I had such a relaxing lovely weekend last weekend and this weekend has been such fun.

Last Saturday Pixie was booked into the doggy chiropractor in Noordhoek and I had expected to be up and away early but Norm was so sweet and he offered to take her for me so I had a chance to properly relax. As Lily and Josh were here it was nice as I got more time to hang out with Lily.

We  had our first load shedding in Hout Bay last weekend and we were without electricity for a few hours on Saturday night. Of course it happened at night when you cannot see to read or otherwise amuse yourself easily. Here is a link to an article about the grid shut downs that are being done by Eskom. Cape Town finally rallies and just squeezes out of the water restrictions when we get hit with electricity restrictions. Such incompetence by our government.

But you have to make the most of life. Me, Norm, Lily and Josh played 30 Seconds by the light of a few lanterns and some candles and it was actually lots of fun! Josh seldom hangs out with us as he is usually playing games online upstairs when he is here so there was that advantage too. We had a laugh. The boys played against the girls. Norm and I are very good at it seeing as we have been married so long and so we have verbal shortcuts. Lily and Josh would argue if they were on the same team so we thought the girls vs boys option the safest.

Sunday I was up and away early to go drumming at my friend Gerri’s. Gerri is the drum master and she also organised the recent Dance. She is a lovely, kind woman. She gave each of us drummers a gorgeous wee bag of sage and a smudge wand to burn it with as a year end present. How sweet? It is nice to have a portable set of smudging tools for taking with me to various places or to have with me at ceremonies.

I would like to find a container for burning it in with a closed lid and a heat free handle. Maybe I should design one.

I stayed afterwards as we had all taken a dish to share at our year end lunch for the drummers. I had stopped at Alphen Farmstall in Constantia and bought a vegetarian spinach and feta quiche as well as a melktart for dessert. It was nice to chat to everyone and hear about their experiences at the dance. We also discussed Shamanism and the Red Road and discovered that several of us wish to study The Path of the White Wolf.

Here is a clip of the author, Grandmother Robin discussing it.

Gerri has already studied the Path of the White Wolf years ago with Grandmother Robin but she was saying that she would like to do it all again. I have wanted to do the course since I first met Gerri and discovered it, but I have not had the money or the time to commit to it. I have decided that I will send my desire out to the Universe and if it is meant to be, then the doors will open to allow it to happen. When it is meant to be, it will be.

I am considering giving up my gaming addiction to Covet Fashion as that consumes hours of my day. I could better spend that time enriching my life and proceeding on my spiritual journey. I feel that my Grandmothers have been pushing me towards this learning and I have found my teachers. I hope that it becomes possible for me to study the teachings of Grandmother Robin.

When I was packing up my car to go to drumming I dropped my iPhone and the screen shattered.

I was so upset because as a consultant I must have my phone.

Lily and Josh were out and so Norm and I just got a Chinese takeaway from Blue Lotus for dinner as I was feeling a bit sorry for myself.

I had prawn dim sum to start.

For my main I had crispy chili chicken with noodles.

It was all very delicious indeed.

The kids arrived home from Josh’s prize giving ceremony just after we ate but they had already eaten at the track. We were all a bit knackered and so Josh played games and the rest of us watched a bit of telly.

On Sunday afternoon we heard of a rescue operation underway on Chapman’s Peak where it seemed that a woman had fallen over the cliffs. There was limited information via the radio to know whether it was a suicide or an accident. The following day we heard that the woman had died. It seems she died while taking a selfy, the article says she was trying to make it look as if she was jumping over the setting sun. She and her husband climbed over the railing onto the crumbly mountain. Her husband risked his life trying to get to her after she fell. It was her 31st birthday. It is such a tragedy for her loved ones and a sad loss of a life.

Monday I was back at work and Lily and Josh drove back home to Mossel Bay.

I had such a crap day at work on both Monday and Tuesday as I’m trying to upgrade my ancient laptop’s Operating System. It did not go smoothly and it was stressing me out. To be honest I am not bothered by the old operating system. My actual issue is that my MS PowerPoint decided to have a fatal error and I cannot open any presentations people send. I can open my own, but nothing emailed to me. As a consultant I do a lot of presentations. My colleague decided that I should update to Windows 10 and that required updating my operating system too apparently.

It led to a cluster feck of chaos. I spent several days staring at various updates happening on my screen or on the phone to the Helpdesk.

It did my head in. It was all for nowt as my laptop refused. I do not know how to resolve it without wiping my machine and doing a completely new install.

Now one of my clients has messed up my email address and I cannot receive email and have to walk over to their offices this Monday. I’ve also got to go to UCT to present to them in the afternoon so it’s going to be a busy day,

I left work at 2pm last Monday to go to the phone shop to get a new phone. I got a sexy new red iPhone XR. I’m ever so chuffed but it is hard to get used to. It took ages for me to figure out how to do a screen grab! (OK I admit that I did not figure it out I had to google it.)

It’s not the latest model but it’s what I can afford and more importantly it was in stock and got me up and online quickest. We are trying to decide whether to sell my broken screened old iPhone as is, fix it and let Norm use it, or fix it and sell it. I could maybe get a couple of grand to go towards my credit card debt.

After my phone was sorted we popped over to collect my new contact lenses and then stopped at Woolies and shopped for a few days food supplies.

For dinner last Monday night I made a Mexican salad: spicy mince on baby gem lettuce leaves, topped with half an avo, cheddar cheese, salsa & fromage frais.

It was HFLC as well as yummy but the best thing about this dish is it takes very little time to prepare and I always have some left over for my lunch the following day. As we did not do taco shells or tortillas it was low carb.

When I came home on Tuesday the garage door was open, the back gate was flapping in the wind and Norm was not answering his phone. I carefully pulled into the garage and Norm appeared from the back of the house in a bit of a state. There was load shedding all afternoon and he had managed to lock himself out of the house. Navajo was locked IN the house and he was freaking out. We have now discovered that our front door key only works from the inside! For some odd reason it does not work from the outside. Unfortunately Norm only discovered this when he got home from his meeting and could not get back in. As there was no electricity he had also been unable to cook Mzudumo lunch or conduct his Skype meetings or even charge his flat mobile. It was a stressful day for him bless him.

When we got in Norm went off to make the calls he missed and so I decided to cook again and it wasn’t totally low carb as we had fish cakes which had a wee bit of potato in them. I made roasted pumpkin, stir fried vegetables and coleslaw to go with them.

On Wednesday there was load shedding again. It was from 6-8.30 that night. I fried red cabbage and boiled sweet potatoes on my gas cooker and Norm cooked a pork roast and mushrooms outside on the gas grill. Norm made buttery mash from the boiled sweet potatoes.

Thursday I had a meeting at UCT planned but we ended up moving that out and instead ended up missioning out to Stellenbosch for a 10am meeting. We didn’t know what the traffic would be like and it’s a long drive so we left the city in plenty of time and arrived at 9.30. We walked over to a little coffee shop across the road from the client’s office. They told us it was load shedding so they had no electricity and couldn’t make a coffee, only an iced coffee. We ordered an iced coffee and sat outside. The coffee was bitter and dreadful and as I had just had a coffee on the drive up I felt a bit twitchy after drinking another. We walked over to the client offices to meet our MD and he told us that the meeting was moved to 11.30 and we were still an hour and a half early. We used that time to catch up with the tool vendor that we are partnering with for the project. Then we had a 2 hour requirement gathering workshop followed by an hours drive back to my car and then I had another 45 minutes drive to my home. We will spend the next week putting together the proposal and will see if it gets a foothold.

If that project takes off I will not be happy to drive out there every day!

On our way back to Cape Town we were starving so we stopped at a roadside burger joint. They had a really cool bright yellow truck parked in the window.

The food was mediocre but we were so hungry we wolfed down our lunches and were quickly heading back towards Cape Town.

Caitlin came around for dinner on Thursday night. It was lovely to see her. I seem to see my closest child the least!

We had an easy night in on Friday as we were both pretty tired. We got takeaways from the local Indian food restaurant The Indian Oven.

Saturday I was invited to a ladies only wine and cheese event for lunch to celebrate my friend Sharon’s 50th birthday at Buitenverwachting vineyards. It is only a few minutes away from our home. First I decided I should be sensible and line my stomach so I did not get totally paralytic. Wine is not my friend and there were loads of women I had not met going to be there and I was full of social anxiety. Second, I also needed to get Sharon a little gift and I could do both if Norm and I went to Deli Delish as I could pop next door to The Barn to shop for a gift.

We got a sunny table in the corner and ordered and then I popped next door to look at their offerings and as I walk out I run into Sharon going to collect her birthday cake!

We said a quick “hello, see you later” and carried on with our individual missions. I loved so many things in The Barn Village Store and I found a lovely necklace, an amethyst little crystal gem in a silver holder.

I went back to Deli Delish just as my coffee arrived and our breakfast came shortly after. I had a small breakfast, 2 fried eggs, bacon and a piece of whole-wheat toast. Norm had the Eggs Benedict. It is a low carb version with black mushrooms. I was distracted by my shopping expedition and forgot to take a pic of our food and I was distracted by our food and forgot to take a picture of the gift I bought! Shocking. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

After we ate we went back to the house so I could put on my face and dress. I wore a dress I had bought when we went to the UK a few years ago but I have only worn it once if that. I adore polka dots.

Norm drove me to the wine farm and dropped me. It was a lovely warm day after an overcast drizzly morning. The venue is lovely. I was engrossed in talking and quaffing wine and did not take a pic but here is one I found on IG. Sharing is caring right?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMvfduZgXNq/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=4v542xeprte

They served several large wooden boards with fresh crispy bread, a variety of different types of cheese, red pepper pate, olive tapenade, trout pate, butter, olives and various other tasty bits.

The wine on offer was their buiten blanc and a rose and many, many bottles of both were consumed! There was a wonderful group of women there, I met some women I hope to add to my own circle of friends. I really connected with several of them.

Sharon’s gorgeous kids were there and also sampled the yummy cake which was both vegan and Banting.

It was a really lovely day. It reinforced what Sharon said to me about my feeling anxious but still showing up- “braving always brings big rewards”. I think this should become my new mantra.

It was wonderful to see Sharon so happy.

When Sharon made her speech she talked about the tie that bound all of us women together: we are all her spirit sisters, tied together through our common stories of survival and adversity. Most of us have survived things that might destroy many other people. But yet, despite those challenges, in the words of Maya Angelou, “…..still I rise.” We are all strong, survivors.

I went away feeling uplifted by female energy. And rather tipsy from 6 hours of drinking!

Norm collected me and took me home and fed me and looked after me. I feel so blessed by my life.

Today he made me coffee in bed and when we finally got up he made me a HFLC breakfast of bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs and avocado.

I’m having a quiet day today, Norm is working and I’m doing life admin.

I hope you have all had a good weekend and I hope you enjoy what is left of it.

Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxo