Left to my own Devices

Well the weekend certainly had it's ups and downs. I expected Varen to be working late on Friday night be he surprised me by coming home before 6pm :) We went off to CTFM to get some sushi, which was seriously disappointing and vastly expensive, I won't be heading back there anytime soon! Seriously I need to broaden my sushi-supplier horizons. Am now determined to try out Jungle Sushi sometime - it's the place that got recommended to me in the comments a while back but I *still* haven't got round to heading all the way to the east for some sushi. And there's a little spot in Greenside I haven't tried yet. Oh, and a place in Norwood (I think) which also comes recommended. See, why do all these little details fall right out of my head when I'm craving sushi?! Anyhoo, next time I promised myself I'd try somewhere new.

We thought about going to see Transformers ... not because we especially wanted to, but rather because my idea of fun is *NOT* seeing Harry Potter on opening weekend surrounded by chatty teens :P Varen is sorta keen to see "the explosions set to sound" movie tho ... me, I'm pretty indifferent. But we didn't end up going. We finished sushi quite early so went home in-between and I ended up under the covers reading my book. And once you've done that, you just know there's no getting up and going back out into the cold, right? So we stayed home and had an early night. Which was for the best.

Because Varen was up bright & early at 6am to head off to his work conference in Sun City on Saturday morning. If you ask me the whole thing sounds like a completely insane idea. Make your staff drive 2 hours to get to Sun City (apparently quite a fun spot ... I've never been, I'm not against going, but I'll be honest and say it doesn't really appeal all that much and there are so many other destinations that'd come before it if I were choosing!) to sit in a conference hall from 10am to 8pm. Fun, huh? Oh no, that's right ... they get to party and drink and dance all night ... with none of their spouses. And then go back to their individual rooms (well some of them anyways, cough) to sleep it off.

I remember when I worked at a big corporate having the "no partners at work functions" discussions. Hell, even when I wasn't at a big corporate and we wanted to organise an overnight work-function it was frowned upon so as not to upset spouses because of the shenanigan-reputation these things have. Last night even I had my nervous moments. And to hear the stories from Varen about the walks-of-shame he saw the next morning, it's a wonder the corporates still do it. I get that having all the staff together in one place without partners is far better for team bonding and what not and I'm all for them not trying to drive home after so much drinking ... but still. I guess it all comes down to the quality of the individual in the end. Anyhoo, that was his weekend, not mine.

Mine involved sleeping a little later than him and then heading off to gym. Then I got home and lazed around for a while and had some breakfast. And then decided to head of to Rosebank to kill sometime before I went to a braai in the afternoon. Haha. Little did I know it would turn into one of my more serious shopping sprees this year! But it did. The card was swiped and the bags piled up. I truly didn't actualyl buy all that much, I guess ... just a lot for me. Most of it was functional (or so i'm telling myself) because I got a lot of long-sleeved tops, because this season so many winter items seem to be sleeveless - I know, what is that about? But anyhoo, I'm pretty thrilled with my purchases and I don't splurge often on clothes at all (how un-girly of me!).

And then it was off to the braai. Bokkie has moved in with his sister into her new house - it's a complicated family. The sister (need a nick for her!) has a 9yr old daughter from a previous relationship who is now living in Cape Town with her dad ... but was up for school holidays. Then there's the hubby and their 3yr old son ... and I found out another little boy due in Jan! And the hubby also has a daughter living in Cape Town. Sheesh, talk about your extended family ... and she's younger than me! Anyhoo, so I had a great time there till about 8pm. We all had great intentions to go out after but I guess when you've been there since 2pm it's already been a long day! Bokkie did make me have a sip of the most awful concoction he's been brewing. Old Brown Sherry with Habaneros. Ouch! But it was good to see them again :) I'm sure their friends think Varen is a figment of my imagination cause he is always busy when I end up seeing them! Haha.

Had a very weird night, woke up in a panic at around 3am and then had the weirdest horrible dreams when I went back to sleep :( Not ideal, especially when you have no one sleeping nearby to cuddle with and make it all okay.

On Sunday morning I met J9-double0blonde at Moema's for breakfast. It's one of those places I'd seen and thought I'd like to try that but when time comes to pick a spot to eat I never remember it because I never actually knew what it was called! I wasn't completely bowled over tho. It was fab to see J9 and catch up, but the service was average and were only 6 tables inside (all full) - you'd think they'd invest in those awesome standing gas-heaters for outside or something ? Instead they have barely-there heaters high up on the walls creating almost no warmth. The food was quite nice, I had scrambled eggs with salmon & cream cheese. But way too much egg for me. I did get some take-away items for Varen & I tho which were quite delish (I would recommend their little lemon meringue tarts!).

And then I went home and relaxed. I lazed in the gorgeous warmth of the Joburg winter sun in my garden on a blanket, reading my book while the boons played :) Then I just really wasn't in the mood to head back inside so I paged thru my recipe books trying to decide what to eat this week - tricky when you're full from breakfast! And then I finally went thru my mound of unopened post. I'm terrible with post. I hate the damn stuff. Firstly it's a mission just to even remember to collect it from the post box. Then when we actually remember to do that it sits around in piles unopened for months. Literally, I was opening statements from August 2008! And I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it all. I used to horde everything. Then I went thru a giant clean-up where I scanned in a lot of it. Then I decided I didn't even need most of it (Vodacom statements or clothing accounts ... they're all paid before I even see the statement!). I'm determined now to find out how many of these I can rather receive via email!

And then Varen got home :) We went and took a walk round zoo-lake in the afternoon - it was such a beautiful day. And then we grabbed some pizza from Pizza on 4th on the way home (was also on my list of new places to try ... like the sushi places!). The pizza wasn't bad, I had one with Avo, Feta & Bacon. The Feta & Avo were seriously impressive, but their Bacon was not. Not in quantity or quality. I quite liked it when I'd added some garlic & chili-flakes for added flavour :) And settled in to watch Lost S5. Varen hasn't watched any of the previous Lost seasons but he watched the "catch-up" episode and is now completely involved :) A great way to spend a Sunday.