Author Archives: Paul

Let me at that Digger Loader

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Digger Loader

Boys love toys - really we do. Give any guy the chance to play with one of these and I guarantee you that they'd jump at it. Imagine using a few of these for team-building exercises! Speaking from a guy's perspective, it would be fantastically awesome to have a couple of hours to drive one of these puppies around, being able to just dig up huge amounts of soil.

Okay, to be fair, perhaps one would have to go for a lesson or two - but, given enough space, I'm sure that they're not that difficult to work out!

I'm interested to know how many of our female readers would like to play digger-loader digger-loader. Guys, feel free to answer too, but I'm fairly sure that for the most part I know the answer. Ladies, how would you like to spend a few hours fiddling with one of these toys?

Lambie lambs

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Lambie lamb

Kerry-Anne loves lambs. What more is there to say, really?

When on honeymoon a few *cough* years ago we stayed over at a remote self-catering place called Red Stone Hills. It's out on a farm and really (REALLY) rustic. We took a walk around the farm one day and Kerry-Anne decided to get into the pen with the sheep... who promptly surrounded her. Not so cute anymore were those killer sheep! It was amusing to watch her raise her hands in the air and squeal for help. Boys are so mean - apparently. :D

Roads and trees

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Roads and Trees

I love these kinds of roads; the trees form a tunnel that makes me feel like a Formula 1 driver - only without the Formula and without the 1. Not that I'd actually be able to drive at those speeds on our roads as, irrespective of the actual day of the week, there's invariably a Sunday-afternoon-cruiser enjoying the drive somewhere ahead of me. At times like these I need to remind myself that it's okay, perhaps even good, to drive s-l-oooooo-w-l-y. :)

Congestion on Cape Town's roads has been increasing steadily over the past years, with the effects being felt more intensely since the 2010 Soccer World Cup construction work began. Large alterations are in progress at the N1/M5 interchange near the city, as well as at Hospital Bend, which look as though they'll improve the rush-hour traffic problems significantly.

Believe me, most of Cape Town can't wait for them to be done!

Take a look at this 2008 article detailing the intended upgrades.

Death by cell phone

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Death by cell phone

Whoa guys, isn't there a slightly more subtle way of getting the message across? How about "your phone could possibly, perhaps, maybe cause the fumes to ignite and you may, might, could get terribly injured"? :)

Aside from the text and its bluntness, the thing that I found amusing about the photo was the "Serious about service" tagline at the bottom of the sign. Not that I'm suggesting that Total's not serious about service - they're as good as the next filling station; but the contrast in tone is pretty funny, don't you think?

Lost? Use a filling station map

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Fuel station maps

If you don't have a GPS and don't know your way, remember that our fabulous fuel filling stations often have large maps for you to peruse. And, even if the one that you spot doesn't, the friendly staff are bound to be able to point you in the right direction.

When hiring a car in South Africa, remember that at an additional cost you can have a GPS unit included in the deal. It really is a good idea to use one if you don't know the area. One thing to remember, however, is to never let the GPS take over the functioning of your brain. Don't just follow where it thinks you should go. Unless someone's been kind enough to program the device for you, a GPS isn't able to differentiate between the good and bad parts of town.

It's always best to plan your route first and rely on the GPS second. Happy exploring!

Filling stations in South Africa

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Filling up with petrol

I understand that in many places around the world motorists fill up their own vehicles with fuel. Lazy South Africa still enjoys the privilege of having a friendly attendant to fill up your car, wash your window, pump your tires, and top up your oil. Well, I say friendly, but I have to admit that they're not always friendly. Considering that the job isn't a stimulating or enjoyable one, I guess that's understandable.

If you visit South Africa from another country then you should bear three things in mind when filling up your hired vehicle:

  1. You'll have three types of fuel to choose from: Unleaded, Lead Replacement (LR), and Diesel. Normally hire cars use unleaded, but if you're not sure it's normally indicated somewhere near the filler cap. Mixing diesel and petrol is a bad idea. Seriously. :)
  2. In July this year a law was passed allowing motorists to purchase petrol using an ordinary credit card (previously we could only use garage cards, debit cards or cash). However, not all petrol stations have implemented this system yet, so you may very well still need cash to pay for your petrol. Often filling stations have ATM machines where you can draw cash with your debit or credit card.
  3. We usually tip the attendants. You don't have to, but if they are pleasant - and especially if they wash your windscreen - it's a nice thing to do.

I'm interested to know whether you tip filling station attendants, and if so, how much.  Please leave a comment, anonymous or not, and let us know.

Life saving rope

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Life saving rope

If you saw yesterday's post and thought the photo was of some kind of life saving apparatus, you would have been right!

Deems left a comment yesterday expressing surprise at the newness of the lettering versus the old peeling paint. I think this version of the photo emphasises that even more. The nice, new, neat lettering contrasts with the peeling paint and the stormy skies.

And if you were to open the box (as I did :)), you would notice yet another contrasting element, in the form of the brand new rope that lies coiled inside.

Life

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Life

When I was younger there used to be a competition running on television that showed a close-up photo of an object. It was often something obscure like the eye of a fly, or a thimble, or some other "everyday" object. It was invariably very difficult to guess exactly what the object was because without the full picture or proper context the object could be one of many different things.

I don't think it's quite as difficult to tell what this photo is of, but then again, I've already seen the entire picture. If you have an idea what this photo may be of - please take a guess and leave a comment below. :)

Seashells on the seashore

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Sea shells on the sea shore
It seems as though the ship, a coal carrier, that ran aground on Blouberg Beach in Table Bay will be around for a little while still. News reports are still a little sketchy, but it looks like they're considering pumping the vast amounts of fuel off the ship.

For the full story, and the reason why we're so proud of the National Sea Rescue Institute, read their report of what happened, on the NSRI website.

For more photos, take a look at the news report on News24's website.

What you're seeing in the photo are bajillions of crushed seashells on the seashore. I do hope that the ship doesn't start breaking up into a bajillion small pieces on Blouberg Beach!

Turkish bulk carrier aground at Blouberg

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Bulk carrier aground at Blouberg

With all the bad weather we've been having this week, a Turkish bulk carrier laden with oil and iron ran aground at Blouberg Beach in Table Bay on Monday night. I've been at work all day, but fortunately one of our readers, Pedro, from Belbon Hills wine farm managed to snap this photo for us en route to the farm.

The 25 crew members were air-lifted to safety, but concerns have now been raised about a small leak that could turn nasty. The South African Department of Environmental Affairs are looking into the matter, but I'm not sure how much can be done right now - except perhaps for pumping the oil from the vessel!

Click here to read the original Reuters report.

EDIT: Please see my comment below.

A building with great lines

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A building with great lines

Aren't old buildings just awesome? They tend to have such great lines for vertical close-up photos. I sometimes wonder whether or not in 30 or 40 years we'll have similar thoughts about today's modern structures. Fortunately for us, Cape Town has many buildings just like this one, and it seems that they'll still be around for quite some time. As long as they're still in perfectly good condition there's really no way to justify ripping them down to erect newfangled ones. :)

What do bakkies and dragons have in common?

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Isuzu bakkie

I'm sure that many of you will recognise, and perhaps love or hate, the make of bakkie (an Afrikaans word pronounced "buck-key") in this photo. For some reason South Africans love their bakkies. Heck, I've often been tempted to buy one just because they're so convenient when something that won't fit into a regular car boot needs to be carted around.

But at the same time, I also hate bakkies. Since many of those that frequent our roads have older diesel motors, they don't accelerate particularly fast - especially when overloaded, as they often seem to be. Also, older models generally puff huge quantities of smelly diesel fumes that force me to roll up my windows and block my car's air-vents.

It's true though - these smelly, slow machines are work-horses and play a huge role in keeping our economy going... so perhaps I should tolerate them a little more than I tend to. That said, it would be great if more owners could afford to have their vehicles fixed up so that they puff with a little less vigour.

Oh, the answer to the question posed in the post title is that both blow huge puffs of grey or black smoke. :P

Lung cancer, sharks and SCUBA divers

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Diving in a Shark Tank

The words cancer and shark evoke a common reaction in many people. Both induce a sense of fear. Lung cancer is one of the most difficult forms of the illness to treat, but, however dire the situation, it would seem as though it is treatable.

The two ladies in the photo, Leni White and Teresa Renier, are in fact lung cancer survivors! What makes them special is that even though most doctors would strongly caution against SCUBA diving after beating lung cancer - these two ladies still dive, with no apparent ill effects.

The two ladies, having beaten cancer, took on the other fearsome challenge in support of Lung Cancer Awareness Month, when they dropped themselves into a tank of sharks at Cape Town's Two Oceans Aquarium. Although they were understandably a little nervous, all went well and they left the tank heroes in their own right. Read more about their story here, in BizCommunity's medical news section.

Disclaimer: Kerry-Anne and I are not in the medical field and don't suggest that you should do anything without consulting your physician first. If you've survived lung cancer and would like to dive, please consult your physician and, as Leni and Teresa do, understand the risks.

The ghd Pretty in Pink girls

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Pretty in pink

In my previous post I explained how I ended up at the ghd Revelations Fashion Event. Now, let me take a moment to fill you in, just a little, on the experience.

After arriving at the venue, I stood waiting to be let inside, in a queue of about 100 people, most of whom were (understandably) women. I'm used to going out with Kerry-Anne, so being partnerless already made the evening a little strange. But once I got inside, things got progressively stranger as I wandered from room to room, each of which housed an individually styled photo set.

Some of the rooms had women dressed in Moulin Rouge-like costume, and others were like scenes from the 1950s. On each set the models and performers seemed to be acting out some kind of private play - permanently on repeat.

The two girls in the photo above were the cutest ever. They appeared to be part of some kind of Alice in Wonderland scene. They sat on a small bench in a little nook giggling and whispering into each other's ears. The set directly after theirs featured a birthday girl who got hopelessly drunk after nobody arrived at her birthday party. (She must have been a really mean person, because the spread on the table looked awesome!).

Unfortunately the scarcity of light made getting good photos a little challenging, but click here and take a moment to browse the few photos I did manage to take.

ghd Revelations Fashion Event

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ghd Revelations Fashion Event

First I posted 200 belly-dancing photos, and now I'm publishing a photo of a beautiful woman hanging upside-down in a brass ring. You'd swear I enjoyed this kind of photography. :P Seriously though, apart from the normal photos that you see on Cape Town Daily Photo, I find that I really enjoy taking photos of most live performances, whether they're musical performances or belly-dancing women.

The question you may ask in this instance is what ghd (as in the "good hair day" hair-styler) has to do with the woman hanging upside down in the photo, and why it's me and not Kerry-Anne typing this article. It's simple, we were both invited to the ghd Revelations Fashion Event, but at the last minute Kerry-Anne was unable to attend, so I traipsed through to Cape Town to attend the function on my own.

I'll post more photos, but for now, if you're interested in going along to similar functions, take a look at the ghd Style Diary website and sign up for diary updates.

Scarborough beach at sunset

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Scarborough Beach at Sunset

Our last couple of posts showed a little of the village of Scarborough. This post shows a little of why Scarborough is so special to its inhabitants. The beaches are wide, open, almost untouched and the sunsets in this area are reportedly some of the best in Cape Town. Even though this side of the beach looks fairly rocky, behind me there's a long sandy beach - with an ocean that is (based on the sign in the last post) safely swimmable.

The Scarborough Conservation Group was established in 1992 with the goal of changing Scarborough into a Conservation Village and ensuring that the natural environment is properly taken care of. They're been involved in beach clean-ups as well as the replanting of indigenous vegetation in the area. You can read more about their goals and activities here.

Scarborough, a seaside village with charm

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Scarborough Sunset

In the previous posts Kerry-Anne told you about a seaside village where a friend of ours owns a beautiful wooden house. Some of you guessed correctly that the little village is Scarborough - well done! This quiet suburb is to the west of Simon's Town, just on the other side of Cape Point. Find it here on the Google Map.

I browsed the web for the word Scarborough and found that this village is not by any means the only place bearing the name. It would seem as though our British friends have indeed been busy - according to Wikipedia there are a plethora of place-names (and other names) containing the word Scarborough, all around the world.

A room with a view

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Room with a view

This weekend we visited a friend of ours who lives on the other side of the planet. At least it seemed that way, given the distance we had to drive to reach her house.

I have to say, the trip was entirely worth it though, for this is the view that greeted us when we arrived. The small seaside village that our friend calls home has plenty of holiday houses, and isn't too far away from Cape Point.

You'll win a great deal of respect if you can guess the name of the village from just this description and the photo above. Have a try - where does she live?

Tennis courts

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Tennis court

I took this photo at Stellenberg High School, but shhh... don't tell anyone - there was a sign to say that trespassers will be prosecuted!

Kerry-Anne mentioned in a previous post that she was relegated to the "social tennis" team - because she wasn't good enough to make the 12th team. :P In grade 6 I started playing tennis... and well... I didn't ever make a team either. In fact, my teacher was so mean that I was simply never kept in the loop about practice. :( Clearly my tennis career (lol) ended there, but still over school holidays I'd play around on the courts with friends who never really cared whether or not I could play properly.

In case you're really keen on tennis, or just want to fool around on a tennis court while on holiday, visit the Green Point Lawn Tennis Club. I believe they allow casual visitors to play - at a fee, I'm sure. You can find their telephone number on this page.

The play-park roundabout

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Roundabout in the play-park

Have you ever been on one of these? Have you ever been spun around so fast that you've eventually just fallen off because you were unable to hold on any longer? Have you ever felt nauseous while being spun around at a million miles per hour?

Kerry-Anne loves spinning things. She loves things that make ordinary people nauseous. It's almost as though someone removed her inner-ear so that she's impervious to that which makes many (i.e. me) turn green.

We have several play-parks close to our house, so kids don't have to go far to play. Sadly, the days of allowing your young kids to play alone in these parks are kinda over, so it's actually seldom that we see kids playing on these. I guess kids today spend time playing on their Wii or XBox... which (I think) is sad. I hold a lot of memories of playing outside, doing all kinds of weird things away from home. I can't imagine that the kids of today would in years to come have memories of a particularly difficult XBox game that they cracked, or a particularly tricky level that they achieved on the Wii.

Is this cynical? Perhaps. :)

Back to the future in a Kombi

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Flower-power

Remember the 1985 movie Back to the Future, with Michael J. Fox? That's the one where he managed to use a DeLorean DMC-12 (that's a car) to go back in time to 1955. This Kombi made me feel like we were heading off to the 1960s...

This was the vehicle that I referenced in the posts about our wine trip. I'm sure now you're able to see why it was so much fun. The "tour operator" is the brightly coloured lad (thanks, Charl) in the photo who took us from farm to farm, restraining his tasting to ensure that we'd arrive alive.

The trip in the flowerful and music-filled VW Kombi was a stack of fun - in fact, it was so much fun and so retro that we felt like we'd gone back to being students again. ;)

The fire(place) at Bloemendal’s Wynhuis

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Fire at Bloemendal

No, there wasn't that kind of fire at Bloemendal wine farm's Wynhuis ("wine house") restaurant. This was the last stop on our all-too-fast tour of the Durbanville wine route, and even though it wasn't as cosy and boutique-like as the others, it was larger, offered food for sale, and had this warm fire glowing so that those not tasting the wine could warm up too. :)

I can't say what the wine tasted like - by this time I'd decided that I'd had enough wine (because, to be honest, I'm not as in love with wine as some of you may be). ;)

Take a look at our route map; the Wynhuis is at the end of the route (on the left).

De Vallei boutique wine

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The Cabernet Sauvignon of De Vallei

The Durbanville wine route has been the subject of the last two posts, and as long as you're not getting bored, after today I have two final photos in the series.

I took this photo in the cool and damp concrete cellar of De Vallei, a boutique wine producer found along the Durbanville wine route mentioned in my first post of this series.

The subject of this photo, the words "Cabernet Sauvignon", is in fact not (as I once believed) a type of wine, but rather a type of grape. What I'm sure the wine connoisseurs among us already know is that the red Cabernet Sauvignon grape is in fact a crossing of two varieties of grape, the red Cabernet Franc and the white Sauvignon Blanc! Go figure; I guess it should have been obvious, but I had never considered this before.

So now, the question is: don't you think this should make Cabernet Sauvignon a rosé grape? ;)

Altydgedacht on the Durbanville Wine Route

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Lilies at Altydgedacht

We arrived at Altydgedacht wine farm in our "fun vehicle" (see yesterday's post), with AC/DC's Thunderstruck blaring. It was a tranquil environment - that is, before our merry crowd arrived. The occasion was a celebration of Guinivea's birthday in the form of a road-trip from wine farm to wine farm. I guess we felt that the occasion warranted at least some kind of commotion on arrival!

The music stopped along with our vehicle, and we piled out, ready for our first tasting. The portion of the farm where tasting is done is unfortunately not particularly pretty. Yet, I captured this photo of the beautiful Arum Lilies that the farm's owner popped in to drop off.

Incidentally, the first title deeds for the land were signed by Simon van der Stel in 1698! The property was called Tygerberg back then and only later renamed to Altydgedacht. Tygerberg is now the name of the the area of which the suburbs of Durbanville and Bellville form part.

In case you're in the mood for a bunch of Arum Lilies, they charge only R10 for a bunch like this one. What a huge bargain!

Durbanville wine route

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Wine tasting in Durbanville

I don't suppose that anyone can guess what we spent the afternoon doing? Of course, driving from wine farm to wine farm (in a rather fun vehicle) tasting wine!

Besides for the mode of transport and the fact that we didn't know 4 of the 6 people we went with, what was awesome about this particular expedition was that we didn't do the traditional and well-worn Stellenbosch wine route. This time we stayed close to home (in fact, only 5 minutes away from home) and toured around the Durbanville wine area. I took a moment to draw the short route that we drove - click here to see the map.

Map to the top of Tygerberg Hill

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The top of Tygerberg Hill

The Tygerberg Nature Reserve was opened in 1973, which makes it only a little older than I am. I never realised it before, but the 300-hectare reserve has 460 plant species, of which 12 are endemic to Cape Town and three endemic to the reserve itself! Besides for these, the reserve is home to about 50 different mammals, 125 species of bird, 35 reptile species and several different types of frogs.

Yesterday's photo was taken to the left of this one, more or less where you see the people standing - far in the distance. The setting here is beautifully peaceful with marvel-worthy views of Table Bay, Table Mountain, the Cape Flats, False Bay, and the Boland mountain range.

Two of our readers requested directions to the reserve, and since it's a little tricky to explain I drew a map using Google Maps. So, click through here for a map to the top of the Tygerberg Nature Reserve. Once the satellite image has loaded, wait a moment for the route to load. :)

A perfect lookout point

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Table Mountain from Tygerberg Hill

Sunday, oh beautiful Sunday. At about 11h30 Kerry-Anne and I paid R10 each to take a walk up Tygerberg Hill. Although the top of Tygerberg Hill wasn't crowded by any means, I never realised just how many people walk up for Sunday afternoon picnics.

The spring weather was absolutely perfect. No wind, not too hot, clear skies. If you haven't taken a walk up this little bump rising above the Cape Flats, you really should. Pick a warm day with little wind, take some food along and spend an hour or two admiring the 360-degree views.

Take a look at this map; I've placed the cursor in the centre of the screen exactly where this lookout point is on Tygerberg Hill.

Western Cape Metro EMS

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Western Cape Metro EMS

The Metro Emergency Medical Services is a government organisation with about 1400 staff, that provides emergency response to the public.

The reality of the situation, as I understand it, is that the Metro EMS ambulance services are over-extended and unable to respond quickly enough to many time-critical medical emergencies and so, even though my dad's medical aid generally only covers the use of state ambulances, his house doctor requested a private ambulance to transfer him to the hospital. Sadly, some people have no option but to rely on state ambulances, and while they do successfully assist many, in times of crisis they're sometimes simply not able to respond in time.

Apart from being short-staffed, all ambulances continuously have to deal with other drivers (unbelievably) doggedly standing their ground, refusing to let ambulances pass in any kind of hurry. I often see drivers not paying attention to emergency sirens, and I've honestly seen drivers on occasion just not make an effort to open a path for ambulances. Unbelievable? Believe it.

A doctor, an ambulance, and a trauma unit

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Karl Bremer Hospital

A few people who commented on the photo posted yesterday were correct in guessing that the shot was taken in a hospital - a government hospital, Karl Bremer, to be exact. As I walked the corridors on Friday afternoon, I recalled that the last time I'd been in the hospital was when my sister was born, about 30 years ago. I was very young at the time, but I remember sitting in the waiting room while my dad visited my mom, who'd just given birth.

There was less excitement associated with this visit though. My 70-year-old dad suffered a heart attack at about 12h00 while he was doing some hard labour trying to find an underground water leak at his home. My mom took him through to the doctor, who immediately called an ambulance, realising that my dad's condition was life-threatening. Upon arrival at the hospital his heart in fact stopped, but fortunately the doctor attending to him in the trauma unit managed to massage his heart back to life. The next few hours were tense as we waited for the drugs to take effect; and by the grace of God he managed to pull through.

In closing, I thought I'd provide a point-form commentary on my experience of Karl Bremer Hospital:

- Admission to the trauma unit (from the ambulance) is fast.
- The process to follow at reception is confusing and slow.
- The trauma doctor on duty was knowledgeable, courteous, and professional.
- The sisters in the trauma unit were firm, yet lenient enough, and professional.
- The sisters in the ICU were well-organised and paid close attention to their patients.
- The building was neat, but old and in need of renewal.
- The security staff were friendly and helpful.

A long long corridor

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A long corridor
You may have noticed that we've been struggling to keep up to date with our daily photos. Plenty has been happening on our side to keep us busy and otherwise occupied. Sometimes I wish that I'd known the consequence of calling this website Cape Town Daily Photo. :) At other times, I'm really glad that this site has a photo for each day of our lives. It's awesome being able to page back through your life a day at a time. To date we have about the last two-and-a-half years represented, with a single photo for each day. It's really awesome; you should try it!

Okay, so I'm now catching up, and this photo leads into my post for tomorrow. So pray do tell, if you're able to guess, where do you suppose this photo was taken? A school hallway? A prison?