Spirited away.

To understand my weekend recap you have to understand something about me first: I am a very loyal person on a positive note, turn the notion around I am also a creature of terrible habit. I will go to the same restaurants and order the same dishes and if my re-reading of favourite books is any indication, I have a serious problem. I guess it’s the German control freak part in me that likes to know exactly what I’m getting when getting something.

This weekend though the German in me was pushed down the rabbit hole thanks to my friend Ruth who was here from Jo’burg and made my other side, the I-want-to-be-a-good-host-and-show-her-lots-of-fun-new-things side.
So after a lazy Saturday – no habit breaking there – we started with a really late dinner at Societi Bistro, a place I have always wanted to go and never made it. So that was very new and exciting to me, even more so as I ordered soup, something I never ever do, but it was well worth it. So was the pasta with boereworst, which conveniently comes as a starter portion as well. I realized that though I’m a pastaholic, I usually don’t order pasta when going out since I always think I can do it better. The exceptions was Mezzaluna’s sea urchin pasta and to my knowledge they have now closed. Which calls for a sad moment of silence. So after realizing that I should order pasta when out more often, we were off to Tjing Tjing, a bar very much to my liking, which unfortunately doesn’t happen as often as I wish in Cape Town.
Sunday dawned with a late sleep in, also a thing of luxury I don’t often do. I decided to take Ruth to Cafe Milano for breakfast and treats, but since the maitre d’ wasn’t so keen on seating us as she first pretended to be we fled to Manna Epicure. I know, people have a love/hate relationship with this place mainly due to their steep prices, but I only love it and always felt it was worth every penny. To comply with the ‘taming the creature of habit’ theme of the weekend I did not order my usual sandwich, but poached eggs with salmon, avo and coconut bread. Again in capital: COCONUT BREAD.

THE coconut bread in all its glory.

I rarely rave about a single item of food , but this was just out of the world and deserves to be mentioned in screaming capitals. I asked to buy a loaf. The price? Jaaa, let’s not go there. I will rather take my favourite foodie Thekla for breakfast and have her recreate the recipe for me later.
With full bellies we made our way to the National Gallery for the Tretchikoff exhibit I had been longing to see in ages. It wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be, mainly due to the fact that two of my favourite pictures weren’t shown. DRUM magazine however had a photo exhibit on, which was stunning and inspired me very much to learn a bit more about South Africa’s history. Something a history nerd like me should have done upon arrival years ago. Not too late hopefully.
Art by the hour was enough for both of us and we indulged in a lot of very un-arty, but very funny episodes of Weeds. Yes, everybody, season six is out and available at DVD Noveau!
I peeled myself off the couch eventually as a new hot yoga studio in town has opened and unlike my studio they offer late Sunday afternoon Bikram, which I love. Mind you, I had to drive all the way to Constantia, but it was so worth it. Yogaspirit is one of the most beautiful studios have seen so far with the same bird prints I have at home, lots of wood and serenity.

 For those of you, who I don’t tell my dreams to daily – I have been dreaming of a yoga studio with rosewood floors over and over. I am not sure I would be able to tell the difference between rosewood and any other wood, but my dreams know the difference. Neither do I know whether the wooden floor at Yogaspirit is made out of rosewood, but it was the closest I have found so far and it made me quite happy. First practise without me having an angry tantrum about my knee not performing the way I want it. Chances are, I will make the to the middle of nowhere again (No offense people from Constantia, but you live far far away!).

And the moral of the story? Lesson learned. The creature of habit was tamed and is happily purring into the new week. Purr purr.

P.S. Spirited Away is the name of the movie I like loads. In case you don’t know it, check it out. It’s eerie yet beautiful and very cute.