Norm returned from Scotland last week and Lily headed back to George until she starts her new job at the end of March. It was so nice to have Norm home, I love that I get a decent snore free night’s sleep when he is away, but I do miss him. The girls were a huge help while Norm was away, I could not have managed without them and it always makes me realise just how supportive he is.

Friday night we just had a quiet night in as we had been so busy, we needed some chill time.

Saturday was Valentine’s Day and I had planned a lovely evening for us as a treat and Norm had bought me some lovely flowers.

I had booked tickets for us to go to 15 On Orange to an intimate concert by local artist Jimmy Nevis served up with snacks and a glass of bubbly included.

We headed into town just after 5pm as it was first come first served in regards to seating. There was plenty of parking and we wandered into the lobby area and saw the set up for the concert, it looked very polished. We were met by a professional group of people, one with a clipboard. You know you are official if you are clutching a clipboard. Right? She found us quickly on the list and handed us off to someone to be seated. We were offered a seat right below the stage so we snapped it up. There were already delicious looking platters awaiting us on the table, one of bruschetta, aubergines, peppers, crudités, cream cheese and other bits and one of various charcuterie, posh cheeses, figs in honey, mustard and home made bready snacks. Those figs were to die for, when eaten with the sharp Edam it was like heaven.

A waitress arrived bearing glasses of champagne before we could even get seated. My kind of place 😀

We were glad we had made an effort to get there early as our seats were fab. Norm was unfamiliar with Jimmy Nevis but I knew many of his songs from radio play and videos shown on telly, I knew he was from the ATL same as me. Except his ATL is Athlone and my ATL is Atlanta but I still like to think we are homies.

http://youtu.be/_iqNqfPhSzw

I’m not clever enough to embed it, so ^^ here ^^ is the link to Jimmy’s video ‘Heartboxing’. This was the first thing I heard and thought, ‘what? Hotboxing?’ And then you see the little whisps of smoke blowing on the video? Brilliant. So 420. Maybe what generated my homie familiarity.

I loved that they distracted us from arrival with food and drink so I did not even notice the time the set started, but I never felt like I was waiting. There were a wide mix of people in attendance so it was a bit like sitting in an airport doing a bit of people watching. It was a real South African event, people of all colours, sizes, dress styles, all races, all sexual orientations, aged young and old, we were all ready for a great night. And Jimmy gave us that.

There were only 3 other band members in addition to Jimmy, one fellow playing a guitar and one dude with gorgeous dreads playing drums as well as a Glamazon of a woman with an amazing voice singing back up.

I didn’t know what to expect regarding the playlist, I didn’t know if it would be all his original music or whether he would just make it a night of lurve songs but when he kicked off with my absolute fave song at the moment, Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ I sighed with contentment. This is mine and Norm’s song – he just doesn’t know it. But after I punched him his memory came back and he tolerated me singing along at the top of my whisper voice, clutching his hand dramatically to my heart.

Jimmy sang a mix of his own songs, a few Micasa songs and everything from Alicia Keys to Whitney GodRestHerSoul Houston. This boy has some pipes. He has a huge range as well, any fella who can do Miss Whitney justice has gotta have some special skills.

They took a break and we all stretched our legs and chatted, I am happy to say this is one evening where the South African audience members did not talk throughout. That is my pet peeve and I am glad I didn’t have to shout at any one and ruin my lady like pretences.

They served the next course, but I was a bit tipsy by this time after guzzling down a few pink cocktails, and I didn’t snap a pic. But it was crispy calamari in a sweet chilli sauce and a bowl of carbonara penne pasta. Both were very nice but we were so full still from the meze and tapas we had munched on that we didn’t finish it all.

The waitresses were fabulous about keeping our glasses topped up, Norm couldn’t indulge as he was driving and the waitress kept bringing ice cold bottles of water for the table. The service was exceptional.

The second set Jimmy got us all up on our feet, and it was the sort of setting where you could recline in your comfy chair or jump up for a wee boogie without feeling you were in any one’s way. Jimmy even drifted into the audience to chat and engage the attendees.

We enjoyed the show, danced a bit and then we were given the dessert course, I was a bit slow to snap my pic and you can see that someone had been gnawing on the nougat already. Cheeky wee mouse 😀

We just had such a brilliant evening, if I see another of these types of events I will sign up as 15 on Orange did a great job.

Yesterday our friends John and Trish arrived from Scotland. They had a week in Sun City before they came down and were already tanned and relaxed when they hit the Mother City. They had rented a self catering cottage in Simon’s Town and we planned on meeting up that afternoon. We had a lazy morning then stopped by our fab Oakhurst Spar to get food to take as we knew they did not have time to shop. We got a whole roast chicken, several fresh bread loaves, some edam cheese, dips, crudités and a variety of crisps and snacks to go along with the bottles of wine and water which we took. We had a bit of a challenge finding the villa but finally saw them waving at us from the stoep of the rental. It was right on the main road with a view out to sea. It was a lovely old original house from that area, but it had been beautifully decorated and renovated. I took a few snaps of the décor for you to see.

We carried the kitchen table out to the verandah and set up our little picnic.

We sat for hours just snacking and chatting and catching up. Then we decided to head down the road to the village to have a coffee. We went to a place over the harbour and enjoyed a coffee in the sun while watching seals frolic and the boats bob in the harbour. It was magical.

It was a lovely day, so fabulous to see our old friends and meet a new one.

Today was back to work, there was a strike or a protest of some sort and the roads were quite dangerous, the taxis were all brawling and causing chaos.

Just another day in Africa.