Woman at the ATM

Spending money is a way of life in Cape Town. If you are not heading out for sushi with the girls, you are popping out for a drink after work or ordering a pizza because you are too lazy to play the domestic goddess. With the festive season (and its myriad temptations) coming up, this got me thinking about how I would manage my money when I am not in front of my computer 24/7.

See, as a proud member of the perpetually plugged-in generation, I am thoroughly infatuated with the convenience of internet banking. Rent due? No problem, log in and get it done. Little sister in Stellenbosch needs to borrow money? Soften your heart, log in and place money into her account. Airtime caput? Log on in and top up – easy peasy. In fact, you can get so used to this convenient way of conducting business that you can lose sight of how cumbersome it can be to do cash transactions.

One of the only reasons I remain a slave to the abhorrent banking charges associated with South Africa’s Big Four is the convenience factor. I would love to take advantage of the more affordable rates charged by newly established financial institutions, but the fact that I would have to walk a few extra blocks to get to one of their ATM’s is enough to make me stick to my guns. I am a product of my environment you see. Surely you cannot bring up children with microwaves, cell phones and high speed internet and still expect them to be patient? That would just be naïve.

Luckily for me and my equally impatient counterparts, it seems that the ATM industry has heeded our distress call. Of late I have noticed that quite a few supermarkets and convenience stores now have ATMs situated in handy locations on their premises. This means that I can nip in, draw cash and stock up on magazines and mints all at the same time. ATMs like these are especially handy if you are a girl and you need to draw cash after dark – now there is no need to make a nerve-wracking trip to the downtown cash machine where you inevitably feel as though you have a target painted on your back.

So, it seems I’ve found my solution to my festive season internetlessness-related woes – I’ll simply substitute the convenience of online banking for in-store ATMs. Joy!

We’ve been having some seriously odd weather in Cape Town lately. A lot of Cape Town property has been damaged, most roads have been flooded, and us laid-back Capetonians are shivering in our Wellington boots. I posted recently on an international forum, complaining about the temperatures here on the southern tip of the continent.

“My word!” I said, “It’s 15 degrees! I’m absolutely freezing, I’m sure there must be some snow on the Ceres mountains by now”. To which the reply was, most indignantly, “15 degrees? Celsius? You have no right to complain! That’s as warm as our summer!”

Granted, the said reply poster is living in the north of England at the moment, in itself a carp-worthy claim, but there is one factor which my fellow forum stalkers do not realise. This past summer (and summer in South Africa contains the months of November to April) saw temperatures reaching 42 degrees. Celsius. Do you know what that temperature feels like? Well, unless you spend much of your time in the desert or in various Middle Eastern countries, I doubt it. One’s body temperature is roughly 35 degrees Celsius, which made the air temperature outside a full 7 degrees warmer than the air one breathes out.

There’s a name for that feeling. It’s called freaking weird. Breathing in air which is warmer than the air you breathe out when you’re not stood in front of say, an oven or a jet engine, is a bit strange.

So, dropping from 42 degrees Celsius to 15 in a month or two kind of took the wind out of my sails. So please, when you’re on your Cape Town holiday basking in the warm winter sun, cut me some slack for dressing up in five layers, scarf, beanie, jersey, and thick vest.

I’m an amateur photographer. Amateur in the sense that I may have an unwieldy Canon with a lens that can take a photo of a gnat on Mars, but damned if I ever get a great picture out of it. I’ve attempted to put my lack-of-talent to good use, but find that it gets squandered on photojournalism and documentation – no payment involved, of course.

But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying it. Recently I took a Cape Town safari trip out to one of the close-by game reserves. Being South African and living in this stunning country, I find that we sometimes forget just how lucky we are to live in such a diverse and conservation-friendly country. Game reserves in South Africa are usually filled with foreigners, hailing from such far-flung places as Germany, Japan, Australia, the UK, and America. It’s a rare thing to find a boer with his kids pointing and laughing at the lions and giraffes. Is it because we’re saturated with these animals? I don’t think so. I don’t think one ever becomes bored of watching a lioness with her cubs or an elephant troop march across the road. I suspect it’s more because Capetonians work and live in this country and forget what it has to offer.

That’s why I take wildlife pictures. If I go anywhere near the indigenous wildlife of South Africa, I make sure to take my Canon Rebel with me. Not that I’m there to show off, of course (although that might be a part of it); I’m there to shoot the lions, elephants, and little duikers for posterity, not for hunting purposes. Although my stance on hunting (canned or otherwise) is well known and violently upheld, I shoot only with my flash and my only bullets are the batteries which never have enough life in them, no matter how long I put them on charge for.

Lions and leopards, elephants and antelope, all are the subjects of my wildlife portfolio. And what is the point of this post, you may ask? It’s certainly not to promote my extremely talentless images. I’m a fan of the Cape Town wildlife, not in the drunken students which crowd my local Rondebosch bar, but the furry kind that cling to the fynbos in the safari parks. I want you all to experience what my fellow South Africans take for granted every single day. When you are on your vacation to this Mother City, take a day (or even a weekend) and drive through the pristine savannah and experience the stunning game reserves in South Africa.

You know, not everything about Cape Town is so spick and span. The city crawls with the undergrowth which every developing city acquires, from homelessness to crime, litter to the daily offerings on Long Street of any drug under the sun.

Scared yet? You shouldn’t be. As far as cities go, Cape Town is actually one of the best in the world in terms of safety, cleanliness and a transportation networks top in its class in the country. Yes, there may be down sides to this seaside town, especially if you are used to cities where the grime of the underclass is hidden from view. If you happen to stay in Cape Town accommodation, from Rondebosch to Roodebloom, Woodstock to the Winchester Mansions, you will inevitably come across someone who is off their rocker on drugs or using a trolley to ferry his or her belongings about town. Should you run and hide? No. You should take it all in. This is Cape Town; this is the Mother City; this is natural life. Although you may not agree with it and want to help out, life is not always so orderly. Your passport entitles you to see the countries of the world in anyway you wish to see them. However, it also entitles those cities to impose their way of living on you – even for just a little bit. If you have a passport and you wish to travel on it, make sure you realise that cities around the world rock to their own metronome, some adhere to the rules you are used to, some do not.

For your next Cape Town holiday, why not take a trip into the ghettos of Khayelitsha or Gugletu. You might find yourself surprised at the welcome you get.

My first chance to visit Cape Town was when I was four to see my grandfather moor his boat in the then-stark harbour. It was only three years ago when I came back on holiday to this Mother City that I seriously considered moving here.

I had been located in the horrid confines of Johannesburg, working away and never seeing the sun. It was only when a job opportunity offered a chance to break from of the reef and join the laid-back few who live in this seaside town.

The little bit that I knew of Cape Town history included a smidgen here and a glimpse there – the Apartheid forced removal of Distric Six residents, the laid-back attitude where everyone talks in shoowaaah tones, a vibrant and chic residential area lying next to an informal settlement which is infamous for gang warfare. What I didn’t know is the way in which people actually lived here. I didn’t know anything about the shopping styles, the road network, the things which people did on the weekend – nothing.

So when we first landed here two years ago, it was a bit of a shock to try and get our bearings. Please note: if you intend to visit Cape Town city centre during the rush hour – don’t. Although the road network is being upgraded (at long last), the N1 and M5 to Muizenberg are a nightmare between seven and nine in the morning, and five and six at night. Don’t worry, I’m sure this will be better come the thousands of tourists arriving in the city for the 2010 FIFA world cup.

Another thing, when you hear “severe weather imminent”, don’t think of mild wind and a little bit of lightning. Storms here are like tornadoes on acid – entire suburbs get washed away. Recently Camps Bay was completely underwater, the luxury 4×4 cars under at least a foot of water. Wind is something else in Cape Town. When on your next Cape Town vacation during the windy season, be sure to bring a wind breaker or a Zorbing bubble – both will suffice.

The heading of this blog is one of my favourite inspirational quotes from the movie Vanilla Sky; an adage can be used for almost anything you wish to accomplish in your life. Earlier this year I made a very professional-looking spreadsheet detailing what I wished to accomplish this year. We are nearly halfway through the year, so let’s have a look to see how far I have come, shall we?

1. Set up an annuity fund. I am glad to say that I have actually looked into this and have decided that it will have to be postponed until I received my promised raise. Contrary to popular belief the economic recession actually does influence poor, struggling wordsmiths as well.

2. Start saving for December Europe Trip (R1000/month). This lovely idea, I am sad to say, have also been put on the ice – indefinitely. Currently I am battling to maintain a healthy diet towards the end of the month and there is really no use in turning Maslow’s hierarchy of needs topsy-turvy.

3. Start and maintain the garden. I scavenged some mint from my mother’s garden and replanted it in ours. Does this count?

4. Join a pottery class. See previous entry about the economic recession, Maslow et al.

5. Join a book club. I joined the library. Does this count?

6. Start and maintain a journal. I’ve come to realise that no matter HOW much you love writing, if you do it for a living you really don’t want to go home and start doing it all over again.

7. Get rid of all the clothes I’ll never wear again and buy two good items of clothing per month. See the bit about the economic recession once more.

8. Quit smoking. (*** insert very deep blush***) Jikes, haven’t quite gotten round to this bit yet. I know, I know – it stinks, it’s expensive, it’s bad for my health, it ill befits a lady. Try telling me this when I have a glass of chardonnay in my hand.

9. Start painting/drawing. Oh yay! One thing I did actually do something about. My friend Rouve and I started hosting weekly art evenings. For ourselves, but still. We go to the library on Mondays, get books on interesting artists/art movements/art techniques we like and then proceed to discuss them on Wednesday evenings. After this we spread out large pieces of paper of her dining room table and surround ourselves with a slew of art paraphernalia (glue, water colour, pastels, pencils, gouache, etc.). The plan is actually to start painting at some point, but at this stage we are having so much fun just messing about that I can’t really guarantee when that will be.

10. Reach my target weight. Well, if my target weight was 4 kg’s heavier than I was when I made this list, I guess you could say yes, I did reach my goal. Of course it wasn’t (quite the contrary), which is why I’ll be off to Zone Fitness Women’s Only gym this afternoon to see what I can do about the alarming wobbly bits that are taking up residence all over my (very incensed) body.

So, let’s see – that’s five-ish goals either met or in progress. Not as bad as I feared! Now, if only I could find a way to keep my Cape Town accommodation looking like a girl’s room (read: neat, tidy, devoid of dust bunnies), I could actually start believing myself when I tell my parents that I’m all grown up.

Surfers paradise

We went surfing the other day, in the notorious area of Muizenberg. It’s generally not the Great Whites that you have to watch out for there, it’s the Great Wides, the boards and the tourists who assume that they own the beach.

My other, much braver, half had decided he wanted to learn to surf – properly, like. None of this riding on a small body board on your stomach. No, he wanted to ‘Stand Up’ like the pros. So, he did his homework and looked up the surfing schools that crowd the seafront like flies. After a shocking amount of hesitation, he eventually picked a great, local boy by the name of Ant and paid a nominal fee for a private lesson. I must explain to you, my fiancé, soon to be husband, is a true water baby. He dreams about the waves crashing down on him and doesn’t wake up in a cold sweat like the rest of us would do. He loves the chilly oceans we get here in Cape Town and claims that the sharks won’t eat him as ‘they don’t like foreign food’ (he’s from Wales).

Right.

So anyway, there I am, sunning myself in the unusually warm autumn sun, watching him practice the manoeuvres out there on the white beach. I feel ever so proud of him; the board is nearly twice the length he is, let alone the fact that he’s about to get into waves that are, admittedly, more than a bit big. The winter swells have come in from Antarctica and not only do these swells make the water frikking freezing, the swell is strong enough to really get you into trouble if you can’t swim very well. Luckily, the lifeguards on Muizenberg beach aren’t just for show, they really do their job.

So, the other half gets into the water with his new spangly wetsuit and ‘rashie’, while his fiancée gets burnt in the African sun. All is going well when suddenly the end of the world happens. An earth-shattering siren goes off and whistles explode into my head. I sit bolt up right, sand and sun lotion detonating around me. I confusedly look around as the tourists, surfers, children, dogs, various sea life and old grannies hop and skip out of the water to the tune of the air raid siren. I search amongst the debris for my fiancé and his surf school instructor and eventually spot them lumbering up the sandy beach with long board in hand.

What was going on? Well, if you don’t know by now, this southern tip of Africa is crawling with Great White sharks. We’re famous for it. However, the seas around this area do not use the highly dangerous and eco-unfriendly shark nets as many other surfers’ paradises use. Instead, Muizenberg was one of the first beaches in the world to start using ‘shark spotters’, guys (usually Bergies, or homeless people) that are employed to sit up on the surrounding mountains to keep a lookout for the signs of sharks (believe it or not the cartoon-like fin is not the only dead give away). When they see a shark – more common in the whale birthing season – they radio down to the beach where an impressively loud air-raid siren goes off, hence the hopping and jumping out of the water post haste.

My fiancé eventually got back in the water about an hour later when the all-clear was given, but he’s never uttered the ‘foreign food’ anecdote again, funnily enough…

If you are considering getting in the water in the seas surrounding the Cape Peninsula, please bear in mind that sharks, seals, dolphins, Orca whales and Southern Right whales frequent these oceans in all seasons. Please do your homework and remember that more people are killed every year by toasters and falling off their chairs than by shark attacks. If you respect the ocean, it will respect you. If you are on a Cape Town tour, why not take the time out to watch the sharks and whales from a vantage point near Muizenberg?

There is a certain inconsistency in my personality that allows me to spend R400 on a dinner without breaking a sweat, while at the same time balking at the idea of spending the same amount on a pair of boots or a handbag. In all fairness it should be the other way around – after all, in terms of the latter you can at least SEE and USE what you’ve purchased.

Food is an instantaneous and fleeting type of gratification and dining, when taken out of its immediate context, is an indulgent exercise very far removed from its original intention, namely sustenance. Knowing all of this, you would assume that I would be able to restrain myself. After all, we are in the midst of a much publicised economic recession, are we not? We should be scrimping and saving, buying in bulk, pickling, preserving and living by our wits. And yet, none of this is quite sufficient to keep me in line.

So off we went, Rouve and I, last Thursday evening to Fork Restaurant in Long Street. I would advise that anyone who ventures to that part of town after dark go in pairs. The inner-city has a whole bunch of nooks and crannies that are as threatening in darkness as they are quaint in daylight and you can never be too cautious. That aside, the restaurant is lovely. Situated in a narrow, upright building with a Victorian façade, the smoking section is located on the ground floor with a rickety staircase that leads to non-smoking area on the first floor.

The restaurant is unique in the sense that it ONLY serves tapas. If you are a ‘one solid plate of food’ type of diner, rather give it a skip and save both the waiter and yourself a whole lot of hassle. Everything on the menu, from prime rib to ostrich Carpaccio and malva pudding comes in the shape of four bite-sized pieces. This means that, ideally, your dining party should consist of either two or four people, to avoid first fights over the last unclaimed morsel. Almost all of the wines on the wine list are available per glass, since you may want to switch between cultivars as you enjoy different ‘courses’.

I don’t want to go into too much detail where the food is concerned, since I will only end up sounding like a gushing gastronome. Seriously, everything was simply divine, darling (***insert overt inflection and flapping hand gestures***). The interior is comfortable and expertly styled, nothing is overt and every element works together with the next to create a warm, yet unfettered ambience. If you book beforehand I would recommend that you reserve one of the upstairs booths – there is something decidedly romantic and intellectual about dining in an oak-lined nook.

The evening will end up being expensive, take my word for it. No matter how good your intentions, you will give your wallet (and conscience) a serious knock. Just to illustrate – to keep ourselves from over-indulging Rouve and I both had supper at home before going to Fork. We were merely going to see what all the fuss was about and maybe to have ONE plate of tapas and a glass of wine each. Wishful thinking. Our bill came to over R500 and we basically waddled home, which is testament to both the diversity of the menu and the quiet instigation of our knowledgeable waitress.

So, if you have a special occasion coming up or some cash to spare, make your way down to Fork for a gastronomical experience bar none. It really is worth it. No Cape Town tour would be complete without exploring the Mother City’s temptations, after all.

Beaches are cheap

It’s been said that when you want a list of things to do in Cape Town you’re faced with things like “go for a shark dive in a cage” or “shop at a really elitist mall” or “check out the wine farms”. Let’s face it, as far as cities go, this one kind of chows your money. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Why not take a stroll along the beach front at one of many Atlantic Seaboard or False Bay beaches?
Blouberg promenade, Camps Bay boulevard or Muizenberg beach are all great attractions. The shells at Eerste Steen beach in Blouberg is great free entertainment for you and the kids. What about taking a walk up Table Mountain instead of catching the cable car? Sure, it’s a bit more strenuous (and, please, keep to the signposted path!), but the views are equally magnificent. People watch at the V&A Waterfront, check out the seals near the Two Oceans Aquarium, drive up to Old Boyes Drive and see if you can spot a few whales!

Not everything in Cape Town is massively expensive. Sure, I can tell you a load of places that will charge you just for breathing the same air as them, but as a local who thinks ol’ CT is lekker, you don’t need to be a multi-millionaire to find things to do in Cape Town.

400 days left.

Everyone is talking about it… almost everyone is coming to see it. The 2010 Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa is causing a serious headache for the Cape Town accommodation industry. How on earth are we going to house all of these foreign (and some local) people, and how are we going to do it in an ecologically friendly manner? That’s the question on the lips of most businesses around the city, but not to worry! Many hotels are being refitted with ‘green’ technology, and more are being built to eco-friendly specifications as we speak!

The first five-star ‘green’ hotel in South Africa, the Blaauwberg Beach Hotel, is located right on the beach in Blouberg, with fantastic views over the bay and the city in the distance. For any environmentally-conscious traveller, this Cape Town accommodation is perfect for a guilt-free stay. The lavish 14-story hotel has 187 rooms and is environmentally conscious. Materials used in the construction of the hotel are eco-friendly such as eco sensitive electrical generators with solar panel appliances. The windows are made from recycled glass and, being tinted, reduce heat and glare to cut down on air-conditioning needs.

Solar heaters, low flow taps and shower heads combine to make water wastage a thing of the past, while energy efficient light fittings aid the hotel’s reducing carbon footprint. The basic heating system is derived from solar power, with a backup generator.

The décor in the luxury rooms are made from recycled material, but still have a unique sense of class. Additionally, all soaps and detergents used when cleaning the rooms are biodegradable, maintaining the eco-friendly brief that this hotel was built for. The carpeting and linen at the hotel is made from 100% natural fibres and the restaurant serves pure organic food.

It is true that for too long the environment has taken a backseat in favour of capital and construction, but hopefully with more and more hotels being built to the eco-friendly brief as in the Blaauwberg Beach Hotel, Cape Town accommodation has only one colour in mind – green.