Christmas 2011

In the end I managed to pull off our Christmas lunch, I got everything done and even got to make the little things that I wanted to.

I mosaiced this jewelry box for M, who is 7 years old.  Her favorite colors are pink and purple so I used different shades of pinks for the hearts and the M (including a glitter tile because every girl has to have some bling!) and finished it off with a lilac tile.

I made these Christmas trees to put next to the the centre pieces on the table, my sewing skills are not great but I was still happy with my attempt. I found the tutorial here

I bought cookie jars, took off the lids, tied a ribbon around the top and filled them with baubles to use as centre pieces on the tables. I needed a bigger centre piece for the middle table so I used one of my vases.

The Christmas cake

 

The day of Christmas eve, I worked really hard to get everything done, I managed to finish by 6pm.  I put the leg of lamb in the oven to roast overnight and G and myself went through to my mom's house for the evening.  It was a wonderful evening spent with family and friends. 

Christmas day was lovely, we ate to much and spent the afternoon lazing around and swimming.

Till next time!

L

Getting there!

Everything for Christmas day is slowly starting to come together, finally!

I have finished sewing the little Christmas trees that I am going to be putting on the table, the hems on the table cloths have been pinned I still need to stitch them but I am getting there.

I have decided that I need to stop stressing about everything, I am going to do the things that are essential and the little extras that I wanted to do if I don't get to do them I am going to have to let it go.

I am really being stretched in a lot of areas right now, this being one of them.  I like everything to be perfect and I like to be organised and everything to be ready way in advance when this does not happen I can be very hard on myself about it.  I am learning that I need to let these things go and that I can't beat myself up about it.  They are important to me but everyone else will probably not even notice!

Yesterday, G's aunt who has been making the most exquisite cakes and icing decorations since before I was born came to help me put the marzipan and plastic icing on our Christmas cake.  It was such a special time!  Since my Ouma is not here to teach me the little tricks that you need to do I find it so special that I still have someone that will impart their knowledge to me.

We have agreed that next year she is going to give me lessons on how to make icing decorations, I can't wait!  I was looking at some pictures of the cakes that she has made, they are amazing!  The roses that she makes look like real flowers on the cake, she really does have a talent.

I better get back to the preparations!
Till next time
L

The Grinch!

My Christmas present shopping is done!  I powered through the mall for a solid 4 hours last week and then another 2 hours on Saturday.  I really do not enjoy the malls at this time of the year but I am thankfully done!  Well I have one more gift but that is a voucher so I don't need to brave any malls or queues to buy it!

I have also managed to wrap everything, it is all sitting pretty under our Christmas tree.  Now just to prepare for the 17 people that are going to be here!

I usually LOVE Christmas and I also LOVE entertaining and making crafty things such as decorations.  This year however, I am feeling like a bit of a Grinch!

I don't feel like it's Christmas even after putting up our tree, shopping and wrapping all of the presents.  I don't feel like entertaining 17 people on Christmas day, I don't feel like making all these preparations, I don't feel like being happy and smiling at everyone!

I probably sound like a horrible person but believe me I am not, I am usually a very friendly, bubbly, happy person!

This year however, I just wish that G and I could run away to Bali or somewhere, anywhere for Christmas!  I can't of course because I would most likely have 15 very unhappy people that might be slightly angry with me, but the thought is nice anyway.

I know everything will fall into place and I will go back to being my bubbly self, this is after all mine and G's first Christmas as "Mr & Mrs" but for right now, I'm feeling grumpy...

Till next time!
L "aka, the 2011 Grinch"

Where has the time gone!

As I sit and type this, I am busy watching the rain fall on the window in front of me.  It is supposed to be summer in South Africa but we are getting enjoy a wonderful winter's day in between!

Christmas is almost upon us and I am not nearly as ready as I would like to be.  I haven't even finished my Christmas shopping yet, I don't enjoy going to the malls at any other time of the year so I really don't enjoy going 11 days before Christmas!

I still need to buy fabric for my table cloths and runner and then I of course need to sew them ~ yikes!

I'm not quite sure what happened, one second I have plenty of time to prepare I blink and suddenly there are only 11 days left...

I have been mosaicing till it comes out of my ears trying to finish a Christmas present and some birthday presents, I finished the last project today now I just need to grout and paint and then it can go under the Christmas tree, phew!

I still have some Christmas baking to do, I would like to make some biscuits this weekend and I am trying to decide how I am going to decorate the Christmas cake that G's mom is going to make for Christmas day - ideas are welcome!

Oh well, off to the mall for me :(

Till next time,
L

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We unfortunately do not celebrate Thanksgiving in South Africa, although I really wish that we did. It just looks like such a fun holiday.

I love the thought of having a day to be thankful, I know that it should be something that we do on a daily bases and there are day's that I do but I know that to many day's pass by in a year that I take the things that I have and the way that God has blessed me for granted.

So, if we celebrated Thanksgiving in South Africa this would be my list of things that I am thankful for:

♥ That Jesus is my Lord and Saviour
♥ God's grace
♥ My amazing husband
♥ My family
♥ My beautiful home
♥ My car
♥ That I get to work from home
♥ That I get to see Table Mountain everyday
♥ For google and the Internet

Now if only I had a Turkey dinner for supper tonight!

Till next time!
L

The adventure begins!

It's official, I am working from home and my husband is my boss!

It was really sad leaving my previous company, they threw me a 'going away party' last week Friday and were really generous with their gifts, I was spoilt rotten!  I managed to keep back the tear's until I handed in my access tag's on Monday before I left.  I didn't realise that I would have been that emotional about leaving, I have never been  emotional about leaving a company before.  I had a wonderful time working and not only did I learn a lot from a work perspective I grew as a person too.

Today, the new adventure starts...
I got up this morning, went to gym.  Popped into the fabric store to get some fabric to make table clothes for the desks in my office.
Came home and started going through my "Bookkeeping for Dummies" book.  I love this, I am sitting facing a window looking out at our courtyard, where I can see my herb garden and roses ~ it's so pretty!

Tomorrow I start the hand over so I will be going to my sister in law's house for her to start handing over.  We will probably spend a few morning's together for me to get an understanding of the business and all the processes, etc.

During the course of today, there were times where I felt like I was in a dream it feels so strange being at home and not at a office.  It sure does beat being at an office though!

Well, it's back to the books for me!

Till next time,
L

A new Adventure

G has been a silent partner in a drilling company, his sister and brother in law have been running it for the last few years.

On Saturday, 1st October my day started pretty normal until about 10am!

I was busy sorting the washing when G said "I think you should resign from your job on Monday and start working full time for the business"
We had been speaking about me getting involved in the business but I really didn't expect to do it full time, I thought for now I would just do little things in the evenings after work.

Monday, 3rd October I put my resignation letter on my bosses desk!

As of the 1st November, I will be taking over the financial side of the business and the best part is I get to work from home! :)

G and myself want to start planning a family next year and we have spoken a few times about who will look after our kids if I work or what I would be able to do from home so that I can be a stay at home mom.

This way, I get to know the business and settle and organise myself before we start our family.

I have been happy in my current job, so it has been a bitter sweet moment for me but I think there can't be anything better than being able to work from home.

I am so excited to have more time to do the 'wifey' things that I have been wanting to do and just haven't had the time for, being able to have supper ready and on the table when G get's home being one of them.

Right now, I am really excited but also nervous about this new adventure!

Till next time!
L

Heritage Weekend

Saturday was Heritage Day in South Africa; it was also our National Braai (bbq) Day!
The weather was very good to us; it was a beautiful summer’s day in Cape Town.

We spent the afternoon at G’s parent’s house sitting outside in the sun, braai’ng and eating way to much food.  It was a lovely relaxing day!

Sunday we were blessed with a second glorious day, G unfortunately had to work so I spend the day doing little things around the house.  It turned out to be quite a productive day.

I went to our local nursery; they had a sale so I really had to restrain myself from coming home with loads of exciting things for our garden...  I was very good though, I bought some herb’s to add to my current herb garden.

I found a Mint Chocolate herb, have you ever heard of that?  I hadn’t!  The best part is that is actually smells like mint chocolate, it’s glorious. That of course was not on the list but made it into my herb garden, somehow... ;)  I am still not sure what I am going to use it in, so if you have any recipes or ideas that call for Chocolate mint, please let me know.

Last year I bought a strawberry bush but for some or other reason it died, G and I love strawberries and apparently they are supposed to be really easy to grow so I’m giving them a second chance to prove that to me. 

I have also added some chives to my garden, I found this really cute watering can a few months ago and wasn’t sure what I wanted to plant in it so my chives are now standing proud in their watering can.

After tending to my herb garden I started supper, stuffed chicken breasts (stuffed with fresh herbs, of course and feta) and a roasted butternut salad.  I have made the chicken breasts plenty but the roast butternut salad was a first time concoction, it was yummy!

While supper was in the oven I grouted G’s mosaic tissue box and then started on my next project.

After supper G and I took a drive to Camp’s Bay to watch the sunset, it was magnificent.
There was mist on the ocean, so you looked out and saw the mountains with the beach, ocean and then this thick cloud hovering on top of the ocean.  I have never seen this before, it was really beautiful.

Our evening was finished with vanilla ice cream and some tv before bed!

I felt really satisfied at the end of Sunday, knowing that I had such a productive day!

Till next time,
L

September Already?

I can’t believe that we are in September already, where has this year gone!

Since work has picked up considerably for me, I have decided to start planning Christmas!  I know, I know it’s only September but we will most likely have in the region of 15 people for lunch and since I only have 13 weekends to plan I decided to get cracking!

I love planning these sorts of things!  I have taken out all of my old November and December magazines to look for ideas and of course Google is my best friend to find pictures and designs, etc.

I have put a Christmas bauble on the invite, so I am going to stick to that theme.  I found instructions in a magazine to make this lovely glitter bauble, with string and looks relatively easy so I am thinking of making a whole lot of those incorporating them somehow in my decor.

I’m trying to find some ideas for the table decor; I don’t like anything to big and bulky on the table.
Everyone knows how annoying it is to have a massive centre piece in front of you, well most people anyway!  I would like to stick to that this year, not too much but something.
I made these cute fabric Christmas trees last year, I was thinking of doing something along the same lines, maybe another Christmas tree but a different design – any ideas will be welcomed!

G and I have a lovely fibre optic Christmas tree, so we have never put any decorations on it.  We thought the lights were just so pretty and we don’t have any children yet so we didn’t really see the need but this year I have decided that I want to decorate our tree.  I might not load it with decorations as they can be quite expensive so it might be a process of buying / making a few decorations every year, obviously I will have to incorporate the bauble into our decorations on the tree!

I would also like to try making a few stocking filler gifts this year.  Every year I say I am going to make Christmas presents and every year I don’t so I am going to try changing that this year.  Maybe just make one or two to ease myself into it.

I love Christmas, I love giving and sharing and being with family and the traditions and I’m really excited to be hosting Christmas at our home again this year.

Do you start planning Christmas this far in advance?

Till next time,
L

my weekend in a nutshell

Saturday was a nice lazy day, I had a bit of a headache in the morning so G went and did the shopping for me - was a nice treat not to have to worry about that.
I worked on some of my mosaic pieces, I'm currently busy with a cutlery caddy, which besides doing the grouting I'm basically finished with, a tissue box holder for G's desk at work which I started on Saturday evening and then when I ran out of blue tiles for that I worked on a coaster.

Sunday my folks, brother and gran came around for a braai (barbeque) it was such a lovely day, the weather was perfect, the food was yummy and the conversation was good!

G had the day off today as tomorrow is a public holiday here in SA I sadly had to trapse into the office and just wish I was outside in the sunshine :-)
I made it through the day and am looking foward to sleeping in tomorrow morning and possibly finishing off the tissue box holder so that G can take it with him to work on Wednesday!

Till next time!
L

Catch Up

Life has been a little manic here, I have started my first Project as the Project Manager and trying to do my current position so any spare time has been quite precious.

I have really been neglecting my blog and it has been one of those niggly things at the back of my mind everyday but I have just not found the time to sit down and type and when I have I found myself having some writers block!

So now I have finally decided to put everything aside and have some me time with my blog, yay J

Besides been busy at work G and I have been relatively busy with things around the house which has been quite fun.

G moved into the house 8 years ago and like any bachelor decorating was left to a minimal so now that we are married it feels like we have moved into a house and putting our finishing touches on them!

We have this room  next to our lounge that is supposed to be an entertainment room but we basically had a table with a computer on it in the room, it seemed like such a waste of space.
We have turned this into our TV room, put our screen on the wall, after months of searching finally found the perfect couch which was delivered last weekend and we asked G’s uncle who is a carpenter to make us a cupboard for the amp, etc, etc.

We gave G’s uncle a picture of the style that we wanted and he transformed the wood into this most beautiful cabinet, he truly is very talented!

Now I just need to find some nice colourful cushions to put on our couch and the room is done!
Albeit some other changing that will come at a later stage, like changing the tiles to laminated floors, etc!

We have taken the pc that was in that room and converted one of our bedrooms into a study / computer room.  This will eventually become our nursery and I’m not quite sure where the computer’s will go then but that is not today’s problem so I’m not going to worry about it now!

We are also going to be changing our bedroom around in the near future, we have asked G’s uncle to make us a few pretties for our bedroom, I will post some pic’s once we are finished!
Note to self, take before pic’s of the bedroom – unlike the tv room where I forgot to take the before pics!

G’s aunt and uncle decided to take their rose bushes out of their garden and because we spend a lot of time together they have decided to bless us with them!
Last weekend I stopped off at our local gardening shop I walked out with 3 pot’s, proper soil for roses, rose food and instructions on how to care for roses!

G’s aunt and uncle dropped the roses off yesterday afternoon so they have now been transplanted into their pot’s and put in our courtyard that I walk through to get to our front door, this way I get to enjoy them every day!

I must admit that I am very nervous about these roses, we spend a lot of time with G’s aunt and uncle and I know that these were their pride and joy but due to circumstances they had to take them out and I know that they would not have given them to just anyone, so they are very special!
I am trusting that we will get many years of flowers from these roses.

Any rose caring tips will be welcome!

Till next time,
L

A good comeback!

After the last experience that G and I had with the 2 vouchers that we used, we were a bit apprehensive to try the last one!

This week I got an email from the company that is selling the vouchers stating that the restaurant would be closing on the 27^th July 2011 and that if we wanted to use our vouchers we should go before that date!  I phoned and booked!

We were a little nervous going but thought it is worth a try, WELL this one made up for the other two...

The voucher was for 2 curries.  We looked at the wine menu and they had our favourite wine, we have only been to 2 restaurants that have had this wine (this restaurant included!), this was a good start.

We were asked if we wanted any starters but being a little bit apprehensive we declined and just ordered our 2 chicken curries.  Our curries arrived within 10 minutes of ordering them and they were delicious!  They were served with a sambal, rice, what tasted like homemade chutney and a poppadom – delicious!

We saw these good looking spring rolls go past our table and decided to do things a little differently – main course then starters J  We ordered the starter spring rolls and I have never ever eaten spring rolls like this before and believe me I have had plenty of spring rolls in my life time including homemade one’s but I have never had one as good as this one!  The difference is that they put some delicious sweet sauce INSIDE the spring roll - simply delicious and as if the sauce inside the spring roll isn't enough they serve it with a delicious thick sweet and sour sauce, yummilicious!

We even finished off with creme brulee, chocolate truffles and coffees.

It was a all round good experience and we are now considering not to just delete the next food voucher that pop's into our inbox!

Till next time!
L

WARNING! This post will contain some venting!

When G and myself were on honeymoon we had to eat out for every meal, we said that when we get back to Cape Town we would start trying new restaurants, we kinda fell into a restaurant slump where we always landed up going to the same place!

Not long after we got home I got an email from a friend inviting me to join this website, every day they have a special offer sometimes it will be 50% off a back massage other days 60% off a meal at a restaurant.
Now G and myself are not usually the type of people to sign up for things like that but we thought it would be a good opportunity to try new restaurants at a discount rate.

The idea… buy some vouchers, try out the restaurant at a discount rate if we like the place and the food then go back!

So far we have bought 3 vouchers, we have used 2 of the 3 and this has been our experience so far:

First place:

Order any 2 pizza for R59 worth R138
We love pizza and the ad said that it was an Indian restaurant and you have apparently not eaten pizza till you’ve eaten an Indian pizza!
We arrive and the place has music so loud that we could barely hear ourselves think, anyway I guess you can still kind of look past that.
We ordered our drinks which arrived in a decent amount of time, we then told the waiter that we had a voucher and asked if there was anything we couldn’t order – big mistake!  We felt that we should never have told our waiter that we had a voucher – we waited for about an hour for our pizza’s and not because they were busy but because we were obviously not first priority.  Our pizza’s arrived just in time before we passed out from hunger, we started digging in only find what tasted like processed cheese L
We got the impression that because we had a voucher we had to wait forever for our food encouraging us to drink more and that they used the cheapest ingredients. Very disappointing – we will most definitely not go back!

Second Place:
31 piece Sushi platter for R130
When I phoned to make a reservation they asked me if I was coming with a voucher, which I was a little disappointed with because we decided after our last experience that we would not tell the next place we had a voucher until we paid.
It was a lovely restaurant, we ordered our drinks they arrived quickly and were ice ice cold, perfect!
The atmosphere was lovely, we already decided we would be back!
We looked at the menu and decided that if we were still hungry after our 31 piece platter we would order an extra salmon platter, it looked delicious and had 8 salmon roses on, yummy!
They obviously knew we had the voucher because they marked it next to our reservation, we gave out waiter the voucher and waited for our food!
We waited an hour and half for our platter!!
Once again not because they were run off their feet busy!  There was a table that arrived 25 minutes after we ordered our platter and they got their food before us.  We could see the sushi chefs from where we were sitting and we had to wait and watch them standing around doing nothing while we waited for our food!
I don’t mind waiting for my food if a restaurant is super busy but an hour and a half is unacceptable especially when you know they are not!
When our platter did arrive the pieces of sushi were tiny and filled with rice!  So they put avo on the one side and then a tiny piece of salmon and then rice to fill it – shocking I tell you!
Needless to say we did not order the second platter, we could not afford waiting another hour and a half only to receive a plate of rice with a few pieces of salmon and some avo! – NO THANKS!

I do not understand why these restaurants take apart with this website if they are not going to treat you like normal paying customers!  I think it is rather short sighted on their part because not only did the second place lose out on us ordering more they have also lost us as customers because we will never go back!

I feel like we have been duped and that makes me angry!  Angry with the website selling the vouchers, angry with the restaurants for being short sighted and angry with myself for falling for it!

We still have one more voucher to go, let’s see how this one goes!

If you are still reading this, thanks for listening to my moaning I feel better already!

Till next time!
L

Engagement Photo's

I know that this post is way to late as I have been married for 2 months already but it was something that I wanted to blog about but really didn't have the time!

2 weeks before our wedding day G and myself got up at 5am, yes 5am *cries* and drove through to Kalk Bay for our engagement shoot.

It was a beautiful morning and the beach was breath taking at that time of the morning, I love living in Cape Town.

We had loads of fun playing models for the morning and it was good pratice for when we needed to have our wedding photo's taken.

Some pics from our shoot...

Till next time!

L











A Trip down Memory Lane!

I made tomato bredie* for supper the other night, this was something that my Ouma** and then my mom made for us and this was my first attempt.

My Ouma** and my mom are both very good cooks so the bar has been set very high, but thankfully I pulled it off quite well, if I may say so myself.  I think if my Ouma** was here I would have made her very proud!

Every time I opened the lid of the pot and looked at the food inside, it made me ache from missing my Ouma** so much but it also took me down memory lane.  I got to think and re-live all of the wonderful memories that we had made together.

When I was very young my Ouma** would look after me during the day, while my mom worked. Every morning she would make me jungle oats for breakfast, we would sit at the table and she would “make a river” in my jungle oats by pouring a dam in the middle and then milk along the sides to make the river.  This is something that I still do to this day!

I would sit for hours and watch my Ouma** sew, she used to make these most amazing rag dolls.  I loved watching this fabric being transformed to a beautiful doll.  She was so particular when she was finishing them off, everything had to be perfect.

When I think back, she was such an amazing woman that had so many talents.  Not only could she sew the most beautiful things, she was an amazing cook everything and anything that came out of her kitchen was delicious and was always loved by everyone, she was also a very good gardener I will always have a picture in my mind of her digging in the garden!

The last couple of years of her life she lived in a retirement village and she would make a pot of stew and share it out among the old people, she would bake for them and she would go and tend their garden!

She used to visit us and stay over, we would stay up for till late playing cards.  Every time I won a game she would say “okay, one more game and the next one the winner takes it all!”  I would win again and she would once again say “one more game and the winner takes it all” I loved that time that we spend together.

We would sit and talk for hours on end, Ouma** would always say to me “You might think that I am speaking junk at the moment but one day you will look back and say, My Ouma** was right”  There have been so many days that I have thought “my Ouma was right” and “If only”

If only I had spent more time with her learning how to sew, if only I had spent more time with her learning every meal that she made or every cake that she baked.

She really was a remarkable woman that will never be forgotten but is missed oh so much.

Till next time,
L

* Tomato Bredie is an afrikaans word for Tomato Stew
** Ouma is an afrikaans word for Granny

The Wedding Day

16^th April 2011, the day finally arrived.

We arrived in Phillidelphia at 11:00, I got ready in a house called ‘Die Blikhuis’ the outside of the house is made of corrigated iron and is painted pink, it's super cute!
The inside was old, with a cole stove and wooden floors, just lovely!

 I was calm all day but as soon as my dad walked in the door the butterflies started! 

Die Malle Meul where we had the wedding has a chapel but there is also a NG Church across the road, they were having a ceremony at the NG Church at the same time as ours and 2 of our guests went to the wrong ceremony by mistake, thankfully the ladies at Die Malle Meul are very organized and they realized the mistake and asked the minister to tell our guests to come across to the right ceremony!

The result, the bride was ready and on time but had to wait for her guests, heehee!

Finally the time had arrived for me to marry my Prince!

The ceremony was beautiful.
It is very emotional, committing your life to another person!  Even when you know he is the one!

The rest of the evening was wonderful, the dj messed up a few things but all in all it was a great evening.

Everyone kept saying the day goes by so quickly and I can say that it truly does!

I am definitely one of those brides that will remember her wedding day as a very special day that besides the dj messing up a bit went by with little fuss!

Till next time
L

6 Weeks to plan a wedding!

As you know G proposed on my birthday at the end of February 2011 and we decided not to wait till next year to get married but jump right in and get it done!

We decided on the 16 April 2011 for our special day.

The result : 6 weeks to plan our wedding!

The first week was my companies annual golf day and since I am the organiser, I didn't get to think wedding at all I had to think golf, golf, golf!

So I was down to 5 weeks ~ YIKES!

I think the biggest hurdle is finding the perfect venue.
I was told that when you walk into a venue you will picture yourself getting married there!

The Saturday after G proposed, the ladies (aka, my mom, mom in law and sister in law) climbed into my mom's car and went venue hunting in what was possible the hottest day in Cape Town!

We looked at about 6 venues in total from Dubanville to Wellington (in Cape Town) by the time I got home I was ready to burst into tears.  I felt this pressure to chose one of these venues and although all of them were lovely they were just not the one!

The next morning, G and myself decided to do some searching...
We took a drive through to Stellenbosch, we looked at 3 venues there one being a possibility but still not that perfect one!

That afternoon I remembered this place called Die Malle Meul in Philadelphia, Cape Town.  We took a drive through there and when we walked in I started seeing colors, flowers, decor, everything ~ this was THE ONE!

It had EVERYTHING that I was looking for!  I wanted a chapel and a reception hall in the same place so that we didn't have to stress about weather.  It had loads of character with all the wooden beams and the old pieces of the flour mill left in the building it was amazing!

We booked and with 5 weeks to go started all our other preparations.

There is so much that you need to think about when planning your wedding and even though I had such a little bit of time and such a lot to do I literally had NO stress!  I was totally calm to a point that I wondered if there were things that I was forgetting because I felt that I should have been stressed and I wasn't, all thanks to God of course and my amazing mom.  My mom was my support, she booked appointments for me so that I could focus on my job during the day and make the most of my planning time in the evening, she did everything and anything that I asked her to do, she went with me to all of my appointments, didn't give any opinion until I had chosen what I liked first, she was wonderful and I know that I would not have been able to do it without her, so thanks mom ~ you are the best! ♥♥♥

It was a busy, fun experience and before it happened I was looking forward to the day and the excitement but I was also looking forward to getting my life back and not going to bed at early hours of the morning and trying to make the most of EVERY second of the day with preparations and trying to tie up everything at the office so that I could take 3 glorious weeks of leave.

In the end every second was worth it.

We had an amazing day which I will have to tell you about in a blog of it's own when I get my photo's from the photographer.

If I had to go back, I wouldn't change a thing ~ I would most definitely still chose to not wait but to have a quick wedding!

Till next time!
L

The Whirlwind

The last few weeks have flown by in a bit of a blur, so much has happened that I’m not quite sure where I need to start…

I think I should backtrack all the way to the end of February – my 30^th birthday!

G spoilt me rotten for my b-day he got me such thoughtful and well just amazing gifts!  I had a lovely day and was spoilt by everyone!

G had a lovely evening planned, he was going to take me up Table Mountain for a picnic and then we were going to go on this awesome Ferris wheel thing in the V&A Waterfront (it’s kinda like the London eye!)

Of course Cape Town  being well Cape Town by the time I left work there were grey clouds, gail force winds and both the cable car and the Ferris wheel were closed!

So while we were busy deciding what we were going to do instead, G told me that he had another present for my (this would now be my 4^th present) but he said that if I didn’t like it I must promise him that I would tell him so that we could take it back and change it, I of course said yes (thinking he had bought be a pair of shoes) and then he said “AND YOU WILL HAVE TO MARRY ME!” and presented me with the most beautiful engagement ring in the world!  I screamed, said yes, kissed him and then screamed again – it was so special and so perfect!

He is truly amazing, he originally took the day off work but then told me that he to work because one of his clients demanded that he finish the project I didn’t think twice about it BUT what he really did was drive through to his parent’s house to tell them he was going to propose  and then drove to my parent’s house to ask them if he could marry me!  That to me was so special, I am quite old fashioned in that way and the fact that he took the time to do that really meant’ a lot to me.

We decided that we didn’t want to wait till next year and since G can only take leave between April and May we are getting married in April 2011! Yes you did read right, it’s only a few weeks away!

We have found the most amazing venue, it has so much character and beauty!  Everything just seems to be falling into place which is fantastic.

We had a long weekend in South Africa and Sunday morning I woke up and didn’t have any appointments, etc and I actually felt a little lost because every day there has been something and I guess it will be pretty much like that until after the wedding!

So if I’m quiet you now know why! Because I’m GETTING MARRIED!!

Till next time,
L

Our Adventurous U2 concert!

To give you a bit of background, G and myself are quite particular and organised we always double check things and try do as much preparation for things so that they can run smoothly, etc.

So, keeping that in mind...

As you know Friday night was the U2 concert night, G's sister picks us up at 17h30 to drop us off at the station so that we could catch the train to Cape Town.

We arrive at the station with lot's of time to spare but unfortunately so had about 1000 other people, so the train arrived and everyone starts pushing and shoving, we eventually get to the doors of the train and THEY CLOSE!! The train was so full that everyone looked like sardines standing in a can!

We now have to wait another 30 minutes for the next train!  Thankfully we were being well looked after because we got on the next train with ease and we had room to breath, which was great!

We arrive at Cape Town station and start walking to the gates to get out but before we can leave the station they are asking to look at our tickets (the train ride was free for all ticket holders) I take the envelope with our tickets in, out of the bag and open it and.....

IT'S EMPTY!!!!

Okay, so now let me take you back about 3 day's!  When we bought the tickets we bought 5, 2 for us, 2 for G's brother and GF and one for a friend.  I needed to give the 3 tickets to G's sister to hand over to the other parties.  So, I take the envelope and take our tickets out give them to G and ask him to put them into his drawer for safe keeping!  I then put the 3 tickets in a normal envelope and pass them on, that evening I give the 'ticket envelope' back to G and tell him to put our tickets in them BUT it was quite late when I gave it to him so he was tired and not really thinking about what I was saying!

Okay back to the actual day, while I am at work I send G a message saying that he must put the tickets in the bag so that we don't forget them, G then takes the envelope and put's it in the bag, thinking that the tickets are in the envelope (which is so strange because usually he would check!)

Back to the present moment...

We are standing on the station needing to show the woman our tickets so that we can get through the gate and out of the station and we don't have them, so I show her the ticket envelope which say's computicket and she asks how many tickets, thankfully I had left the slip in the envelope so G say's to her 5 tickets but my brother has all of them showing her the slip for the amount of tickets that we bought, once again God had His hand over us because it worked!

We get through and start thinking how we are going to get our tickets!  G had parked our car at the Waterfront that morning so we considered driving home and picking them up but we would have had a parking problem on our hands when we got back because we wouldn't have found one!

We phoned G's sister and asked if she would be able to pick the tickets up and drop them off with us at the Waterfront!  Once again God was watching over us because when G's sister picked us up we gave her a spare set of our house key's just in case our bag got stolen! So she was able to get in the house, pick up the tickets and drop them off with us!

We now had to walk from Cape Town station to the waterfront, then back to the stadium. (A total of approx 6.2 km's!)

At the end of the day we made it with lot's of time to spare before U2 came on but we were tired and both of our feet were sore until U2 came on then all was forgotten and 2 and half hours flew by like 5 minutes!

U2 was BRILLIANT!  It was a wonderful experience and I must say that the organisers at the stadium did a fantastic job!  We didn't have to wait to get into the stadium considering there were 72000 people at the concert I think that's an achievement on it's own!

The bathrooms at the stadium were well planned and clean. I didn't have to wait even a second to go to the bathroom there were loads of loo's and they had separate entrances to go in and to leave so no congestion at the doors either.  So after our adventerous start it turned out to be a lovely evening.

When the concert finished we waited at the Waterfront for about 20 minutes, got in our car and drove home with no traffic conjested.  We were so thankful that we left our car there, it only took us 30 minutes to get home, it took some people 2 hours!

Needless to say we got home at 01h20, showered, went to lie on the bed before making some coffee and the next thing we knew it was 10h00 and my alarm was going off!

Till next time!
L

U2 tonight, YIPPEE!

As I’m sure you know U2 is busy doing a world tour and are in South Africa at the moment.
They did their first concert in Johannesburg on Sunday, which apparently was awesome!

When the tickets sales opened G and myself said that we would go if we could find tickets that were not too expensive, that morning we went online to buy the tickets at Computicket and the website had crashed due to overload!

Later that day we went to one of our local malls and I remembered that they had a computicket there that not many people know about, so we popped in went straight to the counter and bought 5x R161 tickets!
(Keep in mind that some people waited for up to 5 hours in a queue to buy their tickets)
So as far as I’m concerned it was meant to be! 

So now, the day has come and I am super excited for the concert tonight!

Not only to I get to watch U2 tonight BUT there is a South African band called springbok nude girls that is also going to be playing, they were my favorite band when I was a teenage and unfortunately they broke up a while back so I get to see them perform too – whoop whoop!

Now I just need to get through the day so that I can and try my best to stay focused on the work that I need to get done today!

The concert is going to be in the new stadium that was built for the soccer world cup, there are going to be about 72 000 people there tonight which is 8080 more people than we had at the semi-final world cup game.

I have never been in such a big crowd before so this should be interesting! 

I have made sure that the rest of the weekend is going to be relaxing!  I have going for a hour and half’s worth of manicure tomorrow ~ all in preparation for the big three zero that is coming up next week.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Till next time!
L

Traffic problems!

I grew up in a town called Fish Hoek in Cape Town it is a relatively small town, our version of traffic is to have 5 cars backed up at a red robot.

I have now moved to a different part of Cape Town and on my first day of work I took the usual route that I would drive to Century City from home thinking it shouldn’t be too bad (it is only a 10 minute drive after all!)
WELL… I got stuck in such bad traffic at a 4 way intersection, the robot that was facing us was only letting one car through then would turn red! I was in a total spin, sms’d my mom and said please pray because being late on my first day of work would make a great first impression!

While sitting in this traffic I noticed that if I had to come from the right of the intersection it would go a lot quicker, there were about 10 to 15 cars going through the robot before it turned red.

The next morning I tried that route and yes we were moving but it was still slow because of all the cars coming into the traffic closer to the front, so yes it was better but not that much if you came from the back of the line!
I noticed that there were cars coming out of this one side road pulling into the traffic closer to the front of the line, so on my way home from work I drove that route.

The next morning I was at that road and taking my ‘shortcut’ it makes it so much easier and I am sure that it cut’s a big chunk of time off my travels in the morning. (even with my short cut it still takes me 30 minutes to do a 10 minutes drive)

I know, I know you are probably thinking the poor people at the back of the line that I am ‘pushing’ in front of – well I have thought of that and if they do not have the foresight to try make their traffic experience easier well then that is there problem!
I am fortunate enough to have the vision and planning to try make things easier for myself and why should I sit for an hour if I only have to sit for half that, right?

Even though some morning I am a different person sitting in traffic (it seems to bring out the worst in people) I still stay polite and I always thank people when they let me in and I always try let people in where I can, to make all of our traffic experiences a happy time!

Unfortunately, not everyone is the same and well I experience rude, impatient and inconsiderate people on a daily basis.
There are people that push in almost causing accidents and then not allowing anyone else in and if someone forces their way in (the same way that they did) then they get angry, there are people that just change lanes with no indicator on like everyone knows that they are going to change lanes now and so they must brake!

Sometimes I wonder what is going through these people’s minds!
My favorite so far happened on Friday, I was trying to pull out of the side road (there is a yellow block which people are not supposed to stop on to let cars get in and out of the side road) I need to cross 2 lanes to get in the traffic so the car in the first lane stops to let me in but the car in the second car starts pulling forward which would have meant that she would have been on the yellow block (which is illegal) and it would also have meant that I would have been in the middle of the road and no one would have been able to move so I pulled in front of her (I didn’t take an unnecessary risk because I love my car so it was still safe), I then lifted my hand to say thank you and she shook her head at me! As if I was in the wrong, can you believe it – I couldn’t! All I could actually do was laugh and when I picture her shaking head in my mind I have a good chuckle to myself.

People in traffic can be very selfish; I am trying not be one of those selfish, inconsiderate drivers.
I am trying to always remember my manners and say thank you even when people are rude or don’t really want me to pull in front of them.

I am not sure if I will ever get used to driving in traffic and I feel very sorry for the many people in South Africa (and I’m sure other places in the world) that sit in hours and hours of traffic every day, I know I wouldn’t be able to do it!

Till next time!
L

21 Years of FREEDOM!

11 February 2011 Nelson Mandela walked out of prison, changing the history of South Africa forever.

Some say for the worst, I think for the best!
Yes, even after 21 years our government does not have it all together - but then who does!
Yes, after 21 years we sadly still suffer with the 'race' issue from both sides but we can hopefully overcome that.

There is always hope and thankfully there is freedom.

Thank you Mandela for fighting for what you believed in and for what is right!

Till next time.
L

I need to toughen up

I’m quite a soft helpful person and when there are things to do I’m always the first one to volunteer which is sometimes to my determent.

My company moved into a new bigger building about a year ago, when we moved in we didn’t have a facilities person to handle all the nitty gritty things so of course, Miss volunteer over here offered to help.
It landed up being a massive job that took up a lot of my day which meant working a lot of overtime because of course my work didn’t go away, finally they found the facilities person and even though most of the responsibilities were taken away somehow I was still sucked in.

At the end of last year they needed someone to organize the year end function and once again Miss volunteer over here decided to help.  There were 3 of us that organized a function for 600 people, all of us doing it over and above our everyday busy jobs, once again it meant lot’s of overtime and also meant that when the function arrived I didn’t really get to enjoy it.

Now that the history part is over with it brings me to today…

We have a new facilities person that has started, he comes to me today and say’s that these guys have arrived to empty our recycling bins and shred the paper would I mind assisting them because he has a very important corporate meeting.

When he asked I was in the middle of a crazy deadline for our finance department sitting in front of my computer trying to get it done and trying to eat my lunch at the same time, but of course Miss I can’t say no over here said okay but not with a good heart!

Anyway, I go with the guys to collect the paper from the bins and then go outside with them to the truck to watch them shred all our documents, while I am outside I see him get into a car and drive off, the penny then drops…  His important corporate meeting was actually going to mosque!

I was so upset, not only was I busy but he was not honest and that doesn’t sit right with me.

I then realized that this was my own fault because I should not have said yes, when I had my own responsibility’s.  I need to start saying no and taking on so much, I know this is not going to be easy because this is not the way that I am but it is something that I definitely need to work on.

As my first step to toughen up a bit I decided to confront him about it, which I did.  He said that he did have a meeting but it was a quick meeting and then he went to mosque, I am not sure whether this is the truth or not but I have decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Till next time,
L

31 Days and Counting!

So today is exactly a month till I turn the big THREE ZERO!

I've never been one to worry about birthday's and how old i'm turning and I'm okay with the fact that I'm turning 30...

BUT, (of course there ALWAYS has to be a but...)
there are day's when I struggle not with the fact that i'm turning 30 but that there are certain things in my life that are not in place yet...

I'm turning 30 and I'm not a mom yet - don't get me wrong i'm am okay with it and I know that it has happened this way for a reason and that God has His time for me to become a mom and it will be the perfect time BUT (there's that word again...) I'm still human and sometimes it's difficult!

I'm turning 30 and I'm not married yet...  Again I know that God has His perfect timing and He has given me an awesome boyfriend so at least that's a start BUT again I'm still human and I wish my turn would come up next!

I'm turning 30 and I haven't finished studying - okay this one is not to bad, I have finished studying my main diploma but I am doing a photography course and I have hardly started the material and I'm now going to be studying through work to get a promotion.

I'm turning 30 and live in Cape Town and have only been up Table Mountain once and I was 5 years old (so I don't think that counts)

I'm turning 30 and I'm not at my goal weight.

Okay, enough rambling for today.

Till next time!
L

A Memory never to be Forgotten!

When we made the plans for my parents to come visit for the first time after their trip to Botswana, my mom and myself decided that the earlier they arrive the better, so 10am on Saturday morning I was waiting with excitement to hear their car pull up in our driveway!

The time had finally arrived. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself!  The first look at my mom and I could of burst into tears with happiness!  I cannot explain how emotional I felt when my mom hugged me, it will be one of those special moments that I will always remember.

We had a lovely day!  Chatting, eating, sitting outside in the sun looking at the pictures from my parents trip.

I tried a new recipe that I found on a food blog - quick and easy chelsea buns!  It was wonderful, we have a bread machine so I made the dough in the machine take it out rolled it put all the goodies on folded it, cut it and popped it in the oven - that simple!
They were really yummy!

I also baked a loaf of bread - in our bread machine, of course and made a mango chicken salad for lunch - lovely flavours together.

Till next time!
L

The Time has Finally Come!

My parents went to Botswana for 2 and a half months, they left in November 2010 and got back on Wednesday night.

They were so anxious to get home that they drove for 23 hours straight!

I missed my mom so so much while she was gone! Thankfully for the wonderful world of technology we got to catch up almost everyday but it's just not the same as having her here.

We live about a 30 minute drive away from each other so we haven't seen them since they have arrived.  They are coming to us tomorrow for lunch, I am so excited!

I can't wait to give my mom a hug! I feel like I am a little girl waiting to open her Christmas present, is that weird?

Till next time!
L

New Years Resolutions or Not!

I gave up making New Years Resolutions a long time ago because like many other people I just never stick to them.

Which ever way you look at it though the New Year is always a time of reflection...  Reflecting on the year that has just passed and looking at the things that you would like to change for the year ahead...

I have been thinking a lot about the things that I would like to change in my life this year, so hear goes...

♥ Start running again

♥ Lose a few kilo's without a diet.  This one I have started, I have tried to diet and they are always so difficult and I always put the weight back on when I stop them.  So I am trying just eating properly and combining that with running, I am hoping to see results...

♥ Craft more, I have a few mosaic projects that I have started and also a few that I have in mind.  I would like to start making more time for my crafts

♥ Bake more, I love baking but I find that I hardly ever bake.  There are a few things that I would like to try, like coconut ice, chelsea buns, lamingtons and loads more ~ recipes welcome!

♥ Be more organised.  I am a pretty organised person but I would like to improve on it to make little things in my life easier.

♥ Clean out the cupboards.  This I have also started already, my plan is to tackle at least one cupboard on the weekends that I am home

♥ Make an inventory and preset menu and shopping list.  Every weekend I plan our meals for the week and make our shopping list.  Sunday is our weekly shopping day!  This year I would like to streamline it a bit by making a spreadsheet of meals and shopping items, making this process a little faster

Sitting down and thinking about it I could probably carry on forever but I think that these things are a good start to making my life easier and better!

Till next time!
L

Bacon and Cheese Quiche

It has been so hot in Cape Town since last week some days reaching 42 degrees in some places.  It is not usually this hot, but it has been lovely.  We have been spending a lot of time in the pool after work, which has been great.

We braai'd one evening last week, which took us out of our routine a bit as we would not normally braai when we have work the next day but it was nice to mix things up a little!
Just a small braai for the two of us, we had a Rump Steak that was in the deepfreeze waiting to be eaten and I made a greenbean and feta salad and stuffed butternut with it.

For the butternut I mixed red onion, feta, spinach and corn put it in the hollow part of the butternut and popped it in the oven, quick, easy and delicious.

Another 'summery' dish that I made was bacon and cheese quiche.
I have made this recipe so many time and I love making it because it is so quick and easy.  You can also use different variations and change it according to what ingredients you have.

The recipe is:

Bacon and Cheese Quiche:

250g bacon chopped

500ml grated cheese

10ml mustard powder

30 - 45ml cake flour

pinch salt

500ml milk

45ml fresh chopped parsley

4 extra large eggs

 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Fry bacon until done, mix with the cheese and set aside. (I sometimes add corn to this mixture.  You can also use chicken if you don't have bacon)

Mix the mustard, cake flour and salt with a little milk to form a paste.

Stir in the parsley and the remaining milk.

Add to the bacon and cheese mixture.

Beat eggs well and add.

Turn into dish and bake for 30 - 40 mins until golden brown and set.

 

 

 

Makes 1 medium quiche.  I have also put the mixture in a cup cake tin and made mini-quiches, very nice if you are entertaining. (Those bake for about 10 minutes)



Till next time,
L