Good Life

Ahhh dear Panacotta Girl, it’s seldom that I trust my dessert selection to another person, but when Panacotta Girl (who’s real name I’ve long ago, purposefully, forgotten) is around I entrust the fate of the end of my meal to her…after all she did introduce me to the Panacotta at Col Cacchio, changing my life forever... serious.

She may well be the best waitress in the Cape Town - maybe even the world. It’s a pretty big responsibility; because if I’m not satisfied, peoples heads roll!

Her choice last night was nothing less than excepted. After a marvelous time at Caveau picking off the Tapas menu, the best way to eat in my opinion; she selected the Crème Brule an orgasmic explosion of taste, to end off a perfect meal and thus no one had to be killed.

I had such a fantastically, food-filled, social day yesterday; which all started off with coffee club; it was followed by Karisa’s Mad Hatter birthday at Café Paridiso, where I was feeling like a glutton and had two main meals.

The late, afternoon weather was perfect for a dozy afternoon siesta on the beach; after which the meal at Caveau sustained us through a brief stint at Karma for a little shimmy and shake. The day ended off with a refreshing swim and some general poo shooting around the pool, with some good people. Ahh I do believe I have a taste for the good life!

Scorcher

I’m suffocating from the heat. You think coming from tropical island origins, I’d be able to handle it, but no, not me. I think I’m built for moderate climates about 25 Degrees Celsius, warm and sunny is ideal, but the prediction of a whopping 35 is just too much and it’s already starting to feel like I’m melting and struggling to breathe.

I hate Taiwan in the summer, it’s usually close on 40 every day and the humidity is over the 100% mark, there’s nowhere in South Africa that can even compare with, not even Durban. When you walk out of that plane for the first time you’re hit by the heat and it feels like you’re walking into a brick wall. If you try to take a cold shower there is no refuge, the water is still boiling. The only solution is to hide indoors in an air-conditioned environment.

The biggest problem is that I just become really dehydrated from sweating, it’s ridiculous just from running from the car to the front door, I sweat so much that it looks like I’ve just jumped into a pool. Personally I don’t think I’d be able to survive in extreme temperatures and will be one of the first to go when the global warming phenomenon starts becoming more apparent.

We had a great coffee club meet at Mugged on Roeland Street this morning. Often when we have meets at a new venue, the service is usually a bit under par, as the venue is not used to such a large group.

But Mugged really came to the table and handled the 28 strong attendees with poise and made our morning thoroughly enjoyable. The food is great and reasonably priced, but for me the coolest thing about Mugged; is that it’s right around the corner from where I live so in future if I get lazy, I’ve found a great venue to host it; where I can just roll out of bed and walk there. Awesome!

Invasion of the Tall Ridiculously-good-looking People

Attended the Vida bar launch in Camps Bay yesterday evening. The Vida boys have decided that the Camps Bay Vida should be a coffee spot by day and a cool chill bar at night. With the impressive setting right on the front step it's difficult not just to relax, sip on a couple of (in my case virgin) cocktails and watch all the beautiful people walk by....

I've noticed that there seems to be an infiltration of the tall ridiculously-good-looking into the mother city recently and am starting to feel extremely midgety again. Not that I don't appreciate the additional eye candy; my only complaint is that I feel extremely claustrophobic when surrounded by the tall mountain-ranges of people - I struggle to breathe. You're probably thinking it's because of the sublime beauty that some of them posses - but it's not. I'm convinced it's because tall people have access to all the best air and leave nothing for us shorter folk. Stop hogging all the oxygen, darn you! So I know my logic may be skewed, seeing as how air gets thinner with altitude, but if you can come up with a better explanation then I might just listen.

For our Friends

Yay. It's official I'm a friend of the Loading Bay. The LB, as I like to call it, has come up with an awesome concept of putting up a wall in the store dedicated to its loyal customers. Basically they've cordoned off a section of their wall and are putting up some tiles with the names of a few selected individuals engraved on them. There's a small fee that you have to pay, but it basically pays for itself as you get 10 free cups of coffee and discounts off everything for life...not to mention covering the cost of the tile itself.

I think the wall is limited to about 50 tiles at the moment and I'm one of the few that have reserved to be immortalized in the LB's Friends Wall. Watch this space because they always seem to come up with some new and exciting ideas.

Speaking of great idea,s they held a Lebanese themed evening last night, which show cased an all Lebanese food menu. Very interesting and very tasty too, I love trying new, different types of food and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think they've come up with this thing, where every Wednesday is a different theme and I've heard rumours of a champagne and crayfish evening...you'll bet your bottom dollar that I'll be there for that one.

After the LB, I went to FTV (what's with all the abbreviations in today's post) to thank the management team for their kind offer. After, I think, Marius read my post about how I'm a sad loser and never really celebrate my birthday; he sent a message to say that FTV would like to help me celebrate this Friday - sadly it was a little bit too short notice to get friends to attend. But in any case, I'm sure that FTV will be a great place to party this weekend - with or without me (I may suffer from delusions of granduar but I'm certainly not going to claim that I'm the life of any party). Thanks for the message though, much appreciated.

Cloud 9

Wow I feel like a new man. I feel like I'm on cloud 9. I'm in such a good mood this morning, it's amazing what a little bit of sleep can do.

You might have noticed by now; that I don't really know how to do anything in moderation. So instead of following the prescribed dosage of one sleeping pill, I knocked back a couple, just for good measure. In minutes after doing so, I felt extremely drowsy and had to retire to bed. I got close on 11 hours sleep last night.

It's amazing how sleep deprivation can effect your moods, I know for myself, that the erraticness of my mood is indirectly proportional to the length of sleep I receive. In other words the less I sleep the more moody I become.

Got some great news; the office is going to be closing up a bit over the Christmas period, so it looks like I'll have close to two weeks of Holiday. I'm really looking forward to it, need a bit of a break. Unfortunately they've left it a bit late for me to plan anything, but at least I'll be home in PE for the Christmas weekend.

Things are looking up.

A Fateful Day

Today is Ernst’s birthday. I can’t believe that a year ago I was still based in Johannesburg. It sounds clichéd, but time really has flown. Being one of my best friends, I arranged especially to fly down, last year, to help celebrate his 30th. And as I recall, I came only for the weekend. On the actual, big day, I had to leave early, due to limited flights.

Not even a few hours after I had left, Ernst, while relaxing by the pool, in the Victoria Alfred Junction Hotel met Lauren and began what has been and still is a whirlwind romance. Talk about serendipitous. Not only does he celebrate his birthday today but also his 1 year anniversary with a very special person. Hollywood could not have scripted it more romantic! I thought I had bought him a pretty cool present, but it seems as if it was no comparison to the gift that fate had decided to bring.

Speaking of serendipity, while randomly going out for a bite to eat yesterday eve. I bumped into Lauren at Willoughby's in the waterfront. Lauren bounced off an idea about making Waffles in bed for her man and asked me what I thought of that idea...I told her, if my girl friend had to make me waffles in bed - I'd marry her (take note future prospective wife). It's true what they say, the way to a mans heart is through his stomach. Well, at least it is in my case.

I apologize if this entry doesn’t seem to flow; I’m very tired and my brain is not working very well. I struggled to sleep again last night and have been up since 2am this morning, as a result I have finally given in to pharmaceutical aid, and have bought some strong sleeping pills, to help in such cases; when I’m in dire need of sleep.

I predict that as soon as I have finished typing out this entry I’m going to finish dinner, knock back a couple of pills and call it a day.

Take a Hike!

I felt like a new man this morning. Not a hundred percent sure what it is, but my spirits are up and I'm feeling like I'm full of pep and rearing to go. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that it's the start of a new month, my birthday month for that matter.

My birthday sucks, it's on Boxing Day and I don't normally celebrate it. Since it's the day after Christmas; most of my friends are usually on holiday, away somewhere with their families and if they are around; they're normally too tired from the aftermath of celebrating the day before. At most, I'll usually be home in Port Elizabeth and have a home made dinner with a tight knit group of friends. More often than not it's just me, the family and Wang, my other brother, who's real name is Bryan (Bryan is his slave name) whom my family adopted years ago while living in Port Elizabeth. We'll sit around the dinner table finish our meals and eat some type of cream cake or better yet an ice-cream cake. That's it, and that's how it's been done for years, simply a very simple tradition. Ahhh good times.

Every couple of years when I'm in Taiwan on my Birthday, members of my extended family, some whom I really couldn't tell are related to me will try and out do each other to make up for my modest and lack of celebrations. Poor, poor, uncultured and uneducated South African boy they will think to themselves and try to throw some feasts of epic proportion to make up for years of absence in my life. So in the space of a week, I might celebrate 10 times - more than enough, to stock pile and make up for a few birthdays.

Usually one of my Grandfathers will win the battle in out doing each other. They would never spend money on themselves, or even for their own children for that matter, but for their grand kids the sky is the limit. I remember once, one of my grandfathers even took me on a holiday to Japan. When I was very young, I was quite a spoilt little boy, such so, that my parents finally intervened and had to tell them to stop spoiling me and my brother. A very good move on my parents behalf, as otherwise we would probably not be quite as well adjusted members of society as we are today.

We were supposed to spend Chritsmas in Taiwan this year, but due to the strength of the rand and my grandfathers untimely illness, it was decided best not to.

I've gone on quite a tangent it seems, I was supposed to be explaining my good mood, but somehow veered off on a completely different train of thought. Weird how that happens. Anyways, I reckon the good mood is courtesy of all the endorphins generated from all yesterday's exercise.

As I was on my way out of the gym early in the morning, I was met by Candi, Andi and Gabi whom with their feminine whiles, somehow convinced me to go on a hike off the Silvermine trail in Table Mountain National Park. The hikes are organized by Marcus every Sunday; already tired, I was at first reluctant; but trekking along, I grew more fond of the idea and actually thoroughly enjoyed it...even with the lactic acid build up and the inability to walk properly, I'm still in high spirits. Bring on the rest of week!