Sleepy doggies, pre-birthday cruffins & messy monster shakes

“Hello, I’m Rambling Litchi and I have a milkshake addiction.”

That’s probably no surprise if you’ve been following my blog over the past 4 years 🙂 And if you follow me on the social medias, you’ll likely have already seen the amazing milkshake my parents treated me to as a pre-birthday surprise earlier today. T’was such a monster that it came topped with its own ice-cream cone and donut fritter balanced on top. It’s definitely up in the top three of my ‘super large’ milkshake experiences – click here for a reminder of the salted caramel-cheesecake dessert version we tried at Craft in Parktown earlier this year, and here to see the chocolatey brownie deliciousness at My Sugar in Sea Point. As it’s my birthday weekend (yes, that’s why I’m on leave) I predict another sweet treat or two will make an appearance in next week’s blog.

But for now, here are the past week’s highlights…

Saturday, 6 February 2016: Sleepy doggies, Village Square brekkie

My littles looked so sleepy when we woke on Saturday morning I had to snap their sweetness.

Awww. So cute we smooshed them together for hugs. They didn’t protest too much.

I was fairly sleepy myself so needed to get coffee down my gullet, stat. One of the closest options was Village Place Cafe in West Coast Village – it’s technically walking distance but we went by car as had to do groceries and the like thereafter. This was a delicious cappuccino with toffee flavouring. And of course a little heart-shaped shortbread nugget in the saucer to make me smile.

For Husband – the salmon eggs ben, and a large Cola. Kept him full for most of the day.

For me, the granola, berry, banana jar – with a bowl to toss it all into and mix properly.

Husband suspended the bike from the garage ceiling to get off the front wheel so we could replace the wheel bearings. Quite the mission!

Sunday, 7 February 2016: Wimpy brekkie, Catch 22 drinks and doggie photo fail

This was my Sunday breakfast – Wimpy mega coffee and toasted cheese on a stick. I think I ended up with more chips than toast on the plate!

Yes yes, another milkshake. Shhh. This was the gingerbread version at Catch22, a treat for spending a good few hours on Husband’s web dev stuff earlier in the day.

For Husband, a Long Island Ice Tea – they no longer make the Robben Island version that came with vanilla Coke/toffee liqueur flavour. Sob.

The doggies were VERY excited to get to their Granny’s house later that evening. Bertie hardly ever climbs onto my lap like this and just look at Miss Bassie tilting her head out the window!

The doggies were sitting so nicely on the couch when we got home, just like little bookends, so Husband tried to snap the three of us. Of course Bertie jumped up right then to look out the doggie door and Bassie decided to sneak away. Sigh…

Midweek work highlights

On Wednesday a colleague and I took a little road trip for a meeting. This is the pretty reception area at Primedia Broadcasting in Sea Point. Loved all the bright colours.

Thursday was a busier day than usual as I knew I’d be off Friday and Monday. It was also the day my trusty box of oats ran empty, so I trotted downstairs to the coffee shop for this chocolatey croissant, stat as we all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Dangerously good at just R12…

Friday, 12 February 2016: Monster milkshakes at Festive Underground Eatery (FUE) in Marine Circle

Finally, the day of my birthday long weekend leave had arrived! Unfortunately Husband had to head off to the office, but I was still most entertained – mainly by my funny doggies who sat on the back of the couch just like cats for a good half hour or so after Husband left. Look at them being all nonchalant as though they’re saying: “Yes mommy, this is what we do all day when you’re at work”.

Soon thereafter the parents arrived with treats for the doggies and an early birthday present for me (a new computer connecty cord so I no longer have to delay the weekly blog update, lol!) We set off for the Festive Underground Eatery that’s only open during the week. Dad was most intrigued by the sound of a ‘cruffin’ (it’s a croissant-muffin, much like the doughsant/cronut I tried at Jason Bakery last Winter.) This one had lemon curd filling and was warm and fresh. We shared it between the three of us.

They warned us. “It’s 1,3 litres”, said our waiter. “It costs R72”, said the chalkboard menu. And still we ordered them. This was Dad’s banana-peanut butter bomb version, topped with caramel popcorn, a fresh sweet fritter and a full icecream cone, filled with ice cream, upended on top. Look at how happy he is 🙂

Mom was smart. She ordered the ‘small’ version – chocolate peppermint Aero flavour.

You can see my cocopine version’s little ice cream cone hat here and piece of passion-fruity pie. Somehow we managed them. All delicious. All highly recommended. I will try their berry blast and coffee flavours at some stage…

Yes yes, ice cream is a core component of milkshake, but this here is literally a full ice cream cone to pull out of the shake and eat before continuing with the milkshake slurping. What will they think of next?!

This is Panda, the very friendly doggy one of FUE’s regulars brought with on his breakfast run.

Mom loved Panda. Panda loved Mom. So much that he came and gazed adoringly at her – or at the milkshake/ice cream.

Love that the mirrors on the wall mean you can see exactly where Dad stood to capture this snap.

I am still full. Probably no more milkshakes for me this weekend… but never say never.

That’s all, folks. Happy Valentine’s weekend ❤