My 4day Weekend With Mom

So Mom was up in Joburg for my 4day long weekend and we did plenty :) Mostly it was just the two of us because Varen headed off to stay at his Dad's place after dinner on Saturday night and they all (Varen, his Dad, BrotherSwoop & BrotherZion) left for The Fish River Canyon around 4am on Sunday morning.

We Ate Out
Varen took Mom & I out to dinner at Cilantro on Friday night. I had their Mezeterranean, which was nice enough, but I wasn't hungry enough (having snacked on left over Butternut & Prawn Soup!).

On Saturday evening, the three of us headed to Norwood to try Hokkaido Sushi (as recommended by @saulkza). It was delish, although I have to reiterate here that I am so much more a fan of the sushi-go-round or the 3-4 piece portion than the 8-piece portion offered by most sushi spots (this one included). It means I have to share with someone else because when it comes to sushi, I'm all about the variety. And Mom & I shared some delicious variety of sushi: Tempura Prawn Rolls, Salmon Roses for me and Nigiri for her, Prawn Fashion Sandwiches and Salmon Rainbow Rolls (there may have been something else, but I forget!). Yum.

Which reminds me, @saulkza & I had sushi for lunch last week at a little place in Rivonia called Yamada Sushi. Now this place get's three thumbs up from me so far. One for their liberal use of caviar, one for their 3-4 piece portions and another for having a sushi-go-round (although it wasn't running at lunch time!) :) Although there's still a thumb down for having a menu where I can't work out what everything actually is (sushi should come with pictures, every place seems to name things differently!).

(damn, as I type this, I'm starting to crave sushi again!)

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We ate breakfast on Monday morning at Espresso Cafe & Bistro in Parkhurst. Sigh, now that I'm boy-cotting Doppio Zero, I'm at a bit of a loss for breakfast venues :( We had a look at other menus around Greenside and then headed to Parkhurst. I dunno, I guess I'm a fussy breakfast eater. Mostly because I want something a little more interesting than I can make at home, and no restaurants seem to get my eggs quite right :P (I like them soft, okay?). I was less than elated with Espresso. I was under the vague impression Breakfast might be their thing (haven't been there too often before), but I was clearly mistaken. They have a very dull breakfast menu. But the rest of their menu does look good :) (And again, seriously, who doesn't take credit or debit cards?!)

And here's another thing that get's to me. Freaking Smokers. Now with the Smoking laws (which I love), the Smokers inevitably get the entire outside area. Which is annoying ... I like to sit outside. That doesn't mean I like to get smoke blown at me while I eat my meal tho. Sigh.

On Tuesday we had lunch at Caffe Rossini in Cresta. Was quite impressed :) Until I saw their website, seriously folks, is that thing for real? I hope you didn't pay someone for that! But the food was good and the menu looks good too ... may have to go back, on the off chance that I feel like eating in a shopping mall (unlikely at best). And we drank Mojito's with our lunch. A lovely way to spend the day when you know you're meant to be at work :)

After dropping Mom at the airport on Tuesday afternoon, I met up with Rom (from our blind-date friends) at The Portuguese Fish Market in Melville for dinner. I had prawns and was quite impressed :) It was lovely to see her again ... it's taken absolute ages because she had her folks out visiting for a few months and then we were trying to find a night that suited the 4 of us, which seems like it may be an impossible task! So we gave up and had a girls night. Which I hope we'll do more often now :)

We Ate In
So aside from the Thai-style Butternut & Prawn soup I made on Thursday evening for dinner, I also made Mom my Free-form Spinach & Feta Pie and the Nam Jim Chicken - which I raved about when I first made it because I loved it, but Varen didn't, too much coriander. So what an ideal time to try it out again. And it was delish, again. Recipe will follow shortly :)

We Watched Movies
While Mom was up, we worked our way thru our dismal DVD collection. First, on Saturday evening, I introduced Mom to quite possibly of my favourite movie of the year so far, The Dark Knight. Then on Sunday evening, we watched Burn After Reading.

On Monday we switched things up a bit and actually went to an afternoon movie at the big-screen. Not a helluva lot showing, but we found one girly mother-daughter option with The Proposal.

Meh, I found it decidedly average. Mostly what I found was that as much as I actually enjoy Sandra Bullock, I wasn't rooting for her character during this. Although I suppose that by the end where "true love triumphs" and they get together for real, you're supposed to be. (Oh sorry, did I spoil it for you? Seriously, you must've known how the film was gonna end? Probably even just from seeing the poor movie poster above, you shoulda known!). And I do quite like Ryan Reynolds, but really, please ... another rich-gem found unsuspectingly hidden in the working classes. I'm getting so freaking tired of this plot-point. Yes, life would be so lovely if the boy we met and fell in love with turned out to be tremendously wealthy and we could while away our days doing the things we really love instead of toiling for a pay-check. But life's not like that. Then again, I guess real life isn't what we're heading to the cinema to see.

And then to finish up, we watched my copy of Grease while we ate dinner.

Ah, Grease, you've gotta love it. It's a classic, and if you're not singing along to most of the songs, where have you been? I can't explain why I love some movies, more especially why I love some movies that were made before I was even a twinkle in someone's eye ... but I do, and Grease & Rocky Horror certainly fit the bill.

We Gymmed
We managed to get to Curves twice in the long weekend (impressive or what?!). Was kinda cool to be gyming with Mom ... and nice for her to see my Curves and compare it to hers, back in Cape Town.

We Shopped
Last weekend I went looking for jackets in the Cape Union Mart sale and the one I really wanted was not on sale. It was still being sold for a whopping R1499. You know the one with the removable fleecy inner. Anyway, so I took Mom off to Clearwater Mall to actually go and finally bite the bullet and make the purchase. And they were having an awesome Women's Day Sale ... on *my* jacket (the K-Way Mont Rosa Ski Jacket). It was marked down to R999. How freaking brilliant is that? I was chuffed.

On Monday after breakfast, I took Mom to the Lifestyle Garden Center because I decided I wanted to garden (must've been the spurt of sunshine this weekend!). My garden shelves have been looking quite dismal and dead lately and they definitely needed a bit of a spruce up. At the moment they're not looking all that much better, because they're quite bare ... but there are seeds in them thar pots! I also got myself a nice Rose (which I'm hoping will survive this time ... because bunnies heart rose petals!) and a Perennial Basil. I coulda got so so much more. The seeds I planted were: Dwarf Sweet Peas (not the climbing ones), Black-Eyed Susan, Nasturtium (I'm hoping the bunnies will enjoy eating it since it usually grows like a weed!), Kale, Chili, Raddish and Beetroot. Hopefully in about a month I'll be able to take a better picture with some growth (finger's crossed!).

And still, we did more...
I took Rex to the Vet on Tuesday morning, which I've mentioned already. I haven't spoken to Varen since Tuesday morning when they actually entered the Canyon to start the hike - a whole day early :) They got bored hanging out at the campsite! I'm thrilled cause hopefully he'll be home a day earlier now. It sounds like it's very hot and it's driving me nuts not being able to touch base with him and hear how it's going (even if only by sms). I'll hear from him again when they finish the hike sometime only on Saturday. Sheesh.

And I think that surely must be all of it!