My First Girl Geek Dinner

Well it's been quite a busy week. That's how this time of the year goes, really. I'm looking at my calendar and really it's quite crazy.

So what has this week held ... On Monday night The Trucker came over for a quiet evening at home.

On Tuesday the Photo Cushions I'd ordered off a GroupOn Deal arrived :D I ordered one for myself (made up of 25 pics from all my trips since 2004 and now) and The Peeb and I decided to get one for my gran for Xmas (with photos of us). I actually prefer how this one came out, it had only 16 photos. I will say I was a little nervous because after they adjusted the photos I'd sent them, they looked quite washed out. But I didn't make any changes, I figure they have experimented and know what works best for printing. I'm pretty happy with it as an awesome novelty item. The material is pretty weird and a 50x50cm cushion is also a lot bigger than I thought - haha.



On Tuesday evening I headed to SCM Dinner. I haven't been in a while. Like I said, life is busy so it's the social engagement that takes the knock if I have too much else going on. It was quiet (only 5 of us), but good.




On Wednesday evening I went to the Girl Geek Dinner's First Birthday Dinner at Outer Limits. It was the first Girl Geek Dinner I've been to. I learned with the 27Dinners that they were the most fun when you were there with people you knew ... if not in real life, at least well-enough via Twitter. I'm not really there to network. I'm quite happy to meet some of the people I follow, but mostly it's usually just an interesting evening out (there are speakers) with friends for me.

Anyway, the venue was awful. I've never liked Outer Limits. We were in what felt like the dungeon: low ceiling, packed with tables, no space to walk between and chat to anyone beyond the 2 people within earshot (due to the music playing too loudly). Also there were *giant* pillars. Not the skinny round sort, big hulking squares of concrete you couldn't get your arms around if you tried. So the speaker portions were pretty dull for me. Although I could see the presentation screen, there was a huge pillar blocking the speaker from sight and making the sound not travel very well either. I think this also contributed to plenty of chit-chat while the speakers were up, which added to the inability to hear them clearly because the acoustics in that venue were obviously not geared to this sort of thing.

Aside from that, the Girl Geek portion of the evening was quite fun. We got a goodie bag that didn't really have too much of interest to me (spray tan voucher, anyone?), aside from a yummy cupcake by The Cupcake Lady (made for an excellent dessert). But thruout the evening there were so many prizes (seriously, they just kept coming!), just about everyone I was there with won one. I myself walked off with a box of Kiehl's products (apparently they've recently launched in South Africa). I've never heard of them, and I'm not a great beauty-product kinda girl. But apparently this stuff is amazing (based on the response of the only girl there that I knew who actually knew and uses the brand). And I tried my first Jimmijagga, which they provided as a welcome drink. I really quite liked it :) I had the Pink Spritzer.

Unfortunately the venue, I think was a huge let down. Aside from the actual area itself, the service was pretty erratic. And then there was the food. I couldn't decide what to order and ended up with huge order envy. I was going to have the Vegetarian Nacho's, but at the last minute switched to the Chicken Schnitzel. Boy was that a mistake I regretted. The Nachos were huge and looked (and were) tasty with good-sized sides portions of sour cream, guacamole, salsa & chili. Our schnitzels arrived without cheese sauce. We didn't even know they were supposed to have until the rest of our table's plates arrived. So we waited. We did eventually get some, thankfully. I couldn't finish my schnitzel tho, you could taste the fat between the chicken and the batter. It similar to KFC in that regard. Which some people may enjoy. Me, not so much. It just left me with a greasy taste in my mouth.

So, aside from the venue choice, it was all in all a good fun evening :) I think I might go again, if they relocate (which I gather they do for each event).

The other good news to arrive this week is that FNB has converted my home load into a Flexi-Bond. This means I can access all the additional funds I've put in there over and above my bond repayments. And you know what that means? I think I may just do my renovations! Am off to Easy Life Kitchens this afternoon to get my 2nd quote on the kitchen. I'm nervous and excited. Eep.