History suggests that hats have been appearing as early as 30 000 years ago. Hats can convey social status or military rank, it can have religious and ceremonial importance. Some can trace the origin back to Egyptian times. With their shaved heads, Team Ramesses needed some covering to protect themselves from the elements. If you were the key hieroglyphic on the tablet (an Egyptian take on being “the main spanner in the toolbox”), the hat would have indicated that you were a person of authority and power. It did not take long for hats to become a fashion statement or a status symbol.

Some iconic hats styles include the Fedora, Porkpie, Bowler, Top Hat, Bucket Hat the humble Beanie. Sherlock Holmes wore a Deerstalker. Who can ever forget that giant pretzel that poor Princess Whatsisname wore to William & Kate’s wedding? Or that lime green UFO that settled on her forehead shortly after that. Bands have named themselves after hats (Men without hats. They sang “Pop goes the world”) Joe Cocker crooned that you could leave your hat on. And who can forget Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, with her iconic hat?

Colin and I also have hats. Mine ends up in the sea most the time (it blows off in the wind), and by now has lost all shape it once may have had. Colin’s hat must surely be the most photographed hat in history. Colin’s creative side has a thing about placing his hat on a bit of driftwood, or a beam, or a pole, or a pipe…or whatever his little eye spies, and then taking a photo of it. Now as you may know, Colin is rather scrawny, and at times one must look at the photo rather closely to see who is wearing the hat. Colin, or the pole? He has had the same hat for the past 15 years. In the beginning, I had it carefully dry cleaned. Now, it just gets the cold-water-omo cycle in the washing machine every now and again.

Colin without his hat, is like boerie without a roll, bacon without eggs, potatoes without mayonnaise. It is like love and marriage. A horse and carriage. You can’t have one without the other.

The same can be said for people. Some people come into your life. How long they stay, will depend on the reason for them being there. You can have a friend for life. I have one of those. We have known each other since high school. Sometimes we chat often, sometimes months go by, and we do not speak, and then suddenly one day, there is a mail in my inbox from her. The frequency of our chats does not matter. Our friendship has with stood time and does not need daily contact. I also have a modern-day pen-pal. You know that one person that you always wanted to meet up with for coffee? First Covid halted the coffee date, and then we moved away. Yet not a week goes by that we do not chat on WhatsApp. Then there are my Stoep Friends. Those that I always seem to visit sitting on a stoep. I have written about my Stoep Friend from Pretoria before. I now have a new Stoep Friend in Botrivier. Most mornings we meet up. We each make our own cup of coffee, before sitting down on 2 chairs outside a front door. Neither the chairs, nor the front door belongs to either of us. This trivial little detail does not detract from the fact we spend the next half hour solving the whole world’s problems. Occasionally we create a few new ones. Depends on the day and the conversation. And the number of Silver Foxes that walk by and contribute to the conversation. Yes, I may have been fibbing when I said we sit down for half and hour. Sometimes it is half the morning. Time flies when you are having fun.

Right now, the most fun Colin has had with his hat on, is going up and down our mountain. Now that building has started, bricks seem to be flying into place. With his very modern ideas, and the use of vernacular materials, together with multi levels and complicated corners, Colin does spend quite a bit of time talking the builders through the challenges. Some of the challenges I think he creates on purpose, so as to give him reason to go out there. The builders are all very skilled men, with years of experience. But Colin -with or without his hat, is challenging their way of building. I know of one or two old dogs that are learning new tricks!

The new tricks are not only limited to building skills. Small town building has always worked along informal lines. Now in this dear country of ours, and I have previously grumbled about some of the income generating red tape, we decided that it would be best to adhere to all and any legislation. This past month, I had the gift that keeps on giving: convincing old dogs to learn new tricks. I had some help from the professional bodies to make all the necessary registrations. On Monday, there was a very long meeting on site with staff to explain the changes. Despite wearing my rather surf bleached shapeless hat, the sun still turned my arms into two crustaceans that survived the red tide. It was not the time or place to ask for sympathy. I could see them looking at me, and thinking: serves you right for meddling….But it is done. There is a reason I had to learn to administer parts of a payroll system in my old profession. (Megs and SPF: you will be proud of me running my own payroll now.)

Colin has just left for his fortnightly Gauteng trip. I look forward to my stoep meetings, solving the world’s problems and running with my foxes. In small towns, you need to create your own entertainment. We have planned a games evening for this coming Saturday. To make sure all our good ideas translate into action, some of us had a trial run playing some of the games. It is a long time since I have laughed so hard. We laughed until our cheeks ached and a few bladders leaked.

But best of all: I could leave my hat on.