Mike loves browsing through Cash Crusaders. The other day he was there and spotted a guitar – an entry-level Epiphone for R299. On closer inspection, while well-worn, it was solid. He was so tempted to buy it, but he didn’t.
Yesterday he went out for an hour or two and when he came home, he had bought it. When I got in from my meeting, the smell of pungent varnish filled the house. It felt we were all about to get high on glue, it was so strong. Mike was busy restoring this guitar and had bought new knobs and strings. He did a mighty fine job. It looked fabulous.
But the test of course, would lie with David. I sent him a message to stop by. We had something to show him. He couldn’t come yesterday. We had dinner with him last night and that was when Mike told him he had bought a guitar for R299. You can imagine the thoughts that went through David’s professional guitarist head! He refrained from rolling his eyes back – he has way too much respect for his Dad to do that. He was polite! He said he was very keen to come round and try it out.
Right after breakfast this morning, he did.
It was test time. He walked in and said, “oh okay so this is it?” and with that comment he picked it up. “Oh wow,” he said, “it feels quite good.” He sat down and started putting it through its paces. He whipped out his tuner and tuned it, commenting that Mike had tuned the new strings the wrong way round, but that he had been consistent with all of them! He just needed to remember which way to turn them when tuning.
As he started to play, he got more and more impressed. A really nice little guitar. Mike was so happy. He really enjoyed David’s response. David said he wouldn’t sell it but he will keep it as a decent guitar to play at the music academy if one of his students leaves theirs at home. The sound was very good….without David knowing, as he tinkered, I recorded a snippet…
A success. Mike is going to be keeping his eye out for decent guitars. I can imagine that he and David could be into some guitar restoration in the future.
It’s been a good day. I slept in (actually got more than 8 hours sleep last night). We met Julian and David for breakfast. After the guitar test, I did a bit of work, went to gym, came home, spent an hour on the phone to Stacey and then Julian and I went for a drive around Chapman’s Peak, stopped for tea in Hout Bay and came home over Ou Kaapse Weg. I kept an eye out for where I can park at the bottom of Ou Kaapse Weg early tomorrow morning before the bikes come past. Julian needs to leave for the airport before 10am. With the Cycle Tour, it may be tricky getting onto Ou Kaapse Weg to get out of the Valley. All the road closure info I can find suggests they will close Ou Kaapse Weg extension from Chapman’s Peak to Kommetjie Road, so parking the car at the bottom of OKW is the safe thing to do. I’ve never known them to close the section between the Mall traffic lights and Chappies but with the roadworks, this could be a first.
Deuteronomy 7:9
Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
Gym:
- 5km run
- 20km cycle
Braces:
Day 116