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This is my second Christmas I’m celebrating since moving to Johannesburg, and truth be told, it’s a far better one than last year in that I can actually celebrate a little without thinking that I don’t have a salary to spend… Last year this time I was still recovering from having my bank account cleared out thanks to ATM fraud.

I’m not with family today… rather, I will be seeing Rozz and Nick a little later today for lunch, then will probably go see a movie, then come home to the housemates and have dinner with them.

I cooked a nice Christmas Eve dinner for us last night:

Chicken, cooked in red wine, ginger and garlic… end result, chicken that tastes really nice and non-chicken-like that is tender enough to cut with your fork.

Add to that, my trademarked cream mushrooms (cooked in garlic, lemon juice and cream with lemon pepper), gnocchi, pineapple chunks, gherkin chunks and a little blue cheese and you have a very very rich and aromatic meal.

I also made my idea of Christmas in a Cup:

Melt some bournville cocoa chocolate, add cinnamon and sugar and some Amaretto, let that mix, then add milk and coffee to taste and serve in a mug.

After dinner, the girls decided it was time to get online and hit the dating sites to see who was lonesome on Christmas Eve. Tarryn had her laptop and Sharlene commandeered mine, leaving me to amuse myself by watching and listening to their reactions as they browsed the sites.

One particular trend I noticed was that Tarryn would browse some poor sod’s profile, commenting on the negative aspects of said person, or photos, etc in the profile only to exclaim, “Ooh, he’s a doctor!” a few seconds later, adding what would have been a non-candidate to her favourites list.

This continued till the early hours of this morning, by which time my sides were hurting from all the laughter.

Ah well, it was good fun. And harmless too. It’s also nice to come home to people I can relax around and relate to on some level. With some of the previous housemates, I have not had that luxury. Now, I look forward to coming home and hearing the antics of the girls. It’s certainly entertaining to see the chaos they cause in their own lives.

Any folks, hope you have a good and safe festive season further. Let’s all try and make it through the rest of the year and see in 2008 without incident, and make it a better year than 2007.

2007 was a tough year… let’s hope 2008 bears the fruits of our labours in 2007.

Last night I celebrated an odd anniversary… I’ve survived one year in Johannesburg.

Why did I celebrate? Partly, it was a tongue in cheek celebration, poking fun at all the people that predicted my hasty return to the coastal life… And partly a celebration with the people I’ve met (and known from before) in this last year.

We met at McGinty’s in the Brightwater Commons in Randburg. My thanks to the people that arrived and celebrated with me:

• Matthew and Marti
• Gary and Kati
• JJ and Vanessa
• Rozz and Nick (and John, however briefly)
• Jacques and Jenny
• Louise and Lana
• Karl
• Pieter, Tania and their daughter, Zania
• Grant and Rika
• Jon and Elke
• Peter

Today, one year ago, I moved into the commune where I live now. A year down the line, it looks like I may be the only resident of the original batch that remains, the landlord having taken matters into his own hands to remove some unwanted elements.

Tempus fugit… time flies…

I’m not one for socializing with work colleagues much, but I’ll admit I have a soft spot for those with kids, like Yolanda, the project manager here at ISA.

She’s always talking about her 18 month old daughter, Taneka, and I noticed that the only photos she has of her are taken either with her cellphone camera or with a small digital camera.

So, I offered to take some photos of them together, down at a local park in Fourways, around the corner from where we both stay, well, close being a relative term in Johannesburg

I went through 3 spools of film… going to hand them in on Monday and get them scanned to CD.

I must admit that the afternoon reminded me of times with my friend Rob, his daughter, Timeah, who is also my goddaughter. Bouncing around a park or playground, taking photos, laughing with the kids, being a kid at heart myself again.

In some ways, I think I’m living out my Mother’s wishes for a grandchild through these sessions. With my godchildren (I have 3) and the children of those I call friends, I get to capture photos of them the way I would one day hope to do with my own child.

Anyway… on to less somber thoughts…

That afternoon also set the mood for the weekend… I’m house-sitting for another colleague, Matthew, who is away at Kruger Park for his birthday weekend away with family.

It’s been a relaxing time. No noisy housemates. No fights at home. Not having to lock my groceries away because certain people cannot keep their hands to themselves.

So I’ve spent the time watching the Animax channel on DSTv, enjoying some of Matt’s wife’s homemade coffee icecream (to die for, I might add), playing a bit online and trying to understand the though processes of their cats, Storm and Jewel, with no real luck…

Hope everyone had a good weekend as well. Back to work tomorrow.

Today I went through to the Good Food and Wine Show at Gallagher Estate with Gary and Kati. I’ve often heard of events at the estate but never been to any of them since I’ve moved here to Johannesburg, so I was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about.

The show wasn’t bad, but I must admit, if not for the company, I probably would not have stayed there long. Seeing as I’m not a wine drinker (it has a nasty habit of leaving me curled up in a ball of pain after even one glass) the only other item was interest was the food, which, sadly there was not much of.

I did manage to find some decent chili relish and some jalapeño cream cheese though. So not all was lost. Had some semi-decent sushi, some dry wors, plenty of samples of pesto and relish, some gluten-free breads and chocolates, brandy berries, cheeses, etc, etc…

Other than that… it was crowded. Noisy. Hot.

It was a far more pleasant afternoon, having a simple braai with Gary and Kati, talking about graphics, games (they are two World of Warcraft addicts), networking, horses, photography… And to end it all off, a perfect Johannesburg storm to add some pyrotechnics. What more can a person ask for?

Anyway, back to work tomorrow… these weekends are too damn short.