Finally, a Television

Shoo, with close to 1000 unread emails in my mailbox, I feel like I've been gone a while! Okay, so the email thing was just an work thing that triggered alert emails over the whole weekend (by my old department). So the delete button came in super handy this morning :)

Aside from that, Friday was fab. 11 members of my new team (there are 12 of us in total) spent the day at Stonehaven on the Vaal river. We did some of the usual team-building type stuff ... Pictionary, Charades, Egg-tossing (who's bright idea was this?) and Raft Racing. And then we got all-aboard one of Stonehaven's barges and headed down the river for lunch :)

Aside from the rain storm that started just as we were arriving back, the day was lovely. I felt so sorry for the couple who's outdoor wedding was drenched. Hopefully the rain stopped in time and they managed to get all those plastic chairs dried off!

That evening, Varen & I went to see Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Never forget. Never forgive.
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton join forces again in a big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical thriller Sweeney Todd. Depp stars in the title role as a man unjustly sent to prison who vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop, Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who "shaved the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard from again." Joining Depp is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney's amorous accomplice, who creates diabolical meat pies. The cast also includes Alan Rickman, who portrays the evil Judge Turpin, who sends Sweeney to prison and Timothy Spall as the Judge's wicked associate Beadle Bamford and Sacha Baron Cohen is a rival barber, the flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli.

We both enjoyed it, it's just such a pity about all those annoying movie-goers. What fascinates me tho, is that everyone I speak to has just as many complaints as I do about the other people in the cinema ... so who exactly are these rude people? Anyhow, I have now vowed that as soon as the TV is bought, there will be no more movie-going for me. TV screens are getting big enough now that watching on the "big screen" isn't really that much of a draw. Neither is the popcorn which I can make fresh in my microwave. And the least enticing thing about the movies are the other people and the inability to press pause if necessary. From now on it'll be dvds in silence at home for me, thanks :)

Saturday was a surprising day. Although it started out with a giant fight and me in a miserably depressed mood. After which, I deigned to leave the house and we headed out in search of the perfect bed (we'd seen one at Boardmans 2 weekends ago). Now armed with cash, we intended to purchase. Sadly, the bed had disappeared and there was no stock. So Boardmans in the Design Quarter kindly scoured their computer database for us and said with authority that Eastgate had 3 in stock.

So off we drove ... only to discover that Boardmans in Eastgate had a grand total of zero in stock. And they hadn't sold three in the half hour we'd taken to drive their either. What. Is. Wrong. With. People? Seriously.

So we wandered Eastgate aimlessly waiting for the carpark-washers to finish with Varen's car. And we found a TV. Apparently it is quite impressive. All I know is that it's a 42-inch, Full HD Telefunken and it cost 13 grand (which is really good ... for those of you non-South Africans). So the afternoon was thankfully not a total waste :)

The TV was delivered about half an hour after we got home and we settled in to enjoy the novelty of it for the evening with Varen's Eddy Izzard dvds (with it perched on the floor and the TV cabinet pushed out the way). There's no real TV for us as we've since discovered that the complex hasn't been wired with aerials. Which brings a very interesting TV-license issue up for debate. If we have a TV, but physically cannot receive public broadcast ... do we still need a TV license? Hmmm .... ?

Anyway. Then it was up early on Sunday. Varen & I have decided to start Body For Life, today, and had to head out early to the shops to stock our fridge full of all the necessary goodies to make the requisite food for the week. It's going to be serious work. The food sounds like it'll be good tho. But you have to eat 6 times a day !?! After breakfast this morning (a burrito with 4 egg yolks), I was convinced the actual plan of Body For Life was to fill you up so much you would need to throw up after eating ... I was stuffed. Who can eat 4 eggs (even if only the whites!) at 6am in the morning? Anyway, at 9 am I have my first "snack" so we'll persist. I have decided to give it a bash for a month and if the results have been good and it hasn't cramped my life-style too much, maybe we'll continue for the full 3 month program. But I don't see us being able to go out much with this hectic gym & eating schedule ... since we have no option but to have dinner at home each night. Sigh.

After the giant shop, we headed to The Longmeadow Piano Lounge because Varen's mom had some art on show at the exhibition there. When we were done there, his folks came back to our house so his dad could help us get the TV mounted on the wall :) After all that hard work (on Varen's part, not mine) we had a very relaxing evening, watching some series on the new GIANT screen :)

Although I did get a bit of a bee in my bonnet and cleared up the entire spare room - it was filled with things that I had moved but had yet to unpack and just general things that we'd yet to find a place for. Let's just say I've repacked the cupboards in a far more efficient way :) Which means that most of the floor is now visible, finally!