Kicking the habit (and taking up new ones)

So yesterday (last night, actually) was interesting.

I had a particularly nasty headache. All I wanted to do was get home ASAP after work (check) and have a lie down (that’s a negative) before driving to a restaurant in Blouberg for a friend’s birthday.

Once we arrived there, my Significant Other insisted that we should each have a cocktail. I managed to make it through two-thirds of my pineapple & blueberry daiquiri before we went home (almost three hours with one drink/ beverage).

The only thing the girls seemed to be able to talk about, was gym (the closest I get to this is doing 15 minutes on our elliptical trainer every night) and dieting (said person already being thin and taking headache medication that has weight loss as a side effect)…

…so I ended up ordering a salad (lettuce, red cabbage, a few green beens and slivers of baby marrow & cucumber, about 2 or 3 halved cocktail tomatoes, and a minimal amount of chicken strips)…

…and exercising for 10 minutes when I got home.

I exercise my BRAIN by reading a lot - does that count?!

To top things off, when we parked the car in the garage, my Significant Other leaned over, kissed me (as is tradition), and told me that he wanted to tell me something upstairs. Fair enough – I though he was just going to be all cutesy and say that he loves me. But no: when we were in the apartment, he started this odd little speech about how’s he’s been thinking about something over the last few days and that he’s made a decision, et cetera – enough to make my heart start pounding with anxiety and to feel a heavy weight dropping in my stomach (ah, nausea, you sure have great timing).

And what did he end up telling me?

That he only had one cigarette left (he took it out of the packet and showed me)… and that, after that, he was going to quit smoking!!!

Apparently I didn’t look/ seem as overjoyed as I was ‘supposed’ to. I don’t have a problem with him smoking. I am glad that he made this decision for himself and will thus support him, but if he starts smoking again, so what? It won’t be the end of the world. (Though it’ll be tough when we go visit his parentals, because pretty much his entire family smokes.)

Since he’s decided to kick the habit, I think it’ll be a good idea for him (or us, actually) to start taking up a few new ones. For one thing, he can start using the elliptical trainer again. We could even get weights, and/ or do those exercises his physiotherapist gave him long ago (which he thinks is boring… so I’ll have to work out a rewards system *laugh*) It’s also a good thing that summer is coming, because that means more fruit and salads 🙂

I’m just hoping that this ‘new’ lifestyle will include plenty of sleep!!

Have a great Friday/ Fried-day, everyone.

Sunday lunch for the Parentals

I love doing special things for other people – especially when it comes to my parentals.

My Significant Other and I (i.e. little old me) decided to invite the parentals for lunch/ dinner at our apartment last weekend. We initially had it set for Sunday evening, but due to ‘scheduling’, we moved it out to Sunday afternoon.

Cue myself worrying about what to serve… I’m obsessive-compulsive like that *laugh*

You have to understand: until a few months ago, we didn’t have (a) decent couches or, more importantly, (b) a dining room table. The parentals recently bought themselves a new car – did I ever tell you how some stupid girl rammed into their old car, wrecked it, and that they didn’t get much out of it? – so the fact that they now had their own transport made it even more ‘necessary’ for us to finally have them over for a meal.

The weather has been a bit strange over here. It’s supposed to be Spring, yet it’s only starting to warm up now – venturing between cold (about 15 degrees Celsius) for a few days, then uncomfortably hot (for me, at least, at 32 degrees Celsius) the next. This weekend was sunny, with the heat making me feel exceptionally headachy, and not really helping to keep the apartment at an acceptable temperature since I was busy cookin’ in the kitchen… But I survived. The fan helped to cool things off a bit… And at the end of the meal I ditched the dress I was wearing in favour of short shorts and a t-shirt 😉

We had a great afternoon, with plenty of feel good moments and happiness all around!

So, here’s what was on the menu – it wasn’t a five-star meal (definitely not the most impressive dishes), but it was very nice:

STARTER

– Pastry ‘bowls’ with sautéed mushrooms (my mum doesn’t eat mushrooms, so I made hers with a cherry tomato, bacon & yellow pepper filling instead)

MAIN COURSE

– Homemade rolls

– Roasted green beans

– Marinated chicken breasts

– Garden salad (incl. baby potatoes + bacon)

DESSERT

– Fruit cocktail

– Jelly (made in silicone cupcake moulds)

– Mini, star-shaped vanilla sponge cakes

– Chocolate mousse with sliced strawberries

[I made/ baked the pastry ‘bowls’, rolls and mini cakes myself!]

Pretty flowers to brighten up the table - my Significant Other bought them for me

The 'spread', excluding dessert

Starter: pastry bowl with sautéed mushrooms

Starter: pastry bowl with cherry tomatoes, bacon + yellow pepper

Homemade rolls... which had more of a scone-like consistency... oh well

A nice salad 🙂 My Significant Other's contribution to preparing the entire meal? De-shelling the hardboiled eggs...

Roasted green beans. Sorry the pic's a bit blurry

Grilled chicken breasts & baby potatoes

Desssert: fruit cocktail, jelly, choc mousse & strawberries. I forgot to add the star cakes to the plates...

This is how the dessert was supposed to look -- I took this pic yesterday

My Significant Other & my mum

My dad! ...and me, of course...

I can has cheezburger – FAIL

Sometimes it’s funny how things turn out.

On Thursday, 22 September (i.e. two weeks ago), I decided to spoil my Significant Other and take him out for supper – why? Perhaps to show some appreciation; maybe simply to have a nice meal away from home. I prefer the answer: just because (yeah – because I can!! *laugh*) You don’t always need a reason to do something nice for someone else 🙂

We decided to go to Cattle Baron, which is practically just around the corner from where we stay. Their stuffed mushrooms are getting ever smaller, and the waiters have a tendency to seat you directly under the air-conditioning in the smoking section (then disappear for extended periods of time), yet the conversation is enjoyable and the food usually nice.

My Significant Other ordered a steak, which looked juicy and tasted great (I’ll take his word for it). Against my better judgement, I decided to order a ‘Louisiana burger’ – that’s a beef burger with bacon and cheese. This was extraordinary in itself, since I (a) am not fond of red meat, and (b) hardly ever eat hamburgers. In short, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

The burger on my plate wasn’t much to look at. The bun looked like it had been sawed open and wasn’t very soft. The beef patty was tasteless.  They plopped a small piece of bacon on top of a smidgen of melted cheese… said cheese not even as much as one of those vacuumed packed slices you can purchase in grocery stores. The only way I was able to add some flavour to the d*mn thing was by putting some mushroom sauce on top of it (which my Significant Other ordered to go with his steak).

I shouldn’t be surprised. The place is a steakhouse, after all, not a burger joint. Yet given the usual standard of their food, I was hoping for something far more edible. Epic cheeseburger FAIL 😦

I wonder if LOLcats ever feel disappointed when, after asking for and dreaming about cheezburgers, they finally take that first bite and the cheezburger doesn’t live up to the built-up expectations.

Next time, kitties, we’ll go to Spur for their cheddarmelt burgers – then you can haz teh cheezburgers, and plenty of happeez!!

Branding on the place mats

A carafe of rosé, to share

My one and only 🙂

Stuffed mushrooms

The steak my Significant Other ordered

My Louisiana 'burger'...