Do you ever have one of those mornings where so many annoying things sequentially occur that you feel you might be better off going back to bed and starting over later?
I have had two in one week. The first was last Sunday.
I woke up in the early hours because I was hot and I saw the electricity was off (and therefore so was the air conditioning). I knew we were not due for load-shedding that night as I had checked the schedule so I assumed the meter had run out. I woke Norm and told him and he was clearly not interested. I could not get back to sleep and I could not play games without the Wi-Fi as they use too much data and data is expensive in South Africa.
I decided I may as well just get out of bed and when I walked over to get my towel I stood in a giant puddle of Panda pee. Since he has been on this diuretic for his little heart he drinks constantly and pees a lot. He has his little bedside stairs and he hops off the bed and trots into the bathroom and if there is a bath mat available he pees on it, no mat then he just drops a squat wherever he may be standing. Why doesn’t he just squat over the drain? Silly little poufy pants.
Norm got up and came into the bathroom where I was showering and I asked him to put something over the pee so I did not stand in it with my newly washed feet as I did not have my glasses and I am blind as a bat. Except he still had not topped up the meter and it was dark so he could not see the pee.
After I showered I saw the weather was a bit cloudy and miserable which seemed perfect for my gloomy mood.
I was unbelievably annoyed by this series of unfortunate events first thing on waking. I grumped around until I got a hot cup of creamy coffee and had sat outside and looked at my mountains to drink it. I realised all of those little annoyances were quite comical and imagined my life as a sitcom with me as a slender MILF delicately mincing about in high heels while dealing with the funny little hiccups of life in a quirky manner (hey, if I am going to live in a fantasy world I may as well have a sexy avatar).
I then watched a few episodes of “That’s My Jam” which we discovered when we were in the US. That cemented the upturn of my mood dial to ‘Happy’ and then I snapped out of my funk.
I think it is hilarious and if you have access to view this series I strongly recommend it. It is a musical game show where the contestants are celebrities, but not always singers. They have to perform various tasks all of which are musically related, either guessing the names of artists or songs based on a theme, or performing the lyrics of one song to the music of another song, for example.
Of course I am a huge Jimmy Fallon fan, and I laugh at him just being an eejit all on his own, so if you overlay the silliness of the show it is a hoot. I hope they do another season.
I should mention that Norm is not as keen on this show as I am because he has no idea who the celebrities are and he never knows the lyrics to any song, ever.
Anyway.
Then on Tuesday I had another day which was a bit of a chaotic nightmare. On Tuesday morning Norm went away for two nights to Johannesburg. I have virtual meetings every morning from 9 to 11. The gardener arrived at 9am as usual because Norm forgot to cancel him for the day, so I had to make his breakfast and then send him on his way with a day’s pay (while conducting various stand ups and providing progress reports).
Then the bathroom cupboard I have been waiting on arrives, one of the delivery men stands in dog poo and tracks it all over my house. Meanwhile, Finn was chasing the delivery men and jumping up to nip them on the arse as they tried to carry in the cupboard. Then the cupboard wouldn’t fit up the stairs and got a wee bit damaged so they had to repair it. Noting that I am trying to conduct client meetings through it all!
Never a dull moment here.
Last Saturday our friend Mark popped by and while chatting he mentioned that there was a new restaurant operating from the local German restaurant, Zur Holzbucht. After Mark left I saw a post on Facebook that The Hickory Shack had opened a branch in Hout Bay at Zur Holzbucht and thought that was too coincidental and that BBQ was meant to be mine.
Norm was out working in the garden and I wanted to surprise him when he came in and tell him that he could just relax and did not need to go into the village for a take out. I just ordered via Mr D and as I was not sure what Norm would want I ordered 3 different meats: Beef Brisket, Beef Rib and Pulled Pork, each of which came with chips and cole slaw. I also ordered the Baked Beans which were done the American way in tomato sauce and smoked brisket. The chips were twice fried and absolutely gorgeous. I nicked a few and then avoided them. I assumed the little pots of sauce that arrived with our order were the BBQ sauce and dumped it on my food only to later discover it was ketchup which I do not eat due to its high sugar content (hot sauce is worth it). So consider yourself warned.
I cannot tell you how happy I am now that this place’s existence is just an app away from me. It was a definite 4.5 out of 5 Kitten Stars, the lack of hot BBQ sauce and the excess of fat in both of the beef orders knocks it off the 5 ranking. ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ However I will definitely order again. And again. And again as I crave good old southern BBQ and I can get low carb options. In fact we are having friends over tonight and plan on ordering from there.
This week my weight loss hit 30 lbs / 13.75 kgs. I have not been exercising as much as I would like but I have been sticking to low carb-ish. I do not stick to it when we go out, especially not if it is a tasting menu or a preset menu but then we seldom go out so that is all good.
While Norm was away I cooked for myself. I had ordered some frozen seafood from ‘Greenfish‘ which is delivered to your door and it arrived on Tuesday morning. I thawed some scallops and some of the crayfish tails. I was not sure how to cook the crayfish tails so I decided to treat them like prawns, cut them along the centre of the tail and broke them apart and grilled them in butter, lemon and garlic. I used the same mixture to cook my asparagus and I popped some sweet potato cubes into the air fryer. I grilled some Serrano ham to round it all off with a bit of saltiness. OMG this was all so amazing! It was too much for me and I did not eat the sweet potatoes, of course I ate all of the crayfish.
The next night I thawed out prawns for myself. It took ages to remove the shells and de-vein them and as I only made salad to go with it was not as amazing as my mouth expected. If they were mixed into some fettucine alfredo it would have been heavenly but it needed something else. Maybe I will do it with a fillet next time.
Mark popped by Wednesday evening on his way home from work and took Finn for a playdate with Uncle Hunter and the two dogs alpha male-ed all over each other. They have such a strong bond.
It was a lovely break to have just me and the poms to chill except for some reason Panda was like a ravenous bear and kept barking for snacks all night, he is on so many meds maybe they make him hungry. Maybe he is just a greedy lil devil. He had been coughing since Norm left and I discovered I had not been giving him all of his meds. I felt like a terrible mother. He was a little better once I realised and gave him his meds but is still coughing a lot. It reinforces that he definitely needs to be on them. Did I mention that I feel like a terrible mom?
Panda was back at the vet on Friday for the day. They did more x-rays and exams and said the swelling of his heart is a bit better but he will have to remain on the meds as well as an occasional cortisone tablet for inflammation. As the cortisone increases fluid retention, they have to be careful that the diuretic heart meds are able to eliminate the fluids. My poor boy.
This week I started streaming ‘Reservation Dogs‘. It is a comedy series from Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo about a group of teens growing up on a reservation in Oklahoma. (Fun fact, Taika is also on an episode of That’s My Jam). As well as being enjoyable it has other reasons to be lauded: it features all Indigenous writers and directors, an almost entirely Indigenous North American cast and production team, and is the first series to be filmed entirely in Oklahoma. The teens are Elora (played by Devery Jacobs), Bear (played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Cheese (played by Lane Factor) and Willie Jack (played by Paulina Alexis).
I love this clip of the unconscious Bear’s encounter with the rather awkward ‘Unknown Warrior’ played by Dallas Goldtooth.
There are some very funny characters and lines, such as the words of either LilMike (AKA Mike) or FunnyBone (AKA Bone) whom I cannot yet tell apart, “I like my meat pies like I like my women: brown, greasy and hot.”
I laughed, I cried and a lot of it resonated strongly with me. For example, when Uncle Brownie (played by Gary Farmer) says he only smokes his own herb because alcohol is ‘the Devil’s work’. As a Native myself I do not cope well with alcohol. Unfortunately I can consume a ton of it, but my body does not metabolise it properly and I am away with the fairies after one or two, and then it takes my poor Cherokee liver days to recover. It is just not worth it for the most part.
You can stream Reservation Dogs on Hulu.
For my musical contribution this week I give you a bizarre little song and video by Jessie Murph called ‘I Would’ve‘. Jessie is a sister Virgoan and a wee bairn, she was born on September 22, 2004. Jessie rose to fame on social media, of course I do not bother with following anyone just because they have a lot of followers, so have no idea who she is. I discovered her on my weekly list from Spotify and only saw she was Instafamous once I googled for my blog.
I think her voice sounds like a toddler who learned to rap crossed with a naughty little teenage girl, yet somehow I love the song! Let me know what you think.
This evening we have friends coming for drinks and I am supposed to be cleaning. This is how my ADD causes me to achieve nothing unless I am laser focused.
I started polishing the dining room table. I had ordered a bird feeder and the box was on the table so I thought I should put it out for the birds. I unwrapped it to discover it was damaged so I had to photograph it for the vendor. I decided to not bother with returning it as shipping was expensive, so I went to make some sugar water for the feeders (don’t come at me it has very little sugar in it and no colourant). I noticed that I had one sad withering apple in my fruit bowl and decided to wash the fruit bowl. Instead of throwing out the apple I grated it, added water and made water for the bees and put it in an old bowl in the garden.
Meanwhile it is an hour later and I have cleaned nothing except the fruit bowl.
Speaking of which Norm told me not to blog until I had dusted. So shhhhh I better post this and get busy.
Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxox
Kitten in the City 