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Day 1 - Evening
I arrived at the braai later than most people, because my mother and I had gone out for a meal with our relatives first. The braai was held in a marquee outside the Wyvern. The inside of the Wyvern was occupied by the guys from the 40 Years reunion. (That group includes the current headmaster of the junior school, Mr Denzil Fincham, who is white-haired and very headmastery looking. The group was also the the first Matric class ever taught by our own Physics teacher, Mr. Victor. Mr. Victor was sick in bed that weekend, so he couldn't come.)
By the time that I got to the party, the mood was already in full swing. One of the first people I saw was Ross Randall, who said, "Hello, Tania" in a very croaky voice (later on it was determined that he was probably getting laryngitis, exacerbated by the unhealthy quantities of alcohol, cold air and smoke which passed through his throat that weekend).
"Hello, Ross!" I said, "Your voice has broken at last!"
This greeting immediately elicited a roar of laughter from his male peers, who congratulated him on all sorts of other purportedly recent signs of teenage sexual development.
Gary Cadle (now an accountant in East London) with Fuzzy Kemp and his attractive wife. (This little pic doesn't do her justice. She's lovelier than that.) Fuzzy is the Branch Manager for Old Mutual in Grahamstown. His mother has retired 12 times already, and has now practically given up doing so.
Russell Gardner (did I spell that correctly?), Kim (Yates), Jenny (Black), Justin Wimot. Russell is full of teasing all the time. I don't think he'd be able to have a serious conversation even at a funeral. Jenny is living in Natal with her husband, who is an engineer. She has a little girl. Justin still lives near Grahamstown.
Lynette (Kruger) and... it took me a great number of clues before I recognised this guy! He said his name, Andrew, but that didn't help, because there were five Andrews in our class, and I could see that he wasn't Andrew Pike or Andrew Murdoch, but what other Andrews were there?! Eventually I got it: Andrew Meyer! I should have guessed, after all, he was a daybug, and so was I. Andrew and his wife own the Pam Golding agency in Port Alfred, which is a lucrative place to be an estate agent.
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