Photo post

Some pics of our Casino Royale themed games night a few weeks back...


Window decor...


The sign above the blackjack table, before it got dark...



The blackjack table outside (in our newly tiled braai area) with the fairy lights up, before everyone arrived...




The lounge, with our brand new natural stone finish around the fire place, TSC's clever hanging cards on the light fitting and a pair of my handmade dice (used polystyrene cubes) and some giant cards strung on the mantlepiece...




Some more of my dice, this time in purple for the roulette table (we also had some on the veranda, hanging from the lights). Had to laugh... our roulette wheel is about the size of a side plate - so cute!



It was such a fun evening. Everyone looked gorgeous in their formal wear and we had prizes for the person who won the most money (we printed play money with pictures of us on it) and whomever lost their money the fastest. We also played some Bingo and had to frantically change numbers on the cards that I'd photocopied because (genius that I am), I made copies of the same four sets of cards! It was a good laugh, although some of our poker players took the evening a bit seriously ;-)

And here are some pics from our Gautrain outing, which was my early bday surprise for TSC...

The train, at the airport...



Our sushi at the airport (not the best sushi - the chef was about 20 years old and quite sloppy, but at least the fish was fresh)...




TSC having a beer at Punchinello's at Montecasino. I took him for a drink at the new hotel at The Pivot after our bus dropped us off at Montecasino. It was lovely to sit in the sun and enjoy watching the swans swimming around the pond, with water cascading over the mosaic in the fountain. Lovely!

Yet another catch-up post

Where does time go? It whooshes past at great speed these days and leaves me a bit dizzy.

In the past while, here's what I've been up to:

• Celebrated my birthday with dinner at Hedwig's restaurant. The food was amazing and the view spectacular. The service was sadly not so great. And neither is the loooong dirt road you have to navigate to get there. But I had a great evening with the family.
  
• Got spoiled by the family. Money and garden vouchers have allowed me to dress my lawn and acquire some beautiful succulent plants to adorn the new braai area. My AWESOME new camera (Nikon D3000) from my folks has kept me busy in the few spare moments I have as I try to figure out how it works (very different to my old manual SLR and my little compact digital camera). I will start posting pics once I start taking decent ones ;-)
  
• Went to rugby for the whole bloody Saturday. Seriously, we got to the stadium just after 1pm and the game only started at 5pm. And the Boks lost! But it was awesome to be inside FNB Stadium (if that is what Soccer City is now called. I can't keep up with all the name changes) and I enjoyed the game for the most part. Ran into Jeanette on the bus, which was a cool surprise.
• Recorded my granddad's life story to write his memoirs. I still need more info, but I got a lot from him on Sun and Mon. Such a rich story!
• Did Sunday lunch with the family. Will miss that so much when my folks move back to KZN next year.
• Wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote for this ghostwriting project.
• Had various client / prospective client meetings. Some were very interesting, some were less so.
• Started serious prep for our Casino Royale themed formal dress games night joint birthday celebration thingey this Sat (if you're in Jhb and want to come along, mail me at doodlesofajourno at gmail dot com. Would love to see some of you lot IRL).
• Got my bum into gear and finally started doing all the admin I've been avoiding (switching ADSL providers, getting our own PO Box (been using my folks' one for ages), letting all the relevant people know our postal address has changed, getting business cards set up etc. Not fun, but a great sense of accomplishment when it's all done.
• Started planning all of TSC's bday surprises (his bday is 7 Sept). Now that's good fun ;-)

Today I'm at home all day, thankfully. I'm hoping to get lots of work done while our tiler finishes up the last snags outside and puts up the natural stone around our fireplace. Then we really are done with the home project for now.

What are all you fabulous people up to?