This week it is starting to feel like winter is here (yes I have said that a few times only to have the heat return). It has been alternating between hectic winds, rain, drizzly mist, and cold. Now that we have an air-conditioned bedroom I keep the air on year round and set at 18℃. I love a cold room for sleeping. Norm however is not as keen but he can wear PJs where as if the temp goes higher than 18 I wake up in a sodden set of bedding and then cannot get back to sleep. #IMustBeAHotty
There are so many simple things that couples have to find a balance with in order to co-exist. Food, temperature, spending, and leisure activities being some that come to mind.
I cannot imagine being married to someone who does not eat a lot of different types of food as Norm and I both love going to sample tasting menus where you get all sorts of foams and gels and weird sounding things which combine into a little nip of heaven. I can cook anything and he will eat it. During lockdown in order to reduce the number of outings in public, we stocked the freezer and we survived on fish fingers and frozen chips (well obviously I cooked them but you get what I mean).
We are both quite miserly when it comes to spending habits, but if we buy something that will get a lot of wear and tear we like to invest in quality.
We are starting to align a bit with exercise. I have never been interested in walking as I was so unfit and my hips and knees always ached due to inflammation from sugar. Now that keto has addressed the inflammation and my exercising has strengthened my legs I am enjoying getting out for walks in nature.
Last Sunday Norm and I were up early as we wanted to go for a hike before it got too hot. It ended up being 29℃ by midday so I am glad that we were on the trail just after 9am. We went to Silverhurst Trail again as it is a nice shady flat walk and there are not too many people on the route like some of the other greenbelt trails. It has 2 paths which converge and one of them does not allow bikes so that makes it less hazardous for half of the route.
Finn was off lead for most of the walk and was as good as gold. He stuck right by us keeping an eye on his pack.
There were a lot of bikes on the first half of the walk and he was only overly curious about one, a young girl on a pink bike with training wheels and a mass of gorgeous long red hair sticking out from under her pink helmet. She did not seem overly concerned but she stopped and Finn had a sniff then let her go on her way. He met several dogs on the journey and he played nicely with all of them. He and a staffy had a right tumble and run and barreled right into my knee, giving it a hard push from the front. It clicked and it has felt better than it has for years! Maybe I can rent him out as a physiotherapist? I wish he could fix my other knee!
When we went past the Koi Pond covered in lilies, the Koi fish were swimming near the fence.
We had not seen them last time. You are supposed to make a wish if you do see them. I wished for peace in the Ukraine and for protection over my loved ones.
When we got home Panda was not looking happy and he had barfed again while we were out and it appeared to have a bit of blood in it. He had a cough a week ago and has been on various meds, some of which did not agree with him and made him sick to his stomach. Norm ran off to the vet with him as they close at 11am on Sundays and it was almost closing time. They thought it was gastro and have given him meds for that. He was looking a bit better on Monday but then he started again with vomiting and diarrhea and would not eat at all so he went back on Tuesday and they kept him for x-rays, an ultrasound and other tests. He is on all sorts of meds for the cough and his tummy. Finn thinks he is a Nurse as well as a Physiotherapist and that it is his duty to look after little Panda. He licks the sticky meds off of his face and stays nearby.
There is always some sort of drama with a houseful of animals.
While Norm dashed off to the vet with Panda last Sunday, I went for a swim. It was so hot that it felt fabulous after the heat of walking. Finn is always very keen on interacting with me while I am swimming but has always refused to go in by choice, he would only go in when I carried him or pulled him in. I noticed he watches my arms and so I decided to doggy paddle to show him. To my shock he jumped in from the step and paddled along with me! He did it a few times and eventually seemed very comfortable instead of his usual flailing frantically about.
On Monday morning Finn went outside and just waded in all on his own and had a swim! I am now confident that if he falls in he can get himself safely out of the pool. I had a laugh at the mid pool tail chase.
It drives Norm insane as he comes into the house sodden and makes a huge mess. I find it hilarious (because I do not have to clean up the mess). This morning he came upstairs and jumped into the bed with me when he was soaked so we have to change the bedding again.
He is still living his best life at puppy class and his gal pal Ava is still his preferred playmate.
He even warned off Blaze when he tried to intervene in their love-fest, despite Blaze being his fave boy pal from class. Bitches Before Bros Blaze!
He is so mischievous and his favorite activity is being chased. If you lunge at him it sets him off running around like a lunatic. Norm gives him nightly snack diversions just so we can relax and watch a bit of telly. Norm was trying to find a missing Kong so he could fill it with peanut butter and was lying on the floor with a flashlight when I heard a shout and looked up to see Finn running away with Norm’s flashlight (torch).
I sometimes think we live in a zoo full of psychopathic beasties.
On Monday I woke feeling fine but by midmorning I started feeling queasy, dizzy and had terrible stomach cramps. It meant I could not even consider exercising. I did not feel like eating but we had ordered food from a local chef who does home delivery so when it arrived I nibbled at a piece of chicken breast but only out of a need for food to calm my stomach. All I fancied was white toast but I did not want to use my stomach upset as a reason to go off the keto rails.
Norm went to get meds from the chemist which settled my stomach but I still felt a bit meh. As a result I was not keen on eating and lived off of low carb toast for a few days.
On Thursday we met up for lunch with some friends whom I have known for decades. We had arranged to meet at the Lookout Deck on the harbour but they would not let us bring in Finn so we did a rapid about face and headed to Dunes on the Beach as they always welcome well behaved dogs on leads. We first sat outside on a table with couches but the wind was howling and our lovely waitress Future found us a table behind a wind guard and we settled in with Finn lying at Norm’s feet.
Lila and Nigel live half the year in Jupiter Florida and half the year in St Francis Bay on the east coast of SA. Lila is also American but like myself was imported by a South African husband and has been in SA for decades (unlike me she kept her original one).
I met Lila and Nige in George when our kids were tiny. When I went through my divorce the kids and I lived with Lila and Nigel for a while. They moved to Johannesburg as did I and we stayed friends. They are such kind people and we have the same sense of humour and have a lot of laughs. I can be myself with them, they know me warts and all.
We had another couple join us a bit late as they were stuck in traffic. Janine and her husband Charlie were also part of our crowd when we were all yummy mummies living in George but they now live here in Cape Town.
I was very pleased that I managed to resist the fish and chips on the menu. I chose a low carb Thai Beef Salad described as “rolled beef carpaccio nestled on mixed greens with cucumber, cherry tomato, red cabbage, roasted sesame seeds, peppers and mung bean sprouts. Dressed with a zesty and spicy Thai dressing.”
However I was not aware that it had ginger in the dressing so it was not my cuppa tea (or not my cuppa salad dressing?). I wish I had ordered the Caesar salad, it looked much better than mine but it filled a gap.
We stayed chatting for hours and Finn was very well behaved other than one session of barking when he spotted another dog. Norm took him for a walk when he got a bit antsy after a few hours but overall he was a good boy (as was Norm).
Work has been very stressful this week. I had a public lashing by my team lead who said that I just ‘go off on my own and do things’ which is usually appreciated by a client but she seemed to be threatened by me pushing things forward. Then I raised some issues on one of the workstreams which I knew would be problems with the system we are loading into and was pretty much ignored until they wrote to the system integrators who confirmed that all of the things I raised would cause load failures or data loss.
At least they listened enough to verify the requirements now rather than have the system crash when we try to throw invalid files or data at it during go live and then have to deal with the rejections and fall out. I have never understood hiring a specialist consultant and not listening to them but it happens often. Hopefully they learn a lesson and listen to my advice and therefore benefit from my experience.
So all of those stresses were keeping me up at night and I had a thumping head for several days. It did not help that it was too cold to swim and I could not cleanse that negative energy by submerging in the cold waters.
I have continued losing despite my lack of swimming. So far I have lost 11.75kgs (25.85lbs) and I am feeling fabulous.
Today is sunny but windy. I am going to clean the downstairs as we have friends coming over tomorrow. She has a rather adorable little boy so hopefully the weather is suitable for swimming as Noah is keen on swimming with Finn.
Tomorrow morning we are planning an early morning hike and then we will pop home in time for our visitors. I am excited to have people around again.
I hope you all had a good week last week and will have an even better one next week. Until next time, keep safe.
Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxox
Kitten in the City 