Spectacular and Despondent

It's been an emotional weekend. Up and down. Friday, luckily was an up :) We went to Madame Zingara's Theatre of Dreams with Lady & Bug and it was honestly one of the best things ever!

So, a little background for those not in the know: Madame Zingara used to be a Cape Town restaurant, that I unfortunately never had the pleasure of visiting. Earlier this year (January I think), the restaurant burned down and they decided to pursue a new dream ... which I gather was something they'd always wanted to do, but with the restaurant, they'd never gotten round to. So they found themselves an authentic burlesque tent from 1920s France and decided to start "touring" South Africa. They still offer a fabulous meal (more on that later) but now you get a Cirque du Soleil type show with it. I highly recommend booking yourself a spot, I'll be going back when they are up in Jhb again. Unfortunately the remainder of their time here is already sold out, but they'll be in Cape Town from the 7th December!

So, it was a completely unique experience and I thoroughly loved it :) The food was amazing and the show was mesmerizing, I sat with my jaw on the floor in disbelief at what these performers could do for most of it!

Saturday we were up fairly early and headed out on the bike with Koet & Nambi ... we took them out to Varen's aunt's cheese shop where they bought half the shop ;) Damn, that is some good cheese! Then we had lunch at a little spot called the Farmhouse nearby (I'm pretty sure they have no website so I'm not even going to bother looking, but if you head along William Nichol towards Pretoria, you can't miss it on your right ... if you get to the Cheese Shop, you've gone too far). It looked a little suspect, since we were the only table and had to go searching for some service, but once we settled under the trees, watching the goats & emu's, it was nice and relaxing. The food took a while and I think we were all pleasantly surprised to taste just how good it was (we all had pork schnitzel with Emmentaler). Was so good, we all just might go back another time on the bikes (unless Varen has sold his by then?) :) Its always nice to find some where that surprises you!

After that, Varen & I raced off to visit an apartment. Nice, but tiny, tiny, tiny. I don't quite understand, because it has this great mezzanine type area ... but you can't even stand in it (it certainly looked more useful in the picture!), so what exactly could one use this space for? Lovely place, tho, but not for me.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and cutting very few places out of the Property Paper :(

Sunday we headed to breakfast at Doppio Zero with Varen's brother (not an impressive experience, the service was shocking!) and then out to visit more show-houses. It was not a very successful day at all and I ended up quite despondent ... as I still am when I think about all this. I have no idea what to do. So far Unit Three (Windsor) looks ideal, the price is perfect, it's close to Varen's new place, it has a separate bedroom, a separate bath & shower and a little bit of communal garden. But the area is not great, although it's not in a bad part of the suburb, it's still in Windsor ... or should I sell the place with Bean and give up the search until I know how much profit we'd make and how much of a single bond I could get on my own? The only thing is ... property prices are rising and I still don't think I'd end up with more than a single bedroom for R650 000 and I just don't know that I can justify spending that much on one bedroom?!? Dilema, dilema. I'm calling the Agent for Unit Three (Windsor) later today to chat about what I could possibly change ... I saw a great thing done in a unit yesterday, and since this place isn't yet developed, maybe, just maybe, they'll do it upfront? And I'd consider putting in wooden flooring in the lounge & bedroom too. Finger's crossed.

But, I don't really want to get my hopes up ... I'm still quite depressed about it all. After that we headed to Lemon's birthday sundowners in Lone Hill. Was lovely to see everyone :) And that was that.

Current House Hunting Tally:
17 Property Blurbs cut out of the 28/10 Paper
5 Property Blurbs cut out of the 04/11 Paper
11 Houses visited

1 Private Property Unit of Interest

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