Hello 2014

Righto, where did I leave off? On our second Saturday evening in Cape Town, The Trucker & I headed to El Burro for dinner with The Divine Miss M and her man. She'd wanted to go to Bizerca, but we only made it onto the waiting list ... And no, I do not feel like the holiday contained too much Mexican - haha.

It was another delish meal, with some very nice cocktails. The Trucker had an amazing Mezcal Margarita (Mezcal has a very smoky taste). And I started with the Cucumber & Ginger Margarita. Later I tried their Chili Margarita, which I wouldn't have again. It was sooo much burnier than I was expecting. Yoh! I did get to taste the ITA and that was quite nice, I'd probably try that next time.

I had the Chilorio Pork Tacos (with corn tacos ... same as the ones I'd seen at San Julian) which was super yummy (tasted The Trucker's Pulled Beef and I didn't have a moment of order envy). and then, of course, I had to have their amazing churros for dessert, again.

On Sunday morning we took Mom for breakfast at Bistro 1682. Yup, we called and got a table for 15mins later. Perfect :) Such a gorgeous venue and a very nice breakfast too.

After that The Trucker and I headed off to visit Jam and her Roo (who is now about 18mnths). Such a darling and so lovely to catch up.

In the evening we headed to Bantry Bay for dinner with @jarredcinman and @blakey at their possie. Wow. I took some champers and we headed down to the deck and watched the sun set over the sea. It was gorgeous. And then we were treated to a superb dinner and hilarious conversation. And we lamented the likelyhood of ever buying a home in Cape Town (we had made the mistake of reading the property paper that afternoon) ... sheesh, seriously folks, I dunno how anyone does it. Quiet sobs to myself. One day, when I'm big.



Anyhoo, that was a lovely evening. And on Monday, with a pretty mis looking day, we decided to brave Access Park. I haven't been in years, and The Trucker does love a good discount. So we headed thru and came out unscathed. I got a pretty new Urban dress and he got 2 pairs of shorts and 2 tshirts. Nice.

And then we did what any self-respecting person visiting Cape Town would do. We went to Cavendish and got ourselves a Whopper. Well, to be honest, I had the Chicken Royale with Cheese (hark back to my UK trip in Jan 1998! Here's it's just called the very practical Long Chicken, pfft). We did get a whopper to share tho, so I could taste it. It's a lot like the Prince burger I favour at Steers, if you ask me.

I don't remember exactly how we spent Tuesday morning. I think we went to visit my gran again and mom made an amazing omelette type thing for breakfast. Oh yes, I think I went for a "swim" (I didn't get in past my hips) at St James with my mom while The Trucker slept.

Later, we were on our way home and hunting down sushi for lunch when I called Mom (who was just back from shopping), collected her and headed to Noordhoek Village Sushi for lunch. It wasn't the best sushi I've ever had, but it wasn't bad. It's quite a small menu selection. It's very weird, Joburg seems to have a lot more sushi specific restaurants than Cape Town ... well, the Southern Suburbs at any rate. It wasn't worth braving the Waterfront to get to Willoughbys, although I do adore their sushi!

We ordered a selection for the table and it went down a treat. Great, now I'm craving sushi again - haha.

And then it was New Year's Eve. We had no plans. Neither The Trucker or I are especially interested in New Years Eve. I kinda had my heart set on a quiet night in, some pizza, some champers and good tv (har har, DSTv, 50 million channels and nothing on). But instead we all headed to my Dad's for a braai with some of my folk's friends.

Yawn. On the first we woke to a truly spectacular day and The Trucker and I decided a morning swim was in order. I know, that might sound crazy, because *everyone* knows the beaches are impossible and must be avoided on Boxing Day and New Year's Day. But it was really lovely. We got there at 9am. There was a Spring tide. Not an excessive amount of people at all and a superb way to start the day and the year :)

The Trucker made Harissa Eggs for breakfast and we had a very lazy day. I think we headed to Noordhoek in the late afternoon for a walk. Mostly we went to Muizenberg this holiday, because I wanted to swim. I think we went almost every afternoon this week. It was bliss.

I think we had home made pizza for dinner and watched Gravity in the evening (we did that one of the nights). I thought it was okay. It was a bit freaky, worst fears and all that (much like Open Water, but in space, I thought). We didn't watch much TV on this trip, but we did catch a Jurassic Park repeat. Damn, I loved that movie (hated all the sequels. And it's still good. Note to self: Must read the books again. And we watched a bunch of Storage Wars. Bite-size and hysterical when you're feeling dreadfully lazy on the couch. Ha ha.

We had a busy day planned for our last full Cape Town day on Thursday. It started with breakfast with The Trucker's uncle. First time I got to meet him. And then we headed back to Parow to drop of the box to be trucked back to Jozi. And then we took a drive to Tableview to drive past The Trucker's gran's old house, where he spent many a holiday in his youth and for a walk at Big Bay and a good look at the mountain. And, of course, a soft-serve sugar cone (I lost count of how many we had this holiday!).

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.



After that we were boiling. So it was quickly home to get changed and back to Muizenberg for another swim. Shew, the busiest I saw that beach the whole holiday! It was Spring high, so almost no sand space, but seriously, insanely busy! And people will, apparently, swim in anything. Seriously, people, jeans ??

In the evening we headed off to friends of my folks (with both of them in tow) for a braai. It was another lovely evening.

On Friday afternoon we were flying out, so we had one last lunch with Mom, this time at The Brass Bell :) Ah beautiful spot.

And then we started the 5 hour journey home. I am not even kidding. Half an hour to get to the airport, get there 90mins before the flight, 2 hour flight, half an hour to get home (and throw in a little bonus wait-for-your-luggage time too!). Yawn. We were home just after 8pm. Hello Joburg.