Holiday Flashbacks

Bwahaha, I just went to get myself some breakfast and thought: Dammit, I'm supposed to be writing a blog post o_0. Haha, I don't think I've forgotten in a really long time. But yes, today it is back to work, hello 2014. So there are a lot of online things I'm catching up on.

My holiday was pretty awesome (we got back from Cape Town on Friday evening). I may have to break this post up!

We arrived in Cape Town on Saturday 21st at about 4pm. That evening I'd booked dinner at San Julian for The Trucker & I, my Mom and The Peeb & her hubby, Doc. Doc had been complaining on Facebook a while back about no decent Mexican food in Cape Town (what we consider mexican, he calls Tex-Mex - he lived in El Paso for a while). And in response someone replied he should try San Julian, run by actual Mexicans. I jumped on the band wagon and suggested we try it when we came to visit and so we did just that.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a bright and colourful spot and their margarita's (although not of the frozen, Fat Catcus / Cafe Mexicho sort) were good. We started with Chili Poppers (I forget what they called them, Chile Rellenos I think?) Yumyum. And some ceviche.

For mains I had the prawn quesadillas, which wasn't quite what I was expecting (I was expecting a sort of toasted sandwich of burritos) but was superb. Delish. All the food was good. Refried beans and taco's the way Doc was expecting them (I always thought they were hard folded smaller burritos) but that's the Tex-Mex creeping in again, I think.

And then dessert. We decided to get one to share, I can't remember exactly what was in it, but there was fried banana and chocolate sauce on a burrito-type thing. And it was amazing. It was every (wo)man for themselves trying to get a bite!

On Sunday morning I'd arranged our Grand-Girl's brunch at Peter's House while The Trucker went for breakfast with his uncle.

What a cute little spot. I think we might've been the only table, but that didn't bother us one bit. Loved their Peanut Butter Milkshake. And their small but tasty menu was all we needed.

They also have some yummy fresh pressed juices. And, you know, it's a quaint, cute little spot. I'd probably go back if I weren't trying to cram my trip full of new places ;)

I have absolutely no recollection of what we did for the rest of Sunday ... this is probably going to happen a lot trying to remember the last 2 weeks! It's very hard if you don't write it down / Facebook check-in / take a photo / tweet about it! Especially when you've been so busy generally!

I think we went to Wang Thai for dinner with my mom & dad actually.


On Monday we had a very busy day. First we started with a visit to my gran. Then we collected Dad and headed out to Parow to collect the box we'd trucked down with a crate of The Trucker's beers and some of the Xmas pressies. And then the 3 of us went to The Beerhouse (99 Beers on the Wall).

What great fun! The boys definitely made a dent in those 99 bottles! They each had a different 6-taster plate, so we tasted all of those. And then, I'd reckon, they each had another 3 or 4 bottled beers which we all tasted.

Me, I started with Liefmans Fruitesse (Draft) (same brand as one I tried in New York) and then I had to have another Lindemans Pecheresse . I ended with a Kopparberg Strawberry & Lime cider.

It was a great way to spend an afternoon :)



On Tuesday it was Xmas eve and since it is the second year in a row (sob sob) that we haven't been able to go to our beach cottage (this whole renovation thing is taking forever. Plans are currently with the council. Fingers crossed for Xmas 2014 !!), we went to my Aunt & Uncle for Xmas Eve dinner with the whole family.

Love this part of xmas! The food was delish, the evening was long (the sun sticks around forever in Cape Town over summer!) and it was so lovely to see everyone. Shew, did we eat and get spoilt!

On Xmas day, we had a smaller lunch with just the immediate family: Mom, Daddio, The Trucker & I, The Peeb & Doc and my gran. We ate even more. The Trucker made cheesecake - yoh. And we were even more spoilt!

I adore xmas. I was seriously struggling to keep gifts secret, I was so excited to give everyone what I'd got them. That really is the best part! And I got some awesome stuff too :) Some of the highlights (for me) were: tracking down a Librarian Lego Mini-figure for The Peeb, getting Stickygram magnets made for my Mom, gran and The Peeb (and me too, of course! They came out fantastically!), 2 tickets to the Da Vinci exhibition (which we gave Doc, he's a hard guy to buy for! Damn, I am hoping it comes to Joburg, like Bodyworlds did, cause I'd love to go myself!) and, of course, the green stegosaurus serving plate I gave The Peeb from the Ceramic Factory. Also, the League of Beer's American Mixed Case that The Trucker got from Mom (at my suggestion, of course ;) ).

The Trucker and I headed down to Muizenberg for a late afternoon stroll and took a drive around past Simonstown via Cape Point and Scarborough and back home again.

On Boxing Day, we headed off on our mini road-trip to spend a night in Riebeek Wes at The Ageing Aunt's. I haven't been there in 6 or 7 years! It was perfect. We lazed in the shade, reading our books, I even swam in her "pond" (it's a pool, but kept clean itself with floating plants). We had an epic braai around the fire pit (where I had my 21st actually!). It was just what I needed.

It turned out that The Divine Miss M was staying up the road in Riebeek Kasteel. So we met up for a milkshake before we both headed our own ways. Just as well since I had our dinner together in the calendar for Monday night, but she'd booked the restaurant for Saturday night! Oops. Haha. Luckily I hadn't made plans for Saturday night yet as I wasn't sure what time we'd be getting back to Cape Town or how tired we'd be.



From Riebeek we headed to Montagu where my Dad was also heading, to spend the weekend with his brother. Their house was pretty full with my Dad & cousin staying there so we rented a room at Squirrel's Corner.

We did take a little bit of a scenic route getting there. Damn, we were often reminded of our American Road Trip!



Once in Montagu, we had a little lunch, raiding the family left overs - haha. And then Dad took us for a walk to try some craft beer (Karoo Brew) at The Mystic Tin. Unfortunately, they had nothing to offer. Pfft. Count us as disappointed.

So we crossed the road and tried The Thomas Bain Pub, since they were also offering a craft beer. I'm not sure which of the beers it was, but they only had one option. I didn't like it. In the evening we headed to an old family friend's nearby gooseberry farm for a braai.

The next morning we had an amazing breakfast at Squirrel's (seriously, it was worth mentioning) before heading back home, again via a very scenic route!



The drive was lovely, overcast, it even rained as we drove along the N1! We thought we'd have lunch in Hermanus. Hahahaha, let's all laugh at that naivety! The place was insane.




I did a quick search of restaurants with a sea view and found Harbour Rock. It looked perfect so off we drove. We arrived and the place was blissfully empty. Apparently because they only opened half an hour later and were actually fully booked. Pfft. Unimpressed we grabbed a quick sandwich from the Woolies as we put in petrol and headed back on the drive. The traffic heading into Hermanus was insane!

Beautiful sea views and coastal driving. Bliss.

Thus ends week 1 of our holiday. More to come ;)