First thing this morning, Virginia informed me that the key to the back veranda door was not working.  This is the veranda where the braai (BBQ) was scheduled for noon.  I discovered that one of the ‘fingers’ on the skeleton key had broken off.  While I was contemplating what tools would be need to be borrowed to take the door off its hinges, Virginia brought out her set of house keys that included a spare veranda key.  That key turned the lock, but did not fully retract the latch.  I suspected the broken ‘finger’ was jamming it, so used my pocket knife to assist the latch and it finally opened.  After that the good key and lock continued to work.

Since I needed to go pick up a couple cans of beans for Virginia for her baked bean dish for the braai, I also decided to go all the way into town get a spare key to replace the broken one.  Before leaving, Virginia added a couple more items to her grocery list to eliminate a shopping trip tomorrow.  Figuring the place to get a key would be the building supply, I stopped at Cash Build across the street from Pick-n-Pay.  Cash Build said they did not have keys, but to go around the corner to the most obvious place, the glass and window shop! 

On the way home, I decided, on a whim, to stop by the ‘chemist’ next to the Moneni Spar on this side of Manzini to see if they had the strong antibiotic for my sinus infection.  This pharmacy sold me several packets and didn’t ask for a prescription. 

While preparations were under way for the braai, we got a Facebook message from Hans VanKampen, a former TWR engineer from Holland who had retired 12 years ago and still lives here.  Hans has been available to help TWR in emergency situations.  He informed us that all five of his daughters were now in Holland and that they were packing and selling their belongings to move back to Holland by the end of the year.  He and Corrie, his wife, wanted us to meet with them before we left.  We invited them to come to the braai, but Corrie had an appointment with a client.  Hans was able to come and all of us ‘old-timer’ TWR engineers had a good visit.

Later in the evening, Corrie contacted Virginia to invite us to meet for dinner on next Saturday.