Assorted updates

Hello people. Happy Valentine's Day.

How do you feel about V Day, out of interest? I have mixed feelings. I love the idea of a day to celebrate love, spoil TSC and eat chocolate. But I hate the plastic roses and restaurants filled with smug couples and drunk singles offering exhorbitant V Day set menus.

It's a day that makes some people go totally overboard with cheesy rhyming Hallmark cards and stuffed toys, while others go overboard in the opposite direction with the whole I-hate-V-day-because-it's-a-commercialised-marketing-ploy-to-pressurise-us-into-buying-things-covered-in-red-hearts-and-remind-us-that-Hollywood-love-is-a-lie rants.

I'm somewhere in between.

I flat out refuse to go to out for dinner on V Day (have you ever seen how many couples end up in huge fights in restaurants on V Day?) and I won't let TSC buy me the ridiculously priced red roses (I'd rather have sunflowers). And I love it when the day falls on a week night so that there's not as much fuss about it.

But we do spoil each other a bit because it's fun. I woke TSC up this morning with bodem coffee and breakfast in bed, along with some little presents and a homemade card, and he made me a card and earned big brownie points with a gift voucher for me from Rain.

This evening we'll enjoy a candlelit dinner of Woolies readymade yummies on our veranda with a bottle of bubbly so there's no cooking or cleaning.

For me, that's perfection.

After such a hectic week and weekend, it's nice to have a chilled night at home planned. It's been such fun seeing friends, meeting new people, hosting big dinner parties, doing supper club and catching up with people we haven't seen in years over the past few days, but now I'm quite peopled out for a bit.

We've also been exercising hard. We did a killer V-core class at gym on Thurs and I had an equally hectic aqua step class on Fri (so much fun though!). By the time we woke up on Saturday morning, I was painfully stiff. But we headed off to a special Battle of the Sexes training event where we got pushed through an obstacle course, running drills, sit-up and push-up events and more. I was so glad to have a Pilates class yesterday just to stretch all my poor exhausted muscles. Still stiff today though! But it feels good (the exception being my pathetic feet, which are in spasm again. Joy).

In other news, I have to admit that I have become a convert. From hating my BlackBerry to embracing the joys of BBM, whatsapp and not having to rush home to check my work emails, I am convinced, especially since I've managed to set up the predictive text on my phone. Now all I miss about my ancient Nokia is the one-handed typing.

What's new in your world?

Reflections

Pic shot at Keimoes, Northern Cape.

Stuff is going on with my family. Stuff that won't get blogged about here, because it's not my stuff to discuss. But it made me think.

And so I wrote a very emo post reflecting on our journey as a family. And then deleted it. Instead I leave you with a reflection in picture form.

And a link to the Kalahari Ads Valentine's competition - place a free ad and stand to win your V-Day wish. Sounds pretty awesome to me.

Explanations and deliberations

My blogging mojo, as you may have noticed, has been severely lacking. I put this down to a couple of reasons:
a) my creative writing course is keeping me so occupied that it's difficult to find a moment to blog, and when I do, I feel like I've used up most of whatever creative juices I might have had.
b) I have been otherwise occupied by a crapload of admin, mainly for church and my freelancing business, as well as by the fact that our neighbourhood is up in arms about this big warehouse store that wants to open on our doorstep, so we've been attending, photocopying notices and generally running around like headless chickens.
c) a lot of stuff that's going on in my little world is unmentionable on this-here public space, just in case the wrong people happen to be reading it.

But here I am anyway, so let me give you a little update on happenings:

• We saw Up in the Air on Friday. It was good. George Clooney is as gorgeous as ever and the movie was well made. But I don't quite see what all the fuss was about.
• On Saturday we visited Kitty Haven and signed up to volunteer. When asked about which area I'd like to help with, I ticked "Cat cuddler". Isn't that a dream job?
• We went for brunch at Melrose Arch on the way back at Grand Central. It's the first time I've been to Melrose Arch just for the sake of being there - I've only ever been there to the offices before for work meetings. I must say, we had a divine time at Grand Central. It is the first place we've found in the almost three years we've been in Joburg where the Eggs Benedict matches up to that perfect creation from The Gardener's Cottage in Newlands, Cape Town. TSC had that, while I enjoyed a homemade lemonade (yum!) with my brerakfast of polenta toast with sweet corn, avocado sala, sauteed cherry tomatoes, wilted rocket, pesto, Napolitana sauce and grated pecorino cheese. It was heavenly.
• I got seriously stuck into my garden on Saturday afternoon. I have the scrapes and bruises to prove it.
• TSC went to the rugby with friends and I enjoyed the opportunity to go out gift shopping for Roo and finish up TSC's Valentine's Day card.
• Yesterday we overslept. And it was bliss. Since I started this writing course I haven't been able to sleep properly with all the ideas running through my head (and not all of them are useful. Sometime early this morning, my dreams were telling me that there should be a giraffe as one of the central characters and that I should name her Abigail. Weird). Anyhoo, we spent our day having a picnic on our lawn with sparkling wine and chocolate mousse. It was the best way to spend the day - away from te madding crowds!
• Last night we met my folks for dinner at Primi Piatti in Midrand. It was nice to catch-up, although I did almost all the talking. I couldn't stop myself... I just needed a vent about this stupid warehouse store (noise, traffic, security and aesthetical issues, nevermind the fact that the value of our property will plummet if it goes ahead) and work stuff. The good news was that this Primi still had gnocchi bolognese on their menu. All the other branches have stopped making it and that dish was pretty much the only reason I ever went to Primi.
• Today was the deadline for the submission of our first writing assignment. I had great fun doing mine, but I'm terrified of the feedback! I posted my synopsis on the course forum and the course teacher gave me a great response. He loved my writing, although he reckons I'm giving myself way too much work. I agree with his poitn of using my granddad's life story as background and writing the last bit I'd planned - the relationship this old man has with his second love, and how he deals with the situation. Having a clear focus has helped me more than I can say. I may post the revised synopsis sometime for your thoughts.
• Have a great week. I promise I'll be back soon this time ;-)

Rom-coms and randomness

The weekend was awesome.

A fancy dinner at Le Canard on Friday (we finally got to use the voucher from our friends R & A from our birthdays last year). Yum! From the atmosphere to the three courses and all the in between bits (like the palate-cleansing mint sorbet... mmm...), it was lovely.

Saturday (Valentine's Day), we swapped presents in bed over a cafe latte (I got some super yummy Pomegranite body lotion, shower gel and hand cream in a cake tin and he got some *ahem* interesting goodies from Lola Montez - the classy adult gift store down the road from us).

After a lazy morning we got stuck into the garden and finished digging the new flower beds. Then it was off to the hardware store to get the stuff to make the mosaic mirror for the guest loo (which is almost finished - hopefully I can post a pic tomorrow) and then he dragged me off to see He's Just Not That Into You.

Now I'm not generally a fan of romantic comedies. In fact, I suggested that we see Valkyrie insteadm, despite my patent dislike of that Tom Cruise character. But nope, my chick-flick-loving husband was not in the mood for that.

He's forced me to watch very many rom-coms before, including such gems (NOT!) as Win a Date with Tad Hamilton and Swept Away (even he had to admit that this one was a complete and utter waste of time. How could it be directed by Guy Ritchie?! You see what that mad ex-wife of his did to him?! From Snatch to Swept Away ??? Ok. Vent over).

So I was sceptical about this one. But I actually enjoyed it thoroughly. I hadn't seen the previews and I had no idea who was starring in it. Probably a good thing - I usually make a point of not seeing movies with Ben Affleck in them. But it was funny and cute and the perfect movie for a Saturday afternoon that leaves you feeling all happy and soppy. Which is great on Valentine's Day.

Sunday morning, after a BLT and cup of coffee, I headed off to the nursery and grocery store while TSC did his varsity assignments, poor boy. I planted my new flower bed, did some veggie garden maintenance and worked on the mosaic mirror. We had a relaxed braai for late lunch and then headed off to church, which was great. So a good weekend, all in all.

Today I am online trying to find Halaal restaurants in our area. Why, you may ask? Well, TSC and I host a life group (small group) every week at our place. This term we asked our guys what they'd like to focus on, and one dude came up with the idea of studying other major world religions.

I think it's a great idea - as Christians we can be so quick to judge other faiths and I think it's a good chance to look for common ground and get some insight into what other people believe. So we started off with Islam last week, and we're continuing with that theme this week. TSC has asked his Muslim friend from varsity, K, to come and chat to the group about his faith and he's agreed.

I'm so keen to meet him and really excited that he's agreed to share his faith with us, but I need to figure out how to make him feel comfortable in our home and organise food that he can enjoy. I know the basics - no pork or alcohol to be served, no dogs to be present (dog saliva is considered extremely unclean), no physical contact between members of the opposite sex (so I should not hug him - must remember that), providing washroom facilities for wudu (ritual washing) and a clean, private space for prayer so on.

But I'm not sure how strict he is when it comes to food - he may be fine eating in our home or he may prefer that all utensils that have been used to prepare non-Halaal food be washed three times before being used, or he may prefer not to eat from pots that have been used to cook non-Halaal meat. So I figure that it may be easier to take him out for supper to a Halaal restaurant.

Anyone know of one? The only options I can seem to find are fast foods (not my thing) or Karma Nirvana in Fourways. And anyone have any other advice on how to make K feel at home?

Oh, and have a great week, all.

Post-valentine poem

On 14 Feb the world turns red
With hearts and ruby wine.
Come 15 Feb the rumpled bed
Bared of sweet Valentine.

One day a year the florists cheer,
The gift shops make their play,
So men can leer and shed no tear
As they have the girls their way.

Bought for a bit of heart-shaped sweet,
A candle or a frame,
The silly girls, like fresh-cut meat
Join in this silly game.

And when, at last, they wake to shame,
Conveniently they lay the blame.



This poem has absolutely nothing to do with my Valentine's Day. Hubby and I had a lovely champagne and sushi picnic, perfect and relaxed. But I do remember back to highschool days, when we'd send roses to the boys' school and vice versa. The boys just wanted to hook up and the girls just wanted to not be alone on Valentine's day. I wrote this poem thinking about how grateful I am that I'm not still in that cycle!