The Real Friday Post

Shew. I dunno about you, but that was a big one for me. Luckily I've had 2 weeks to adjust to the idea of "coming out" on my blog ... I mean, it's not like I'm putting phone numbers and addresses (or surnames) here, right? How bad can it be. Probably not too bad at all :)

I guess I've always shied away from it because in the early days of blogging, and now even, when you interview at companies and what not, they google you, they look for your facebook profile, your twitter profile, instagram now maybe? All those things. When I started, I was working at a big corporate and was keenly aware of these things. Now it seems to matter less so, since so many people do it and it actually gives you some Social Media cred.

And, while I'm not quite ready to completely merge the two, there is no mention of my blog on my facebook profile and I have another twitter account under my real name, I think this will help my transition to "real person" from "stranger blogger". I guess we'll see and time will tell?

Anyway, back to the rest of this week *tries to remember*. On Monday and Tuesday I went to Boot Camp, yay me! My Thumb Wart, while not completely disappeared has shriveled and is no longer causing me pain. I suspect, however, I may need another (hopefully final) attempt at burning it off as it is still there (although smaller). #sigh. It was sore, I am dreading a repeat!

On Tuesday evening, instead of #SCMDinner, The Trucker and I went to the Bryanston Organic Market. When I first moved to Joburg, this was like the ONLY market there was and I spent many Saturday mornings there. I took my folks there on their visits to Joburg. Bean and I went to the Christmas Night Markets every year. Until I realised it *never* changed. And once you'd seen everything and bought everything you were ever going to (because really, there is only so much there one person needs), I stopped.

Years later, all the other markets popped up and I've been to most of them so decided that this year, in the quest for an Xmas pressie for Mom, it was time to give it another try. I reckon it's been about 8 years, maybe more ... so I dragged The Trucker along and off we went.

Let me tell you, the place has NOT changed one bit. The same stalls are still there, in the same places. Okay probably a few have changed, but Emma's Wyckedd Food is still right where I left it (probably where I bought the most and this time was no different!), so was the nursery. The guy I bought my currency frame from has moved, but he's still there ... And the place is still packed to the brim!

We took a wander, I found Mom's xmas pressie (score!) and we bought a Pineapple Chili and Basil & Almond Pesto from Emma's mom who has been selling it there since I remember.

We didn't stay long, the rain looked like it had only briefly stopped and was on it's way back and the food stalls were crowded, there was no where to sit and I'm not sure how much they had left anyway. So we headed to Anat, which The Trucker was craving and I haven't had in absolute ages!

Yum. Did you know there is a whole Lego store in Fourways now? They do parties. It is probably a little inappropriate for my 34th next year, tho :) But if I had a kid ... definitely!

Wednesday was a little emotional. The Peeb's op went fine, from what I gather. Chatted to her briefly (of course) yesterday. Poor thing has already used up all her sick leave this year :( But she's at home convalescing, like a good patient.

But Wednesday was also awesome. I recently introduced The Trucker to the Raspberry Pi when we were discussing the sale of his XBox 360 (with full Rockband set, if anyone is interested?) and potentially also the Mede8er and upgrading to a better entertainment system. Well I thought, since he was interested, it'd make a fab xmas pressie. But the boy simply could NOT wait! So he went and bought one for himself today (he did ask first - haha). And then found an amazing deal on a Sound Bar, which was on the list of purchases with the money we've made selling our stuff. He got it for about half price from the Demo Stock store in Strydom park. It's an LG NB4530a (or whatever). It is a lot bigger than I realised from the pictures online ... but it is pretty and sleek and works like a bomb. We love it!

So yeah, Wednesday was like an early, buy-it-yourself xmas in our house! Haha.

Yesterday. Well yesterday was a little crazy. I arrived home just after the hail started ... The Pajero has been sold so in theory there has been a single car-sized space in our double garage for a while now. Neither of us have used it. With no electric doors, garages are just a schlep. But, hail.

So in a mad scramble we got my car into the garage. But what about The Truckers? The hail was getting bigger! So we shoved and pushed the 4 seater couch (hopefully going next week!) and the queen mattress (going on Saturday) and all his bottles of beer around and squeeze the Polo in ... we couldn't close the door, but it was protected.

I was drenched after that. Our house has the dumbest design, the roof juts out a bit over the edge of the house, which is where one has to stand / walk under to open and get thru the front door o_0 It is a terribly impractical design for a Joburg house (thundershowers, hello, they've been happening for hundreds of years ... or more most likely). Not that I expect our new house, with only one undercover garage space, will be any better #sigh

Anyway, so I hopped into a hot bath and The Trucker, kindly, made me some hot choc. An excellent way to spend a hailstorm, if I do say so myself! He went to collect some of the giant hail from the garden (that's his had in the photo above). Sheesh, I haven't seen it this big since just after I moved up  to Jozi!

A little later, the boy headed out to grab some dinner (had such a craving for Pizza Perfect's Pepperoni pizza. About the closest I can get to Famous Famiglia!). He left his car out so we could close the garage. Until about an hour later when the 2nd storm arrived. I'm not kidding, after the first bout, it calmed enough to let Lily Bunny have a nice afternoon run and I even saw the sun shine!

This time we had to make another plan to try get the car in completely. More tetris-like moving of our full garage but we managed! Only to discover my new car was not left unscathed by the storm ... it has a dent or two in the bonnet and a bizarre spherical crack in the windscreen. Urgh. Hopefully windscreens are faster to fix than the panel beating I think most people are going to be needing after last night's storms (another came over in the night cause it woke us and we had to close the bathroom window!).

Seriously, it looks like someone used one of those glass-cutters you see in movies o_0