It was always going to be a good weekend no matter what came along, simply because I got paid on Friday already – made all the sweeter by the fact that this month was bonus month at last! :)
In any event, I missed out on half-day Friday, thanks to the fact that Friday was decreed office year-end function by Kyle, the venue for this year being the very German Paulaner Br’uhaus & Restaurant in the Waterfront. We all piled out of the office and headed down to the Waterfront around 11:30, relaxing, chatting, eating and consuming mass quantities of alcohol for the rest of the afternoon, quite happy in the knowledge that we didn’t have to go back to work later. Like I mentioned, Paulaner is a very German restaurant. The d’cor, the menu and even the background music is completely Germanic, and I’m afraid unless you are a big fan of German food and music, you’re not going to leave too impressed. As it is, I’m not really familiar with German food, and now I can quite happily say that I don’t like it. Germans must make some of the blandest tasting dishes in the world! The food was boring, both in its presentation and its flavor, and please don’t even get me started on the weird pasta type thing they call Sp’tzle! The only thing that I can highly recommend from the place is their beer. Self-brewed and oh so flavorful, I can see why the place is so popular during the annual Oktoberfest! As it is, I managed to get 2 liters of the stuff into my system by the time we finished our lunch. :)
We finally finished up after a long day out, and I crawled back to Bellville at a snail’s pace, thanks to being caught slap bang in the middle of Friday rush hour traffic. I did however manage to make it back without too much incident, and had enough time for a quick shower and snack before jumping back into the car and heading off to Merkaba’s place.
Beowulf was the movie pick for the evening, and seeing as I had heard good things about it and was looking forward to the fact that Neil Gaiman had helped out with the writing, I couldn’t help but feel excited about this one. Unfortunately it turned out that my level of excitement had been a little misplaced, because Beowulf left a slightly bland aftertaste in my mouth, and both Merkaba and I couldn’t help but wonder how we managed to waste our time like that and even more importantly, how it managed to reach the number 1 spot on the American box office chart in the first place! Funnily enough, moviegoers seemed to share the same sentiment as us – we went to the main show, opening night for Beowulf – and the cinema was only around a third full (if that many). Absolutely crazy!
I’ll confess to being lazy AGAIN on Saturday morning, foregoing gym and opting instead to stay in bed until just after 7. Unable to sleep any longer thanks to the glorious summer’s day outside, I got up and got stuck into the thankless task of some household chores. Unfortunately I got a bit distracted by the fact that I wanted to quickly test out Ryan’s wireless dongle he had loaned me (I was looking to set up a small wireless LAN for the flat), and got entangled in that task thanks to the fact that he had forgotten to give me the accompanying drivers with the device. In the end, he came over, we fiddled a bit, headed out to Matrix computers, bought a wireless router, returned, fiddled about a bit, headed out to Tafelberg Meubels , bought a 5m long AV cable and connectors, returned, and fiddled about a bit. He had to leave to attend Adam’s Bachelor’s Party (Paintball for this one), leaving me behind to have a fun time moving the lounge around a bit. The end result? A relocated PC in the corner of the lounge, an 8 meter long AV cable hooked up to the DVD system, a relocated laptop in the room, and a working wireless LAN. All I need now is to secure a new LCD monitor and then I’m sorted.
Chuffed with my work and the fact that I had managed to dodge doing too many household chores in the end, I hopped into the car and set about on my next mission for the day. Damen and Michelle had invited us over for tea and cake in celebration of Michelle’s birthday, and because Chantelle was unfortunately working this weekend, I was going in solo. Luckily I had backup in the form of wrapped up Lindt and Toblerone choccies (no woman can resist), so I was pretty secure about the whole mission. Karl, Patricia and Angela ended up also coming along and in the end we enjoyed a pretty relaxed afternoon of idle chatting, cake and even a game of 30 Seconds. Turns out we won’t be able to do this too much longer in the future though – Damen and Michelle just got their visas approved and are off to work in England at the end of January.
On my way home from that, I quickly popped into Tygervalley to purchase a desk chair for my room – thereby completing my spending spree for the day. I didn’t have much time to clean up the mess that this morning’s activities had brought about though, as I fiddled around with the wireless for a bit before freshening up and hitting the road once more, my target this time being Gordon’s Bay – and the flat of my ever delectable liefie, Chantelle.
She was in charge of the DVD selection this time, and she opted for the slightly intellectual …An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore’s documentary about Global Warming. Not the most action-packed of movies I must admit – thought provoking, yes, entertaining, no, but thank goodness the wine and the Debonairs more than made up for it. Oh, and Chantelle’s home-baked Brownies hit the spot too!
Sunday morning we were forced to part ways once more, she off to work and me back to Bellville – but not before I stopped off for a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing walk along the beach outside her flat. From there it was drop off the DVD and get back home – I needed to return thanks to the prospect of a delicious cooked lunch at my mom’s place with the rest of the Lotter family. Ryan, Claire, mom and pops were all there and we sat outside enjoying a delicious roast chicken with veggies, followed by delectable chocolate cake and ice cream. And of course with the weather being as nice as it was, I couldn’t resist jumping in for a swim as well!
The evening was pretty much my time at last, and I spent it wallowing around the flat, making pancakes, playing games and watching Gunslinger Girl. A pretty relaxed ending in the end to what had been quite a busy weekend after all. :)
