So many things...

I have not made a post in a while.
A long while!

The month of August has been really fun. I had some love interests, lost the love interests, met great people, had a great time. My domestic goddess phase is very much still a phase, chocolate cake, red velvet cupcakes, chocolate chilli fillet, creamy chicken to just name a few of the dishes I have been  creating!
I did Boot Camp, spinning and a lot of exsercise and has become one fit lady. (Not skinny though but we are working on that! See above.. maybe the domestic phase has got to do with that!)

I love my job and the company I work for. On womans day I got a massage. A couple of times a week we get pancakes for breakfast. It is a happy environment and I have made some good friends.

I also had another birthday and a superb visit from my mom. A busy month with lots of ups and downs.
But after this weekend I am ready to take on the world, watch out, I'm coming!

Me, the domestic goddess...

I have been cooking up a storm lately - and loving every moment of it!


Maybe it is the fact that I have not really lived somewhere permanent for the past 6 months, or that I have been playing house-house lately - but some maternal or wifely or cooking instinct has been unleashed in me!
Last week I made: pasta with tomato sauce (not that impressive...), chicken with a coconut milk, chili, garlic and lime grass sauce, fish with polenta, roasted baby tomatoes and tossed veggies, Thai green curry, baked a chocolate cake (which was amazing) and made two pots of soup. All of that before Saturday lunchtime.
The scary thing is that I even cook nice meals for myself! At the same time I'm trying to lose the extra 5 kg that doesn’t want to budge.
I either need someone to come to dinner every night or a culinary disaster soon...
What's for dinner tonight? I’m thinking Phad Thai noodles - I saw a recipe today that I am dying to try!

Ps. Tell your male friends!

I am so proud of me!

I am happy. Really happy.
I have been so blessed and lucky the last couple of weeks that I need to pinch myself to make sure it is real.

Everything has worked out so well!  I have been a real mess a couple of months ago. Seriously. And I was very scared to move to Cape Town and be alone. To live alone.
How wrong I was!
My job is great! I'm learning new things and being challenged.
 I'm loving my new flat! I am playing house-house and enjoying every moment of it.

In the past when I didn't have plans on a weekend I freaked out - now I am enjoying just chilling by myself!
I have met so many great people and have made new friends. I also now have a special family that is part of my life. I feel loved and cared for.
But I am happy with me. And I like the person I am now. It is strange, but people are telling me that I am looking good and that I look happy. The mess that felt sad and alone most of the time has come a long way...
Thank goodness!

Wine, friends and loving life!

I am back in Cape Town!
It has been the most amazing two weeks in my life. Things that I were scared/worried about turned out wonderful!
Place to stay: I am staying with friends of friends of my parents at the moment until I move into my new flat and it turned out to be such a blessing! They feel like my family.... I will definately miss them when I have to leave.
I also found a great flat - it wasn't to difficult & I can't wait to move in. Now I also have to buy new things, sort out my life & get everything sorted!

Work: People are so nice to me! It has been really chilled & I am learning what to do...
Last week I was a bit sick & I got sent home on Wednesday (after almost dying on Monday & Tuesday) by my pregnant boss (she was off on Monday & Tuesday). I was actually feeling much better & joined my new 'mom' and two American tourists on an outing to Boulders to watch the penguins and a lunch at Kalk Bay. Not bad! This week is month-end - so I assume we will work a bit harder...

Friends: It has been great to catch up with old friends & also to make new ones!
I went away on a camp this weekend. The activity for Saturday night was wine-tasting. My kind of camp! I made a lot of new friends & got to know some people I didn't really know better.
I'm trying to ease into the social scene. I am not sure if my body can handle a hectic social schedule after being out of circulation for such a long time.

SO life has been really good & I am settling in nicely (although I am not used to the cold & rain...) & I am still feeling blessed!

Spoit? Lucky? Thankful

The has been many occasions in my life when I thought I was lucky. Sometimes things happened to me and I felt so happy about it, or couldn't believe that these good things happened to me, that I had to tell someone. I was told a lot of times that I boast, but I was just so happy and had to share it. I just could believe that such a thing could happen or such a present could be given to me - I mean - I don't deserve it!

When I get spoilt, I feel blessed, touched and a lot of times incredibly lucky. I do not take it for granted or think that I am better than other people. I do get spoilt a lot and good things happen to me, but for a big part of my life I was so wrapped up in my own issues and insecurities that I didn't see that.

I also like pretty things. I love pretty things!

A while ago I lost my heart on a coat at Trenery. It was about double the price I am prepared to pay for a coat. I can't remember telling my old boss about the coat, but I obviously did. When I sat in his office for the last time, saying my goodbyes, he said: 'Oh, I'm going to deposit money in your account for that coat u wanted but said it was too expensive.' I got tears in my eyes. Because at that point I felt like the luckiest, blessed girl on this planet. That someone I worked for for two months could give me something I wanted so much blew my mind away. I felt like I do not deserve such a big gift!

Well, I bought the coat on my first day back in Cape Town. I felt so proud walking through the Waterfront with the sounds of Vuvuzelas in the background.

I wore my coat today and I felt like the luckiest girl ever, no matter about the fact that I have a lot of things to sort out, need to start my new life and have so many uncertainties, I knew I would be okay. Life is going to be great here. I am going to be blessed and spoilt and happy. And I deserve it.

I am feeling blessed

I didn't know that you can feel sad, excited, scared and happy all at once.
That is what I was feeling this morning. I have arrived in Cape Town, but I still don't have a place to stay (I'm crashing at our townhouse in Stellenbosch, but once I start my job it is not an option).
I start a new job next week and I know that it will be a huge challenge!
How do you go back to old friends after 6months? Things have changed, I have changed, but how much?
I lived in the most amazing place for two months. I got to spend so much time with my awesome parents. I dealt with my issues and I am a new person now.
I had my own room with the most amazing view and amazing sunrises. Our house is pretty, wonderful & home. Our dog is the cutest dog ever. There is a tame Nyala that comes and fetch some fruit. She is so tame that we can touch/hug her!
There are zebras & giraffe & you see them every time you drive to the gate. Sometimes you even have to stop and wait for them to get out of the road. Running in the bush so close to the animals sometimes took my breath away!

I will miss home, my parents, my dog and all the luxury, but I need to do this, no matter how hard it is going to be.

I know that great things are going to happen to me, that I am going to be very happy and that things will work out, but for now I am overwelmed by all the emotions.

An end is also a beginning.

Today is my last day at my old job.
I love the outdoors and the bush, but I'm a real city girl. I love dressing up and wearing high heels. I love sipping my Vida and buying my lunch at Woolies. I love being corporate.

After being unemployed for 4 months I got this job working at a company that does the administration for bananas. The biggest producer of bananas in the country, but still.
Bananas gets grown by farmers. Thus, I moved from being the corporate city girl to working with farmers and their wives on the farms.

No more Vida, but coffee made by the domestic while making the necessary comments about the new baby while helping the farm-wife with her Pastel.
No more high heels, but jeans and flat shoes.

We are only 3 people in the office, so by being the only girl, I was allocated the task of making coffee, shopping and photocopying. In my previous corporate life, I was made coffee and told someone else to do the photocopying.
In my previous corporate life your personal life was kept separate and strictly professional. In my new life the bosses wife and 4 kids arrived every day, bringing us treats and me playing with the 1year-old.

Getting used to this new job, new environment, new town and new life was hard. I felt like I didn't fit at all and I was missing my friends, not to mention the shops, markets and coffee shops that I left behind in Cape Town.

But now, 2 months later and standing on the verge of moving back to Cape Town to a VERY corporate company next to Cavendish with a Vida downstairs, I think I will miss it here.
I will miss wearing anything I want, the freedom, the coffee, the kids, the fact that it was chilled and the fact that I could make a difference. I was very unhappy in the beginning, but now I am sad to leave. Life is strange...

PS. And no, I haven't eaten a single banana since working here....