Saturday, April 27, 2013

Durban Report #1

Happy saturday evening. Since I last wrote graham and I went and came back from Cape Town- the most amazing whirlwind of a weekend seeing people from the old college, having breakfasts out, lunches out, seeing Michael McIntyre which was phenomenal, doing nothing with my family, rushing around buying my best friend secret presents, seeing friends with new babies, going to our home church, a tea sponsored by woolworths, sleeping in my white french bed and an early early morning flight to come back home.

 

I have also conquered the lasagna, which I made on tuesday night. Graham said it was good for a first try. It better have been, it took me 3 hours to make it. I also learnt a valuable cooking lesson in the process; if it's coming out of Jamie Oliver's book then he knows how best to do it so one (that is, Lynsay) should not err from the recipe, otherwise bad things happen.

   

Both of us have had a bit of a crud week with lots of work, early mornings and late nights (so if you feel like posting us some comfort chocolate it would make us feel a little better) the type of week that needs to end with retail therapy, and it did. And now the balance of the universe has been restored.

 

We had the most wonderful morning. A delicious fry up breakfast (according to Jamie Oliver's 'one pan breakfast' which made for less washing up) while listening to Grahams 'Lord of the Rings' soundtracks, surprisingly perfect music for a late breakfast in the sunshine. And not to boast about how amazing my interior decorating skills are but our house does look like something off of a pinterest board. Mostly due to our amazing table and the carafes with babies breath dotted around the living area.

 

Then we spent 2 and 1/2 hours on the beach (an hour in Graham time) and I came back thoroughly exfoliated and looking like a lightly roasted lobster. Tonight Graham and I have date night, hopefully it will be in a freezer somewhere.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A jumbled up life

Life is wonderful, but sometimes its quite annoying how it gets in the way of lying on the bed for hours daydreaming, blogging, enjoying the cool mornings and the heat in the afternoons, of painting my nails on the tiles in our lounge, of baking, of reading books that I've promised to read over and over. 
It's the middle of Autumn. How did the beginning of this year go so quickly? Ah yes, it was sucked into the black hole of assignments and tests and work and cleaning. And this weekend Graham and I are in Cape Town- looking forward to cooler weather, the past few days have been lie-under-the-fan-on-the-tiles-as-soon-as-you-get-home kind of days.

   

Yesterday I made the most divine butternut, mushroom and bacon pasta- and it wasn't too rich (somehow that was due to the butternut) it was just perfect, of course graham moaned about the mushrooms. I would just like to take a moment to say, butternut dicing is an art. The cookbook so innocently said "1 Butternut, peeled and diced" like it had no idea how much work went into peeling and dicing the freaking thing. I must tell you though, I'm much better at it now than I was the first time I diced one (the last time I did it I had to hold it between my legs to try and keep it still while shoving the knife into it- this didn't work and it still ended up bouncing all over the kitchen). 

 

April goals... hmm, to finish the C.S Lewis book I started at the beginning of the year (no judgement) and to make lasagna, and to put our dining room table up (done), to buy an umbrella and to get on top of my Latin. Yours?

   

the husband is home, I must dash x

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

And my life is sweet like vanilla is

Would you like some beautiful pictures? Of course you would (to make up for my long silence). It is now well into autumn and i've decided (it being my first autumn in durban and all) that I MUCH prefer distinct seasons and therefore I am insanely jealous of people experiencing and chilly and rainy autumn in Cape Town. Although, waking up to rain and a cup of tea this morning was pretty wonderful. 


 


The most asked question I got when I visited Cape Town this week was: how is marriage going? A perfectly normal question but every time I had to answer it I had no idea what to say because the actual answer is something like this: marriage is not in the least what I expected, I figured it might be nice because I would have my best friend with me for most of the time but I didn't expect it to be fun. So in that sense marriage is great, we are having a grand time setting up our lives. Sometimes marriage is frustrating because I don't get to see graham as much as I used to or because he drives me insane and then I have to sleep in the same bed as him. Sometimes marriage is surreal, yesterday when we were having tea I looked across at him and thought to myself, "how on earth did I end up dating and now married to this amazing man? How did that happen?" and apparently Graham has the same thoughts. Sometimes marriage is challenging, I didn't realize how much of myself I would have to put into marriage and Graham. Mostly though marriage has turned out to be one of the best adventures of my life. [and I complain about having to clean the house but this afternoon I woke up to graham doing the dishes and just now he put our duvet cover on our duvet after my failed attempt, team work].

In other news, I LOVED going back to cape town and seeing people I haven't in months (!) spending time with my family, going to movies and markets (there really aren't many here in Durban) and buying things for our house. It was also pretty strange being back- without Graham as he was such a huge part of my life for the last 2 years in cape town. Everywhere I drove or went with people I'd been sometime with him only he wasn't there this time and it made the city (or at least our little part of it) feel empty.


   


When I spent time with my family we did a few things that we hadn't done for years- which was special- and which created the strange situation of my past and present meeting, very nostalgic.


 


The exciting thing is-for everyone who missed me- that Graham and I will be in cape town for next weekend to see Michael McIntyre (much excitement) and we would love to see as many people as we can and we don't mind going to tea over and over -we don't have tribeca here in Durban and want to make the most of it.

   

Have a wonderful day x