I promised to update you about Pixie our Pomeranian and her breathing issues. Lily dropped Pixie at the vet first thing at 8am on Friday morning so that she could be sedated to get a decent x-ray of her airway, lungs and heart. Pix is usually fed her breakfast at 8am so she was very confused by the entire exercise of being whisked away. However she is such a well behaved girl she went along obediently. The vet had Lily leave her with the receptionist and the family all sat worrying all day about what might be wrong with her. I was glad I had work to occupy my mind.

For lunch on Friday I had no leftovers to bring and so I used OrderIn and chose Fat Cactus. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Fajita food truck tacos for R95. You get 3 tacos but there was a ton of onions in the taco. I love onions but this was predominantly onions with a bit of chicken. But a so-so taco is still damn good.

I did an onion cull and then I really enjoyed them but wow they were messy. I could not finish all 3 especially as I wanted to save room for Cheyne’s. Luckily in a university environment there is always a hungry student nearby.

After work I went straight home and arrived just before Lily and Norm were back with Pixie. The vet said that they struggled to get clear x-rays due to Pixie’s rather excessive coat but eventually they did so and while her heart was a bit ’rounded’ they are not overly worried about her. The vet said that at least now they have a baseline image in case her symptoms do get worse. So it seems that Pixie is fine! It all cost me a few grand but I would rather test her and know she is fine than leave it and risk her health.

Lily bought her a present for being such a good girl. She loves this ball and has carried it around proudly since.

We then had Pixie’s good test results to celebrate that evening at Cheyne’s as well as Lily’s birthday. I had booked for 7 but Cheyne’s is literally 5 minutes away and we got there just in time.

We took 3 cars so we could do our own thing after. Norm and I arrived first and we were seated in the big room at the front under a fan which helped with the heat.

Lily and Josh arrived next.

Next Caitlin and Wes arrived and we all ordered drinks. I had a few of my fave cocktails. the Passionate Buddha, over the course of the evening. It is so yummy and refreshing. Our waiter was on the ball and had our drinks served and our food orders in quite quickly. We all opted for the 4 dish special and each chose one dish from the Earth, Land, Sea and Happy Endings sections.

There was a dish on special which the waiter suggested we try and several of us chose to order this dish which came out first.

The only problem with ordering the special they quickly describe is you do not get to read about the finer details and this dish came piled high with seaweed.

I DETEST seaweed.

The sharp sea taste from the seaweed was rather overwhelming for the delicate pork. I loved the pork and the pickled cucumber as well as the sauce but the seaweed spoiled it for me.

The next dish to arrive was the Potato and Coconut dumplings. 5 of us ordered these and we all loved them. (I order them every visit.)

Midway through the dumplings my Sea choice arrived. I ordered the baby shrimp tempura.

Again several of us ordered this – we all loved it. The sauce had a lovely spicy kick. I really enjoyed this dish.

Caitlin and Norm both had 3 dishes arrive in rapid succession so they were complaining that their food got cold due to the giant fan. I loved the fan and would rather have cold food than sit in a puddle of sweat but the cool cats at the table did not agree.

I decided to try a different dessert than my usual peanut butter shake and I had the chocolate fondant with strawberry and miso ice cream.

The fondant was perfection, warm, dark and oozing with rich liquid chocolate. I would have preferred this with the peanut butter ice cream or even vanilla. I thought the strawberry was too distilled to cut through the richness of the chocolate.

I could not finish it all but Norm was happy to polish it off.

We headed home just after 10 having really enjoyed our night. I love having the girls both here and I love treating them.

Saturday I had an appointment in the CBD to get my hair done by Leandra at her new salon Pause. Thembi has worked for Leandra for as many years as I can remember. She is a lovely woman and she is about to go off of work to have a baby. I had popped over to Pep by my office and bought her a little bag of goodies for the baby.

I put them into a nice bag which she can use for baby later and took it all in with me to the hairdresser early that morning. Thembi was very pleased with them all. I told her I left the tags on in case she needs to exchange anything, but she said it was all perfect and that you can never have enough baby things.

Maybe it was because I was early but I got perfect parking on Long Street right by the salon. I can’t parallel park so I can only access spaces near an exit so I usually have to park miles away. So, yippee for my parking angels!

Afterwards I popped over to Caitlin’s flat to meet her new kittens, Scout and Mittens.

This is Mittens, the little girl.

This is Scout who is her brother and is a very sweet loving kitty.

They are such sweet little kitties. Scout is so loving and kept running up my body to bash his wee face against my mouth in a kiss. He had lots of lippy on by the time I left. Mittens alternates between chaotic runs around the room and crashing in a mini coma.

This position made us laugh.

I had not had breakfast before the hairdresser so I stopped at Martins bakery for a bit of lunch for me and Caitlin. I bought us each one of their yummy banting pies, it is full of big chunks of chicken breast in a spicy sauce and is topped with sweet potato mash. In a spur of the moment grab I also picked up gingerbread men for us as a very non-banting treat.

impulse and hunger are a dangerous combination.

I hung out with Caitlin and played with her kitties for a few hours and then I headed back to Hout Bay. Josh and Lily had been at the track all day and only arrived home after I did. It was very hot and we just decided to be lazy and order take away pizzas from Massimo’s in Hout Bay.

Our pizzas were so gorgeous both in appearance and taste. So much so I did not snap a pic but trust me if you want an authentic Italian pizza this is the place you need to go. I ordered my current fave which is the Pancetta which tastes like crispy streaky bacon with big splodges of mozzarella and thick puddles of the tastiest tomato sauce. Yum.

We decided to watch a film while munching on our delicious pizzas and so we watched Special Correspondents with Ricky Gervais and Eric Bana. I do love Ricky’s self-deprecating humour.

It was amusing enough and I would give it 3 Kitten Stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

One evening during the week Lily and I also started watching the series Grace and Frankie as it was something that we knew the fellas would not be bothered with. It is such a farcical concept but I do love Lily Tomlin. I especially love the fact that Lily (or ‘Frankie’) is supposed to be a ‘hippie’ who is in tune with the universe and some of her actions are hilarious.

It is based on the premise of two men who have been legal partners for decades have also been lovers. They break the news to their wives and children and plan a marriage. I know if my husband of 40 years told me my whole life had been built on a lie I would not be so congenial. Whether there was a gorgeous Malibu beach house in the divorce settlement or no Malibu beach house.

Okay, maybe for that beach house, it is pretty amazing.

I do find Martin Sheen a bit unbelievable in his role as a gay man. His teeth or dentures also annoy me.

I am enjoying it enough to continue watching it however. I would give the overall series 3 and a half Kitten Stars except I cannot make half a star so it gets a 3. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lily and Josh drove back to Mossel Bay yesterday as Lily started work today.

I had been planning to go for a drumming session on Sunday morning however I did not want to leave while Lily was here and by the time they headed out it was too late to go for drumming. I get so little time with my children that I do not want to miss any of it.

Norm and I had a chilled out day lazing about. We both just read or played games and later on we watched a few episodes of Season 2 of Fargo. The ending was absolute nonsense and I think that we may not bother watching series 3.

Today the products I ordered from Banting on the Go arrived. I got a few low carb mixes to try such as a pizza crust or muffins. I ordered a ‘flapjack’ mix forgetting that in SA a flapjack is a sort of cookie like thing. To me it is pancakes.

I will let you know how they all taste once I get around the making them.

Tonight it is still quite warm despite the sprinkling of rain we received this morning. Norm is doing steak, mushrooms and veg on the grill outside. I am a very lucky Kitten. I hope you feel just as loved.

Kisses from The Kitten. Xoxoxo