I don’t actually want to discuss too much of the end of last week. Because it was hectic, and I was very much in the weeds, and, well, suffice to say I just don’t feel like discussing it. The good news was though that because I was so busy and not getting much sleep I was able to force myself into the three days of rest (!!) in a week that is what I knew I should take. And right now, I am excited to get back to the gym next week so all is good. Hopefully I can find the time … but I must.
I did find the time to go down to Parliament and meet with the MP I’d met a couple of weeks back. Very sharp guy. Very. I was even more impressed this time than last time because you can really get a much better sense of a person one on one. I started by explaining what heart is and where we are going and he got it. Fast. And I wasn’t giving it to him easy, either. Gave me some good ideas and some leads that may turn into some good ideas, we shall see. He’s off to the States for three weeks just now (!) as a guest of my government. My tax dollars at work, apparently. It’s early days but as much as I really didn’t have time for this meeting, relationship building is important.
On a totally separate note, can I just say … Parliament? I have seen better security in some corporate HQs. It’s kind of cool, though, there is like a whole road that is cobblestones with government buildings on both sides, it’s not just the one main building you think of as Parliament. Anyway that was that … then that night I was like 90 minutes late for dinner with friends because I was stick in Philippi.
The next day … picked up one friend at the airport, dropped her off to sleep, back to work, something like 90 minutes late to pick up the next friend due to various things and a Skype call with my boss that I wanted to be 10 minutes and wound up being 59 (!), and then I dragged this poor friend out with me to Philippi again to observe as we measured and marked out locations in the … never mind, it’s boring. On the drive out of town though got to see something very cool – a guy was repairing a car from a hole in the ground! Guess that’s the low-tech way to do it!
The first picture above is one that she took of our drive back to Cape Town from the township. Love the colors and the composition!
So Friday night stopped for wine quickly quickly before 8pm when they stop being able to sell wine, gathered ourselves and headed down to Simon’s Town. Had some dinner, then went back and drank wine. Took me a good bottle to calm the heck down.
Saturday one friend was sick with flu, and I was dehydrated so I ate a scone with my coffee (poison, poison!!) and took my other friend out to Stellenbosch. We went first to Simonsig because I like the wine then stopped by this place I’d never been before called Slaley’s or something like that, mainly because we wanted to taste the olive oil (which is fantastic and cheap, I bought the last 6 bottles of last year’s vintage). But we wound up talking to the guy who owned the farm for like an hour about everything from rowing to the X Prize to what constituted a good Cape Blend. Fantastic. I tell you what constitutes a good Cape Blend: Lindsay’s Whimsey at R29 a bottle. I bought a case and damned if I’m not going by there on Friday to buy several more…
Lunch @The Big Easy, then to Tokara (for the view, not the wine or the service thank you very much). Our return trip featured several failed attempts to buy decent food to cook for dinner so we wound up going out. Then we hosted a party for several hours and all things considered I was glad that ended early because I was so tired that I fell asleep on the couch! Bed never looked so good…
So there is this hill you have to drive up to get to the house. It’s what you might call a real first gear hill ... I tried to go up it in second gear the first time and that was a miserable failure. It is at least 45 degrees, if not 48 or 50, and is about 100m long or so. When I first saw this hill I announced I was going to run up it, so what did I do? Yep, I woke up, got dressed, and proceeded outside to run up the hill. Now before you start any workout you need to know in your head what you are planning on doing. I did not do that before this workout. I thought well, the hill is hectic, so maybe 3? Then I ran the first one and thought hmm, that wasn’t so bad (but then again I was only going at maybe 90%). I was taking short breaks … just catch my breath and walk back down and return up again so maybe 60 second breaks off of 25-30 second sprints. So I decided after running 1 that I was going to do 5. Let me tell you the last 10m of that fifth one is one of the hardest things I think I have ever done! It took me several minutes to be able to get up, and then I think I staggered up the stairs back home and it took me literally another 5 minutes to be able to recover sufficiently to feel normal, I was starting to wonder if I had actually managed to over-exert myself! But, I was fine. Good thing I didn’t go for 10… maybe next time. And a little more rest in between. And a stopwatch…
Sunday again we did the touristy things; penguins @Boulders, Cape Point, and Chapman’s Peak Drive through Camps Bay and then to the Woolworth’s for food and made some absolutely fantastic roasted chicken (I was working not cooking…), stuffed butternut and swiss chard. Which I am now actually thinking of as spinach. Help me. I also managed to say ‘now now’ the other day in conversation completely by accident. True.
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