Roses for Sandvik

What a lovely weekend we had! On Friday night we hosted a group of people from Sandvik Mining. There were three South Africans entertaining a group of Chinese gentlemen. The evening started with a bang, because the Chinese gentlemen brought along their own "shooters".....not as in "glasses", as in "liquid" called "Kweichow Moutai." They had six bottles of 500 ml each, which amounted to 3 litres of 53% abv. I supplied them with shooter glasses, and boy they swallowed these things in quick shots! I think part of their aim was to try and get the South African gentlemen, who were responsible for their visit, a little "pissed"! The South Africans were in fact very careful. Among the latter was a most wonderful man called Giel Marais, and I whispered to him "the liquid is white, and water is white. So just put a little water in your glass, and maybe it will dilute the shooter a little." Whether he did or din't I don't know, but he certainly held however many shots he had, and held them well. A more senior gentleman was drinking shot for shot with the Chinese visitors, and stood his ground. That certainly wasn't enough, since  the fourteen of them consumed five bottles of very nice red wine. But then they also had very nice white wine, of which fortunately.....or unfortunately..... they only managed to consume three bottles!

So you can imagine the party was exceedingly hectic. In fact, in our 26 years of existence we' ve never had a more uproarious party than this one! They jumped, they danced, they served themselves.....I must say I started by explaining to them that we did have staff who would be pouring their drinks for them, and I was told in Chinese that "in China we serve ourselves!" I tried to explain to these gentlemen in English, "when in Rome you do as the Romans do." However, that fell on deaf ears, and I capitulated and let them serve themselves. So they very happily demolished all six bottles of "Kweichow Moutai," and they all had a wonderful evening. They said in various forms of Chinese that the food was delicious. They consumed prawns at a rate that I have never seen prawns consumed before. I always look as carefully at plates leaving my kitchen as I do at those coming back. The ones leaving must be properly served, and the ones coming back must be properly emptied. If they aren't, and if there is food left on the plate, my staff get a bigger mouthful than if they haven't served it properly. This was such a peaceful night, because all the plates were cleaned. In fact, we thought carefully as to whether we should wash them or not, but we decided for the sake of hygiene we would wash them!

I would say the South African contingent of the company was very pleased afterwards to have been able to walk to their vehicles. They didn't need help, however one or two of the younger ones amongst their guests, did need help to get to a car. They got very.....very.....happy, and Friday night ended on a very high note!

Freda