Turns out that when I woke up this morning I discovered that I had more to drink last night than I thought. My head was quite sore and movement proved difficult even though we slept in until half past 8. We planned to go to the Pick and Pay centre and use the free wireless Internet we found coming from a telecommunication shop while we sat and ate breakfast. However, soon after getting in the car we realised that the misfire was back and the car was certainly down on power again. We revised our plan and instead spent time in the shopping centre trying to find a place to buy the relevant tools to be able to access the injector connections. Last time we assumed the shaking of the car when the tire failed had rattled a connection loose; this time we hypothesised that the rocky road through golden gate national park had also rattled a connection loose.
No shop in the centre sold a ratchet set so we drove back to our room to see if the matinence people at the lodge had the correct tools. Just our luck, their mechanic was out, but they recommended driving down to Ezulwini Garage about 4 km down the road. It was our only option because we didn't want to make any long journeys with the car struggling so we set off for the garage. Before we left we ran into Jenny again and we asked if she wanted a lift to the craft village we had visited yesterday; it was on our way. She accepted and we put one of the back seats down in the car and set off.
We dropped her off at the car village and proceeded down the road to the garage where we found a small shop filled with random tools and a man behind the counter who had no idea what a ratchet was. You have no idea how difficult it is to describe with hand motions what a ratchet is! Eventually he invited me behind the counter to see if I could find what I was looking for. It became apparent that they didn't have what we needed but they did have a range of spanner sizes and we found the correct size we needed to take the cover off of the engine. I went out to the car and removed the cover, hoping that if the man from inside could see the bolts we needed to remove he may be able to find the correct tool to do it. Just as I finished removing the cover a man named Milton came up to us and asked if we needed some help. We explained our situation to him and he informed us he was trained as a grade three mechanic and had a truck full of tools nearby.
Milton had exactly what we needed, the correct size ratchet and attachment and before we knew it he was busy taking the top off the engine. A very friendly group of locals (presumably Milton's friends) soon gathered round the car, they way men often do when there is something mechanical that needs fixing haha. While Milton worked we chatted with the group about our travels; where we had been and where we still had to go. They were the nicest group of men and they made the time pass quite enjoyably despite the fact that our car wasn't working properly! Once Milton had removed the top of the engine I followed the exact same procedure that Koebus had done. I unplugged each of the electrical connections to the injectors and plugged them all back in, that's it! Milton then got to work putting the top and the cover back on the engine. We started up the car and again, miraculously, the misfire was gone!
We tipped Milton R100 for his help and drove back to the lodge to print one of the forms I would need for my visit to the US embassy. Form in hand we drove past the craft village to see if Jenny wanted a ride into Mbabane She looked rather glad to see us, probably because she was getting quite a lot of hassle in the craft centre to visit every shop and buy something each time she stepped inside. She decided to come with us and we left for the capital city. Our first stop was a shop called Midas, to try to buy our own ratchet. Turns out they don't have one, but they did have an entire car tool set for sale for R300, which had everything we needed and also anything we could possibly need, so we bought it. Finding the US embassy turned out to be a mission, and only after 20 minutes of driving in circles did we finally locate it.
Our trip to the embassy was necessary and annoying. Charles Mercer contacted us about a week ago informing us that the South African government requires a letter of no impediment from the US government to validate our marriage. This is rather annoying because the US has no central marriage office and so cannot issue these letters. The South African government will however except a letter from the US stating this fact! You would think the governments would talk!? We were informed after our arrival that the Consul was out of the embassy and would only return at 14:30. Probably a good thing he was gone because we noticed that we had grabbed my old passport. We found a place to have some lunch before driving Jenny back to the accommodation and retrieving my correct passport.
We got back to embassy at our appointed time, and the Consul, who shall remain nameless, came into the waiting room to see us. He wouldn't do the letter that we needed but instead would officiate a letter written by me stating that I had no impediments. He said that we would need to go and write and print our own letter, and he went off to get us a template. This was really annoying as we had no idea where an Internet cafe was that had a printer! Thankfully he called us in and told us he would write it for us and print it as he couldn't find the template. Jenny and I sat listening to him whilst he wrote the letter and told us how super amazing he was, and how difficult it was to be come a US Consul. Especially as they are not permitted to live in their assigned country for more than three years, so as not to create a bond that would compromise their US loyalty. I really wanted to see his point of view but I can't fit my head that far up my own ass.
After getting the letter stamped and sealed, and the form Dan needs to fill in certified, we paid the receptionist $50 for his kind service and left. We decided to head to the Ezulwini sun casino for some gambling! We first tried some of the slot machines which have never been my favourite. After a few minutes we thought the roulette tables looked more appealing and found a table doing R5 minimum inside bets. We threw down R100 and started playing. Every time we have ever played roulette in the past Jenny always plays the number 22 and I always play 0. This time we had the amazing luck that 22 and 0 came up a total of 5 times in the first 7 spins. Before we knew it we had turned R100 into R750!!!!
It was inevitable, but over the next hour and a half we managed to piss away all that we had won in the first 5 minutes. We decided To take a short break before heading back into the casino and this time putting R200 on the roulette table. Again we were pretty lucky and within a few minutes we had R300 in front of us. At this point we figured we should be heading out so we took our original R200 and cashed it in. With the remaining R100 we placed some go-for-broke bets including R20 on 0. The final spin was a 32; right next to 0! Damn!!!! After leaving the casino we picked up a pizza and headed back to the lodge for sleep.
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