A better weekend

Let me start this post off with a line I'm sure has been uttered around the world since time immemorial on Monday mornings:

I don't feel like being at work today.

I'd rather be continuing with my lovely weekend, which, after a surprisingly good business meeting with a new client, kicked off with dinner with fabulous friends on Friday at our place. We've decided to do a regular super club with these two couples, T&R and B&M, and it was our first turn to host. After the crudites, I served my red Thai chicken curry with glass noodles and roasted pumpkin from the garden. Dessert was my white chocolate tart topped with blueberries and strawberries. Forgot to take a pic, but it was pretty.

We enjoyed a bottle of red wine, easy conversation and then coffee and chocolates before they left, still at a fairly reasonable hour as T was working the next day. What I love about these friends is that we can see each other once a month and just pick up where we left off. We all have vastly different interests (T&R are serious touch rugby players while B&M are chess champions), but we get along so well.

On Saturday, TSC and I did our volunteer training at Kitty Haven. I love being surrounded by the affectionate cats and dogs. One cat, Forrest Gump, is blind in one eye and has a neurological disorder that makes him walk very strangely so that he looks spastic. But he is the sweetest cat and threw himself on my lap for a cuddle and a bellyrub while we listened to the volunteer coordinator explaining how things work. He was most put out when I had to get up for the sanctuary walk-through.

We followed the training with brunch at Grand Central Cafe again. And it was just as brilliant as last time. So often I find that I enjoy my experience at a restuarant and then the next time I'm there it disappoints me. Not so here. It was great. And their homemade lemonade is divine.

We went through to Pretoria to see my folks. My mom seems to be ok. We all, including my brother (who was actually quite charming for a change - he normally reserves that side of him for his mates), went out for supper at the cutest restaurant in Hazelwood, Boston Deli Kitchen.

It's so quirky, with a shop selling random jewellery and clothes, as well as relishes, jams and sweet treats, all inside the restaurant. Menus are Afrikaans literature books that have the actual menu pages glued onto certain pages. There's a pay-by-weight carvery too. The food was great. I had duck confit and my brother had a lamb mint pie. But the best bit was the desserts! Brownies, deep-fried nougat and Cointreau creme brulee, among others. Yum! It was a good evening of laughing and chatting.

On Sunday, while TSC studied, I popped into HobbyX. I'm not a fan of expos because there are just too many people pushing through the stands. But it's alsways worth going to HobbyX to stock up on craft equipment. I got some beautiful embossed, glittered, flocked and handmade papers from Paper World (the main reason I go to HobbyX), as well as loads of scrapbooking bits and bobs that I use to make cards. I behaved myself and stayed away from the mosaic stands (where I could easily spend my entire salary), but also bought more chocolate moulds (don't know what happened to all of mine) so that I can make my own Easter eggs this year.

Then it was back home to prep for today's round of interviews for a magazine commission I'm busy with, and to quickly write the newsletter for our complex.

It was a good weekend in all. I even got to swim, ever so briefly. This week looks like it may be ever so slightly less manic than last week, which would be brilliant.

PS: Congratulations to Meriel on her marriage. She is a special, special lady and I wish her much happiness.

PPS: What do you think about the change in colour / style here?