This week has been full of chaos and stress and fabulous things, I am like a yoyo. Next week I will be in George visiting Lily, Amelia, Josh and Trevor. I am looking forward to it so much!

Last Sunday Norm and I were booked for lunch at Veldt DBE with Wesley, Caitlin and Bree. We were greeted by the village’s favourite host, Spiro Ragavelas. We have known him for years, since we arrived in the village and my girls were teens. The table was lovely and roomy and they already had a highchair in place as I had specified we had a baby in our group. It was such a lovely, bright and airy room where we were seated and as it was such a gorgeous day it was perfect. It was like being outside without having to dodge the ever moving sun.

They have renovated since it was called Cheyne’s. It has been painted and walls moved and other bits and pieces have changed. It seems much brighter which was lovely. The dark vibe suited the sexy food at Cheyne’s!

We discussed how many different owners the building has been through since we moved to Hout Bay. It was an Italian restaurant called Luigi’s when we moved here and was owned by a charming old Italian who sang opera to the ladies. The pizzas were thin, crispy and divine. Then it was bought by an Afrikaans smoothy who also tried to sing opera to the ladies. But, yeah, it suddenly disappeared.

Then it was Ragafellas, my absolute favourite burger place. It was steampunk themed and ran by Spiro’s beautiful wife, Julie. They sold it and it never was the same, eventually going out of business. Then it became Cheyne’s and then it became Vivienne’s under the brand of Cheyne’s and the food was delicious. We went often but it was for date nights or special occasions and maybe it was for others too as it also went out of business which broke our hearts.

Anyway. Enough reminiscing, back to Sunday. Norm and I both fancied a steak so we ordered the fillet steak, medium rare. It had the most amazing crust on the outside, yet the steak was tender and cooked perfectly.

Wes ordered the pork ribs. I have had them before and they are divine.

Caitlin ordered the beef burger and I have to say it looked divine. The cheese was quite literally oozing from it.

Bree was so adorable and was intent on charming this rather handsome bloke at the table next to us. She seems to have good taste at least. She did not cry once, she sat and ate her food and performed on cue when asked to ‘be cute’ or ‘smile’ or ‘wave’. She is just divine.

I mentioned last week that someone had said to me about ‘my joy’. I have had this from people before, thanking me for ‘bringing joy’ to various events. I even won an award at a client for my ability to uplift the team, I know that I can at times be a bit maudlin as are all Virgos, but I tend towards positivity, or at least negativity wrapped in a cloak of humour. I think whether someone finds me funny or overwhelming depends on their own level of security. Some men are very intimidated by my lack of flowery speech or my inability to bend the knee.

Fuck subservience, it is not my style. Fuck the patriarchy, I will confront you on your behaviour every time. It is not my role to be cheerful when I am not cheerful. I had this challenge this week. I was called ‘Angry’ because I did not want to shake hands or smile.

Someone shared this quote from Kahlil Gibran which really resonated with me. The traumas which I have gone through in my life have taken me right down to the depths where life did not feel worth my effort to carry on. But having been to that depth, coming back to the light allows you to have empathy for those who are stuck there.

If the joy is inversely relational to the trauma, I should be bottomless in my joy. My joy should reach to infinity. I may not be smiling, but I may still be joyous. I owe you no performance.

The mask is off and I shall not put it back on because of someone else’s discomfort. As an autistic sometimes my face is expressionless, but often it is so easily read it may as well have words printed across it.

In case you did not guess from my obscure blog title, my 64th birthday was this Wednesday the 3rd. I woke to lots of messages and after I showered and went downstairs, Norm had left two big beautiful bouquets of flowers, both red pincushion proteas as well as lilies. He also left a lovely card for me.

The kids had ordered a delivery from Babylonstoren and I had a delicious midday Pecan Nut & Caramelised White Chocolate Cruffin. The next day I had a Choc-Hazelnut & Caramel Croissant for breakfast. They also sent my faves Pastéis de Nata. They know I have such a sweet tooth. They also sent me a voucher for a massage.

That evening Norm had booked for us to go to the Japanese restaurant, Izakaya Kukai for dinner. It is owned and ran by the renowned sushi master Arata Koga who was recognized as 7th Sushi Master in the world. They put us at the 2 seater table in the centre which was perfect. We arrived at 6.30 and the place filled up completely just after that, even the tiny stools for tiny people that sit around the grill were full.

We ordered an array of dim sum and small plates to share to start with. We always share the bang bang prawns. These were fresh out of the oil and were so hot they could start a flame on your face. But the prawns were so fresh and beautiful it was hard to restrain yourself. As well as the prawns, they contain avocado, a small bit of jalapeno and some other bits and pieces. They are gorgeous.

We also shared the Gyoza pan fried dumplings filled with minced prawn and pork. The flavours and textures were amazing, the dumpling casing was just the perfect consistency.

At the same time as they brought the dumplings, they also brought the aubergine (eggplant) tempura with a sweet miso sauce. The eggplant was perfectly cooked, the tempura crispy and the miso sauce was the perfect punch it needed. I had this dish last week and had to have it again!

We ordered two portions of the tempura prawns but I knew Norm had ordered too much food because he was so hungry when we arrived. The prawns are massive and sure enough the last one was a struggle for him but I had just the right amount of food.

Norm ordered a bowl of their ramen which he loves. He had the teriyaki chicken.

I knew that I would be struggling to eat more but I also did not want to just sit and watch our Norm slurp his way through this giant trough of ramen, so I ordered some sushi as the chef is well known for it and I had never tried his. I had a portion of salmon roses. They were so delicate and the flavour was divine.

By now we were both so full we thought we might not be able to walk to the car, but we paid and bravely trundled out grasping our heaving bellies. OK, I did, Norm is not ridiculous.

We came home and rang my Mom who had tried to get me when we were at dinner. We had a good catch up with her. Then we were straight into our PJs in front of the TV, perfectly cozy and content. I am a lucky woman.

The mirror I ordered arrived at the local shop and Norm went to collect it in Green Point. I love it so much!! I love the colour of it next to my tiles, I love the simplicity of the design, I love the shape and size of it next to my baby sink. I love it in case you did not get that. They will hang it when the floors are done and they do the skirting boards, toilet and the rest of the outstanding bits and pieces.

This week has been a lot of toing and froing as my friend Tamlyn gave me all of her plants and pots as she is moving. I booked Kim to come Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Norm took his truck and backed it into Tam’s and Kim filled it up, called us to swap it out and he emptied them on this side and Norm drove back down again until they managed to get it all moved. It took quite a few trips.

I also bought her little round cast iron table and two chairs. We needed somewhere to sit at the back of the house where the dogs cannot steal your food quite as easily. We will just keep our eyes out for 2 more chairs for sale secondhand to round it out. We can play games or eat there in summer.

On Wednesday Kim managed to clear the front driveway of plants so that the builders can get in and out next week. He just moved the ones we do not have time to plant now over to the side of the driveway.

He put some big plant pots at the back. We will paint them all so they go together. I think a dark grey will go nicely with the black and white house? The terracotta will stay terracotta. I may move this copper one because I love the colour and there are 2 that same colour.

The front beds Kim created and cleared last week are now full of lovely plants. If you are Afrikaans I apologise for my mutilation of the pronunciation of ‘spekboom’. Norm calls them ‘oxygen plants’. I have since been told the big spiky plant is an aloe. I know there are lots of different types of aloes and I think I just gained a variety!

Once the last few bits get done inside we can focus more on the last few bits outside. I am so excited to see the new floors!! This house will officially be transformed! It would be interesting to have it valued to see the difference since we bought as a fixer upper almost 20 years ago.

A strange thing has happened. I seldom used my YouTube account until recently. The interface from Instagram to WordPress is terrible and as I am sure you noticed, the images would not load. You sometimes had to actually go to Instagram to view the videos or images which takes you out of the ‘story’. WordPress were unable to resolve it so I just started loading the images directly and linking to the videos in YouTube instead of Instagram and it seems to work better? What do you think? Anyway, now my YouTube is getting a lot of activity, far more than any other social media account I have!

Today Norm and I are going to watch Baby Bree in her swimming lesson. I am then going to hang out with Tamlyn for the last time before she goes off on her journey. I need to come home in time to pack as I fly in the morning to George to stay with Lily, Amelia and Josh. I look forward to seeing them as well as my son Trevor.

Work is now ramping up as I am doing a short data discovery for a client who has so many problems they do not know where to start. Hopefully that then leads to more work afterwards.

Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxo