Despite the cold and wet weather, the Lotters ended up enjoying a nice, mostly relaxed, weekend together I’m happy to report. As always, Saturday was Chantelle’s Cookies and Cakes market weekend, meaning that after some Shaun the Sheep and bedtime routine, it was Jessica in her cot and Mommy and Daddy back in the kitchen (well Daddy back to his packing station in the braai room to be more accurate) in order to finish up all the necessary preparations.
Saturday saw Chantelle shoot off early to join her mom in Bellville in order to man the stall at Willowbridge. This left Jessica and I to enjoy a leisurely, playful morning together (including lots of Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time), before packing all the necessities and jumping into the car for a quick round of shopping before our little trip through to Bellville.
(Naturally, Jessica timed her bowel movements to coincide with the exact second I closed the boot after having just packed in her pink changing bag along with the rest of the luggage. Wonderful.)
A successful plastic container hunt plus the addition of one bendy wooden toy for Jessie from Mambo’s Plastic Warehouse, followed by a quick burst through Pick ‘n Pay and then King Pie, all led to our eventual getaway from the Overberg as we headed South towards Bellville, and more importantly, the Willowbridge Food Market.
Once there, Jessica and I managed to make a nuisance of ourselves as we hung around the stall, played in the rain, and kept a watchful eye over Chantelle and Cheryl who were manning the stall (and doing a fairly reasonably okay job at it I guess), before closing time finally arrived and we were able to load up the trolley and head back to basecamp at the Montgomery Stronghold, where Jessica proceeded to entertain Oupa and Ouma, Chantelle snuck in a quick afternoon nap, and I settled down to catch the Super 15 rugby game between the Stormers and the Rebels. (Go Stormers!)
After the game’s final whistle rang out, I woke up Chantelle, managed to pry Jessica away from Monty and Cheryl, and then headed over to my folks’ place, where Jessie promptly set about helping Dad in the garden whilst Chantelle and I unloaded the car and set up everything for the night’s sleepover.
Chantelle finished up with the handover to Mom just before 19:00, leaving us free to hit the road again and make our way through to once again meet up with the Montgomery clan at The Hussar’s Grill in Willowbridge, to celebrate Robert’s big 30th birthday. We were only marginally late, though Chantelle ended up joining the table later than the rest, thanks to her stomach taking revenge on her for having not purchased me a pie when she had visited Mario’s pie stall earlier in the day.
Seemed fair to me.
Anyway, it was my first time eating out at The Hussar’s Grill and I must say that I was pleasantly impressed. It is a very cosy, classy restaurant with top notch waiters and some really excellent food. For starters I enjoyed Hollandse Bitterballen topped off with strong English Mustard (which really caught my sinuses by surprise I might add! And Robert’s too after I suckered him into partaking in a rather large dollop of the stuff…), followed by a perfectly prepared medium rare sirloin steak, smothered in a blue cheese sauce. We spent a good amount of time in the restaurant, polished off a large number of wine bottles, and in general enjoyed a thoroughly great night out, certainly a worthy family celebration of Rob’s hitting the big number then.
Chantelle and I returned back to Mom and Dad’s place, where we proceeded to drink more coffee, catch up with the folks, watch some cycling, and then retire to bed – for what turned out to be a rather interrupted night’s sleep! Unfortunately for us, Jessica chose the one night we were sleeping out to be more than a little niggly, meaning no good night’s rest for the two of us! Anyway, eventually I got Jess out of the cot and into the bed with us, and before you knew it, Sunday morning already upon us.
Sigh.
Unfortunately Mom and Dad were on duty in the morning, and because Chantelle wanted to be at home in the afternoon, we were forced to pack up everything and leave when Mom and Dad left for church, which translates in the three of us driving back to Gordon’s Bay whilst still wearing our pyjamas! (TLDR: no leisurely breakfast was had)
Despite Chantelle’s original intention of getting cracking on all the baking required for this week (thanks to a host of external orders plus the market this coming Saturday), her plans were dashed by several factors, resulting in a day filled more with Spring Cleaning than anything else. That said, the house definitely needed it, so not a complete waste of a day then! Claire, Riley and their puppy Rocky also popped in for an evening visit with us, and it was great catching up and meeting the gorgeous Rocky for the first time. Claire’s pregnancy is coming along nicely now, and she was keen to pick Chantelle’s brain for some tips and info on the topic.
Eventually we bade them farewell, and with Jessica fast asleep in her cot, we decided to cap off the weekend by making home-made pizzas (mine had boerewors on it, and yes, as you can well imagine, it WAS delicious) and plonking down in front of the TV to watch a DVD, Swinging with the Finkels.
Not the best of movie choices mind you, but it did have a few laughs in store for us, and combined with the delicious pizza, capped off a great weekend which, as it turned out, ended up being rather full of family time for a change! :)