Twenty-Eleven

Oh hello there 2011. I am SO not ready to meet you! But while I recover from the reeling discovery that you've arrived anyway, let's reflect on my little jaunt down to Cape Town, shall we? Fabulous.

As is tradition over our Summer Christmas time, as much time as possible was spent at The Beach Cottage. Bliss, I tell ya! Sadly tho, for all the days I was in Cape Town, the weather was pretty useless and un-summery. It was windy as all hell. So not a lot of time actually spent on the beach. But hey, that's what Beach Cottages are for, the view, the sound and the smell but sheltered from the howling gales! Haha.

Still, it was fabulous despite the weather and I think I saw more animals than ever before while there! We had a fabulous humpback whale sighting (our cottage looks onto False Bay). This was obviously a juvenile with it's mom (not that we saw her properly, but we assumed) and he was having the *best* time. As they swam across our view, he just kept jumping up and breaching, continuously. Honestly, he must've done it like 15 times at least! It was awesome :)

I had the best Cape Clawless Sea-Otter experience of my life! I was down taking our border-collie Pickle for a walk on the beach and the otter popped out of the water just in front of me! And he kept swimming out and coming back onto the rocks along the shore in front of me. Seriously, it was unbelievable! (these photos were taken by Mom from up at the house - I *wish* I'd had my camera with me!!)

We had 9 Egyptian geese before Xmas day (think the wind got a bit much for them!). It was the mom, dad and 7 babies (now young adults) we'd seen last year :) And there were 2 pairs of Oyster Catchers this year! Although, I found one of their babies sitting in the rocks ... hope he survived!

We had our usual Baboon invasions. And even had a little Mongoose visit our stoep where we sat watching him watching us for a good 15 minutes. And the Scorpion count for the whole holiday was THREE! That's more than I remember in ages.

Oh, and the *most* import animal of all I saw, was by far The Peeb's new leetle kitty, Nama. Oh. My. Word. She is the cutest thing. I almost brought her home with me :) I heart her!I ate out (excessively) and caught up with friends and family.
So, on the Monday night, I had dinner with The Divine Miss M and EvilBob and The Fat Cactus (the original one!), one of my all time favourite Cape Town spots! And it didn't disappoint :)

On Tuesday, Mom came up from the cottage for the day so we had lunch together at Mugg & Bean. That evening I met up with Jam for Wine & Pizza night at Oblivion.

On Wednesday I took my gran to Kirstenbosch for lunch (and a good walk around). I adore the Living Wall (part of the Untamed exhibition) they've got up there at the moment :) That's a "slightly overcast" Kirstenbosch in the photo - haha. Felt all Lord-of-the-Rings-y :)

Then I went for sundowners with Interviewing For a Husband at Rick's Cafe, just off Kloof street. There wasn't much sun to speak of, so the spot was irrelevant, but looks pretty cool still. That was followed by a late dinner with Daddio at a new Thai spot called Rock.

On Thursday I had lunch with The Bunny Farmer at Peddlars and then headed off to drink at The Brass Bell with EvilBob and Bokkie. Sheesh, what a hassle with Main Road only a one way now! Brass Bell is a lovely spot, but wow did the service that day ever SUCK! Then I had a very disappointing (food and service-wise) dinner at Bertha's with Mom.

To end off the holiday, we had our second now-annual Grand-Girl's (all the girl cousins) dinner on Saturday evening at Bacini's in Kloof street. I had a divine pizza! Ricotta, roasted brinjal, spinach and sun-dried tomato, which I added bacon to. Sublime :)

And a quick breakfast at the Airport Wimpy before my departure on Sunday morning with Daddio, Mom and The Peeb.I read books.
So, I followed Xmas tradition and stuck with Daddio's JDRobb novels, but this year I only got thru 3. And sadly it is getting trickier to go in the right order ... Oh well.



16. Portrait in Death
18. Divided in Death
20. Survivor in Death

Oh, and on my flight home, I started my newly purchased book, Moxyland. I found a signed copy while in Cape Town - score!

* This book is part of the In Death series: Naked in Death (1995), Glory in Death (1995), Immortal in Death (1996), Rapture in Death (1996), Ceremony in Death (1997), Vengeance in Death (1997), Holiday in Death (1998), ~Midnight in Death (1998), Conspiracy in Death (1999), Loyalty in Death (1999), Witness in Death (2000), Judgment in Death (2000), Betrayal in Death (2001), ~Interlude in Death (2001), Seduction in Death (2001), Reunion in Death (2002), Purity in Death (2002), Portrait in Death (2003), Imitation in Death (2003), Divided in Death (2004), Visions in Death (2004), Survivor in Death (2005), Origin in Death (2005), Memory in Death (2006), ~Haunted in Death (2006), Born in Death (2006), Innocent in Death (2007), Creation in Death (2007), ~Eternity in Death (2007), Strangers in Death (2008), Salvation in Death (2008), ~Ritual in Death (2008), Promises in Death (2009), Kindred in Death (2009), ~Missing in Death (2009), Fantasy in Death (2010), Indulgence in Death (2010), ~Possession in Death (2010) ~ included in Anthologies

I found photos.
I went thru a lot of albums and had negatives reprinted and came home with a pile of old family photos for my Project Photo Wall. It is going to be *awesome* :) Hahahaha, but now I need to buy more frames. And, I've realised, I need to find someone with an eye for mounting, actually ... ah well, something else to add to the busy-list for 2011.

So yeah, an awesome holiday by any standard. I also watched plenty of Series with Daddio on his giant fancy-ass big screen tv: Un. Be. Leivable. I was almost converted to justifying the expense! But I figured Holiday 2011 is a far more important use of my cash right now ;) Oh, and another highlight was sipping on a freshly made Pisco Sour with Daddio - I taught him how to make them with the Peruvian Pisco I bought him in Peru. Present swap will have to be another post tho ... haha.

Oh, and I used Airport Parking Services while I was away, and was definitely impressed. Although the nice job they did cleaning my car has already been ruined by all the rain we've had ;) Haha. I think I'd use them again.