Monday, June 09, 2008

One Year Later

What a lovely weekend. Friday admittedly wasn't that great tho, but that was long ago already now ;)

After work on Friday I headed over to Computicket (who I hate but have no choice to deal with - aargh!) to collect our tickets for Saturday only to get a call from Varen saying he had to work late. Damn annoying since I hadn't seen him at all on Thursday eve. But, I decided to take the opportunity to go and watch a late afternoon movie :) I saw Made of Honour (yes, I could've choosen Sex and the City, but it just didn't appeal as a solo watching experience)

Quick aside: OMG I think I'm going to go nuts here! It started on Friday afternoon and has been going again this morning since 7:30am ... they are doing some kind of renovations to the office below us and I can literally feel the vibrations of the drilling and hammering under my feet. And that's saying nothing of the non-work-inducing noise we are having to endure.

Made of Honour chronicles the relationship between Tom (Patrick Dempsey) and Claire (Michelle Monaghan), who have been friends for over 10 years. He's a serial dater, while she wants marriage but hasn't found Mr. Right. Just as Tom starts to realise that he may be relationship material, Claire gets engaged. When she asks Tom to be her 'maid' of honour, he reluctantly agrees - only so he can attempt to stop the wedding and win her back before it is too late.

I completely enjoying it. Perhaps it was my mood at the time, but it was just what I needed. I mean, it is, of course, completely predictable, but in that comfortable, familiar way of all typical Rom-Coms. And the eye-candy of Patrick Dempsey was much appreciated :)

I still managed to get home before Varen, but when he did get home we enjoyed a nice quiet evening with an early bedtime - we were both a bit exhausted after little sleep on Thursday night.

Saturday we were up early to try our knew "gym-routine" which consists of climbing on the weekend (for toning and cardio during the week ... well it's the plan anyways). I managed to get to the top of the blue-13 wall ... although admittedly it was a bit of a "smartie run" (which means I used a few other colours in my quest to finish). But, I still did it. The sense of acheivement of reaching the top still has not convinced me that climbing is all that and I'm still always completely amazed when I hear about how many other people are climbing (and how many of them are completely sold on it). I still don't really get it, but it's nice comunal excercise for Varen and I - I actually really do think I get even more excercise from belay-ing him while he climbs than while I'm climbing, tho ;)

The best part of the climbing tho was the surprise I got when we got into the car on the way there. Saturday was actually Varen & my official dating anniversary. Which we weren't really paying attention to since we'd already booked up the day in advance. But I got into the car and found a beautiful bag with a lovely card and two books :) It was so special and unexpected! I am planning a special dinner out next week (this week already has a few too many dinner dates already planned!)

A little later (once we were home and showered), Bokkie, EvilBob, GalleryGirl and Squeak arrived at our place and we all headed off to Casalinga for their Groves and Vineyards Festival. It was a great way to spend a Saturday ... plenty of wines to taste, a lovely lunch and lots of other nibbly bits. I must say I was most impressed by the Leopard's Leap wine-cocktails!

That evening we headed over to Lady's birthday party and it was fab to see so many of the old faces again ;) It was a fab evening but quite an exhaustingly busy day all in all.

On Sunday we were up early again and hit the climbing wall again. I was far less enthusiastic and way more yawn-y this time around. But we thought we'd better get 2 days in since we'll be away the whole of next weekend (it's another SA long-weekend!). And then Varen had to go into work :( Luckily I decided to get some shopping done and met up with JofH for some lunch. We met at Cafe Espresso in Parkhurst. Lunch was yummy, I had a pizza with Chicken, Avo and roasted almonds :) Varen's lucky to have my left-overs for lunch today - he stole it out from under me this morning ... otherwise I would've gladly had it! It was also fab to finally get a chance to catch-up properly because we haven't done that in ages. He's always refreshing to talk to.

Varen went to visit his folks after work but we ended up home around the same time and decided to end the weekend off with Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2008 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. Set in 1957, the fourth film in the Indiana Jones film series pits an older Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) against agents of the Soviet Union, led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), in the search for a crystal skull. Indy is aided by his former lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the greaser "Mutt" Williams (Shia LaBeouf), and fellow adventurer Mac (Ray Winstone). John Hurt and Jim Broadbent also play fellow academics.

I actually am sorta glad now that I at least watched the first one again. I learned from that one just how far-fetched Indy movies always were, which left me easily able to accept certain aspects of the film - although there still were some giant gaping "holes" (not necessarily things left out but often some unlikely inclusions!) in it. Meh, it was still fun but I really think they should let the series die a respectful death now ... Oh, and I thought Cate Blanchett was fab in this!

8 comments:

The Jackson Files said...

You always sound like you have these awesome, exciting weekends.

I LOVE Casalinga - when I lived in the UK and came here for holidays, I would always go to Casalinga for my farewell lunch with all my friends and family, so it holds lots of great memories for me.

Jam said...

So glad to hear you're getting into climbing, even if you aren't entirely convinced yet. And it's such a nice thing for a couple to do together.

If you're having a hard time belaying Varen, you should attach yourself to those straps on the floor at the climbing gym, it stops you from taking off when they come down! FD started to find it hugely disconcerting when we met halfway off the ground :)

The next stop is heading to actual rock - it's much easier than the climbing gym - I promise.

The Divine Miss M said...

I love coming off the ground! I get such a giggle when Jailbait falls and I go flying up into the air. It's one of my favourite parts :)

I so agree with MsMozi, being on real rock is so much easier and so much better. It's the whole actually being outdoors, so peaceful and just you and the rock!

But if you don't like it don't work hard at trying to like it otherwise it'll just be a hinderance.

I mean Varen can find a partner who REALLY wants to do it! Climbers are really friendly :)

phillygirl said...

@tjf - thanks, sometimes I feel like my weekends are quite boring ... but am such a huge fan of Casalinga (that's actually where I'm thinking of taking Varen for dinner, he's never been properly)

@msmozi - oh, don't you worry ... I won't let him start climbing till I'm safely attached to those straps! Even then I am up on tippy toes tho :)

@missm - Am still not sure that outside climbing is on the cards after only a mere 3 times at the wall. And I don't know if climbers in Jhb are all that friendly ... but then again we are there at 9am when the wall opens so there's usually no one else around.

The Divine Miss M said...

You learn more on outside climbing. It makes more sense.

1000% better than indoors. Indoors is for training, outdoors is the real climbing.

Some people never step foot inside a climbing wall and do everything outdoors. If I could do it again I so would!

phillygirl said...

@missm - thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for outdoor climbing, but I think I'll personally stick with what I feel comfortable with ... and right now that's just concentrating on trying to get up a training wall.

As I've said before, the climbing *for me personally* really is about training and the exercise, not about a) climbing or b) getting up or down a rock-face.

AngelConradie said...

very cool weekend- and very happy anniversary!!!

phillygirl said...

@angel - thanks :)

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