Last Sunday was a lazy day but I did do a bit of planting. I had some pots that were in a spot where the plants were getting too much sun and kept dying. I moved the pots onto the porch and snipped off some clippings from my existing succulents and planted them.

Hopefully they take root and grow, today marks one week and they are still plump and green. I love my succulents.

This week was the final week of our contract with the current client. On Monday I had an end of phase session to present our final deliverables to the stakeholders. It did not finish until 6pm so I got home very late. Norm had been busy too so he just popped down and bought food. He got roast chicken pieces and some bits to make a salad. He grilled some bacon and made a delicious salad topped with chicken and crispy bacon. As it was so hot outside it was perfect.

That evening I received a message from Juan-Leigh, one of Lily’s oldest friends. They went to play school together so have been friends since they were toddlers. She has been living in the US for ten years now but she and her beau Kip flew over for Lily’s wedding as she is one of the bridesmaids.

Juan invited Norman and I to join her and Kip for dinner. As they only had a few nights to spend in Cape Town before they headed down the coast to stay with her parents I was so touched that she wanted to hang out with us oldies! She told us to choose the restaurant and I asked if they wanted average food and a gorgeous view, or gorgeous food with no view and they chose the good food so I booked for us to go to Cheyne’s on Tuesday.

Kip and Juan-Leigh were already at Cheyne’s when we arrived and we all settled in and caught up with what has been going on in Juan’s life and got to know Kip. Juan was always a very pretty little girl but she has grown into an absolutely stunning young woman.

Kip is such a sweet and handsome guy and seems crazy about Juan. She is intelligent, sweet and hard working and is quite a catch so you can’t blame him really.

He looks a bit like a young Baldwin brother, doesn’t he?

We ordered drinks and discussed the menu and I explained the Yum Cha dining experience special which costs R300 each for any 4 dishes.

We chose our dishes and eagerly anticipated their arrival.

I started with the Baby Shrimp Tempura, with garlic truffle mayo and red pepper flakes.

My next dish to arrive was the Mumbai Chili Beef with cardamon teriyaki, green chili and coconut.

Shortly after that the Potato and Coconut dumplings with penang sauce arrived. They used to be a bit smaller and were served floating in a bowl of the sauce but now are served on a long narrow plate.

I chose dessert as my fourth item. I went with my usual, the double thick peanut butter shake. It is my favorite dessert and it was as delicious that evening as it always is.

We had such a lovely evening and the food was amazing. I give it 5 Kitten Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

As we finished late I was so tired the next day. Norm flew to Pretoria that afternoon and I had arranged for my friend Michelle to come stay. She arrived shortly after I got home from work and she walked and fed the dogs while I cooked dinner. Norm was very sweet and did a shop before he left so we had some options to choose from for dinner.

I spotted a pork fillet in the fridge and I washed it and put it in a glass oven dish. I washed some mushrooms and added those. I chopped an onion and a red pepper and covered the pork with them. I added some big spoons of butter and covered the pork in a mix of teriyaki, thick soy, Worcestershire and garlic. I popped it in the oven and after 15 minutes I turned the pork and rolled the mushrooms around in the sauce and then popped some sliced sweet potatoes in another pan. First I put them in a bowl and added some olive oil and rolled the slices around to coat them in oil.

I left the pork to rest a few minutes before slicing it, meanwhile I steamed some baby broccoli to go with it all.

Michelle and I both really enjoyed it and there was enough left over for my lunch on Thursday.

Traffic was a a nightmare on Thursday. It took an hour to get to work that morning and it took almost two hours to get home in the evening. Later I heard on the news that Eskom had shut off Metrorail’s electricity supply. According to Eskom, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), had not paid an outstanding R4-million, which was due 34 days ago. In the afternoon, four power supply substations were cut.

Metrorail estimates that about half a million commuters use rail transport in the greater Cape Town area daily so those numbers obviously impacted road volumes.

Bear in mind that Eskom (the power supply company) and Prasa (the Rail Service) are BOTH State Owned Enterprises. So it is a case of the government not paying the government. Robbing Peter to pay Paul? Again this chaos is all under the mantle of the African National Congress (ANC) our leading political party and both SOE organizations have been exposed for fraud and corruption.

I also saw that Eskom is in a battle of wills with the municipality of Soweto, a large township in Johannesburg.

On Tuesday the Electricity Crisis Movement in Soweto called on residents to block local roads and malls in a bid to force Eskom to revise its billing system. It was called the ‘Soweto Shutdown’.

Soweto currently owes the energy supplier R18.9 billion in unpaid bills. Protestors wanted Eskom to scrap this debt and to suspend load shedding in the township.

Don’t worry Soweto peeps, we all want that! Stop voting in the corrupt and inept ANC.

We have been lucky to have no load shedding this week in Hout Bay but it can be implemented at any time and there was mention of a unit at Koeberg being taken offline for two months starting in April so I see this risk continuing for the foreseeable future.

Michelle did not stay for dinner on Thursday and after 9 hours in the office and 3 hours in traffic I was not up for cooking. I had fish fingers and chips as it was all I could mentally and physically manage.

It was almost 11pm by the time Norm got home from his trip and almost midnight when we got into bed. I was giving a colleague a lift and had to leave at 6:30am so I was pretty tired on Friday. We had planning meetings to discuss the next phase as the client wants us to stay on to do data cleaning. There were six resources on site in the last phase but only three of us are staying for the next phase.

With Norm away and my work being so busy it was an exhausting and stressful week so I was happy to see the weekend. I had sushi on Friday evening and we finished watching the UK series ‘Marcella‘.

This was an absolutely brilliant series. It was intense and full of intrigue. We kept chopping and changing our theory of who was the killer in both series. The final of series 2 left us a bit off kilter but I give both series 5 Kitten Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

With Norm working on the weekends recently and being away this week, I also watched the series ‘Love Is Blind‘. It is a reality series where people ‘meet’ in separate ‘pods’ (which is just a silly TV name for ‘rooms’) where they can chat one on one and get to know each other without being able to see each other, not even a photograph. The purpose of the experiment is to gauge whether people can fall in love without race, age, looks or any physical factors getting in the way and then maintain that feeling once they meet and get to know each other over a short time. Once they set their mind on who they want to propose to, they propose and if accepted are allowed to see each other and then are whisked away to a resort in Mexico. After Mexico they return to Atlanta and try living in a small flat for a few weeks. Next they plan the wedding and after about a month since their first ‘blind’ interaction, they walk down the aisle and only at the altar do you get to find out if they both say I do.

It is not at all something Norm would enjoy but I loved it! It started out a bit shaky but I was completely riveted once the couples met in person.

I give it 4 Kitten Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

On Saturday Norm wasn’t feeling well and went to bed. Caitlin came to Hout Bay to get her hair done and popped by afterwards. Lily arrived early afternoon as she was down for her last wedding dress fitting.

Norm had popped to the shop before he went off to bed so I made lunch for the girls and I. We had roast chicken and a yummy fresh and simple salad of Bibb lettuce, cucumber, baby Rosa tomatoes and feta cheese. I made a creamy home made salad dressing. Simple healthy food.

We had a relaxed evening. Today Lily stayed here until noon so I did not make it to drum rehearsal. I get so little time with her I stayed home.

Next weekend is the wedding. We are all excited and a tiny bit nervous that everything goes smoothly. As Lily and Josh are marrying in the registry office Thursday morning they will be married the next time I see them. The big ceremony on Saturday will be done by a Jewish friend of the family.

Wish us luck!

Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxo