ShoppingLong day at work on Friday, but that’s okay, for a change I actually need all the time I can get. I polished off my Online PDF Generator and have pretty much got all the conceptual stuff for my SAN system down, so the next two weeks before my leave kicks in is going to be pretty busy.

I managed to keep my fitness streak going to make it five days out of five for the week, by going to gym for a pretty enjoyable workout session. I hit the exercise bike again, and rather enjoyed it, so it is looking like that definitely is going to be forming a staple part of my exercise routine now. (I also stood like a twat in front of the schedule board with a little notebook and pen for a while, recording all the classes that I might be interested in trying out next week. Girls-only or not, I’m want to get back into the high-paced exercise world of class workout routines – and maybe even a spot of yoga while I’m at it!)

The remainder of the evening was spent doing the washing and playing games (.Hack//Outbreak is turning into one of the more monotonous games that I’ve ever purchased!), all the while patiently waiting for my liefie to arrive home from work. We were originally going to go out for a movie and then coffee, but she was pretty tired from some long working hours and early mornings this week, so instead we just chilled at home, chatting the night away (and also guiltily sneaking out for some late night McDonald’s takeaways – I didn’t know that Maccie D’s stays open so late!)

Saturday morning I was up and about bright and early, while Chantelle remained unmoved in bed, gently snoring the sunrise away. I had promised to meet up with Ryan in order to go to the figurine store to look out for Riley’s Christmas present (and a couple of goodies for ourselves – like Ryan’s 12 inch Lara Croft figurine that had just come in during the week). For some strange reason C had opted not to join us in this earth-shaking, adrenaline pumping, most amazing outing, choosing to rather stay in bed for a little while longer. I’m not sure what on earth possessed her to skip out on this awesome shopping experience – I’m guessing she’s loco in the head or something like that! ;P

On a more serious note, the morning’s shopping spree was actually quite a success. We walked into the store, slap bang into the perfect gift for Riley. He is going to love it! (Claire on the other hand is going to hate us). Unfortunately for Ryan, the quality of the 12 inch Lara Croft was shoddy to say the least, so he was forced to walk away empty handed for a change. I on the other hand didn’t buy anything for myself either, but did pick out two items which Claire and Mom are going to give me for Christmas – so a nice bonus for me on that one. From there Ryan and I quickly zipped over to Tygervalley to check out Musica and BT Games. Musica held my Christmas present from Ryan, so another gain for me, while Ryan managed to pick up a little something for himself in the form of NBA Jam for the PS2.

After depositing Ryan at back at his place, I returned to the flat to pick up Chantelle and headed straight off to Tygervalley again, this time for a breakfast treat courtesy of my bokkie who had wrestled my wallet back into my pocket. She treated us to breakfast at the quaint little OppieKoffie eatery on the bottom floor of Tygervalley, where we both enjoyed tasty cooked breakfasts, complete with tons of bottomless coffees. We also took the time to write out a complete Christmas shopping list and from there we spent a short time browsing the shops before C had to return home.

Unfortunately , even though it was C’s weekend off this weekend, due to a large function that she had booked, she was needed back at the guesthouse to help Andrea out with all the preparations. So straight from our return from Tygervalley, she hopped into the Getz and shot off to Gordon’s Bay. And guess what? I headed straight back to Tygervalley – for the third time in the day!!

You see, rumour has it that this week sees the birthday of one half of C&C arrive, meaning that this half needed to go buy some delectable delights for the occasion. With pride and a certain amount of joy, I can say that I got exactly what I was looking for (a couple of hours and very sore feet later), and it is now just a matter of waiting for the 6th to roll on by!

The evening was once more quite a lazy affair, mainly because C was a feeling a bit knackered on her return from work. So I whipped us up some pancakes for supper, we attempted (unsuccessfully – C kept falling asleep!) to watch The Number 23 and in general just faffed around for the rest of the evening.

Sunday morning we actually managed to get out of bed in time and make it to church – which probably wasn’t such a bad thing seeing as we haven’t been in more than a month now! The service was pretty good and left us with some nice meat for a decent conversation, which we picked up on our way straight through to – you guessed it – Tygervalley!

Why you might ask? Well, I have an obsession with getting my Christmas shopping done as soon as possible at the start of December to avoid the stress and rush that doing it later brings. Thankfully Chantelle agrees with me on this point and we made an effort to spend almost the entire day in the shops – which I can proudly say turned into a huge success, with us buying all but two of the presents for this season’s festivities. It was a hard slog, but oh so worth it!

With the shopping done, we treated ourselves to a late lunch at Silver Spur (using the vouchers they so gracefully bribed us with after giving C food poisoning last time) and then nipped off for a quick nap before returning to C’s mom’s place for last night’s Idols. Thank goodness the show FINALLY ends next week! Unfortunately the last show is also two hours long though :(

From Idols we finally returned to the flat and set about multitasking as all good couples do. C hit the wrapping paper and gift tags while I returned to the kitchen to whip us up another delicious batch of pancakes for supper once again (We’d bought caramel, ice cream and bananas to go with it you see) :).

Robert (C’s brother) dropped by to say hi (and steal pancakes), providing a short break from our toils for the evening. But despite this interruption, we actually did manage to get all of the presents wrapped, tagged and bagged, so my flat is looking like Father Christmas’ workshop at the moment. We finished the night off by watching the rest of Jim Carrey’s brilliant The Number 23 before turning in for the night, completing yet again a pretty successful weekend.

It may have been a bit more boring than what I initially had planned, but we got a lot done, spent a lot of quality time together and had fun doing it – so it is all good in my books!