good eats and explosive treats

The days continue to be long and busy for us here. This week will bring the house repairs to a close (Halleluiah!). The only downside to this is that all the paint fumes we have been huffing for the last week and a bit have provided and excellent scapegoat for what ails us. Not sleeping well? Must be the paint fumes.  Hungry all the time? Blame it on the paint fumes. Singing show tunes?  Definitely the paint fumes. 

While we wait for the paint to dry, we’ve been keeping busy with one of our favorite pastimes: eating. Because he is the very best husband and remains vigilant for any signs of homesickness exuded by yours truly, Brendan took me out for breakfast on Sunday to a place he knew I would love. Melissa's has a couple sites around Cape Town and is highly reminiscent of The Pantry.  Fine foods to go, lovely home wares, and a small eat-in restaurant. It is a good thing I am not driving yet because my independence will likely involve significant sums spent at Melissa's. Brendan had a magnificent looking (and tasting) eggs florentine. My breakfast was a total winner: a freshly made croissant filled with warmed brie, crispy bacon, and fried banana. Don't knock it till you try it, and man do you want to try it. 

The nights have still be quite cold, so our little fireplace has come in handy.

In addition to warming us up, it has a soporific effect on our favorite feline. The heat also seems to melt his spine away and he ends up oozing into whatever corner he is in. 

Apparently that is comfortable way to sleep. 

Last weekend brought the demolition of these two looming and crumbling out-of-use cooling towers in Cape Town. We had a pretty good view of them from the balcony off the office Brendan and I are in, so we invited friends to join us and Sue (who is now visiting for 3 weeks) for coffee and tea and destruction. Unfortunately for most spectators, they were blown up 4 minutes ahead for schedule (there was a squall moving in) and part or all of the event was missed. 

Now you see them:

Now you don't:

Ending on a humorous note, I saw this sign in front of a church here a few days back. For translation purposes: hoot=honk; SMS=text. 

Someone clearly has a sense of humor.