Adventure Time

So, when I moved back to Cape Town, one of my mates started a whatsapp group with a few of us and aptly called it "Adventure Time". It originally started out as a way for us to organise a few movie nights. However, as time passed, our group grew. More adventurous people joined us.

Now, instead of finding ourselves going to chilled movies and sushi or tea with my cheese muffins, brownies and other yummy things, we found ourselves doing a lot more adventurous things. Like going to musicals and walking out to dinner (which resulted in me spraining my ankle...too much wine of an adventure too soon, perhaps?).

Birthday Brownies

There was also that one time when two of our members decided to wake up at 4am to go and hike to the top of Table Mountain in the HOPE that they would see snow when they got to the top. That proved to be way too adventurous too early in the morning for most of us. They got lucky and it started snowing while they were exploring the top of the mountain!

Think it was worth getting up at 4am to see this amount of snow?

We've been a bit more adventurous recently and last weekend we managed to spend a weekend in the Cedarberg, which was great! I'll be posting more on that weekend soon!

July Christmas

A few weeks ago my friend, Kelly, hosted an amazing Christmas in July at her new flat. There was a great mix of people and we had such fun getting into the (July) Christmas spirit. Here are some of her decorations - personally, I think the melted snowmen were great! I also think that, since by birthday is in winter, I know what I want to do for my next birthday! Take a squiz at these pics...

Table Decor

Fun Sticks

Who doesn't love July-mas

Great photo accessories (and Frosty finally picked his nose!)

Who doesn't sometimes need a little bit of melted
snowman to keep you hydrated!

What Fruit Best Describes You?

"What fruit best describes you?"

Random? 

Yes.

Remember-able? 

Definitely

Kinda strange? 

Only when you spend a good amount of time thinking up an answer, only to be told (when you ask the person originally doing the asking exactly the same question) that they don't know and they only asked you that to break the ice... 

About a week ago a bunch of friends came over to our house after a dinner out. The topic of an app called Tinder came up. I had no idea what this app was, so after having it explained to me (it's an app that helps you connect with people but is mainly used for dating), we got to chatting about it. 

It was rather interesting chatting about the different ways of starting a conversation with a person over a dating app. My friend who was asked the fruit question wasn't too impressed when they didn't get a reciprocal response to the fruit question. I don't think I would have been too impressed either. 

I can't say I've ever used any of these apps, but I would say that, if you were to use an app like this, a far safer opening line to break the ice would be a line given to me by another friend who uses this app: "Hey :)" 
(It's apparently much less threatening, a lot more genuine and doesn't come across as creepy). 

What are your thoughts on using applications for dating? 

Worth it or waste of time?

How would you approach someone using some method of virtual-connection?

Procrastination List

So, now that I've hit the 1 year mark with Practical Cookie, I seem to have hit a rut in terms of my blogging. I thought instead of trying to think up new posts, I would share what I do when I'm procrastinating trying to think up new posts:

• Trying my best to finish this course from Udacity (a site which offers free and paid courses on a variety of topics). I'm on to the final strait but every time I think I've solved the problem, the automatic markers returns my code with a message saying that my code doesn't work for a certain code case. I've been stuck on this for about a week and just want to get it working so I can start my next course!
• Getting completely and utterly lost in the world of words (aka reading).
• Preparing for and getting ready to finish off the HCD course that we started a while back as a team building exercise for EWB-WC.
• Sleeping. Or else thinking about sleeping.
• Cooking because I'm going away this weekend with a bunch of people and I'm sorting out dinner for Friday night.
• Watching cool plays (like Oklahoma at the ArtScape Theatre) and going out to dinner with visiting friends and cooking dinner for other friends.

Hopefully I'll have an epiphany be back to more consistent posting soon!

On Being A Bookworm

I have always been a bookworm. Not just your average bookworm, but one who, when she was younger, hardly left the house without a book in her hand.

There's something enchanting about losing yourself in a story. It doesn't matter whether this story is real or make-believe. What matters is the ability to peek into another world, into someone else's story, even if it's just for a part of their journey. This world could be a fantasy world of wizards and dragons. Or perhaps a real-life world of funny veterinary escapades. Or maybe a fictional world of plausible real-life experiences.

Books are the safe-houses of stories. Stories where your views can be completely challenged. You can suddenly realise just how little you thought knew about a particular subject. You can debate with world leaders through the eyes of your narrator in one book and be exposed to an underworld that you didn't even know existed in the next.

I have seen worlds that exist only in one's imagination and lived a thousand different lives, all through the pages of a book. These don't replace real-life experiences, but I think they allow me to experience real life in a richer context.

So, when was the last time you completely lost yourself in a story? 

Some of my favourite days are made up of
extra large coffee mugs, cold weather and a good book.

Practical Cookie Turns 1!

It's been a year since Practical Cookie first started. This is a major milestone. And when I mean major, I mean that I tried blogging in high school and stopped. I tried blogging in varsity and stopped. I tried blogging again in varsity and stopped again. Finally, when I was bored in the evenings in Benoni and Bokburg, I took to blogging as a way of keeping myself busy.

Now that I've moved back to Cape Town I'm no longer bored, however I find myself spending more and more time thinking about posts to share with you. Sometimes I don't post as often as I hope, but at the beginning of this year, I decided to try and post twice a week (or 8 times a month) and I think I've been sticking to that goal, more or less.

I've been told it's good to take stock every now and then, to assess where you've come from and where you're going. My 1 year of blogging seems as good a time as any to do this, so here's my list.

• Learnt: I had missed writing, until I started writing again. I like sharing my thoughts, pictures, recipes, random ramblings.
• Achieved: blogging more or less consistently for a whole year!
• Enjoy: planning my posts, sharing the places I've been, trying to figure out what path I want to take Practical Cookie.
• Future: Try to blog twice a week, do a bit more blog planning and have a few blog posts "on tap" at any one time.

My Practical Cookie mascot that I designed earlier this year!

I hope that you've enjoyed the journey as much as I have! If you want to keep up with my posts, feel free to go and like my Facebook page. Or follow me on Instagram.

First Thursdays

The first Thursday of every month, central Cape Town shops,restaurants and galleries keep their doors open until late, to allow people to explore the central city a bit more. This event is called First Thursdays and it's been around for a while, but until a few months ago I hadn't ever heard of it (probably a side effect of living in Joburg and then the southern suburbs!)

An interesting find on our explorings

Last month I went to this event with a group of friends and it was great. It was my first time going and I had such fun! We all met up to say hello and then split into smaller groups while browsing the streets, finally meeting up again for a delicious dinner at Royale Eatery. If you're looking for something fun to do in Cape Town and you're around on the first Thursday of the month, I would definitely recommend this evening out! 

To find out more about the event and how it works click here. 

To see Royale's web site click here (I would definitely recommend their sweet potato fries!).