E - Vida

Living with a Chef creates a different kind of challenge: What can I make to impress him ? For as long as I can remember, P-J's told our family and friends - when they um and aah about cooking for him - "I won't judge at all. It will be such a treat to not have to cook for myself!"...And I believe him wholeheartedly. But what meal could I prepare to truly impress him? Then it came to me: It's not about the dish. This is about a decision to be less intimidated and more instigative ( I just made that version of the word up ) in the kitchen. As a birthday gift one year, my sister gave me a subscription to a local lifestyle magazine. One of my best gifts, ever. Each month I read the mag cover-to-cover and cut out or copied the recipes into a recipe book. FOR FUTURE REFERENCE I told myself. Yet despite having cooked more in the last 3 weeks on leave than in the 3 months prior to that, I am not the Barefoot Contessa  in any way, shape or form! Introducing th...

Without further ado, let's just put it out there and announce that I've taken up cycling. There, I said it. It may come as a suprise to some to learn that a big majority of the staff working at the Cycle Tour office don't ride a bicycle or sadly, don't make time to. Not sure what I was thinking launching this hobby in Winter, but nevertheless. Here, 1 of my cheerleaders tries on my helmet for size! Early April kick-started what seemed like party month! Jorja and Ethan were invited to Phoenix's First Enchanted Garden  party in the park. What a colourful theme with fun games, clever crafts, sparkly treats and yummy eats! Megan (Phoenix's Mom, my Junior school friend) really put the rest of us cake and tea-ers to shame! For what it's worth, Meg, you would nail that Teacher thing...But the pressure's on her to keep this up for another 20 years - ha ha... Then, one evening after supper, Jorja decided that she wanted to learn how to write ...

The trouble with taking a break (from anything) is that it takes a while to get back in to it! And once again, despite my being 'at home', my blogging has fallen by the wayside. See below some April highlights: The Easter holidays brought us a lot more than family time and chocolates...  Cape Town's very own Bat Boys We enjoyed special treats from the UK and Jorja was so grateful, that she even pulled out the  royal wave ... Then all of the Bonny Babies took a trip in Papu's green Kombi to the Simons Town Navy Festival and some of them enjoyed a trip down under into a submarine, where I'm told that Ethan checked out the mechanisms in the control room!  I've enjoyed a few days at home, alone, and Ethan's played his part and gone off to school (a little too) willingly!    ...And remember that other post  about the time I found my kids 'reading' quietly?? Well look-a-here, I did it again! I had a really ...

The water droplets on the window are all that remains to serve as a reminder of the past few stormy days that flooded suburbs, brought down tree branches, created havoc on our roads and chased us into hiding! Driving to school this morning Jorja asked, "So..is it Summer again?" We won't kid ourselves - it's cold and the rain will come back. As they say, "You can't appreciate Summer until you've experienced a Winter." But for today, we'll enjoy the sun. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Turns out my baby ain't so baby-ish any more and when we realised that he'd devised a way to escape the 4-walled kingdom commonly known as his cot, he suddenly graduated to a single bed. How fast did that happen? Meanwhile, my big girl baked a cinnamon and raisin loaf at Yaya-school today but instead of a cool high five to avoid embarrassment, she wanted a cuddle! What a treat... In other news, P-J cooked for Jazzathon super-act, Jill Scott, earlier this month and Ash went for a 20km bicycle ride for fun! Now... Who said grey skies had to dictate your diary? Stories of birthday parties, BatmEn and Cape Town Navy Festival to follow soon. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device