On Friday I worked from our head office in Century City and when our workshop finished and we left work early I was starving so I headed to Allegria Cafe for a bite to eat. I ordered my fave Eggs Benedict.

It looked beautiful but the bacon was way too underdone for my preference. Norm likes it like that but I left most of mine uneaten. Their hollandaise is gorgeous. I just pushed the English muffin to the side.

The painter had been busy distressing the cupboards.

I hung out in the garden with the dogs for a bit that afternoon.

That night we went to Retha’s and got dinner from The Kitchen Takeaway in Hout Bay. Retha and I both got the free range chicken burger and Norm had a beef burger. It was delicious and certainly not low carb, but sometimes you just want a burger! We watched some movies and I passed out as always. Oops.

We had a huge chore list for Saturday but first I had to take Pixie to Noordhoek to see David Black our chiropractor. We got there early.

It’s a stunning drive, I pulled over for pics on the way home. All the wildflowers are in bloom.

I got home about 10.30am and collected Norm and off we went to Canal Walk. There was a bar fridge on special at Game and we managed to get the last one in Cape Town. We are getting a new bar top and mantel piece done in a nice dark wood and will kit the bar out properly. With a decent kitchen I hope we will entertain more often. The same joiner who fitted our kitchen is doing the wood work. He does quality work at a good price.

Norm had gone to Kenilworth the previous afternoon to take back a recently purchased vacuum cleaner we had for a week when it started smoking. It is a tiny cheap one as Cordelia is very heavy handed and has broken about 4 of them, starting with our very expensive Dyson so each time we spend less. The girl at the shop said the reason it burned out after a week is that we used it as a vacuum. Ummmmm. It IS a Vacuum? Should I use it as a blender? A deep fat fryer? She said it had burned out because we used it every day.

What?

We had it a week. Are you telling me the shelf life of this product is a week?

So they sent it away for repair instead of giving us a new one. Now we have 3 long haired dogs and no vacuum. And we are renovating our house. I can’t believe they didn’t give us an exchange? We have to wait?

We asked could we purchase the fridge at the Kenilworth branch and then collect it the next morning at Canal Walk or could they at least hold it til we get there. No.

The worst customer service ever.

After Game we went for lunch at Mugg & Bean in Canal Walk. It was hectic busy as always.
I ordered the Eggs Benedict. Yes I’m predictable. I like what I like.

Again I knocked the stack from the muffins and pushed the bread to the side to manage the amount of carbs. My eggs were supposed to be soft but they were hard. The bacon however was perfect.

Norm had an omelette filled with cheddar cheese and mushroom and bacon on the side.

He seemed pleased with it.

After Century City we headed to Northgate shopping area. We went to Arora Lights and found 2 light fittings for the kitchen and scullery. These are not exactly the same style I bought but this is very similar. Mine have rings with ridges around the silver part.

Then we went searching for tiles for our kitchen renovation project.

We didn’t get any as we couldn’t decide. The 2 on the left are the top contenders. We have to blend with the terra-cotta and blue floor tiles.

We went home and relaxed a bit then Norm took the dogs out for their walk and we went to collect Retha. We were heading out to The Hogshouse Brewery in Ndabeni.

It was our friend Elmari’s birthday celebration.

I was pleased to see some old Twitter pals.

The food is served ‘family style’ on shared platters. We ordered a variety of starters.

Chilli poppers, black pudding scotch eggs, home made tortilla chips and guacamole and Arancini di Riso which are beautiful rich balls of mushroom risotto deep fried in a crispy coating. All were excellent quality.

Some pics are compliments of my friend Hila aka Add To Taste on social media. Some are from Retha. I took a few. I can’t remember who took which. Oops. Rest assured the good ones probably aren’t mine. 🙈 thank you ladies.

For mains it’s the same concept, they brought platters of meat and we selected various sides. We just made our own trays, the ribs were melt in your mouth.

I had the Pulled pork which was prepared SA style, not Southern American style. But it was still delicious. We had a crispy deep fried miso mushroom, spicy corn, onion rings, a vinegary cole slaw salad and all sorts of yummy tidbits.

For desserts I had the most divine Portuguese egg custard tarts called Pasteis de nata. Wow. Just wow. One of the best desserts I’ve tasted. Light, creamy I want more.

They also had a variety of sorbet or gelato. It was served in a sweet crispy waffle cone. I had the salted caramel. Both the cone and ice cream were gorgeous.

We waddled out happy!

Today Norm made our first meal on the new Smeg cooker.

It was yummy!

We have had a lazy day and late this afternoon I am going to a BBQ/braai at Retha. Norm is supposed to be working but he is snoozing. So he will work later while I play. Such is life.

My mom arrives one week from today. I am getting very excited!