Working for 2 different clients can lead to confusion. I cannot operate on auto pilot in the mornings, I have to think – ‘where am I working today’? I have one client in the Foreshore in the city on Monday and Tuesday and my other client where I work from Wednesday to Friday is in Mowbray which is off in a completely different direction. On Wednesday I was speaking to the client when I first arrived and she was talking about a meeting the day before which completely baffled me, since when do we work on a Sunday? She then pointed out to me it was not Monday, it was Wednesday. To me it felt like Monday as it was the start of the ‘week’ with that client! It was a rather ditzy and embarrassing conversation.

On Thursday when I got home from work Norm was out walking the dogs and it was really cold so I started a fire and got dinner on the go. I had gem squash, chicken breasts, baby spinach and red cabbage to work with so I decided to bake the chicken with sliced peppers and a bit of coconut oil. I sliced the cabbage and fried it in butter and balsamic vinegar. I steamed the gem squash. I stir fried the baby spinach in a tiny bit of butter until it was limp then used the hand blender to puree it and then stirred in a dollop of double cream and a handful of grated mature cheddar cheese and simmered until it was all melted. I topped the baked chicken with the spinach mix and scooped out the squash and mashed with butter to serve it. It was so delicious even if it looks a bit of a mess.

I had left overs but I forgot to take them to work with me the following day and as it was a Friday I decided to treat myself and use OrderIn and get my fave Mexican food from Fat Cactus for lunch. I had a pulled pork quesadilla with chill poppers. I wised up this time though and instead of the usual pineapple salsa that comes with the dish I asked for basic salsa instead. Pineapple is never nice with savoury food in my opinion.

I had worked an extra hour on Thursday evening so I finished a bit early on Friday afternoon and headed home as Lily and Josh were coming down for the weekend.

Caitlin was busy at her new flat until late that evening, but the rest of us spent the evening catching up and ordered take away food from Spiro’s for dinner. We started a new series we had heard was good which neither of us had seen called Ozark. The first episode was almost soft porn which is always rather embarrassing when watching with your kids. However we endured to the end and I think we will continue watching it, it was a very good premise.

We had a turn in the weather at the end of the week and it was lovely outside on Friday night and it was our first night without a fire in ages, it was as warm as a summers evening so we sat outside for a bit. Navajo loves it outside in the evenings.

Saturday we were all up early as Lily and Josh were off to Simon’s Town on business. Josh’s electrical firm is starting a large project there. Josh will be coming to stay with us while working there but they were viewing accommodation for their staff who will be coming down too. Lily messaged us in our family Whatsapp group to say the Simon’s Town harbour had whales cavorting right opposite the building site.

I asked Lily for a pic and my smarty pants daughter Caitlin sent me this pic:

Ha bloody ha. Cheeky minx.

Lily said the pics were not very clear even though the whales were up close. You could just see a fin waving vaguely about occasionally.

I had an appointment at Skin in Hout Bay for laser treatment and so I also got up and got ready after Norm brought me a coffee in bed. When I got into the car a calendar reminder popped up telling me I had an appointment at Skin in an hour. I only then realised I had been aiming for arriving at the wrong time for my appointment. As I was all dressed and ready I managed to entice Norm into coming out for breakfast at La Cuccina which is next to the spa.

I ordered their Eggs Benedict with crispy bacon. It was perfection! The eggs were soft as requested, the muffin was properly toasted and the hollandaise sauce was the perfect touch of lemony richness.

By the time we finished eating it was time to go for my laser appointment so it all ended up working out perfectly as I did not have time after my laser appointment finished to eat. I only had about a 20 minute gap before I needed to head into the city for my hair appointment so I decided to pop to Clicks as I needed vitamins and other bits and pieces.

I then headed into the city to the very vibey Long Street where my hairdresser has just set up a new salon on Church Street.

She was running late due to her earlier clients arriving late – many people struggle to find the new location as there is no signage as yet. I ended up finishing a bit later than I expected. I gave Thembi a lift home to IY as it was on my way. I got home around 5pm. After Norm finished walking the dogs we got ready and phoned an Uber to collect us as we were off out for dinner with our friends Mel and Steve and their daughter Chloe.

We were going to the Hoghouse Brewery in Ndabeni for dinner.

We arrived a bit early so I decided to try one of their Apple Wagon Margaritas while waiting for our friends to arrive.

This was one kick ass margarita, it was strong but enjoyable. I ended up having about 4 or 5 of those bad boys!

Norm and I sat hungrily perusing the menu and enjoying our drinks while we waited for Mel, Chloe and Steve to arrive.

Once our friends arrived and ordered their drinks we ordered various starters for us all to share.

The fellas were salivating over the thought of Scotch eggs so we ordered 2 portions of those for them and some chili poppers. None of us enjoyed the chill poppers – they are served more like what I am used to a chill relleno being prepared but they used jalapenos instead of the traditional poblano chiles, so it was sort of in the middle of these 2 dishes.

We also ordered a portion each of the Arancini, the croquettes and some nachos. The arancini is balls of wild mushroom risotto served with chipotle aioli. They are gorgeous. The croquettes were described as ‘bacon + boerenkaas / kimchi aioli’. They were crispy, cheesy and bacony, exactly as you would expect. I love a good croquette.

We wolfed down all of the delicious starters and we ordered some mains also as shared items. As you can see from the menu above, you order the meats in portions by 100 grams of weight.

There were 5 of us so we started out with 500 grams of pork ribs, 300 grams of Pork Belly, and 2 portions of their buttermilk chicken as Mel does not eat any meat other than chicken.

When the platter arrived we realised 500 grams of ribs was not going to be enough so we ordered another 500 grams of ribs. Oink oink. Speaking of oinks, the pork belly was the best pork belly I have ever eaten – I am not normally a fan of pork belly as I find it too fatty, however theirs had a huge portion of soft lean roast pork with a small sliver of fat under the crispy crackling. Everyone raved about this.

We had also ordered 400g of burnt ends. This was my fave meat I think, it is the ends of a beef brisket – crispy and blackened. They were so tasty.

We rounded it all off with three portions of chips, two portions of onion rings and two portions of eggplant parmigiana.

The chips were hand cut and freshly fried, no frozen chips served up here! The onion rings had a crispy beer batter coating and were so yummy. The eggplant parmigiana was one of the best I have ever eaten. The marinara sauce was perfection. I loved this dish and next time will have a portion all on my own.

If you go with a group though it is a great idea to order a few bits and pieces of everything so you can sample a variety of dishes. We ate like carnivorous kings and then Norm and I ordered our Uber home which arrived quickly. We headed home and were tucked up tipsy in bed just after 11.

The next morning Norm and I had a long lie in with our coffees and iPads and Lily and Josh headed off back to Mossel Bay. Once we finally got up I decided to make a banting breakfast so I grilled some streaky bacon and then lined a little oven proof pot with it, cracked in an egg or two, then topped it with cheese and baked them.

They were delicious!

Later on Sunday afternoon we decided to watch a film and we randomly chose ‘Wilson’ as I like Woody Harrelson. It was a very odd film. He plays an autisticish type middle aged man who is feeling all alone after his father dies and he seeks out his ex-wife who has had a rather rough life since they split. He discovers that the baby he thought she had aborted had actually been adopted and they seek to find her and stalk her.

It was very odd. He somehow ends up being a bit endearing despite being borderline insane. We enjoyed it well enough. I give it 2.5 – 3 Kitten Stars.

We were both feeling a bit fragile after our night out drinking on Saturday, we no longer have the stamina we had when young so we had a lazy day of lolling about.

Tonight I have Vanessa coming around to do a pedicure for me. Later this week we are taking Caitlin and Wes to Cheyne’s for his winter special. He has extended his Winter Yum Cha Experience till end of August. It is only R150 for any 3 dishes off his Winter menu.

I am very excited about that! I have not eaten at his main restaurant in a few months.

Next weekend is very busy as I have a drum workshop on Saturday and on Sunday I am off for high tea at the Silo Hotel with my friend Di.

Enjoy your week ahead everyone.