My friend Marlise is leaving in 2 weeks time. They’re immigrating to New Zealand.

And this morning it all of a sudden hit me

Her kids are going to Connor’s nursery school until they leave, and Bradley was with me when I dropped Connor at school. Bradley ended up having a chat with Thomas and Sonja before we left.

And then it hit me, especially when I told Bradley that how close their flight date is. I can’t believe it’s snuck up so quickly.
Bradley was talking about it all the way to my mom’s house. He said that he’s going to miss them, and I’m going to miss Marlise, and miss talking to Marlise and he’s going to miss playing with Thomas etc etc. Then he asked where we’re going on holiday this year. He’s really not understanding how far they’re moving away.

Damnit, I’m going to miss them, we all are.

I love sharing recipes with friends, especially if they’ve asked me for them after I’ve made them a particular meal.

Lance got me the new Jamie Oliver cookbook for Christmas, because I’d told him to.  LOL!  He doesn’t normally surprise me for Xmas, very boring… but he says that at least I like what I get.  I did get surprised this year though because he got me a new 4GB Cf card for my camera … but anyhoo, that’s not what this story is about.

I’d seen it while I was Christmas shopping, and while browsing through it, found a really easy recipe for bacon and pea pasta that I thought the kids might like, so I kinda followed the recipe from memory the next night, and it was an absolute hit!!I’m definitely going to make that again.

On Saturday when the girls were at my house, I showed my new book off   and Marlise mentioned that she liked the Chilli con Carne recipe.  So, I emailed it to her, and she made it for us last night for supper.  It was delish! Really delish!!  Now ordinarily I would go bragging that I’d sent a friend the recipe, but in his book he asks that people pass them on to their friends.

He mentions that you can register on his site, and you can get more info and recipes etc etc.  So, I duly go and explore his site last night… only to discover… most of the recipes from his book (not ALL because I can’t find the pea and bacon pasta recipe, there’s another one that similar but more complicated and it looks richer)… for free on his site (which is more like a blog with a built-in forum).  So there you go, for the other guys on Saturday that were looking for recipes… check out his site… and here is the link to the Chilli con Carne (which is amazing… tasty… very tasty… but not very hot).

I went out on Friday night with a group of girls to celebrate a Sue’s birthday.  What a jol!!

The idea was to have dinner at Outer Limits and then to drink and party the night away, because there was a DJ there. But after our dinner, we decided (or rather the others decided) that the place was dead, and we should go to another more vibey place instead.  OMW, I really didn’t feel like it, I was quite comfortable where I was drinking my wine and chatting.

I got talked into joining them at the next place, so followed them all to Cedar Square.  We ended up at a place called CoFi – like a cocktail lounge.  It was stunning!  After all my moaning, I thoroughly enjoyed myself

It was packed, but we managed to get a table outside, right at the edge of the place (I don’t want to know what Kelly and Sam really did to get the table, but their story was hillarious… something about pretending to kiss each other).

I must say, that I felt VERY old when we first got there.  I haven’t been out to a place like that in years.  I laughed so much at the younger people at the bar and their antics.  It was hilarious to see them try and wangle double shots out of the bartenders for free, and watch them try and outdrink each other.

By the end of the evening I wasn’t feeling so old.  This was partly because my ego was stoked a little with 2 incidents.  Firstly, some creepy dude (who Theresa said looked like a vampire) tried to pick me up with the worst pick-up line I’ve heard ever – he tried to tell me that he’d been in the movie industry for 25 years!  He couldn’t have been older than 23! PMSL!

Then the bartender decided that we’d waited too long for our drinks, so Theresa (Fiona‘s sister’s colleague) and I got Capirinhas on the house!  LOL, we were having such fun people watching that we hadn’t realised how long we’d waited, so it was all cool!

It was ALL good! But OMW I was tired and grumpy on Saturday.

Guess what?  The petition worked!!  Ivy is getting her treatment!!

I’m actually sitting here in tears, I cannot express how thrilled I am that it worked!  Veronica needs a HUGE pat on her back for organising the whole thing!

Thanks to everyone who read my post and signed the petition as a result   You’re amazing, all of you

I Lance finally went to go and collect a parcel from the post office that had been sitting there for about 2 weeks.  It turned out to be the most amazingly stunning parcel from Lindy!!

Thanks SO much!!  It was is WOW!

 
And what good timing too!! We packed all the choccies into our bags to eat on the road today
Ooh, and what yummy stuff too. Some of it we can get here, but most of it I’ve only had in the UK. How special! And Bradley thinks you’re the best too! Those union jack undies are very cute, and the book and the magazine is a huge hit. Oh and I just LOVE the photo mag.

Thanks again
Internet pe’eps are the BEST aren’t they?

Man, it’s been hectic!  And we’ve had problems with internet at home, so I haven’t been able to update my blogs (oh, and not to forget the Blogspot problems – so I’m definitely moving self-hosted now – well, when I get back home)

I’m sitting at the beach, listening to the waves   More on that later!

On Wednesday night, I met a few friends for dinner.  Sarah is in town (or was) from Uganda, so we just had to have a girls night out.  What a stunning time we had!  Good food, good wine, good friends…it can’t get any better.

Sue and Roanne

Sarah, me and Fiona

Anyhoo, got to run, have to put the kids to bed and have more wine

I can’t believe I have a headache from the wine I had at lunch yesterday! I’ve had this headache since last night for pete sake!  It’s definitely a sign of age

It’s not like I had a lot either, I only had about 3 glasses (if that!).  I think my excuse is that I was sitting in the sun! 

Oh and of course, that it wasn’t exactly the best bottle of wine, but it was very drinkable

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We went out for lunch to Ngwenya Glass Village to celebrate Fiona’s birthday (needless to say I didn’t even get a moment to look at the glass work and I was too scared to take the boys inside the shop).

It was wonderful! The kids had an absolute ball. I’m loving that Bradley is at the age that I don’t have to really worry about him, I just have to watch the little monster.

And OMW, did I have to watch him!!  We had barely sat down, when Connor climbed to the top of the jungle gym (which was higher than I am), and then tried to climb down the side that had no barrier, no slide and no steps!!  I JUST got there in time (after barrelling over tables, chairs and pushing people out the way).  It was very close.  If he’d fallen it would definitely have been a hospital trip – there was a wooden pole at the bottom that he would most definitely have either hit his back or head on.

I really needed a day like that… with excellent food, wine, friends and perfect winter weather.  Connor fell asleep before we even got to the main road

Nash, Madi and Laura threw Marlise and I a surprise birthday party last night.  LOL, it was a lot of fun.

When Lance told me yesterday afternoon that he’s taking me out for dinner, I was imagining a nice restaurant… and I was surprised that he’d even arranged something like that… I never have surprises like that.

Then when we got in the car, he told me what was going on… he knew that I’d be too suspicious if he drove to the pub… we NEVER go to pubs.  In fact, the last time we went to a pub on our own was before we got married!

So Laura, no, I wasn’t completely surprised… but surprised enough not to have taken my camera along

But OMW, there was this very drunk guy there, quite harmless… who tried to make a move on me when Lance went to the bathroom.  I wasn’t facing him, but as soon as I felt him on the bench next to me, Marlise was up and almost cleared the table and ordered him to move to another table.  LOL, it was funny.  I seriously would have sorted him out myself, if I’d been given half the chance… but thanks bud for looking after me like that

And then this morning I got reminded why I stick to wine nowadays.  The cocktail was great… but not a good idea after wine.

If you’re looking for my Weekly Winners, they’re here…