Monday, November 4, 2019
Meeting an old friend for the first time
Last Saturday, Miss D. and I drove down to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to meet someone with whom I've had contact online for something like twenty years, but never actually met.
Kim du Toit is well known in the blogosphere and shooting fraternity, and is also a writer. He used to blog at The Other Side of Kim, but that went away some years ago. To my great pleasure, he started blogging again a couple of years ago at his new online home, Splendid Isolation. He's recently remarried, after the death of his first wife, and his lady (also from South Africa) is settling down and finding her feet in her new home.
We met at the British Emporium, a mecca for expatriate British and South Africans that stocks many of the foods and other goodies with which we grew up. I daren't visit there too often - it's bad for my bank balance! After each putting a dent in our respective wallets, we adjourned to a barbecue restaurant and enjoyed a very good, very meaty meal. (It's the first time I've had prime rib prepared in barbecue style. It was interesting.) Thereafter we adjourned to Kim's home for tea and conversation, where I salivated over his minty-condition SMLE rifle dating from World War I. (I told him I'd buy it anytime he wants to sell it, but I suspect I'm a long way back in the queue!)
We had to take our leave at last, and wend our way through DFW evening traffic to get back on the road homeward. (I truly detest big-city traffic, which is one reason I don't live in a big city any more!)
It was great to finally meet Kim. We've invited him to come up here and join us for one of the regular get-togethers of the North Texas Writers, Shooters and Pilots Association, and I hope he and his wife will soon count themselves members.
Peter
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5 comments:
Guys like youze make guys like me very jealous with all the meetings and gatherings of like minded people and their families.
I get to live vicariously through my blog reading, though.
Yeah, I'm originally from North Jerzee and moved to South Jerzee and then to my present location here in Nowherezville NC so I still have that recognizable accent (whut ackscent?) of the New York area.
A number of years ago my brother in law told me there were these cool things on the internet called blogs and he gave me a short list of blogs I might like. Yours and kim’s were the only 2 that I stuck with. I know kim was off the air for a couple of years but when he returned he was returned to his position on my blog list right next to you. You 2 along with a blog called “ knuckledragging my life away” by kenny lane and another called “eaton rapids joe” are my daily required reads.
I am a daily reader of Peter and Kim's blog, and I wondered if you two had ever met in person. Sounds like a grand time was had by all!
That British Emporium looks like an interesting place. Vegemite! I wonder what would have happened if Popeye had favo(u)red it instead of spinach.
Kim's first blog was the first one I ever made a point of reading daily. I was saddened by his retirement from the blogworld and gladdened by his return. One of the reasons I like yours so much is that your and his shared national background and immigration begets a similarity in outlook. I'm glad y'all got to meet.
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