And now

I am sick with a cold. W00t!

I'm feeling all stuffy-headed right now... and not being up for much means I can finally do some housekeeping on my laptop. I've just cleared out an emailbox and still have some more to do. It's all old stuff I've just left lying about and I think it's time to clear it out. Just like having the study upstairs tidier than before, this feels uplifting too.

Friday night, we went to Synd and had soup and chilled and chatted. Sat morning bright and early G and I headed off to FH for me to have my hair highlighted. Didn't take too long (2hrs total), and then we popped to Mom. She impulsively bought a budgie on Friday, and he's very cute but at such a young age we can't tell yet what he's like. Or in fact whether it IS a he. The whole story of how mom bought him and then went shopping (leaving him in the box in the car!)... just brings it starkly to my mind that mom's thinking is not really clear and logical, and well... will it ever be? Her response to my exclamation and saying it was not right to keep him in the car while shopping (she could have dropped him off at home and THEN gone shopping!) was to say (basically) that after that experience he must be enjoying being in the cage! *sigh* I don't know... if she can't see what's wrong with that, then I dunno.

Anyway, he seems a cute enough budgie... and we hung about and had a bit of lunch and then came back to our place. Yesterday night S & L and I were going to a restaurant/wine bar for a bit of fun, but at 13:40, when we got home from mom's place, I was already feeling that all too familiar feeling in the back of my throat/in my nose that means I am getting a cold (or something like it). As the afternoon progressed I felt worse and worse, and headed to bed for a nap. Woke up at about 4pm and felt so rotten I had to sms S and tell her that I just wouldn't be able to make it. I'm very disappointed. Murphy is a real tool... grr. *sigh*!!

This week HBBM is away again (TueWed+Thur). I'm very glad about that but it doesn't mean I won't be busy. He's probably going to leave a TON of work for me, and if he doesn't, the other guy who I do filing for will more than likely have a lot of filing for me to do.

I still can't believe I passed my drivers. I keep having 'flashbacks' or things prompting my memory, and then the re-realisation that it's over and I don't have to worry about that "pre-trip inspection test" again! It's done! Finit! Yay!!

Things are coming together for the wedding. At the moment we are organising the invites and stuff. I'm still waiting for the coffeeshop/bakery to send through their quote. I'm disappointed but she did reply to my query saying that she'd send it, they were just hectically busy this week. I shall wait and see. We're going to email the venue about catering shortly, that really will be a huge load off our shoulders.

I'm so excited though, seeing how things will fit together. I can't wait to see everything finally ready! The colours and everything will look WOW!

Dude is so cute. He really is a special little thing ♥

And that is all I feel like blogging about for now. I'm not exceptionally inspired right now, what with having a head full of cotton wool...

Sushi 'n stuff!

I'm really sleepy right now so I'll blog a proper blog some other time, but I just wanted to post a pic of the fashion sandwiches we had tonight. The avo we bought a few days ago hoping for it to get softer didn't in fact get softer. So our sandwiches were sans avo. But they were tight enough for me to cut up AND eat with chopsticks!



And my progress with Golden Ice.

California Rolls version 2

2nd attempt: FAR better than the first attempt:

Google erm, maps

Sushi making part 2

We tried our hands at making maki (california rolls). Came out alright - needs a bit of work but I'd say a good result for a first try!

Stuffs

The pic above is from a photocopied page, from an artbook. Something else on the page must have been photocopied for some shit art project in high school and thankfully I kept this pic. It is so lovely, and now I'm on a mission. I want to find out who the artist is and/or what the artwork is called... I would love to get a print of it, or have it charted for cross-stitch. If anyone happens upon my blog and knows (unlikely chance!) or if you know of anyone who may know or can recommend a website to submit it to/web-group I can ask PLEASE let me know.

Ok what's news this past while. I'm still in disbelief that I've passed my drivers' test. I keep thinking of things, like technique approaching an intersection, and realising "hey!!! It's over!". I'm so glad.

We made sushi again - the 2nd night - we used up the 2nd half of the salmon we got. It was just as delicious and neater than the first attempts:



It's definitely a "keeper" recipe!

I've been in blitz-mode lately. I've basically kicked my boss's ass and cleared up his office. Now that's no little task: he has 3 bookshelves FULL, he has his desk, a table (4 seater) and a 2 couch+coffee table. And the floor. Originally basically ALL of them were covered with piles of paper (except for the bookshelves - the 2 were "recent additions" to his furniture. He now has a virtually clear carpet (apart from a few apple-boxes worth of old/personal/non-work related stuff (his own stuff, I'm not going in there) and his work satchels. His couch+table set is clear, and on his 4-seater table, there are piles of paper which are for ONLY 2 projects. Not 580, but 2. It is quite an achievement I think. And "his" area of my desk (basically a landing area for all his incoming paperwork) is whittled down from about 40 separate overlapping piles to 6. I feel so relieved. The 2 projects on his table in his office... well let me just say that there is a LOT of paper for him to go through.

And then at home, too, I've been blitzing. I've finally tackled boxes which contained my "stuff". Slowly but surely I went through them and unpacked stuff that could be unpacked, and went through some stuff. Threw away quite a lot of stuff. I got rid of a lot of school diaries (who needs to know what they needed to remember to take to school for home economics on 23 April 1995?)... etc. I have SUCH bad hayfever from it, and I am only now realising/remembering that that's how I woke up every morning when I was still living at home: all that paper and junk was in my bedroom. DIE PAPERJUNKRUBBISHCLUTTER, DIE!!

It's also very soul-lightening. Getting around to tackling these seemingly huge obstacles. It seems like a 2' x 2' x 2' box, but inside it is maybe 2 shopping bags of papers. So much easier to tackle like that! It's all for a good cause - not just for weight shedding, but also it's good to slowly prepare for the big move like this. That way, when we do eventually have to get down to it and start packing/throwing away, there's less stuff to wade through and decide about. SO DAMN EXCITING!

On the emigration note, apparently (according to Migration Expert), Aus has increased the visas available to people going to Aus. Which is great - will mean we have more of a certain chance of moving there. We're probably going to get started with the application mid-next year. According to a book we got on migrating to Aus, you get about 9 or 10 months to migrate after the visa has been granted. So if we apply in say July, if it's granted during 2009, we will be able to migrate ASAP after G's commitment is fulfilled. Very exciting stuff! I am however keeping it all out of my mind (as best I can!), while we concentrate on wedding + honeymoon plans.

This blogpost is turning into quite a long one, but my blog is essentially my ramblings so... :P

Ok so yes... emigration is looking more and more like a YES FOR CERTAIN, and I'm so excited about it. BUT... I must focus... wedding... honeymoon. We're going to go to Sydney+Brisbane, via Singapore. I really cannot wait. Essentially it's going to be a honeymoon + scouting out the place, all in one. It's going to be so awesome seeing both cities, knowing that we'll be living near or in one of them not long after the honeymoon (about 1.5 years). It's going to be fun experiencing the different climates. Brisbane sounds nice, less hectic than Sydney but the humidity might be murderous. Sydney sounds great, with lots to see and do and a lot of buzz, but it is a very expensive place too. We'll have to see. Hopefully Brisbane isn't too humid and we can live there!

I'm so excited to see Singapore too... I really saw nothing of it (apart from meeting May and having a light supper with her and her Mom). I really can't wait to venture out of the airport (with my new Hubbie!!!! ♥) and explore. According to Uncamo, Singapore has DELICIOUS sushi - YAY!

Today we went to S's work and discussed travel plans (she's a travel agent). We've got tickets now, G just has to make payment and then they can be ticked off on our list. We need to get travel insurance - probably with G's bank... also visas (I'm going to phone the visa company I used for my India + Aus trip to find out how much it costs through them). I can't wait to get the Singapore+Aus dollars - something about that makes everything super-exciting and REAL. I still have Singapore$50 from my Aus trip - will probably keep that for special though - for when we move to Aus?

EEEEEEK now everything's getting too exciting. With regards to wedding preparations, we're pretty much in step with what should be done this far in advance. I've got a time-line checklist and we're good. We're going to look at cake makers in a moment, and then all that's CRITICAL to arrange is catering. That's a biggie, and then we're just about in the homestretch! Too exciting, as I said.

Anyway, let me post this and get on with cake-maker-choosing with G. Then I want to STITCH cos I haven't stitched since BEFORE the drivers' test... and that was A LONG TIME AGO ALREADY!!! GI Joe is wailing at me "stitch MEEEEEEEEEE" hehe.

Kthxbye!

Culinary adventures!

These are pics I've taken of recent exploits into the world of cooking:

Chicken Ratatouille:



Chocolate cake:



And SUSHI!!! Fashion sandwich:



The ratatouille was a surprise supper for G's birthday - I recruited him for manning the frying pan (browning the chicken and stirring everything as it cooked). Then after supper, he made a chocolate cake, as well as the icing. I spread the jam & cream between the slices and added the cherries and vermicilli.

And the sushi? Well, I'm a relative newcomer to the delight called sushi, and have pretty much become addicted to what is called locally "california rolls" and "fashion sandwiches" (with salmon). I've been craving it INSANELY for the past while but it being far away from payday, we can't really afford to go out for supper now (we're fine, just paying for wedding stuffs!). So I read up online and found some sushi recipes. This evening we stopped off at the local grocery shop and bought ingredients! The only thing we got which differed from the recipes was smoked salmon instead of raw salmon. First of all, we don't really want to risk getting sick from bad fish, and also you can't really buy small quantities of frozen fish. Now we have some salmon + avo left over for MORE sushi, tomorrow night! Can't wait! Think we may try our hands at making california rolls - will post a pic of those too! I'd say this was a pretty good result from a first try EVER!

AMPED

That ^ is currently one of my FAVOURITE emoticons!

Why on earth am I so amped... well lots of reasons. This has been a fairly busy weekend, Friday night we went to M&J's place and had vetkoek, mincemixture and cheese for supper. Sat morning we actually slept late, and then jumped up and took Dudelbum to the vet for a checkup. He was so well behaved and unperturbed. The vet evidently had quite a good understanding of birds (when I phoned beforehand the receptionist told me that he's the one they send all the birds to!)... Dude was so brave, even though he had a stethoscope held against his chest - it was bigger than his head and he did struggle but he didn't go frenzied. Sweet Bumble!

When we left the vets', there was a hatchback car parked next to G's car, with a HUGE dog in it (might have been pyrennese mountain dog?). The window about 10" open and the dog was barking out the window and foaming so much the whole door was splattered with drool. I was worried G's door would be flecked with drool as I opened it to buckle Dude's cage into the back seat but it wasn't thankfully. Wow but that dog was HUGE! That's obviously the dog's car!

Then we drove to G's folks' place - took Dude with us to their place else we'd have been late cos we were going out for lunch to celebrate G's bday. Had DELICIOUS lunch in perfect weather outside on a deck at the harbour.

Their huge Rottie passed away the night of G's bday, sadly. When we went there on Saturday their boxer seemed sad still but at least she and G's sister's Jack Russell had become friends so she had company at least to take her mind off it.

RIP Tristan

Sunday we went out to Sis's G for a birthday lunch! I drove to his house - quite a fun drive. I just need to get the hang of such a completely different car to the instructor's car! Lunch was very yum and it was a very enjoyable afternoon/evening :D

Tonight we are going to do a lot. On our way home we're going to the shops to pick up bread+icecream (G has a plan), and a scale. We are going to get back into our exercise routine and get FIT! I want to be slim and toned for the wedding (and for after that too!), and it's going to be so fun to do the exercises and increase our energy levels. Generally, exercise is a good thing!

We've worked out an exercise timetable (basically every 2nd night), which gives us a set routine to get used to and it also gets our minds into gear to do things effectively. We will be less likely to waste 5hours sitting in front of the computer - because our time will be a little more structured, we will fit more in. On the off-nights, we will be able to do other things, like make wedding arrangements, relax and pamper each other, or just do the things we do as hobbies for a longer time than on the exercise days. Tonight will be a bit hectic because it's Kickstart day! Gotta do chores too as we didn't really get to on the weekend and they can't wait until the coming weekend. So tonight we won't really be able to blob around much.

Ok that's all for now - hometime!!!!!!

I am now...

...A LEGAL ROAD HAZARD!!!!

I passed my drivers' test!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so relieved, I can't believe it's over already! I'm SO happy - and now I can focus on the wedding plans, without stress of juggling between lessons and planning!

YAYYYYYYYYYY :D

To blog or not to blog

Luckily I don't have to make a decision like that - I can just blog!

So much has been going on lately! It's really been a hectic 4 weeks. It isn't finished yet, I think only by this weekend will it be "finished".

Tomorrow morning is my driving test. I have no clue whether I'll pass or not, I'm not speculating and getting my hopes up, but I am really wishing and holding thumbs that I pass because I really want it done and finished so I can start focusing on other things now (and not spending so much money!!). I'm pretty much worse than broke at the moment (owe G some $)... so I really want this done now.

About 2 weeks ago I had 3 moles cut out of my neck. It WASN'T pleasant at all, but I'd decided I wanted them out (after having 2 others out and NOT MISSING THEM AT ALL!!! - and relishing the fact that I don't have them anymore), so despite being a total WUSS and terrified, I went and had them done. I'd taken off that Friday (to have the surgery), the Monday, Thurs and Fri were public holidays, and I'd taken the Tues+Wed off so I basically had quite a few days to recover. It wasn't so much that it hurt a lot, just that had I come to work those 2 days, I'd have had to be receptionist, which entails taking phone messages for everyone who is on leave, cradling the phone in my neck and I DOUBT that that would have been very good for stitches/fresh wounds. So anyway, I had a nice long time to recover and relax. One BIG hurdle overcome!

At the moment Dude is at the 'grandparents', we had arranged for pest control to come in one last time just to ensure that NOTHING could have survived. They had to cancel so I've been missing Dude since Thursday night. Pest control is coming this evening, so we'll fetch Dude afterwards.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and we spent the day visiting the mothers. We spent the morning at G's parents' place, had delicious cake+biscuits and stuff. The gifts we'd given her were PERFECT! I have a feeling we should go back and buy 2 more similar things for next time!! Then we went to my mom's place, and had KFC for supper! A nice treat and a nice time spent at the Moms.

I'm so bored at work today - my boss is away, I've got drawings to sort out and some other stuff to do but I really don't feel like it. I wish I could go home and study the driving stuff (memorise the pre-trip inspection test etc), AND go wash up (we have a small pile to do before pestcontrol comes by... it was late, we were tired.. washing up blallllaaahhh)... would like to go tidy the place a bit and ALSO go STITCH! I haven't stitched for such a long time now and I really want to make some headway with GI Joe (nickname for Golden Ice). I'd also like to play a bit of Need for Speed or Patapon or Locoroco... haven't played games or done much FUN stuff for such a long time because we've been so hectically busy! I think this weekend will be declared Relaxation Weekend. I think we should stay home, stay warm and do our own, fun things the entire time.

*sigh* there are so many things we still have to organise for the wedding. First priority on the to-do list is caterers. I think we might go with the venue's caterers, but we'll have to discuss menus and things. Next will be cake. We have a clear idea of what we want, we just need to find someone to make it. I want to get my hair dyed this weekend coming up - a pre-view of the colour I want for the wedding. I think it'd be a better idea to get the dyeing done a week before the wedding, and have the hairstyling done on the day. I've found a hairstyle.

Ok... as far as wedding preparations are concerned... what is already decided/booked is:

photographer, minister, musicians, venue, decor+flowers, dressmaker, dress designs for wedding dress + bridesmaids' dresses, materials for dresses have been bought, my jewellery is sorted, we have a design for a cake, G's mom is doing the invites, menus+table layout cards, we're going to be doing the favours ourselves.

What we still have to arrange/organise/etc:

caterers, cake-maker, need to get shoes, make-up + hairstylist, would I need a fake tan (very light!!), need to sort out the marriage contract, arrange transport etc, um... that's all I can think of at the moment.

It's just TOO exciting, and I'm really impatient to get started. Also, we have the honeymoon to plan too! We've decided we're going to go to Singapore, Sydney and Brisbane. It is all too exciting and will be a lot to plan + organise.

This past weekend was busy - but fun. Met up with S & L to windowshop, have cake/supper and see a chickflick. We saw Made of Honour which was VERY cute! Had the most delicious pasta for supper before the movie - SO divine!

Ok I think I'll post this before it turns into a huge long unending block of blog-text!

Golden Ice is taking shape

Yay!



Things have been so hectic lately!

I've been having loads of driving lessons - my test is Tuesday at 8am. I have a driving lesson that same morning, at 6:30. EEK! I'm just holding thumbs and praying that it doesn't rain. I've been watching the weather reports online and have had no reassurance at all because they keep changing Tuesday's weather. Argh!

Anyway I'll blog the rest tomorrow maybe... bed time!

Golden Ice so far

He's taking shape!

GI

Heremia!

The frame choice and framing board colour came out PERFECTLY!!

Golden Ice

This is the pic I took last night but never got round to posting:

Monday....

Today I'm satisfied.

Happy. Things are going well.

This weekend was busy, but good. We got Dude back on Saturday afternoon. Man, did I miss him! It was almost a whole week.

Friday evening sis, her bf, me and G went out for buffet chinese/sushi. Very yum! Saturday morning I had my lesson - there are only 4 more until my test (excluding the one the morning of the test) EEEK!!!! But I'm not really stressing. I have to memorise the pre-trip inspection... but apart from that, it's not really under my control. If I do everything perfectly but the examiner is an asshole, I will fail. If I usually do everything perfect but make a single (bad) mistake, I will fail. It's not really something that I can do myself, it depends too much on the circumstances and the examiner. I will try my best but that is all I can do. If I fail, I still have plenty of time to do a re-test. I will just have to wait and see.

We went out for lunch with G's folks and long-lost cousins of his dad! Long story there but basically long long long lost cousin of his dad retraced his family and found them here. Very nice people, the cousin and his wife. From the UK, they're visiting the country for about a month I think.

Sat evening we went to W&S's place for a braai. Muahahah that was an entertaining braai! :D I even got to see guitar hero in action - G gave it a try hehe.

Sunday afternoon we had stitchathon. G and I had gone to the mall to get medicine and brunch, and we got a scanner too (I've been meaning to get one)... I'm going to sit down for about a year :P and scan every photo from G's folks' and mom's photo albums and burn them on CD. There's no point in our making reprints of them all, just to lug them overseas when we emigrate. So we will have them burnt on CD - that way we get just a CD or 5 to take with us, and we can give G's folks and mom a CD of their photos for backup. A lot of them are already badly faded.

On the emigration note - I've added a countdown widget to the side of my blog. I figured that G's committed to his company until the end of March 2010, so we can take 1 April 2010 as our earliest emigration date. It seems so far away, but then if you think: the wedding is 200 days away, by the time the wedding day has arrived there will be 200 less days til we leave! At the moment it's 716, and it will be 516... it's just so fast!

I've started on Golden Ice. We had stitchathon yesterday, I got quite a bit done then and also later that evening. It's going to look STUNNING!!!! The bright, clear tones against the black fabric. Wow! So exciting and envigorating!

What else is news.......... not that much... I'm currently folding about 12830kgs of architectural drawings... at least I get to listen to my ipod while I'm busy. I have some filing to do upstairs, but all in all hopefully today will be nice and stress-free. Hbbm comes back tomorrow - yay!

Laterzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!

And now...

Golden Ice - by Kustom Krafts

My next project. He is HUGE... compared to the ones I've done before. I've sent Heremia away to be framed, I'll post a pic of her when she comes home (Wednesday).

I've already started to plot Golden Ice: I've glued the copied chart pages together to make one big chart, and now I'm in the process of stitching a grid on the fabric so as to accurately follow the chart. It is such a large design and it isn't entirely stitched, so there is more margin for error I think. I decided to do Golden Ice first rather than Gentle Strength because GS is bigger and the entire design is stitched.

Tonight we're fetching Dude. We were supposed to go fetch him Monday evening, but the pest control company messed up. They were supposed to be at our place at 14:00 and G went home to meet the guy, but they never pitched. I phoned in and the woman said they were running late blablabla so basically it was sorted out and done yesterday at 17:30. Our place is now 100% roach free (as far as we can gleefully tell), and we can fetch Dude! Man I have missed him like mad!

Today feels bleh. Why are Thursdays always so bleh? It's aggravated by the fact that I have to do switchboard duty on Thursdays. I'm getting the feeling that I need to be solitary now, sitting on a mountain top, looking out over the ocean... free and alone and peaceful. Quietness.

Heremia Finit!

Here Heremia is. Warpony's had his eye on her for quite some time, I have a feeling they're a match made in heaven!

Heremia, last night

Stuck

I'm uninspired right now. I have a lot on my mind, a lot of ideas and things I want to do. Things to organise, things that are only to be organised in the future and things that I want to finish.

Heremia is one thing I want to finish. It is time now. I want to try this evening, and hopefully by tomorrow she'll be done.

Some things are reaching breaking point. I don't know what the outcome will be. I can't see... I don't know where it's going. I'm almost afraid, scared of the outcome. It might tip too far over.

I'm stuck at work right now. My boss left at about midday, he's on leave until the 15th - a skiing holiday. I have work to do but I don't feel like doing it. It's a Friday afternoon... who feels like doing any work? It's not urgent work either, but I cannot go home. That's all I want to do. As I type this I'm starting to feel sleepy - a nap would be good.

I think I have found my wedding ring. I've printed a pic off the net - want to have it made up because you don't find this style in the shops at the moment - it's not in style right now. It's a nice simple ring, but it matches my engagement ring. G has to find his now, hopefully we can get them made up soon... we still have a lot of time but if we get things done sooner rather than later we have more time to enjoy ourselves closer to the time.

OH YAY so he PHONES IN and DICTATES MINUTES!!!!!!! It's 16:30 for fuck's sake!