One of Six

Wow, what a weekend! (I'm pretty sure I probably start each Monday morning's post like that these days - haha!)

Friday started with some spontaneous after-work drinks at Capello's but I couldn't stay too long because I had to head off to Monte Casino to meet Rubyletters and @gc34 for pre-show dinner at Gourmet Garage. OMG, have I mentioned before how much I adore that place? I had a peanut-butter burger (my standard order) and this time tried their cheese&chili fries (instead of the sweet potato fries), and folks, we have a new winner! So delish :)

And then we went to watch Grease. It was pretty cool. I'm not blown-away like I am watching Rocky Horror. I think it's because I've only ever watched the movie before. But I was thoroughly impressed by Jonathan Roxmouth who played Danny!

I was wondering, what is everyone else's favourite character in Grease? I've always loved Rizzo.

After that @gc34 and I met up with some other friends of mine who'd been to the show and went for a few drinks at Cantare. Sadly Ruby had to go home and packed for her big move :(

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Saturday was a big day, the first of my six 30th Birthday Dinner parties (although I realised it's actually the 3rd celebration since I've had the Work-Crowd-Cheese&Wine and the Cape-Town-Family-Dinner!). I had luckily decided what I was making for dinner and just had to head out to the shops for all the ingredients. Little did I know what a mission that would be! I tried 4 *four* Woolworths before I found one that actually stocked the very-specific pasta I needed. If you're wondering, it's conchiglioni, descibed on wikipedia as "large, stuffable seashell shaped", and I can't even find it on Woolies' online shopping site to show you :P

But, I did find it ... although I was seriously beginning to worry because you can't be changing your recipe at 1pm on the day of your dinner party ... well, I don't know if I could!

It all worked out fabulously in the end and I had an absolutely lovely evening with AngelsMind, Rubyletters, @Arkwife, Doodles and @beagle_momma. We ate spinach&ricotta stuffed pasta in tomato sauce with my new salad invention (rocket, roasted sweet potato, mini-corn, feta, avo, cashews, chick-peas and cranberries) and then indulged in delish red-velvet cupcakes from The Cupcake Lady for dessert (which featured as my #365 photo). I even started the evening with gluhwein to warm us up :) It was so lovely to see them all again! Afterwards @Arkwife & I headed to RR, which was great fun :)

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Sunday was a super-super lazy day! I managed to drag myself out of bed (in my defence the weather was playing along perfectly for a day-in-bed) around 1pm and only because I had to clean the bunny hutch and they needed some run-around time. Sheesh but it was freezing yesterday evening. I am super glad I could survive the day on left-overs :)

My First #27Dinner

Right, let me start this post off with some good news (news that is calming my heart). Lily is still saef in the hutch :) I got regular updates thru the day (including a photo at one point) from CollegeInstructor yesterday while I was at work assuring me they were all safe. And then after I spent some time with them outside, I checked on them regularly to make sure they were all still there. And again first thing this morning when I woke up and twice before I left. Just to be sure. Shoo. (Yes, yesterday's #365 photo is of her! haha)

And last night I went to my very first #27Dinner. Behind the times, I know. I always thought it was just a bit too geeky for me, but last night a whole bunch of us from the office decided to go thru and it was great fun :) I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed the talks, especially @EveD and @VinnyLingham (I don't know who the middle guy who spoke was, but it didn't excite me). It was also nice to see some familiar faces for the first time in *ages* (@Jenty and @Exmi).

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Sadly the initial service at Metro Lounge in Benmore left a little to be desired, after our welcome-cocktail, I started coughing (since I'm sick - although doing *much* better thanks!) and ordered a coke to ease my scratchy throat. A good 20 mins later I ordered a second one, from a different waiter, since the first had never appeared (although I'd been told it was on it's way). Eventually I just got up and went straight to the bar myself. Our table also only had our dinner orders taken after the table next to us had pretty much finished eating. That said, the food was quite nice (I don't often eat proper beef-burgers, usually choosing a chicken burger instead, but this was yummy!) Thankfully we found a new, speedy waiter before we got a second round of drinks and the evening improved dramatically :)

Yes, I think I'll be going to the next one.

Not The Way to Start The Day

Am back at work today. And what an eventful (not in a good way) morning it's already been. My heart is still pounding and I've been here almost half an hour already (sorting thru a day of missed work emails!).

I did my normal morning routine, got up, showered, got dressed, hung washing (I love having a timer setting on the machine) and made myself some lunch (okay, those last two aren't really part of the normal routine, but anyway) and then got the bunnies some water in their jug and stepped out of my front door. Only to spot the tiny Lilith sitting in the corner between my rose-pot and fish pond. WHAT?!

So I raced round the corner to see if the whole hutch was open. But nope, there sat Rex & Coal shut inside as usual. Even more: WHAT?! So I tried to coax her out, but she's my most skittish bunny at the best of times and she was having none of it! She raced across the driveway and hid under my car. Bugger. Eventually with *a lot* of racing around trying to fence her in and using a broomstick to herd her, I got her fenced in next to their enclosure and managed to catch her and get her back into the hutch with the other two. She seems fine. At this stage she's probably more fine than me because I'm going to spend my day wondering how she got out and if she could do it again (did I leave her outside the hutch when I shut them in last night ?! I can't imagine I would, I've *never* done it before). But I have CollegeInstructor keeping an eye on them today and he's under strict instructions to call me immediately if anything weird happens (although I've even latched the top door, in case she somehow fell out of there).

The thing that I find *most* worrying tho is that we all (me, Beukes and CollegeInstructor) noticed that the gate to the giant rugby-sized field behind our cottage (where we park out cars and where the bunny enclosure is) was shut last night from about 7pm. It's never been shut in the entire time I've lived there. Now I'm wondering if someone saw Lily out and just closed the gate and didn't bother to tell me?! If that's the case I am seething. Who would do such a thing? She's a poor defenceless tiny bunny, someone's pet, who is used to being safely shut in a hutch in the cold dark night and you don't bother to tell her Mom when you spot that she's escaped? I can't even begin to think of all the things that could've gone horribly wrong over night. There are cats, she could've got thru the fence into the dog's side of the garden and not been able to find her way out (and then I never would've found her cause I never go there), she could've got all the way down the driveway, thru the gate and into the road. Okay, I'm freaking myself out again. *sob* *double sob* I didn't even have time to check her for injury's or cat-scratches this morning after I caught her cause we were both so panic-ed, although she seemed okay, jumping around the hutch as normal.

Other than that, went to SCM as usual on Monday night and spent yesterday home in bed doping myself up with Med-Lemon, cough syrup and oranges in an attempt to ward off this cold. I'm definitely better today than yesterday so let's hope it's working!

ps. that's another of my #365 photos there ... thank goodness it won't be the last of my sweet little thing. *sob*

Cape Town Celebrations

What a whirlwind weekend in Cape Town :) Sadly I think I'm getting sick now :( Fell asleep before 9pm last night, woke up with a blocked nose and a very sore throat at half-past-midnight and again just after 2am.

But, back to the weekend :) The trip to Lanseria was a little fraught. I don't know what but I got my times completely muddled and only really left the office about 15mins before I should've been arriving there. Lanseria is a good 45mins away in traffic, and there is *always* traffic on that awful road, and trucks, and stop-go's. So was having a serious panic when I also continued to hit every single red-robot en route.

But I made it in time and even got an aisle seat, 2nd row from the front! And then I arrived at the newly revamped Cape Town airport. Sheesh but the place has changed, I didn't recognise it at all! Plus it led to all sorts of tricky instructions trying to find my folks at the pick-up point (that stayed in the same place but I came out of the airport in a completely different exit. (To be honest their signage to the pick-up point kinda sucks at the moment).

And then it was back to Dad's house and some family friends came round for a drink. It was kinda weird being on time-share with my folks for the first time - haha.

On Saturday morning I'd made an appointment to see a Numerologist (she figures stuff out based on the numbers from your date of birth and name) my mom has been going to (even The Peeb has been). I've never tried any other sort of fortune-telling type stuff before, but Mom has done loads of it, from Tarot to Astrology to Psychics. But hey, as I said, 30 is my year of trying new things so off I went.

It was quite interesting. I'm not sure I believe in all of it tho. Apparently my life lesson is "Betrayal by Men". There was more stuff written here but it got weirdly corrupted and now I have no idea anymore what it said o_0

Then I hung out with Dad for a bit, and we had a bit of an impromtu trip to Kalk Bay but, because we had started out going shopping I hadn't taken my camera with me :( It is always lovely to see the sea tho :) And then it was time to move to Mom's new house. So glad to have finally seen her new little house, I think it's perfect for her, it's so light and airy. and then the 2 of us went to visit The Peeb for tea.

On Saturday evening I got all dressed up and we headed off to Kitima's in Hout Bay for my 30th birthday celebration with the family. It was awesome. They seated the 11 of us at a round table in a beautiful private room. The food was yummy. I would definitely recommend the Spring Roll Platter (my starter), I think it's such a cool idea to offer one of each Spring Roll :) Then I had the Red Duck Curry for mains which was good, but I would order something different if I went again. And then for dessert I had their Dark Chocolate Chili Mousse, which doesn't look like much, but it packs a punch! I also got a 2nd dessert with a candle in it :)

Did I mention I made use of the bath at both the folks' houses on each night of my stay? Can you tell how much I miss lazing in a bath with my book? A lot.

On Sunday morning I met up with Jam and The Divine Miss M at Bistro 1682 for brunch. Was so lovely seeing them both and catching up in such a gorgeous setting. And the food was yummy too :)

Am so glad I had such lovely weather for my weekend down there! I didn't do much else except hang out with Mom & Dad before I had to head back to the airport :(

Weekly Round Up

So Monday was an epic SCM Dinner. Seriously I think we had about 20 people (not a *huge* exaggeration) over and @clairam managed to feed them all :) Was awesome tho, exactly the evening I needed. (I promise to not throw around any in-jokes on here).

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On Tuesday I spent the evening glued to my computer (we'd had no power on Monday afternoon/evening) catching up on my #365 project. Some days the taking of photos is difficult, some days it is easy, but the bit that's always tough is downloading the 100-odd I took each day and sifting thru to find a gem to post to flikr. I've only had one day so far (Tuesday, in fact, I think) where I haven't been at all thrilled with any of the pics and have had to just settle in the end for the best of a bad bunch. But hey, it's all about experimentation and I was trying to get an evening shot of the moon using @tfrayne's GorillaPod (she's lent it to me for a little while so I can decide if I want to get one for myself since I've found I definitely struggle with in-focus long-exposure shots, as is typical in low-light situations).

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I have included 3 of my #365 photos here (since I'm not putting the link up) for you to see. Oddly the shot of the lights (which is one of my favourite pics so far), wasn't done using a tripod. The bunnies are also making marvelous subjects :) Although Lily has become my most frequent little model surprisingly enough! Rex is very difficult to get properly into focus because he moves so much and he really doesn't seem to like having this big camera pointed at him - or maybe it's the click-noise that bothers him. And Coal, well Coal is usually distracted by digging the biggest hole in the garden. And with all that digging motion, she also doesn't often make for good photographs ... luckily the day I took the photo here she was in a rare playful mood and sat posing nicely for me for ages :)

And then last night, I finally actually "subscribed" (yes, paid for!) to the online dating. Before I'd just put up my profile and people could contact me, but I couldn't reply or message anyone. So last week I sorta decided that if I was going to do this I might as well do it properly and planned to subscribe on the weekend, but there wasn't a free minute to sit down and actually do it, on Monday there was no power and on Tuesday I was drowning in photographs and on Wednesday I figured I couldn't put it off any longer.

Although I did debate again whether I should bother signing up. I mean don't get me wrong, last week I had a lot of fun with dipping my toes into the world of online dating, but once you've put your photo up and you get 50million profile views in half an hour ... well, after that everything seems mundane - haha! But, after subscribing yesterday evening my interest got piqued again. I imagine it'll be on a constant ebb-and-flow, honestly. I wrote back to a few of the people who'd sent me messages that I hadn't immediately deleted due to exasperation. Honestly, I have definitely had messages from guys who are pretty much the online version of those construction workers who cat-call and whistle as every girl walks past ... and all the girls are thinking "Dude, does that really *ever* work for you?". Trying their luck.

I'm being pretty brutal about my non-negotiables tho. That's one of the perks of this. You get to browse, which is not unlike people-watching while out at a club, but now you get to immediately check out if there are any red-flags before you even speak to them. Although there is plenty you have no idea about, but you can just cull the herd a little with key factors like age and, for me, regular or weekly religious attendance.

So yes, last night I started replying to messages. I even sent 2 unsolicited messages of my own. Which was nerve-wracking in itself. But hey, as @beagle_momma said to me, what's the worst that could happen ... they don't reply ... and you've still never met them in real life, so it's not like they "know" you ... somehow it takes some of the sting out of the rejection. Oh, and ps. a one-line "hey how's things going" might work as an initiation message, but if you stick with the one-line replies, things are going to get very boring, very quickly.

I am still definitely not ready for the big-leagues yet, making a plan to meet someone in real life freaks me out completely. But I figure we'll warm up to it ... maybe?

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And then I went to get some dinner with CollegeInstructor at Royal Thai, which was yummy :)

Something else I wanted to mention that I've noticed is that I seem unable to commit to my Peru trip. Something is stopping me. Mostly I am blaming it on the inability to decide if I want to sign-up for a 4-day hike in the mountains (read Inca Trail) or not. It seems quite daunting to me. But I don't know if I'm just making excuses. It's nearly the end of May and I haven't booked this year's trip yet ... it's bothering me but I seem unable to do anything about it. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker

If the world knew anything about Sqweegel, we'd never leave the house. Not that staying inside would make us safe...The only people who have ever heard that awful name are in the highly secret Special Circumstances unit at the FBI. He is a psychopath who has killed and tortured more than thirty five people over a span of twenty three years. The only person who has ever come close to catching him is Steve Dark, and he's left the business. After what happened to Dark's family, few blame him. But after a period of quiet, Sqweegel makes himself known again, and this time the victim has connections to the very highest corridors of power. Now, the man in charge demands results and is prepared to raise the stakes for all the special agents who failed so many times before. With their jobs - and their lives - on the line, the call goes out. Find Steve Dark and bring him back into the fold. It's the only hope they've got.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I read it in a weekend. The only thing I really didn't like was the bad-guy's name "Sqweegel". It does not read easily and constantly annoyed me. Other than that, great stuff and I look forward to more!

* This book is part of the Level 26 series: Dark Origins (2009)

Oh My Hat

Wow, I kinda naively thought that was going to be a quiet weekend. I was wrong. At least my knees have recovered ;)

Shoo, where to start. I guess Friday was kinda quiet, until about 21h30 when TheHousemate, DJMike and I headed off to The Hat. Now I haven't been to The Hat in probably three years ...and admittedly that last time is one of my best memories of a night out in Joburg. So I was skeptical to go again. But you know, variety is the spice of life so what the hell.

It turned out to be a pretty okay evening. I had a good laugh at some of the people there. I'm not so in-tune with the pretentious, popped-collar crowd. And although I was a little nervous of being the oldest person there, I wasn't. We got home at a fairly decent time.

On Saturday I popped in to finally check out Rhinestone Cowboy (where I saw a gorgeous necklace that I can't quite justify buying ... yet) and then did some boring admin type stuff and grocery shopping (riveting, I know). Got home, spent some time with the bunnies and then made some Veggie Bunny-Chow with Chickpeas (although I only ate some on Sunday for lunch, but it was yummy!).

And then TheHousemate & I headed over to DJMike's to watch the Stormer-Bulls game (Yay, we won) and braai. And somehow, we ended up back at The Hat (in my defence there were a few other people watching the rugby with us who instigated the whole thing ... and hey, the alternative was to go home to bed :P). I'll say that the place is quite different on a Saturday night. Much quieter, different crowd and they don't even open all the bars.

I doubt I'll be heading back in a hurry, but truth be told, I'm not a purist about clubs / venues. If I know enough people at a place, and everyone's having fun, it doesn't matter where I am. And I will dance to just about any music too. I do definitely prefer the less "dressed-up" aspect of Red Room over The Hat & Movida tho. And man, I am just not cut out for dancing in heels 2 nights in a row ... since I pretty much *never* wear heels on a day-to-day basis. And man did I suffer for it on Sunday. Luckily I seem okay again today.

Sunday started with crumpets for breakfast, so yummy, I'm glad I made the effort, I haven't had them in ages! And then The Housemate & I hit the movies to finally watch Iron Man 2.

Sigh. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one (even ignoring the annoying children in the cinema, and even more peculiar to me, adults in the cinema who *laughed* during the new Leon Schuster trailer ... now wtf is that about?). Robert Downey just wasn't as swoon-worthy in this one. Normally it's that perfect balance of charm and cockiness that wins, but I found the charm lacking in this one. And (yuck) there was silly Scarlett too :P I will say she does look better with dark hair. But please, if you've got to have her for the eye-candy ... don't let her speak. Gwyneth was insignificant. But Mickey Rourke was *brilliant* (I've only just realised it was him when I wikipedia-ed it!). So yeah, I'd say you've kinda gotta go see it, but I won't be watching it multiple times at home like the first one ...

After that I had a whirlwind rush eating some of my bunny-chow for lunch, cleaning the rabbit hutch and getting ready, I had a wedding to go to!

My first Jewish Wedding, and it was Orthodox even. I can't say much about the ceremony, I think they should really look into the whole big screen option because I couldn't see any of the bride or groom thruout. To me it mostly looked as tho they were playing a game of how-many-people-can-we-fit-under-the-chuppah. And there is a *lot* of standing. Which is probably normally fine, but I was in heels (again!) and my knees were so so sore.

The reception was awesome tho. Unbelievably festive! And I was super *super* impressed at the spread of food waiting there for us to tide us over while the bridal couple did their photos (other weddings could definitely learn a lesson here!). And the food was delish (the most divine kosher sausages, and they had a little pita oven where they were making fresh pitas served with hummus). The decor inside was also beautifully done. And let me tell you, I've seen fewer festive things than when the bride & groom finally did arrive. It was quite spectacular to watch them all dancing and singing. And then there was just more and more and more food (the dessert spread nearly killed me!).

But *yawn*, I left relatively early (for a wedding, not for a Sunday night!). I haven't been to a wedding in a while and it was such a lovely reminder to see two people so happy together :)

Title Unknown

Went to see The Men Who Stare at Goats on Wednesday evening. It was quite disappointing really because it turned out to be one of those movies where all the funny bits are in the trailer ... and some of the funny bits in the trailer weren't even in the movie (wtf?).

Decidedly average and I wouldn't bother recommending it if you haven't already seen it. Which is quite surprising considering the star-studded cast.

Anyway, and then yesterday we had a company lunch at Buitengeluk. Which was great fun :) A whole lot of us ended up moving on to Outer Limits afterwards and I eventually left at 18h30 for book club.

Sheesh, that one paragraph doesn't quite do justice to the very full day I had yesterday, but it was awesome. I am, however, super glad that today is Friday :)

Up for Renewal by Cathy Alter

This is the story of a recently divorced, eternally hopeful woman in her 30s who decides to turn her life around with the how-to-wisdom gained from today's woman's magazines. For the next twelve months, men fall at her feet, stains miraculously disappear with apple vinegar, coworkers crumble with the firm shaking of a pen, and wardrobes defy even the staunchest edict of hemline. Well, that was at least the premise of the yearlong social experiment. In the end, what she learns is this: The only constant thing in life is change. To truly grow is to suffer transition - out of a damaging relationship, a rotten job, the illness of a loved one. Funny, relatable and genuine, UP FOR RENEWAL explores the hilarious (and ultimately moving) uncharted territory of life by the book - or by the magazine.

I thought this was quite a fun book. Maybe because I personally never read magazines except when in waiting rooms. (Except for Pick n Pay's Fresh Living magazine, which I subscribe to .... and a few years back I was subscribed to Glamour). And to be fair, in waiting rooms, the best magazines to read are things like Heat with lots of pictures and short bursts of information, nothing longer than 3 paragraphs! Anyway, I doubt I'll be subscribing to change my life any time soon, but it was still a fun read :)

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Taking it Online

Wow, apparently yesterday was post *1000*, which I know is not exactly true because some posts have never been published. But still, they've been written. Not a bad achievement, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, enough with the faux celebrations, after yesterdays post, I found myself weighing up the idea of internet dating ... after making myself a delicious salad for dinner - I know, who is this person?! But I had sort of intended to go to gym, I kinda sorta intend going almost everyday, but somehow I never quite get there. Exercise doesn't excite me. So I figured the next best thing I can do is make healthy dinners, instead of comfort-in-this-cold-weather food like pastas. My salad was quite delish honestly (and I'll admit I don't usually make salad because I find them about as boring as gym, but they can definitely be made more interesting, which is what I did). I used a base of Rocket leaves and added some Roast Veggies and chopped mini sweet-corn. Threw on some Danish Feta (soft feta is sooo much better imho), avocado, cashew nuts and topped it off with moist sliced biltong. Yay, I can't wait for the left-overs for lunch :) I will admit that I did originally intend to add some cooked pasta & pesto, but completely forgot. Next time :)

Right, back to the internet dating. So I had been saying for a while that along with trying out speed dating, I'd give the online dating scene a bash. I mean, I've never done either of those things before and hey, when you're single at 30, I figure they're worth experimenting with :) I put it off blaming my no-internet-at-home, but since I've had internet in the privacy of my own home for about a month now and yesterday's post really triggered a nerve with me about being proactive, I started to browse.

Let me say upfront, browsing is pretty much useless. They tell you it's free and all that but most sites (and a lot of them seem to be the same site "under the hood") show you about 5 profiles and then make you sign up. Fair enough, it's free to sign up. So I bit the bullet and registered. Sheesh but it's hard when you have to start describing why someone should date you. Me, I like those easy to answer drop-down boxes. But I got it all filled in ... despite still desperately wishing for a "disable" button. You know, I don't want to delete my profile, but I was kinda hoping it wouldn't go public just yet ... But I can update it as I go and as I figure out what other people are saying and what I'm reading that works for me. So I did it. And I've made some tweaks this morning already. Haha.

I'm still completely terrified tho. And I've been trying to work out what terrifies me exactly. I mean yes some of my friends have hysterical and horror stories about meeting people online. But I know many others who have met their life partners too. I was able to sum up part of the problem almost immediately when I was browsing thru the men the site decided were "matches" for me and found 2 boys that I recognised from their photographs. That terrifies me. People I know finding me. And that just sounds silly, because where is the shame in internet dating, most people have at least tried it. And hello, I'm single at 30, I'm meeting people where I can.

The other part that troubles me is that I am a very online person (which is why I would've thought I'd be more comfortable with this whole thing honestly) but, my online person and my real person are not the same, I mean they are in terms of what I write, but I'm still not using my real name here, you know? I can't figure out quite why I'd rather that any potential people weren't actually reading my blog or twitter feed, perhaps because of what I may say about them and also because it does give them the upper hand (I don't need another person trying to fake their way into a relationship with me :P)

So yeah, so far this morning I've already blocked 2 people who "favourited" me. What fascinates me is that it tells you how well you match and dude, seriously, even if I'm a 99% match for you, if you're a less than 45% match for me, there is *no* chance. Mkay, honestly tho, if you're a less than 80% match for me there is probably no chance. Haha, just after pressing publish on this I got my first message from someone. And what's the first thing I notice (which he clearly didn't ?!?) is "He isn't a match for you because of several incompatibilities". Erm then why is he bothering. Is this just a numbers game for some people?

Last question: "How honest have you been in your profile?" ... really, why would people start telling the truth now?less than a minute ago via Seesmicphillygirl
philly_girl

Oh, and ps. that awesome tweet-box above was made with Blackbird Pie.

Boys. Pfft.

Am in a weird head space this morning. I know things are going great and life is good and mostly exciting (or at least I'm sure it sounds that way from the outside), but inside it's missing something. I need to meet more people. And I don't think that just means "meet more potential boys", I think it's about just broadening my social circle and meeting new people in general, who know other people and meeting them too.

I'm also a little disillusioned with the whole "boy thing" (which is why it definitely extends to meeting more potential boys ... probably at some point I should start calling them men?) It's no wonder things are so freaking confusing. It's largely our fault (and I take full responsibility as a girl here too!), I can't imagine how any of them can expect to get it right. (And don't be mistaken, even knowing this, I still expect them to - haha!).

Girls are crazy. It's the weirdest thing. I dunno if it's just me, but I suspect it's not. We want our men to behave in a certain way (perhaps the way is what differs between girls, but I'm not even sure of that). For me, I want someone to be confident and bold and know what they want. And to go out and get it. Mostly because I like to think that's how I am, I find the world a happier place when I'm getting what I want (haha!). And I think I need (and I think I want) someone who won't be a push-over for me and someone who will stand up for what they want too.

But on the flip side of that coin, I only want that determination in certain people, in the people I like. Receiving that kind of dogged and determined attention from someone you didn't like would be just downright annoying. Sigh. They'd never believe you when you said you weren't interested. And how on earth are they supposed to know which category they are in? I have *no* idea. But they should. Dammit.

I can't count the number of times I'm faced with a situation and think "The perfect thing for him to do right now would be ...". But of course the boys never do those things and they no doubt never even cross their minds.

That's not all true, to be fair. There are some boys out there like that (apparently). I'll admit it was a large part of Varen's initial appeal. Sadly it turned out just to be a ploy to attract the girl and those qualities were definitely lacking by the end of our relationship. Is it simply confidence and self-awareness?

I don't know. I do know that this whole "boy thing" is much harder 6 years later. It doesn't come as easily to me - am I just out of practice with the game of flirting or am I just more guarded by my experiences. Haha, a few weeks back I met someone and after an approx 5 minute discussion I was like "I'm sorry, I can't speak to you anymore, I've already dated you, it doesn't end well". And no, I hadn't really dated the guy, I'd just met him. But he was such a combination of bits of Bean and bits of Varen (sadly not all the best bits!). It was kinda frightening, honestly.

That's not to say I haven't met some fab boys so far, I have, I think. Nothing that has swept me off my feet and no one I'd consider dating seriously, tho. (In the future, I mean, because I'm so not in a serious-dating place right now) I know it can't simply be that all the good ones are already taken ... right?

Yep, I am definitely feeling out of sorts about things.

More Weekend Stuffs

Mkay, I know, I know last week was a terrible blogging week by me. And it wasn't that nothing happened exactly, it was just I wasn't in a writing mood. And now I can't remember what happened. I know I had poker at my house on Wednesday evening and that was great fun. I didn't get back into my new gym routine after Tuesday (late nights kill these early morning sessions!) and the weather sure hasn't helped at all either (especially this morning!). And I did get my tire fixed :)

On Friday we left work early and headed to my manager's house for a team-braai. Which was pretty cool. We ended the evening watching Role Models. Which was more amusing than I was expecting, but otherwise a completely average formulaic movie. Ideal for a tired Friday night.

Saturday was a little crazy, had one of those admin weekends where you drive between 50 million different shopping malls and when you get home you realise how many things you still didn't get done. I'd say most of my day was spent looking for parking :P Seriously! As Loulou said when I bumped into her, it's like a rained-out public holiday in the malls.

Later it was off to J9-double0blonde's house for a bachelorette party she was throwing. This was much more fun than the kitchen tea a few weeks back :) (even with the games - haha). And then the bachelorette girls went to Movida and I headed off to RR. Which turned out to be a fun night (definitely better than last week, but not better than the pre-birthday weekend). Sheesh, I have been 30 for 2 weeks already!

Sunday was lazy till about midday then filled with disappointing admin because so many shops seemed to close at 2pm (what is that about?!?). And then I climbed back into bed and finished my book and watched Wall-E (yes, I haven't seen it yet!). Meh, it was okay, kinda cute. But I can't understand why someone would watch it more than once.

And this morning was just a disaster. Was woken by the thunder & lightning at 2am and managed to get the tarp over the bunnies (using my sneaky broom-stick-thru-the-window) and back to sleep. Was pouring again when I woke up early for gym so set my alarm forward and went back to sleep again. Finally woke up at normal time only to discover there was no electricity. So showered by candle-light (not the worst start to the morning ... I'd rather have the electricity out than no hot water!!). And then when it was finally time to leave, phoned the land-lady about the gate (she promised us a key for manual mode after the last time we got stuck inside with no electricity) ... apparently they were struggling to switch it to manual mode and blah blah clearly the electrician didn't come last time because the battery is supposed to last for 2-3 days (excuses excuses, always excuses). Anyway, so I sat around inside waiting for about 15 mins till they got it sorted and I could finally leave the property and get to work. Awesomeness. And now the sun seems to be peeking thru the clouds. Here's hoping the day improves ;)

The Wheels Fell Off

Yup, I managed to get up and exercising before work again ... *and* after a night at SCM Dinner :) Am so proud.

Last night was interesting. I burst a tire, which I am super unimpressed about. I am not entirely sure how I did it. It was dark and rainy as I left my house for SCM, and I sort of hit a curb going round a corner and there was a load accident-type sound. But I kept driving. Luckily I was in dire need of petrol so was on my way to a petrol station anyway. When I got there I got out my car to check the damage, thinking perhaps I'd dented my bumper or something? Nope, my tire was flat on the ground. I have no idea how bad things could've been had I not needed petrol because before I saw my flat tire, I had no idea there was any problem with it and I was about to head off onto the highway in the dark and rain :P Sheesh.

But as I said, I was lucky. Two very nice petrol attendants changed my tire for me ... admittedly only after I got out the manual and tracked down the tool box and figured out where my spare tire was hidden. Blegh, so now I need to go and buy a whole new tire. Am so not looking forward to that since I also have to pay another exorbitant lawyers bill.

Yup, yesterday I also went and signed the final papers for the transfer of the house I have been in the process of buying since early March (five days short of two months ago already). I'm kinda hoping it'll all get wrapped up in the next 2 months, but am not holding my breath. Between the municipality being on strike (which means they still don't have Rates Clearance or something) and a giant backlog at the deeds office, I'm hoping it'll be as soon as the next 2 months, actually.

Whee Kend

Wow, what a full weekend :) Was freaking cool. But first let me just fill you in on this morning's amazingness on my part. I've already been to gym today. Yes, that's right. After 2 months off, I started today, like I said I would *and* I woke up half an hour earlier (in this dark, but thankfully not-cold-today weather) to do it. Here's to keeping positive and keeping this up :) Yay, finger's crossed. (Note to self: I will probably be falling asleep at my desk come 3pm, but for now I'm all happy and shiny).

So the weekend. It started with after-work drinks at Rocket. Quite a nice little spot, although they were pretty damn rude about us moving tables around to accommodate our whole group (kept telling us they needed them for their evening bookings although we were done with them before anyone came needing them :P) I think I'd try it for dinner sometime tho.

After that it was off to the Central Grill at Cedar Square for DJMike's birthday drinks. Not a bad place, I had a nice Nutty Cous Cous Pasta there. Meh, not really my sorta place tho. After that Beukes, DJMike & I headed off for a final drink at FTv and discovered they were having a Cowboy night.

They had a mechanical bull and I couldn't go home without a turn ... I mean, hello, I just turned 30, one has to at least have tried these things. What's the worst that could happen? Well, honestly the worst that can happen is that you can't actually get onto the damn thing. Which nearly happened to me. I mean really, those things are high. They should come with a little step to make them easier to get onto! But eventually I managed. And I managed to stay on the bull for a whole 37seconds. To put it in perspective, of the girls, the shortest time was 2seconds and the longest a little over 50 ... so I was pretty average, which considering I've almost never ridden a horse in my lifetime, I'm quite impressed about!

On Saturday morning I meant to get up bright & early and start getting ready for the party (a Cheese & Wine with the work crowd, the first of my six 30th celebrations). But I fell back asleep for and hour & half instead of just half an hour. and then had a long chat to The Mom who spent her first night in her new home. But I did manage to get everything done :) I went off to Varen's aunt & uncle's cheese shop for supplies. It was a bit weird, but I survived. And then I got a nice piece of Masonite board for a mere R40 which I covered in wax-paper to protect my new table (stroke of genius by The Mom!).

And then it was off to the shops to buy all the supplies. And a little relaxing outside with the Bunnies and then more prep-work before the guests arrived. Which they did on the dot ... I wasn't even dressed yet :P Haha. But it worked out great and I had a lovely lovely evening with everyone who came (16 plus me in the end!). Here's a before and after shot of the table ... pics did not come out great because I don't have a tripod to keep the longer exposures stable :( And of course there's the whole annoying yellow indoor light thing. Although I now know how to change the settings on my camera, remembering to do so is still not second nature!





Everyone left at about 23h30 so Beukes & I attempted RR. We came home early tho, it was a very weird vibe, nothing like the last few weeks and almost felt like and entirely different crowd was there.But it turned out to be fore the best because I certainly couldn't have survived Sunday with any less sleep - haha.

Woke up to my alarm at 9am and proceeded to clean the house (quite impressive, if you ask me!) and then headed off to The Chinese Market in Bruma with Loulou and J9-double0blonde. Was actually quite an awesome outing, although J9 & I didn't end up actually buying anything (I did try on some stuff in my defense!) And we had yummy Chinese food for lunch.

Later I went to watch Kick Ass. Which was pretty silly. Plus I could not believe how packed Monte Casino was on a Sunday evening. I dunno, I mean the trailer looked amusing, and I did kind of like the concept of the movie, but it wasn't especially great. Have to find time in the next few weeks to watch Iron Man2 (swoon, Robert Downey Jnr) and Men Who Talk to Goats. I love it when I'm spoilt for choice at the movies :) Such a nice change from looking thru the listings wondering what they were thinking.