Farm fun.. afternoon fun.

 

Thursday was a public holiday, and most (including my) companies closed for Friday. Bonus fun day. I got home from the 30th at about 8am, and we went to Willow Feather Farm almost immediately. They had new baby animals. Love this place..

 

This pig just roams the farm. He came up to me, nudged me. And kept walking. So cute.

 



Swings.. always a winner.

Teddie bear meeting the animals..

Babychino's.

 

Awesome 30

I have been 30 for a while.. I'm half way to 31. This is why I have friends who are still younger than me. It gives us a second (and third) year of parties that makes us feel like we are still 30..

All jokes aside, I am loving 30 so far. I should add that I have never had age hang ups. But while I loved my twenties, looking back I can see that I do (and will) love my thirties even more. Plus I have dealt with more than my share of bad luck from late twenties to 30. So all that is behind me..

This long weekend we had a great, awesome, relaxed and fun 30th of one of my top 2 friends on this planet (and beyond).

I hardly took any photos. So I'll do this post with the four I deem publishable.

Checking out the new car and gadgets while the girls sign cards..

The birthday cake that had more than 30 candles on! (Possibly a 100!)

Awesome speech by the birthday girl. We cheered and cried and cheered.

 

Awesome venue with a view. And puppies.

 

Lunch at Irene Village Mall..

 

Any random day we need play or holiday feel in your life, we head to Irene Village Mall. Walking the pebble stone walk ways, the fountains and outside dining.. just suits SA weather. We go there in every season. Summer / Spring / early Autumn just means we can play in the fountains. Winter we snuggle with a few. 

 

Upstairs, eating Pizza and drinking Vino (me)..

 

Downstairs we enjoyed the fountains and sun.

And rode around on wild animals (with bunny ears for the season)..

Posing at the pizza place. They stuck all their animals on their sunglasses (and mine) and wore it while posing.

 

I just love this mall. As a friend, as a mother, as a girl and woman. I love it.. :)

Getting ready for cold..

I just love this table and can imagine long lunches around it.

 

I do love some nice words. And this guy is a favourite.

 

The cold part.. I can feel the weather changing. This blanket I love. But I do prefer the warmer sunshine. Especially now with the dark mornings when waking up.. Alone in bed does not help.



Cape Town and Rise Against..

 



8 July 2012 I turned 30 and was gifted a ticket to Cape Town. I have not been there since about 2001.. and I really wanted to go (and I was quite vocal about it). Then yes, life happened giving me an excuse every time why I could not. Until they finally convinced me in a group Skype effort to just go in March. My brother had a ticket for me to Ramfest.. so what was my excuse. So I went. And I loved. Cape Town. Ramfest. Rise Against. Road Trip and just everything. Right down to the dash to the airport from the V&A Waterfront! Sadly (or gladly) we made the flight.. And I was back in Gauteng on Tuesday..

 

Starting with a neighbourhood lunch at the Sidewalk Cafe. This place was perfect - window seats, quirky houses, food and wine with a view.

 

 

After lunch at Sidewalk Cafe, we went to V&A for the cliche Coke pose and a beer at the waterfront. Then came the good part - road tripping 170km to the farm where the music festival was being held. Perfect blue skies, beach scenes. And posing on Chapmans with the sea as a background (picture with my younger brother). 

 

We got to the music festival at around 17:30. Just in time to see the perfect sunset over the mountains. And what a happy group of people. I am over sandy music festival camping - but they did it all perfect. Food galore (pizza, hamburgers, vegan, braais etc), no queue bars, four stages, and Rise Against. I won't lie and say that I have loved this band for all eternity, but I have loved them since my brother sent me the exact song I needed to hear and the exact right moment. That was in the mid 2011/12. I've known the band, but then I started loving. And their concert was everything I wanted. I paced myself throughout the day and night to be sober enough to enjoy, and this left me not on the level of crazy of some of the other festival goers, but (huge BUT). I was able to enjoy the band and the songs. And yes, there was a tad of emotion. Who would have predicted that!

 



/

After the festival we drove back to Cape Town.. and stopped at Hermanus. Initially I believe it was for breakfast but we only ended up leaving after 16:00. Perfect.

 

Monday it was me. The city of Cape Town and a car. I started on top of the mountain. I went to Hout Bay, Camps Bay. Drove along the coast with my windows opened. And just took it all in. 

Do I wish I could have been there longer? YES! Did I almost change my ticket to the next day? YES (just a moment after checking in while walking along the waterfront). But I loved every second.

And I got to come home to a new job and my 3 with all smiles and hugs. Planning our next trip. Next time I will not just pack my shoes with plans to clim Lions Head. I will do it.

Some excitement and overdue flights..

This weekend I am going to Cape Town. Alone. No kids.

My heart will probably break, and I will miss them like crazy (I have not been apart from them for more than a night almost ever and they are 5, 5 and 6). But as I have been told repeatedly, and actually know. They will be fine. And I will be fine. They will have fun. I will have fun. Plus, I get to look out where we can go when I take them with me next time. The next time will be soon... I made a pinky promise.

This week has left me a little short on inspiration. And I didn't want to do heavy posts again. I am over heavy subjects.

We have had a quieter week. Just normal run around between school, me looking for work, ballet, chess, cheerleading, concerts, walks, train rides and getting caught in the rain.

The power went off, so we had a nice romantic candle lit night.

 And bunnies on the wall. Our friend brought a ton of some of her old toys for the girls to play with. We had fun with wigs, sewing by candlelight and playing around with new Barbies and a friend for our Ken. He is also finally dressed again (he lost his swimming trunks years ago and has since just worn dresses!). He now wears a ruffled shirt, speaks french and does yoga.

 Our neighbourhood zebras coming to say hi.

 We got caught in a terrible rainstorm. I ran to the first class I saw, knocked and asked if we can wait the storm out. There was a few lightning strikes that was a bit close to home.. and I'm not supposed to show (that much) fear! Otherwise it scares them more.. between four walls we could relax a bit.