Call Me Interior Decorator

Wow, what a weekend. Friday started with a braai at Varen's folks place. They all went there straight after his grandmother's Breyton funeral and I joined them after work. Sadly they were told that evening that his cousin had died in a head-on collision on his way home after the funeral. Such dreadful news, even tho Varen hardly knew his cousin (although he has a very close immediate family, their extended family isn't that close). Devastating for his poor uncle who had just spent the day burying his mother only to have his son die. There have been a spate of these terrible incidents in the past few weeks. Really makes one think about things!

So yeah, Friday was a bit of a rough one for him so I just hung around being supportive where necessary and trying to give him space (with his play-station) when he needed it :) Boys just don't seem to want to discuss things like death. But then again I'm far too practical about those sorts of things - I even have list that I keep up-to-date for when I die ... so that no one has to worry about who to tell, it has everyone I want told and their current contact details. For some peculiar reason I don't want some people to find out via the grapevine. Okay, so now that I've just typed that I'm beginning to realise just how odd it all sounds ... but that's just one of my eccentricities!

Saturday turned out to be a fabulous day. A little bit of gift shopping for Loulou's 30th at Hoy P'loy (Thanks to our good friend Hoi Polloi, the owner, for recommending such a beautiful orchid!) and then some surprise shopping for myself!

Varen & I have driven past The Gallery on numerous occasions thinking we should really stop in and have a look around but oddly it always seems to have been closed. Today we made a point of remembering to stop by during regular hours and found it open.

As soon as we walked in I spotted the most gorgeous bench (originally I referred to it as an Ottoman, but after some research on Wikipedia, it's definitely more of a bench). It is distressed leather with beautiful velvet flowers embossed across it in varying shades of pink, brown and orange. We wandered the rest of the gallery and showroom but I couldn't help but go back to the ottoman. I loved it! In the meantime, while I sat eyeing it, Varen had a coffee and we chatted to the very friendly owner Anthony Yapanis ... who apparently married his wife (and co-gallery owner) last weekend in Cape Town. Me thinks that after such a warm and friendly experience, we will definitely start attending the many events they host at The Gallery.

In the end I decided I just couldn't live without such a beautiful and typically me item of furniture and decided to spoil myself a little ... I mean, it is bonus month after all :)

Oh, and I did manage to have my kilo of prawns (thanks to Adega in Greenside) for lunch on my free day :) It was a highlight because the last time I had this many of them was when Mom & Daddio were here last December! It was well deserved and hugely delish.

Then we spent a relaxing afternoon at home, admiring my purchase (finding a spot for it) and playing with Bell in the garden. She is such a delight! We even had the one-day pleasure of seeing my fish-pond lily flower. Since it only opens fully in daylight, we've been missing it while at work but we got a stunning look at it on Saturday ... before it was broken by the Saturday night storm in Joburg :( Oh well, fingers crossed it'll flower again!

Then, it was off to dinner at Mythos in the Design Quarter for Loulou's birthday. As usual I thoroughly enjoyed their Mezze but wasn't such a fan of their mains. That's just how I am with Greek food :)

As I said, there was quite a storm in Joburg later that evening and by the time we got home it seemed to be right above our house. Well, I was having none of that, Bell was sleeping inside for the night. I'm sure I was more worried for her than she was! But we set her up nicely in the bath with her food and some newspaper lining the bottom because the enamel is a little too slippery for fluffy foots :) And a box for her to hide-away in.

On Sunday we officially decided to stop the stringent rules of the BFL program and rather fit it into our lifestyle as much as possible. It's the gym that's so tricky to do 6 days of the week! The food we're not having a problem with at all. What with Varen's gran's funeral on Friday, we didn't make it then and on Sunday we had Koet & Nambi coming over for a braai at 2pm ... there just wasn't enough time! So Sunday started with a mad dash to the shops for food and cushions.

On Saturday we decided that instead of getting 8 matching cushions for the dining room table, we'd get 8 different ones. This was also primarily because I wanted zany ones and he wanted far more subtle ones and we just couldn't agree. This way we each get to pick :) So far we have 6 of 8 and it's looking very cool! You can't really see very clearly in the picture, but one is furry and one has sequins and one is bright orange silk and then there are the subtle ones (far more obvious in the photo!) :)

The house is really coming together now, Varen also hung my paintings from Malawi in the dining room and my Christmas present, a coat rack of elephant heads (okay, that really doesn't sound as cool as it actually is!). Today he'll be shipping the cow-hides to Wilderness and in about a week and a half we should get the completed cowpet (my new word for a cow-carpet) back too :)

Then Koet & Nambi joined us for a late lunch/early dinner braai ... and to meet Bell :) It was a lovely afternoon, although the rain kinda dampened our out-door spirit and we headed inside to watch a movie instead.

Tom Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) a former cop and an extremely hygienic man uses his urge in his professional life as a crime scene cleaner. When he becomes involved in a job he later finds out was a covered up murder, he gets tied in to a web of deception, that un-earths his own family's long buried pain and secrets.

Surprisingly I enjoyed this movie. It's beautifully filmed and has quite an entertaining plot.

After they left, I spent the rest of the evening reading. I'd kept the book that interested me least as my last book-club read of the month and I must've read half the book last night! So far Torey Hayden's Twilight Children has been surprisingly involving and a real page-turner!

Oh and fabulous news from this morning :) Varen got in touch with the dwarf bunny place where we got Bell ... and we are going to be able to get one of the red ones when they're ready to leave their mom :) We should find out later this week when this will be ... hopefully on my birthday (when Mom gets up here for a visit) or maybe even the week before (when we've scheduled the house warming - that sadly very few people seem able to attend. But hey, at least it'll be cosy! Although you'd think planning something 3 weeks in advance would be enough, apparently not). Yay!