Insurance. Who Needs It?

Varen was home latish again last night (after 7pm). He swears it's the last time for a while. I have stopped believing and just find myself hoping one day at a time now. So we went to share a Platter for 2 at Ocean Basket. I was craving it earlier in the week. But we tried a different Ocean Basket and it wasn't quite as delish as our usual one (which is in a mall, which I *hate* ... restaurants in a mall are on my list of places to avoid. Fast food in a mall is one thing, when you have to eat on the run or whatever. But an actual restaurant. Nope, not my style.).

Other than that not much was going on yesterday or if there was I've forgotten already. Oh yes, and for *the first time in my life* I have used up my entire MSA. And by mid-year. Seriously, that never happens to me. But I guess as you get older you get specialists for a lot more things. I have a Dermatologist now, gotta see the Dentist and Gynae once a year. Add to that an Ultrsound guy (and a visit to any of the above all *start* between R400 & R600!). Throw in a few visits to the regular doctor (or in my case Homeopath) and poof, it's gone. To be fair tho, I didn't sign up for a particularly large MSA to start with ... thinking I never really go to the doctor. But still. Medical Aid costs me about a brazillion dollars* a month. So that they can "save" a (very small) portion of that money and decide how it's spent (dontcha just love that?!). Which is annoying. Because I have never yet ended up in hospital requiring coverage or claiming back a cent of my investment. I wonder if I calculate how much I could've saved if I'd plowed that monthly expense into a separate bank account since I started paying it I'd depress myself? Probably. Insurance is depressing and a grudge purchase at the best of times ... but I'm too nervous to go without. I just know that if I ever didn't insure something, it'd be the one time I wished I did. No doubt whoever invented insurance was one smart money-making dude, I'm sure. But damn, I hate you to bits.

Oh, and yesterday, I took total advantage of the latest Springleap sale :) They were giving 50% off all Shirts for 24hrs. I gather from twitter that it was a huge success and they were run off their feet with sales yesterday :) The two I chose were Malicious Bear (to celebrate my upcoming October trip to see the Polar Bears!) and e Sempowenis (because I think it is the funniest design ever, although I don't enjoy The Simpsons, I think the SA spin on them is so cool! And I've wanted one since I first saw it ... but it was always sold out before now)

Spinach & Feta Free-Form Pie

I am so thrilled with this Vegetarian discovery because Varen & I have been trying to do one Vegetarian dinner a week (seems there are a lot of people I know lately who are trying to do things like this or similar). This pie comes out looking impressive and is so so easy to make. And it tastes like a Spanakopita, which is one of my favourite things, ever! (I am so looking forward to the leftovers for lunch a little later!)



So here's the recipe (serves 4):

• 25g butter, melted (easy peasy to melt in the microwave, a little trick Varen taught me)
• 10 sheets phyllo pastry (ready made from PnP)
• 200g feta cheese (I like to use the soft Woolies Danish Feta)
• 250g baby leaf spinach
• 1tbsp golden raisins
• 1tbsp pine nuts
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 200g ricotta, drained

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Brush Spray & Cook a 20cm-round, loose-bottomed tart tin with some of the butter. Lay over a few sheets of phyllo, slightly overlapping and brush the overhanging phyllo with more butter. Basically what I did here was just line my baking tin with the phyllo pastry sheets, in criss-crossing directions since they are rectangular and the tin is round. I didn't use any butter. I also didn't use as many as 10 sheets (maybe about 6 or 7). Repeat to use up all the pastry. Set aside.

Crumble 125g of the feta into a bowl and mix with the rest of the filling ingredients and some seasoning. I advise chopping the spinach to make it easier to combine with the other ingredients. I also recommend being more liberal with the pine nuts and raisins. Now I usually *hate* raisins, but they end up being nice and sweet so get my thumbs up in this dish. Spoon the filling into the phyllo pastry case and crumble over the remaining feta.

Fold the overhanging filo over the filling and scrunch it up roughly to form an edge. At this point I drizzled my melted butter over the top of the folded pastry rim, which seems to work just fine. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes until golden and crisp and the filling is piping hot.

Enjoy!

Some Thoughts

Last night was nothing special. Varen came home just after 7pm and made us dinner. I mostly just watched Without a Trace. We had no water all evening so no relaxing reading in the bath time for me. Luckily it was back on in time for this morning's shower!!

Other than that I have two things on my mind.

The first is Lancet vs. Ampath. Okay, so awesome, we have more than one laboratory that can do blood work and whatever else it is they do (?). But how annoyed am I that I now have a Lancet form. Because my nearby Medicross only apparently accepts Ampath forms. Seriously folks, how difficult could it be? How different can your forms be? Could the nurses not just have accepted my form and used it to complete the necessary details on the other one? Why would a blood test spot in a Medicross even have a specific affiliation? Surely they just draw the blood, ensure the form of your choice is completed and send it off *to the appropriate laboratory*. Is this rocket science? Am I the only person who thinks this should be obvious? Anyhoo, at lunch today I'm off to find myself a freaking Lancet laboratory. Sigh.

The second is a question for all of you. So inventions, for the most part, are slowing and the focus in our lifetime realyl seems to be making the things we have smaller, better or faster. It's not like someone who was born in 1900 who was around to see brand new things like a car or a telephone etc. Our greatest invention in my lifetime is not exactly tangible, the Internet. Although I'm not sure I can imagine my life without it. What job would I have ended up doing if not working on computers? Not entirely sure, really. So anyhoo, I was thinking. If you could pick one thing to be invented before you die, what would your choice be (and please be more creative than "a cure for Aids")?

Mine? Mine is easy. I wish for teleportation. Seriously. Forget flying cars, teleportation would make everything just so much easier. You know, I don't think I like driving. But that's just because for the most part a) it's stressful (like when those folk in the lane next to you suddenly swerve into your lane at the last minute with no indicator because some moron has decided that stopping and blocking up their lane is the right thing to do) and b) it's tedious. I think I'd like driving just fine if I were the only one on the road. And I think that must be true for just about everybody. So that's reason A for teleportation. Reason B would definitely be travel. How much nicer would it be if I didn't have to waste half an hour in traffic getting to the airport, absolute ages driving around trying to find a parking spot, 90 minutes beforehand to ensure I can check-in before my flight leaves, 2 hours on the plane (waste of time that!) and then more time waiting for luggage and driving home on the other side (and doing that twice in 3 days !) everytime I went to Cape Town for the weekend? (This is especially pertinent since I would love to visit my folks more often than I get to currently!) And then the international options! I'll admit I'm nervous for my trip in October. It must sound almost crazy flying half way around the world for a week. It's going to take me 3 days (date-wise) to get home. This is all because of a) connecting flights and b) time-changes. How devine would it be to no longer have to worry about all that extra wasted time getting to and from some lovely holiday destination. I'd happily put up with the stress of getting a visa everytime if I could teleport almost instantly wherever I wanted to go. Oh, and it goes without saying that in my dream world teleportation would not be of the version where there is one device here and one device there and you have to book a time-slot to use it or something (although I'm sure those would exist too, this would no doubt end up defeating my "waste of time" issues with the current situation). Ideally I'd like one at home, so I can go anywhere on a whim. And it'd be so much more awesome if a "there" device wasn't required. You could just look up the co-ordinates of where you wanted to arrive on Google Maps or something, key them in and off you go. If I were a scientist, this is for-sure what I'd be focussing on right now!

Meh

Went to book club last night which was really nice. Also had a long phone call with my friend in Cape Town, The Bunny Farmer. It helped because lately I've been feeling quite alone. I still have that lonely feeling ... but the sun is coming out and that, I'm sure, will get rid of it for a while. I'm a little sad right now.

But, the awesome news is that we don't yet have any baby bunnies. You have no idea how much of a relief it is each time I check the nests and find them empty. I thought I would love just having one litter, those cute tiny little things. But I'm so worried about them ... that one of the other bunnies will attack the babies or that because the nests are on the higher levels of the 3-storey hutch they might fall. Or more importantly that we'll be perpetuating Rex's cryptorchidism :( Shame poor boy is most unimpressed at being separated and in a hutch alone. Last night when it was hutch-time for them, he ran into the big hutch instantly (usually it takes a while to round any of them up) and hid away. I eventually got him out, but he doesn't understand :( I hate stuff like that ... although I know it's in all their best interests.

Almost Nothing

Am not yet feeling 100% but am definitely feeling a *lot* better this morning. This weekend was very quiet. Was supposed to enjoy birthday drinks with @RubyLetters, but sadly ended up working till 19h30 and was just too exhausted and by that stage the night had brought my unwellness back on (you know, you feel fine during midday hours, but mornings and evenings are the pits!) so we didn't end up going. Instead Varen (who also worked late) brought take-out to my office and sat and ate with me till I was done and then we both headed home and watched some series.

On Saturday we didn't get out of our PJs till about 3pm. It was fantastic :) We watched series the entire morning and most of the afternoon. We let the bunnies run around and they were crazy buggers all day! Since Lily had not yet had any babies by Saturday we let her out with the other two and decided she & Coal could now occupy the big hutch and Rex, who has clearly figured out his role as a boy now (hopefully too little too late!!!) will be in the small hutch for the next few weeks (it takes a month before we can safely say there's no chance of him making the girls pregnant). Unfortunately on Saturday morning Coal went into nesting mode. She was collecting grass in her mouth from the garden and racing back to one of the nest boxes in the hutch with it. She started pulling fur again yesterday evening but so far we don't seem to have any babies (keeping my finger's crossed that these girls are just trying to show their readiness and are not actually preggers!).

Then Varen & I decided it was high time to get up and do something with our Saturday. And we were hungry and I was craving panzerotti :) So I took him to the original Giovanni's (you know the one, on Rivonia Road just passed Sandton Drive). Unfortunately it doesn't seem like non-mall restaurants are open before 6pm in Joeys. So we went and hung out at Sandton for half an hour or so before heading back for dinner. It was exactly what I wanted :) But I'll have to agree with Varen and say they are exorbitantly expensive. But their portion sizes are huge, I've never finished a pasta there. I dunno, me I prefer a smaller portion with a smaller price ... except when it comes to a pasta, cause it makes for great left overs :) Varen wasn't overly impressed with his meal but absolutely *loved* their tiramisu. Me, I don't understand tiramisu.

After that we decided to watch a movie (there's only so much series a person can watch in one day!). Ideally I want to see Ice Age 3 in 3D, which is showing at Sandton but a) was sold out and b) it's the opening weekend ... can you imagine the kiddy-rush? and I don't like to share my cinema with people at the best of times. So instead we headed to our old faithful, Brightwater, because generally there's no one else there. Sadly that was not the case on Saturday night and although our cinema was far from full, the people who were there were in full chetterbox mode. So so so annoying. Please, I beg you, Ster Kinekor & Nu Metro, could you do me a *huge* favour and install headphone jacks into each seat. That way I could bring my own headphones and enjoy a movie on the big screen without interruption. I really think it's the best way forward, how did they not think of this already?! I'm sure I've mentioned it before. Anyhoo, we watched Knowing.

A gripping action-thriller of global proportions about a professor who stumbles upon terrifying predictions about the future and sets out to prevent them from coming true.

In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But, one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead. Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsule's contents and the girl's cryptic message ends up in the hands of young boy. His father, professor John Koestler, makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts - with pinpoint accuracy - the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years.

Okay, I shoulda listened to Mark Kermode. This was utter crap. It started out nicely enough but the ending, whoa, the ending. What a steaming pile. I'm not going to give it away, but really ... okay, I'll give you a giant hint. Remember the way Midnight (cmon folks, his name is M. Night ... what else could it stand for ;) ) messed up Signs? It's *exactly* like that.

On Sunday we went and got our week's grocery shopping out of the way and then BrotherZion came over and we went for lunch at Cappello's in Greenside. The food was nice, Varen ordered particularly well. I had my "ye olde favourite", Chicken Trinchado. Which was average. It was more the way I like it than some of the Cappello's I've been to, but not off-the-wall the best. Cappello's is one "chain" restaurant that I've found to be pretty damn inconsistent meal-wise across their branches. Perhaps it's just the Trinchado?

And then we went home and settled in for the afternoon with some movies while the boons enjoyed an afternoon of run-around time :) They were much more back to their normal selves on Sunday. We watched Leatherheads and then The Bucket List.

Clooney plays Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly, captain of a struggling professional American football team in the 1920s (circa 1925), the Duluth Bulldogs. Dodge is determined to save both his team and pro football in general when the players lose their sponsor and the league is on the brink of collapse. He convinces a college football star, Carter "the Bullet" Rutherford, to join the Bulldogs, hoping to capitalize on Carter's fame as a decorated hero of the First World War (like Alvin York, he single-handedly captured a large group of German soldiers).

In addition to his legendary tales of combat heroism, Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed and skill on the field. As a result of his presence, both the Bulldogs and pro football in general begin to prosper.

This was a fun movie. I enjoy George Clooney and will say that he & Brad Pitt excel in those leather-clad bike-riding scenes ;) Renee Zelwegger was looking her usual pinched self and definitely fits right in in the 1920s. I liked it, even tho it was a football movie ... luckily it wasn't too much of a football movie. I'm fascinated tho, how did American Football and Rugby converge or split ... which was around first? It's so weird if you think about it that they have the same goal-poles. I'm guessing they must've started together as one sport and diverge on the rules. I may have to look it up now :)

Blue-collar mechanic Carter Chambers and billionaire hospital magnate Edward Cole meet for the first time in the hospital after both have been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. They become friends as they undergo their respective treatments. Carter is a gifted amateur historian and family man who had wanted to become a history professor, but in his youth had been "broke, black, and with a baby on the way", and thus never rose above his job at the McCreath body shop. Edward is a four-time divorced healthcare tycoon and cultured loner who enjoys nothing more than tormenting his personal valet/servant, Matthew, whom he calls Thomas. He makes Matthew serve Carter as well as him and orders his employee and doctor to familiarize himself with Carter's health.

Carter begins writing a "bucket list," or things to do before he "kicks the bucket." After hearing he has less than a year, Carter wads it up and tosses it on the floor. Edward finds it the next morning. He urges Carter to do everything on the list (suggesting he add things like skydiving) and offers to finance the trip.

I've been meaning to watch this since it came out, especially since I like to have my own Life List staring me in the face on my blog, reminding me what I'd like to get done. It was fabulously cast and I enjoyed it :)

Other than that, I made my yummy Ostrich Chili Soup for dinner and that was the weekend.

Mr Toppit by Charles Elton

And out of the Darkwood Mr Toppit comes, and he comes not for you, or for me, but for all of us. When The Hayseed Chronicles , an obscure series of children's books, become world-famous, millions of readers debate the significance of that enigmatic last line and the shadowy figure of Mr Toppit who dominates the books. The author, Arthur Hayman, an unsuccessful screenwriter mown down by a concrete truck in Soho, never reaps the benefits of the books' success. The legacy passes to his widow, Martha, and her children - the fragile Rachel, and Luke, reluctantly immortalised as Luke Hayseed, the central character of his father's books. But others want their share, particularly Laurie, the overweight stranger from California, who comforts Arthur as he lies dying, and has a mysterious agenda of her own that changes all their lives.For buried deep in the books lie secrets which threaten to be revealed as the family begins to crumble under the heavy burden of their inheritance. Spanning several decades, from the heyday of the British film industry after the war to the cut-throat world of show business in Los Angeles, Mr Toppit is a riveting tale of the unexpected effects of sudden fame and fortune.

I really liked this book. I can't really say why tho. I don't think I completely "got it" either. I just liked the style and the way it was written. There were all these additional layers that I think just passed me by as I was waiting for some big boot to drop at the end or a twist or a something. There isn't one. It's just a story about lives. About bizarre lives, but just about lives, none the less. I liked it :) Ps. It's another book I got for book club based on the BBC 5Live's Book Reviews with Simon Mayo review.

So Many Things

So Wednesday was completely crazy and left me feeling completely run-down and frazzled.

It started with no less than 3 phone discussions with the vet in the morning. The first one telling me that he'd checked Rex (not yet under sedation) to see if he could feel the undescended testicle and unfortunately he couldn't. Because of this he was fairly certain he'd have to be opened up to find it. So he'd made a few calls to no less than 6 other vets (including a specialist surgeon at Fourways and an exotics specialist at Onderstepoort). No one had ever had to open a Rabbit up and go searching for the undescended testicle because they had all managed to massage it out before. Fabulous news :P I was nervous, but he promised to call me after the procedure was done. (The 2nd phone call was me calling him back to say go ahead with the op after chatting to Varen). Just before 10am the vet called me back again. The procedure was done and they'd found and removed both testicles :) What a relief. The dud turned out to be in the inguinal canal just very high up and only a quarter of the size of the other one. Rex was already waking up and by the time I collected him was eating and drinking and back to normal. Including having chewed out 2 of his stitches already! To date he hasn't chewed out any more of them so I'm counting us lucky (when Bell got spayed, she had taken all the stitches out herself in 2 days!). So good news for Rex :)

After work I headed off to a Dermatologist appointment I'd made ages ago (thanks Boldy Benny for the recommendation :) ) spured on by The Blonde Blogshell's recent experience (can't find the link :( ). It was just supposed to be a fairly routine check-up. I have very dry skin and I don't trust the people trying to sell you things at make-up counters so was just hoping for her to recommend the right products for my skin. The entire experience ended up costing me 2 & half grand :( Half of that to the Derm for removing a mole off my back (and I have to go back in 10days for them to remove the stitches ... me & Rex both now!) the other half was spent on weird & wonderful ointments and lotion and whatnot at the pharmacy based on her "Please Turn Over" long prescription! Sigh. Apparently I have eczema around my eyes which I thought was just plain old dryness. Anyhoo, the stuff has really been helping so far so I guess I can't complain. I just hope my Medical Aid comes thru asap!!

So after racing around, from the Derm to the pharmacy (due to the stitches I wasn't waiting to collect the scrip) to the vet, I drove miles and miles. I honestly felt like a single mom, arriving home and still having to make dinner. Being unable to rely on someone else to fill in the gaps. Varen worked late again on Wednesday night. He worked even later on Thursday night too. On Wednesday evening he arrived home just in time for me to have been out the bath and freezing for 10 minutes waiting for him to re-dress my stitches (being on my back makes them awkward like that :( ). I think it's hard enough to have to do this when you really don't have someone to rely on. A part of me thinks it's a little more soul-destroying to think you're supposed to have someone there to help but when it comes down to it you actually don't. It's more of a rude shock that way, I think. I really wasn't in a good place on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday morning I woke up and felt horrible. Run down and coughing with a throat that felt like my last meal might've been made entirely of glass shards. I was in no state to get up. So I took my first sick day in a year. Yes, I probably could've gone in, it's what I've done on the random few days in the last month that I've felt horrible but my conscience has kicked in and told me I'll feel fine later and I can't justify taking a sick day. Today I was feeling low enough to say "Screw it!". I needed the day to keep warm and recharge and come to terms with all the mounting medication I'm suddenly needing: First all the stuff for my sinus / newly diagnosed low-grade asthma which I ran out of last week but finally got a refill at the Pharmacy on Wednesday (my doc's away and they hadn't loaded the repeat and I lost the scrip!). I think that has also contributed to my worsening cough over the last few days. And now all this skin stuff. I have even been prescribed special soap and face wash and have been told to change my toothpaste (who would've thought it causes huge irritation to sensitive lip-skin!!). It all adds up to leave a person feeling low :(

I spent the day at home doing nothing dressed in my pajamas with layers and scarfs and humidifiers and strepsils. Add to that the fact that Lily started pulling her fur out like a crazy person (video to come)! Crap, it's quite likely that we may now be grandparents to a litter of bunnies in 24 - 48 hours. We'll see (luckily no babies had arrived when I checked on her this morning). It seemed like an awful lot of fur for a "phantom pregnancy". I've had to separate her from the others now because Coal went into the box she was making her nest in and dug out all the hay & fur. I would hate for that to happen when (if?) there are little babies in there! Plus apparently you have to separate the mom & babies from the males. So now she's all on her own in the smaller hutch inside the house (in the spare bathroom so she feels more secluded and protected - I'm really just guessing at what's good for her right now!). I am a little worried about her "un-bonding" with Coal & Rex while being separated. There's already something weird going on with Coal & Rex since Rex was away for the night. I think they're fighting over dominance now that Rex is getting older & bigger and he does still have the remains of testosterone coursing thru his body (can take up to a month after the neutering for that to go). It's not a "romantic" thing (like when Rex was circling Lily) at all, it's a lot more angry, like when we first bonded Coal & him. Except now, half the time it's him chasing her back. I don't know who's winning the war on dominance here.

All in all a crazy but restful day spent at home. Luckily even tho Varen was working late he came home for dinner (now I really need him around to re-dress my wound!) and I made Spinach & Feta free-form pie :) The pie was devine ... imagine a giant Spanakopita (one of my favourite things ever!). I also found time to watch Pursuit of Happyness.

In 1981, in San Francisco, the smart salesman and family man Chris Gardner invests the family savings in Osteo National bone-density scanners, an apparatus twice as expensive as an x-ray machine but with a slightly clearer image. This white elephant financially breaks the family, bringing troubles to his relationship with his wife Linda, who leaves him and moves to New York where she has received a job in a pizza parlor. She wishes to take her son, Christopher, with her but Chris tells her no because they both know that Linda will be unable to take care of him. Without money or a wife, but totally committed to his son Christopher, Chris sees the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter, offering a more promising career at the end of a six month - no salary - training period. There are nineteen other candidates for the one position. Meanwhile, he encounters many challenges and difficulties, including a period of homelessness and troubles with the IRS.

What a mostly depressing movie. I don't know how I would manage being continuously struck down like that when just trying to get by and do the right thing. How do you keep you motivation? Obviously tho, it went all Hollywood in the end. I like Will Smith as an actor. So I'm not sorry I didn't see it at the big screen, but I'm glad I finally watched it.

Also, a quick aside. Mom reminded me yesterday that it was a year since Gum's death. Where has the time gone? I've been thinking about him a lot lately.

A Night at Home

I did manage to get out of here on time yesterday thankfully :) I don't quite know how I managed it, but I think I somehow slipped thru the cracks. I'm putting it on the list of things to be grateful for. It meant that I got to gym yesterday afternoon. Which was disappointing because my measurements are up from last month. Me thinks it's the hot chocolate and general Winter comfort eating. Will have to pay more attention this month. I also got to take Rex to the vet to finally get his neutering done. Was supposed to do that on Monday afternoon. But anyhoo, he's been in my thoughts constantly having to spend the night there (I have tried going to the vet before work but it ends up adding a million hours to my journey in traffic and makes me a grumpy person). Poor thing doesn't know what he's in for. Our vet is going to try the massage in the hopes that if it works Rex will only need a simple neutering. He'll phone me later and let me know if that's successful (will keep you updated on twitter). If it's not, it's more than likely they'll be opening the poor little guy up today and removing it that way. I was gonna wait a few months, but then I thought about the delayed second trauma and I figured it just wasn't worth it for such a cute tiny little creature. So best to just go and get it all done at once. The girls were crazy last night jumping up on the couch with me all night. So cute :)

And Varen was home at a reasonable hour too (before I got back from the vet) so he made dinner for us: Grilled Gammon Steaks with Caramelised Black Pepper Pineapple. Wowee folks it was delish :)

Other than that the evening was quiet. And I woke up feeling awful this morning :( But here I am at work ... sigh.

The Longest Work Day Ever

There really is not much to say this morning. Yesterday was the epitome of uneventful. I woke up and came to work at 7am. I left again at 21h30 or thereabouts. It was a loooong day. I'm helping out on a project that's sposed to be going live tonight (hmmm, we'll see, there's still plenty to be done). I got home, jumped in the bath to warm up and relax and stop my mind spinning for just a second and then it was off to bed again. And here I am at 7am again ... let's hope I get home a bit earlier tonight. I skipped gym yesterday and I'm trying out my friend's new Creativity Gym on Saturday so I really have no idea how I'll fit in my 3 sessions a week at this rate :( Plus I wanted to take Rex to the vet yesterday so that he could have his neutering done today ... oh well. What's one more day, I guess?

Busy Busy Busy

Wow, had quite the busy weekend. But as much fun as that is, it leaves me feeling like I need one extra day on a Monday morning. Hey, at least it wasn't nearly as cold this morning as it was last week!

So what all did I get up to? Went out for a girly-dinner with J9-double0blonde on Friday night, to a little place in Craighall called the Cnr Cafe. I was torn between a soup starter and what I ended up having: Sweet Potato chips with a humous dip - very yummy. J9 had courgette strips in batter that were also good. For mains we both had sage-battered chicken breasts with parma ham on top. It was nice. Good that they have a giant specials board which I hope changes regularly cause their actual menu is not too large.

On Saturday morning I was up early for gym and then Varen & I had a relaxing breakfast at home before heading out. First we invested in our travel insurance (glad that's done) and then headed off to Mellisoo's for our June bloggirls event. It turned out to be a lovely afternoon eating far too much, catching up and watching the rugby with Mellisoo, Cybersass, Angel & Glugs and Sweets :) I will admit I was close to canceling the whole thing on Thursday because a) so few people have been signing up and b) so many people seem to cancel at the last minute. I've always enjoyed my one afternoon a month with these lovely ladies, but lately it feels like no one else can be bothered (aside from Angel, who is always enthusiastic and the only other person besides me, I think, who has only missed one). So yeah, I dunno how much longer it'll be running. But I have been thinking that for the last few months and every time I attend another one I enjoy it so much I decide to do "at least one more" :) So who knows what'll happen. I guess it's just another nail in the coffin of my general attitude towards people (the post I didn't end up writing after my birthday picnic) and how unreliable they tend to be. But I don't want to go into that further now, there's a post boiling under the surface, there has been for absolute ages ... probably since before I started blogging actually ;) But now is not the time.

On Saturday evening Varen & I decided to go and watch The Hangover.

Two days before his wedding, Doug and his three friends drive to Las Vegas for a blow-out bachelor party they'll never forget. But, in fact, when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning, they can't remember a thing. For some reason, they find a tiger in the bathroom and a six-month-old baby in the closet of their suite at Caesar's Palace. The one thing they can't find is Doug. With no clue as to what transpired and little time to spare, the trio must retrace their hazy steps and all their bad decisions in order to figure out where things went wrong and hopefully get Doug back to L.A. in time to walk down the aisle.

Wahahahaha. The trailer was funny. When that happens I'm always nervous that the movie won't actually be anything more that what they've already shown us. this was not one of those times. It's very funny. On the flip side, it's everything that makes me terrified of the boy's heading off for a weekend alone. To clarify when Bean & I were dating and he headed off for a bachelor party, I went out with my friends and focused on the likelyhood that they'd all survive the night and it'd all be fine. I was woken the following morning by a phone call from Bean's mom saying he was in hospital with stitches in the back of his head after picking a drunken fight with a bouncer. Nice. So yes, fears come true. He was fine, he survived and no doubt the boys all think it's a great story and prove that it must've been an amazing bachelors party. Me, it means I have mild panic attacks about what could go wrong when I hear about an upcoming drunken debauched boys event. I could still laugh at this movie, hoping against hope that I wasn't dating one of those guys ;)

Sunday morning started with a disappointing breakfast at Doppio Zero. Varen's favourite breakfast's portion size had shrunk and he was far from amused. My favourite meal was removed entirely. Not an ideal start to the day, but we pushed on. We went and did the grocery shopping and cleaned the bunny hutch (see photo above of them relaxing in their nice newly cleaned hutch). And then J9 came over and the two of us headed off to the Go Organic expo. It wasn't much of what I expected. It was half an expo, the other half was The Women's Show, which didn't really interest me at all. To be fair, none of the expo's I've ever been to have really wowed me. The thing I was really hoping to see, which I've mentioned before and am still avidly waiting to appear in South Africa, wasn't there either :(

After that, the three of us headed off to The Attic for dinner. Oh. My. Word. It was even better than the first time. I didn't really know what I was in the mood for but when I sat down and started looking thru their menu I was preparing to be disappointed, nothing really appealed. So I was all set to have two starters instead (there were at least 4 starts that piqued my fancy!). After we'd ordered our starters, a different waiter came round and told us about 2 other specials they had that evening. One was a beef stew with horseradish mash that was absolutely divine and *exactly* what I had wanted. In fact it's exactly what I thought I was ordering when I'd chosen Goulash at Werner's Bistro and ended up so disappointed! Absolutely divine. Although sadly I had *no* space left for their divine Hot Chocolate pudding :( Another time!

Bait by Nick Brownlee

Ex-Flying Squad cop Jake Moore's career was cut short by a bullet; ten years on, he runs a game fishing business that is about to go to the wall. But old habits die hard, and when cerebral Mombasa detective Daniel Jouma - seemingly the only good policeman in a city where corruption is king - asks for his help in solving a baffling murder case, he cannot help but become involved. The mangled body of a street criminal has been washed up on the beach and a fishing boat skipper and his bait boy have blown up in the water. When Jake and Jouma look closer, they discover that not only are the murders linked, but the conspiracy surrounding them stretches far beyond the reaches of Africa - and has deadly implications for everyone concerned. This gripping crime thriller strips away Kenya's tourist glitz and exposes the country's dark and treacherous underbelly beneath.

I heard about this book on BBC 5Live's Book Reviews with Simon Mayo (a staple of my long list of podcast listens). They raved about it so I added it to my list of Book Club buys. I wasn't especially impressed. They give away the average twist about three quarters of the way thru. It's not particularly fast paced either. I was looking forward to it as I do enjoy things set locally (Kenya, being in Africa falls into semi-locally ... and plus, it's on the list of places I've been, okay?). But no, I wouldn't especially be recommending this one :(

Cryptorchidism in Rabbits

Shoo, there's always some drama in life, isn't there? I read that this week Farrah Fawcett (an original Charlies Angel) died and then heard this morning on the news about Michael Jackson. Not quite on the devastation level as Heath Ledger for me, but the end of an era in both cases, I'll bet. Certainly, I never watched the original Charlies Angels, but you couldn't be a child of the 80s and not recognise the name Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson on the other hand was a huge part of the 80s and early 90s and although I was never much of a fan, there were more than enough who were. I remember classmates of mine going to his HIStory World Tour concert in Cape Town in high school. Like him or not, he was a legend of our childhoods.

And then there's drama a little closer to home. I took Rex off to the vet again yesterday in the hopes that his other testicle might've dropped and we could finally have him neutered (he's 4 months already now!). Sadly it appears he has something called Cryptorchidism. Our vet has never seen it in a Rabbit before, but he spoke to some specialists last night and got back to me this morning, and it definitely sounds like what our boy has. I spoke to the breeder last night as well and it turns out that Rex's daddy also only has one testicle. So does another of his sons from a different litter. And cryptorchidism is genetic. Generally if cryptorchidism is left, the animal (or human, I gather) has a high risk of developing Cancer as they get older.

/* here it may get a little hairy for those of you not especially interested in bunny-testicles ;) */

So we have a few options:
1. Put him under and remove the fully-functional testicle (annoyingly his undescended one might still allow him to get Coal or Lily pregnant tho :( ) and see if they can massage out the other (this is only possible if it's in the inguinal canal).
2. Put him under, remove the fully-functional one and cut him open to remove the undescended on ... this may involve a bit of a search.
3. Don't do anything now and wait a month or two before trying option 1 in the hopes that the undescended one (if in the inguinal canal) will be bigger and therefore easier to massage out.

At the moment (haven't been able to chat to Varen since the vet phoned tho), my vote is for the two-phased approach. Go for option 1 sometime next week (luckly the normal neutering procedure isn't very invasive and they recover quickly), and remove our very immediate chance of a litter of babies arriving in about a month. And then, if they don't manage to get the undescended on at the same time thru massage, in 2 or 3 months send him off to a specialist to see if they have a better chance with the massage and if not, they can open him up and get it out. Obviously this does leave a very little chance he could still get one of the girl's pregnant, but I'm really hoping the massage will work (even if it's only in a few months time) rather than them having to open him up and go searching for it. But I can't leave him 100% unneutered for another few month with 2 girls around ;)

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

The year is 1348 and the first plague victim has reached English shores. Panic erupts around the country and a small band of travellers comes together to outrun the deadly disease, unaware that something far more deadly is - in fact - traveling with them. The ill-assorted company - a scarred trader in holy relics, a conjurer, two musicians, a healer and a deformed storyteller - are all concealing secrets and lies. And at their heart is the strange, cold child - Narigorm - who reads the runes. But as law and order breaks down across the country and the battle for survival becomes ever more fierce, Narigorm mercilessly compels each of her fellow travelers to reveal the truth, and each in turn is driven to a cruel and unnatural death.

This book wasnt' at all what I expected ... I expected it to be more about the plague than the plague merely being a backdrop or setting for the actual story. The story itself is quite bizarre, although I did enjoy it, I wasn't really sure where it was going. There's a sort-of twist at the end that I didn't see coming ... and then it just ends, leaving you not really sure what on earth just happened. Humph. It left me with a bit of a wishy-washy feeling, to be honest. Oh, and what on earth sort of name is Narigorm anyway?

Imagine That!

Last night I went to play Poker with the girls. What a dismal game I had. I was out by 9pm :( But it was a blessing in disguise cause I got to watch a few good hands and then was home by 10. And I was exhausted. I slept really well last night ... even tho I had weird dreams (like a car being hidden in a cupboard, it made perfect sense at the time because it was flipped 90 degrees to stand on it's bumper and bumping into my ex, Bean, who was getting a Madagascan Visa, who thought I wasn't speaking to him when in fact I was shocked speechless by the fact that he was wearing a red & orange suit! I warned you they were weird dreams!).

Varen apparently got home round midnight, I slept right thru that. I haven't even got to see his new toy - for those of you not following @varen on twitter, he got himself a new netbook (which brings the laptops we use to 5 - insane or what?! One is mine, one is his, then there's the new one, and a really old one of his that we use as the media center connected to the TV and the one he uses at work ... but to be fair it doesn't get brought home). Seriously, boys and their gadget's, hey? I can't understand the need for another one ... or at least in my mind a new one means we can move his current one to upgrade the TV on and get rid of the old one ... his mind does *not* work the same at all ;) You know how the cartoons show old men swimming in pools of money ... instead I imagine the updated version: techy guys (like Varen and @saulkza) swimming in pools of gadgetry.

Sign Me Up

Nothing exciting to report today. Last night Varen worked late *again*. I hung out at home with the boons.

Oh yes, yesterday I "popped in" to our local Vodashop. I've been getting these supremely annoying phone calls from their people (actually I don't even think they are Vodacom people ... they are the people Vodacom outsources to ... might be wrong on this tho) telling me it's time to upgrade my contract. Eurgh. Why? Why? Why? I am clearly not Vodacom's stereotypical customer. I've had the same phone number *for my whole life*. And years ago (okay, like 2 maybe?) after a particularly bad experience with a Sony Ericsson V800 (my first foray away from Nokia), which involved taking the phone to be repaired 3 times only to find out they'd actually taken the phone off the market but kept insisting on replacing or repairing mine (seriously, there are times when replacing a phone with and "equal cost" one would be a much smarter move on everybody's part), I got myself an old cheapy Nokia 2100 and never looked back. Okay, so to anyone remotely techy, this must sound like the most peculiar move for someone in the online industry who blogs and tweets etc. as I do. It truly is a low-tech phone, but that's why I loved it. I barely ever had to charge it, I couldn't constantly be harrassed by emails. I didn't care that it didn't have a camera, I have a perfectly lovely digital camera :) Plus, once my old full-price contract (with the SE V800) was up, I switched to the lowest contract I could get, not surprisingly with the exact same Nokia 2100 I was already using. R29 a month. And I sold the new phone to someone. Score. I was happy, my cellular needs were all perfectly met :)

And then Varen got me the Blackberry Curve 8900 for my birthday this year. Which I absolutely *love*. So when upgrading yesterday, I wasn't interested in what phone I could get - a concept the salesman just couldn't get his head around. I wanted the cheapest contract again ... he didn't even believe me that I had a R29 a month contract. No no, he says, these days you get vouchers and gifts with your contract. I don't want that shit. I want to pay less *every month*. It took me browsing thru my contract options to find a suitable one. It's gone up to R49 a month, but I guess it has been 2 years, and I got a lowly Nokia 5000 (anybody wanna buy it off me, it's still it the box? I'll consider all offers).

I don't see why they couldn't just let me keep my old contract on a month-to-month basis. Why all the fuss over a new two-year contract? Anyway, the experience was also hampered by the fact that my sales-guy was handling another customer at the same time ... makes for a truly tedious experience. I also had a look at Blackberry skins ... but they don't have any for the 8900 yet :( Oh well, I probably don't need one anyway :)