Drinking and Eating

Shew what a weekend. A full mix of all sorts, that is for sure. My neck is *almost* back to normal ... I reckon it probably would be if I hadn't had to drive in to work this morning. It's feeling a little sensitive after that.

But, back to Friday. I headed to the Physio after work. It seems like it's gotta get worse to get better with these physio visits. It loosened a bit and I promised not to drive or work on a computer all weekend and then headed home.

The Trucker & I had made plans with @Toxic_Mouse and his girlf to go for sushi at Cedar Square on Friday evening. So off we went, and of course it started raining! Haha. We had a bit of a laugh at that and although we had to move our table out of the downpour, it was nothing as torrential as the last time!

The service was a little slow, as it is when they are packed to the brim on Friday & Saturdays generally (pretty much why we stopped going), but the sushi was delish, as always! Yip, definitely still my fave sushi spot :)

We headed to Ciao Baby for coffees and desserts after that, but I didn't have anything. By that point I was sore and exhausted and desperate to head home (but I couldn't really say as much since it has been ages since The Trucker has seen his friend).

On Saturday morning I woke up and my neck was impossible o_0 We spent the morning trying to find me a neck brace at 5, FIVE, different places! A Dischem, 2 Clicks, Olivedale Clinic and some place that wasn't even open recommended by Olivedale o_0 #sigh In between all that we managed to grab some breakfast, but that was the extent of it. Seriously, the people I asked didn't even know what neck braces were, what are people in car accidents doing these days? Honestly tho, the Dischem did have 2, but both were smalls which didn't even reach around my neck.

When we got home I settled on the couch, upright, and watched some Downton while The Trucker went to get some work done ... and tried another Dischem, finally finding a neck brace! But, by the time he got home, my neck had improved dramatically :) Although I reckon I should've used the neck brace this morning for driving!

And then, feeling much better, we headed to SA on Tap. Which turned out to be a really lovely afternoon! Although we only bumped into @WhizBangLouLou there, we had great fun, just the two of us.

So, there was a venue change this year. I prefer the new venue. Far more relaxed and spread out than at Brightwater. It felt a lot more like Jozi Craft Beer Fest, which I think is a good thing :) The glasses were also different this year. Aside from getting a choice between a goblet or a lager glass, they were smaller and only provided two levels (last year there were 3). And if I remember correctly, last year it was R5 per token. This year it went up to R12.50. I preferred last year's set-up. I mostly just like the "tasters" and then I can get a little more if I know I like it ... this year took a little more commitment and I did end up turfing at least one of them!

So what did I drink? Yeah, I'm sure you already know I'm not massively into the flavour of beer, but I found some sufficiently girly ones to suit my palate. I started with Black Horse Brewery's Pink Drink. I already know I love their Ginger Beer and this was that mixed with strawberry. I reckon it was a hit because I saw loads of people with it's distinctive colour in their glasses! It was unquestionably my favourite of the day. The Trucker started with Smack Republic's Maboneng Maverick. Which I quite liked as well (although it's hard to be sure just from a few sips, but I'd try it again, and I think that's the only one of his all day that I can say that about!).

I don't have the little pamphlet still (bad planning on my part), but going on memory ... I moved on to Mogallywood's Raspberry Beer. Which I didn't like. It was a little sharp and a little too much like cough mixture for me. The Trucker tried their Porter, which had a distinct coffee flavour.

Then I tried The Cockpit's Purple Haze (Fokker) Weiss and The Trucker had That Brewing Co's 1806. I tried The Beer Keg's Pumpkin Ale (photographed). That was the one I ended up turfing. It started out well, very spicy, I thought ... but I just couldn't finish it. I think The Trucker went back for another from That Brewing Co.

And I got myself a Claren's Cherry Cider, which I remembered enjoying at the Jozi Craft Beer Fest last year. And this time I also tasted their Pineapple Cider. Nope, not for me. I'll stick with the Cherry. It's just too sharp!

We managed to grab a bite to eat, the queues were ridiculous! So we went with a pulled-pork taco and a halloumi taco. My fave was definitely the halloumi one! And then we ended with our last beer. I tried the Drayman's Honey Beer, which I really liked. And it was chilled, definitely a plus. I think The Trucker ended with their Hefe. I can't remember what else he drank, but I think something from Three Skulls.

And then we headed home. It really was a great way to spend a relaxing afternoon :)

We didn't do much for the rest of Saturday. We got pizza for dinner and watched Her. Hmmmm. I didn't know much about it but had heard it was really good. Yeah, I dunno. It's definitely interesting. Although The Trucker lost interest before the end. I did NOT like Joaquin Phoenix's moustache thru the entire film, it annoyed me constantly.

But, as I said, we both thought it was an interesting look and how insular people are getting, spending more and more time interacting with their devices ... although for now there are still real people on the other end of the Whatsapp messages and Facebook or Twitter interactions. I was curious as to how it was going to end ... yeah, it was interesting, I think it's worth watching.

Then on Sunday we had a lazy morning at home and cleaned up the house a bit. We had our second guest (I know, ridonkulous, right?). @Sascha_with_a_C popped in before we headed off to lunch :) We gave her some of The Trucker's home brew and she handed over some of her delish home made peanut butter ice cream!

And then after a little bit of a catch-up, she and I headed to YuMe at Bellairs for their DimSumDay special. It was a weird afternoon. I'd booked our table, mentioning we'd both be having the special when I booked the table earlier in the week. But then when we arrived we had a quiet little mouse of a waitress come and tell us that she'd have to call the manager because they were no longer offering the special (even today it's still advertised on their website tho!).

Erm. That was annoying. But yes, go speak to the manager because no one had said a word when I booked or called the number I'd left with my booking to warn us so I wasn't impressed. She eventually came back (no sight of the manager) and said, it was fine, because I'd booked they would do it for us and she took our drinks order.

A different waiter then came to ask us what we wanted to drink, and we said we'd already ordered. Waiter 2.0 brought our drinks. And then we chatted away ... for almost an hour. I dunno about you, but their advert for the special sorta makes it appear as a set-menu one-of-each sorta Dim Sum deal. So you can imagine our horror when the original soft spoken waitress arrived to apologise yet again. Apparently she doesn't serve our section but our guy (Waiter 2.0, apparently) doesn't know about the special so um, could we please place our order. Sorry, what? Place our order?

Yup, you still have to select 4 "flavours" from their actual menu (which come in portions of 3, hence the 12 dim sums). To say we were unimpressed by this development is a giant understatement.

By this point we'd both vowed never to return o_0 But I can say that at least their Dim Sum arrived quickly and almost all was forgiven by the time we left. The Dim Sum was great and I would have recommended it if they were still running the special. Although I think sharing 2 specials between 3 people would probably be smarter. We left a few behind, but we did order 8 different "flavours" between us so we could taste them all (there was only one we didn't order off their menu).

My favourites were definitely the Spicy Chicken, Coriander and Chilies, the Chicken, Ginger and Spring Onion and the Spinach, Cream Cheese and Spring Onion. The Sui Mai was pretty disappointing, honestly.

So yeah, no mention of the tea that was supposed to come with our special and we left as soon as we'd finished eating. I doubt I'll be back in a hurry.

And then, another restful lazy afternoon. I read my book, The Trucker napped. And we watched The Wolf of Wall Street. I found the prospect of watching a 3hr movie a little daunting. Seriously, they managed just fine with 90mins for so long, why does every move have to be over 2hr these days o_0 Anyway, The Trucker was also not quite sure about it having read the book years ago.

While we watched there was lots of reading online about the background. I dunno, shew. The dude was a total douche. I can't believe the excess which these people felt completely entitled to. Especially annoying to me are the scene where he gets into a fight with his wife where she is accusing him of cheating (which he had) and he outright flatly denies it. I mean okay for you if you wanna hide it, but if you get caught, come on, be a man about it. At least be somewhat apologetic and in-the-wrong. And then when she finally says she doesn't love him anymore. I dunno hey, how did it take that long?!

Yeah, wow. I couldn't believe there were women who worked in the office with these guys! I can't fathom the arrogance. Greed is a frightening thing. Anyway, yeah, horrific. But it didn't feel like 3 hours worth. I recommend starting early, at 6pm. If you're like me, you'll spend a lot of it with your jaw on the floor horrified. But that's just because it's based in reality. If I'd just thought it was a made-up movie, then it's pretty entertaining :)