Mixed bag

It was a weekend of good and bad.

Let's get the bad out of the way first. Once again, my company has not paid me my salary. So, once again, I have had to transfer money from another account into my bank account so that my debit orders don't bounce today. I can't afford to buy groceries or put petrol in my car. My colleagues (who are both younger than me and live with their parents - no rent, food or bills to pay) are complaining that they can't hit the sales at the mall. I'm stressing about paying my insurance. It's a bit different.

The newest addition to the company, let's call her Vicki (not her name, but she idolizes Victoria Beckham for some inexplicable reason), resigned this morning. It's a new record - she's only been here three weeks. Sweet girl. I'll miss her. But I'm used to this saying goodbye thing now.

I had a meeting scheduled for this afternoon for possible freelance work, but when I phoned to confirm this morning, they said they've found someone else to do it. So bleak! I desperately need to find ways of bringing in more cash every month if this morning job is going to crash and burn. I've been trawling the net for freelance and part-time work, but it's in scarce supply.

My Ella (she's my car) has to go back to Honda sometime soon for a window check-up. There's been a safety recall on all Jazz models made between 2002 and 2008.

And that's the bad news done. Now, the good bits...

On Friday we had supper with four awesome friends. The one couple we know from church and the other couple are friends that they introduced us to. We had to mission out in the mother of all storms that hit Joburg on Friday evening to get to their house (our road flooded so fast that the manhole cover popped out), but it was well worth it.

On Saturday, I hit the gym for an aqua class and then TSC and I watched a few episodes of Scrubs and ate poached eggs on toast. I had planned a big day for us, starting with a nice home-cooked brunch, but seeing I had almost no money left over after buying my mom's birthday present, that didn't happen.

I had, however, found something to do in Joburg that cost less than R50 and would keep up entertained for the afternoon - SAB World of Beer. Now I am not a beer fan, but I must recommend this tour. Seriously good value for money! It's R25 per ticket (and R20 if you have an Edgars Club card), which includes the 90-minute tour, a small souvenir glass (filled with beer) and two drinks of your choice (beer, cider, cold drinks etc) with chips and peanuts at the bar afterwards. The tour shows the history of beer, from 6000 years ago to the present, as well as how beer is brewed at SAB today.

While there are some corny bits (like the "comedy" 3D clip showed at one point), we loved it. Good fun! There's also a shop selling SAB merchandise and a pub offering lunch and snacks on site. Very kewl.

Yesterday, we met up with my mom (who tells me she's now a lurker here too. Awesome), dad and brother to celebrate my mom's birthday, which is today. We had lunch at Mythos in Design Quarter and it was divine. I have leftover Mousaka for lunch today. Can't wait!

I love my family. They make me laugh.

After lunch we all went back to our place for some of my crowd-pleaser ice-cream (must post the recipe sometime) and coffee. It was so good to sit on our veranda and look out on the sunny garden while we chatted. Happiness, I tell you.

Wish I could stretch it out into today. I feel so helpless with this whole work situation. I don't know what to do, but I can't take this anymore. Anyone know of part-time / freelance work?!

I suppose there's no point in moaning about it, so I'll get back to work. Mom, if you're lurking today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are the best mom I could wish for and I love you more than I know how to say.

More sunburn and some yummy Mythos

If my sunburn on Saturday wasn't bad enough, I decided to work in the garden in my bikini on Sunday morning. Seeing it was quite early and it looked like it was going to rain, I reckoned I wouldn't need sunblock. See, I figured I'd only be busy for about half an hour before rain set in.

Instead, the sun came up, I got so involved in planting a new bed that I forgot the time and I ended up with a luminous pink back and my usual pale white front. I actually took a picture, but decided for your sake not to post it here.

It didn't hurt until Sunday evening, when it started to be all hot and prickly. But now it hurts like hell on my one shoulder (the other one mysteriously remains pristine white) and I struggled to sleep last night, especially seeing TSC kept creeping onto my side of the bed and (unintentionally) elbowing me in my sunburn.

If that wasn't bad enough, my cats decided that they'd investigate my bathroom cupboard and ended up knocking my make-up foundation off the counter so that it shattered on the floor, waking us up with a huge fright.

Cleaning up base is no fun. Especially early in the morning when you should be asleep.

Needless to say, I'm a bit bleary-eyed this morning. And I'm running out of clothes that don't chafe my sunburn.

Sunday afternoon I ended up wearing a sleeveless poloneck shirt so that my mother wouldn't yell at me for getting burnt. Normally I practically bath in sunblock before I go out thanks to her training.

It was her birthday and we went to a restaurant called Mythos in Bedfordview. There's actually one in Design Quarter in Fourways, which is much closer, but my mom had been to the Bedfordview one and loved it, so she booked there for her birthday lunch.

As the name suggests, it's a Greek restaurant. The decor is gorgeous - walls lined with stacked white pebbles and tables with holes in the centre that had (very pretty) fake olive trees "growing" out of them. It looks much better than I'm making it sound, I promise.

My mom's best friend Anne shared a meze platter for two with me. Kleftethes (Greek meatballs), lamb and chicken souvlaki (kebabs), prawns, grilled calamari, yiro (thin-sliced beef strips), tzatziki (cucumber and yoghurt dip), taramosalata (fish roe dip) and pita bread. Yum! So good.

For dessert I had the grilled halva topped with peach, which was sublime. When our budget is less stretched, TSC and I will have to try the one that's nearer to us and see if it's as good. That's something to look forward to ;-)

The lunch went well and my mom liked her prezzies. Now... to figure out the next gift for the anniversary...