Most useful present in the world

THE HANDBAG ORGANISER

Thanks to my dear Mumsie there is no need for me to be scrambling in the bottomless pit that is my bag for my keys or phone.....or realise that I left my business cards in my other bag......or that once again I don't have tissues....
All problems are solved thanks to my new Kangaroo Keeper.

Me suggests every girl gets themselves one asap x

10 things I learnt this weekend...

1. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
2. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
3. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
4. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
5. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
6. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
7. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
8. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
9. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
10. Splashy Fen was awesome!!
    

My piece of Africa

Here's a little snapshot of home - Dundee, a little town nestled in the heart of the Battlefields route in northern KZN.

This is Africa

Welcome to the newest section of the blog - T.I.A - a random compilation of beautiful pics taken across South Africa (and further if I start crossing borders)..... just small reminders of the land we live in and too often cannot see through the haze of corruption, work pressure and crime.

Pongola Game Reserve, KZN

 An absolutely stunning wedding venue where my friends, Jill and Bejangles tied the knot last weekend.
Besides the very long drive down (11 hours of roadworks, stopping off in 1 horse towns and a flat tyre right next to a grooving shebeen)...it was a magical weekend.
Game lodge accomodation, beautiful scenery (despite the thunder showers that forced the ceremony in doors) and yummy food (warthog was the wedding feast....slightly disturbing after seeing warthog running around the lodge grounds all day) and best of all - wonderful friends, old and new

xxx

My day in summary

An exact illustration of how I feel at this present moment...ironic, really, considering the previous post!

Do South Africans work too hard?

I was struck by a thought this morning as I was driving through traffic to get to an 8am meeting [My official day starts at 8.30 but I'd scheduled it for 8am so that it didn't cut in to too much of the rest of my day...of course this means that I had to leave work at least 40 minutes earlier than usual too].

Do we, as South Africans, work too hard?

Coincidentally, my morning sms from Curly came through - he'd been at work since 7 (he's meant to start at 7.45).

I'd also stayed at work til 6.30 last night (2 hours later than usual) to try and get on top of things..as I'm stressing about a loss of productivity over the public holidays and my taking a day off on Friday to go to a wedding.

So do we?

Friends out visiting from New Zealand certainly seem to think so. They actually take their allotted hourly lunch break....and never take work home.

They were amazed at how fast-paced our lives are - how we just never seem to stop; not to mention the heavy traffic, extra time spent in our cars etc.

It made me think of the Spanish, Italians, Mexicans and others who take daily siestas. And their tea breaks broken up by work.

[My cousin worked as a scuba instructor on the island of Atilla, and said that trying to make things happen and completed within a reasonable time was simply not a way of life. People were even confused when you got angry about their lack of productivity.

So why do we have a different mindset here?

Of course not everyone does - just take a look (or smell) the rubbish that's been standing outside our houses for the last week because the municipal company who is supposed to collect it - Pikitup - is on a go slow...for better wages or something or another...

So why does one sector of society work their asses off (literally if you look at the cartoon :) and others just take life chilled?

Granted, perhaps we do work a little too hard.

At the end of the day I still have to get a magazine published by X date.

But perhaps it is a good idea for me to start taking lunch breaks away from the office (yes I do realise that a sandwich + facebook is not exactly time off)...but you see, then I just spend money? Whereas technically if I'm in the office, I'm earning money?

Ok fine - I'll go out this lunch time.....because I need to pick up some tailoring anyway.

10 things I learnt this weekend...

1. The sad fact of the matter is that Cane - despite being hidden in the delicious form of Mainstay Mojito - makes me go psycho :(

2. Braaing too late in the night means that one will generally not feel like eating (having been drinking for the last few hours) which will then result in psycho hammered - which then leads to admin.
3. Weekends should (and can) sometimes be used for sleep. All that is required is not to make any definite plans / commitments, turn off your alarm, eat an enormously delicious skottel breakfast, and go for an afternoon nap in a room with dark curtains...
4. Making the effort to see friends, celebrate their birthdays and have an awesome night in the PTA town is priceless - so no more forgetting such engagements!
5. Having friends that have taken the next step in life to move in together in a flat usually means that they'll have a guest room - with a double bed - in which you can stay (sleeping bags and pillows get to stay behind in the car).
6. The weather is getting wintery - despite all attempts to ignore the colder / darker mornings - and that means you need to have more than 2 jerseys in your cupboard. However, shops don't yet seem to have their full winter ranges in - and that makes for difficult shopping!
7. Deciding between a blow up mattress (which will start wheezing air somewhere along the line) and fold up ones (which take up significantly more room and bear the risk of separating in the night) is a tough decision. Price and convenience made us choose the former.
8. A good old shower, scrubbing from head to toe, followed by a good teeth brushing makes you feel like a whole new person.
9. Making time to read more than a few pages of a very exciting novel is a really great way to spend Sunday afternoon, accompanied by a mug of Milo :)
10. Early bed on Sunday. Need I say more?

Thought for the day

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle"

Wise and appropriate words for me today as yesterday evening, while enduring the traffic on Rivonia Road I was thinking about how stressed, over-worked, exhausted, bla I was feeling. I then stopped for a moment and imagined what it must be like to finish work and have no real home to go to, or no electricity, or warm meal waiting.....and realised just how lucky I am. There are a lot of people out there fighting hard to keep going. I am grateful

Spicy chicken risotto

Spicy chicken risotto, enjoyed as leftovers the next day at my desk!

For our monthly Girls' Dinner (with this being the first occasion), I decided on making a risotto. One of our quad is wheat and sugar intolerant so have to make sure we make C-friendly choices for dinner. I figured rice was not wheat so therefore a good grain (does turn out that rice - and all grains - contain gluten, but obviously in much smaller quantities than wheat; but luckily I checked with C that it would be fine).

So anyway, here's my recipe (based on inspiration from Jamie Oliver's Basic Risotto) and additions of my own:

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 green pepper, diced,
• sliced mushrooms (not such a huge mushroom fan so didn't add to many)
• 2 tomatoes, chopped,
• 4 cups of chicken stock (I chose the OXO spicy chicken one for a change...delicious!)
• 2 cups of rice (I used a combination of the real risotto rice, Arborio and just some plain Tastic-type) * Note Even though risotto recipes generally stipulate risotto rice - it's still quite alright to use the Plain Jane kind....especially considering the price difference (R40 versus R10 per kg)
• 4 chicken breasts, sliced
• Salt, pepper, herbs to taste
• 2-3 glasses of dry white wine (or more depending on the occasion and whether you have work the next day!)
• Parmesan cheese (Although generally expensive, I found a small container of it grated in the deli at my local PnP - score!)

Method:

• Lightly fry the chicken for a few minutes so just done
• In a separate pan / pot (I used a pot to fit more in without including the stove top as a plate) fry the garlic, add onions, pepper, mushrooms (and any other veggies you decide to include).
• Add the rice and the wine and stir continuously until all the wine is absorbed (and the smells convince you that a glass of wine simply must accompany the cooking)
• Add in the stock, one cup at a time, stirring until it has all been absorbed before adding the next one. *Note: The spicy chicken stock turned out to be a great choice as it gave lots of flavour and spice to the final dish
• It was at this point that I was reminded about the tomatoes that were sitting in a bath of hot water so their skins were easy to peel off. Woops, add chopped tomatoes (of course, this actually turned out to be a good thing so tomatoes will still tasty but hadn't become sludgy and lost amongst the rest.
• Add salt, pepper and herbs to taste along the way.
• Pour in the last of the bottle of wine (you simply can't waste,  you know)
• Add the chicken that's been chilling on the side, as well as the Parmesan cheese (however cheesy you feel on the day) and stir through.
• Pop the lid on and leave to simmer for a few minutes (getting it deliciously creamy, says Jamie)...or until you get too hungry to wait any longer.

Serve with a glass of wine amongst good company, makes five portions (the fifth being my lunch the next day - pictured).
Yum!

Romantic weekend in pictures

So Curly decided we should go on a spontaneous road trip...possibly ending up in Badplaas, Mpumalanga for a weekend away to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. Judging by our simplistic campsite above, we didn't come prepared other than a tent, bedding, chairs and a cooler box. Luckily some friendly neighbours from across the way invited us over for coffee the next morning as they could clearly see we had nothing!

Beautiful view from our campsite...we discovered the next day that we were actually overlooking a nature reserve that had giraffe and eland roaming freely the day before!

As I said, we didn't come too prepared (and 'had' to eat out at the restaurant the night before due to lack of meat / tongs / plates). We did discover the resort shop the next day where we bought lunch and enjoyed it alongside the Rhinkals - the main feature of the resort with a lazy tube ride.

Fun and games in the pool. We also enjoyed the hot pools the night before.

An eina from using a pen knife to cut cheese for our lunch.

Cool dude skimming across the pool after coming off the slide. I had plenty of time to do this as I waited for Curly to go on the slide about 10 times (I went on it once but water up my nose and bikini top off is never an ideal result). I did finally get a good action pic of him.

On our way home we got caught in a hectic hail storm so we had to stop off at a petrol station for coffee while we waited for it to pass. Before that we had quite a traumatic experience coming face to face with a head on collision between a motorbike and body. Curly and the next car on the scene had to direct traffic and cover the mangled body with towels. I stayed in the car.

The end of an amazing weekend in Badplaas. Nicely sunburnt (face looked like a lobster) and happy memories shared with my Curly. Can't wait for the next road trip :) Think we might pack a little wiser next time though!

My hobby reinvigorated

It's taken me a long time to get my ass into gear and get back into scrapbooking.
I am at last scrapbooking my photos from the most amazing cruise ever (2009...so only a year and a bit late!). A dedicated post and scraps from the pages to follow soon.
Pictured here is the card I've made for Curly for our 4 year anniversary (we deserve medals I tell you!) and although there are no pics so it's not quite scrapbooking (those were reserved for the gift), I've decided that making the effort to make cards will save a lot of unnecessary moola (I mean you're paying R20 for a card that's going to get chucked away anyway) and they're a little more meaningful (well that's what I'm going to claim anyway!)
Yay for rekindling the creative spirit!