Hamster Wheel

Ah another Monday. They seem to roll around too fast. And I'm having one of those life-crisis things again. You know the one, where you feel like life is the same day in and day out. Where you just need a break, and not a holiday, because I rarely get rested on those - haha. I mean like a pause button. This whole wash-rinse-repeat of getting up early, going to work, going to gym, dinner, sleep thing is getting me down. I know it's probably the same for everyone and we all go thru it occasionally ... you know, whatever your routine happens to be.

Seriously, I wish for days of doing nothing, of waking up late ... but see, we do have weekends and even then I can't do nothing. It feels like wasted time. I know, how very contrary of me :/

Anyway, I suppose I'm just feeling a little blue right now. And I'm feeling anti-social, which I'm quite sure adds to it. And having (briefly) started boot camp again, I suddenly have no time to myself anymore. It's weird. I actually do enjoy boot camp (usually afterwards), which is more than I can say for gym. But I still begrudge the time it takes out of my day. And I wonder how people with kids manage ... where do they find the time?

The weekend was decent. I was working from home on Friday. Am still not feeling 100% today, but since I have no specific tasks to work on right now, it's harder to work from home ... which is why I didn't stay there today. I actually probably should've and just come in after the traffic. I struggled to get up this morning, since I woke myself in a coughing fit at about 4:30am. Luckily I managed to get a few more minutes sleep before my alarm, but it certainly did not feel sufficient. Thank goodness the sun is coming up earlier. The skies are getting much lighter on my drive in, which definitely helps.

On Friday evening we went for drinks which turned into dinner with one of The Trucker's friends and her little 4yr old boy (the ones we went to Sodwana with). They picked Chilling Thyme Cafe, which was mostly okay. The pizza's were average but I liked their use of avo (not stingy). The real downside was the rugby that the large table next to us was shouting loudly at. Ah well.

On Saturday we had no plans, which meant a lovely lazy morning. Although it was The Trucker's sister's birthday and exactly one month till we fly to USA! We popped round to say Happy happy to her. It's hard for me going there, seeing my old house. It feels mostly sad. And there is always some issue she wants to tell me about o_0. This time the verandah roof is apparently leaking and needs fixing. #sigh Can anyone recommend someone? I don't even know where to start or what type of person to look for.

After that we headed to Belle's Patisserie. I'd read on twitter earlier in the week that they were launching their new Crois-nuts on Friday. Okay, I realise that this probably isn't as exciting as I think. And honestly it hasn't been very long since I first even heard of a cronut. But I read about it a while back as the latest pastry craze to hit New York, and was debating trying one there. Although not very seriously since apparently the queues are crazy!

And then the opportunity arrived to try something similar (cause apparently it's been trademarked or something?) right here in Jozi and I figured, hell, why not? So off we went. We tried the variety: Custard, Chocolate and Strawberry. We only skipped the plain. And really, in both our opinions, only the custard one is worth it. And it is *amazing*. I've never been a fan of that think icing on actual donuts either so it's no surprise I wasn't enthralled with it on these either. But those custard ones ... seriously, get one.

After that we headed to the Apartheid Museum. Neither of us had ever been. It was quite hectic. Surreal is probably the word I'd use. I couldn't believe how similar it felt to Holocaust Museums I've been to. Now, I don't really remember any of apartheid, the first vaguely related thing I remember is in Std 4 (Grade 6, 1991) when our school became Model C and anyone could attend. I think I was probably 10 or 11. And, I remember the '94 elections. I didn't really understand much about Nelson Mandela's release from prison or how it was significant.

It's hard to express how I feel about it, so I'm not going to try. But I'm glad I went. I think I'd like to go to Liliesleaf sometime too. There was also a temporary exhibition on about the life of Mandela as well. Bwahahaha, after looking online it seems they have a very flexible view on "temporary" as the exhibition seems to have opened in 2008!

After that we stopped for some lunch at Salvation Cafe. Every time we have breakfast there I think we really should try them for lunch, the menu looks amazing. But it didn't seem so amazing to me once we were there for lunch. We both had the Salvation Gourmet Beef Burger. I hate it when places have "extras" but when you add them to a simpler meal they don't add up to what they charge you on the more complex meal. Oh well. The burger was nice, a bit too big for me, I didn't touch the roll or my chips. The Trucker enjoyed his tho.

The rest of the day was spent doing nothing much. We finished S3 of The Killing, which I thought wasn't nearly as good as the 2 seasons before. There was too much I felt they didn't tie-up. And The Trucker managed to predict whodunnit around episode 4. I maintain he just picked the 3 least likely characters as his options and it seems so did the writers :P

On Sunday we took The Trucker's sister & niece to breakfast at Doppio and then did our grocery shopping. He had a very industrious afternoon, cleaning more beer bottles, in anticipation of his first batch being ready sometime this week. So far he does not have nearly enough bottles for the 50L he is making. And he is already planning what he'll make next ... and that he needs another 2 buckets! Haha, the bug has bitten. I hope it tastes decent. He also cleared out his old clothes (which have been taking up our entire spare room cupboard since we moved) and got the cars washed. Me, I finished watching Call The Midwife.

And just like that, the weekend was suddenly over :( We had pasta for dinner (fast becoming a Sunday night tradition) and watched The Iceman. Which wasn't at all what I expected ... I expected something about this guy. Although it has led to some Wikipedia investigation, since it was based on a real person. Which I always like. But the movie itself, I felt, was pretty flat. As is often the case with true life stories.

RT @bellespatis: The secret is out! We've launched a French inspired pastry, the Crois-Nut. Read more here http://t.co/tgOHqS4G2M < Want.
— phillygirl (@philly_girl) August 14, 2013