This week has been full of fabulousness as well as a bit of heartbreak and my usual levels of disorganisation.
I advised in my last post that my daughter Lily’s kitty Rocket was missing. They finally discovered that he had been knocked over by a car and died. We are all so sad for Lily and Josh, they loved that kitty so much as they had raised it from a tiny little baby that was going to be put down because he was so poorly. He had crusty eyes, a lung infection and was scrawny from malnourishment and needed long term medication and hand feeding. Lily nursed him to health and he was declared healthy and developed into such a cuddly little character. He loved being carried and snuggling up. Rocket even had his own Insta page and was such a wee ham, I swear he posed.
Lily is so heartbroken about her baby, especially as she had just lost her previous kitten Toothless to felines AIDs so recently too. It is so hard to know your child is upset and you can do nothing to make it better.
Another thing that has me a bit down is that an online friend who is based in Canada has either deleted her FB profile or blocked me. She was a very lonely, depressed and angry person whom I connected with in a group because I felt like she was misunderstood. She acted out due to pain, not because of ugliness in her soul. She and I had so many dozens of coincidental things that she seemed like a soul sister and I thought we had become friends and we chatted almost daily. I felt like I was starting to get through to her a bit about reshaping her lens on life, but after the damage from Storm Fiona she was so traumatised that she reverted back to anger, which resulted in her getting sent to FB jail so she and I were keeping in contact via messenger. I joked with her that she must keep answering my queries about whether she was OK or I would send the Mounties to check on her. That was a joke (where TF am I going to find a Mountie FFS?) but she took it seriously and has now ghosted me. I was worried about her mental health before but now I am even more so. I think she was sent to me for healing and I feel helpless about my ‘failure’, but it is her choice. All I can do is ask my Creator to keep protecting her and maybe hope she reads this post and reaches out to let me know she is safe. There is something major going on with her but I am not sure what and I just wanted to help.
On the fabulous end of the scale, my daughter Caitlin has made it over to the USA to spend time with my Mom. They have not seen each other in over 4 years I think? Norm paid a large portion of both Caitlin and Lily’s flights from Cape Town to Atlanta and I paid for their shuttle from Atlanta to East Ridge which is near my Mom. A friend of Mom’s took her to the shuttle to collect Caitlin as it was due in around midnight and despite her claims to the contrary Mom cannot see at night. She is so tiny she can barely see over the steering wheel at the best of times. They are having a great time shopping and hanging out. Lily will be joining them next week and they have a week together and then Caitlin returns home to SA and Lily stays in the US with Mom for 2 more weeks.
Also on the fabulous front, I made a new friend online who turned into a friend in 3D. I saw a woman named Yvette posting in a local group about some fairy pieces she wanted to sale.
I messaged Yvette and we started chatting. We had so many things in common and we just clicked. When I told her that I seldom drive, she offered to drop off the pieces so I invited her to come for coffee on Wednesday morning and bring them around. She arrived looking very glamourous and I was in my typical work from home gear of long comfy dress, furry surfer boots and a long cape, looking like the middle-aged hippy chick that I am. We sat outside for a bit and chatted away but then the weather turned and it started to sprinkle rain so we came inside. It had to be a brief visit as I was taking a wee break from working and she had to go and look after her grandson for the day but we got on like a house on fire. It is nice to find another local woman whom I can go on adventures with, Yvette seemed like a lot of fun and we have so many interests in common. She also loves the theatre, gardening and of course fairies!
Norm and I invited Uncle Mark and Uncle Hunter around for dinner on Wednesday. I do not know how to cook a small curry, it is always the size I used to make when my girls lived at home. I invited Mark to join us when once again I made a huge pot of it on Tuesday. It is always better after it sits in the fridge overnight to let the flavour develop so I make it the day before we plan on having it. On Wednesday I just made some cute little sambals and used the serving dish my contract house gave me last year and they looked pretty and freshened up the curry. I also heated some rotis and fried some poppadums. My table is never fancy it is just functional.
However just when I thought I was so organised and prepared, I had a rice disaster. I tried to use what is apparently a ‘vintage’ Tupperware rice cooker but could not find the instructions (what with it being all ‘vintage’ and shit (which is just a polite way of saying old AF)). I tried to google it and found reddit posts like ‘my granny left me this in her will, how do I use it?’ and other rude items but no instructions on how to use it so I winged it. When it was time to put the finishing touches on everything I checked the rice in the container and it looked fabulous. And then I stirred it. The rice was like pulpy paste on the bottom of the container and still crunchy on the top. Apparently I used too much rice so it did not get submerged properly and I left the rice in the water too long. Instead of serving this mess, I quickly tried to cook some more rice on the stove. It was edible and Mark was polite but it was not the best. I have some sort of rice-o-phobia, I just cannot cook a decent pot of rice. Maybe phobia is the wrong word as I am not afraid, I just cannot get it right. Rice-lexia?
Anyway, the curry had a nice depth of flavour and a bite of chili but was not too terribly hot so that my gringo was not tormented. I did tell Mark to bring his chili sauce to add which he did. The sauce was quite fruity as I used pumpkin to thicken it. I asked Norm to buy butternut but got pumpkin instead so I went with it. I also added coconut milk. I chose to present it as a Cape Malay version. #FakeItTilYouMakeIt
I did not cook much this week because of trying to dodge the loadshedding hours where the lack of electricity meant you could not cook. I had sushi on Thursday and Norm had left over curry. I always use K1 Sushi but the last few times they messed up my order, sending salmon instead of prawn. I ordered from them and they rejected the order! I decided to try another sushi place as we have several in Hout Bay. I ordered from Nippon Sushi. I ordered tempura prawns (which appear to be prawns in bread crumbs to me) and several of their different types of sushi that were on special. I slipped and ordered 2 portions of the chef special with the tempura prawn and I found them too rich for me as they contained creamed cheese but they were delicious. As I do not like seaweed I am limited in my choices. I am now converted and will use Nippon from now on.
Lily and I put out the little fairy pieces in my new garden last night. Most of the pieces we made for my birthday have fallen apart so we removed those that were damaged and redid the designs to include the new ones.
Since Lily is flying next week she and Joshy came down yesterday. The animals are always thrilled to see them.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and after I finished work we sat outside on the new patio.
I completely messed up my schedule this weekend as I thought my women’s soul circle was on Sunday and had planned accordingly, however my phone alerted me this morning by a reminder that it was today! I have already paid for it but I had planned to go with Lily to the police station to get her marriage certificate notarised for the flight. But then she decided to go with Josh to meet some friends for breakfast and they will do it on their way there. Instead I will garden and sort out some things I need to do around the house while they are away.
Tomorrow we have Lily’s friend Chelsey and her husband Sheldon and their new baby Daniel coming over. I cannot wait to gobble up baby toes!! Josh has to drive back about noon tomorrow unfortunately. I am making lunch and we will all hang out in the garden. Even without my Ladies event I have had a lovely weekend. I am very sad I missed it but I see Lily so seldom that I am happy to have those extra hours with her and Josh.
I hope you have all had a good week and that you have a great weekend and week ahead.
Until Next Time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxox
Kitten in the City 