The issues with load shedding have carried on with us all having to plan around when we can cook and function in our every day lives. It’s such an inconvenience. Especially as it seems that the schedule changes on a whim.

On Valentine’s night, Norm and I went out and did not know there was going to be load shedding and did not take a front door key as we usually enter the house through the garage. Usually we take my car when we go out and I have all of the necessary keys if caught unaware, but my headlight is out so we took Norm’s new truck and he hasn’t put all of the relevant house keys on with his car keys.

We went to Col’Cacchio in the foreshore for an early dinner. We chose this restaurant as it is just down the road from the theatre and they offer lots of low carb options. I wish more South African restaurants catered for low carb dining.

It was a very hot evening and we were seated right by the open door and we were glad for the occasional breeze.

I wasn’t in the mood for anything warm to eat so I chose the carpaccio to start. The beef carpaccio is topped with rocket, Italian parmesan, black pepper & home-made dressing.

The beef was tender and sliced beautifully thin and the flavors meshed perfectly. It was quite a lot of food for a starter though so I shared it with Norm.

For my main I had the Cobb salad: cos lettuce, chicken, bacon, cherry tomatoes, avo, egg, ranch-style dressing and crispy onion.

Norm chose the zucchetti meatballs with pomodoro sauce.

It was all very nice and we were finished in good time to get to the Artscape. Sometimes parking is chaos so we always make sure to be early but we got parked and inside with no issues. We even found a place to sit and have a coffee before the doors to the theatre opened.

We were attending La bohème by Puccini which is based on a collection of vignettes portraying young bohemians living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s. This production was a modern interpretation and seemed to be set in the 1960s.

We were seated on the second row and could see the performers’ faces so well but the translations are shown on a screen way up at the top of the theatre so you end up quickly craning your neck and peeking up to read the translation and then quickly casting your eyes back down to watch the stage. It works out OK as the translation may say something brief and simple like “I love you Mimi” but they then sing for 10 minutes. Italian must be a very descriptive language or else English is succinct and to the point. I always find that funny. I loved that the words were translated on two screens, one in English and the other in Xhosa.

There were several American singers in the cast as well as white and African local artists. There was even a drag queen playing the role of Schaunard. We all know my drag queen obsession so I was mesmerized.

The basic premise of the Cape Town version of the opera was an artist reminiscing about his youth. So the old artist plays next to the young artist on stage. It is a bit like ‘A Christmas Carol’ without the obligatory Tiny Tim.

And I don’t mean this guy and his ukulele.

There was a kids choir occasionally milling about dressed in Batman suits but I am not clear what the hell they had to do with anything.

We really enjoyed it and headed off happily afterwards. We were both tired and ready to be home with our pups. We joked about going dancing and how when we met we would have eaten dinner after the show instead of at 5:30pm and would have still gone clubbing afterwards. When we got to Hout Bay the village was in darkness, there were no street lights on and only a few traffic lights were working. We headed off towards home just to make sure but the guard told us the power had been off since 10pm which meant it would not come back on until midnight at the earliest.

Norm confessed that he did not have a key and I wanted to garrot him with my handbag strap. I had been up since 6am and was exhausted. We decided to go into the village and see if anywhere was open. We saw people outside at Spiro’s Greek Street and could hear music playing so we pulled in there. We ordered drinks at the new bar and wandered off towards the music. It was pumping in the back of the restaurant and it looked like a function was on but we were not in the mood for a crowd and took our drinks to the front patio and sat in the cool night air and chatted until midnight then headed home. Ironic how our jokes about going out after the opera resulted in that becoming a reality. As we arrived at the house the power came back on and the entire house lit up.

Luckily we did not have anything scheduled yesterday and could sleep in. The dogs forced Norman up to feed them but I went back to sleep until 10 and then Norm brought me coffee in bed. Norm made us brunch and we spent the day listening to music and relaxing while the power was on.

We had been scheduled to have load shedding from 10pm to 12 again last night and rather than deal with the lights coming on while sleeping we decided to go up to bed at 10 having turned everything off and just use our iPads til we were ready to go to sleep. We rushed the dogs out to wee then got all of the animals upstairs, we both had a cold shower and got into bed. We were busy playing games on our iPads and realized it was 10:20 and we still had the fan going. We checked the electricity website and Schedule 3 had been cancelled and we were not to be turned off til early this morning. We were so annoyed and the dogs were so confused. We went back downstairs to watch telly a bit longer but it was all very disruptive.

It has been a busy week at work as we were finishing off the development for this phase. We have just been asked to quote for more work with this client and expect to be there until May. We just found out that we were awarded the bid for the big project at UCT and I really hope I can move seamlessly over to that project when it kicks off.

It has been hot all week and we are still keeping to low carb eating. The heat means I’m eating tons of salad, so low carb is easy in this weather.

Last Sunday neither of us felt like cooking and so Norm went to Cassarechio and ordered takeaways for us. We had the fillet trinchado and melanzane parmigiana and shared them. It was an usual combo but it was very tasty.

On Monday Norm made low carb chicken patties and I made sweet potatoes and broccoli roasted in coconut oil. It was all delicious.

Tuesday was the 30th anniversary since Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Vester prison.

In commemoration, the Nelson Mandela Foundation hosted three events, two of which were in the Cape Town CBD.

President Cyril Ramaphosa stood on the balcony of the Town Hall in the same spot where Madiba had addressed the nation and gave his infamous speech.

This was a wonderful tribute to an amazing man, but the event caused insanity with the traffic throughout the entire city and surrounds. It took me 1.5 hours to get home and I was not even traveling anywhere near the CBD.

Cyril was a chatty traffic causing fella this week as he also delivered the State of The Nation address on Thursday evening. I was relieved I wasn’t working in the CBD as you have to escape just after lunch if you want to get out without hours spent sitting in traffic.

I could have written it for him and saved us all a lot of time. My summary of the State of the Nation?

The economy is shit, unemployment is off the charts, crime is ridiculously high, the standards for school systems have been pushed so low that many graduates are illiterate, the government run parastatals are failing and women and children are traumatized, raped and murdered in ever increasing numbers and he makes empty promises to the victims and the nation but nothing changes.

Other than that the state of the nation is fabulous.

Ramaphosa is the head of the ANC, the political party who has embezzled, bled, drained and decimated this country since they came into power. How can he even dare to even speak Mandela’s name?

Is it symbolic of the State of South Africa that on Tuesday the 12th child died since the start of the school year? The boy was allegedly having a seizure and somehow fell from the third floor of the school. The other 11 deaths were the result of a variety of circumstances ranging from crime, suicide to drowning. All so tragic, how many could have been prevented?

Anyway. If I dwell on Trump, Cyril or Boris it makes me crazy so let’s move on.

Tuesday evening when I finally got home, Norm had made dinner. He grilled pork chops and made steamed broccoli, cauliflower cheese and fried mushrooms. It was yummy.

Wednesday night we cooked together. Norm chopped chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and I fried it with a chopped onion. Once it was browned I covered it with chicken stock, added garlic and spices and let it simmer. I roasted sweet potatoes in coconut oil and then added in broccoli for the last 15 minutes. Once the chicken was tender I added a container of double cream and a bag of washed baby spinach.

It was yummy and the chicken was so juicy and tender. For you carb eaters it would be brilliant over pasta.

On Thursday it was very hot again. I worked over and Norm had a late meeting so when he got home we just made our favorite bacon and halloumi salad. It is quick and always a winner.

Friday started out so nicely. When I went downstairs to go to work there were the most beautiful flowers awaiting me. I adore lilies and there were those as well as the obligatory red roses. They are perfection.

I am a lucky Kitten.

This week our clothes dryer died. We tried to remember when we bought it and we think it was when we moved from Ireland to England so it would have been about 1998. It was a basic brand as we were pretty broke then, so the fact it survived for 22 years is impressive. But it’s death means forking out for a new dryer.

When shopping with the girls last week I spotted a few items I liked but I did not want to take up the limited time for wedding bits shopping for myself and so I decided to go online and order some things when we got home. I spent far more than I intended and when they arrived on Thursday I was a bit pleased not all of them were suitable so I get some money back in my account when I return them so that can go towards the dryer.

Things always somehow work out.

Today is cooler and there is a mist over the bay so it is lovely. I should go to the mall and return the clothes but I’m feeling too lazy. We will just watch a film and have a pajama day.

I hope you have all had a good week last week and I wish the same for next week. Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxo