Tags

, ,

I did a post like this for New Year’s 09/10 . The only difference was then was that I had time and was organised enough to get it up and posted at 00:00 on the 31st/1st. Not so much this year!

January

We ended 2009 with John’s family in Lady Grey and were back in Grahamstown at the Rat for New Years. After that; we kicked things off in style by moving off the farm where we had been living for about a year and into town into a lovely little house (which I still have not showed you. Sorry about that.) We moved in dribs and drabs, and drebs (?) on what felt like the hottest day of the year! My car was also giving problems; which I initially thought was going to be hellishly expensive, but turned out to be something simple. And VW and Continental gave great service. And then we had an Incident with Fluffy (NOT for the squeamish. Seriously.) I started noticing details on my walks to work. And then there was some good stuff happening at work. We also got some goldfish for the new place (sadly now, only Fork and Spoon remain) and the initial quote for the gas stove. We finished January with a potjie and I finished my tea-cloth.

February

This month started with torture. An 18km round trip walk along the beach. Not what I was expecting! I also acquired a sewing machine from my friend Jayne. I had a bad start to a morning. It was hot hot hot but I hosted my first Girls Night in a long time! John and I shared our unconventional Valentine’s Day and my little sister got engaged! I had some frustrating times with my Garmin GPS . I reminisced about family dinners around our dining room table. I was also freaking out about the start of my MBA lectures (oh how it seems so long ago) and learnt a few things in that first week.

 

March

March started out with post #200 – in which I finally got around to seeing a Doc about my back pain; I mentioned my Gran having been ill; and how little I’d seen J in the last few weeks. Things looked up and then down again when I got an iPhone; but it didn’t work (and Nashua were hopeless when it came to getting it going!). I savoured my first 2-day weekend in a long time! I lamented that winter was on the way. The biokineticist finally had an answer to my back troubles! I had a flying visit to Jhb for my cousin’s wedding. We spent a weekend in Kleinemond with friends and enjoyed being at the beach. Finally, we got our new stove! I also had sewing lessons from my friend Jayne and watch the army on military manoeuvres. We also had our first BookClub and visited the Bathurst Show. We rounded out the month with a failed attempt at paella but we did get a box of wine delivered!

 

April

I started out ranting over my iPhone…again. John and I went camping over part of the Easter weekend (photos). We were joined at ChickSoc by two French post-docs who believe fervently in real chocolate. I got a huge fright from a neighbourhood dog and had to rescue Fluffy the cat. I made a tiny whale (now a cat toy). I was excited about John getting back and making pizza dough for the first time and then he surprised me by coming home a day early and we had a wonderful weekend. The nights turned distinctly chilly and I decided I was not a winter person. I ate a pomegranate and our Stapelia flowered (it’s actually flowering again right now!). I finished my first MBA assignments and got shitty service from Ginos restaurant. We had a lovely Freedom Day holiday (more photos). I also participated in the Secret Post Club for the first time and went through one of my annual rituals.

 

May

The sniffles of April turned into a full head cold in May. Fortunately, my new laptop arrived in time to distract me before I returned to work. The was a small fire on the hillside outside town and we had a very pleasant Mother’s Day weekend. Before I knew it, lectures were happening again and I was busy busy finishing up things at work and studying for the first round of exams. Lectures were one long blur but I did win a prize! I survived the first week of lectures and treated myself. By the end of the second week of lectures, I was publishing posts I forgot to write!

 

June

I started my birthday month with a trip to the dentist…again! Then I ran out of fuel when I’d promised a friend a lift; quite embarrassing! Then I had some thoughts about religion before heading off to another BookClub (we worked out that C was already pregnant at this gathering-but had no idea!). John and I drove through to PE for a spot of shopping and I remembered a funny scuba story. I received a SecretPost gift and cooked a delicious meal from it. My birthday rolled around and I shared a tradition that I have with my friend Jax. John and I treated ourselves to a phenomenal dinner. There was a small sporting event. It also snowed! We started the planning for the annual Dance for the cricket club. We watched a show at the Festival and stayed out waaay too late! John brought me a snake…not kidding. That little sporting event continued, but SA got knocked out. We watched some brilliant Stand-Up Comedy at the Festival. I spoke about my mild depression and pulling myself out of it. And then something weird started happening…

 

July

…I made FreshlyPressed! And I was a bit shocked by it! But life continued albeit with some lovely new followers. I made Jax some pancakes. I miscounted by 300th post so the super soppy Story of Us came as post 301. We had Thai food and my friend officially announced her pregnancy (she’s due at the end of Feb). I waited for Telkom and had Nutella pancakes for breakfast and I wrote a funny recipe that was a surprise hit. I celebrated 1 year of this here little blog-thing and got internet at home decided to try for a post-a-day (which I have since quietly abandoned). There was a bit of a commotion down the road from where I work and I took some photos. I got to blog from bed too. I had wonderful dreams. Then my Gran passed away. Rest peacefully. I miss you and I love you. I wrote a bit about it. Then I went through some Red Tape.

 

August

I travelled home again and ran through ORT just to end up EXACTLY where I started off. Not kidding. And I missed out on a hunting trip through a miscommunication. John and I had a really good talk on a lovely warm spring evening and our first Date Night. I also got a few lemons! I did some shopping and some cooking (all recipes are under my ‘Recipes’ tab). We made shelves and I had an interesting conversation with a car rental company. John shaved off his pelt.  Some girlfriends and I went off shopping in PE and I had my first pilates lesson and wrote my first review. I got my cooking creativity on and participated in a Ready Steady Cook challenge. We did some cool Geocaching in an amazing graveyard (there’s a photo here). I travelled to Jo’burg and Cape Town for work and met some pretty amazing people. My sister and I drank wine at 10am and loved it. I explored the Cape pretty thoroughly!

 

September

John and I had a early sunrise breakfast at a local game reserve (we must do that more often!). I finally got around to posting the Ready Steady Cook recipes. The month continued with more studying and miscellaneous things. I wrote the teaser for the Great Road Trip stories (all posts to date are under the tab above) and had sushi at the new place in town! My brain turned to mush with all the studying as evidenced by my calling out the Telkom man. John fed his snakes. I had more weird dreams. I posted the first of the Road Trip posts. I posted photos from our long weekend at Addo National Park. I procrastinated a lot.

 

October

Started with a lot of exam stress! But it was all ok in the end.  I managed to blog the first few days of lectures…but then it all kind of fell apart! We had our Barn Dance and Canadian Thanksgiving and fell into food comas before the second week of lectures for me. I did survive though and got into the habit of getting up early but it must have affected me because I locked myself out of my own house. Then I managed to cook dinner in 30 mins and make a video of it! John and I started making a go of Meatless Mondays. The month ended badly when we got broken into.

 

November

We assessed the damage and got everything replaced that needed to be. Things got better though when another friend announce she was pregnant at BookClub! The first round of end-of-year functions was a goodie. And I found a really awesome vintage projector! I had a flying trip to Cape Town to Do Wedding Stuff and then some! Once back home, we were accompanied on our walk by a stray dog and in an effort to get some blog mojo back; I wrote a post inspired by a prompt and answered some tough questions! My brain we getting fried again by assignments but the warm weather was wonderful and I celebrated when I submitted them! I rose to a food challenge and was surprised!

 

December

And then shockingly, it was the end of the year; and there was some thinking to be done. We had another end-of-year dinner with out BookClub which was enormous fun! I caught a minor tummy bug and we started thinking about packing to go to Zim. The high heels from our BookClub party left me with a bad back so I was feeling sorry for myself even though we were excited for our trip! I think we were loosing our minds a bit-we decided we have a transvestite pumpkin. Once I got home I savoured the time with family and didn’t blog much. But there were more (scheduled) Road Trip posts!

 

And there we have it! My Year in Review! It’s been fun to go back through all my old posts. But a little scary to see just how burnt out we all got towards the end there! Hope I haven’t bored anyone too much!