Hurricane Philly

Shew. Good thing we did nothing but laze on the couch on Sunday afternoon from about 3pm ... because this weekend was non-stop! Seriously. (Beginning to feel like I might say this every Monday morning - haha). Just as well Russell Brand was cancelled (we had tickets for Sunday evening). Although what a completely dumb move by him (as someone who has had to renew her passport early because of lack of empty pages) and now I have the admin of getting a refund from Computicket o_0.

On Friday afternoon I raced home. I had high hopes of making it to the bank in time ... but nope, even in 2013, banking hours are still ONLY suited to stay-at-home mom's and freelancers. Seriously? How can there be no one in banking who has a little think to themselves and says "Hey, I wonder how we can improve our service (you know, instead of wearing those Dumb TShirts that say "Tell me how I can move your banking forward", cough, Standard Bank, cough) ... maybe if one day of the week we only opened at 11:30 and stayed open till 7pm. Do you think anyone who, like, has a job would appreciate that?". Harumph. Honestly. My mind boggles.

Look I realise that in-branch banking is no doubt everyone's least favourite task *ever*. But unfortunately, they still force us to brave the never-ending queues and the slowest-writer-ever lady behind the counter who isn't all that interested in solving your problem for you. Bah humbug. I hate the banks. I hate that we consider them a necessary evil and I hate that there is nothing we can do but tolerate whatever they decide.

So yeah, arriving at an early-for-anything-else 4pm turned out the be too late for banking. I was really hoping to be able to do my car payment in the hopes of getting my new car on Saturday morning. But I guess it'd have to wait.

So I headed home, where I started on the "stocking-filler" I had in mind (which is now, done and dusted and ordered ... can not wait to see how they came out. In the usual fashion, I had to order one for myself (duh!), one for mom, one for The Peeb and one for my gran).

The Trucker also got home pretty early and set us to work. He started on some sour-dough. Which he has been watching like a good parent all weekend. Ever since we had them in San Francisco he has been wanting to make some bowls for trinchado.

And we set to work turning the remaining 15kg of apples and 3 kg of pears into cider. We now have 3 different flavours, each in 10L containers, fermenting away. Sheesh, but it is messy and a lot of effort! Team work FTW. But let me tell you, they better taste AMAZING.

I popped out to grab us some take out for dinner and then one of The Trucker's friends popped round for a drink. She only ended up leaving at about 11 after a wonderful evening sitting outside and sipping on home brewed beers.

And on Saturday we were up early to try to get back to the bank. Where they refused to do the transfer because they couldn't confirm the funds (which had reflected in my account on Friday) o_0 Biggest. Waste. Of. Time. Did I mention how much I despise in-branch banking?

So I was in a mood, we were in a rush because although we had an hour & half before The Trucker had to head off to his AGM, we only made it by the skin of our teeth. There would be no new cars for us today. But we should (barring any other annoying incidents) be collecting them this afternoon! Yay for us :) But still, until the keys are in my hands, I remain skeptical ... there is always SOMETHING o_0

Then The Trucker went off to his AGM and I headed off to get some Xmas shopping done. The Peeb: *tick* and my bloggirls Secret Santa gift is sorted now too!

When The Trucker got back, we headed to CTM to look at tiles for our future bathroom. I think we have a winner. We picked wall & floor tiles, the wall decoration mosaics and in-shower mosaics. Love.

And then we headed to the new house (we asked the agent if she could leave the keys for us, since it is empty) to do some measuring.

@ironyandgum came over to check out The Trucker's couches which we wanted to sell. Although on Sunday we went to browse Coricraft for our future couch and OMG couch prices have sky-rocketed! Over 10k for pretty much everything. When our favourite actually turned out to be the exact same style as the ones we currently own just in a different colour, we changed our tune and started asking about just buying the new covers and having the cushions re-stuffed ... This seems like the much saner option, although we still need to sell one of his (the new house would *never* fit a 3- and a 4-seater!). So yeah, that was a bit of a rude wake-up call!



We popped home after reveling in the new house and our vision and had a quick shower before heading out to DJMike's Xmas Party. Always such an awesome evening with incredible food (like every year). This year we took crackers and The Trucker's fabulous cheesecake. It was a hit. Last one in this house of theirs as they've also bought and are busy renovating, and should move to their new place before the end of the year. Wow we really are all growing up! Haha.

On Sunday The Trucker headed to an early LMS game and I went for breakfast at Munch with @WhizBangLouLou. I'm not gonna lie, I'm unlikely to head back. Their website is ridiculous with pages of copy saying "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" and "Pictures to be inserted here". Did they fire their web designer and just put it live, unfinished. Very unimpressive.And then the service was not great. And the food was very average.

But, that said, it was lovely to catch up with her. When The Trucker got home, we got our grocery shopping out the way and had our eye-popping visit to Coricraft before heading to meet a friend of his for lunch at Primi Lifestyle.