Author: Ina Du Toit

Ina is made up of anxiety and a little bit of cold water. She is a 37-year-old daughter, sister, wife, mother and boss who wants to share her ways of getting on with life after losing her hearing partially. She enjoys writing, reading and cooking and is an avid planner and would like so share all these little bits with you.
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The mop and the coffee machine

At the beginning of lockdown, one of my colleagues started a WhatsApp group titled “Corona Coffee Break”. This was in an attempt to have the mindless conversations that we would usually have around the coffee machine in the morning. All went well until one day we had a whole discussion about which mops are the best. We were all at home at that time, with our spouses and pets and children (everything was closed), and us privileged little office workers were confronted with the fact that we had to mop our own floors. Never in our entire lives would we have had a discussion around the coffee machine that campaigned for the specific bucket that was required and the best plan for pet hair. But there we were.

The Engineer started going back to his office every day towards the end of last year. He said that altough he loves working from home for various reasons, it is just better to be in the office. He also predicted that their CEO will summon them back soon anyway. So off he went with his lunchbox and laptop bag.

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New year socks

I have been neglecting this little corner of mine for various, boring reasons that I am not going to get into, because they are going to sound like excuses. Today will be my second day back at work this year. The home office has migrated back to the Publishing offices as I have struggled off late to keep work away from home.

So this post should be the motivational beginning of the year post that have been flooding my inbox and social media. Truth be told, I am not feeling it. I am not a huge fan of the festive season. It creates expectation and gatherings… so many gatherings… and at the end of the day, we tend to miss the whole point. We also overindulge and pick fights with the family (in no particular order).

A beautiful friend of mine chooses a word at the beginning of every year. I am not really into new year’s resolutions (as I tend to disappoint myself), but I like the idea of having a theme of sorts. Something that reminds you of who you are and where you are going. Something that can pull you back towards yourself and keep you focussed.

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Fireside dinner menu # 29 – the holiday highlight edition

To make up for my silence, I will be enticing you with a menu fit for any holiday. Apologies to those who have decided to only eat salad in January.

The stuffed pork neck was a wonderful surprise and loved by all (especially the cook because it was easy AND budget-friendly). Also featured today are Hasselback sweet potatoes, Trinchado, Bobotie burgers and baked meatballs. I did these with beef instead of lamb. The tomato risotto has been posted before, but I am sharing it again, because it might just be my favourite side.

I realised that not all of you know that these are linked. All the underlined dishes have a link to the recipe in the PDF that you can download below… that’s why I bother!

FSM-29-menuDownload

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Date night with Dad

A few weeks ago one of our service providers invited me and the Engineer to a dinner and wine tasting hosted at a beautiful boutique hotel very close by. Yes, please! As it happens at the end of the year, however, the Engineer was summoned to another province at a moment’s notice leaving me by my lonesome as a single parent to the lilliputians for a few days. He was however kind enough to organise that his parents do grandparent duty for one evening, leaving me to still attend the event. I did however not feel like going solo. I tried a few colleagues but they could not make it, and then I decided that the person who loves wine even more than me, is my dad. So with one phone call, I had a date.

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