Neighbours. That collective noun we use to refer to the people next door, or maybe across the road. They are the people one would bump into on your way to work in the mornings or have a chat with over the fence on a Saturday afternoon. Sometimes, one has very good neighbours and they will lend you a cup of sugar or that onion you need to cook dinner with. Neighbours can become very good friends. My old neighbour in Pretoria I still consider to be one of my Besties.

This past Saturday, Colin and I headed out to Betty’s Bay. It was the annual Penguin Palooza, which had all but wrapped up by the time we got there. Despite the Palooza packing up early, there were still plenty of visitors and penguins around for us to enjoy. It is a good thing we took our travel mugs of coffee with us. The little community project that runs the Coffee shop, had decided that with so many tourists around, that they would be better off not being open for the day. I mean, really. When the sun shines, make hay, right? Except, Coffee Shop did not see it that way. Instead, they closed early. But not to worry. We had our coffee. We found a good spot to sit and watch the neighbours getting up to what neighbours do.

First up, were the Blizzard Family. Over the past few years, their little family had expanded, one chubby little bundle joy after the other. Little Macaroni, their “Laat Lammetjie,” is at that very difficult stage. You know that one, where your child is not quite grown up enough to live life on their own, but old enough to rebel against the parents? Mrs. Blizzard tried her best to keep Macaroni a safe distance from all the tourists, when all Macaroni wanted was yet another selfie with another tourist. It took a serious telling off from Mr. Blizzard to get Macaroni to take his evening swim and work on his fishing skills.

Mrs. Bite, which would be the neighbour across the pedestrian crossing, had a very rough season. Her chick, Frost, had hardly hatched, when Mr. Bite went fishing one day, and never returned. Mrs. Bite is finding single parenting a challenge. Little Frost is being rebellious and seriously needs a father to take him in hand. He is forever going off with those Humboldt chicks: Puffy, Fluffy and Flip. They do have a bad influence on him. Always swimming off and getting up to no good. She caught them behind a rock recently. They tried to hide the (sea) weed from her, but she knows what they had been up to. And now, they are dragging her little Frost into their gang.

Mr. & Mrs. Emperor had twins this year. Two little girls, named Bella and Ella. Bella is ever so pretty with her little black patches of fluff behind her ears. Ella on the other hand, should really cut down on the number of crabby patties she eats in a day. While Bella slips into the water ever so daintily, Ella sort of plops into it and quickly sinks in to below her Plimsoll line.

Charlie and Chilly are not quite ready to settle down. The two of them are still sowing wild sardines and are planning a gap season away. They heard that there are plenty of opportunities for young and handsome surfing dudes in Madagascar. Plenty of fast cars and fast girls just ready to fall for a Bully Boy on a Body Board. They spend most of their time preening and pruning their feathers and flexing their barrel pack, you know – like big and round, because Penguins cannot have a six pack. It is quite impossible.

By now, we had finished our coffee. The tourists had piled back into their bus. The penguins were getting noisy and the sea weed smell had penetrated deep into our nasal passages. Time to go home, Colin said. And if we hurry up, said my Great Scot, we may catch the ice cream shop still open. Which is of course as close as Colin will come to exploring an ice shelf.