What a week it's been seeing the flood aftermath wherever we go and seeing the progress of the clearance of the damage at our neighbours' homes.
The young guests still need to be fed, so it was food, food, and more food!

Our young guest with the red meat allergy is back for further training, so that complicated my menu planning once again. It would not bother me as I'm not a big meat eater, but most South African men enjoy their red meat, so I had to prepare two menus on some nights.

Alpha-gal syndrome

I'd never heard of this kind of allergy before, so became curious and discovered its odd name and what causes it.

Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy to things like beef, pork, lamb, venison, rabbit, and other animal products that come from mammals. It was first discovered in 2009. Alpha galactose, the source of the allergy, is a sugar present in most animal cells.
Alpha-gal syndrome is caused when a tick bites you, and that bite gives you the alpha galactose molecule.
Alpha-gal syndrome reaction symptoms often involve:

• Rashes
• Hives
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Difficulty breathing
• Low blood pressure
• Dizziness
• Stomach pain
• Extreme itching

Source

It can apparently be fatal in some instances, so I'm being super careful with not mixing cooking utensils while stirring etc. Our guest also cannot eat cheese but does use a little milk in his coffee.

On Sunday night I joined our guest in a spicy Chicken & Chickpea Curry with tomato & onion sambals and a fruity chutney.

The men enjoyed their hot & spicy Beef Curry & Rice

Fish & Chips with a savoury Vegetable Rice made everyone feel it was Friday, but no such luck ;)

Gorgeous sweet cherry tomatoes from the garden - something the pesky monkeys thankfully are not interested in!

A comforting Chicken Pie with a crispy pastry topping and sweetcorn on the cob was on the midweek menu.

Pasta night was layers of pasta, savoury beef mince, tomato, red pepper, onion & basil sauce, topped with a cheese sauce.
Our young guest had his without the meat and cheese, but he still enjoyed it!

Thursday night's menu was good old comfort food - Pork Sausages with a BBQ onion sauce, creamy mashed Potatoes and Sweetcorn (yep, again!). Our guest with the allergy had chicken sausages & all the rest.

Update on the storm damage at our two neighbours

The cottage next door has been totally demolished down to the foundations which do not look in bad shape but will be underpinned. The builder will first have to build retaining walls before they can get the cottage rebuilding underway.
The plus is that they can now change the interior layout to their liking as the previous owners really had a strange layout with the kitchen leading into the bathroom!

Our friends two houses away, have had all the mud cleared and the entire house cleaned by professionals, so all the mud is gone and the damage is not as bad as expected. The one section of their home will have to be rebuilt, and the foundations underpinned
They are currently in discussions with the headmaster of the school from whose bank the mudslide took place. The Dept of Education had Engineers look at the reinstatement of the bank to engineering practices to reduce the likelihood of this happening again.
All the cupboards will have to be replaced, and the flooring as well, so as her daughter said, they at least can now renovate their home, although it nearly cost their lives!

Altogether a mixed bag of a week that ended with us taking a drive down the coast, a smooth ride down, but the return trip took everyone off the freeway onto a gravel road full of potholes, but that's a story for another day!

Don't ever say being retired means sitting on the beach and getting bored; no such word in my vocabulary for sure!