An indoor day, kind of

The first blustery, rainy day of true autumn sent me scuttling straight for the recipe books - what else is there to do if you can't be outside? It's the perfect opportunity for curry and luckily I had all the ingredients in the store cupboard for my old favourite, a Malay recipe which is more fragrant than spicy, although I do enjoy a real gut-burner from time to time. The only disadvantage of making your curry from scratch and not using curry powder is that most mouthfuls are punctuated by the distinctive taste of a clove, or a piece of cassia bark or that ultimate horror, biting through a cardamom! That always seems to be reserved for the last mouthful and stays with you for a long time!

I also relented and made the first hot pudding of the season - apple crumble. Having run out of flour - I very seldom use it these days - I hotfooted up to the deli, where they only had non-GMO (fantastic find!) stoneground, unbleached flour from a family concern out near Caledon. So local is definitely lekker! It was R36 for 2.5kg which I thought was a bargain given its properties. It should last for most of winter at the rate I use flour.

A trip to the fleamarket at Muizenberg yielded excellent results yet again - my favourite coffee at R35 less than the shops! Pie dishes at 1/6 of the retail price. Razor blades, deodorant, shampoo and make-up, all sealed and within sell by dates, vastly cheaper than normal. A very fresh north-westerly was blowing down from the Peninsula mountain chain, flapping the awnings and makeshift shelters that the traders use, and it wasn't long before they were dismantling everything and calling it a day. Those who had sturdy canvas tents sat very comfortably, hardly noticing the bad weather, and it seems that their example should be followed if traders want to make a living out in the open. Needless to say, the ice cream van didn't bother to turn up!

As usual, the sun has come out just before it sets. I don't think we ever have a day in Cape Town where the sun doesn't peep out at least once. As my grandmother used to say, all you need is a patch of blue sky big enough to make a sailor a pair of trousers, and it means the weather is clearing.