As it was a 4 day work week it flew by, especially with work and life being so busy. Luckily little Panda is much better and that has been our primary stressor. On Friday Panda went to the vet for his end of meds check up and they have decided to keep him on antibiotics for another week just to be safe. They have him on chronic meds for his heart murmur and COPD. If you put your hand on his chest you can feel his little heart beat go boom-ba-boom instead of the boom-boom of a normal rhythm. Hopefully he can still live a happy life with these chronic issues. He certainly seems fine, he is eating well and his little white fluffy pantaloons are mincing about the house as always.
The weather has been all over the place…cold, cloudy, rainy, warm, sunny. Sometimes all in a single day.
I have stayed low carb and cooked a few meals. I grilled kingklip in butter and garlic and sautéed asparagus spears in lemon, butter and garlic. I made extra sauce for the asparagus and then poured it over the fish to serve. For the first time I put the sweet potato cubes in the air fryer and OMG why did I wait so long to try this? It made them perfect, crispy outside and creamy inside. The fish was perfect too so I will grill it again.
I put a beef roast and some carrots into the slow cooker with an onion, garlic and some beef broth and let it cook all day Thursday. We had load shedding that night and it was too much of a mission to finish off the meal so we had Thai take out.
It was pouring rain and freezing cold on Friday. For dinner that night I heated up the roast and carrots and I steamed cauliflower, mashed it and fried some brussel sprouts with mushrooms. It was so steamy hot that it fogged up my camera lens. Oops. It was delicious and perfect for the rainy weather.
This week I was reading about how someone who is neurodivergent processes and obsesses over various things. One of these typical obsessions is about serial killers. My girls, my mom and I are all obsessed with murders and serial killers. No one has ever called any of us normal, so there is possibly some element of truth in that.
I am able to watch shows about real things which happened in the past with no issue as I know it is actors even though the events were real. However I cannot watch the news or clips of the horrors occurring in Ukraine. Norm loves to watch the live footage of tanks being shot down, drone missiles exploding, helicopters being blown up and all sorts of things.
I cannot watch, it makes me feel anxious and nauseous. We watched a drone shoot down a chopper. I imagined the pilot trying to escape the burning aircraft, I imagined him not surviving and his family being bereft of a father.
I absorb all of that pain. Norm just sees booms.
It is a well known fact that men’s brains process information differently than women’s. Men are better at compartmentalising their lives. For example, work is work, home is home, war games are war games.
I am not the sort who frets over work either but I cannot compartmentalise my different ‘personas’ or disassociate from my emotions or feelings. Being an empath can be exhausting.
As it was pay day, to help bury my stress and I did some online shopping. I mentioned the Buddha I had bought for my succulent garden in my last blog. This week I ordered a set of crystals meant to generate Prosperity and Abundance as well as some other stones and a new necklace from Rockchic in Hout Bay. It is a Mala Bead necklace of African Turquoise, Red Jasper, and Czech glass beads and I adore it.
Instead of the Prosperity pack of crystals I was delivered the Psychic Protection pack by mistake. I took that as a sign I was meant to have them both, but since I wanted the Prosperity and Abundance ones for my buddha I asked the shop to deliver the ones I had ordered as well and I paid for the additional set. I had already added some sea shells to my buddha but I have included the new stones with the shells. I think it looks pretty. Finn stole a starfish and then he stole the very sharp shell and Norm threw a dramatic fit and removed all of my shells.
I am trying to manifest some grandbabies, give me some support here!
I ordered a set of Electromagnetic Defense stones to protect me from an onslaught of energy from my laptop. I added them in with my other stones on my laptop stand.
I have a bit of an obsession with heart shaped crystals in particular and I ordered a carnelian one but the lady at the shop rang me to say that they only had one and it was broken and could they replace it with something else or refund me. I said I would be happy with any other heart shaped stone of a similar price and she sent a stunning Peach Moonstone. I loved the meaning of the stone! So I am wishing for engagements and guess what? Grandbabies. 💜😂 My friend Debi says that Moonstone is the guardian crystal of women, especially mothers so that falls right in with my plans! #GimmeDemBabies
As I mentioned, load-shedding started again this week. The new lamp we bought has a bulb which retains energy and then glows when the power goes off. The candle on the table is a fake battery powered candle which Mom gave me and the combination of them both is just enough to light the room when the power is off. It was quite romantic. The one on the floor was knocked over by a dog and the little glass holder inside was broken. Norm told me I was a fire hazard putting a real candle in a wooden holder but I was right next to it and if it burst into flames I could have leapt into action (well, slovenly shuffled over and chucked on a glass of water more likely.)
Load-shedding is not as stressful when you can at least work or watch a bit of telly so I am glad we are taking charge of the situation and trying to mitigate where we can.
Over the long weekend I started watching a few new series.
Together Norman and I started watching the series ‘Our Great National Parks’ which is beautifully narrated by the silver tongued Barack Obama. I was enthralled by the scenery and the wildlife shown in this series and recommend every person of every age watch it. It is a definite 5 Kitten Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
I had never seen a Sifaka Lemur until this show and I was absolutely fascinated and enamored. I want one. Can you imagine Finn and Mr Lemur leaping about the garden?
On my own I started watching ‘Why Women Kill‘. Oh my goodness I love this show, it is so camp, dramatic, funny and fabulous. It is rather ‘Desperate Housewives‘ meets ‘American Horror Story‘ – esque. It is another creation from Marc Cherry and you can see the common story lines of horny husbands and wives (not for each other), murders, deceptions and cougars.
Season One of WWK is centered around a single huge home in Pasadena, California and tells the stories of the three couples who lived there at different time spans, namely 1963, 1984, and 2019. The casting is brilliant and the main female leads for the three time periods are respectively: Ginnifer Goodwin who plays the mousy little Beth Ann Stanton, Lucy Liu who plays social-climbing, sex-deprived cougar Simone Grove, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste who plays beautiful bisexual lawyer Taylor Harding. It highlights that we have no idea what people are really like behind closed doors. Well, except for me, I am exactly the same.
There are some brilliant quips such as the one from the very camp, secretly gay husband telling his philandering wife, “Sex with a woman is like emptying the dishwasher. I will do it if asked, but if someone else volunteers then I won’t complain.” Or the line about sewing on a button for you being the white girl equivalent of ‘Fuck me.’
So how I managed to give birth to 3 children without a clue how to sew on a button is a mystery.
The final episode of the season was like a choreographed ballet. I am now stuck into season two.
Today Norm has taken Finn off to puppy class and I am going to potter about the garden and fill all my bird feeders. I also bought some new cushions and bar stools and will set up my lounge with the new things and put away the old cushions for donating to DARG for their sales. They are in decent shape and I am sure someone will buy them.
Tomorrow is mother’s day but none of my kids will be here. We are having a family zoom call with my Mom and kids so at least we get to see each other’s faces.
Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox
Kitten in the City 