Hello Tuesday.

I'm so glad it's you and that Monday's gone for this week.

Especially seeing Monday started with a fight with Honda about my car's service plan, which ended in a draw. Well, that's how I'm choosing to see it. Then I got told by their service department that I need new tyres. Joy. More money spent on something that's fallen apart. It appears my car and my house are in collusion. I feel betrayed.

Not really.

Anyhoo... The weekend was at least good. Crazy busy, but good. We took our neighbours out for dinner on Friday and went to a morning wedding on Saturday (which we thought would suck,but actually turned out to be lovely, despite running horribly late). Then we managed to pop over to a birthday party, although not for long because Isak stayed with us Saturday and Sunday evening seeing his company has not paid him again and he needs money desperately. TSC had organised an odd-job for the two of them on Sunday at a mine, "pulling cables", whatever that means.

I was left to my own devices, so I did my usual Pilates class, then met a friend for lunch and then visited another friend for a tea party. It was great, but I didn't get any alone time with TSC the whole weekend, so we'll have to plan some this week.

I saw my friend who's moving to the Cape yesterday for a catch-up before she goes. I'm going to miss her so much :-(

The high point of the day was picking up my photos that I've had printed onto canvas for display in our lounge. I was given vouchers to do so for my wedding anniversary by my folks and I am so chuffed with the results. Now we just need to give the skirtings the final lick of sealant and I'll show you pics of the whole effect.

Today started out far better than Monday - with a much-needed haircut. Yay! Then my mom dropped my granddad off with us while she went to China Mall. He was up here visiting a sick friend and we didn't think we'd get to see him, so it was nice to have him and get to catch up with him too.

Of course, that means I haven't had much time to work (although I've got a lot done in the last two hours), so I'll probably have to do some this evening. Damn. I was hoping to go out for a sushi dinner (something a girl should always do when she has salon-fabulous hair). But finances and time will not allow it. Blergh.

So it's off to write about battery power monitoring devices. Woo hoo. Wish me luck. Or sushi. Preferably the latter.

PS: I'm considering finally ditching Telkom as my ISP and going with Afrihost. Anyone had experience with them?

Realisation and a recipe

You know what I realised last night?

I don't get that heavy Sunday afternoon depression anymore because I don't have to face the PR job on the Monday morning. That's a very cool little piece of enlightenment for me.

It helps especially on weekends that have been really hectic and that just fly by, like this one. We had friends over for supper on Friday night, then another load of people to watch the (so-called) rugby on Saturday morning with a braai afterwards (which meant two sets of catering within the space of 24 hours). On Sunday we saw my folks for breakfast and then had a church meeting at lunch and then we were on duty at church from 5pm and did coffee with friends after that.

So much for a chilled first weekend without hosting World Cup guests!

When things are busy, it's funny how there are always precious little "ordinary" moments that stand out as highlights... sharing jokes with my parents, seeing everyone enjoying both puddings I made for Fri and Sat (chilled lemon cheesecake and chocolate marshmallow tart), watching a brilliant episode of Hustle with TSC and even realising that the lettuce from my garden tastes infinitely better than the lettuce from the supermarket (especially seeing all my lettuce-growing attempts before this have been dismal failures). I love little things like that.

Here's the recipe for the chocolate marshmallow tart. I think it originally came off the back of a Romany Creams box, but I lost the actual recipe years ago and now make up my version from memory...



Chocolate marshmallow goodness:

• 1 packet Romany Creams or similar biscuits
• 250 ml cream
• 1 packet marshmallows
• 75g melted butter
• 200g milk chocolate
  

Crush Romany Creams (I use a stick blender). Mix with melted butter and press into a tart tin to make crust. Melt the chocolate with the cream on medium heat. Stir until smooth. Add marshmallows and stir until they melt into the chocolate mixture. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Pour chocolate mixture over crust. Refrigerate for a few hours until set. Decorate with grated chocolate or a light dusting of icing sugar with a sliced strawberry in the middle.

Yum!