Cold wet weekend highlight: Bangers on a stick

Last weekend was not one for the surfers, dog-walkers and sunbathers of the Cape. Instead of soaking up the rays you were more likely to be blown away by a screeching gust of wind. And so it was a weekend of doing indoors-things – especially as I was deep in the middle of an awful head cold. That’s why I don’t have many photos to share, as most of my free time was spent napping and hogging the heat from the fire…

But of course the doggies don’t let one sit by the fire by one’s self for long:

Licking mommy’s face

And when hubby is tasked with making a coffee masterpiece like this one:

Ta daa! Creamy, cinnamonny, and made with love. That’s how to serve coffee to your wonderful wife who is dealing with her horrible head cold in a delightful manner

He gets creative with the whipped cream can so the doggies can have some fun, too.

Some gets sprayed on the floor…

And some made it onto their blurry heads. They enjoyed it, he said

But I digress. You’re here to read about our weekend jaunts, and so, without further ado – on Saturday morning my kind parents treated us to breakfast at Cassia at Nitida, one of my favourites for French Toast (especially if you add the berry coulis to the crispy bacon, such a delicious flavour combo!):

Yay! Best French Toast! See how each ‘toast’ has berry coulis and bacon? Excuse my own glazed expression, was in the ‘watery eyes’ stage

Dad had the ‘healthier’ option of waffle with cream:

Pleasing waffle with sliced strawberry and cream, and a glass of bubbles to see it down the gullet with glee

The egg Florentine breakfast served on toast instead of English muffin. Expression = not impressed at being interrupted mid-chew for a photo. It was delicious, he said

After a few naps the breakfast had worn off and we decided to continue the ‘bangers and mash adventures’ as the weather was drizzly and cold. As my face was drizzly and cold too, we didn’t want to venture too far for long, so we ended up at the Brazen Head in Seaside Village, Big Bay. It was a win! Husband was even conveniently dressed in the appropriate colours of the Stormers AND the Cheetahs, both at the same time, as the Super Rugby teams battled it out on the big screen before our very eyes. See for yourself:

Presenting… the Brazen Head

Can’t visit an Irish pub and not indulge in a Kilkenny

Dousing the bangers (wrapped in bacon) n mash in Tabasco sauce. Note his Stormers’ shade of blue jacket (ignore Scotland flag on front) and Cheetahs’ orange teeshirt. Well dressed considering the Stormers were playing the Cheetahs 🙂

I had the potato skins – a rather large portion for the price (R39) and topped with cheese and sour cream with bacon bits, which is often an added expense. That, coupled with the bangers n mash, a hot chocolate, a Caste Draught, Kilkenny AND a tip came to less than R200, and left our tummies purring. A much better bet than last week’s pricy-yet-tasty visit to the Fireman’s Arms.

Then it was home for more TLC from the doggies. Last but not least, the weekend sunset, for your viewing pleasure:

Peachy sunset

Cheap weekend breakfasts and not-so-cheap beers

One of my favourite things to do over a weekend is sleep in late and have a lazy breakfast. But the fact that it’s a ‘lazy’ one means you usually don’t feel like putting it together yourself. Also, there’s only so much of the standard cheapie breakfast you can handle weekend after weekend when the toast is barely crisped, the tomato hasn’t seen the bottom of a grill and the bacon is limp… (Main contenders rhyme with Sneers, Slur and Limpy, if you must know).

And so, we often find ourselves out and about on a weekend morning, tasked with the hefty mission of finding somewhere reasonably close by (as our tummies are grumbling by then and wanting to be filled) as well as somewhere not too heavy on the purse strings (as our purses don’t hold much). Less than R100 for both of us to eat and drink is the target.

So it was to our delight that we found a place that ticked all the required boxes – 10 minutes from home, Inside at Seaside Village in Big Bay is a bit of a conundrum as it advertises itself as a place serving not just a) Indian food but also b) cocktails, and is known as a c) sports bar – Super Rugby was on when we visited Saturday mid-morning and beers were going down multiple gullets. Nevertheless, Inside pulls off the task well – We ended up paying just R75 in total for both of us to exit with tummies purring…

Playing with my beautiful boy doggie before we left home

Look at all that foooood! Not pictured – the starter bowl of yoghurt and honey, his large Coke, free coffee and free glass of juice. Super Rugby on the telly behind him

I helped him finish the juice. See my lovely large potato wedges? Also had scrambled eggs, toast, a small sausage. Delightful for R18

But it wasn’t a day of ‘saving on food and having lots of shiny coins to fill our purses’, oh no. Because with winter in the air, Husband is on a ‘pub food’ mission – bangers and mash, to be exact. So later in the day we bussed in to town, walked through howling winds and splurged a great deal at the Fireman’s Arms. Don’t scoff – it was a whopping  R37 just for a 500ml draft beer (Amstel, nothing fancy or crafty), R48 on a dom pedro, and R75 for a rather pretty plate of mash and saucy onions, which sounds good – yet came with just two bangers, not the expected three. Sad face.

Here it is – popular waterhole for sports fans, it seems – packed with Arsenalian folk on Saturday afternoon

The pricey plate. Three dollops of ‘something’ sauce in top left

I enjoyed The Cape focaccia – it had Mrs Balls chutney, peppadews and biltong shavings on top

The R48 dom pedro (with Kahlua swirled in the bottom and artfully slivered strawberry wedged on top)

Some clever folk climb the fireman’s pole to scribble their names. We nearly did when we got the bill

Lovely flapjack stack with berries and syrup for R30 at Joe’s Easy Diner in Canal Walk the next day – with a free toffee shake, thanks to my voucher

I didn’t get my typical photo of the weekend sunset this time around, so here’s the sunset-coloured wine we had at mum’s house with Sunday lupper

The ‘bangers and mash’ and weekend breakfast missions are set to continue, so watch this space…

Mother’s Day owlies and Winter 2014 is here

Mother’s Day is usually the day you treat your mommy dearest (after all, she gave birth to you!) And treat mine we did. But things aren’t always done the way they should be in our family. For example, this past Mother’s Day, my own mumsy gave ME a present. She knows I love owlies and saw the sweetest owl-shaped salt and pepper shaker set while out and about with my aunt, and now they’re mine! See how cute:

Owlie salt and pepper shakers!

It’s an apposite gift as I love owlies (I even wore a dress dotted with owlies that day) and hubby loves seasoning his food, so there you have it. Might even ‘colour them in’ to highlight their pretty patterns at some point.

But enough about the preciousss owlies – my dear sweet puppetty dogs also gifted me with a pair of snug slippers they paid for in grubby puppy coins (or so they say)…

A blurred Bertie stretching to say ‘hello Mommy’ (slippers just made it in the shot too, yay)

And my own gifts to mum? Well, seeing as we usually eat lupper at her house on a Sunday, which means she spends hours cooking for us, we wanted to treat her to a meal. And as the only way to secure a restaurant booking for Mother’s Day is by paying years in advance with rare Pegasus wing feathers and essence of unicorn horn glitter, we opted to rather get a bunch of yummy munchies to eat at our house. At brunch time, as it’s the opposite of lupper. Kind of…

Brunch is served! We’re all happy (good) but you can’t really see the food (bad) – mini sub things, chelsea bun and coconut donut bits, fruit salad, yoghurt, cinnamon custard. Plus juice and a pot of caramel toffee coffee

Bassie baby – you can see a bit of my owlie dress under her

Bassie and granny xxx

Then later, we wandered around Canal Walk and when we stopped for a froyo treat I got to choose between a free Vanilla Cupcake and Cinnamon Bun flavoured lip balm. I dithered for minutes! Love vanilla but anything cinnamon-scented usually tops it. It’s lovely and tingly, warms my lips.

Flavoured froyo! Plus free lip balm!

And then we stopped at our favourite local sushi place Orient on the way home…

The balloons on the ceiling bit at Orient have deflated somewhat since their grand opening over Easter

A beer to wash down sushi. Lots and lots of sushi

Weekend sunset – took the photo a little later than I should have. Still pretty.

And lastly, if you’re wondering how the weather’s been, this pic should tell you. Feel it, Winter’s here:

Note how Bertie is sitting on me, to warm his bum by the fire

That’s all, folks!

Super-sized salads and cartoon dogs

There’s nothing like the jolt of realising it’s almost weekend again to remind you that you’ve still not blogged about LAST weekend. And so, while this has been one heck of a week (there’s no such a thing as a public holiday for those who work online, I’m afraid), and I’m as tired as a tortoise, worn-out as a wombat and achy as an anaconda (I know, I know – awful descriptions. It’s what I do)… there’s also something reinvigorating about reliving the past few days in photos. Plus, seeing as I take all these photos on Husband’s phone and he’d like to delete them so he has space for more important things, it really was time to get cracking.

And so, here we go – first I have some photos from the Worker’s Day public holiday last Thursday – we had a lovely lazy day, and went to the Poole pool hall for an afternoon drink…

Interesting photo of a butterfly outside Poole

Going down the gullet…

Some of my Saturday highlights – replenishing my stack of ‘books to read’ from the sale table outside the Table View library, taking photos of the doggies in Husband’s phone’s ‘cartoon’ mode, replenishing the wood pile as it’s definitely turning chilly and watching the sunset from a table with a view at Spur (yes, we’re Spur people. People with a taste for life. Husband especially likes to order the ridiculously large salad there and drench it in pink sauce. That’s why we celebrated my half-birthday there a few years ago. Though I was very cross when I realised on the way home on Saturday that we didn’t using our Spur Family Card for points or vouchers or however it works.)

Look at the wonderful stack of cheapies! 4 for R32

Doggies were cold in blankets. Time to haul out their winter jerseys/pajamas, methinks

Bertie, pleased with the wood pile

Bassie cartoonified

Bertie cartoonified

That would be me in front of the ‘Table Mountain window; at our Seaside Village Spur, wearing the scarf Mum knitted me on a whim

The weekly sunset shot – from Spur

Look at the size of that salad! Just look at it! It’s the chicken bacon avo effort

Then, on Sunday I forgot to take photos. Sob! So you’ll have to believe me that it was the first of the Cape Town rainy days for this winter. But fret not. We were not all doom and gloom. Oh no. It was still an excellent day as we decided to go to the movie theatres to watch an actual film! Still on circuit! With the gigantic-est tub of popcorn drenched in choking amounts of ALL the flavoured salt and secretly snuck in sodas! (Sssh, don’t tell). And with the weather as it was, we opted to watch Noah – yes, the stormy Bible one with the Harry Potter girl and the boy she was in Burberry ads with, which Husband scored with a surprising 6/10 (most movies don’t see more than 2 or 3 out of 10 from him. So that’s really good, trust me)… Plus we saw it at GrandWest Casino, which is always fun. Mainly because of the photo booths where we take fantastic shots like this.

My best part of the day? Running through the pelting rain together, across various open-air car parks.

That’s all, folks!