5 Fun things to do in Cape Town this winter: – Play board games at The Big Box Café. They started their first board games shop in France and now you can experience it in Cape Town. Enjoy playing the old trusted board games or try one of the latest games available. 18 Roeland Street in…
My favourite poet is Fernando Pessoa. He was one of the greatest Portuguese poets of all time. He was born on 13 June 1888 in Lisbon. His father passed away when he was five years old. After his mother remarried, they moved to South Africa, where his stepfather was the Portuguese consul in Durban. I…
I met George Skaris many years ago when we did the Block House time trails on Tuesday afternoons. He owned a business in Verbier in Switzerland and used to spend six months a year in Camps Bay. In the meanwhile George has decided to make Camps Bay his permanent home. He has traded his ski’s…
Most mornings myself and at least five other Camps Bay and Clifton ladies swim in the tidal pool at Camps Bay beach. Rain, shine, windy, overcast, hot – we swim. As you know we have the cold Atlantic ocean and the water in winter in Camps Bay is about 14 degrees celsius. My friends tell…
I have cycled two Camino’s and walked one. I am far from the perfect pilgrim but I am passionate about walking and cycling the Camino and to this end, you are welcome to read my advise (or not). Relax and just do the Camino. The more I read about the Camino – the more nervous…
Beloftebos is Mike’s favourite place to go mountain biking. Good thing that Mike is straight and he is not looking for a wedding venue. Jokes apart, the wedding venue is really spectacular. They were setting up for a wedding, and it is out of this world beautiful. So enough about weddings, the mountain bike…
A holiday that starts with “Good Friday” can only be fantastic. I love Easter holidays, ok I love all holidays but Easter holidays mean: It will rain in Cape Town. This would usually not have been on my list of positive things, but as you know by now, we have a bit of a problem…
Foxcraft is the brainchild of Eat Out, San Pellegrino Chef of the Year, Scot Kirton, and the La Colombe pastry chef Glen Williams. Carla and I decided to celebrate her birthday with a meal at Foxcraft. We sipped on bubbly while trying to make the very difficult decision of choosing what to eat. We ordered…
Last night, my girlfriends and I went to sleep on Table Mountain. After work we packed our backpacks and set off up the mountain from Constantia Nek. The walk is quite steep with backpacks but much easier than climbing up Kasteelspoort. Last winter Mike and I walked from Camps Bay, up Kasteelspoort with fully loaded…
Americanah was published in 2013 by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which she won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Fiction award. Adichie is famous for Purple Hibuscus and Half a Yellow Sun. I loved both these books. You can watch the trailer for Half a Yellow Sun here. In short, Americanah is a love story…
My wine connoisseur friend, Cobie and her husband invited me for lunch at Mont Marie in Stellenbosch. A friend of Cobie, Deanne who is practically my neighbour in Camps Bay joined us. Mont Marie Restaurant is on the Klein DasBosch wine estate and owned by Whitey Basson. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the…
Here’s the current roundup of bars in Cape Town — a good mix for different moods. Most talked-about right now Blondie (Kloof Street) — currently considered the coolest bar in the city. Offbeat attitude, good food, queue outside most nights. The Athletic Club & Social (Buitengracht) — three floors, live jazz in the basement Trophy…
For those of you who live outside of South Africa or who don’t have time to pack a shoebox, the Santa Shoebox Project (SSB) – South Africa’s most-loved children’s charity – launches its Virtual Santa Shoebox. Now you no longer have an excuse.. The Virtual Santa Shoebox’s goal is to reach 1 110 000 children…
Dreaming of stress-free days on the beach? Sipping cocktails at a Camps Bay restaurant while you are watching the sun set behind the ocean? Sun bathing by the pool? Spending Christmas or New Year with your family or friends in a luxury villa or an apartment in Camps Bay? Ok, I am not going to…
The first part is of the route is next to a tar road. In El Cubo de la Tierra, we stopped at a bar for a short break. With Mike’s beer, he received a saucer of pork crackling. After a lot of dust and sweat – it’s delicious. The tar disappeared and made way to…
While cycling in the immense heat, I had this fantasy of doing the cycle in a cooler month. Leaving Fuenterroble, I changed my mind. It was freezing. We stopped to add all our clothes we had, rain jackets, buffs covering our ears, t-shirts and even socks as gloves. After a half hour’s cycle we passed…
As we left the hotel with our bikes, Mike realised he had left his helmet and gloves inside as the door slammed shut behind us. We were the only guests with no staff on site. I found a street sweeper originally from Malagascar who knew the neighbour who knew the owners, who said he would…
So as we waved the less beautiful town of Carcabosa farewell, the band stops playing. I wondered if it was for us? Loud all consuming music from when we arrived until 07:45am. We still don’t understand what type of festival demands such a celebration but all we know it was a “muchos fiesta”. With the…
So we set off with the sun coming up, all beautiful and everything. I read up about the challenges of the Via De La Plata: bulls, dogs and snakes. (For that reason, I grabbed the black panniers and gave Mike the red ones) Today, I realised, the modern version of Bull Fighters are Spanish Mountain…
We stayed at the Hotel AH Ágora Cáceres The reason we booked the hotel is that they were more than happy to receive our rental bikes and store our luggage until a courier came to collect it. The rooms were great (although it had that large “unemotional” hotel look) and the staff very friendly and helpful.…