95) Durban
This was a very busy time for me. I was working for the Children’s Foundation organising their fundraising raffles and also doing my volunteer work with Child Welfare. But I was working with people I liked and doing work that I felt was doing some good so I was enjoying myself.
Things were not going so well for Jonny. He was not happy in his work. He could see that as he had only a few years service with the mining company he would not get a very good pension when he retired and so he felt that he had to get into business or do something that would prepare for our old age. He was doing private engineering jobs in his spare time and was working very hard but he was frustrated with the whole situation.
At this time our friends Pat and Ken Thompson who were living in Natal made us an offer. They had a hardware business and a fencing business and they asked us to join them in their fencing business that had been run by their son Buddy who was now overseas. We thought about it a great deal and decided that we were never going to be financially secure working for the mines so it would be a good idea to move on. We went to spend a weekend with Pat and Ken to discuss their offer. The biggest problem with the move that we could see was the shortage of rental accommodation. While the men talked business Pat and I looked in the newspaper at the ‘houses to rent’ columns. We found an advert for a house a little way out of town but it sounded just right for us so we rang the advertiser. The lady we spoke to seemed a little surprised to get our call but agreed to meet us at the house in about an hour. Ken came with us to show us the way as we had no idea where it was.
The house was at a place called Inchanga about 15 minutes drive from Hillcrest where Pat and Ken lived and had their business. It was 5 Sunbird Road, it was on an acre of land with a wall all the way round and lots of lovely big trees. The house was a funny old place that had obviously been added on to once or twice in its long life. There were three bedrooms, one bathroom, lounge, dining room and kitchen. It also had a nice large carport and an old shed at the end of the garden. It wasn’t a great house but it had a nice feel to it and we thought that we could be very happy there. We negotiated a date to take occupation with the owner and she agreed to keep it for us until that date. She said “Why did you ring me today about the house?” We told her that we had just seen the advert in the paper that morning and had rung as soon as we had seen it. She told us that she had not placed an advert in the paper that morning. She had advertised for a couple of weeks and not got any response but the last advert she had put in the paper was the previous week. She had been rather discouraged, as she had thought with the low rent she would have found a tenant pretty quickly and was very surprised that she had not. Her husband had just started a job on a chicken farm about an hours drive away and they really wanted to have someone in the house to make sure it was not vandalised. We could not understand how we had seen an advert in the paper when she had not placed one. When we got back to Pat’s house we looked at the paper again and realised that we had been looking at the previous week’s paper that would normally have been thrown away but for some reason had not. I think we were meant to have that house.
We went back to Witbank to put in our notice, pack up our belongings, get Dominic settled into single quarters and to say Goodbye once again to friends. That is always the hardest part of moving on. But I always think of all the friends we have all over the place. If we had stayed put in one place there are lots of people we would never have met and that would have meant our lives were a little poorer.
One of the advantages of moving to Durban was that Natal tended to be an English speaking province of South Africa. Witbank was in the Transvaal and that was much more Afrikaans than English. Both English and Afrikaans were official languages of the country but of all the provinces Natal was the most English. Since independence all the main African languages have been accepted as ‘official languages’ and so the country now has eleven official languages. These are not all the African languages, only the main ones so it is obvious what a variety of tribes and people the country has.
When I told the ladies at the Child Welfare Shop that I was moving to Durban I was very surprised to learn that Phyl Vinnicombe was moving there too. She had two sons who were both living in the Durban area and her daughter-in-law had not long since given birth to Phyl’s first grandchild. Phyl had decided that she wanted to be near her family so was going to move too. We ended up making our moves within a week of each other and living close enough to be able to visit each other.
We thought that our dogs would enjoy the larger garden but we were rather worried about Rocky. He was getting very old, he must have been almost fourteen years old by then and up until recently had been very fit but suddenly he had aged. When I knew that it was almost time for any of the family to come home I would close the doors so that he could not run outside to greet them. Rocky was so glad to see them he would rush outside and bark happily to say “Hello” but it would take all his energy then to get back into the house. He would come slowly back, dragging his feet and panting. He would flop down and rest for a while before he was able to get his breath back again. We had taken him to the vet, who had said that it was just old age. Poor Rocky’s heart was just giving up, his spirit was still young but his body was very old. I asked the vet about the journey to Durban and how it would affect Rocky and he advised me not to put the old dog through it. He was sure that he would not survive it and thought it would be best just to have him put to sleep. It was not an easy decision to make but Jonny and I talked it over and thought that it was the best one. We had learnt from our experience with poor Cindy that it is not always kind to hold on to a pet when it was time to let go. He was a good dog, a loyal and faithful friend and it was sad to say “goodbye” to him.
Things were not going so well for Jonny. He was not happy in his work. He could see that as he had only a few years service with the mining company he would not get a very good pension when he retired and so he felt that he had to get into business or do something that would prepare for our old age. He was doing private engineering jobs in his spare time and was working very hard but he was frustrated with the whole situation.
At this time our friends Pat and Ken Thompson who were living in Natal made us an offer. They had a hardware business and a fencing business and they asked us to join them in their fencing business that had been run by their son Buddy who was now overseas. We thought about it a great deal and decided that we were never going to be financially secure working for the mines so it would be a good idea to move on. We went to spend a weekend with Pat and Ken to discuss their offer. The biggest problem with the move that we could see was the shortage of rental accommodation. While the men talked business Pat and I looked in the newspaper at the ‘houses to rent’ columns. We found an advert for a house a little way out of town but it sounded just right for us so we rang the advertiser. The lady we spoke to seemed a little surprised to get our call but agreed to meet us at the house in about an hour. Ken came with us to show us the way as we had no idea where it was.
The house was at a place called Inchanga about 15 minutes drive from Hillcrest where Pat and Ken lived and had their business. It was 5 Sunbird Road, it was on an acre of land with a wall all the way round and lots of lovely big trees. The house was a funny old place that had obviously been added on to once or twice in its long life. There were three bedrooms, one bathroom, lounge, dining room and kitchen. It also had a nice large carport and an old shed at the end of the garden. It wasn’t a great house but it had a nice feel to it and we thought that we could be very happy there. We negotiated a date to take occupation with the owner and she agreed to keep it for us until that date. She said “Why did you ring me today about the house?” We told her that we had just seen the advert in the paper that morning and had rung as soon as we had seen it. She told us that she had not placed an advert in the paper that morning. She had advertised for a couple of weeks and not got any response but the last advert she had put in the paper was the previous week. She had been rather discouraged, as she had thought with the low rent she would have found a tenant pretty quickly and was very surprised that she had not. Her husband had just started a job on a chicken farm about an hours drive away and they really wanted to have someone in the house to make sure it was not vandalised. We could not understand how we had seen an advert in the paper when she had not placed one. When we got back to Pat’s house we looked at the paper again and realised that we had been looking at the previous week’s paper that would normally have been thrown away but for some reason had not. I think we were meant to have that house.
We went back to Witbank to put in our notice, pack up our belongings, get Dominic settled into single quarters and to say Goodbye once again to friends. That is always the hardest part of moving on. But I always think of all the friends we have all over the place. If we had stayed put in one place there are lots of people we would never have met and that would have meant our lives were a little poorer.
One of the advantages of moving to Durban was that Natal tended to be an English speaking province of South Africa. Witbank was in the Transvaal and that was much more Afrikaans than English. Both English and Afrikaans were official languages of the country but of all the provinces Natal was the most English. Since independence all the main African languages have been accepted as ‘official languages’ and so the country now has eleven official languages. These are not all the African languages, only the main ones so it is obvious what a variety of tribes and people the country has.
When I told the ladies at the Child Welfare Shop that I was moving to Durban I was very surprised to learn that Phyl Vinnicombe was moving there too. She had two sons who were both living in the Durban area and her daughter-in-law had not long since given birth to Phyl’s first grandchild. Phyl had decided that she wanted to be near her family so was going to move too. We ended up making our moves within a week of each other and living close enough to be able to visit each other.
We thought that our dogs would enjoy the larger garden but we were rather worried about Rocky. He was getting very old, he must have been almost fourteen years old by then and up until recently had been very fit but suddenly he had aged. When I knew that it was almost time for any of the family to come home I would close the doors so that he could not run outside to greet them. Rocky was so glad to see them he would rush outside and bark happily to say “Hello” but it would take all his energy then to get back into the house. He would come slowly back, dragging his feet and panting. He would flop down and rest for a while before he was able to get his breath back again. We had taken him to the vet, who had said that it was just old age. Poor Rocky’s heart was just giving up, his spirit was still young but his body was very old. I asked the vet about the journey to Durban and how it would affect Rocky and he advised me not to put the old dog through it. He was sure that he would not survive it and thought it would be best just to have him put to sleep. It was not an easy decision to make but Jonny and I talked it over and thought that it was the best one. We had learnt from our experience with poor Cindy that it is not always kind to hold on to a pet when it was time to let go. He was a good dog, a loyal and faithful friend and it was sad to say “goodbye” to him.
Rocky and Muffin
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