I had several conversations this week about the many changes that life throws at us, changes at home or at work, changes in location or fortune. I know I’ve personally touched on all of those so I’m sure there are plenty more challenging situations, in addition to those experienced by me.

My measure of success is our ability to adapt to that change in circumstance, and should it be a detrimental occasion, how quickly do you get back on your feet? And are you able to let karma take its course or can you not let things go? I struggle with that one, I resist change despite choosing a life rife with change.

I really resisted change in my work situation. I didn’t want to leave the project I’ve been on for ages. But circumstances changed and leave I must.

I’m trying to get my head round the change and I’m doing so, there are still logistical challenges which mean working further than the city.

I’ll adapt. I love my job, the client is what defines the level of stress. The project I’m moving to has very technical, switched on stakeholders who know what they want. That direction makes it simple. So there are positives and negatives. 

There were several protests this week, mostly around lack of change or the speed at which it is moving by the current government. The ANC was such a strong party with Mandela at the helm. Now it’s a sham.

Many of their political rallies are poorly attended and the people are finally starting to be unwilling to settle for lack of progress when they see the politicians living fat off their spoils.

   
 One protest shut down the motorway, one took place at Sir Lowrys Pass another was in Stellenbosch, and a third in the City Centre regarding housing shortages in the Western Cape. Rumour is that the EFF is generating the conflict. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

There were protests for the unfair bail of alleged murderers of a local child.

There were protests by members of the ANCYL over the lack of transformation  of the sport of Rugby. Several sports have been subject to harsh penalties by the Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula which to me is a bit unfair. If the foundation is not laid by the government at grass roots level, then how can professional level sporting bodies magically generate these players as young adults? A sportsman is identified young and nurtured in countries who have successful national teams. Again the government are pointing the blame elsewhere instead of admitting lack of forethought and planning which is the real root cause.

The provincial government is much more progressive and forward thinking. But they have a long way to go.

Monday night Norm picked up some mince and I made a quick dinner for us as I was so tired from our late night out for Mothers Day. I made tacos and cheesy taco shells but I got distracted and they were rather crispy so we had tacos and tostadas. See, I went with that change and flipped it. They were crispy and yummy.

Tuesday Lily’s friend Talya came for dinner. I made mashed sweet potato which I had parboiled the previous night while I was busy making our tacos. I wrapped chicken breasts in bacon and baked them, fried whole mushrooms in butter and made a creamy mushroom sauce, and steamed broccoli to accompany it.

  
That night I noticed that this small itchy bite on my leg had gotten infected. Lily looked at it and thought it was a spider bite and that she saw “fang marks”. The family decided it looked nasty and made me promise to go to the doctor as soon as possible. With my replaced hip I need to be careful of infection. 

At least I got to sleep in an hour later the next morning. I went down just after 8.30 when the office opened. The receptionist fit me in as the 2nd patient of the day so I didn’t have long to wait. The doctor lanced it and it was all very sore and disgusting. He aspirated a lot by shoving in a needle. Not much fun. He also put me on a kick ass antibiotic and did a blood test. It’s still full of stuff and sore but not bright red and my leg is no longer hot. Hopefully it heals soon. 

As a result of my itinerary of visits to the doctor, the lab and the chemist I only got to work at 10am. I had to work late to make up my time and my darling husband made a delicious dinner for us.

  
He made pork chops, cauliflower mash, steamed asparagus and fried mushrooms. It was so wonderful to be looked after.

Thursday was my daughter Caitlin’s 28th birthday and we booked dinner at Spiro’s.  We turned over so many different options and changed the booking several times. Initially we were going to Deez for Mexican, but there is very little in the way of carb free options and Norm is not a Mexican food fan. Then last year’s pic of our prawn fest came up as a Facebook memory and we all fancied prawns. Last year we went to Pescarne but they changed owners so Caitlin just decided we would try the prawns at Spiro’s. 

Caitlin’s fella Wesley joined Norm, me, Lily and Caitlin. He is very cute and such a nice guy.

   
 
The girls both ordered mussels and Norm, Wesley and I ordered the crispy squid. When it arrived it was really large pieces of squid and I knew they would be chewy. Norm bit into his and confirmed my suspicion. I sent mine back but the boys ate theirs.

The waitress came back and said they had one order of the small squids left. They were delicious and indeed crispy!

  

Us girls all ordered the 6 Tiger Prawns at R160. My daughters both had chips and salad but I just had the salad.

  

There was a strongly flavoured sauce on the prawns. I would have preferred a choice of sauces on the side, I prefer peri peri or lemon butter. But the girls enjoyed it. The prawns themselves were fresh, fat and juicy, really nice.

When we got home we sang Happy Birthday and blew out candles and had a bit of carrot cake.

I stayed awake far too late and had a couple of cranberry and vodkas with dinner so I struggled to wake up the next morning. I was facilitating a client workshop that afternoon in Bellville on the north side of town. A few strong espressos later I drove the team out there while delicately balancing their laptop with the jobs open. The laptops died and they struggled to get it ready to show the client. Luckily they sorted it all while I did my rules confirmations and we looked at the data on my laptop. Phew. 

The weather was cold and drizzly. The workshop took 2 hours so I dropped my team off and headed home. 

I had my usual session on the patio to wind down after my busy day. Lola kept me company. It was brisk and cool. 

  

I was really tired and not up to cooking. I fancied a Massimo’s pizza. I had the Pavarotti which is bolognaise, mozzarella and basil.

Oh my it was so divine.

  
One night of carbs won’t kill me. I’m still slowly losing. I put no pressure on myself. If I really want something I’ll have a bit.

The weather was so misty when I woke on Saturday. Pixie had a chiropractor appointment in Noodhoek at 9:30am. I drove with my fog lights on through the valleys and up Muizenberg Mountain. Suddenly I came through the mist and it was perfectly clear. I looked out over the side of the mountain and it was like looking out a plane window at a sea of clouds.

  
After our appointment I needed petrol but first I stopped to draw cash at the Oakhurst ATM. Pixie sat watching me from the window. She’s so cute.

We popped into Hout Bay and filled up with petrol then headed home. I walked in to the house and heard Norm’s Neighborhood Watch radio announcing an attempted ATM robbery at the very same one I had just left!
Thank you Grandma. Just as I had arrived home a little hummingbird was dancing about in the bush outside our gate, Grandma sends me hummingbirds to let me know she is around. She obviously protected me. 

Retha and I went for lunch at our fave, the local Hout Bay gem The Riverway Cafe.

  
  
We had a gorgeous shared lunch of the Dragonfly Board platter with pulled lamb, pita bread, tzaziki, hummus, olives, zucchini, fries, and chicken strips with a blue cheese dip. We also shared piggy poppers as their version is my fave thing ever. 

     
 

We had a latte, shared a large bottle of water and rounded it off with a gorgeous Pimms cocktail and it was R170 each. Bargain! Such tasty quality in a lovely setting is worth every penny.

  
We had a lovely afternoon and I toddled off a bit tipsy from the Pimms and sugar. 

Norm and I just had a quiet night in. We were going out for dinner as we were on our own, but we decided to order take aways from the new chippy and rent a movie on BoxOffice. That didn’t go as planned.

Norm arrived at 6:30pm to be told they were not taking any more orders. He said, ‘ummm, so when should I come back?’ Only to be to,d they were not taking any more orders for the night! At 6:30?? 

Damn, there goes that plan.

So as we were all ready for fish Norm popped into Spiro and bought us grilled fish. It was a thick, gorgeous piece of fish in a lemon butter sauce so I was perfectly happy.

However once we settled in with our food, we tried to rent Sisters on DSTV BoxOffice.

So we entered the long assed ridiculous number and sent the SMS. Over and over.

  
It costs me airtime for each SMS and I spent about half a hour messing around, generating new codes and finally resorting to tweeting to them. They couldn’t sort it and never bothered to respond if they did. I messaged them again this morning and they had no clue what was going on.

What crap service.

Instead of the movie service we decided to try out our new high speed internet that we had installed this week from Sonic Wireless. Norm remembered that the Eurovision Song Contest was on and we streamed that for a laugh. We always made an event of it when we lived in the UK. I fell asleep of course. 

We woke to a thump and our alarm going off. Norm could not get it to engage again. It turned out Navajo rolled into the door and knocked it open and we didn’t notice. The alarm won’t activate with the door open. After it settled down I couldn’t go back to sleep despite it still being dark.

Today I am having a pajama day, I’m making a roast chicken dinner later for us all. I’ve just been sitting by the pool enjoying the sunshine.

  
Norm is spending the day working in the garden. He is putting down fertilizer to try and get the existing grass growing again and pitting down a bit of grass seed on the bare bits where Navajo runs round killing it. I doubt it works but you have to try, right?