I worked from home all of last week as I was still feeling rubbish and my cough was contagious according to my GP. Rather than start a plague I just stayed home. I did not feel up to working a full day at all last week. I finished my antibiotics last Thursday and I still felt nauseous, dizzy and short of breath so I went back to see my GP again. He checked me out thoroughly and said that he thinks it is all linked to my inflamed sinuses rather than any infection remaining.

He gave me a saline nasal wash, some pills for the nausea and a fizzy tablet called ACC 200 to help with the congestion which was causing me issues with breathing. It took a few days but I finally started feeling human again by the end of the week. I went back for a check yesterday and now he is concerned about my blood pressure so I have to go back in 2 weeks for another check. When I told the doc I had eaten whatever I wanted on the weekend as I was on ‘holiday’ he said ‘that cannot be it’ but I told him that Professor Noakes disagrees – Noakes feels BP rises are linked to diet, not weight.

Norm has been a sweetheart as usual and he cooked for me and Caitlin last Tuesday. I talked him through it but he did all of the work. He fried onions and peppers in coconut oil, then added chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces and browned it all. He then added sliced button mushrooms, 2 cups of chicken broth, a container of double cream and a whole packet of baby spinach. He put it into my oven safe Le Creuset pot and baked it until it was done. It was so delicious and tasty!

Believe it or not, I have had this Le Creuset pot for over 25 years and it is still my fave. It is virtually indestructible.

Last Tuesday night we started watching the series ‘Three Girls’ which is a 3 part docudrama about the grooming and sexual abuse of white children by a group of Muslim men in the UK. The levels of ineptitude by the Greater Manchester Police are actually unbelievable. It is a hard series to watch, Norm got so upset he shouted at the telly. We could only manage an episode each evening, two a night was too intense. We finally finished it on Thursday night, it is so upsetting how these girls were treated by the perpetrators as well as the people who should have been defending and protecting them.

On Wednesday night I cooked pork chops, spreading chilli all over mine and just baking Norm’s. I roasted pumpkin in coconut oil and fried red cabbage in butter and balsamic.

The same night I also prepared a lasagna for Thursday’s dinner. That evening all I had to do was pop it in the oven.

On Friday I took a half day off of work as we flew down to George to visit my kids as it is my son Trevor’s birthday today. I gave him a voucher for bits of gear for his Vape and I bought him a few things to wear.

He seemed to like them when we gave them to him on the weekend and he wore them so that is a good sign he was not lying :).

Norm and I arrived early at the Cape Town airport on Friday and so we decided to have some lunch at Mugg & Bean before we flew. I am not great with flying so I had a wee cocktail to calm my nerves.

Norm’s food arrived promptly but mine only arrived much later when he was almost finished eating. He had an omelette which looked yummy.

I was so annoyed with my food coming late that I forgot to take a pic of mine. I had the trio sampler.

The plane was a few minutes late arriving in Cape Town but we managed to make up the time and arrive on schedule in George.

I was already nervous and got even more worried when I saw how little the plane was. I have been on bigger buses!

Trevor collected us at the George airport when we landed and we drove through to Wilderness and stopped in the village at Palms Garden Square to see my DIL Amber and her friend Lauren’s shops neither of which I had yet seen.  The shops are both so adorable and I am sure will be a great addition to the village. I loved the whole vibe at Palms Garden Square.

First we popped into Lolly’s Candy Bar.

The smell of popcorn popping in the shop was so tempting. They also have soft serve ice cream and all manner of toppings as well as every sort of sweet imaginable. It is a children’s paradise! They make amazing milkshakes which Lily sampled the following day when we went back to the square.

We then popped into their second shop, the Evergreen Deli which is just around the corner from their candy shop. It is a gourmet delicatessen and food shop.

They have lots of imported delicacies and a freezer with duck and other exotic and local meats as well as a deli and cheese counter. They do gorgeous cheese and meat platters and even host events.

We headed off to Trevor and Amber’s lovely house and I forced Trevor to take a pic with me when we arrived, this is taken on their front deck. He is such a tall, handsome man! I am over 5’7″ and I look like a dwarf next to him.

Trevor had been working really hard all week and I only wanted to see him rather than go out and about, so we decided to stay in and get takeaways on Friday night. We got Thai food from The Royal Siam Thai restaurant. They have really good Spring Rolls, nice and crispy. I had the Crazy Beef which came with a spicy sauce. It was good, I will give it 4 Kitten Stars.

That night we chatted and caught up and then we watched T2 Trainspotting, the sequel to Trainspotting.

It takes place 20 years on from the original film and has the same cast of actors. We had such high hopes for this film as we absolutely loved the original. I was rather disappointed. I did like how they would insert a flashback from the original on occasion to highlight that their lives are playing the same loop. But I thought it was far too dependant on the previous film and would have preferred it to be more of a stand alone storyline. It also annoyed me that they had a scene where Jonny Lee Miller and Ewan McGregor decided to shoot heroin together again and had a psychedelic trip and the next day just carried on with life with no craving or after effects. I think that is an irresponsible representation of heroin use. Norm enjoyed the film a lot but I suspect he just enjoyed being surrounded by the scots accent.

I give the remake 2.5 Kitten Stars.

We awoke on Saturday to hear that there had been yet another terror attack in London. This makes 3 attacks in 3 months. We sat feeling stressed and helpless once again waiting to hear that our friends and family were safe. This is becoming far too frequent.

We may be running out of water in South Africa but I feel safer in regards to risks of terrorism.

We had a slow start on Saturday morning and then we headed to Flava Café for lunch. We sat upstairs.

Norm tried to stay low carb and ordered their breakfast.

But Trevor and I both pushed the carb loaded boat out and had the Bacon, Guac & Feta Burger. I had chicken and Trevor had the beef. It is also available as a veggie burger, but if you are indeed vegetarian then I suggest you omit the bacon 🙂

It was a divine burger, the guacamole was home made and it had big chunks of feta and was topped with coriander which I love. The chicken breast was moist and spicy and the bacon crisp. The onion rings were nice and crispy as were the shoestring fries.

I give Flava Café 5 Kitten Stars.

After we finished eating we walked over to the Palms Garden Square again to have drinks at the Bootlegger Brewery and Blind Pig Tap Room which is now my fave place to drink.

It is so chilled out and I tried the most divine pomegranate cider. Yum.

Lily & Josh drove through from George to join us and we sat upstairs on the deck under cover of canvas and had a lovely afternoon.

Late afternoon we started getting hungry and we walked back around the village to order take away pizzas from Cocomo. Josh and I had a Mexican pizza which was really nice, Trevor had a chicken pizza, Norm had the Moroccan chicken and it was massive, it had 4 chicken breasts and lots of salad and veggies. Lily ordered a halloumi salad and it was also really large – their food is great value for the money. They also have live music every night so I think this would also be a regular stop for us if we end up moving to Wilderness.

Lily and Josh headed back to George as Josh’s mom has just come home for a visit from the UK where she works. Me, Trevor and Norm just chilled out and watched a bit of telly and chatted and did not have a late night as we were tired from our busy day drinking in the sunshine.

Sunday was our last day in town to spend with the kids and we drove through to Mossel Bay to see Lily and Josh’s new flat. It is the downstairs section of a large house right by the beach. It is nice and spacious and modern and really lovely.

We all went out for lunch to Mossel Bay and we went to Café Havana. I loved the décor, it was colourful and fun.

Lily and I both chose to have tapas for lunch. I had chili poppers, prawn tempura and onion rings. Lily had the calamari, prawn tempura and spinach and feta pastries. It came with a choice of sides and we both had coleslaw and wedges.

After lunch we went back to Josh and Lily’s flat and chilled out until time to go to the airport.

They have their own banana tree in the garden.

I have such beautiful babies.

The sun was setting on our flight back and it was stunning.

The flight was over in no time and we came home and relaxed a bit before bed time. It was a lovely visit but it is always nice to sleep in your own bed.

Last night after work Norm just cooked some chicken sausages and steaks on the braai and I made a salad to go with it. He also cooked halloumi on the braai and it is my fave new thing to cook on the grill as it is crispy outside and warm and gooey inside.

There is a massive storm heading to Cape Town tomorrow so we have all been told to work from home rather than risk travelling. The weather service is predicting winds of up to 90km/h, with snowfall on the outskirts of the peninsula and up to 80mm of rain in some areas, with some branding it the largest storm the Cape will have seen in 30 years.

Norm has taken in to the house everything in the garden which is possible to go flying away. I am so worried about the people who live in the informal settlements as their entire shacks are at risk of taking flight. The storm coupled with the drought could lead to flooding and mudslides so keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.