A Day Out of the Office

So I wasn't here yesterday. Tuesday evening involved me making a Prawn & Chorizo Jambalya, which turned out to be more successful than I expected while watching it cook. Still, I don't think it'll be repeated. Too much effort for too little reward, really.

And on Wednesday I got to sleep in a little later and then frantically rush off to the Rhino & Lion Park for a company away-day. I'd stupidly figured I'd just look up the directions to the place online before I left home in the morning ... what I didn't count on was their website being completely unavailable (I can only assume it had something to do with a broken cable plaguing South African Internet users for the last few days). Actually, it's still completely unavailable. How annoying. Anyhoo, it meant Varen & I were frantically searching online and in the gps trying to find the route there, which I eventually did ... and it was easy-peasy, but *very* badly sign-posted!! I mean seriously?

Anyhoo, we had a cool game-drive around the Rhino & Lion Park. Although we couldn't find the wild dogs. The lions also weren't very interesting to see, just lying around on burned grass. But the rhino's and buck variety were pretty awesome (so many baby rhinos, including one only 3 weeks old!). And then the more fun part ... getting up close with some of the babies and I got to see white tigers for the first time! Sadly we missed out on a visit to their breeding center which was the bit I really enjoyed the last time I went (absolute years ago with my folks when I was still dating Bean).

After that we all headed to Al Fresco for lunch. I was a little worried cause I'm not likely to usually visit a restaurant with their name painted in giant letters on the wall on the side of the road, if you know what I mean. But the food was good and we had a great afternoon and didn't even end that late (I was home around 5pm).

I did end up skipping dinner with Varen and his mom tho. Originally when we'd organised it, we chose a restaurant in Sandton. But then, during the day, Varen's mom phoned in a panic because although he'd choosen the restaurant and told me ... he'd neglected to actually tell his mother. So he ended up changing our plans and picking a new restaurant closer to her. Which meant that he'd have to come home after work (probably a 20 minute drive in no traffic) to fetch me and then we'd have to drive for half an hour to get all the way to Bedfordview. A complete mission on a week night, if you ask me. Especially when I was so full from lunch and quite exhausted. So, instead I canceled so that he could go straight from work (seeing as he only left there at about 7pm!) and spend some quality time alone with his mother ... and I could spend the evening reading in bed. Bliss :)