Eastern Food Bazaar visit; savouring the last of the summer flowers and Aisha brings home her first art activity

On Friday night we took Mum-in-law out for supper at the Eastern Food Bazaar. This is one of my and Mo's favourite places to eat. We absolutely love their curries. The kiddies however usually prefer their pizza over curry. Mum-in-law ordered the grilled chicken.

Although there are an abundance of restaurants and eating establishments in and around Cape Town, there are not many sit-down places which are certified as Halaal. EFB is one of the very few Halaal certified establishments based right in the centre of town, which makes it perfect for us.

The food orders are placed downstairs at a very long counter. Service was relatively quick, which I really appreciated, since the kids had been moaning about being hungry in the car already. The atmosphere downstairs is usually busy, loud and vibey, which means that we usually opt for the more quiet and serene upstairs eating area - where it is not quite as easy to lose one of your kids. I'm always stunned at the exquisite decor upstairs; especially the intricately carved wooden furniture.

The annoying part of the evening was that Shakeel (12) spent the most of the night playing games on his cell phone instead of chatting to us. Since Mum-in-law was accompanying us, I was unable to growl at him the way I normally would - a fact of which he clearly took full advantage. I made a mental note to give him hell when we got back home.

Dinner was lovely, as usual. Mum-in-law, who possesses culinary skills of note, noted that there was an excess of cumin in the lamb rogan josh. Luckily I'm clueless about such matters, so I was able to enjoy the dish without reservation.

On Saturday morning the kids spent time playing outside. They sadly noted that some of the plants bearing summer flowers were withering, which prompted them to make the best of the few which remained. They filled a large transparent dish with water, removed a variety of flower heads and arranged it to form a pretty little floating garden. Shakeel's role was to keep the bees away from the girls as they selected the perfect flowers for their bowl. But after failing to convince the girls to place one of the goldfish into the bowl, he lost interest in the project and wandered off to play his Playstation instead.

Yesterday afternoon we headed for the gym. As usual we dropped Nuha (7) and Aisha (2) at the children's play area at the gym, while Mo, Shakeel and Tharaa (10) swam laps in the smaller pool. I had a really intense workout - I could hardly walk at the end of it. In fact I am still aching from it (in a good way).

The best part of our time at the gym was that two-year old Aisha, who is not yet at daycare/creche, brought home her first piece of art. The older kids were so excited - they insisted that I start a file for all Aisha's 'work'.

My brother and his family popped around when we returned from gym. As usual the kids were ecstatic to see their cousins. They screeched, played and slurped chocolate ice-cream. So much fun.

As usual we rounded the weekend off by attending our calming, yet spiritually rejuvenating, Sunday evening prayer meeting. And, as usual Nuha slept right through it.

It was a lovely busy weekend.