The week since our party has been full on so I was very happy to see the arrival of the weekend.

Sunday we went to Alphenstube. The food was beautifully cooked. I had chicken schnitzel and chips and a side of sauerkraut which I love but seldom have. Norm had a lovely looking big steak with chips and mushroom sauce. But it was an odd little venue. I would go back though as the food was beautifully prepared. I finished off with the creme brûlée which was really fabulous.

On Monday night Sam, Caitlin, Norm and I went to Pescarne, a new restaurant in Hout Bay.

This was my 3rd visit and this was the tie breaker. The 1st visit we had perfect service, deliciously cooked food and a brilliant evening. I had the fillet with a tempura king prawn. It was so good I had it again the 2nd visit. The 2nd visit- not so nice. We had a different waiter who kept wandering vaguely off, the food was not as well prepared, but the worst is that the fillet I had was the end of the joint and not very tender or nice. As it was a very expensive dish I wasn’t happy. But the 1st time it was so good that I tried it again. I was so disappointed with it. We shared the halloumi as a starter and it was very salty. All in all it was a disappointing evening the 2nd time round.

This visit we ordered fried halloumi, springbok carpaccio and a scallop and prawn pot to share between us. They were all very nice, the halloumi had a lovely crunchy batter and was a creamy texture, not rubbery. It was again very salty however. The springbok was rich and nicely dressed. I had so looked forward to the prawn and scallop dish but the scallops were far smaller than we get in Europe. That dish was just average, I didn’t like the gelatinous texture of the sauce, almost as if there was a thickening agent which had not been ‘cooked down’.

I had a beautiful succulent piece of kingklip on a bed of rice which almost had the texture of risotto.

It really was divine.

For dessert I had the same dessert I’ve had all 3 of my visits, the chocolate fondant. It was warm and creamy and rich. It came with a wee dollop of custard and ice cream.

Work was incredibly busy with our final migration done on Tuesday and I should have been busy all evening testing, except I was booked into the Xtraordinary Woman event, Success in High Heels cocktail evening. It was at the Two Oceans Aquarium and it was a gorgeous venue. As always it was a very inspiring evening with many interesting speakers.

I was rather distracted however as that afternoon Cordelia had come to me to tell me she needed to borrow money as her brother had killed a man at the shabeen on Saturday night. She said they argued over a woman and both pulled knives, her brother just got more licks in and he killed the other man and was in Pollsmoor the same prison where Nelson Mandela spent part of his incarceration.

The African custom, according to Cordelia, is that the family of the ‘killer’ has to pay for the burial of the victim. As the oldest of the family, this and all responsibility falls on Cordelia. She came to me with tears in her eyes, shaking with apprehension. I proceeded to get the story out of her, between her broken English and my non-existent Xhosa we managed to understand each other. Cordelia does not live her life like her brother obviously did and it makes me so angry that despite her clean life style and Christian beliefs, that she has to pay for her brothers violent drunken behaviour.

I told her we would make a plan and I would loan her R1000 to pay for the burial. With Christmas round the corner and all the other expenses I have had lately that was what I felt I could spare. I discussed it with Norm and then I had to shoot out as my lift had arrived.

I later get a message from the bank to say he has taken out R2000 instead. More than I wanted to give but Cordelia needed it, so we will just have to work around it. Luckily we are not going away for Christmas so my spending will be less. We will manage.

Wednesday was Sam’s job interview at a company in Century City. I had asked for the day off as leave so I could take her there and then for a nice celebratory lunch after, but as we had migrated the previous night I needed to do the recon and testing. Rather than let the team down I worked, and brave Sam set off in my unreliable car, using my dodgy GPS which gets me lost constantly, to an area of Cape Town she had never been to with her interview at the end of it all. No stress then! I was like a proud Mom when she eventually made it back home. She felt the interview went well, the only obstacle is getting a visa. The company often import staff so they have this process in place, so we are hoping praying and pleading with the Universe to make it happen.

I finished my testing at 2 and we shot off to have a bit of fun on her last day. First a bit of shopping where I finally made a start on my Christmas shopping and Sam got a few bits to remember SA. Then we went to The Lookout Deck. We ordered frozen cocktails and some sushi.

Sam is a recent sushi convert – recent as in this trip! She took to it like a umm…seal. ‘Duck to water’ didn’t sound right, do ducks eat fish?

We had a lovely time, chatting loads, laughing even more. We had a meal and 3 cocktails and we were over it, ready to go home and hang with the family in our jimjams. The days of getting so totally off the rails appear to be somewhat behind us 🙂

We wanted to extend it as we both hated that Sam was going home the next day. I drove her to the airport, we refused to say goodbye instead we said, “see you soon” as that job MUST be hers!!

I had a meeting in town on my way back from the airport, so I popped in for that and grabbed some lunch. I had the Girl Geeks Dinner that night and do not like to go when starving like I did on the Tuesday at the SIHH event.

I was so tired, but I do love Girl Geeks and always meet someone new and interesting. So I mustered up some enthusiasm and off we went to Cafe Chic in Gardens. http://cafechic.co.za

I was glad I did. The venue was stunning. Beautifully decorated, the venue was like a tardis, it went on and on, each room more delightful. The food was served as canapés with the staff coming round with platters of deliciousness. Retha and I were both too exhausted to stand in the function room for ages, so we drifted off to a cosy corner in the lounge which luckily happened to be by the kitchen so we got 1st choice at all the platters. The service was impeccable.

Friday the girls all went for a coffee for Camilla’s birthday, but I had been assigned a new analyst and I needed to do a project overview for him. I was so tired and ditzy I left my charger at home so had to leave when it died, then just came home and worked a bit before crashing.

I have a lazy weekend planned and I intend to attempt the world record for the longest non-stop pajama wearing.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep sending the Universe the message that Sam, like me, is meant to be in Africa -the place where our hearts feel at home.