Perhaps, perhaps not! Seeing as we have two very ambitious young people in Dezi and Altus, I would hazard a guess and say that both these very popular businesses will definitely still be going strong for a long time to come. Would’nt it be super if Altus is able to open his own business and take over KDL’s contacts, I mean picture it, our Altie wearing hotshot business suits instead of those crappy shirts, jeans and tie.
Before I get carried away with what is currently happening, lets catch up with the events leading up to the present:
The Dance Competition
Last time the daily dramas was brought to you, there was a dancing competition in full swing in the Laan. After three rounds, the final four couples were Marko and San Mari, Mandla and Aggie who paired up after Mandla and Paula’s dismal performance in the first round, Vanessa and Xander and an unknown couple named Willie and Claudette who were rather good, I must say. Some of the costumes the contestants were wearing would’ve made Barney scream in agony, they were too disastrous for words, there was the shocking green that Marko wore and also a shocking green and pink, unflattering dress that poor Aggie had to wear.
Well horrible costumes or not, the final four went head to head and the two who emerged as the winners judged not only by Matrone, Riaan and Ms Van der Bijl. but also by the audience who were given an opportunity to vote, were undoubtedly Vanessa and Xander with Willie and Claudette taking second place, Marko and San Mari were in third and the most comical couple Mandla and Aggie finished in fourth position.
Xander who is preoccupied with Vince and the O’malley murder decides to sell his half of the winning prize, a trip to Victoria Falls, to Vanessa and she invites her mom along on the trip. After not getting what she wants from Neville, Charmaine decides to give in and accompany her daughter to Vic Falls.
The O’malley Murder
Vince is withholding the truth about the O’malley murder from everyone. His lover Celeste who is the actual witness, is too afraid to come forward lest she loses her husband who’s been kind enough to pay for her family’s board and lodge. In
very irritating displays of emotion, Celeste and Vince come up with the brilliant idea that Vince will lie to the police and tell them that he is the one who witnessed the murder. He and Celeste obviously had’nt thought things through and soon Xander and Vanessa notice inconsistencies in Vince’s story.
As time goes on the idea of testifying in court makes Vince a very nervous young man and before long he spills the beans and tells Xander the real truth. Needless to say, Xander is upset, no wait he was beyond upset, he went on about how Vince only thinks of himself, what about his job and his firms involvement in the case, how could he get involved with a married woman blah blah blah!
Meanvwhile, Nellie is very concerned about Vince. He notices how rattled the young man is and expresses his concern to Charmaine and she lends him her ears as the two discuss the ups and downs of parenting.
Xander is placed in a difficult position between helping his brother and destroying his career in the process. He explains to Vince the implications of his lies and that he and Celeste could be arrested for obstruction of justice.
When Vince hears that Xander wants to resign from Notnagel, he decides it’s time to come clean and admit to the police that he gave a false testimony. Celeste stops him by saying that she should be the one going to the police and that she told her husband everything about the murder and the affair.
Once the truth is out, Xander is relieved but worried about how this will affect his job. Neville is naturally furious that Vince lied about witnessing the murder to protect his lover.
Eventually everything turns out well as it always does in 7de Laan, it’s kinda like 7th Heaven, alls well that ends well. Celeste decides to go back to her husband after he’s forgiven her, Vince is brokenhearted but at least he’s not sitting in jail and Xander was given a warning at work but he still has his job.
Disaster at the Boutique
Things are not going well between Dezi and JH. Dezi wants to relaunch the Boutique with a big bang since it’s under her management and she wants no shortcuts to be taken. All that boring JH care about is money money money, they don’t have the bucks to have such a grand event, do it on a smaller scale says JH but we all know how stubborn Dezi can get and once she has something in her mind, its her way all the way.
Well either JH was cursing Dezi or he prayed that the relaunch will not take place. Either way, JH’s wish was granted perhaps not in the way that he wanted because he ends up being a pretty big loser in all of this. In a rush to get all the girls costumes for the dance competition, Dezi, Maria and Tessa are ironing like crazy in the storeroom at the Boutique. I probably have to mention that it was JH’s idea to use the storeroom to store all their clothing instead of driving to and from the factory. So the majority of the Boutique’s stock was in that storeroom when lo and behold, Tessa left the iron on and off everyone went to the dance competition.
While everyone was jiving it away at the Club, Tannie Schoeman’s cat, yes that black cat is still roaming the heights at night, he jumped onto the ironing board causing the iron to fall flat onto the clothing. Naturally the clothing started burning, the smoke caused fire and before long the fire alarm went off causing the sprinklers to spring into action.
When the Heights residents returned home, they found Tannie Schoeman at the Boutique’s doors and the alarms were going off like crazy. Maria who seems to have all the keys to the doors in the Heights opened the doors and everyone trailed in thinking there were burglars in the Boutique. Alyce soon realized it was the fire alarm and everyone was shocked to discover the storeroom drenched in water. Even worse was all the Boutique’s clothing was damaged as a result.
Dezi and JH quickly learnt of the disaster and poor Dezi was in a state thinking of the relaunch which was supposed to take place the very next day. To make matters even worse is the fact that in Dezi’s rush to get everything ready for the launch, she had completely forgotten to take out insurance on the Boutique’s stock. Seeing as JH and Dezi’s marriage is already hanging by a mere thread, this latest news is enough to make things very tense between them. He was livid and so was Madel when she found out.
Madel however came around and tried to make JH see things from Dezi’s side. Madel is very desparate to be a grandmother and she will do almost anything to ensure that JH and Dezi’s marriage stays in tact, yes even go against her favourite son to side with her daughter inlaw. She tells Dezi to stay strong and to follow her dreams. The relaunch had to be cancelled as the damage was too severe to carry on and Maria offered to sell the Boutique’s clothing as second hand at a spaza shop.
JH refuses to spend any more money on the Boutique but Dezi is secretly doing her own thing. After making a few phonecalls, it seems Dezi is trying to save the Boutique by using the success of Felicity Fashions as collateral when applying for a loan at the bank. She called Felicity in Italy and asked her to design a new range for Felicity Fashions and this range will be sold to all the boutique’s on their books. Don’t know how Felicity is managing to design for a famous designer and design for Dezi as well (all this while the actress Melanie is safely playing mommy to her beautiful daughter at home). Its time to come back Felicity!
Exposing Barney aka Robyn de Swardt
For those of you not aware, Robyn has been nicknamed Barney by our resident
TVSA member Charmed_Dude who was swept away by her bright smile and even brighter clothing.
We all know that there’s a connection between Robyn and San Mari and most of us thought they were a long lost mother and daughter reunited, how wrong we were. It turns out that Robyn is actually Elise Bothma, the same woman who was a bookkeeper at San Mari’s dad’s business who embezzled money from the company causing the business to shut down. San Mari’s dad became an alcoholic after his devastating loss and Elise Bothma went to prison for eight years. San Mari harbours a great resentment toward this woman who caused her father to turn into a pathetic drunkard and literally turned her childhood into a nightmare.
Altus and Danny have been questioning Robyn’s business ethics for quite some time now. First the way she stalled paying George his share of the business and the numerous lies she’s told to cover her bright butt. Then there’s the business venture she went into with the Terreblanches, a coffee plantation where each shareholder had to invest 2 million rand. Madel being the greedy witch that she sometimes is was quick to sign on the dotted line as she saw an end to her financial woes after paying out Carlos for his share of T&T.
Later Danny and San Mari each found out that Robyn was definitely crooking the Terreblanches of at least a million rand which she’s pocketing. Besides the Terreblances, how many other foolish investors have fallen for Robyn’s fake charm?
Soon Danny and Altus start investigating their boss’ background. They try getting into her computer but are unable to access her password. After checking out her loft looking for clues, Danny stumbles upon a folder with a crest and this crest seems very familiar to San Mari. After checking with her mom, San Mari discovers it’s the same crest her father used in his business and Robyn’s kept it all these years? Even after getting out of prison?
After another search in the loft Danny comes across a cheap gold chain with the name Elise on it and she remembers the story that Robyn told Tessa about receiving such a chain from her matric farewell partner. She puts two and two together and realise the Robyn is indeed Elise. Altus uses the password Elise and BINGO he’s through into her files
After a few phone calls and lots of printing, Altus has proof that Robyn is indeed up to no good. The only proof they need now is for San Mari to confirm with her mother that Robyn is Elise before they can expose Robyn. Robyn who has overheard Danny and Altus speaking about her dubious dealings realizes that she’s near to being exposed. She gives her employees time off while she gets rid of all the evidence but Altus returns to fetch his charger at the office and notice all the shredded paper.
Meanwhile San Mari’s mother has confirmed that Robyn is indeed Elise. In her haste to confront the woman who has destroyed her father’s life, San Mari stupidly goes to confront Robyn on her own without informing Altus and Danny of her latest findings.
The Terreblanches on the other hand are unaware that their cheque of two million rand is about to land up in a crook’s bank account. They safely say bon voyage to Dezi as Madel and JH embark on their overseas trip. Now is just a perfect time to go on holiday, aint it? Imagine you have an unresolved major business deal which still needs to go through plus the fact that your other business just suffered a major disaster, oh what does JH do, he decides to leave his beautiful young wife alone whilst he goes gallivanting with mother dearest in France, go figure!
Back to the confrontation at the loft, San Mari lays into Robyn about her crooked deals, how she’s robbed so many people of their money, blah blah blah and that she’s reporting Robyn to the police. Danny and Altus are waiting for Robyn at Le Petit Paris since she made reservations for them all to have dinner before she goes on a business trip. Well that is the story she told them since she had no plans to join them but rather to take the money and get out of the country.
At the loft, Robyn explains to San Mari that she did what she had to do to survive. She boasted about how she took all those rich and powerful business folk for a ride and how San Mari’s dad had to be stronger instead of turning into such a weakling. She was actually quite sweet towards San Mari, as sweet as you can get in a situation like that. After a tussle between the two woman, San Mari knocked her head and fell down, passing out. Robyn quickly grabbed the chance to tie her up, yes she just happens to have rope and masking tape lying around. When San Mari wakes up, she sees Robyn packing and making for the door. Robyn tells her that the cleaner will find her the next morning and off she goes.
BARNEY HAS OFFICIALLY LEFT THE BUILDING, AT LEAST WE HOPE SO!
At the restaurant, Danny tries to get a hold of San Mari but her cell has been on voicemail the whole day already. They start worrying about her but then realize that Robyn must have her since she did’tn pitch for work and her landlady phoned to say she’s sick, a landlady that San Mari does’nt have. They make their way to KDL and after searching for San Mari and giving up, they hear a loud grunting noise coming from the loft. They find San Mari tied up and she tearfully tells them that its too late, Robyn has escaped.
With the Terreblanches out of the country, Altus has no choice but to tell Dezi that Robyn is a crook who has cheated her family out of two million rand. Dezi tries to stop the cheque from being processed but the banking people refuse to listen to her, they tell her that Madel must contact them. She eventually gets a hold of JH and tells him the dreadful news, he’s shocked and tries to get on the first plane home. He tells Dezi not to let Madel know of anything since he wants his mother to enjoy her holiday and so Dezi is forced to lie to Madel when she phones and pretends that everything is honky dory.
The future of KDL hangs in the balance and Xander finds out that Robyn has instructed her lawyers to sell all her assets including KDL. This news shocks Altus and Danny who will now be officially jobless and Danny fears having to return to Namibia. With so many contracts on their books, Xander suggest that Altus become his own boss and run his own events company. The idea excites Altus as he tries to get all his paperwork together and with Danny’s help, they decided to speak to their clients and if successful, they will approach the bank for a loan.
Will Altus succeed in becoming his own boss?
Neville and Charmaine
We, the loyal fans of 7de Laan have been waiting patiently for Neville and Charmaine to hook up after Charmaine broke off their engagement the last time Nellie’s ex-wife Daleen was in the picture, causing chaos between the two and ruining their relationship. A few weeks back we’ve seen how the two have grown closer, drinking hanepoot after work, becoming dance partners in the dance competition and spending lots of time going on dinner dates.
The time is near, we thought, that these two will realize they are still crazy about each other and they will get married and ride off into the sunset. Alas, it was not to be. Every time it seems that Neville wants to get close to Charmaine or discuss how he feels about her, she brushes him off. Charmaine is crazy inlove with Neville but its clear she does’nt want to get hurt again so she’s been cautious when dealing with him. Neville is also madly inlove with Charmaine but it seems he’s afraid to admit how he really feels in case she rejects him.
The writers are really making us sweat with this romance which just cannot seem to be. It reminds me of that frustrating courtship between Tony and Angela in Who’s the boss who after a couple of seasons had still not admitted their feelings, it took long awhile but eventually it happened. I cannot wait that long for Neville and Charmaine.
In any case, when Nellie found out about Vince lying about witnessing the murder at O’malleys, it happened the same night he made a date with Charmaine and he totally forgot about it. Charmaine went through all the trouble of cooking him a decent meal and Hilda even speculated that he might propse, poor Charmaine was devastated when Nellie told her that he forgot about their date. Then there’s Nellie’s trip to Washington where he might be gone for about three months giving lectures, workshops and basically touring the States. Charmaine had to hear via the grapevine of Nellie’s plans and feeling despondent about her relationship with Neville, she decides to take Vanessa up on her offer to go to Victoria Falls.
The two leave on a high note but one can see Charmaine was expecting Neville to at least call her to say goodbye. He eventually does, just after they leave the house, surprise surprise. While Neville is walking around in a daze, Vanessa phones Vince to inform him that her mother was in an accident where she might need an operation on her leg. When Neville hears the news, he immediately makes his way to Zim. In a moment we’ve all been waiting for, Neville arrives at Charmaine’s bedside, breathlessly tells her he’s inlove with her and proposes marriage right then and there. Finally we all thought, now just for Charmaine to say yes and then they can kiss and totally mal.
To our utter disappointment, Charmaine gave an emphatic NO, she will not marry him, why does there have to be a crisis for him to realize he wants to be with her, it will never work between them, Charmaine goes on and on. Just your luck Nellie ‘ole boy, you propose to a woman who’s on drugs for pain and she’s not thinking clearly. Shame man, the look of disappointment on Nellie’s face was heartbreaking. He’s taken totally by surprise and abruptly leaves, Charmaine silently weeps.
That’s it then for these two, Nellie is on his way to Washington and will be away for quite awhile and we, the viewers, will just have to wait patiently to see if Charmaine and Neville will ever get back together or will there be other people brought into their lives.
Other minor storylines
Matrone got it into her head that she will write her autobiography after overhearing Mandla speak about how books can be turned into Hollywood blockbusters, making the writer mega bucks.
Emma returned from the clinic all well but since the actress had still not given birth, theytook her out again by sending her to Spain where she will write a book about her traumatic ordeal. Ryno went along for the first few weeks just to help her settle in and Karien offered to keep an eye on the Boekwinkel, a task she’s becoming all too familiar with.
Diederik was hired by Charmaine to be a waiter at Oppiekoffie. After making a killing taking bets for the dance competition, the gambling bug has bitten. Diederik went on a gambling binge playing poker every night but now he seems to be in debt. He’s lying left, right and centre to save his butt and already took an advance on his salary but still seems to be having money troubles. A desparate man will do desparate things, how far will Diederik go to get Brett off his back?
Marko has been very sweet to San Mari since she showed her vulnerability at the whole Robyn issue, he has shown her support and even shown us his sweeter, gentler side. Could love be on the horizon at T&T, between the takkies and tennis racquets?
Tune in to find out all this and more…
7de Laan
Mondays – Fridays
18:30
SABC 2