pig on a spit), as well as prawn skewers, veggie skewers, springbok(!) skewers, boerewors and a variety of salads and side dishes!
After helping Rob set everything up, I had to drive the van and make a delivery to a hotel. I was assured it was close by, but to my surprise it was 30min away! And it also involved me having to drive through both really narrow alley ways and highways around Heathrow, navigating through traffic circle (rotary) after traffic circle! It was probably the most stressful part of the day, but I made it through the delivery and back to the party.
Once I got back I met Martin, who also worked for Nyala and was there to help us. With the hog on the roast, we had a few hours to wait before we started braaing the rest of the stuff, so we made friends with the bar staff, who offered us free drinks if we fed them. It was cool to meet some new people and just talk to them for a while, but before long we were back under our gazebo, trying to keep sheltered from the temperamental rain. We slowly braaied all the food and unwrapped the sides, and started dinner by walking around the guests with the starters. The boerewors flew off our platters, but we had luckily kept some aside for ourselves. After we carved the pig, we served the main course and it seemed like everyone was quite pleased with our efforts.
We then had to collect the cutlery and plates, and began packing everything up into the van again. The worst part of it all was having to dispose of so much of the food that was left over... We did, however, get hold of some tupperwares to take home the meat that remained from what we had carved off the pig. We then collected the cheque (but no tip) and made our way back home. After unpacking the van and changing back into normal clothes, Matthew took Rob to the train station and took me home. It had been a long day, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it and it was nice to be out and doing things. And of course, seeing some money come in to my wallet was nice!
Sunday 19 June: After a long day of work, I took the chance to sleep in, and after slowly getting up, I get ready and walked with Adam to his grandparents' house. Mickaela had gone to London on Saturday and was spending time their with her aunts, so she wasn't with us. We got the house as it started raining, and sat speaking to Adam's grandparents and dad as we waited for the Adam's brother and his fiance to arrive.
Once we were all there, we made our way to Toby's Carvery. It's quite a big place in Caversham (Reading), and the food was really nice, especially Yorkshire pudding, which I had never tried before then. We enjoyed the afternoon there, but it did make me miss having Sunday lunch with my family, especially as it was Father's day... But i got to speak to everyone at home so it was a nice day. We then spent the evening at home, watching tv and sitting down by the river, watching the neighbor's dog barking at a swan, which would in turn hiss at the dog...
So all in all it was a really nice weekend. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but hopefully we will be doing some more exciting stuff this week!
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