I had such a fabulously overindulgent weekend last weekend – it was laden with Sugar and Wine. Therefore when I woke on Monday feeling like I had a hangover I wasn’t sure whether to blame the sugar, the wine or both.

I had intense pain in my hip and felt fuzzy headed and fluey. I only had a half bottle of wine on Sunday and that was in the afternoon, so I am pretty sure my body was reacting to the sugar and chocolate I consumed Saturday. It was literally a few spoonfuls of shared desserts. When will I learn my body does not cope well with sugar? My ankles were swollen as well – from a 2 meal deviation from low carb. Crazy heh?

My Mom had her back operation on Monday to fuse her fractured vertebra. She came through it fine and is now resting at home. Hopefully there will be no more dramas until we can get her to South Africa for her visit.

We also had a family tragedy as my Aunt Sylvia who lives in Chattanooga Tennessee passed away. She had fibrosis of the lungs and had been struggling with her health and breathing. My Uncle Joe and Sylvia had been together for decades and he is shattered by her loss. It is hard to be so far away from family with all of these things happening, not being able to support them is a challenge.

It was my Dad’s birthday on Thursday. He would have been 81 if he had lived. He died at 49 from a stroke. He was obese, with a body type exactly like mine, skinny legs and flat arse, all of our weight residing around out abdomens. If only we had discovered the Banting lifestyle it would have maybe resolved his health issues. But like so many ‘if onlies’ we just didn’t know. 

I struggled to make it through the day Monday as I felt so rubbish and was so worried about my Mom.

I ate clean on Monday, stuck to banting as much as I can considering my lack of kitchen. It still took a few days to recover from my sluggishness.

Our book club has now started doing various activities rather than just rotate homes and have dinner at each other’s houses. Some cynical people may say we have given up the pretext of reading books and just go straight for the drinks. On Tuesday we decided to try the newly refurbished Constantia Nek restaurant which now is home to La Parada and Harbour House.

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The place was buzzing when I arrived. The other girls were already there and I settled in next to my friend Melanie with a gorgeous glass of Spier sauvignon blanc.

The other girls had eaten before they came out, but I had been at work and did not have time to eat so I was ravenous! I checked out the tapas menu and decided to order 3 different dishes.

I chose the prawn croquettes at R60. There were 6 croquettes so the portion is generous! They were lovely and crispy with a creamy centre containing large chunks of prawn.

I chose the fillet which was accompanied by cauliflower puree, spicy red pepper pesto, crispy bacon, bone marrow and baby mushrooms. It was R78.

I asked for medium, pink but not bloody. It was perfection. I love a nice bit of char on the outside of my steak, the cut was tender and so delicious.

I also had the crispy salt and pepper squid. It was also a generous portion and was only R49.

The food was divine, the portions are great value for the cost, the service was a bit slow but friendly.  All in all 4 kitten stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And while I play the country is still full of chaos and strife and political twists and plots.

The ever challenged Minister Pravin Gordhan gave the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday (the US equivalent of a financial state of union sort of thing). The main aim was most likely to stave off a junk rating for South Africa due to the turmoil created by our imbecile of a president. He did give a bit of additional budget towards university education, but this is a drop in the bucket of the R17.6bn estimated to be required to fund tertiary education.

This article is an excellent analysis of the #FeesMustFall agenda.

Also this week, it has become clear that the charges against Pravin are political and have been instigated and proven to be purely political, calculated, desperate and malicious rather than to expose any wrong-doing by the Minister. The information in the link to the article are highlighting the horrific levels of intimidation and coercion which are used by our so called special crimes unit are committing plenty of crimes themselves.

Near where I work in the city,  there were multiple marches and a fracas with the police and the protesters, they occurred near Cape Town Parliament with the cops firing rubber bullets into the crowds. In the 1st image you can see a big ‘W’ on the building – that is a client office I worked from a few years ago. This is relatively near my main client site.

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My kitchen cupboard doors finally arrived on Wednesday as well. They are exactly the colour I wanted. Well, most. We were one short.

After work I had to rush home to meet Vanessa my pedicurist. Her daughter had been ill and so we missed last week’s appointment so I had to fit her into my already chaotic week! She is such a sweet girl and it is such a pleasure to have my treatment done in my own home. Even though we had no sink to fill the foot spa, we made a plan 🙂

Norm was ever so productive, in between managing the builders, the house and being busy with Neighbourhood Watch duties he still managed to keep us all fed. Wednesday he made us divine pork chops and bought a couple of salads to go with. We had a ripe avo in the fridge to round it all off and to add a bit more fat and it was all healthy and yummy. He is an amazing hubby.

I was so excited about going to the Artscape Theatre to see the production of Carmen by the Cape Town Opera.

Norm has had so much on his agenda that he forgot he was supposed to drive me to the theatre as I cannot see to drive at night. The theatre is very near my work so I decided to just leave my car at work overnight and walk over to the theatre straight from work.

The restaurant was fully booked but as I arrived at 6pm I managed to get seated in a comfy wicker seat on the veranda. 

The wind was howling but there were dropdown ‘walls’ which I fancy getting for our outside patio. I ordered a sneaky vodka and cranberry and a tuna salad. 

I hate that bitter purple lettuce it had to be banished. 

I was quite cozy there until Helen arrived at 7. We then went in to the foyer and got a bottle of water for the show and ran into Rob who organized it. There were loads of people in the group. We sat down just as the chimes were sounding. 

The opera was so fabulous we had such fun. They put the lyrics in English up on a board almost on the ceiling which was quite literally a pain in the neck, but that was my only complaint really.

Violina Anguelov who played Carmen was quite sharp featured and rather older than I expected but she had a stunning voice. She also was quite sultry and sexy.

However, by far my favourite was Noluvuyiso Mpofu who played a beautiful Micaëla with such sweet vulnerability and tenderness, I loved her.

It was a very talented cast.

Norm drove through to the city to collect me and it was after midnight when we finally got to bed. But it was a brilliant show and worth it! 

Darren collected me on Friday morning and we went to Canal Walk for a workshop. We finished early and went home, and I was so impressed at the progress of the kitchen renovation. 

Lily and Josh came down and we ordered pizza from Massimo’s.

Today I’ve been to the hairdresser. She did my hair for our Halloween party tonight. The theme is Disney/Animation.

This is my date. Do you know who I am? 

Hopefully tonight will be lots of fun. I’ll take lots of pics to share with you!