A weekend without WarCraft... almost
Apart from a little World of WarCraft on Sunday evening, this last weekend was completely gaming-free... Instead, it was pretty damn busy, mostly with preparations for my upcoming holiday (now only 8 days away! *gulp*).
Anyway, Friday evening was a housewarming/birthday party with a dress-up theme: Boerewors, Beer and Beats. Basically it was an "Afrikaans" party, where we had to dress up, langarm (although the dancing was swiftly replaced by drinking games), and enjoy traditional cuisine like biltong, koeksusters and milktert. Alas, there seemed to be only one person at the party with a camera so it's unlikely you'll be seeing pics of me in my Springbok shirt and veld hat anytime soon.
It was a nice chance to spend time with friends I hadn't seen in ages, although I was solo the whole evening - the bf had managed to miss his flight back from the Highveld on Thursday and could only get back to Durban on Saturday afternoon. Dumbass. God protect him if he pulls a similar "working late" stunt next Friday and misses his flight to England.
Anyway, Saturday morning proved to be an expensive morning at the Pavillion as I stocked up on travel supplies - toiletries, underwear; exciting stuff like that. The most thoughtful purchase I got to make was a fluffy toy for the relatives I'll be staying with (they're expecting a baby).
I wanted something distinctly African in theme, which proved to be a challenge. As I discovered there are no touristy stores in the Pavillion. You could pick up plush monkeys and lions in Toys R Us, but they're pretty generic and can be bought in toy stores the world over. Eventually I found an African Wild Dog at The Toy Shop.
Although a tad on the expensive side, I was very happy with this uniquely African wildlife toy - I'll ignore the fact that it, and the other plush lions, leopards and warthogs in the range, are all made in China! Anyway, I'm still deciding on a name for the Wild Dog. At the moment I'm torn between Oliver, Thambo and Luthuli; the latter because everything seems to be named after Albert Luthuli these days:)
The weather was hot, sunny and still in Durban all weekend, so Saturday and Sunday afternoons were spent outside in an attempt to get a tan while I wrote up travel notes. You see, while it is incredibly informative, my Lonely Planet guide to Europe is too bulky to take overseas with me. So I've been scribbling notes, such as entrance fees, attraction opening times, and top restaurants, to complement the information in my much smaller DK Eyewitness Travel Guide, which I will be taking with me.
A woman at work saw me working on this last week and asked, "Don't you ever do anything spontaneously?" The answer is "No." I blame it on my practical Capricorn nature, but in this case I don't believe I'm being overly prepared. I know things will be very rushed during the Contiki tour, and I certainly don't want to waste what little time I have in each city with trying to decide what I want to do, and how I can get there.
Anyway, the bf got back on Saturday afternoon and we spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, re-watching favourite DVDs (300 and Team America) and overindulging in Chinese food and a Sunday lunchtime braai. And that was the weekend in a nutshell...
Anyway, Friday evening was a housewarming/birthday party with a dress-up theme: Boerewors, Beer and Beats. Basically it was an "Afrikaans" party, where we had to dress up, langarm (although the dancing was swiftly replaced by drinking games), and enjoy traditional cuisine like biltong, koeksusters and milktert. Alas, there seemed to be only one person at the party with a camera so it's unlikely you'll be seeing pics of me in my Springbok shirt and veld hat anytime soon.
It was a nice chance to spend time with friends I hadn't seen in ages, although I was solo the whole evening - the bf had managed to miss his flight back from the Highveld on Thursday and could only get back to Durban on Saturday afternoon. Dumbass. God protect him if he pulls a similar "working late" stunt next Friday and misses his flight to England.
Anyway, Saturday morning proved to be an expensive morning at the Pavillion as I stocked up on travel supplies - toiletries, underwear; exciting stuff like that. The most thoughtful purchase I got to make was a fluffy toy for the relatives I'll be staying with (they're expecting a baby).
I wanted something distinctly African in theme, which proved to be a challenge. As I discovered there are no touristy stores in the Pavillion. You could pick up plush monkeys and lions in Toys R Us, but they're pretty generic and can be bought in toy stores the world over. Eventually I found an African Wild Dog at The Toy Shop.
Although a tad on the expensive side, I was very happy with this uniquely African wildlife toy - I'll ignore the fact that it, and the other plush lions, leopards and warthogs in the range, are all made in China! Anyway, I'm still deciding on a name for the Wild Dog. At the moment I'm torn between Oliver, Thambo and Luthuli; the latter because everything seems to be named after Albert Luthuli these days:)
The weather was hot, sunny and still in Durban all weekend, so Saturday and Sunday afternoons were spent outside in an attempt to get a tan while I wrote up travel notes. You see, while it is incredibly informative, my Lonely Planet guide to Europe is too bulky to take overseas with me. So I've been scribbling notes, such as entrance fees, attraction opening times, and top restaurants, to complement the information in my much smaller DK Eyewitness Travel Guide, which I will be taking with me.
A woman at work saw me working on this last week and asked, "Don't you ever do anything spontaneously?" The answer is "No." I blame it on my practical Capricorn nature, but in this case I don't believe I'm being overly prepared. I know things will be very rushed during the Contiki tour, and I certainly don't want to waste what little time I have in each city with trying to decide what I want to do, and how I can get there.
Anyway, the bf got back on Saturday afternoon and we spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, re-watching favourite DVDs (300 and Team America) and overindulging in Chinese food and a Sunday lunchtime braai. And that was the weekend in a nutshell...
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