Jessica was meant to have a couple of friends come over Saturday night for a sleepover, unfortunately right at the last minute they cancelled. I’m fairly sure I felt worse about the situation than she did, and in a moment of complete lunacy suggested she ask them whether they’d like to go ten pin bowling on Sunday, at Grand West. Naturally I couldn’t have Tamsyn going without a friend as well, so another child got added to the mix. Five in total, 3 thirteen year olds and 2 nine year olds.

Might explain the look on my face…

They did have a lot of fun, cost me a small fortune and a *very* well deserved drink at the end of the day.

I just love how the colours in these shots came out.

On the house front, quite a bit has been happening, the kitchen cupboards have finally arrived and Wouter is ‘having fun’ assembling them. I’ve never seen so many bits and pieces in one place.

And that was only half of it!

We do have our first cupboard up aready, well part of it anyway - when I questioned how I’d be able to get anything out of said cupboard, I was told and I quote “this is *my* cupboard for *my* stuff, it is by *my* prep bowl and *my* stove.” I’m not going to argue with such an emphatic man. [As an aside, I did make supper last night and wonder of wonders, it wasn't half bad - a sort of Tanya's veggie surprise - Jessica was quite amazed - rude child :-)]

Tamsyn’s room is really starting to take shape now and I just adore her bedroom cupboard doors and with the chandelier, it just looks beautiful.

The chandelier in all its glory…

Of course not to be outdone, Jessica’s light fitting is just perfect for a ’soon t’o be’ teenage girl.

Our bathroom is also starting to take shape, and the shelf unit by my bath is really going to make the room.

And now it has a back on it and the gap closed up.

We had the door put back between the hall and dining room and Frank had his team strip and varnish the cupboard doors as well as staining the door to fit in with the rest of the room. They did a good job.

Spikey came back the other morning, Sunday morning to be exact at precisely 3:02.  I know this ‘cos my alarm clock told me. I then proceeded to spend the next ten minutes staring out the window, camera at the ready waiting for the ultimate ’National Geographic’ shot. There are two reasons why this didn’t happen, a. Spikey didn’t blimmen come out from under the house within those ten minutes and b. the window was so misted up that any shot would have looked more like an alien visiting Earth than a porcupine. I also think W’s got tired of hearing me moan about Spikey, because he’s resorted to drastic measures to shut me up.  He’s *erm* how does one put this delicately, marked his territory.  I kid you not! As an aside, I don’t know whether it is a male thing, or an Afrikaans thing, or maybe just a De Waal thing, but all the males in that family have this primitive urge to pee out doors.  Blew my mind the first time I witnessed it, not the actual peeing you understand just the going outside to do it, still catches me out 7  years down the line.  Perhaps I come from a repressed English upbringing, because I cannot think of a single time when any of the males in my family walked outside rather than use the wonderful invention, a flushing loo. Haven’t heard Spikey for a few days.

And! my kids are home again.  Not sure who was more excited them or me.  They keep giving me tight hugs followed by “it’s good to be home again, Mom”.  Warms the heart it does.

A porcupine (picture courtesy of wikipedia).

Usual story, went to the loo at some really early hour of the morning, got into bed and the noises started. Peaked through a gap in the curtain, nothing. Got back into bed, hubby kind of came to, I mention the monster’s back, he grunts and goes back to sleep again. Heard another grunt, only this time it wasn’t hubby - peered through the curtain again, wiped the dew off the window, there goes Spikey on his next pitstop (well he has to have a name, can’t keep calling him Monster).  They almost make a barking kind of noise, something between a grunt and a bark, he obviously figured there wasn’t much to be had under the house and waddled off.  Noisy blighter.  Suffice to say I didn’t get much sleep after that.

As an aside, saw a banner at the bottom of Ou Kaapse Weg - “I love you Helene” - wonder what he did wrong

Yup, snow on the mountains. I took this picture from Boyes Drive, on the way home Friday. Not often we get to see snow so relatively close by.

Weekend happenings:

Wouter organised to pick up the jacuzzi, we would have done it last weekend but best laid plans and all that. I picked up Frank and co. and drove through to Kenilworth to meet up with him. He’d had to go through to Bellville to uplift the trailer from his folks. After some consultation, looking at the situation from all angles, we deemed it best to place the jacuzzi flat on the trailer and strap it down. A rather slow trip back, few stops to make sure the straps were secure and we now have a jacuzzi. It needs a bit of work on the panels, sanding down and re-varnishing, otherwise it seems to be in good condition.

They’ve finished laying the bricks in the back, which has made a real difference to the look of the place, no longer that horrible half broken up green concrete.

The weather we’ve had this weekend is the kind that makes one forgive Cape Town for all its sins. Truly gorgeous days with clear skies and sun, ok it wasn’t all that warm but still beautiful.

Realised I hadn”t actually posted any pics of the house painted, I’m getting used to the main colour, had a slightly lighter colour in mind originally but this works well with the accent colour.

I had them paint the gate leaving the pillars white, I think it looks ok.

I also had *my* room painted an almost spearmint green. I like it. (not sure others will but frankly their opinions don’t count). Hard to see in the picture the colour.

Actually friggen impossible to see the colour, and that wraps it up for today.

I cooked. Now I could leave the post just like that, those two little words - after all, what more is there to say?  I’m pretty sure those two little words strike a modicum of fear into W whenever I utter them, anyway I have decided to follow the trend and blog my recipe.  After all there have to be other people out there like me, culinarily (sic) challenged who would like an easy to follow, hard to really screw up recipe.

Goes something like this:

Decide you’re gatvol of stripping paint off bedroom cupboard doors (damn those doors have a lot of paint on them) and ask your hubby the leading question, does he *really* need you to be at the house when he works, feel guilty and offer to organise supper. Suggest a quickfix supper, already cooked roast chicken, veggies and bought gravy.  Feel guilty all over again for trying to take the easy way out, rack brain on drive home for a ‘Honey, I cooked it myself’ recipe, realise that your world famous macaroni and cheese has been overworked, and go for your slightly less world famous cottage pie.

Buy some essential ingredients:

1 tin tomato/onion mix (African style)

500 g extra lean beef mince

Brown the mince (oh forgot to mention you need potatoes and one turnip), whilst mince is browning in the pan peel the potatoes and turnip taking time to stir the mince so it doesn’t go from browned, to burnt.  Add tin of tomato mix (also forgot to mention the 200 ml’s of water and half a packet of instant ‘add 500 g of mince to this packet for a fantastic meal’ mix) add the stuff mentioned in the brackets.  Realise you actually have rather too much liquid and leave it to boil off while you burn a dvd.  You also need to put the potatoes and turnip on to boil for mash.  Taste the bubbling mince, reckon it isn’t too bad but lacks a certain something. When in doubt take hubby’s lead and add curry powder (he adds it to almost everything!).  Reckon the 3 tbs recommended on the back of the box might be a bit much and add 1 tsp.  Take a taste, grab a bottle of drink from the fridge and dowse the fire in your mouth (chastise yourself for not stirring the powder in well enough). Add what looks like enough frozen veggie for two people and stir.  Check on the dvd burning, realise mince is actually burning and switch stove off. Prod potatoes, not quite cooked yet.  Taste mince again, figure it still lacks something. Fall back on own tried and trusted addition, Mrs Ball’s Chutney - stir, taste. Reckon it will have to do.  Prod potatoes again, done.  Make Tanya’s world renowned mash potato, carefully spread it over the mince and wait patiently for vict… um hubby to come home.

I often claim that it takes a great deal of effort to be as ‘loskop’ as I am, which if truth be told is my way of making myself feel better. Pretty sure no-one really believes it. I apparently left my house keys on the floor of T’s room last night (not that I’d realised). It also transpires I’ve left my cellphone at home as well, well at least I hope it’s at home, otherwise it’s lost. I thought I’d get to the house before Frank locked up, but life conspired against me in the form of a taxi overturning on the N2 which naturally backed up traffic. I then figured taking Boyes drive might be a bit quicker, would have been if some geriatric wasn’t driving over it at 2 km/h - literally. Figured I could get a message to W via msn… nope, doesn’t want to work. Last resort, I’ve sent an email. Gotta love the technological age.

Not much to do but sit outside the gate and surf the net till either W gets here or my battery dies

I am sat in my hobby room perched on one of those red plastic - store-all type boxes, draped over which I have put one of the landrover mattresses and I am freezing my tushie off. I was bright enough to buy myself a cup of hot chocolate at the shops, otherwise I just might have had to dip into W’s secret stash he has hidden away somewhere in this house. On the upside, I’m able to blog with my ever so cute Eee PC (the novelty will wear off eventually, until then you’re just going to have to grin and read it :)). I’m supposed to be stripping (the paint) but the thought of having to change into work clothes is just too much for me, besides which W bought me new scrapers and quite obviously I have to wait till I get those. Until then I’m going to sip my drink, browse the net and hope like heck I stop shaking.

My little workstation.

Having waxed lyrical yesterday about my new Eee PC, let me rather give updates on the house. (Oh just so you know, I bought W the Gun Digest, comes out every year - makes choosing presents for him a doddle and something else, but can’t say what yet - hoping it arrives today).

Who’d have thought stripping paint off a door could be such hazardous work. I now have a tiny burn mark on my tummy where a*very* hot paint chip flew off the cupboard and down the front of my top. Eina.  I also didn’t realise just how labour intensive stripping paint can be, I’ve been at it for 3 days now (off and on) and I’m still not finished the damn doors in T’s room.  We decided to strip the paint off as there had obviously been several coats painted on and I want to re-paint them, probably with a light lilac. If I’d painted over the top of the existing paint, we’d never be able to close the doors.  So the heat gun and I are becoming fast friends, when the damn thing isn’t sending tiny pieces of molten lava down my front.

 

I’m also changing the handles, they’re really old fashioned. (Btw this picture was taken at the beginning of yesterday’s efforts, there is a lot less paint now).

Frank has started to lay the bricks in the back yard and what a difference it is going to make.

They have built and plastered the wall where the jacuzzi is going to go.  We’re going to fill the rest of the space with glass bricks.

We also had them raise the wall between our neighbour and ourselves - didn’t really fancy sitting on the front porch and having to see their back door the whole time.

So, things are happening, we still have a looooong way to go but progress is being made.

Figured I’d end off with a pic W took of me with my new best friend (not the heat gun, *grumbleaboutheatgunsthathurtme*).

It is our first anniversary tomorrow…7 July. For those who don’t know us, we have had a somewhat unconventional relationship… started by meeting in a chatroom on the internet (less jaw dropping these days than say seven years ago), six years later we got married and about two months ago we moved in together. For some it might seem strange that we married before we moved in, for us a self confessed Geek and Nerd, it made abundant sense. You see we met on 7 July 2001, got engaged 7 July 2005 and *had* to get married on 7 July 2007. Um had to in a geek sense, not in the more traditional sense!! What better date than 07/07/07.

Which brings me to my anniversary present. I have for a long time wanted a laptop, Wouter kept saying I didn’t need one, I’m sure he’s right in a fundamental sense, but that didn’t stop the yearning or the subtle hinting, nagging and casual mentioning in passing. As it happens a friend of his learnt about the EeePC and decided he couldn’t live without one. As soon as Wouter pointed me to a link about them, I decided I couldn’t live without one either. Some negotiation later W agreed to source one for me and I started to set aside money for it. Well I am sure you know where this is going, yup my wonderful husband arranged for his brother to bring me one from the UK in time for our anniversary. Actually we cheated and he gave it to me yesterday. It is the cutest thing out, is run on Linux which for me will take some getting used to, as well as a somewhat small keyboard, my cursor keeps finding its way to all sorts of weird places. Overall I am extremely impressed and excited about it (so is hubby who now can’t live without one either). As for the tradition of giving each other paper on ones first anniversary, well this is almost like giving a person paper. A stretch I know, but one I will stick to!