Goal #28: A-maize-ing!

Some weekends ago Ninja and I enjoyed a day at Honeydew Mazes with my best friend and her family. This was to celebrate El’s husband’s birthday, to treat their kiddies to an outdoor adventure and to check off another goal on my list 🙂


Goal #28: Navigate a maze

The Honeydew A-maize-ing Mazes is a fantastic concept: make a huge maze out of maize plants, set up quizzes for teams to solve along the way, and change the design each year so it never gets old. The 2014 maze is in the shape of a dinosaur, and there’s a huge inflatable dino at the entrance to welcome visitors too.

Home at last

Hello there friends!

I’m back at last, finding a new normal with my Ninja and the fuzzies in our brand new home. Thanks for your patience while I was away; I’ve missed reading your blogs and sending out some cyber scribbles of my own 😉

Wow, what an adventure the past few weeks have been! Moving house sure is messy, whether you do it all in one go or bit-by-bit over many weekends like we did. Towards the end we were sleeping on just a couch cushion on the floor, with no furniture or appliances left except a tiny bar fridge that held only a few meals’ worth of groceries, and clocking hundreds of kilometres driving back and forth between the two homes on weekends. Exhausting.

Valentine’s cake and stargazing

Valentine’s Day sped by in a blur this year. Remember last year’s fanfare? Well, this year was quieter but still fun, and I used the celebration to work on two more of my goals: #22 (bake another cake) and #30 (visit a planetarium).

We went to the Johannesburg Planetarium for their Valentine’s Day show. It was really funny being in a crowd of about 150 couples! The show was cute, and one could opt to screen a personal message in the stars. This is what I wrote for my man:

Ninja

You are strong, handsome, godly, funny, loving and an incredible husband. No matter what happens in life, always look up!

With love, respect and stars in my eyes,

Zest

All together now: “Awwww!” 🙂

As I mentioned, I also managed to bake the fourth of five cakes on my 22nd goal: a fresh raspberry cake. The recipe for this treat (and all the credit!) for the cake can be found here: http://bakingbites.com/2013/06/fresh-raspberry-cake/. (The only thing I changed was using 1 t lemon juice instead of 1 t lemon zest.) Here are my pics to whet your appetite:

Fresh raspberry cake

The batter only fills part of the tin

Then you dot in the raspberries

Sprinkle the cake with sugar

And bake till it’s lovely golden colour

I can’t imagine this cake with any berries other than these tart red delights, but of course you could try other berries if you wanted to. Next time I make this I might experiment with using less sugar, as a whole cup seemed like a huge portion, but otherwise this was fantastic and gobbled up by all those I shared it with. (FYI: I did notice that it’s probably best eaten fresh, as the longer you keep it the softer the berries will become.)

Thank you, Baking Bites, for sharing this recipe with us! The sweetest side of baking is in the sharing 🙂

Goal 53: Get more rat merch

You know, of course, that my beady little eyes are always hunting for any cute rat-themed merchandise 🙂 Well, recently I’ve added two great finds to my ratty collection, which have helped me reach my Goal #53 (that’s in addition to my beautiful rat teapot and Cheddar soft toy). I don’t foresee an end to this collection, but I think I can happily cross off the goal from my list now.

First, I discovered that despite what I think of Halloween, the supposedly scary day can be useful for bring ratties onto the shelves! I unearthed this black plastic rat in the shops as a leftover from Halloween:

It’s really quite pathetic how they tried to make him all beastly, as though you’d ever find a real black rat with red eyes!

I took pity on the poor critter and brought him home. After a good coat of gesso to prime him nicely…

… I painted him to look like Mishka!

What a difference! It just goes to show: put a fancy coat and a cute face on a rat, and suddenly it’s no longer a horrible scary monster 😉

I still have a bit of work to do to finish off the details on his face and tail, but I have already painted a white spot on the back of his head, just like Mishka’s:

(I call that Mishka’s ‘kissy spot’ because when he hangs his head over a ledge or comes within my reach, that’s the spot I kiss to bits!)

I named this plastic rat Loki, because he was meant to be the dark bad guy, but throw in a bit of shape shifting he’s actually just funny! lol

The other item I snatched up was this wonderful metal coat hook:

Isn’t that perfect?! I found it at Kamers vol geskenke in Pretoria, but you could swear it was made for me.

The whole contraption fits over a standard door, with the ratties’ tails forming the hooks:

Call me simple, but this stuff just makes me really, really happy! 😀

Nibbling at the goalposts

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but some achievements come in little steps. Recently I’ve nibbled away at a few more achievements on my list of 101 goals.

For Goal #54 I decorated my hand with a new design in henna, as you know I enjoy mehndi designs like this:

Goal #54b – henna

And to chip away at Goal #55, I recently got two new button badges for my special hat.

Goal #55 – button badges

Ninja won the cute smiley face badge for me during a recent date night at the games arcade, and the floral badge I bought at a super South African craft market called Kamers vol Geskenke (lit. ‘rooms full of gifts’) 🙂

Speaking of Kamers, I discovered another great find there… but that’s for the next post.

Highveld storm season

The start of a storm

That’s not a nuke test you see in that pic; that’s a typical exquisite cumulonimbus building up in preparation for a storm. Actually, that’s just a small part of the cloud formation – it was all I could squeeze in the frame.

We’ve been seeing quite a few clouds like that one now that Johannesburg’s summer storm season has burst upon us in full force. Allow me to share with you the adventure of a Highveld summer storm…

…oOo…

It usually starts with a blazing hot day in the middle of summer. You’ve barely started work and your skin is already shiny before the clock hits 9 a.m. You’re based in an airconditioned office, though, so at first you don’t notice that the temperature is still rising.

At midday you pop outdoors for your lunch break and wham! the sun fries any part of you it sees. The shade isn’t even a relief anymore. You treat yourself to an ice cream (maybe) because, well, isn’t it just a gorgeous day… but your discomfort sends you back to the artificially cooled office pretty quickly.

By about 2 o’clock you look out the window to observe that huge white clouds are bubbling up into the sky, shining a blinding snowy white in the baking sunshine. The sky is still blue, but a bit of a breeze has picked up, and subconsciously you know what’s coming.

Around 3 p.m. the tension in the air outside has infected everyone. The wind is gusting more strongly now, and the pretty puffs of white have become ominous towers of grey and black. People start hurrying without realising it, just as the birds swirl and dive for shelter. It’s still hot, but you can feel the heat is about to break.

You race to your car the moment work ends, muttering how everyone (else) throws their driver’s licence out the window when the weather turns exciting. Join the queue of traffic and you sense a communal ripple through the hive: people hurrying to fetch their kids from school, wondering if they left the washing on the line, nervous about reaching shelter despite the comfort of their modern cars.

Then suddenly – splat! – a big fat droplet plops on your windshield. Splat! Splat! And whoooshhhhhhh! – the faucet opens full blast. The heat snaps, the visibility is zero, the air is warm and wet. Wiper blades swish and lights barely break through the waterfall as you crawl along on your homeward route.

And the thunder! Rolls and cracks and splits in the sky; lightning snaking out for the nearest hill or high point. A smash of thunder right above you makes you yelp. The heat of your breath mists up your car windows, so on goes the fan, since you can’t crack open a window without getting splattered.

If you’re lucky you might miss the hail this time (or it might miss you). If not, you’ll be stuck in your tin can in stop–go traffic with the hard white stones hammering down on you. Poor pockmarked car.

But the hail, like the heavy rain, doesn’t last that long. Within half an hour it’s over: the shower slows to a patter and the thunder rolls off to the horizon. Finally you make it home in one piece, thankful that you remembered to unplug all your valuable electronic goods the night before…

…oOo…

The great thing about Jo’burg’s summer rain is that it’s not like the stifling muggy humidity of Durban, where the warm Indian Ocean smothers the coast in low grey cloud blanket that traps the moist heat. Nor do we have the hot, persistent winds of Cape Town’s summer or the endless drizzle of their winter. No.

Jozi’s storms are electric and dramatic! They build up and blow up and often do damage… and then just as suddenly the clouds fall flat and float away, leaving behind sparkling sunshine and rainbows.

The world smells fresh and clean. The warm wet roads are left steaming after the downpour. Leaves and petals and bits of debris have been blasted against walls and windows, but the foliage that’s still intact twinkles with a thousand raindrops. The heat is gone and so is the tension of those enormous clouds. All the dirt of city life is washed away, and the evening draws to a close with the songs of crickets and frogs filling the air.

Salmon fishing in Johannesburg

It’s offishal: rats love salmon!

Recently our boys got a taste of smoked trout ribbons and salmon fish spread. (I know, they eat better than some people do. I feel bad about that sometimes. For a second or two. It’s not as though withholding a treat from my bubs will magically feed someone somewhere – it wouldn’t feed anyone at all, considering the tiny amounts it takes to please these guys…)

Anyway, they went crazy for the fishy treats, and I managed to snap a few pics of the fun 🙂

Moon grabbing and Mishka begging

Vodka testing the taste

Voddy. Must. Have. More!

Knight’s desperate flying leap to get to his fish

Definitely Ninja’s rat!

Mishka asks so nicely…

Teddy bear with his fishy feast

Those smoked trout ribbons were their best treat so far, but on a separate occasion I mixed some salmon fish spread with brown rice and veggies for their supper. That was gulped down just as quickly:

Hmmm, need a bigger bowl?

It looks like a hug, but it’s actually a warning

With Tiny out the way, Mishka’s nearly there…

MINE!!!

Footnote: Just so you know, rats are only allowed high-protein treats once in a while, and even then only in small samplings. Too much protein can cause their skin to become very itchy and scabby, almost like an allergic reaction. Under normal circumstances a pet rat only needs about 10% of its diet to consist of protein, and definitely no more than 18%. Our rats have almost no protein in their staple diet, so treats such as these once in a while are fine. And as with human diets, variation and moderation are vital 🙂

Goal #26 – Done!

Goal #26 – Participate in a 5km run/walk – is DONE!!! Today my best friend and I finally checked this fitness goal off our lists, and if I may say so, I am inordinately proud of myself for succeeding! 😀

Jozi 2013 Spar 5km Women’s Race

You see, I’ve never, ever excelled at anything physical. I’ve rarely even participated in anything physical. I’ve just always felt clumsy and not 100% at home in my skin; I don’t take part in sports, I can’t throw or catch, and I’ve believed everything people told me through the years to affirm that I’m ‘no good’ at physical activities.

Occasionally it’s bugged me that that aspect of my self has been left undeveloped for decades, but usually I forget about it because most of my living is in the emotional, intellectual and relational spheres. That’s the stuff I’m good at, so of course that’s what I’ve channeled most of my energy towards.

But then along came two factors that set me on a path to working on what I lack – and that path led me to today’s race.

The first factor was a very negative influence: a job that robbed me of everything that mattered to me (or, I let it do so). Months of erratic overtime and constant stress made it all too easy for me to compensate with feel-good foods, quick-fix dinners and zero time for exercise. In short: I got fatter and unfitter than I’d ever been in my life. This negative factor pushed me to to a place where I was desperately ready to reverse the damage and improve my physical health.

The second factor is a very positive influence: my best friend. It was her idea to do this race at first, but the more we chatted about it the more I realised that I actually really wanted to do this for me too. I wanted to do it precisely because every voice in my head was arguing that it’d be too tough and I’d fail and I simply wasn’t made for this kind of thing. I wanted to do it because I’ve spent my whole life avoiding physical challenges, which is just ridiculous!

So I had a push factor and a pull factor that got me through today. I was running away from something – from being overweight, from disrespecting my body, from making unhealthy choices, from the labels of ‘lazy’ and ‘unfit’. And I was running toward something – a physical challenge, a body I’m more comfortable in, a special achievement with my sister, new labels of ‘growing’ and ‘willing to try’.

Being among those thousands of milling women of every shape, size, age, colour and fitness level, I came to accept that there’s no need to be as hard on myself as I have been in the past. Sure, I’ll never be a pro runner; I don’t aspire to it at all. I’ll never look that way or train that way or try to fit into that mould. But hey, I can still run for fun! I can still set goals that involve hard work and physical fitness. I can still deliberately choose to challenge myself to become better for as long as the Lord grants me breath.

Today was amazing 😀

One tiny 5k race for Jozi, but one enormous leap of growth for me!

What’s hot and what’s not about life in Johannesburg

When the ‘what I’m really doing’ meme themes were all the rage a while ago, this one was one of my favourites (can’t recall now where I sourced it though :/). I discovered it again on my PC the other day and thought to write a post about living in Jozi.

What’s hot about Jo’burg

1. Johannesburg’s weather is mostly pleasant all year. Being the sunflower that I am, I thrive on the fact that we have an average of 3182 hours of sunshine each year 🙂 Divide that by 12 for a 12-hour day and you get approximately 265 sunny days in the year.
2. Jozi is green. I mean, for a big bustling city on the dry continent of Africa, this is one leafy CBD! We have millions and millions of trees of all shapes, sizes and colours filling the sidewalks and gardens and parks of Johannesburg. It’s beautiful. And I’m proud to say that in her own small way, my mom was involved in planting street trees in our old neighbourhood many years ago. I’d still love to plant a tree of my own one day too…
3. This central city of the Gauteng province is a good place to live for another practical reason: it’s where the jobs are at. There’s a massive concentration of industries and workers in Jo’burg – I guess things haven’t changed much since it began as a gold-mining town back in 1886.
4. Johannesburg is a multicultural melting pot. We have citizens and visitors from all around the world, bringing their cultural influences, cuisine and languages to this busy city. Go to any shopping mall on a given day and you’ll hear almost all of our 11 national languages spoken, as well as many others such as German, Portuguese, French and so on. In other words: you don’t need to travel far to meet someone interesting!
5. And last on this shortlist, Jozi is a central location leading to other great spots in South Africa and in the neighbouring countries. Our OR Tambo International Airport is one of the largest on the continent, which makes sense considering that Jo’burg is second only to Cairo in the bid for the largest African city. Land at OR Tambo and within a few hours you can be out in the bush (think Kruger National Park) or on your way to the coast at Durban. It’s a gateway to exploring other parts of Southern Africa.

What’s not so hot about Jo’burg

1. Uppermost on every Joburger’s mind of late is the new e-toll policy that the government is trying to force on the residents of Gauteng province. Just google ‘Johannesburg e-toll news’ if you don’t know what I’m referring to. On top of rising petrol costs and all the other taxes and dues we pay, the government has decided to charge us for using the most useful highways around the city. We’re all still waiting to see how this one plays itself out…
2. Sometimes the disadvantages to something are just the flipside of the advantages. In Jozi we have an exciting cultural melting pot, but that can quickly become a boiling pot when cultures clash. Again, google ‘Johannesburg xenophonia attacks’ if you’re curious.
3. Being the biggest South African city goes hand in hand with overcrowding, poverty, illegal dwellings and townships. Tourists often think Soweto (our largest township) makes for an exciting tour, but it also represents some of the most desparate circumstances some Jo’burg residents must live in.
4. Jozi started with the gold rush, and now both the gold and the rush are the foundation of this city. Joburgers are known for being materialistic, pushy, hard and rushed. Ninja and I grab every chance we can get to break away from the rush and try to live an anti-city life with a bit of margin in it.
5. Finally, the classic bad news linked to Johannesburg, South Africa: it’s among the most dangerous cities in the world. Figures vary for just how dangerous it is compared to, say, places like Honduras. But Jozi remains full of crime and shady characters, with so much murder, rape and other violent crime that it’s too depressing to contemplate.

Thankfully, Ninja and I know that no one place is any more or less dangerous for us, because we’re always in the same place: in the protective hands of our Heavenly Father. If His will is to keep us safe even in Jo’burg of all places, or if not, we can trust that He has us exactly where He wants us 🙂

Five years of marriage

Hello all, sorry I’ve been so quiet lately… there’s been a stack of stuff going on, much of which I’ve been longing to blog about, but there just never seems to be enough time. ANYway, I’m sure life’s exactly the same for you too 🙂

The other day Ninja and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. As clichéd as it may seem, I can hardly believe how quickly the time has passed since my wedding day 😯

We celebrated the occasion with a fancy romantic dinner at an Italian restaurant recommended to us by a friend. (Another goal worked on: Goal #70, visit 5 new restaurants. This was the third so far.) What a gorgeous dining experience! The restaurant is Café del Sol in Olivedale, Johannesburg, and here’s what we enjoyed for our three courses of the meal…

My starter

To start the evening I ordered the Italian Primavera Rolls – rice pastry rolls filled with real imported Parma Ham, rocket and smoked mozzarella, then deep fried & served with a creamy white wine sauce. They were oh! just incredible!

Ninja’s starter

Ninja chose the tasty Avocado al-Ritz, which involved pan-fried queen prawns dressed in homemade basil pesto mayonnaise, served with avocado, rosa tomatoes and a zesty Parmesan and rocket salad. (I must apologise that some of the pics aren’t that clear; it’s a bit tight trying to focus with a 50mm prime lens on a crop-sensor camera when I’m stuck at the table and can’t ‘zoom with my feet’! And I didn’t spend too much time taking pics because we were so eager to start eating.)

My main dish

I was tempted by just about everything on the menu, but since our friend had specifically suggested we try the risottos, I obeyed. I ordered the Porcini Mushroom Risotto, which is a warm creamy mix of earthy Porcini mushrooms, green peas and a drizzle of truffle oil. I was not disappointed at all, but I’d forgotten how filling a risotto can be! Next time I would definitely ask for a half portion.

My man’s main meal

Now, I ain’t no steak-chompin’ cowgirl, but whoah! Ninja’s main course was fantastic! He didn’t take long to choose the Lamb Rack (which Café del Sol rightfully claims is one of their bestsellers) – 400g of French trimmed lamb rack served on Porcini mushroom and pea risotto with a deep & delicious red wine jus. That meat just melted in our mouths (Ninja was benevolent enough to let me taste a bite).

And then came the best part…

My dreamy dessert

…the sweet treats! To round off the delicious evening, I picked the Amaretto Semi Freddo: creamy and cool, this homemade delight is drowned in the Italian liqueur Amaretto & garnished with crunchy Amaretti Biscotti. Say it with me: ‘Ahhhhh…!’ It was so good that when I took my first bite I had to hold up a hand to stop Ninja in the middle of his sentence, just so I could close my eyes and enjoy the exotic flavours. Yeah, I literally did that. Poor man 😉

Ninja’s ‘dessert’

You’d be right if you thought that looked like a starter. It’s the Haloumi Stack that my funny hubby ordered for ‘dessert’. (You see? I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that Ninja doesn’t do dessert. He wouldn’t know a sweet tooth if it bit him in broad daylight!) Still, what mattered was that he was just as happy with his meal’s ending as I was with mine…

Ninja + Zest ~ married 5 years!

…and that we’re both even happier together now than we were when we started this journey five years ago 🙂