Daniella's Ramblings

As you may know, Priscilla’s Services recently held its first social of 2018. This was billed as a Summer Nights Social at Amuse Cafe and you can read about it here. As I am somewhat involved in Priscilla’s Services I not only wanted to attend, I had to attend. I say this because I have been battling a summer cold for the last few days, but I am very happy to say that by the morning of the day of the event I was starting to feel better, so I was once again looking forward to a fun night out.

As usual, I had some dressing ‘challenges’ of my own to overcome. The event was only due to start at 7 pm, but our children had to be at home in the afternoon and our babysitter was due to arrive at 6 pm. I therefore had to be ready and out of the house before the first child was due to arrive home. I managed to get going nice and early and piled in a full day’s work by the time I had to start getting ready. I was somewhat unsure what to wear. Should I be casual (Amuse is a casual venue) or should I glam it up? Should I wear a skirt or leggings, or what? I settled on a pair of skinny jeans, my new off the shoulder pink top (I will blog about the shopping trip resulting in this purchase soon, I promise), beige cowboy boots and some accessories. Luckily my spouse had some spare time and was able to do my makeup for me. I think she did a fantastic job. As always, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few thousand words for you, in quick succession.

I was able to get myself ready (and even had time to take the above pictures) well before the youngest arrived home. I took myself off to visit my friends Lesley and Zoe at The OPC because I had not seen them in nearly three months. I arrived at the shop only to see one of my neighbour’s car parked in the parking area. I had no idea where he was, but I doubted he was in the OPC. The shop was rather busy, but thankfully free of the neighbour (I had no desire to be explaining my attire to him, not out of shame, just out of a lack of desire), so I decided not to stay for too long. I then took myself off to Cresta Mall to run a few errands.

I arrived at the shopping mall and decided to first deal with the essential errands I needed to attend to and then have some fun. I therefore took myself off to one of the pharmacies in the mall. I needed razor blades, skin care products and cotton wool. A number of years ago I bought one of the pharmacy’s ‘own brand’ razors. It was a good razor with five blades and the blades were cheap. They have run a number of ‘buy two packs of blades and get one free’ promotions on these blades, so I have not had to buy blades for quite some time. However, the time had come, and I needed some new blades. Disaster! The pharmacy in question had no blades in stock! I did however see that they had a special on a range of foot care products, so I bought that instead. I was very happy to be greeted as “Ma’am” by the person at the cash register. I then headed off to the other pharmacy to get my skin care products. Here I was again greeted correctly and treated professionally by the person at the cash register. It seems I was having a good day presentation wise!

At this point I took a quick time out to deal with some e-mails that had come in from work. One of the down sides of modern life is that you are always contactable. One of the upsides of modern life is that you can deal with urgent work matters at the mall rather than having to race into the office.

I realised at this point that ihn all the frenetic energy of getting ready I had missed my lunch and that I was feeling peckish. I decided that I deserved a little reward after all the hard work and so I took myself off to a coffee shop in the mall. I was greeted (correctly) by the waiters and I asked for a table for one and ordered a cappuccino and a slice of baked cheesecake. Cheesecake for lunch. Adulting has a number of pros and cons. Being able to eat cheesecake for ‘lunch’ (it was really more of a very late afternoon tea) if you want to is one of the pros in my opinion! The service was excellent and the waiter (an ‘older’ man) was polite, respectful friendly and he never once mis-gendered me. The cappuccino was good, and the cheesecake was very good. I was also pleasantly surprised when the bill came as the cake was well priced.

I now headed off to browse the shops. I really enjoyed myself. I had nowhere to be, in fact I was trying to eat up as much time as possible, and I could just take as much time as I liked looking at whatever I liked for as long as I liked. I spent quite some time browsing a number of different clothing stores. I have been looking for a ‘multi back strap’ bra for quite some time but I have only been able to find ones that were just too pricey for my taste. I was very happy to find not one, but two such bras at Edgars. Not only were they reasonably priced, but they were also on sale, giving additional savings. Needless to say, I bought them. Once again, I was greeted using feminine pronouns. I was very happy with my purchase and very happy with the treatment I received.

After dealing with a few more e-mails I realised that it was time to leave. I arrived at Amuse at around 6pm and ordered a coke and sat myself down at the table Dirck had reserved for us (thanks Dirck). I was responding to WhatsApp’s when someone walking past asked me (very politely), ‘excuse me, but are you Daniella?’ I looked up and saw someone, a good looking young man to be sure, standing in front of me. I had no idea who they were. I looked blankly at him and said that indeed I was. He could see that I was at a complete loss and said, ‘you may know me as Heidi’. OMG it was my Facebook friend and local drag queen Heidi van Kleef. I had only met Heidi in real life once before, at a show of hers and I had never seen her without her glitter, hair and heels before. The presence of a beard also threw me off the scent to be fair. We were able to spend some time catching up. Actually, talking to one another in person was lovely.

Soon however our guests started to arrive, and we had to suspend our conversation so that we could attend to them. We were expecting an absolute maximum of 15 people (with experience this could mean that as little as five may arrive on the night) and I was very pleased that in the end 13 people arrived over the course of the evening.

Soon we were all happily chatting away. The service was good as always and our throats were soon lubricated. After a long day hard at work most people were hungry, and I think almost everyone ordered something to eat. The food was up to the usual standard and one of the things I really like about Amuse is the portion size. Many restaurants charge a lot more for a plate of food and they seem compelled to compensate by giving you far too much to eat. Amuse follows a less aggressive pricing strategy and their portion sizes are smaller, but I find this preferable. It is a far more ‘European’ model (as opposed to what I have seen at North American restaurants) and I think it sets Amuse apart. It also makes an evening out far more affordable.

I really enjoyed my day, from start to finish. It was fantastic to meet so many people new to the scene in Johannesburg. And of course, it was fantastic to catch up with old friends and talk with people who we seldom get to interact with face to face. I also had a lovely day out and about and enjoyed all my interactions with the various people I met throughout the day.