Twenty-Four Is Quite Enough For My Reputation.

Who's going to fetch the next case?

At the moment life is hectic and exciting as three of my step siblings are in town. Step sounds rather Grimm but so far I've not been separating any peas nor lentils from the ashes nor trying on a golden slipper before midnight. It won't come as a surprise when I tell you that due to the summer weather and the time together, many bottles of wine are enjoyed.

Usually mum and I share a case of Lianne's white wine and make it last a month at least. The case does involve 12 bottles of wine, eh, the liter sized bottles. We love its taste ( dry with a hint of gooseberry ) and mum asked me to organize a case for the family visit, which I had there the night before they arrived.

Well, the South Africans arrived on Wednesday and were joined by the Gibraltarians on Friday and by the end of Friday the first signs of panic set in. They needed another case of wine and would I be so kind as to get it from Lianne...bear in mind that I'd got the last case from her mere days ago. As luck would have it I ran into her on Sunday and asked her sheepishly for another case. Of course I had to cloak the request with tidbits of unrelated stuff as I didn't want her to associate meeting me with ordering copious amounts of wine.

She said she'd drop it off at our house on Monday. By Monday lunchtime, my one brother in law ( it was his turn to buy a case ) reminded me a few times during the day to not forget the wine as the last bottle had been opened and he was considering rationing the crowd although that would have been fun to see and more importantly see who was his favourite.

Lianne dropped off the case late Monday afternoon. She is such a honey and despite having worked all day in the vineyards, she still took the time to drop off this vital case for us. Bob and I took it along when we went for supper and received a roaring reception from everyone. Gosh, imagine if we'd come empty handed?

Yesterday afternoon saw the arrival of the American side of the family and you guessed it...they are already priming me for case number three. No, I won't do it. Imagine the stories doing the local news circuit. The first telling would be correct and truthful...

" Biggi's family drank three cases of wine in an unbelievably short time. "

...but with each consecutive rehashing a word would be dropped from it and with it my reputation would be set in stone!

Biggi