Mother City Living

Okay, I know I should totally do a Cape Town catch-up (that's my view as I arrive at work in the mornings, roughly 7am). I have been busy, that is for sure. I have also been in a weird mood (sort of ... sometimes more than others ... I think it was more like I was overly sensitive so it was a little too easy to swing into a down, blue mood).

Anyhoo, all is right in the world again this morning (which is why I've waited till now to write). So what has been keeping me busy?

The Trucker & I went for dinner with Mom&Dad on Monday night. We went to a place called Societi Brasserie in Tokai. The place is stunning decor-wise, but I wasn't overly impressed with the food options. The only chicken dish they offered was a 1/2 chicken (I am not a fan of chicken-on-the-bone). They do have a very nice range of ciders tho, and I had the Everson's that we'd had on Valentine's Day. For dinner I ended up having 2 starters. Their very tasty prawn cocktail and then when everyone else had t heir mains, I had the French Onion Soup (have never had it but have been dying to try a proper one!). It was very yummy! So despite being unimpressed with my options, their food was still very tasty :)



On Tuesday, The Trucker popped thru to Seapoint to have lunch and a walk on the Promenade with me :) And in the evening we had my sister, her husband and all her in-laws over for dinner. It was a little exhausting because I wasn't really in the mood for that many people. Until Tuesday evening, I didn't really get a full night's sleep because The Trucker was being woken by being too hot or because there were mozzies and kept waking me too. But he bought a small fan for our room and things have improved vastly :)

On Wednesday afternoon we popped over the mountain to Noordhoek for a walk (since we're not going to gym while here). It was lovely because the cloud had come in and it was cool (but not cold) and cosy (cause of the low cloud). Perfect beach-walking weather, honestly.

Then, The Trucker & I went to dinner at Royale Eatery with The Divine Miss M and her man. Ah, such a good spot, and one of The Trucker's requests for restaurants-to-visit while we were here (we didn't get to any of the new ones I wanted to try :( ). I had the Miss Piggy burger with extra cheese. Yum. Shoo, I do love their sweet potato fries as well (although maybe not as much as the sweet chili cheese fries at Gourmet Garage ;) ).

Fatal Females by Micki Pistorius

Although they may find it deeply disturbing, many people have a morbid fascination with the notion that women – givers of life – are capable of ruthlessly taking it. Indeed, throughout history the view seems to have prevailed that women are not inclined to commit violent crimes. But Pistorius shows that this is not in fact the case. She examines more than 50 documented cases of South African female killers, categorised according to the nature of their crimes – e.g. love triangles, battered women, poisoners – and she develops a new hypothesis to explain the psychology of that rare woman, the female serial killer.

Factually, I guess, this was pretty interesting. But there was something about the writing style used in this book that really did not capture me. I really struggled thru the last few chapters. It was told in such a matter-of-fact style that I really wasn't connected or gripped at all by the book. I did find it quite interesting that I could not remember a single one of these women or cases (although most were in the late 90s) except Daisy de Melker (which I knew about before).

2 Weddings & a Flight to Cape Town

Mkay, so I'm typing this on my phone from our Cape Town offices. I'm here for a week and my computer has been shipped but hasn't arrived yet. To be fair I'm one of only 3 people actually here so far tho.

So, the weekend. Shoo. It was crazy busy. But first, on Thursday eve I went to dinner at Kong Roast for @WhizBangLouLou's surprise birthday dinner. Her family were all away for her actual birthday so I organised a bunch of her friends to surprise her. We sat waiting at a table with helium balloons and Hello Kitty party hats. The look on her face when she saw us was awesome.

Dinner was good, I had a caramelised pork dish which I'd have again. Although we ended up eating quite late

Then on Friday, I left work at about 12:30 to head home, pack and get all dolled up for The Trucker's friend's wedding at 3pm.

Shoo, we only left at about 11pm, it was a long day. But a nice wedding :)

On Saturday we were up & left the house a little late (in retrospect). I'm usually compulsively on time/eary, but The Trucker assured me we'd be at Lanseria with enough time.

Turns out Lanseria is not what it used to be ... There are now 3 airlines flying out of there and the place is chaos (we didn't realise it was school holidays!). We arrived half an hour before our flight but they wouldn't let us check-in. Luckily there was a half hour later flight which we made by the skin of our teeth!

I managed to calm down on the flight, I don't deal well with those kinds of situations. The Trucker remains far too calm. But we made it. Unfortunately once we arrived in CT I started panic-ing again. We had to get from the airport to my mom's house (half hour drive), get showered & dressed and collect my gran in an hour to get to The Wild Fig in time for The Peeb's midday wedding.

Shoo. It was crazy. But we made it and then I could calm down for real (and for the rest of our time here, hopefully :) ). The restaurant made for a lovely venue and it was great catching up with family & friends. Good to meet the groom's family who'd come out from America.

It was a lovely lovely afternoon. The Peeb & her hubby looked happier than I've ever seen them :) He said some lovely things in his speech and I think they have an awesome future to look forward to together! Seriously, these two are pretty much perfect for each other :)

The Trucker & I headed home for a nap before a bunch of us went over to my dad's for the evening and a light dinner.

Sunday was way more relaxed! We woke up late, had breakfast at home with my mom and then we went to Noordhoek for a walk on Long Beach. Then we took Chappies over to Hout Bay for some lunch at The Lookout Deck. Don't recommend their sushi, their chef is very heavy-handed with the mayo ... Which usually I like, but not when it's all you can taste!

We got ourselves a soft-serve ice-cream and walked along the docks before heading home thru Constantia.

We relaxed at home the rest of the afternoon.

The Weirdness Continues

Yeah okay, it's been a bit of a weird week still ... but I'm back to my good mood again this morning :)

I think I had a quiet Monday evening at home and on Tuesday went to SCM. The Trucker had an Action Cricket game and came over afterwards. He left at about 6am on Wednesday. He spent yesterday's public holiday driving around the country delivering computers and surprisingly made it home in very good time at around 9pm.

I won't lie, I was a little annoyed that the boy seems to have no concept of Public Holidays. Although he did offer that I could join him ... that wasn't exactly what I had in mind for my much needed day off. I had a lazy morning, sleeping in, eating breakfast at home while the bunnies ran. I headed off to do some shopping and then CollegeInstructor came over for a briefing on the house (he's house & bunny sitting for me while we're in Cape Town next week) and then we went for a lovely lunch at The Greek Sizzler - I was craving that Small Platter to share that we'd had on The Trucker's birthday.

And then I pretty much had a Bones marathon for the afternoon (It was my all-time favourite TV show, but I'm not so sure about this new plot-direction in Season 7). Which was perfect since a storm came over and it was lovely. I went over to The Trucker's after he got home, so I did get to see him a little yesterday.

Am having a weird separation anxiety week. Which is odd and I've been unsuccessfully trying to rationalise my way out of it (since we'll be together in Cape Town all of next week, so I know he's crazy busy trying to get lots done before that). But sometimes my brain goes funny and I can't tell the difference over bbm and the phone if he's busy-for-real or if he's avoiding me. As soon as I see him in real life I can see the honesty of how busy he really is. I guess it's a little throw-back from all those late-nights Varen worked which were probably more likely spent with his now-wife.

Anyhoo. I'm much better now and back to blissful happiness and bursting with love for this boy (vomit, I know ... but sometimes it's true and it should be celebrated!)

Blue Monday

I'm a little blue this Monday morning. It was a bit of a weird weekend. On Friday evening The Trucker was off bachelor-partying while @WhizBangLouLou came to keep me company and distract me (my over active imagination does not handle bachelor parties well ...) We ordered indian take-out, shared a bottle of wine and had a good evening :)

The Trucker was also a fabulous boyfriend-at-a-bachelors. He messaged me during the eve (just before I went to bed) and then I woke up to find his "Home safe" message waiting for me too. #sigh So yeah, I think the boys had a good evening, they certainly had a lot to drink but thankfully had rented a bus to take them between pubs & home again.

It took him a while to get going on Saturday morning. I was up early, cleaning the bunny hutch and getting some admin done. Eventually we met up at Clearwater for lunch ... and some more work admin for him Don't ask me how but we managed to fit 10 printers in to a Citroen C2 & a Renault Clio!

We had a much needed nap in the afternoon (I passed out as well, which I found surprising) and then headed back to his place for dinner and to watch Friends with Benefits.

It was quite a fun movie and I think just the sort of light-hearted thing we were in the mood for.

On Sunday morning we took his bike out for a quick ride to breakfast at Doppio Zero and then home. Then he headed to cricket and I found myself in a very peculiar mood. you know the one. The one where you want to do something but you don't know what and you feel like you're wasting a perfectly beautiful day and should be doing something awesome because it's weekend. Pretty much at a loose-end I guess. It happens to me sometimes on weekends. I seem to fill up my week-evenings with things and then my weekends are these gaping holes of not really doing much of anything. And every now-and-again it gets me down. I keep reminding myself that we're about to have 2 busy weekends in a row and I should be appreciating the downtime ... but it didn't work.

So when The Trucker got home, I went over to his house and watched The Help while he installed 17 laptops. That did help my mood a bit.

I enjoyed the movie. I didn't really get why Viola Davis was the Oscar favourite for it tho ... I far preferred the Minny Jackson character. But still I am very glad I finally watched it :)

I headed home after to get started on dinner and The Trucker came over when he was done (so handy living so close, I'll tell you!). I attempted the Petite Lasagnas I found on Pinterest.

These were not what I would call a success. They weren't a dismal failure either tho ... I just think I either filled the first layer too full. Or our wonton wrappers aren't quite the same because they were quite tricky to get out (I was expecting it to be more like the Poppadum cups). I bought the largest size of wonton wrapper I could get (about R20 for 60 at the Asian Supermarket in the Buzz Center) and they were still quite small when I pressed the first layer into the muffin tray. I dunno. I doubt I'll be attempting them again ... Now what will I do with all these wonton wrappers ?!

I ended the weekend in a very weird mood. I felt ill. That nervous anxiety kinda ill. I dunno what was causing it, but I suspect that's why I'm still a bit blue this morning. Nothing is wrong, which makes it even more annoying. There is a much-needed public holiday this week (which The Trucker will be working thru :( ) and we're off to a wedding on Friday and another on Saturday with a flight to Cape Town in between. Followed by a much anticipated week in Cape Town - yay :) See, no reason at all. #sigh I guess sometimes life is like that.

Valentines Day 2.0

Ah. I am back to feeling over-flowing with love and happiness. Seriously folks, I don't remember ever being this happy or just feeling all round good and upbeat for so long and consistently ever before ... It's a lovely thing :) I'm full to bursting.

So, it's been another busy busy week. On Monday evening I made some Woolies sorbet between wafer biscuits for dessert and headed off to @louisabouwer's for dinner. My word, Nicola has really grown up since I last say her. Her hair is long and so curly, and she's completely adorable. She even tried teaching me some Afrikaans (because I answered in English when she asked me about the colours of her pencils ... she was determined I should say it in Afrikaans - haha). We had a lovely dinner and catch-up :)

On Tuesday evening I went to SCM as usual. And The Trucker came over after he'd played Action Cricket. #sigh this was one of those nights where we stay up chatting into the night instead of going to sleep at a reasonable hour. And then, again, I just couldn't get to sleep properly. Seriously, that makes it once a week I've had a night like that for the last 3 weeks. I am no longer amused.

And on Wednesday, I got a surprise at work ... which The Trucker annoyingly teased me about the night before - I am no good with surprises. Well, I am fine if I don't know there is going to be one. But don't dangle some unknown information in front of me and refuse to say any more! Anyway, he had a gorgeous bunch of red roses delivered to my office :D And all the card said was "Because it's not 14th February xxx". Awe.

Seriously, how completely unexpected and what an awesome and lovely idea :) And he went flat-out. He came over and cooked an amazing dinner for me (I was banned from the kitchen). We had prawns in green curry with noodles. It was *amazing* (managed to save some for lunch today - yay!). I couldn't believe he had never made it before! And then there was apple crumble (store-bought) for dessert. It was a lovely evening. I adore this boy.

Time is Flying

Meh, it was a bit of a weird weekend ... so I'm around average on the enthusiasm scales this Monday morning.

On Friday night, The Trucker was supposed to be at a bachelor party (which was orig sposed to be on the weekend of his birthday). But yet again it was postponed (I dunno how any of these things get organised when left to 3 boys). I'd already made plans with my friends for the evening tho. So I headed off to Clearwater for some shoe shopping & dinner with @Arkwife & @Rubyletters. It was a lovely afternoon, although I was definitely drained and quite over shopping by the time we'd finished the bottom floor. Luckily @Arkwife & I had both found the shoes we needed (me for The Peeb's wedding ... to match my new dress). We had dinner at Juicy Lucy and I managed to get home thru a massive storm by 8pm. The Trucker came over later because he'd just been working at home.

On Saturday morning he left early to go meet the groom to go outfit shopping and I headed to Hyde Park to collect my new Birkenstocks. I bought my first pair back when I first moved to Joburg, so about 7.5yrs ago now and finally I realised they really do need replacing! But boy have they lasted. And I adore my new shiny ones :) After that I met up with @jarredcinman at Life for a coffee.

I popped in at the Exclusive Books Mega Warehouse sale on my way home, but I breezed in and out quite quickly. I don't enjoy it at all now that it is so crowded and I especially didn't like that the books weren't on shelves this time (where their spines are all facing you and you can easily see past the people crowding around, this time they were all on tables so you really had to try and squeeze past people to see clearly). I am not sure I will even bother next time.

The Trucker was done with the shopping by the time I got back so we headed to Clearwater to get some shopping he needed to do for work done. We had a lazy afternoon and then headed to Assaggi for dinner. One of the guys at work had recommended it to me and we were at a bit of a loose end on Saturday eve. It was quite nice :) We shared their Zucchini fries to start (yum!). And then I had their spinach cannelloni. I enjoyed it. It is in a bit of a weird center tho, but was packed on Saturday night (we still managed to get a booking for two at about 4pm tho).

On Sunday we went for a walk at Golden Harvest Park and then made breakfast together at home. Then he headed off to do some admin and play cricket while I went and did some grocery shopping - am also very excited because I bought some wonton wrappers, which I've been trying to find to make a recipe I found via Pinterest: Petite Lasagnas.

Later in the evening I went over to The Trucker's for dinner (he made Philly Cheese Steak Rolls - that's Cheese Steak Rolls which are apparently famous in Philadelphia, not made with Philadelphia Cream Cheese ... I was confused for a while). They were delish, but far too huge for me. And then we watched Machine Gun Preacher.

Shoo, not a light movie. There was more than one occasion I averted my eyes from what was going on on-screen. The movie itself, I suppose, is very good. It lost me a little with all the religious ferver. Seems a lot of movies these days are steeped in overly religious tones (we gave up watching The Tree of Life because of similar reasons in the first 15 minutes or so).

Anyway, aside from that, it was also hard to watch because of all the Kony 2012 stuff that is plastering my Facebook feed. We finally watched the video that's been posted and while I hope they stop Kony, it did make us wonder what came first ... this movie? Anyway, it's amazing what social media is doing for this cause in a way that has never been achieved before, I believe.

It's Been a Busy Week

Finally, it's Friday! It's been a busy week.

Monday was my nice quiet night at home. On Tuesday I went to SCM Dinner. On Wednesday it was Bookclub. And then last night The Trucker & I went out for dinner. See, busy. Add to that the fact that I hardly slept on Wednesday night and I am pretty ready for this weekend.

Work is also annoying lately. My schedule is empty which means I get co-opted onto all these annoying little things no one wants to do. I hate being in that stage. I like being stuck in on a project.

The Trucker & I tried Lucky Moo for dinner last night because he's never been, and it's been ages since I last have. The food was, as usual, delish. Wasn't very impressed with the dim sum (although he loved it) ... or the fact that we ordered it as a starter and it arrived after our mains. Maybe I was just too full already. I had my fave, the Kung Pao Chicken. We shared their chocolate & banana spring rolls for dessert. They are delish. So yeah, the food was great, the service was useless. Stick with this for take-out (unfortunately for us, it probably would've been cold if we'd headed home to eat).

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

In 1886, a mysterious travelling circus becomes an international sensation. Open only at night, constructed entirely in black and white, Le Cirque des Reves delights all who wander its circular paths and warm themselves at its bonfire. Although there are acrobats, fortune-tellers and contortionists, the Circus of Dreams is no conventional spectacle. Some tents contain clouds, some ice. The circus seems almost to cast a spell over its aficionados, who call themselves the reveurs - the dreamers. At the heart of the story is the tangled relationship between two young magicians, Celia, the enchanter's daughter, and Marco, the sorcerer's apprentice. At the behest of their shadowy masters, they find themselves locked in a deadly contest, forced to test the very limits of the imagination, and of their love...A fabulous, fin-de-siecle feast for the senses and a life-affirming love story, The Night Circus is a captivating novel that will make the real world seem fantastical and a fantasy world real.

I liked this book. It's imaginative and fantastical. But I didn't read it fast enough ... that might sound weird but most good books benefit from regular reading and from reading more than one or two pages at a time for you to become properly entranced by them. I didn't give this that time till the last few days, so I do feel like I missed out on some of it's effect. The other thing I struggled with in this book (but not prohibitively) was that it's out of sequence. But the sequence wasn't really made clear enough for me until the end when they reference an event in the last chapter that happened a year before. Sure, they print the date in a tiny font at the start of each chapter, but I never really pay much attention to the chapter headings (books so rarely have them anyway), so although I was aware that they were dated, I missed that they weren't sequential completely. I'm not sure why they weren't, it seemed a bit like a wasted writing-tool. But other than those minor things, this is definitely worth a read :)

Health Update

Mkay so it hasn't been a very busy weekend, and I'm not bouncing off the walls filled with love and awe this morning either, but things are still pretty good.

I went to the Doc on Friday afternoon. Not my normal doc, a homeopath, but The Trucker's doc. When we both got sick a few weeks ago and I refused to go to a doctor (because my faith in what they can do for coughs & sneezes is non-existant), I promised I'd go to discuss my general health-issues. Let me explain, I don't think I'm sick. And I'm actually not. But I probably cough and sneeze *a lot* more than the average person. Me, I don't really notice, it's been this way for years, to me it is just a normal day. But The Trucker pointed out it was not and I agreed to give it a try. I have before with no long-term solution, but he swears by his doc. And after Friday, I'm feeling quite positive myself.

So it turns out that my lung function is worse than I thought. I knew it was below average, I didn't realise it was functioning at 2/3rds capacity (or something). Basically it's those little blow-tests ... and the highest I could get the marker to go was 450. For my age I should be getting over 600. I have asthma. Proper asthma apparently, not just the low-grade asthma I was told about before.

I also have allergies. Nothing specific enough for them to be able to identify, nothing that on it's own will kick the reaction above my tolerance point, just lots of things (probably, dust, pollen grasses etc.) that collectively push it over. So I am now on an asthma inhaler twice a day for a month (the doc is trying to get my lungs up to normal in the next month just so I can see how life is supposed to be) (not a normal inhaler, one of these weird round powder ones with a counter). I am also on an anti-histamine (or reactor-inhibitor or something) every evening (for the allergies). And nasules, which I hate. Apparently this could also cure the permanent dark rings around my eyes ... after not having a single doctor in my entire life able to tell me what causes it or how to cure it, this one apparently can. Aside from the 2 mucus sinuses we have on either side of our nose (below our cheekbones), we have a blood sinus above our nose, between our eyes in front of our brain (apparently) and mine is not draining, which is causing the rings. Clearing the permanent allergic reaction should apparently clear this and therefore get rid of the rings.

I'll admit I'm coughing less in the mornings and haven't had any full-on coughing attacks since I started on the meds. I'm still blowing my nose ... it's day 3, so there is still a while to go tho ... I remain hopeful.

Anyway, on Friday night we went for dinner with DJMike & his girlf at our now traditional spot, Cafe Mexicho. On Saturday, The Trucker was up early and off to work, I didn't see him again till 7pm.

I had a lazy morning and went dress shopping for The Peeb's wedding. Luckily I found something I really like, fits really nicely and I should be able to use more than just once :) Now to find shoes - sigh. I am so much better at shopping for house stuff! And then I fell asleep for 2hrs. That is completely unlike me! Even when I am tired, even when The Trucker is lying napping next to me, I usually struggle to fall asleep during the day. I was a little worried it was the anti-histamines, which are supposed to not have whatever makes you drowsy in them ... I was fine yest, so hopefully was just a once-off :)

Then we had a quiet Saturday evening, we went out for sushi at a new spot at Appleby's Center. I wasn't very impressed, honestly. I won't be suggesting we go back there again.

On Sunday we went out for breakfast at Mugg&Bean and did some shopping before he headed off to work again. Then I met up with him to watch his cricket game and afterwards we went for a late afternoon walk. He worked from home for the rest of the evening while I made burgers for dinner and watched series.

It was a rather quiet weekend, really.

Pretty Much Perfect

Another lovely week in progress over here. I'll say it again, life is good and full. Warm & Fuzzies. Haha.

Monday was a nice quiet uneventful evening at home. On Tuesday I finally made it back to a SCM Dinner (have missed it for 2 weeks). It was really nice to see everyone again.

And then last night I took The trucker out for a belated birthday dinner (since there really wasn't time on the weekend). Originally I'd told him to pick a restaurant, being his birthday and all. But then inspiration struck and I decided on a surprise restaurant instead. I don't think he minded at all since he has had quiet the chaotic week (he got the new Pajero on Tuesday ... and is still very upset about saying goodbye to his bmw).

I saw the car for the first time last night and I kinda totally get it. It's gonna be awesome and I can't wait for us to take it to Namibia in April/May, but it is big and not nearly as subtle as the bmw. Although for someone who has owned as many cars as he has (and he had this bmw longer than any other car he's ever owned, I think ... since he made it over the 1yr mark!) I didn't think he'd be this fussed about it. On the plus side it has already out-lasted the 24hour Toureg (now there is a story - haha!)

Anyway, it's kinda hard to surprise someone with a destination when they are driving, but still. Off we headed for dinner at DW11-13. We'd tried to go once before but they were fully booked, so neither of us had been before.

I won't lie, this is not a cheap night out (the starters are all around R100). But we really enjoyed the food :) We shared a starter, their 'chili and ginger infused melon, buffalo mozzarella, parma ham, chiffonade rocket, de boeren extra virgin olive oil, balsamic reduction'. The melon was really good and I'm a huge fan of buffalo mozzarella :) The Trucker had the fillet for mains (which he loved!) and I had their Scottish Salmon (which I've so missed since F!sh closed down :( ) which was spot on and perfect.

We did the wine teasers with our main course, which I really like the idea of. And then somehow managed to find space for dessert. I had their 'chocolate marquise, rose water ice-cream, chocolate soil, candy floss, caramel sauce' - what a novelty the candy floss was :) And The Trucker had their 'peanut butter parfait, cherry sorbet, warm cherry sauce, red wine poached cherries, hazelnut tuille'.

All in all a pretty perfect dinner out, honestly. I know some people struggle with the portion sizes (and for the price it probably doesn't seem like enough), but it was enough for me.

Am super glad I did my personal training measurements before dinner tho :) And in very exciting news, I am apparently down 3% body fat! Whoop. Although I'm still not convinced since I can't feel all these lost centimetres in my clothes yet ...

In annoying news tho, we found out yesterday that we will be missing Russell Peters' show in South Africa :( We'll be in CT when he is in Joburg and vice versa .... pfft. But we do have so much lined up already :)

The Boyf's Birthday Weekend

Another good weekend, another Monday starting out feeling all full of the wonderfulness of life. Life really is good at the moment <3

On Friday night The Trucker came over and we had a quiet evening at home. I watched The Iron Lady, he got bored and read a book. I won't go so far as to say I loved it, I will be looking Margaret Thatcher up on Wikipedia a little later tho for more background info. And I definitely think Meryl Streep deserved that Oscar, she was unbelievably brilliant in the role! Seriously. (Although I haven't watched the Help yet). Anyway, the film was generally boring tho. I guess because I don't really know what all happened at the time really. I suppose it'll be more interesting for an older generation? Hard to say.

On Saturday The Trucker & I took a drive out to Villiers for breakfast with his Mom & Gran (it's about the half-way mark). That was a nice start to the day and afterwards we did a little shopping and then relaxed at home till it was time to head out for dinner for his birthday. He invited a bunch of friends to The Greek Sizzler. I don't think I've been there before - well, I might've once but it would've been a very very long time ago. Anyway, I was surprised to find he didn't need a booking on a Saturday night and we were probably about 15 people. The Trucker & I started with a small platter to share as a starter. I quite liked it :) And we both had the Halloumi & Chicken Pita for our mains (not too big which was perfect after that starter). But it is not a pita like I was expecting at all. I was expecting something more like and Anat Pita ... but this was just Halloumi & Chicken along with some tomato and peppadew rolled inside a pita like a wrap.

After that we headed to a pool bar for a couple of games where the boys showed off some impressive  skill. And then 4 of us headed to Red Room to end the evening. Sadly it's nothing like I remember it back when I was going almost every weekend (probably that's 2yrs ago now! Sheesh). But we did have a good time and I drove us home at about 02:30am.

We slept late-ish and then The Trucker opened my gift. He loved it. So did I (I hadn't peeked either!). He knew what he was getting because it was something on his Xmas list. I used Print Wild and had one of the photos I'd taken on our Botswana trip printed on canvas (900x400). It looks amazing!

Then we headed off to breakfast with his Sister & niece. He went and played cricket in the afternoon while I got a bunch of admin done. And then he came over for dinner. Hopefully I'll get to take him out for a special dinner this week sometime, we weren't really in the mood last night.

Survived

Right, blogging. There isn't much to tell this week, honestly. Worked late on Tuesday eve, so missed @clairam's birthday SCM Dinner :( The Trucker came over and made me dinner on Wednesday night and then we proceeded to have a mammoth disagreement, but all is back to fine and lovelyness now :) He popped in last night to surprise me, which was very sweet. We're not very good at arguing, sadly. He has a flight response when he feels under attack. He just shuts down, does not want to talk and leaves. Me, I need to talk about the issue and get it resolved and then I'll be fine. If I don't it won't go away and I will end up an emotional wreck. So yeah, thank goodness this time we kept talking and got everything back to happy early yesterday morning. I adore this boy. Even when he drives me crazy.

And that is about as exciting as my week has been ... But it is The Trucker's birthday on Sunday. Not that that matter seems of any relevance to him. So yeah, I'm open to any awesome birthday special things you can think of to suggest :) I did consider making him breakfast on Sunday ... but I dunno. Haha, how ridiculous that I was so much better prepared for valentines Day :P

How To ... Make an Awesome Photo Wall

So, it has been a long time coming (more than 2 years now), but my photo wall is officially up and I thought I'd write a proper post about the process.

I'll admit when I first started collecting the frames, which started long before I thought about what photos would fill them, I also didn't give much thought to the process of getting them up on the wall. Luckily when I was almost done, I found something on pinterest showing me the perfect solution to this.

First I had planned where on my new wall the photos would go. This is the entrance wall in my new house. The electrics box is hidden behind the front door when it's opened and this wall leads all the way thru into the lounge. The kitchen is directly opposite, so some of the photo are now visible from just about everywhere in the house (except, obviously if you're actually inside either of the bedrooms or bathroom). I left the string up, demarcating the area for quite some time, just getting used to the space (there was another potential wall for the photos to go, but this turned out to be the perfect fit).



The trick to doing this is buying a few rolls of brown paper from any stationary store. Then you take all your frames and trace them onto the brown paper and cut them out. I wrote on the front what the photo was, if it was colour or black&white and what colour the frame was too (so I could tell what they were for because I have 34 frames!). Then I place the paper cut-out against the back of the frame and used a permanent marker to trace where the keyhole was (most of my frames had keyholes for hanging), so that I could see thru the brown paper where to drill the nail. This is quite a tedious process, I won't lie.

Then I started trying to place my cut-outs on the wall with prestik. Although this felt like instant gratification (seeing the space my frames would occupy), it turned out to be a completely ineffective start. I couldn't place them easily and ended up with some weird gaps. Also they were all brown paper so it was harder to visualise the end result that I thought.

My next solution was to mark out the exact same space on the wall, on my lounge floor and place the actual frames. This turned out to be a much better solution, I could easily visualise the end result because I was looking at the actual frames with their photos. And obviously placing the tangible frames made moving them around and fitting them together an easier process to get right and have fewer gaps (with mismatched frames, it's virtually impossible to have no gaps at all).



Once all the frames were placed on the floor, I covered them with their brown-paper cut-outs. This was handy to ensure they all actually had markers (3 didn't) and it helped me take them in order as I started to actually re-create the layout on the wall.





Then I stuck them all to the wall with prestik and The Trucker came over with his handy drill and started drilling the nails as per the markers. It was a close to perfect process (the only glitch being a pipe we found and had to shift one of the frames slightly ... no one else will probably notice it). We hung as we drilled in a top to bottom approach (because once the nail is in and the brown paper has been unstuck, it's very hard to remember the placement (unless you did it all in one go while your frames were still placed on the floor, but this process happened over a few days for me)



I absolutely *love* the end result. I've gotten used to it now, but I couldn't stop staring for the first few days. I've chosen family photos, it's become a sort of family-tree wall :) The tricky part, of course, will be adding to the wall (like with The Peeb's wedding photo later this year), which is part of why I waited till I had so many frames before hanging it in the first place (that and I never lived in my own home so it seemed silly to put the effort into somewhere temporary before now). I think it'll be okay tho, the edges are uneven and there is still space on the lounge side of the wall ... Sadly tho, it's tricky to photograph effectively (the one below was taken in the evening after we'd finished hanging them), but this should give you a good idea :) I haven't had anyone over (except The Trucker and my Mom & The Peeb) since it went up tho, am dying to see how people interact with it ... some of the photos are really small and you have to really look at each one individually, if you're interested.

Visitors

Wow. That weekend just *flew* by! Seriously, I just about blinked and it was over. Mom and The Peeb flew up late on Friday night (The Trucker & I picked them up at 10pm after an evening of watching series while he worked at home). Was awesome to see them, and to try and show off my house in the dark - haha.

Anyhoo, on Saturday I woke up early (was still coughing up a storm from last week, luckily seem better today) and sat outside reading watching the bunnies waiting for them to wake up. Had a bit of a cat incident on Saturday morning which left the bunnies pretty spooked! This does not make me happy. Luckily it hasn't been back.

We had a lazy morning at home, with some yummy breakfast and then it was off to Mangwanani Spa for the Afternoon Half Day Spa Package. Let me point out here that this really was a treat for us three, none of us are really pamper types, we probably rarely spoil ourselves like this usually and certainly have never done something like this together. But since I am missing any potential pre-wedding stuff for The Peeb, it seemed like an awesome opportunity. And it was lovely.

I was surprised at how packed the place was, but I suppose it was the post-valentines weekend. The light lunch was tasty and the treatments were all pretty good. There was a lot of dozing going on! Haha. I really quite like it as a venue. You feel like you are out in the middle of the country or something, I think it's been nicely designed :)

We finished up at about 5pm and headed home. The Trucker met us a little later and we headed off to dinner at Cafe del Sol. I've been wanting to go back here for a while now and this was the perfect opportunity. Shoo, the food was so good (Admittedly I ordered exactly what I had last time - it was superb). Such a nice evening :)

On Sunday it was Mom's birthday and the 4 of us headed off to Market on Main. I was a little disappointed.Although I was absolutely enthralled the first time we went, this time it fell rather short of the Neighbourhood Goods Market we'd been to last Saturday. The first time we went, Neighbourhood goods had yet to actually start up, I think. There were definitely fewer stalls and fewer people. There was a lot less on offer that appealed for breakfast than there was last weekend at Neighbourhood Goods. Oh well, it was still good to go and taste all sorts of things.

In the afternoon The Mom and I popped out to do a little more shopping, I found something I thought would be perfect for her bday gift but she wasn't so sure so we went hunting for an alternative ... sadly we haven't yet found the perfect thing :(

And then there was some more relaxing before The Trucker came back to take them to the airport with me again. Shew. Seriously, it flew by!

Fallen by Karin Slaughter

On an ordinary spring day, Special Agent Faith Mitchell of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation returns home to a nightmare. Expecting to find her mother minding Faith's new baby daughter Emma, she is horrified to discover Emma locked in the shed, her mother's safe open, her gun missing and a trail of blood to the front door. Without waiting for back-up, Faith enters the house to a scene of carnage. It has been torn apart and a man lies dead in a pool of blood. She stumbles across two more intruders, and within minutes they too are shot dead. And when the Atlanta police force turns up, Faith has some difficult questions to answer. But she has some desperate questions of her own. What were the killers searching for? Ex-Atlanta police chief Evelyn Mitchell was once under investigation by Faith's partner Will Trent. Is her mother directly involved this time, and where is she now? With Faith suspended from duty, Will, together with the help of Dr Sara Linton, must piece together the fragments of a brutal and complicated case - and catch a deeply troubled and vicious murderer with only one thing on his mind. To keep on killing until the truth is finally revealed...

I kind of enjoyed this one ... I think all Crime stories will fall a little flat after The Whisperer for a while. Haha. There was an okay twist in this one. But I wasn't exactly gripped.

Be My Valentine

Well, I started this post by reading thru all the past Valentines posts (or lack thereof) on my blog ... It certainly highlights the truth of the matter that Valentines Day is really not right up there on my list of things to do. It is not a major event for me, by any stretch of the imagination. And as I said last year, the only really vivid one that sticks with me is a picnic I'd had with Bean ... perhaps it's because I have photos from that evening?

Anyway, this year, I'm with The Trucker. And I wanted to do something special for us. He made it clear upfront he doesn't "do" Valentines Day. Which I'm totally okay with (I'm not big on the card & gift bit either, flowers would've been nice tho ;) ) as long as he agreed to dinner with me. He seemed a little nervous it might actually be out at a restaurant, but I do NOT want that sort of chaos or pressure. Besides, we eat out plenty the rest of the time. That wouldn't make it special.



I had lots of really simple plans that came together absolutely perfectly and the evening was pure bliss. Seriously, things are going so well at the moment and life is so awesome (aside from the fact that I'm still not feeling 100%), that I'm a little nervous for the down that might be coming ... but that aside, I am loving life right now <3

So I pictured a picnic dinner in my little garden with candles in brown-paper bags and red lindt balls and chocolate hearts strung from the trees. It worked so well. And the weather was perfect :)

We drank champagne (and the ciders we'd bought at the neighbourhood goods market on Saturday) and ate heart-shaped watermelon for starters (an awesome idea I saw on Pinterest!). Dinner was simple: Tuna Salad with some ciabatta (I even got him olive ciabatta, which shows how much I care because I despise the stuff! Haha). And then dessert was Berry Sorbet on Wafer biscuits. Dessert didn't quite turn out how I'd planned (was supposed to demo it on Monday night for @louisabouwer, but that never happened :( ).

We sat and chatted outside all evening. Spending some time planning our Vietnam holiday (hopefully Aug/Sept) and discussing the last little details for our April/May River Rafting, Namibia & Kgalagadi trip :)

I won't lie, it was about as perfect as it gets *gush*

A Little Bit Sick

Thursday was quiet, just what I needed. Cause on Friday The Trucker and I got all dressed up and went to watch The Phantom of the Opera at Monte. It is one of my all-time favourite musicals, I saw it in London back in January 1998 and I own the cd. Of course, I know the songs by heart. Strangely it's one of only 2 musicals The Trucker will agree to watching (luckily the other is Rocky Horror, but I have my heart set on forcing him to watch Moulin Rouge too - haha).

Anyway, I wore my Sass Designs dress and off we went. I was ready to be awed, and I think that was a problem. Don't misunderstand, I did enjoy it, but I wasn't blown away. The niggly things: Carlotta's voice was far too high-pitched for me and during the medleys she drowned everyone else out (I think we had Hanlee Louw) and Christine, although her voice was amazing, she looked too awkward, gangly and pointy for me (we had Magdalene Minnaar) ... I can't explain it exactly. The highlights: The set for the boat scene was spectacular, I thought. And no one could fault the guy playing The Phantom, he was spot-on, perfect.

All in all a good night out and I'd recommend it :)

On Saturday we decided to go try out the Neighbourhood Goods market for the first time. Wow, it is truly an awesome little spot. Initially it's all a little overwhelming, crowded with so many stalls with so many options of things to try. We did an initial wander around looking at everything, trying to decide what to settle on for breakfast. We also took a wander upstairs but that is more clothing / craft stuff which I find less appealing. Downstairs we decided on these Seasonal Breakfast pancake type things. They were amazing!! It'll be hard not to have them again, but there are so many other things to try :) We bought some Spanish chorizo and pesto to make pasta for dinner (we had it on Sunday eve with some avo and it was delish!). We bought some flavoured chips, some samoosas (not great) and some cider to take home too. And we ended our wanderings with a yummy waffle to share (and I took home a divine pumpkin & feta mini-quiche for lunch - yumyum). Couldn't believe we were there for only an hour ... and we left with only R5 left in our wallets - no wonder they make you pay for parking upfront! We'll be back.

In the afternoon, The Trucker had to go work so I faffed around at home. I bought some new plants for the garden and started designing my new kitchen :) Later we were supposed to go to a movie, but he was a bit exhausted so we stayed in and watched series. Saturday was a perfect and superb day <3

He was up early on Sunday morning to head back to work and then to cricket. I faffed around and did my grocery shopping and not much of anything, really. He came over after cricket and we had our delish pasta dinner and watched more series.

In other news, here is the update on my MTN saga. So I finally got my 3G activated thru their call-center on Thursday. Should be up and running in 24hrs she said. I left it till Friday when I got home from work to check (more than 24hrs later). Only to discover that although it was now successfully activated, I was apparently not RICA-ed. So it didn't work. Despite the fact that I handed over all my relevant documentation over to the delivery guy as requested. On Sunday morning I popped into an actual branch and got myself RICA-ed (with the exact same documentation I'd already given them) within 5 minutes. The sales guy was very nice and helpful. And yes, this has all been a spectacular advertisement to actually go into a branch and get things done immediately. It would've saved me so much hassle.

Well, let me tell you, after I got home from all my shopping and I finally tried to use my internet, that I'd been assured would now be working, I was in for yet another surprise. Instead of the 2Gb I'd signed up for, I had a mere 850Mb available. Oh. My. Gawd. Seriously. Could they have got not a single thing right the first time during this entire process? I raced off to my nearest MTN store (not the one I went to this morning), where I found their 2 employees standing outside locking up the store. I explained my frustration with this more-than-a-week long process but it fell on less than interested ears. They couldn't help me. Right. Of course not. More than ever I was seething with the incompetence and sheer lack of service from this company.

I had to phone their call center yet again yesterday morning, only to be told that my 2Gb will only kick in on the 21st of the month. Thanks alot. You could've mentioned that upfront :P At least I have internet now. But I am just waiting to see what else they can screw up in the next 24mnths of my contract. Pity they had the best 3G contract, otherwise I would've stuck with Vodacom.

Yesterday I stayed home from work. I woke up with serious sinus, I couldn't stop sneezing or blowing my nose, my throat was sore and scratchy and my ears were blocked. In short I was miserable. I popped into Dischem and the Sinutab, Med-Lemon and Strepsil combo seems to have helped. Am very annoyed because I had to skip gym (okay not that annoyed) and dinner with @louisabouwer (rather annoyed). #sigh

At least I managed to get most of the bookings done for Birthday Holiday 2012 :D And this morning I'm feeling *much* better than yesterday morning ... although still not 100%. Oh, and today is Valentine's Day. And no, I'm generally not into the schmaltzy side of it, I do like any excuse to do something special. No, we won't be going out for dinner, I have something planned for at home. Tell you all about it tomorrow :)

#annoyed

So, mostly this week is going just fine. On Monday I had a mad crazy busy evening driving around. Gym to Home, cleaned the bunny hutch, showered, made dinner, inhaled dinner, drove off to J9-double0blonde's place to collect some very old books from our previous bookclub. And then on the way back I popped past DJMike's to deliver my empty hard drive for refilling.

Got home after 9. I was exhausted. On Tuesday I went to SCM Dinner, always good :) And The Trucker surprised me by coming over after :) Saw him last night for take-out and a movie as well. We watched True Grit. It was a surprising movie. I'm not really sure what the point of it was, but it had some great dialog. Seriously, watch it just for that. The actress is really funny-looking tho.

And then, in other news ... I can't figure out where my pillow cases currently are. They use one of those US tracking websites ... but the last entry is from Grand Rapids on the 3rd. It's now the 9th. Are they sending it to SA by boat, do you think? (Is that what they do with post? I just assumed they'd fly everything over). They did say 9-10days for delivery ... so maybe I won't worry just yet. The annoying part is they won't just give you an email address to contact them for queries, you have to select all these things, I assume to direct your query properly, but there is nothing labeled "Where is my freaking parcel?!". and I certainly don't plan on calling them :P I'm not even sure their tracking site would update from SA, would it? Anyway, that is the least of my annoyances currently.

MTN. So annoying. So last week I applied thru MTN Direct for a 3G, so that I can finally have internet at home again (I was borrowing one from my mom since Nov, but had to send that back). Wow, I was so impressed with the MTN Direct sales process when placing my order. It was smooth and efficient and apparently my 3G would be delivered within 3 days, but the sales lady said I should have it on Tuesday this week.

So fast-forward to Tuesday when I have an hour left of my working day (and my delivery address is the office) ... I call them to find out what is potting. MTN puts me thru to their Delivery company, RTT, with my tracking code. All fine so far. RTT has no record of my tracking code on their system, could I please contact MTN again. Tell me how there is a tracking code if the delivery company doesn't have the item ... ? But anyway. So I phone MTN again. Nope I must go back to the sales dept because they can only give me my tracking number at this dept. Right.

So I speak to the 4th person of this hunt, in the Sales dept, and he was actually very helpful. For some reason my 3G has been sitting in the warehouse since Friday, no idea why it hasn't gone to the Delivery company yet. Great. So they sort that out and later in the afternoon, I get a call from RTT asking if they can deliver it the next day (yesterday). Definitely.

And hour before I left work yesterday, I start the same process, because it hasn't arrived yet and no one has phoned me (they said they'd call an hour before they came to deliver it). At this point I ask MTN very specific questions about this delivery company, their name, their number (so I can call them directly). And I get transferred thru to them. But they don't answer. So I try calling directly. Wrong dept get transferred to switchboard. Get transferred to the tracking people, they check and apparently it's with the driver. They'll transfer me to the driver to see when it'll be delivered. Disconnect.

I try calling the 2 numbers for RTT that MTN gave me ... no answer. I phone MTN again. I ask them again to give me the numbers, I get two new different numbers from the first two! They transfer me again. It never answers. I try again, I think about 3 times. I finally get thru. They finally successfully put me thru to the driver. Who was fantastic. He managed to get my 3G here before I left for the day.

Later, after gym, when I was home, I tried to call MTN to activate my 3G & sim. Do you think that worked? No, apparently there are no records for my id number & sim card combination. And then every time they were going to transfer me to an operator for help the call just disconnected. Completely. Useless. I've just tried again this morning and the call crashed while they were repeating my sim card number back to me. #sigh

And what really blows me away is that I've been complaining about this dreadful service on twitter and no one has responded at all. Does MTN  not have someone managing their social media? How very naive of them. Although I guess we already know that most of these big corporates don't really care about our business or service delivery :P

The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi

Six severed arms are discovered buried in a forest clearing. They are arranged in a mysterious circle, and appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and thirteen. But the rest of the bodies are nowhere to be found. Criminologist Goran Gavila is given the case. A dishevelled, instinctively rebellious man, he is forced to work with young female police officer Mila Vasquez. Lithe, boyish, answering to no one, Mila has a reputation as a specialist in missing children. She also has a tragic history of her own that has left her damaged, unable to feel or to relate to others. Theirs is a fiery but strangely affecting working relationship - and as they uncover more secrets about the dark secrets in the forest, their lives are increasingly in each other's hands...A gripping literary thriller that has taken Italy by storm, The Whisperer has been as sensational a bestseller in Europe as the Stieg Larsson novels. It is that rare creation: a thought-provoking, intelligent literary novel that is also utterly unputdownable.

This may just be the best crime/mystery book I've read in a long while. Seriously. It was un-put-down-able. I devoured it. And it has twists and turns. I highly recommend this book. Wow.