This week my new project officially kicked off and we spent time getting onboarded by attending workshops or meetings. A new project is always exhausting as your brain is trying to absorb the background while envisioning the future. It is a huge project and I am one of the Data Architects. My responsibilities involve data mapping, data quality, metadata documentation and other aspects of data management which I love.
I am a proper geek and I am proud of it.
I really do enjoy the work I do and I am so happy that the universe chose to divert me away from Radiography even though I worked so hard for my degree. I love medical dramas and my only remaining skill from that phase of my life is that I always diagnose the patients before the doctors on the show do. It annoys Norm every time I shout ‘I told you so!’. He just wants to watch Chicago Med without me whittering and crowing in the background.
We have had beautiful weather for most of this week. I feel so blessed to be working from home and being able to listen to the sounds of nature with this view from my desk.
Then the weather turned on Friday and it was dark, overcast and very windy.
I love having the animals around me all day. It will be great when Finn arrives as we will be able to keep a close eye on him and hopefully can therefore save our furniture and belongings from being gnawed on like Navajo did as a babe.
The breeder has decided to have Finn sent to us via a shuttle service that does animal transport. They bring him to their depot in Greenpoint and we collect him on November 6th so we have very little time to wait now. I am so excited!
Lily is driving down tomorrow to spend a week with us. She is doing a wood-working course to help her with Wildwoods Interior, her new business which involves flipping old furniture. She does great work already but the course will teach her how to do repairs or even make new items. From a purely selfish point of view I get to spend a week hanging out with my baby girl!
I had another dental appointment on Thursday. Dr P is such a calm and gentle person with a brilliant sense of humour. He came to collect me in the waiting room and offered his arm to escort me to his office under the pretext that I could not then escape. My appointment was supposed to be only 2 hours but I had a panic attack and derailed things and it took 3 hours instead. I had taken an Ativan in the waiting room and it was keeping me relatively calm until they put the dental dam in.
Because the anesthetic had numbed my tongue and the back of my throat, when they tipped my chair back I felt like I was suffocating and that triggered the panic. I leapt up out of the chair and they had to talk me down. Dr P removed the dental dam to let me calm down, then when we started again he said ‘I hope you are fine now that I am not in your mouth’ to which I quipped ‘I bet you say that to all the girls’ and the dental nurse looked like she might have a panic attack herself but Dr P laughed himself silly. He gets my sense of humour and my fragile mental state and takes it all in his stride.
When they removed the cracked crown they saw that there was a lot of decay underneath and that the root was exposed. They treated the root and removed the decay and put on a new pretty white crown. This experience was so much worse than the last one because it was on the bottom and affected my tongue. I was really sore that night and Norm sorted out our dinner and gave me a couple of paracetamol and a vodka to cope with it.
On Friday Norm, Caitlin and I went to the Indian Oven to redeem the prize I won. I love Indian food and was excited to go and was very happy that Caitlin was going to be spending the evening with us.
Caitlin picked us up and Norm stayed in the car on a conference call to Canada while us girls went inside. We ordered drinks and a couple of starters while we waited. To share we ordered both the spinach and the onion bhajees which were massive portions.
Caitlin and I nibbled and chatted for an hour before Norm finished his phone call and joined us.
We then ordered our mains. Caitlin felt adventurous and chose something she had never had, the Kastoori Methi with prawns. It was prepared with traditional Indian fenugreek herb in a rich, creamy curry sauce. It had big fat prawns and was very tasty.
I had the same thing I always have, why change if you know you enjoy something? I had the prawn curry with their signature mustard seed based curry gravy. It also had some delicious giant prawns. I love this dish.
Norm had the Chicken Korma and to share we also had basmati rice and a garlic naan and an order of Saag Aloo which is potato cubes in a pureed spinach curry sauce.
It was all so delicious and I felt so lucky to win the prize for a lovely evening out and spending time with Caitlin made it all that more special. I give our evening 4 and a half Kitten Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨.
As it is Restaurant Week in South Africa (which confusingly runs for over a month) I took advantage of the specials being offered and booked us in to Bobo’s, a venue in Mouille Point for lunch this afternoon. They had a 3 course lunch for R365 per person which is a bargain!
We were seated at a table with plenty of space around us so we did not feel crowded or anxious.
We could watch the sea out of the windows and it was so windy that the surf was rather violent.
From inside out of the wind it was a gorgeous setting, of course my view included my handsome hubby.
To start I had the Salt and Pepper Baby Squid with Chili Salt, Chili and Garlic Aioli. It was very tender and had a nice kick from the chili.
For my main I had the Grilled Blackened Prawns with Roast Garlic, Chili, Olive Oil, Parsley, Lemon. They were full of flavour but they were hard to peel and a bit messy.
Norm chose the crispy skin seabass which came on a bed of baby new potatoes and baby broccoli and Lemon Cream.
The 3rd course was a White Choc Mousse Tart, served with Salted Caramel, Chocolate Sauce, Caramel Crumble, Cocoa Crumble, and Vanilla Ice Cream. It was amazing but was so rich! The popcorn gave it a bit of crunch and the ice cream cut through the chocolate sauce. It was nicely balanced.
We also give our Bobo’s lunch 4 and a half Kitten Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨.
Lily arrives tomorrow and I am so excited to see her!
Next week’s blog will be late as we are away for the weekend and are only back the following Monday.
Until next time, have a lovely week ahead. Keep safe, wear a mask, wash your hands and get the vaccine.
Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxox
Kitten in the City 