The girl with the green umbrella

This perhaps isn’t the most appropriate photo for 25 December, given that much of South Africa celebrated Christmas – sorry about that. Still though, if you also celebrated Christmas, I hope that you had a peaceful day, commemorating the occasion with those you love.

Camps Bay beach

Imagine being an alien and arriving at earth to observe our race. Assuming that (a) aliens exist, and (b) their world doesn’t have the concept perfect beach weather, wouldn’t our practice of spending time at the beach look kinda odd?

Beach volleyball at Camps Bay

Picnic at the beach

We’re definitely not into preparing our own picnic baskets – you could say that we’re a little lazy that way.  So I guess you’d understand why, when Cravings Delicatessen offered us a complimentary pick-’n-choose style picnic, we naturally couldn’t refuse!

We placed our order beforehand, and arrived at Cravings in Sea Point (map) at about nine-thirty; that gave us time to enjoy a cappuccino first before grabbing our breakfast picnic bag and heading down to the warm and windless Camps Bay beach. I hired a beach umbrella from one of the local operators (the best R25 that I’ve spent in a while) and quickly unpacked the coolerbag, while Kerry-Anne munched some yummy biltong, which her taste-savvy nose had ferreted out from among the treats packed in by Cravings.

Included in our bag of goodies was the best home-made ground chicken burger that I’ve ever tasted (seriously), a huge wrap that was absolutely stuffed with fresh salmon, a cheese and jam croissant, one family-sized bowl of yummy frozen yoghurt (made from plain Bulgarian yoghurt), a protein shake, a mixed fruit smoothie, dried mango strips, a packet of hot-air-roasted nuts and the bag of much-appreciated biltong (which you may be interested to know is indeed halaal!).

Cravings focuses on good, healthy food; they have a fairly large variety to choose from, so visit their website for the complete menu and price-list. They supply a light-weight cooler-bag for which they hold a R120 refundable deposit. Disposable cutlery and paper napkins are included in the bag, but do remember to bring your own blanket (or towels if you intend heading to the beach).

A cooper, a barrel, and a lot of brandy

Jean, our guide, took our little group through to the distillation room where she explained the process by which wine is turned to brandy. We then moved though to the room shown in this photo where Neville Ebrahim, a seasoned cooper, demonstrated the process by which barrels used to be made.

In this photo Oom (Uncle) Ebrahim was showing us how coopers used to shape staves that form the brandy barrels. His demonstration was certainly a highlight of our visit to Van Ryn’s – I’d encourage you to take a tour if only to see Oom Ebrahim in action.

Tours start at 10h00, 11h30 and 15h00 on week days except for Sundays and public holidays when the last tour is given at 13h00. Visit Van Ryn’s website for more information about the tastings and tours.

Rhythm of Africa with The Drum Cafe

For the next half hour or more the group from Drum Cafe taught our posse of 100 rhythmically-challenged IT geeks a series of basic rhythms that culminated in a finale comprising everything we’d learned. It’s difficult to explain how awesome the sound of 100 beating African drums is and how it seems to tug at the fibre of every African’s being. Group drumming with Drum Cafe – or any such group for that matter – certainly is one of those must-do experiences.

The Traffic fashion show at Trinity

I, and a few hundred other folk, spent the evening at Trinity Supperclub (a restaurant in Cape Town) being entertained by DJ’s and treated to delectable chocolate delights from Café Le Chocolatier in Franschhoek. After a little patient waiting the first of the 10 models descended from an iron staircase to the catwalk to display some of what Traffic Clothing’s store will be stocked with for Summer.

If you’d like to see a few more photos (besides for those below) – I’ve uploaded a few of the models in action to a Facebook album here.

View my article about Traffic’s 2011 Winter Collection for info on where and how to buy Traffic’s designer gear.

Watching the view

I’ve spent a lot of time looking out over the peninsula from this vantage point and it never ceases to wonder me that 260 million years ago the top of Table Mountain was at sea level. How weird is that?!

Walking the narrow path

Have you taken time to consider how different your life could have been if you, say, hadn’t taken that job; or you’d grabbed that opportunity to travel abroad; or if you had stopped at that red traffic light? Wouldn’t life be awfully interesting if when you reached the end of the road you had an opportunity to live it all over again?

I took this photo at the Majik Forest in Durbanville.

School photos

I use to hate having official photos taken at school. I’m not sure if it’s common practice internationally, but here in South Africa it’s the norm to have photos taken each year. Perhaps it was relevant in previous years before high-end digital cameras became such common place – but now, I wonder if it’s still as necessary.

Does anyone perhaps know the schoolgirl in the photo? I have her photo.

Beach chairs and ice-cream sticks

Have you ever hired beach chairs? I never have – but I think I’ll be doing so this summer! I can just imagine lying under an umbrella, on a beach chair, holding a well-laden ice-cream stick and sipping on a cold cooldrink.

Malawian art

Jake, the Malawian artist in the photo, commented in me taking photos and then quickly proceeded with his sales routine. I wasn’t in the market for paintings – but since I wasn’t in a particular rush to get anywhere I didn’t mind listening to his story.

Jake and his brother are from Malawi and came to Cape Town (like many other foreign nationals) to seek a better life. I don’t know if he’s found the better life, but he spends his days near the sea selling paintings and at night goes home to work on more stock – which doesn’t sound too bad, right?

Unfortunately, often these guys can’t afford good accommodation, so they often don’t live in the very nice conditions. Given this, and given the wealth of Camps Bay that they face each day, I find it extremely admirable to see how jovial they seem; on the outside at least.

For reference, before negotiating Jake will offer you a painting at R180 (which isn’t a bad price for art, actually). If you don’t have the money on you, he’s fully prepared to negotiate the price – but don’t be too stingy now. Ok?

Devin The Juggler playing with fire

Us humans are so enchanted by fire – have you ever stood at a fire and just stared into the flames? That, and wonder, were more or less the feelings that I had while watching the burning ropes flash across the stage.

If you ever have the opportunity to see Jon-Peer’s fire act – you shouldn’t pass it up.

Edit: In case you’re wondering, after publishing this post I realised that I had mistaken Jon-Peer for Devin The Juggler. Consequently I’ve edited this post to correct the information. I’ve seen Devin’s crystal ball act at a corporate function a few months back and it was freegin’ phenomenal – visit Devin’s website for information and bookings.

Where in the world is Phileas Fogg?

Even though I was dressed well enough, I still felt somewhat underdressed in comparison to many of the other party-goers who had dressed in perfect old-English style. Something that caught my eye was The Little Hattery’s table where those who felt slightly under-dressed could spruce up their look with hats and head accessories. Don’t you think this one would have suited me just perfectly?

Meulwater Wild Flower Reserve

We took a drive around the back of the little town of Paarl and along a dirt road to the Meulwater Wild Flower Reserve (map) that overlooks Paarl. The reserve has a small parking area with a spot for people to picnic and even has a few formal braai spots.

In my next couple of posts I’ll show you a few more photos taken in the reserve’s small well-kept garden.

All kinds of things

At the market you’ll find a huge variety of items from garage tools, to old LPs, computer bits and pieces, old camera lenses and accessories, plastic containers, clothing, and much much more. If you’re a compulsive buyer, allow me to suggest that you take a limited amount of cash with you, else you’ll end up bringing home far more white elephants than I think you could imagine.

The Milnerton Fleamarket

The market was previously located a little further along the R27 at a particularly dusty spot which, combined with the wind, made visiting the market a little unpleasant. Today the market is located on a long stretch of dust-free tarmac and each trader has a clearly marked out and numbered spot (which makes it easier to find particular stalls on return visits).

Old couple walking

When you’re old some day you’ll be glad that you kept yourself active.

Graffiti at Son Skate Park

If you missed my previous two posts about Red Bull Manny Mania – click here to read a little more about the event, and hey, you may even decide to dust of your old board and compete in Durban or Johannesburg.

Notice how the dad in the photo is keeping his young-one focused on the ramps? I’m sure he’s going to be a champion some day!

 

The evening started off with us enjoying canapés, drinks (kindly sponsored by Pongracz, Bisquit, Nederburg, and Peroni), and smooth tones from an electric cello – played by the lovely Carol Thorns. As the evening progressed, the music switched to beats produced by DJ Lady M as the models took to the ramp wearing clothes by Stefania Morland, Philosophy, Jagadi Haute Couture and Jenni Button.

If you’ve never been to a fashion show before, I encourage you to spend the money and do something different. The evening was stylish, filled with beauty, and generally a lot of fun.

Click on the photos below, and visit my new photography site to see more pictures and style from the catwalk.

Fisherboy fishing

Even if you don’t enjoy fishing, perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pick a warm and sunny afternoon to take a beach chair out to the end of a harbour pier and just sit, watching fishing boats sail and seals frolic in the bay.

Fishermen at Kalk Bay

I find it so strange that so many guys seem to love exactly that about fishing.

To these particular fishermen’s credit, they look as though they’re handling their fishing expedition perfectly. Everything looks immaculately clean and tidy – and this scene makes me thing that they’re out on the pier for reasons other than the fun of fishing.

The sun sets on summer

But, that said, I guess it’s best not to think about the physics of light and to just enjoy the beauty of it.  In case you missed my previous post, I’ll be publishing a few photos of the sun setting on (what I suspect may have been) the last reasonably warm day until summer arrives at the end of the year. See the first photo in the series here.

Dressed for the Met

The J&B Met is an annual horse racing event that’s been a Cape Town tradition since the 1800s. For as long as I can remember the Met has been about flamboyant outfits and stylish dress – it’s an extravaganza of note! Each year, a number of couples are invited to participate in the Most Elegant Couple competition, which takes place at the racecourse on the day. To give you an idea of what participants are competing for (apart from fame and glory, of course), this year’s prizes include Seekers travel vouchers, Police sunglasses, L’Oreal product hampers, Gucci watches, and a trip to the Kruger Park. Not too bad, I’d say.

In the run-up to this year’s event, Expresso, a television breakfast show, held their own best-dressed competition, where the prize was an automatic spot in the finals of the J&B Met’s Most Elegant Couple competition.

So I found myself at the SABC television studios in Sea Point at the ungodly hour of 5am, taking photos of the competition entrants – and I can definitely say that I started to feel somewhat under-dressed as the studio area filled up with couples in their race-day finery.

Click here to see an album of some of the contestants, and visit us again in a couple of days to see photos from the J&B Met itself.

Drayman's Single Malt Whisky

Drayman’s (micro) Distillery, perhaps better known for it’s brewing of beer, opened it’s doors in 2006. Moritz Kallmeyer (distiller, owner, and the guy in the photo) started his small distillery by blending various Scottish whiskys to make Drayman’s Solera Whisky. It was naturally only possible for him to start selling his own single malt (seen in the photo) a couple of years thereafter – apparently whisky takes at least 3 to 5 years to mature.

I guess distilling whisky’s not exactly the job for an impatient sole as myself.