I have had 2 lovely weekends since my last blog and I have a lot to say so grab a cuppa and settle in.

The weather has been absolutely stunning but we have had a lot of wind.

Last Saturday I was up very early as I had an appointment at 9am to get my hair done at Pause in the city. I usually schedule it around lunch time but I had moved it to accommodate the belated family Christmas lunch which has now been rescheduled to February. At least it got me up and out of the house. (I am trying to think of an advantage to waking early on a weekend).

After I finished with my hair I popped home to collect Norman and sat outside waiting on him to get ready as it was such a nice day.

We went to Dario’s in Hout Bay for lunch. It was a bit windy but we still chose to sit outside on the veranda.

I fancied a burger and had heard their burgers were good so I ordered the jalapeno burger with bacon, cheese, jalapenos and an egg but asked them to leave off the egg. I asked for it to be medium well as I cannot face a bloody burger. Luckily the bacon was nice and crispy as well.

It was a brilliant burger, in fact I might say it is the best burger I have had in Hout Bay now that Ragafellow’s has closed. And I am not an easy to please person when it comes to burgers. I do not like a lot of herbs in the burger patty and it must be nice quality meat. No icky bits. No pre-made patties. This one ticked all the boxes. It gets 5 Kitten Stars.

Dario’s have taken over the shop that was previously next door and have put in a little play area for kiddies at the back. They are even open some evenings now so we will make a point of having burgers there more often.

After lunch we went home to relax a bit as we were off to a friend’s leaving party that afternoon. It was held at Dunes restaurant which is in a stunning location right on the beach in Hout Bay. We headed over there about 5pm and the place was already packed. The party was in the upstairs section of the restaurant.

We ordered drinks and mingled with our friends, some of whom we had not seen in ages. The party was in honour of our friends Dawn and Gavin who are emigrating back to the UK after being here since 2007.

We had a laugh about my recent trip to the US and my Facebook posts (aka rants) about the annoying children on the flight and the woman who was seated behind me putting her feet on my armrest. I was the first person that Dawn and Gavin met on their move to Hout Bay as we met on the plane when we were all emigrating from the UK to South Africa and at that time their daughter Bo was an infant. The flight could have gone quite badly except Bo was an absolute dream of a baby and slept the entire trip. Dawn and I were sat next to each other and started chatting and we realised that we were both not only in the process of emigrating to South Africa but we were going to be living in the same village! What are the odds of that? Once Norm arrived we all socialised at braais and various other functions and we even had a ladies book club for many years until we all lost enthusiasm and it fell by the wayside. Norm and I are older than most of the group and neither of us are into sport and the other couples all either have small children or are runners and/or cyclists so we drifted apart the last few years but were still friends. It will seem odd to not have them just across the valley from us. Bo is starting high school this year and will have to settle in with a new group of kids in Bath. She is such a beautiful girl and a talented little sportswoman, she does everything from horse riding to surfing so I hope she copes with the British weather. I hope Dawny can cope without her amazing cleaner Doreen, it is hard to shift to doing everything yourself once you have had household help.

We will really miss them even though we did not see them that often lately.

We did not stay late as Norm still had to walk the dogs before it got too dark. We headed home about 7ish and stopped for fish and chips on the way.

Last Sunday we had a lazy day and I did not even get out of my pajamas! I had a long lie in bed then Norm popped down to get us some food and we just relaxed. We started watching The Assassination of Gianni Versace which we really enjoyed. I knew very little about Versace’s murder or his murderer Andrew Cunanan so it was all new info to me. I give the series 4 Kitten Stars, it loses a star due to the convoluted timeline of info which can sometimes be very confusing but it is very much worth watching.

On Monday night Norm had a business meeting after I got home from work so he just picked up a take away from Massimo’s for dinner after his meeting. We both had the pork fillet medallions with roast vegetables and smashed baby potatoes.

There was so much food that I had enough for lunch the next day too. It was delicious and gets 5 Kitten Stars!

On Tuesday Norm had Mzudumo there working in the garden and he had also been running around all day and so that night he just made fish cakes, corn on the cob and steamed baby broccoli. It was quick and easy.

Wednesday night we attended a meeting about the SRA that Norm and the other steering committee members are trying to implement and so we had a quick dinner before we left. Norm had made chili con carne. We topped it with cheddar cheese. It was delicious.

On Thursday a colleague brought in some quail’s eggs. He raises quails and gets about 20 eggs a day from them so he gave them to me for free! I will make a nice Caesars salad this weekend using them and let you know how it goes.

Friday I had an interview with a client regarding a new project I am going to be assigned. I start on the 1st of February. I was really hoping that the UCT project would kick off and I would be assigned to that project but the delays in their obtaining financing means that I am ‘on the bench’ and the company I work for needs to place me on a paying client site. The new project is for a large retail customer and is the 3rd project I have done for them. It is a 3 month project.

On Friday night we just got a takeaway and had Chinese food from Blue Lotus in Hout Bay. I had an order of salmon roses to start and crispy chill chicken with rice for my main. It was really good. I will give it 4 Kitten Stars.

I was up early on Saturday as I was going to a Drum Painting workshop at Sacred Ibis and it started at 10am. It is such a peaceful spiritual space.

There are so many interesting pieces of art there I can roam around for ages checking things out.

We started out upstairs in the loft space. We took turns reading aloud from a book that comes with the Sacred Path Cards and we read the section about the origin of the drum in Native American culture. The part that resonated with me was the part about the drumbeat mirroring the heartbeat of Mother Earth and the sound of the heartbeat of our mother while in the womb. That was my first experience when I did past life regression, I went back to when I was in my mother’s womb and could hear her heartbeat.

Then we all lay down in a circle and Michelle led us on a drum journey and took us all to a mental space where we could communicate with our drums and ask them to guide us in what we should do to adorn them. I had printed out 3 images that spoke to me and I was originally going to paint a simple wolf head howling. However the messages that came through to me very clearly were that I should pay tribute to my female ancestors, in particular my grandmother who communicates to me with hummingbirds. So I chose the more complicated hummingbird image for my drum.

We then drummed and walked around the vast garden down to the ancestors tree to call in the ancestors for guidance and support.

We sang the Cherokee Morning song, we n’ de ya ho.

While we were standing in a circle singing, a beautiful butterfly flew into the centre of the circle and flew around in front of each of us, around the tree and then flew off. I took that as a message from our ancestors that they supported our efforts and appreciated the song of tribute.

We then walked back up to the house and had a bite of lunch before we settled in to paint. We all had taken a dish to share and we had salad, pizza, quiche, bread and some home made orange and date muffins.

We cleared away the plates and settled in to paint. I traced my image directly onto my drum using carbon paper and then I chose the paints and started painting. It took me hours to do it and I had to repaint a few bits that went a bit wonky but I was very pleased with the end result.

Once I finished I phoned Norm to come and collect me around 4pm. On the way I showed him my drum and he said to me that while he was outside in our garden that 2 hummingbirds came and danced around the pool! I think that was my grandmother showing her pleasure in what I painted and my tribute to her.

We headed home and he walked the dogs but it was very hot outside so he only took them on a quick jaunt. I was absolutely exhausted from the drum journey and the painting. My arthritis was not happy with the clenching of the paint brush or with gripping my drum. I was ready for bed by 9pm but managed to stay awake til a reasonable hour.

Today I have been going nonstop since I woke up. I was collected at 10 by my friend Alison and we headed off to The Shamballah Tea House & Holistic Centre where we were attending a talk on ‘The Fertility Astrology of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’ which was being given by my friend Nicola Smuts Allsop who is a fertility astrologer. This basically means she helps women to understand when it is best to try to fall pregnant. She does much more than that but you can read about it all on her website via the link above.

We traveled across Chapman’s Peak drive which is such a beautiful drive.

The event was held far away in a remote location near Cape Point. It was a lovely venue and it was a very interesting talk, even though I understand zip about astrology I enjoyed the history aspect of the discussion.

After the talk Alison and I popped in to visit her mom who lives in Noordhoek for a few minutes. Alison is lucky to have her mom near enough to be able to pop in for a cuppa. Afterwards we came back across Chappies and Alison dropped me at home.

I was ready for a late lunch/ early dinner by this stage as it was about 4pm and I had only had tea, biscuits and such so Norm and I went down to Zur Holzbucht. I always enjoy the food here. It was a very hot day so we sat out in the shady beer garden.

Norm ordered a salad with grilled chicken. He only gave it 3 stars as he said the chicken tasted like it had been cooked previously and reheated so was a bit dry.

I ordered a dish which I cannot remember the name of but it was basically a German version of a posh Ploughman’s as it came with half a boiled egg, half a camembert cheese, pickles, peppers, pickled onion, cole slaw, pickled mushrooms. red onion, olives, black forest ham, salami, kassler roast and sliced tomatoes. It was delicious and perfect for such a hot day as I did not fancy cooked hot food.

I give it 5 kitten stars I enjoyed it so much. I would have liked a bit of german potato salad because I love it, but there was way too much food to finish as it was so that is just me being greedy.

After lunch we went to the shops and got some ready made salads for me to take to lunch this week and a few other odds and ends we needed then came home. Norm has had a nap and is now taking the dogs out for a walk while I write. I think tonight will be an early night for me as my busy weekend has exhausted me!

I hope you have had a lovely weekend yourselves and I wish you have a wonderful week ahead.

Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten x0x0x0x0x