Hi KK'ers
I thought I'd introduce myself having been a KK owner for about 5 years now and an infrequent lurker in these parts on and off over that time.
I'm from Southern Africa originally, moved to the UK for university and then moved from Oxford to London and am now in Suffolk (85 miles from London). Which accounts for my forum name - Braai or braai vleis being the equivalent of 'BBQ' in Southern Africa. We live in beautiful open countryside near Lavenham and Harry Potter fans will recognise the medieval town as a filming location. Suffolk is fantastic for fresh, high quality produce and a lot of it finds its way onto my KK with not much more than a food mile or two.
My KK journey if I can call it that started with a 19" high top for the house in London as my hallway was 1.2cm too narrow to get the 23" into the house and out into the back garden. It was a dark day when I made that discovery. You're probably questioning my commitment at this point if, like me, you've seen any of the videos where Big Bads are lifted into place by crane. Unfortunately, we lived near Liverpool Street (within the square mile of the financial district) and we had both an overhead power and fibre optic junction outside our house. We were told that we had to disable the power as it was too dangerous to move a crane so close to them. Then we were told that we'd need to take lines down to allow the crane to make the pass over the roof. We were then told we could only do it on a Sunday. The work estimate was put at around £7,500 - £10,000 with everyone on double time for Sunday of course. My wife told me that the 19" would do just fine and grudgingly, I agreed.
Years on, we now live in the countryside and have settled in sufficient to look at redevelopment and creation of a proper BBQ area so I'm getting a second bite at the cherry. Which is what brings me back to the forum. As much as I love the 19" and the inimitable KK quality, it was always a compromise so I'm putting an order in with Dennis for a 23" Ultimate which is what I wanted to order originally. I am currently debating choice of colour and have been chatting to Dennis over the week around options. My current KK is in a black pebble finish and I really like the reptilian look of pebble and I'm looking at Olive & Gold or Harvest Gold.
Happy to share plans for our outdoor kitchen area if it's of interest or inspiration to anyone and of course, if anyone in the UK is considering a KK, they're most welcome to come take a look at mine.
If anyone has any pictures of their Olive & Gold or Harvest Gold KK's, I'd love to see them.
That's me. Hello!
Alex