I Need Recommendations

Yes, yes, I know I skipped yesterday's Weekend catch-up post. But The Trucker & I were mid-fight, so I was not in the mood whatsoever.

We're fine now ... but we've decided we should see if we can find somewhere to go for some counseling. I got quite upset when I read one of the sites say that it's a last resort. I don't feel like that at all ... I feel like we need some constructive tools to help us. We love each other and I can tell you now, when things are good they are blissful and I am pretty much deliriously happy, without question happier than I ever remember being before. But when things are bad (which I'm sure happens to everyone), things are awful. We do not manage each other's bad moods well at all. And while we communicate well in the patch-ups after a fight and are really very honest with each other, we can't seem to communicate very well at all when things are heated. And we are both very stubborn (I spent over an hour locked in the bathroom on Sunday evening simply because I wouldn't accept his help to unlock the door, in case you had any doubt - that said, he is still more stubborn than me! Can you imagine?)

I think the tricky times happen when our moods collide on the same day ... when I am feeling sensitive and needing some extra assurance and he's grumpy and gets annoyed very quickly. That's when the big blow outs happen. So yes, while we're contemplating the counseling, I have some very strict requirements of it ... I don't want "therapy" where you re-hash all the fights and just talk-talk-talk forever. I want somewhere we can go and learn constructive tools that we can take away and use in real life when these situations crop up  to diffuse the situation and not allow things to reach the point we're letting them get to now.

Anyone got something / someone they can recommend? I don't think we're being weak or have reached a last resort here, I think we're saying the good stuff is worth fighting to keep, lets work on improving the bad stuff. I don't think anyone likes fighting with the person they love.

And while we're on the recommendation band-wagon ... I need a new hairdresser. Okay so I probably get my hair cut like once every 2 years. So I've never really had a regular person. Since I just decide to go, book myself in any old where and get it cut. But I had someone recommended to me a few years back and I've seen her twice ... and I really liked what she did. But now when I phoned to make an appointment, I found out she left. And the place really is out of the way for me, so not really worth making the effort if she's not even there. So now where to?

I'm nervous of just walking into a random hair dresser in any old nearby shopping center ... although without recommendations, that's likely what I'll end up doing. Since I really want a cut before we go on holiday and I'm running out of time. #sigh Can anyone recommend someone?

I also need to know who one asks to fix a veranda roof? Apparently it is leaking and dented according to The Trucker's sister ... #sigh

Anyway, so onto the weekend? Friday night was a quiet night in, if I remember correctly. We were both pretty tired from our week. But on Saturday we started the great fridge hunt. But first we had the gardener over and a quick breakfast at home.

I popped into the Angela Day Kitchen at Lifestyle to visit the Nomu pop-up shop. I probably wouldn't have gone if it hadn't been so close, but I'd seen on their blog they had specials on their Recipe Boxes and I've been wanting one since April! They were selling them for R200 and the add-on packs for R25 (so I got 4) and then there was even a lucky-draw discount thrown in when you paid. I managed to get it all for the same price as just the Recipe Box would've cost me :D

It was a fabulous start to the day. But ... having now looked thru the recipe box recipes, I have some recommendations for them. 1. It would be great if there was some kind of indicator on each recipe card as to which section it belonged. I definitely had some mix-ups in my box, and while some were obvious, like finding a dessert in the starters sections, they're not all so easy to spot. And 2. I definitely wish they each had an indication of time on them. I like to have an idea of how much preparation time and cooking time it's likely to take. Longer recipes can't really be cooked on week nights when I get home from Boot Camp at 6pm, if you know what I mean ;)

Then we headed off to Cielo Lifestyle center to check out our future mattress. Okay, so if you're wondering where all this spending is coming from, we've decided to consolidate. We've sold a bunch of old stuff (old cameras, old computer equipment) and duplicate items (washing machines etc). We also decided to sell both fridges and buy ourselves one new one (likely what we'll do with the 3 couches we have at the moment too, 2 of which are sitting in storage anyway). We've been using my fridge, as it is newer, but it is quite tiny. So with the money we've got from the selling we've done so far, we have our eye on a new mattress and fridge.

Saturday's task was to price fridges so it included visits to Hi-Fi Corp, Dion Wired, Makro, Builders and Game. We also checked out PnP Hyper when we went grocery shopping on Sunday and ended up buying our new fridge from Game. It should be arriving today :D

On Saturday we decided to have a decadent large lunch as the main meal of the day and went to Cafe del Sol on a whim ... I was craving pasta. Remind me to stick with my all-time favourite, the Amatriciana (sp?). I had the Prawn Tequila and while nothing (except perhaps home-made) beats their pasta, I was a little disappointed that there were only 5 prawns :(

The rest of Saturday was very lazy and in the evening we watched The Great Gatsby. Wow, you could spot it was a Baz Luhrmann, it had such a similar feel to Moulin Rouge, which is one of my all-time favourite films. I was hoping if The Trucker enjoyed this I would be one step closer to getting him to watch Moulin Rouge, but sadly that didn't happen :( I enjoyed it, but have no need to see it again. The storyline is a bit flat, although prior to watching I had no clue about the storyline.

And Sunday was not spectacular. But I did go shopping, so I have new jeans. Joy!