Pork belly-bacon benedict at Steenberg’s Bistro Sixteen82 and posing with Just Nuisance

Wowee. Second work week of the year done and dusted, and it feels like two months rather than two weeks since we were on leave. It’s a combination of intense heat, slow internet and sheer hard work. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have any highlights to share – view our latest batch below…

Saturday, 16 January 2016: Panama Jacks lunch, swimming in the icy Atlantic

We do love lunching at Panama Jacks in the harbour. Always a treat to be served rolls before the food arrives…

We each went with the fettuccini mains. Mine is the verde (green, R40) – asparagus, parmesan cheese, thin slivers of baby marrow. Husband had the marinara, (R50) with a mussel chowder starter (R25). He finished his, I had to bring mine home for dins!

You’re not to admire my shiny forehead in this photo but just how well I twirled the fettuccini on my fork. Teehee.

On the lazy ride home we had to stop at the beach. T’was like a postcard!

And of course, Husband wasn’t content just to look at it. Here he is, frollicking in the waves.

Much, much later, once the temperature had dropped a little, we took the doggies for a walk around the suburb. Bertie loves chasing things in the shrubs.

Sunday, 17 January 2016: Brunch at Steenberg’s Bistro Sixteen82

On Sunday we woke late and couldn’t decide on a suitable spot to break our 12-hour fast. We eventually ended up at Steenberg Wine Estate and decided to treat ourselves to brunch at Bistro Sixteen82, known for its pork belly-bacon.

This colourful chandelier is quite something to see in person.

Of course I started with a flat white. T’was delicious. Look at the gorgeous scenery behind me – all that green was very soothing on the eyes.

What a lovely surprise. While waiting for our pork belly-bacon eggs benedicts, we were served hot, fresh honey brioche.

Of course Husband had an oyster starter. For breakfast…

And then, the eggs benedict arrived. Oh. My. Goodness, was it delicious. The pork belly-bacon is amazing, the little tomatoes were steamy and the Hollandaise was just right. Plus they’re served on potato rosti instead of stodgy English muffins. At R72, that’s not bad at all!

As we were already pretty far from home we decided to revisit Simon’s Town. These are some of the dinky little boats right at the harbour’s edge.

Can’t visit Simon’s Town and miss taking a photo with the statue of Just Nuisance. Though he seems to have been moved somewhat since the last time we were there…

Husband is one of the little ‘people dots’ floating in the sea. I sat on the beach with my book and a sugar cone instead.

Bassie insisted on sitting on her Granny’s lap when we visited for lupper. Both grinned.

As it was so hot, we had Do-It-Yourself burgers for dins. Husband placed his onion slices in pleasingly concentric circles on his patty.

Wednesday, 20 January 2016: Midweek sunset

I caught the very end of the sunset – much more spectacular in real life!

That’s all, folks. Sounds like we’re in for a spot of rain this weekend, will bring welcome relief from the incessant heat!

Wading through rockpools, new water features and non-braai day 2015

It’s not quite officially Spring in Cape Town until I’ve had one last mystery bug/illness/bodily manifestation of stress to sap all the fun out of things. That’s exactly what happened last weekend – no mention of the Springboks’ #RWC2015 defeat, but it certainly didn’t help. It started with a hacking cough, moved on to body aches and shivers and even included a bit of a migraine for most of Heritage Day, so we’ve postponed our planned braai to this coming weekend.

Luckily I’m finally on the mend, and it wasn’t ALL bad, as you’ll see below…

Saturday, 19 September 2015: Coffee wisdom and sitting at the sea

Great advice, Mugg&Bean 🙂

I felt positively queenly – and a little bit silly – posing in this far-too-tall chair slapbang in the middle of Bayside Mall after brekkie

Bertie Andrews loves his bear. For some reason he’s pulled out most of the stuffing. My theory is that the animals he sees on TV are 2D, so he tries to make his toys look the same?

The weather was glorious so we did some playing ourselves. That’s Husband stomping around in rockpools

I got so wet stomping across at low time that I had to sit and thaw out on the rocks.

Still not cool enough, we went further up the beach for ice cream cones. Husband had a cherry swirl, I had butter pecan. Mmm!

Later that evening while I completed last week’s assignments, Husband installed our new water feature. Bertie was pleased

Sunday, 20 September 2015: Breakfast at Greens, doggie walks

We got up a bit later than usual on Sunday and drove around a bit to find something different for breakfast – and something different we found! This latte at Greens in Plattekloof Village Shopping Centre was nice and strong

Husband tried the eggs benedict with spinach and mushrooms, thoroughly enjoyed it

You can see I’m looking a little ill and windswept here, but look at my lovely French toast with berries and bacon! We have to return to try other things on the menu…

Later that afternoon, we took Bertie’s new blue harness along to his Granny’s house so he could try it out after lupper.

And go for walkies we did! Mum and me took Bassie and Bertie down the road to a secluded park and let them do a few laps, all enjoyed the outing

Tuesday, 22 September 2015: Two pretty highlights

By Tuesday my cough was getting noticable – luckily my lovely colleague had stayed up all night baking cupcakes to celebrate her birthday. Tasted just as good as it looks.

The shot’s a little hazy as I took it out the bedroom window that night, but a pink-streaked sky always makes me smile

Thursday, 24 September 2015: Non-braai day

We stopped in at News Cafe for breakfast – Husband ordered for me as I’d lost my voice. I had the early bird muesli jar for R25, Husband had the new Hangover eggs/fresh juice option – he tried the orange-mango-chilli option.

Our only other joint excursion for the day involved visiting a market and popping our eyes out at the size of these strawberries. We didn’t buy any. I called it non-braai day but Husband did still rustle up the most delicious ginger-chili ribs for us that night.

Sadly that’s all, folks – here’s hoping the next weekend is a little healthier and happier all round 🙂 At least Bertie had an exciting time, so we lived up to the Mugg&Bean ‘fortune’…

Spring Day picnics, sunny beach walks and seminars at the Mount Nelson

Husband picked up a horrible cough last week. Add that to my studies and it’s fairly obvious that we had a quiet weekend – but that doesn’t mean it was boring…

Friday, 4 September 2015: Work Spring Day picnic

Note my floral pumps? Worn in honour of our Spring Day picnic at work last Friday, complete with sparkling wine, pizza and sour worms.

Ice cream in sugar cones and pretty paper serviettes sealed the scene.

Saturday, 4 September 2015: Ribs at the Flaming Fox and Dolphin Beach visit

Apologies for the poor lighting, you can’t really see just how large my bowl of ‘cheesy bacon’ fries is. So big that Husband and I just finished this and 200g of ribs between us. Delicious.

The ribs were long gone before they could be photographed alas, but here is Husband with some of the Flaming Fox decor.

After that, a trip to the beach to dip our toes and soak up some sun was in order. That’s Husband walking far along the horizon at the water’s edge.

With that icing-sugar sand I was happy to just sit in front of the Dolphin Beach Hotel for a while and set my brain to screensaver mode.

The mountain looked magical.

Sunday, 6 September 2015: Primi breakfast, Melkbos milkshakes

With the gorgeous weather continuing, we wanted breakfast with a view on Sunday, and that’s what we got at Primi Blouberg. This is my enormous cappuccino mug…

Husband clearly enjoyed his breakfast tacos.

For me? French toast, of course. I chose the sweet option and added a side of bacon and berries.

Looking for another isolated beach walk spot, we ventured out to Melkbos side. These seagulls were our only companions, for a while…

We’d walked up a thirst so stopped in at ‘I ❤ Melkies’. Here is Husband with his doctored vanilla shake

I had the coffee version. Very yummy.

Wednesday, 9 September 2015: A conference in the Mount Nelson Ballroom

There’s a statue of Ghandi on the Mount Nelson’s grounds – I was there to cover the Media24 Magazine Summit, held in the Nellie’s Ballroom. T’was a lovely day.

Dessert featured tiny mugs of creamy creme brulee – yes, that’s balancing on my knee.

For afternoon tea we had delicious chocolatey-pink macarons and cappuccino-speckled ones.

Do you think he’s the black sheep of the family, heading the wrong way? Such a cute installation I spotted on my way back home that evening.

Friday, 11 September: Study break snack at Col’Cacchio, Big Bay

Mom and dad fetched me at noon on Friday (I had taken the day off to catch-up  on my studies, there’s just so much reading material and so many smaller online group discussions to participate in and Wikis to add to). This was my salted caramel milkshake treat.

See? It was long, tall and delicious.

For lunch I opted for the half-price half-half pizza. (So many halves! Plus I brought half home with me.) One of few food items that photographs well.

That’s all, folks! We’re now two weeks down with my studies and Spring is well on its way, so here’s to another relaxing, enjoyable weekend ahead.

Doggie digging, Dad’s 65th birthday brekkie & hugging light houses

August is truly a month of celebrations in our household, what with my dad, mom, and mom-in-law all having a birthday, me having a half-birthday – more on that in next update – and it being our wedding anniversary month. First up was dad’s birthday, luckily over the public holiday long weekend so we had a relaxing time, as you’ll see below…

Friday, 7 August 2015: Bertie doesn’t realise there’s evidence he’s been digging

Just as I was starting my last blog post, Husband called me to come see if I could tell which doggy had been digging in the garden. Despite his most innocent expression and spotless white paws, Bertie didn’t realise his dirty little face just gave him away…

Saturday, 8 August 2015: News Cafe breakfast

Husband peppering his News Cafe egg breakfast, as he does.

My cappuccino may have been too strong (yes, really) but I was most pleased with my early bird (R25) muesli jar – order after 10am and the price doubles.

Mum made us a whole extra carrot cake in preparation of Dad’s birthday on Monday! By which time it had all but disappeared…

Sunday, 9 August 2015: Fish Hoek roadtrip

The Mugg & Bean breakfast sammich. I ate it all.

Husband tried the avo-mushroom eggs benny.

Tummies lined for the long trip, we headed towards Kalk Bay. Loved the little blue-and-red boats in the harbour.

It was our very first visit to Kalkies, ever – Husband got this huge platter of hake and chips, all for R48.

The biggest, scariest, plumpest seal ever. He was happily munching on fish as folk warily trotted past.

I had to hold on to the lighthouse at the end of the pier as the wind was strong enough to blow me away!

We drove on to Fish Hoek and had ice creams on the beach… crazy nutters were paddling in the water. Far too cold for that to be enjoyable.

Husband shared some of his ice cream cone with a sea gull.

Later that afternoon we stopped at Inside in Big Bay Husband had a Long Island Ice Tea, I had a sticky caramel frappe.

This was the whole reason for the day trip – my very kind former manager had made me the chair my heart was pitter-pattering over, so we went to collect it. Little Miss Bassie gave the new Adirondack share a try – she didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Monday, 10 August 2015: Dad’s birthday at Nitida’s Cassia

Birthday breakfast drinks! MCC and cappuccinos for dad’s birthday.

The birthday boy! He doesn’t look his age at all (he’s 65!)

See the family resemblance? Pa se kind.

Proof that we were all there.

After a lazy day – best way to spend a Monday – we headed to Doodles for their Winter specials. Husband had a sunset draught.

I had a latte as the weather was on the chilly side.

Husband opted for his favourite bangers and mash – R45 for all this.

Wednesday, 12 August 2015: Mum’s pre-birthday dins

So sweet! Bassie showed us just how much she loves her Granny. This was the night before Mom’s birthday, as I was jetting off to Durban the next day to cover the Loeries.

That’s all for this post, folks. Next up: All about the Loeries 2015… watch this space! 🙂

Sunsets and ice creams to get back into ‘work mode’

Ah, leave. It’s a lovely thing. Even if you don’t go on any big adventures, just being kind to yourself by sleeping in and having lots of naps usually does the world of good.

And so, that’s how I spent most of this past week – eating well, reading, finally finishing the admin filing tasks I meant to start a few years ago (yay, me!), and napping. Of course Husband’s been with me the past few days due to the Freedom Day long weekend, so it wasn’t ALL spent in and around the house. In fact, we had a lovely weekend relaxing, but also out and about…

Lindt and Flake shake at lunch with mum and dad on Friday – accompanied by BEST chicken xai xai at Petisco’s

Saturday, 26 April: Half-price cocktails at Jamaica Me Crazy, bussing around, tea and jalapeno poppers and sunset at Woodbridge Island

Love this, contemplating cocktails at Jamaica Me Crazy

My favourite! The Volcano (blended strawberry daquiri and pina colada)

Eyes closed yes, but enjoying the sunshine while waiting for the bus in Woodstock. And note I’m wearing an earring in each ear?

Here, one earring is down. Possibly pocketed while we were packed like sardines on the bus. Oh well, drowned my sorrows in a pot of tea while Husband munched on bacon-and-feta-filled jalapeno poppers

Nothing lovelier than watching the sunset at sea. This was the view at Woodbridge Island

Sunday, 27 April: Breakfast at On The Rocks, beautiful sunset at mom’s house

Breakfast essentials – sunnies and tabasco sauce – though the red bottle is preferable to the green

Lol! Mom snapped taking a photo of me and my cuz who is in town for a good few weeks

We’re weirdly ghost-like while everyone outside in the background is brighter than life

A lovely group shot of the family – obviously not the lady sitting at the table behind us or the waiter. This is where our friends Gords and Nats dined after getting engaged last Christmas, and where we celebrated dad’s 63rd birthday last August

As always, so much more dazzling in real life

Monday, 28 April: doggie walk at Kreeftebaai and ice creams on Blouberg beach

Bertie (in the car with his dad) SO excited for his walk along the beach at Kreeftebaai

A caramel-dipped cone with the best background

Mine was butterscotch-swirled. Mmm!

That’s all for now, folks. If all else fails, at least we have a short work week ahead 🙂