Altogether Goodness

Good Morning Everyone! So it has been a pretty damn fine week over here.

We got some amazing news on Tuesday morning, our bond application has been accepted by both FNB & Standard Bank! Cue cheers of joy and sighs of relief. Okay so I wasn't *really* worried, but banks can be weird and I was a little nervous, what with the 2 other bonds I have ...

Anyhoo, now that we don't have to worry about that, we start the rate-wars. No one is offering us prime or below o_0 It seems to get higher with every bond I have. *sad face*. But we will survive and I guess this kinda makes it official, we've bought a home together. I can NOT wait to start the renovations & get moved in. I think we'll be very happy there.

And there'll be a little Schnauzer puppy in our future too! Life is coming together spectacularly well. I can not believe how things have changed over the past year. Shew, I am one lucky, loved girl. *counts blessings*

The other amazing news that came in on Tuesday (I know, right!) was that the Car Dealership went for our double-trade-in deal. So I'm getting a 2011 Honda Jazz and The Trucker is getting a 2011 Polo 1.4 Comfortline. Waiting for his finance to be sorted.

I'm taking some money out of ancient savings, started my my grandparents / folks (I was young so I have no idea, but some savvy person! Thanks guys :) ) for this car. I feel very annoyed that I paid it off last year and I'm not getting much more in the trade-in. So a residual is definitely not the way I want to go this time!

My Financial Adviser recommended that I rather take the money from the savings (to quote: that's what it's there for) and make my "repayments" back into there than take out finance on the car and make the repayments back to the bank (you end up paying a fortune more than it cost upfront! I learnt this the hard way last time). Still, it is a bit overwhelming watching my savings deplete like this all in one go!

Between the car and the lawyers and renovations for the house, that will be about all my savings flattened. I do not see a holiday in my future next year :( Which is a super pity as I was looking forward to one last big one (Australia & NZ) before we started on babies ... but I guess this is me being responsible, houses, cars ... Haha.

What else happened this week (honestly all that good news left the rest seeming quite insignificant). My little Peeble had her birthday. I skipped SCM Dinner. The Trucker has been out both evenings, so it has been Dinner For One at my house.

Last night I tried a new recipe for Baked Aubergine that I saw on Food Porn. The Trucker is not the biggest fan of aubergine so it seemed like a good opportunity.

Once they were baked, I decided to turn them into a sort of Melanzane. Not as delish as a baked one, obvs, but still I enjoyed it nonetheless. Next time remember to spend less time letting the food cool down while you try to get the perfect Instagram shot o_0 HAHA.



Basically after baking the aubergine, I layered it with some Neapolitan sauce I found in the fridge and some grated Slimmers Choice Cheddar (from Woolies, consider this the Diet Coke to my Big Mac & Fries, considering how much oil is used to prepare the aubergine!). I repeated the stack once and then sprinkled on some parmesan we had. I baked 2 medium-sized aubergines, so had the luxury of only using "the middles" in my meal ... the skin was a little chewy, I probably could've left it baking a little longer. I've decanted the unused olive oil & balsamic vinegar into a jar that is now in the fridge, seemed a waste to throw it all away, am sure I could use it again soon.

Oh, and the other thing ... it may sound weird, based on how completely awesome my life is right now, but are other things currently on my mind that are getting me down. Mostly it's my blog :( It's not me writing, so a sabbatical won't help ... But this post is long enough already and I need to let this swirl a little longer. So maybe next week? In the meantime, you can boost my spirit by a) interacting with me in the comments b) checking out (and even liking) my (now regularly updated) facebook page c) saying hi on twitter and d) following me on instragram. I guess I'm feeling a little lonely online ... so it'd be nice to know who's reading. Is anybody out there? It's me, Philly.