Christmas eve with fishing friends

On Christmas Eve, we have our single friends around for dinner, a relaxed and informal affair for relaxed and informal people. They are our fishing friends, meaning they don't do much else, but are well-read, well-travelled and raconteurs of note, interested in everything life has to offer as long as it doesn't involve getting into a car and going to an office.

M used to own a commercial fishing boat and has long been a legend in the area as one of the most skilled anglers, spotting a fish from the ledges at Rooikrantz down at Cape Point and casting in front of it, somehow always hooking it for a fry. His deep-freeze is stuffed to the gunwales with whole yellowtail and tuna, just gutted and wrapped for a rainy day or a gift to a friend. He cleaned it out the other day and found a leg of lamb at the bottom, too old to eat and white with freezer burn. Now that's a dedicated fish eater for you.

W works for nature conservation, which pretty much means spend your day on the beach, throw in a line and make sure no-one is catching an endangered or undersized fish. We only see him at Christmas and look forward to his hilarious anecdotes on his daily adventures out in the wilderness. One of his favourite ways of relaxing is to sit in front of a pot of melting lead over a gas burner, making sinkers. I think he must lose an awful lot in the rocks of the Wild Coast.

J goes to sea as an observer on Chinese fishing boats, huge raiders of the seas, way down in the South Atlantic, as an observer to make notes and report back to whoever about what they are doing. Can't be the most popular man aboard, and has to speak Chinese, too. The stories he can tell are quite something, and it seems as though the shipboard diet consists mainly of cabbage. When he is back at home, it is little wonder that he applies himself to pickling, preserving and smoking whatever foods he can lay hands on - I think he takes as much aboard as he can.

So Christmas Eve dinner is always something to look forward to, in the company of good friends who lead fairly solitary lives, by choice, but are by no means lonely.