How it Started - by H

They really do call me H, and my husband Boy. I’m pretty sure if we’d decided to come up with our own aliases, we might have gone with something cooler.

We were out at dinner recently, and Boy asked me what I have always wanted to do, that I hadn’t got around to doing yet. No, it wasn’t due to an awkward lull in conversation. Truth be told, he’s picked up in our 7 years together that I’m a terrible procrastinator- more of an obsessive planner and flitter than an actual do-er. Meanwhile, Boy is a serial hobbyist. A normal person might say “wow, that looks interesting- I’d love to try that someday”. My husband’s philosophy is “why someday? Let’s do it NOW!”  As a result, our home is a haven of bonsai trees, cycling equipment, fishing gear, knife making books, fancy photography equipment, canvas paintings and home-made candles*.

*That last one was his attempt to get me into a hobby. Because I love candles, he figured I would probably have more fun making them myself. Naturally. And it has been fun, but since he bought me the 25kgs (!) of wax along with all the other candle making paraphernalia I would need, he has possibly made just as many candles as I have. And mostly, his turn out friggin better than mine.

Anyway, back to the dinner. We were at Barrister’s in Rondebosch, one of our absolutely favourite restaurants. Boy, thinking it is completely normal to have hundreds of hobbies and interests, was a little concerned about me. Surely my daily pottering around and occasional tendency to space out staring out of the window daydreaming isn’t normal? Surely I must have a void in my days that needs filling? (I really don’t- my daydreaming keeps me quite busy actually). But I thought about his question, and I answered “You know, I’ve kind of really always wanted to start a blog.” I love words, and writing, and thinking, so it’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while.

As I was telling Boy about my blogging aspirations, I made the mistake of mentioning that food blogs were pretty big at the moment. My rambling was cut short when I noticed a familiar glint in my husband’s eyes. Thing is, in all his mountain of hobbies, his absolute passion is the kitchen. He loves cooking and creating dishes. Being Greek, this is a passion I share with him, and we love “playing” in the kitchen together, but as with all things that Boy does, he takes that passion to a whole new level, and while I’m more of a good home cooking kind of person, he loves to turn cooking into an art, experimenting and often producing pretty gourmet stuff. I’m a lucky girl.

I had him at “food blogs”. He’d forgotten that the point of the conversation was him trying to make sure I had some meaning in my life… “I also want to blog! We should start a blog together!” And here we are. If Boy hadn’t fallen in love with the blogging idea, I’d almost certainly still be thinking about thinking about getting started, but he has already tried out 3 different recipes to blog (while I’ve spent longer than I care to admit musing over what I should write in my introductory post).

Boy’s first recipe is in honour of Barristers, where we made to decision to start this blog. I once ordered something called “Fillet Rossini” there- and I fell in love with it. I told Boy it was culinary genius, and had him taste it. Not just because I’m nice, but because I know my husband- he took a couple of bites and said “okay, I think I’ve got it, I’ll make it for you”.

I really am a lucky girl!