Full of Hot Air

Yep, that was last night...this morning I am a deflated balloon, tired and I have a sore throat and I am reading my wine induced post shaking my head and wondering whether I made any promises to F and J (2 lovely ladies - sisters - from Northern Netherlands - more about that in a bit) regarding me pitching up for drinks tonight...Rose also invited me to 51 and although I do remember making no promises, she did ASK first.
The comedy night was gas (as they say in Ireland) and I met some new people that M works with too. One of the ladies F commutes back to Holland every 4 days to be with her daughter and partner - UNBELIEVABLE - all that travelling every week, AND it is not like she lives near a major airport, she flies into Amsterdam and then has a 2 hour commute to her town!
Mmmm and I am worried about the impact my 9 - 5 will have on my kids....who are at school from 9 - 4 MINIMUM...and often sport or clubs go on until 5:30, they probably wouldn't know I was working 9 - 5 if I did not tell them.
Off for my eye check up now...have disturbing moments of blurriness every now and then so I hope all is okay. The weather is absolutely foul today, raining, windy dark and dreary, bed and a good book would be a most excellent option...

Lopsided chocolate cakes, mojitos and friends...

Yes I cursed the cake. It tasted great, no problem there, it was aesthetically not as pleasing as I would have liked. You see..I thought I had two 23cm springform cake tins (well in SA I had so many I could not keep track) but when I went to fish them out I discovered a mistake had been made...in DUBLIN I only own ONE. Sadly the cake batter had already been doubled and was lusciously brown and silky waiting for its receptacle for the final phase.
Anyhow...I had to place ALL the batter in the tin, bake and pray...that it did not get burned by the required extended cooking time. The cake came out of the oven lovely and large and I was rather pleased with the result.
Sadly when it came to cutting the cake in half for icing and sandwiching back together purposes things went a litle awry. I did not do a great job cutting in half...more like 1/3 - 2/3 ratio, then I iced it and discovered that the cake had a mind of its own and had decided that sliding and sloping was the game it wanted to play. I did actually contemplate baking another cake but considering 350 grams of good quality chocolate had been used for the icing alone I decided I would ply my guests with mojitos and any other form of alcohol they showed an interest in and then the impact of my lopsided cake would go unnoticed.


Of course the day was a great success, food was plentiful...South Africans have a TERRIBLE habit of bringing at LEAST 2 different kinds of meat to a braai, and generally 2 people bring enough to share...when everyone does this the meat pile grows horrifically...the alcohol supply depletes while the men braai and the women chat and we all go home happy.





Just LOOK at all that meat...a casserole dish AND a lasagne dish both FULL.

Aries

I am not one to generally believe in star signs but whenever I get the free Metro on my way to work I always find myself leafing through the paper until I find the 'MetroSCOPE'. Yesterday I was told I would be swept off my feet...needless to say that did not happen so today when I read it I smiled:
"A fantastic day for your social life, with plenty of new faces and fun vibes around. Just as well it's Friday - looks like it could be a late night. Dress to impress as you never know who you might meet"
As it happens I am going out to the pub tonight, the company that M works for has initiated a drinks night to coincide with the end of month pay day, so lots of new faces, as for you never know who you might meet...well I do...my hubby and then later on we are off to a Thai restaurant to meet all the summer hockey people for our end of season dinner!!! Party on it is going to be a late night!!! I have been trying to load a Friday song on to my blog and You Tube is refusing to cooperate...the song is Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen and Siobhan and I have been listening to it at work all morning.
I am looking forward to a 'me me' afternoon, no kids, staying in Dublin for the afternoon, a spot of people watching at Stephen's Green Park, some lunch and perhaps I will even dabble in a bit of shopping too!!! Down time before the BIG night!!!

Cuppa Koffie?

The other day a bee flew into my bonnet. He told me that it is about high time I did something about my social life. I was rather annoyed, I go to a weight watchers meeting, I joined a hockey club, I figure I have done my bit. Melissa and I are friends, we walk together one evening a week and I am going to her place for dinner tonight. Unfortunately she is also moving to the U.K in June, her ex boyfriend lives there, only her ex because he is now her fiancé, hence the move. Malcolm thinks it is mighty funny that the people I befriend leave the country…

There is something to be said for spending time with other South Africans, when I complain about the price of takkies, or how I miss biltong they know what I am talking about. Of course I would not befriend a person from SA just because we share a birth place but for some reason I can have a good long chat about all sorts of things when confronted with a fellow countryman. I even find common ground with other expats, when we lived in New York we had a family of expats, Zimbabweans, Australians, Irish, British and more. We got together for the “holidays” like Thanksgiving and 4th of July, it was awesome.

Anyway what I am trying to say is that I have organised a coffee morning at my house for a bunch of SA people to get together and have a cup of coffee or tea, (rooibos included) and a slice of milk tart. I even did a wee poem as the invitation. The S.A. shop Jabula very kindly offered to put it in their newsletter and I am happy to say that I have had a favourable response. In fact, an Irish lady who subscribes to the newsletter even emailed me asking if she could come! Of course I said yes, the more the merrier, for now… I certainly do not want 30 women descending upon me come next Thursday!!!!

I do not think there are any SA people in Ireland reading my blog, if so I would like to think they would have said something by now…but here is the invitation just in case!

Sometimes my days can be rather boring
So I decided to host a coffee morning.

Don’t dress up or wear a hat
All we really want to do is chat.

I will also make milk tart
but you must agree to do your part.

Let me know if you can come
So I know how much food is needed to fill your tum.

Ladies only!!!!

Natalie
Thursday 13 March
10h30
For more info email me at therules at eircom.net