A Weekend With The Mom

Shoo, and now to report back on a lovely long weekend, that was crammed full!

As I said before, Mom was up in Joeys visiting so we kept ourselves super busy, doing all the mother-daughter shopping we don't get to do being cities apart. Friday night started with dinner at Orient. We decided to share their chicken satay, vegetable tempura and Peking-style Duck. The satay sauce was delish, but we could've done without the tempura. The starters were a little cold for me, but the place was packed and our waitress distracted so I don't think that's the norm. The Peking Duck was yummy, but I have no idea how one person eats it on their own!

On Saturday we started with breakfast at Mugg&Bean and then hit a whole list of furniture shops (with me on the hunt for a dining-room table and Mom looking for ideas for her new house). And I took her past the complex my almost-bought studio apartment is in :)

I found a new table to covet at Weylandts ... but it is 3 times more expensive than the (very cheap) last one. I spent the rest of the weekend weighing up the decision and decided to buy it yesterday. It's about the average price of a square 1.5m dining room table (from the many I've been looking at) and I'm over the last one after the bad service and realising just how much effort Mango-wood is likely to be (it's a soft wood and requires regular oiling and I even read on a website that you should leave a humidifier on in drier climates ... Joburg, hello? Sounds like too much maintenance for me).

It's a square teak table with a slatted top but is actually for outdoor use ... it's been soaked in mud for a week or something. It's got a gorgeous finish (because it's unfinished wood, if that makes sense). Hopefully I'll do the EFT today and it'll arrive early next week. (Sadly can't find the exact table on their website :( ) **Update** I found it after I received the invoice with the actual Table name on it. It's the Casa Slatted Teak Table :) Sadly, it doesn't have a great photo attached :P

I know it probably sounds mad, but I've realised that a dining room table is an essential item for me, more so that a TV. I'm feeling so stifled food-wise without one (mad, I know). I feel like I can't cook, or there is no point in cooking, because I have no where to eat at the moment. And now that it's just me, really, I want to be able to invite people over for dinners, so that I can cook again (pointless just for one, really!). So I decided, after much um-ing and ah-ing, to make an investment in my dining room table, and get the one I really wanted.

Now to find chairs ... I was all set on those white chairs from @home (which they no longer seem to have, sadly), or just white chairs in general for some reason. But I saw a picture in a magazine this weekend and am now thinking of old-style farm chairs painted in enamel red. Something like that picture on the right.

I also discovered Mr Price Home has the ladder desks in stock again. Can you spell *annoyed* ... they told me they hadn't had new stock of those in months and weren't even sure if they were going to get any more ... and now, a *week* later, there they are! I would've totally waited a week to get the couch if I'd known! Then after some afternoon relaxing at home, I took Mom for an early dinner at Yamada Sushi, which was delish, as always.

On Sunday we decided to catch the early (10am) show of Alice in Wonderland 3D at Il Grande. Meh, the movie was okay, I wasn't hugely blown away. The story-line is pretty dull, but I guess it was just a great excuse for some gorgeous creativity. Helena Bonham-Carter was quite perfect in her role, I thought. It was Mom's first 3D movie :) But I think I can now say that I'm over the excessive expensive of unimpressive 3D. 3D just doesn't blow me away, for the most part I don't actually think I even notice it that much anyway.

After that we went to check out the Bird Gardens. It was smaller than I expected, but fun to walk around. I don't actually know how long it's been there, but I'd never been before. I think it's worth a morning outing.

Then we had lunch at Gourmet Garage. I had their Peanut Butter Burger, which was divine. It's weird, I never think of going to Gourmet Garage, but they actually have divine burgers! We also had their sweet-potato fries on the side ... which to be fair are not actually fries, but more like crisps. And then we relaxed for the rest of Sunday (it is supposed to be a bit of a holiday for Mom, can't run her off her feet all day every day ;) )

On Monday we were up pretty early and ready to hit the shops again, this time on the hunt for some new clothes ... Mom visiting me in Joburg is always an expensive expedition but she does usually re-stock her wardrobe each visit ;) We went to Sandton and left laden with shopping bags! And then we headed back to Weylandts to make the final decision on my dining room table.

And after another few hours relaxing at home, Mom had to head back to Cape Town :( Till next time ...

(I think that's everything we crammed int our weekend, but it's a bit of a blur already by Tuesday morning ;) )

Then I headed off to @jarredcinman's for some drinks to end off the long weekend. Definitely a good one.

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