Oh, What a Day!

So there's a quite a lot of catching up to do here ... where was I yesterday, you ask? Silly me forgot to mention that we had a Company Away Day (more on that later, naturally). Which is why I cunningly left you with some belated book reviews.

Now, casting our minds back to Tuesday evening. I dutifully went out shopping after work to ensure there was something to masquerade as dinner and chilled at home with Bell & Henna waiting for Varen to get home from work. Then we went thru the usual gym discussion:

She said: "Do you wanna go?"
He said: "No, why do you ask me, of course I don't. Plus, I'm still sore and I'm not feeling 100%"
She said: "But we really should"
He said: "I know ... "

But she was determined that gym was the right thing and even went so far to say: "Well, I'm going to go, you can join if you want but either way, I'm still going".

See, I was going to be good, I was determined. And then Squeak called. Turned out that Tuesday Dinner group was at J9-double0blonde (formerly GalleryGirl) and Squeak's that night. I know, I know, why would we even care, right? But the two ladies in question who have excommunicated me (after this and this - okay, so I also still don't really know why they're not talking to me anymore, but they're not and that's that) happened to both have other commitments for Tuesday evening. And, as the beta group, we cracked the nod and dutifully skipped gym to go hang out with the the girls, Koet & Nambi and Zej. It was a lovely night, with a nice warm fire and some delish home made (by J9-double0blonde - jees, but both of those girls can cook!) Cassoulet (hers looked wa-ay better than that dodgy pic on the wikipedia site, I can assure you!). I'd never even heard of it before then, but it was so yummy!

Zej regalled us with one of the *most* horrendous stories I've ever heard. Now, either it's an amazing experiment in social networking (like how fast can you start a new urban legend), or it's true. Zej tells us earnestly that it in fact happened to his brother's girlfriend's friend ... even tho it sounds like something out of an urban legend or horror movie and I haven't seen a word of it in the news (and I can't imagine it wouldn't be reported)! So, with that in mind, I make no claims of validity or truth about this ... but if it turns out to be true, it's some scary-ass shit! Anyhoo, the story goes like this (if you're eating or just not into this stuff, scroll past it, I'll highlight a marker telling you when the hideous story is done) ...

So the girl is question was out at The Hat (a local Joburg night club) and met this nice boy who she proceeded to spend the night kissing. It was getting late and the frisky boy asked her if she wanted to go back to his place. Apparently she just wasn't *that keen* on him (and really, she didn't know who the hell he was - that'll be the moral of our story here folks!) and said that she had to drop her friends at home but if he gave her his address she'd meet up with him there later - delicate, polite and lying like a politician ;) She proceeded to leave the club with her friends and dropped them all safely at home before heading back to her own bed and proceeding to fall asleep.

She woke in the morning to find this giant rash spreading over her lower face and down her neck and rushed herself off to the emergency room (don't ask me which). The docs and nurses swab her and take blood and do all the usual doctor-y stuff needed for diagnosis. They come back with stern faces and tell her she needs to go thru her entire week with them and tell them everything she's done. Nothing out of the ordinary, she assures them. But when she get's to the part about kissing the stranger in a night club they become far more interested in him. Do you know his name they ask? No, but I have his address (she tells them, still pretty confused till here). Thanks, we're going to need that, they say.

Turns out she has some kind of bacterial (if think ... or viral, it's always one or the other) infection ... (and here's the frightening bit) that you can only get from corpses. The hospital called the police who headed on over to the creepy dude's house and discovered 3 dead girls that he'd been overly playful with. This girl had narrowly escaped becoming number 4.

Now everybody say it with me: Eeeeuuuuw!

---> you can start reading again, the story is over.

Wednesday was fabulous, we started the day (later than usual for me, which caused no end of traffic chaos) at the Mangwanani Spa at the Indaba Hotel. It is a very nice Spa venue, they've done the decor and gardens really nicely and you feel like you've stepped into the bush, although you're still on the doorstep of Fourways. The treatments themselves were also wonderful. We started with a Head, Neck and Shoulder massage and ended with a Foot and Calf treatment. Pity we were so rushed and promptly told that we couldn't hang around after our treatments. Pretty rude, if you ask me.

After that we headed to Da Vincenzo's for lunch. The girls arrived long before the boys and were well into a 2nd bottle of champagne by the time they joined us (they went quad-biking). It's not my favourite restaurant and I won't be recommending it, but then again, I've been told, I'm a restaurant snob and I've heard people rave about it :) I prefer what I refer to as boutique restaurants. And although this place isn't a chain, it's a spralling faux Italian (I think?) stereotype. But, since we were a group of 32 they could comfortably accomodate us in a separate area (although there were maybe 2 other tables there, maybe). The food was decent in typical set-menu style. I had the chicken. And the chocolate mousse was also very good.

I'll also say that I was thrilled not to be driving when the 3rd and 4th bottle of champagne and the round of tequila's got ordered :) I ended up getting a lift back to JofH's house with him where I was collected by Varen en route home at 6pm.

We didn't even head home, I'd finally booked our anniversary dinner at Casalinga (silly going to another restaurant on the same day, but it slipped my mind). Now this, this is a restaurant.

Varen ordered us a 400-rond bottle of Meerlust Rubicon 2004 (very good) and I started with Haloumi and Zucchini Fritters (which were divine!!) while Varen had some truly decadent Salmon Pancakes. I honestly couldn't tell you which was better. Yum :) For mains we were very boring, both ordering the Veal fillet topped with Parma Ham which was also superb but a bit of a big portion for me, which I think Varen quite appreciated :) And yes, being our anniversary (and even tho we'd both eaten out for lunch earlier), we decided to splash out and have dessert ... a heavenly slice of lemon meringue pie for me (the only one I've had that tasted just like mom's, which is a truly high compliment for me to give food!) and white chocolate tiramisu for Varen (he love love loves tiramisu, I just don't get it?)

It was an amazing day, although I'm definitely feeling like I ate the export produce of a small country :) And I must say I really did enjoy my drive into work with Varen this morning.