Not long after, the bank started undergoing a radical metamorphosis which affected virtually every single employee at the time. Chris was informed that he would have to reapply for the position which he had already filled for two years and it was a really nasty blow when his application did not succeed. He then applied for a position in the bank’s credit department in Pretoria and in 2001 they left Pietersburg to settle in Pretoria. This time they finally had to buy their own house and they settled on a townhouse with a compact garden, in a secure complex. They were done with big bank houses and ironically their 13th move was into the first (and only) house they owned during their marriage.
Chris left Pat in Pietersburg and went on ahead to start his new job in Pretoria. For the first time in their married life, they needed to find a house of their own. No more bank houses – they decided that they had had enough of big houses and bigger gardens. Chris looked at dozens of townhouses around Pretoria and eventually came up with a shortlist of 6 units, to show Pat. The third house they visited was No 13 Manitoba Mews and after walking through it only once, Pat declared that “this was it”. A couple of “signs” seemed to point to this house because moving to it, No 13, would also be their 13th move and also, the seller was one Esther de Wet who Pat had known years previously in Louis Trichardt. Esther accepted their offer and was able to move out quite quickly. This enabled them to pull up all the old carpets, tile some areas, recarpet the bedrooms and lounge and repaint the whole interior, while the house was empty. A month later they were able to move and get settled into the very first home of their own. The garden needed plenty of attention but slowly and surely they would get that sorted out.
They had been settled in for about two weeks, when Heather and Jacques came through to Pretoria for the birth of their first child. On 19th July 2001 Luc was born and Heather and baby spent the first few days in hospital. Just before leaving for home in Groblersdal, they decided to spend some time showing off their grandson to his grandparents in the new house. As it happened, the country was experiencing a particularly harsh cold spell on the day they were discharged from hospital. Back at the house, Heather decided to treat herself to a nice relaxing hot bath. She was trying to breastfeed Luc and was in considerable discomfort so a hot bath seemed like a possible remedy. She was hardly in the generously full bath, when the lights suddenly went out. In the inky darkness, the only source of light they could find was a tiny torch. The geyser had not managed to reheat water much after Heather’s bath and they had no gas in their emergency supply with which to at least heat up a kettle. While they were blundering around in the dark, little Master Luc decided test the adequacy of his nappy by filling it to capacity and then some.
The extreme urgency for a swift nappy change was obvious and could not wait until Mrs “Raisin” van Rooyen had emerged from her wallow, so Pat had to step in, while new Dad, Jacques held a shaky little flashlight and no doubt valiantly tried to hold onto his last meal. It was the first time in 25 years that Pat had changed a nappy and much had changed since she had last been an adept at the job. For instance, disposable nappies were new and she wasn’t to know that she had got the pesky thing on wrong. All the time she was cleaning up Luc’s smelly end bits, he was exposed to that frigid air and was turning the colour which is quaintly called “duck egg blue”. Her icy cold hands did nothing to cheer him up and having the nappy whipped on and off turned that little body an even deeper shade of blue and brought his screams to a crescendo. By the time she had him dressed and wrapped up tighter than any mummy ever was, the poor little beggar was just a shivering, whimpering little bundle. It’s hard to say which of the two, Luc or his Granny, was the most upset by the incident. After bringing up three kids without problems, Pat must have had her self confidence severely dented by this first “hands-on” experience of being a Granny!
The electricity stayed off all night and only came back on at 9 the next morning. They had had no hot water overnight with which to warm Luc’s bottle so Chris and Jacques each had to hold a bottle of formula under their arms while they tried to sleep, so Luc could have a warmish bottle. Luc had the luxury of sleeping between his Mom and Dad to keep warm, so I would guess he was happy at least. Anyway, looking at the size the fellow has grown to, one must conclude that early cold treatment of your nether regions stimulates growth!
Their kitchen badly needed a facelift, so despite some very bad experiences with renovations in bank houses in the past, they went ahead and arranged for a total kitchen makeover. The old kitchen wall tiles had been stuck on with fiendishly strong cement and it took some really strenuous action with an electric tool to get the unsightly things to let go. They were having lunch while the contractor was busy next door getting the last of the tiles off the wall. They jumped in fright when there was a tinkling crash from the area of activity and upon investigation they discovered that the drill had broken through the wall and left a gaping hole in the bathroom tiles. Pat went totally ballistic and stormed into the kitchen in a rage. Just then, the senior contractor walked in and did his best to placate Pat. He came up with some facile suggestion about how the problem could be resolved but in the end Pat demanded a huge mirror to cover the hole, in turn leaving an even bigger hole in the contractor’s job profit!
A few years later they once again plucked up the courage to tackle a renovation, this time to their en-suite bathroom. While the work also generated its fair share of ranting and raving from Pat because of poor workmanship, at least they didn’t knock any more holes through the walls. After this experience, they came to a firm conclusion that renovation was to be avoided at all costs. Not for the fainthearted or the quick of temperament then?
Their garden had steps leading into a stormwater drainage sloot which was much like a dry river bed. On the opposite bank of the sloot were lots of trees and bush. The whole area, their garden included, was haven for a wide variety of wild birds and they identified at least 36 bird species in the time they lived there. They also had the privilege and pleasure of playing host to a family of lesser bushbabies which regularly visited the bird feeder in the garden. Almost every evening, they would arrive to gobble up the treats such as strawberry yoghurt and banana slices which Pat had put out for them. For security reasons, they eventually enclosed the garden with security fencing.
Chris had always been keen on taking up hiking and he soon found colleagues in Pretoria who shared his interest. They formed a small, informal club and went on weekend hikes every second weekend but he also dreamed of tackling one of the more challenging, formal hiking trails around South Africa. His first major hike was down the Fish River Canyon in Namibia and he followed this with hikes on the Otter Trail on the Garden Route, as well as in the Amatola Mountains in the Eastern Cape. He added two guided hikes – the Olifants and Mphongola trails in the Kruger Park and also the Magoebaskloof trail. In 2010 he was able to tick off a major bucket list item by climbing and summiting Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania but his pinnacle hiking dream was fulfilled in 2014 when he hiked up to the Mt Everest Base Camp. In 2015 he undertook the tough Naukluft trail while in 2016 he completed the Komas Hochland trail – both hikes being in Namibia. Chris really thrived on his hikes and Pat is justifiably proud of his achievements.
Chris was also quite a handyman and his first major project was suggested by Heather – a playhouse for Erin. Heather still had her pine dolls’ furniture from when she was a little girl, which came in useful to furnish Erin’s housie. Chris did a pretty good job on the house and they got it decorated and furnished in time for her 2012 birthday. It was handed over and officially taken into use at a teaparty which “Nana” and “Tito” attended. A bit big for the house, it stood in their back courtyard.
Later that same year, Pat and Heather convinced Chris that Erin also needed an indoor doll’s house for her Barbie dolls. They had shopped around quite a bit for one but most were either too flimsy or too expensive. It obviously fell upon Chris to design and build a house for the dolls so he set to work creating one for Christmas of that year. It was decided to build it in a way to make it usable as a bookshelf, one day when she had outgrown the dolls. To make it easy to move, he even fitted it with wheels. Pat did all the finer decorating and the miniature furniture and they called it the Fairy Palace. It turned out really nicely and Erin was thrilled with her dolls’ house. However, it is doubtful that it is being used as a bookshelf at the time of writing! Later on, Chris made a set of tiny stables for all Erin’s toy horses, when her interest shifted from Barbie Dolls to horses. Erin was always gratifyingly delighted with anything “Tito” made for her.
Their church was helping to get a much needed crèche up and running for little black kids in rural Venda. When a plea was made to help with the provision of playground equipment and toys, Chris offered to make wooden building blocks in various shapes and colours. He ended up making over 100 of these blocks. That led him to try his hand at making simple wooden toys for the little boys as well as a dolls’ house less elaborate than the one he made for Erin. He even made a set of scales to teach the kids about weighing things. Pat helped with the finer touches and the furniture for the dolls’ house, which, to prevent everything being carted off and lost, were glued in place. Apparently the little guys were delighted with their toys.
When they bought their house, the garden was open and had only sleeper stepping blocks and steps and terraces which led down to the adjoining sloot. One night she was awoken by a strange noise outside their bedroom window and upon peeping out, discovered two adult porcupines and a little one drinking water from their little fountain. She fetched a sweet potato from the kitchen which she cut up and quietly dropped out of the window. Undaunted, the little family gleefully gobbled up the treat after which Pat went off and found the outer bits of a watermelon, which they also ate with gusto. They probably wandered out of the nearby nature reserve and made their way into the garden via stormwater pipes and the sloot. Luckily they never returned after a couple of visits otherwise they could have created havoc in people’s gardens.
After a while, they realized that a big garden project was looming, as the sleepers were rotting and becoming unsightly. In 2007 they ordered a large number of concrete retainer blocks which were delivered to the park at the end of the sloot and between the two of them, they managed to move them to where they were to be set to retain the terraces. The terraces were rebuilt and the garden more or less fixed up a bit. In 2010 it became necessary to erect palisade fencing around the property for security reasons. This forced a complete garden makeover, as they had two large kiepersol trees which had to be removed. They had to call in the services of a landscaper to properly plan a new layout although they had already done a good deal of the work themselves. Most of their bigger plants had to be replanted in the new garden and even their big “tame” cycad was moved. (See below about the cycad). The new garden took time to settle down but with lots of TLC and hard work it soon became very pretty.
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(When Chris worked in Venda, he bought a tiny little indigenous Modjadji cycad. They planted it in a pot and it flourished and grew. Pat decided that the plant would go in its pot to wherever they went until one day when they had somewhere they could plant it out. Over the years it was planted in ever larger pots and in places where winters were bitterly cold like Springfontein , it was well protected and sheltered. In Pietersburg it stood in the entrance hall of the house and even served as a rather quaint Christmas tree. When they moved into the house in Pretoria they could at last plant it in the garden but they had to smash its pot to free it up for planting. One year saw a sunbird family build their nest in the cycad’s fronds, where they successfully raised a couple of chicks. The people who bought their house were delighted to have the plant so while it has ceased its travels and opted to stay put at last, it has also been adopted by a new family who will hopefully treat it with the respect and love it deserves. )
At the entrance gate, Pat also had a fairy/pixie garden and displayed quite a collection of cute fairies and pixies. Erin, their granddaughter, loved this little garden so much that before they vacated he house, the little garden was relocated to a corner of the van Rooyen’s garden, especially for her. Pat admits that parting with their garden was the hardest part of leaving that house. She recalls with much pleasure, the constant clamour from the feathered visitors during the day and the quiet, unobtrusive visits of the nagapies at night. She avers that they were happy for most of their 16 years at Number 13 and that it just took some thoroughly nasty people to sour their lives in the end.
Having Heather, Jacques, Luc and Erin move to Pretoria from Groblersdal when Jacques resigned from the Department of Water Affairs, really brought plenty of excitement and pleasure to their retirement. The van Rooyens moved house a couple of times before settling into the house they now occupy and every time they relocated, Chris and Pat were there to help them. So many really happy times were spent together, especially Christmases, which Heather insisted had to be like the Christmases she had spent with “Granny & John” in Ladybrand, when she was little. They were there for most of Erin & Luc’s birthday parties and special school events and in the company of Heather and Erin, Pat enjoyed some delightful days out, either shopping or having tea or lunch somewhere. Luc even joined Chris and his hiking friends, on some of their hikes. Pat is deeply grateful for the wonderful times she spent with the family. After originally “leaving the nest”, Heather was able to also share her own “nest” with her mother. A privilege not afforded many parents these days.
On 30th November 2001, Neil and Christie were married at a country lodge near Sabie, which had its own chapel. They were living in White River at the time, where Christie was employed at the Greenway Woods Hotel and Neil was working for SAPPI, in an IT support. Their son Nathan was born on 1st March 2005 in Nelspruit. He was 9 weeks premature and weighed only a kilogram at birth. He was frighteningly tiny and fragile and his miniscule feet were barely as big as Chris’ thumb. Yet he thrived and very soon overcame his premature birth and caught up in his development. Today he is as tall as his dad while those erstwhile “tiny” feet now require size 9 shoes.
On 25th October 2007, Neil and Christie welcomed their daughter Hannah into the world and on 9th April 2008. Heather and Jacques added daughter Erin to their team.
After Christie had experienced an attempted hijacking in Nelspruit, when Nathan was a baby, they decided to leave South Africa in search of a better and safer future for their children. They moved to Auckland in New Zealand just before Hannah’s first birthday in September 2008.
In June 2013, our cousins, Graham and Rose Langley from New Zealand came out to South Africa for a visit. Pat decided that it was a golden opportunity to have a first-ever get-together of the cousins and their partners. She chose Hogsback, as Graham and Rose were calling there to visit Trevor and Ann Webster, as the venue and invited Robert, Dudley and Malcolm Lyle to come down for a few days. I was unable to attend due to poor health but other than that, there was a good turnout and to use an appropriate Irish terms, the craik was really excellent. Plenty of cross pollination in terms of family lore took place and it’s really a pity that the cousins all waited so long to socialize. Kudos go to Pat for coming up with and arranging the event.
When Chris and Pat first arrived in Pretoria, their residential complex was occupied by pleasant, unassuming people and they were happy there as a result. The majority of the residents were retired people and the bi-annual social get-togethers, were always well attended and enjoyable. The village atmosphere was more reminiscent of an extended family than a civic group and Pat and Chris both served as Trustees on the Body Corporate.
Their elderly next door neighbor, Joey Klopper and Pat became firm friends and she would go there for tea every week’s day. They would crochet and knit and chat companionably and she became a proper mother figure to Pat, who even called her Ma Joey. Pat was most fond of her and much enjoyed their relationship. Pat would ferry her to and from the shops or doctors and was most kind and helpful when Pat was laid up after her hip and knee operations. Then, her spinster daughter, a retired school teacher, decided to sell her own townhouse elsewhere and move in with her mother. Pat believes she may have been jealous of her close ties with Ma Joey because from then on, the close relationship just seemed to crumble away. The daughter, a typical teacher, was always bossy and knew best about everything and Pat just could not handle the way she would chivvy her mother around. Joey also became morose and withdrawn , which saddened Pat who was genuinely fond of the old lady.
The exodus of elderly folks to retirement villages had started and now younger people were moving into the complex. Inevitably, a smarter, unjustifiably opinionated type of bully appeared in the ranks of the newbies. These people immediately decided they could run the Village more efficiently and “power games” commenced to unseat the current incumbents by making their positions unpleasant and untenable. Their main target was Chris, who despite having given the Body Corporate 14 years of service and dedication, was voted out at the next Body Corporate meeting. Pat had already resigned previously. Chris was not even thanked at that meeting, for all his years of service. So their last two years at the Village were lonely and unhappy which made it much easier eventually, for them to decide to move.
They had travelled to New Zealand a couple of times to visit Neil and family but also to tour extensively around the country. They fell in love with the beauty of the country and the easy going, friendly people. After the constant ultra-violence and crime in South Africa, the safe, relatively crime-free and civilized society was simply irresistible. Neil had suggested that they apply for a Parents’ Sponsored Visa just to keep the back door open in case they decided to or were forced to leave South Africa. They obtained the Visa never really expecting to be able to move to New Zealand but felt it would make travelling easier in future.
Neil and his family first stayed in a rented house in Albany and later moved to a house on a smallholding in the Dairy Flat area. Christie was working for a housing development firm called Sentinel Homes. In early 2016 the opportunity arose for them to buy a small undeveloped property in Stanmore Bay, which led to them planning to build their first own home in New Zealand. This was to be a house with a small flatlet type addition, in order that they could offer accommodation for a student to gain some extra income to help with the bond.
Neil felt that the simple no-frills, accommodation would suit his parents' by now well established itinerant lifestyle and suggested they emigrate and live with him and his family. The decision to move was not an easy one to make and they spent many soul searching hours weighing up the pros and cons of going. Once the decision was made, setting the ball rolling happened swiftly and each step required could be ticked off relatively quickly. Apart from selling the house, pretty much everything in it had to go as well. The apartment they were headed for would hold only the barest essential furniture items. They felt time was not of the essence as Neil’s house was still being built but they put their house on the market thinking it would take time to sell. Next they did a whip through Gauteng, the Free State, Port Elizabeth and on to the Western Cape, to say goodbye to family and friends. Just a week into their trip, they received a call from the Estate Agent to say a cash buyer was interested in their house and that he was happy to pay their highest asking price.
Back from their trip, they suddenly had to make haste and dispose of the rest of their superfluous furniture because the buyer was anxious to move in as soon as possible. Items which were deemed “family heirlooms” had long since been identified and given into Heather’s capable hands. The furniture which had to go to New Zealand with them was placed in storage with their Shipping Firm while they moved into a granny flat attached to Jacques and Heather’s house. Here they lived quite comfortably until they left South Africa on 13th August 2017 to start a new life in New Zealand
Chris had just turned 70 while Pat was 69.
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