Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm feeling like such a busy bee. Stuff I did with the last few days:

Went to F's birthday party -

Was more fun than I expected. There weren't many people there, only 9 if you don't count the kids, but coctails were flowing and the food was great. After dinner F offered us some of an obscure Hungarian drink that they had bought at the airport while, you guessed it, in Hungary. It was dreadful! Only afterwards did he tell us that he does this to all his new guests because those people who have had it before won't do it again. He has about a third of bottle left - beware. Mandy offered us a spot at her place so we didn't have to drive back from Durban. Thanks Mandy! (Sorry we woke you up so early.)

Baked a cake -

In a new high of domestic goddesshood I baked my first fully fledged non-packet, non-sheet cake! It had two layers and cream cheese frosting. I liked it but I don't know if everyone else was just being nice.

Roleplaying (Sunday) -

Great fun was had by all. I smote evil. I like smoting.

Roleplaying (Monday) -

More fun was had. Brad threw his dice in the fishtank. As a GM, I consider the score: Players: 0, GM: 1.

Watched 'The Fantastic 4' on DVD -

Extremely predictable superhero fare. Best bit: Naked Human Torch in snow.

I'm so lucky ... lucky, lucky, lucky

I ate an egg with two yolks today. It's supposed bring great fortune.

 

Hmmm, there's a really big lotto this weekend. I must buy tickets.

Macho, Macho Mart...I want to go to Macho Mart

So, just a quick note to let you all know what's up with me.

The weekend was very productive thanks to D-mans half term. I took a day off so that we could get some of our monster to do list done, including exciting tasks like:
Renew D's driver's licence
Pay our TV licence
POst stuff
Pay other stuff

The highlight of the day was a quick visit to MachoMart (my new favorite store.) I am almost temptd to go into model railroad building except for the fact I'm not that thrilled with the train bit. I love the building models and the teeny tiny people. They had the cutest sets of people for models including a flasher, hobos, a funeral party (coffin included) and a chain gang. Awesome.

Other than that it was a pretty standard weekend. We went to go and see Aeon Flux - scenery and wardrobe were great, storyline left much to be desired.

Oh - I now weigh 83kgs. 500g loss this week. Total loss since January 1st: 8.3kgs

French Marshmallows

By the way, Jude metioned to me that I have been very quiet on the weight loss front lately. It is not my fault. Each week I go to gym to weigh myself on a Sunday as promised and every week the scale etc. is out of order. I took my weight on Tuesday and I am currently 83.4kgs. That's 2.1kgs down from the last time I posted my weight (30 Jan). Just over 2kgs in just over 2 weeks - not bad going if I do say so myself.

 

I was watching TV last night ( I know, bad girl for avoiding studying ) but one of the characters said a great line, Jude and James - this one's for you:

 

"Sword fighting is when you stab the villian through the heart. Fencing is when two French marshmallows have at each other with a pair of car antennas."

Weird Valentine's Message Of The Week

"Love - When we're snogging I want to crumble biscuits in your hair."

 

- Seen on a greeting card display in a shopping centre

 

I hope this is a reference to some bizarre sex practice, because otherwise it's just weird.

Goats and greeting cards

Have you ever felt so behind with everything that every hour is just a painful attempt not to end up futher behind at the end of the day than you were at the start? My life has been like that for about a month now.

Varsity work: Has me completely swamped. The amount of work that is usually completed by a student in one year has to be completed by the beginning of April so that my lecturers can have as long a time as possible to mark assignments. They did not think that perhaps it would be more realistic to only base the assignments on what can, within reason, be completed by April. They obviously think that completing the work 6 months before prep for exams even begins is an excellent teaching strategy. So much for the ideals of continuous assessment....

Work: Is quieter I'll admit but I am trying to revamp my database at the moment. It's about 4 years old and has a lot of defunct info. Frankly, a pain in the neck. That and all the usual hassles.

Everything else: Dman and I are starting to crumble with all the outside commitments. We rarely have an hour where there isn't something we have to be doing. I have started just dealing with the stuff that needs to be done day-to-day and my grand plans for the year are taking a backseat. This is very stressful for me because I move one of two ways - forward or back. If I'm not doing something to make my life better I invariably start cheating on my diet, procrastinating and all those other evils. Bad Girl.

On the upside: I bought this very neat greeting card sorter...it is soooo my bag baby! Mandy, isn't it neat?



And in other news

We went to go see Zathura over the weekend. It was fun in a very Jumanji-in-space kinda way but it had everything I needed to chill out on a Sunday: astronauts, goats, frozen teenagers. How can it not be good?

Well, I guess it's nice to know ahead of time

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

Of Knights and Tarts

Back at the office after a wonderful weekend. Friday afternoon we went to Gerhi and Petro's place so that D could do the knight in shining armour thing and fix Petro's computer. We had a wonderful time chatting and I'm glad to report that Petro's computer can now read newspapers albeit in a VERY boring monotone.

Saturday was Magic again, followed by a trip to the mall to buy gifts for Friends Xmas and then off to see 'Sky High'.

The movie was awesome. I honestly didn't think I would enjoy it that much but it was a lot of fun.
Best Bits:
"The dunking must end!"
Save the Citizen (remember when we used to use real citizens?)

Sunday was up bright and early to go drop off some balloons on my cousin's gate, the least I could do given the fact I was unable to attend his birthday party. Then it was off the the gym to run and back home again to commence cooking.

We had wanted to organise to get our friends together for a Christmas meal for some time but because people tend to go away for Christmas we were forced to have it in February. We all brought something to eat (I made roast chicken, roast potatoes, glazed carrots and steamed brocolli) and a R20 gift. The gifts were great fun (thanks Gerhi for the idea). We brought a wrapped gift and it was given a number. We then selected numbers and were given the gift with our number After that, we were given one opportunity to exchange our gift (still wrapped) and then we got to unwrap them. Lastly, we were given another opportunity to exchange what we had. It was a lot of fun (I got exacly what I wanted - a tub of green curry paste). The best was afterwards when we opened Baby Benjamin's gift to everyone - we all got a tub of Gerber baby dessert - yum!

Thanks all of you for coming, I had a great time. Even though James snagged the win TWICE from me in Siedler. Gosh, I love that game. Oh, and for those of you who still want a copy of Perto's Tipsy Tart recipe:

Petro's Tipsy Tart (plenty of tipsy, not so much tart)

Ingredients

For the pudding:

2 blocks dates
2 cups boiling water
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups mixed chopped nuts

For the syrup:
2.5 cups of sugar
1.5 cups water
2 Tbs butter
1 cup brandy
dash salt
2 tsp vanilla essence

The Pudding

1. Mix one block of dates, the water and the bicarb together and allow to stand.
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder and put aside.
3. Cream the butter, eggs and flour.
4. Mix the contents of the three bowls together with the remaining block of dates and the nuts.
5. Bake at 180 °C for 30 - 40mins

The Syrup

1. Boil the sugar, water and butter for 3 mins and allow to cool.
2. Add the brandy, salt and vanilla.
3. Pour over the cake allowing it the be absorbed.

Dazed, Confused and Caffiene-Free

I wasn't really looking forward to the first of February. At the beginning of 2006 I maped out the changes I would make in a step-by-step plan. I had tried so many times to make sweeping changes to my life and failed that I thought it was time I tried a new approach. So far, it seems to be working.

In January I started Weight Watcher's, started going to gym 5 days a week, slowly increased my water consuption (I'm on 7 glasses a day) and began limiting refined carbs.

Febuary, I gave up caffiene. I feel rubbish already. The big mug of coffee that sat on my desk made the annoying phonecalls tolerable. Now it is gone. All I have is 7 glasses of water. This will be tough. Other than that, I have also started the 'no eating after 8' rule as well as deciding that I will start going to bed and getting up at the same time each day. It is supposed to do wonders for your energy levels - we shall see.

Overall, I'm not noticing the changes I'm making very much. I think this is because I'm so focussed on wading through study backlog that I haven't got time to pay attention anything else. Hopefully I will catch up soon.