UCT Ballroom Vaudeville Circus

The UCT Ballroom Vaudeville Circus show was a great success, especially since it was put together in a few week by amateurs and on a tiny budget.

The 6 Acts were littered with guest performances and a number of solo and groups dances by members of the UCT Ballroom and Latin Dancing Society. I performed in 2 Ballroom and 2 Latin solo numbers.

I haven't been doing much Ballroom recently so it was quite crazy doing a performance Quickstep and Tango with so little training time (4 days!). But we survived, as always :)

Thanks for the sneak peak photo from AM Photography! Haven't had a chance to wear my ballgown in a few years.

Touristy Weekend in Cape Town: Part 2

Sunday:

• Butterfly World
• Fairview (visited in Feb)
• Joostenberg (visited before)
• Bo-Kaap (visited in March)
• Rhodes Memorial
• Chapmans Peak
• Signal Hill (night photos)

Butterfly World is a wonderful outing for adults and children. For a measly R 48, one can explore the tropical enclosures filled with exotic butterflies in beautiful blues, greens, oranges, reds and blacks. There are roughly 20 species in the garden at any one time, depending on the season and availability of pupae that they can import.

yum banana

The place is kept at 70% humidity for the butterflies, which takes a while to get used to, especially when the air outside is rather dry.

Surrounding the garden is a series of other enclosures filled with lizards, snakes, bird and spiders. I loved exploring and had a chance to say hi to the Iguana that was lazing about on the path :)

Outside there is a Meerkat that watches the traffic go by and greets people parking for Butterfly World

Fairview is an old favourite, though we just popped in a bit to restock the cheese supplies, no lunch this time :(

I love this Steampunk(ish) sculpture that sits outside the tasting room, makes you want to sit on it and go vroom, vroom.

Chapmans Peak is a beautiful scenic drive from Hout Bay. If you are only planning on picnicking or taking photos, you can ask for a Picnic Pass and it is FREE! (Please excuse the terrible photo taken with my phone, it was slightly hazy)

See Part 1

Touristy Weekend in Cape Town: Part 1

This weekend has been a whirlwind tour of Cape Town to introduce a family friend to the delights of the Mother City. Our itinerary was rather packed (and I wasn't feeling great), to include scenic routes, interesting new things and vistas of the city.

Saturday:

• Cape Town CBD
• Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
• World of Birds

The World of Birds is the only place I haven't visited in the last year. I originally thought the R 75 entrance fee was rather steep, but realised by the end that with running costs of approximately R 500 000 a month, for vets, food, staff, maintenance etc., it is actually rather cheap.

The place feels slightly neglected, in need of some serious renovation and cleaning, however the variety of birds to see is phenomenal. There are circular walks for General Aviaries, Birds of Prey, Owls etc.

Terrior

The menu changes daily

Terrior is situated in the Klein Zalze estate outside Stellenbosch and is featured in the Eat Out book, voted Top Ten in South Africa for the 7 years (only been open since 2004).

The menu is highly seasonal and is written up daily on a number of chalkboards that the waiters lug around to each table.

Pork snack

The food was rather strange, we needed Google Search to decipher some of the menu items, but we eventually got there. The portions look quite small, but are rather rich, which means one cannot eat very much of it.

The starters were split among the table and the chicken liver pate won. The avo sorbet was interesting but not really worth eating, the beetroot bland and the labne average. 

Chicken liver and faie gras parfait with apple compote

Terrine of beet, avo sorbet, rye crumbs and Labne

Roasted Belly of pork with rhubarb and truffle mac

Angus Beef with black truffle sauce, leeks and cepes (and bacon foam)

Loin of lamb with chemula sauce fondue, Pommo Anna

Klein Zalze

Klein Zalze is a wine estate and golf course just outside of Stellenbosch. We took a drive to the wine estate to have lunch at Terrior and I took a few snaps of the scenery before we stuffed ourselves with French Cuisine.

Entrance to Terrior

The pond at the edge of the golf course

There is a garden at the back of the restaurant with herbs (I assume they are used in the kitchen) and some beautiful flowers, especially the wheelbarrows lining the egdes (notice the corks as fillers?)

Sun Sets on Summer

Hout Bay provides opportunities to see some beautiful sunsets in Summer. This is probably on of the last few before the cold grey weather sets in for good. 

Cooking Safari in Bo-Kaap

Over the weekend my mother and I ventured into an area I have not really explored in Cape Town, Bo-Kaap. The area features a tight-knit Cape Malay community and a pretty colourful neighbourhood.

I snapped the photo above on my phone while we took a bit of a walk around and ogled the vibrant colours (it was late afternoon and many shadows). I shall definitely return another day to explore the beautiful houses and mosques. The scenery reminds me of touring Burano.

Our cooking lesson (with Lekka Kombuis) itself took us on an journey through the Cape Malay favourites (though Bobotie is still a favourite): Chicken curry, rotis, samoosas and chili bites. I have finally learnt the correct spice mix for a curry (Chilli powder, tumeric, coriander, fennel, cumin and Masala)!

Rolling rotis was an interesting experience, making the dough itself is very similar to making foccocia dough. The trick is in the rolling and using lots of butter! I also learnt how to beat your dough into submission.

I will definitely be trying out the recipes again at home and posting the results :)

Hello Pretty

Purple Gecko Designs is now available for purchasing on Hello Pretty! Head on over to have a look at the unique pieces I've been adding to the stores inventory. You will be sure to see some pieces I've been writing about on my blog over the past year (and will be writing about in future as I catch up on my blogging).

New material, lots of ideas

New material! I love shopping for new material. All those lovely bolts of fabric just waiting to be turned into items. I spent the morning digging through appliques and satins for ideas for a new Latin American dress.

The Sewing Centre in Cape Town has a multiple of haberdashery items to make any sewer lose track of time as they browse their bounty.

Fabric City has four (4!) floors of fabric that you could spend days wandering through the bridal section, upholstery section, suiting, haberdashery and stretch materials. Warning: you will end up spending money in that store!

The result of my shopping adventure includes a sort of pinky purple satin and black applique roses and leaves to play around with.

I shall post photos as the work progresses.

Guess what my Easter weekend will be spent doing?

Fairview Cheesiness

Celebratory lunch at Fairview is always a cheese filled experience. I love their cheese tasting platters, that contain 10 samples (generous portions) of the different cheeses they make. There are 20 total, so between 4 of you, you can sample everything.

The photo below was taken midway through the tasting process. We finished the lot and promptly realised we didn't need to mains we ordered after our 'starter'.

Canine Summer School Classes

Cape Province Dog Club training has resumed in the height of Summer. Daisy and I retreated to the shade while we waited for class to start.

Displaying your necklaces

Ever realised that you so many necklaces and no way to store them without them becoming a tangled mess? I saw this awesome idea at Big Tree Designs in Kenilworth today which is makes beautiful wall displays of your accessories. 

 There is pinboard mounted on a wood frame, then coloured felt (or material) is added to give some colour, another layer of wood frame is added, then chicken wire and finally it is topped with another wood frame.

Santa Shoebox Project

The Santa Shoebox Project has been around for a few years now...I have taken part for the last 2 years, with 2 boxes last year and 8 boxes this year. My mom's company also pledged boxes and this was the final result, over 40 boxes!

The car was quite full on its journey to the drop off centre. If you haven't taken part before and wish to, do, its a great cause where you know that every cent you spend is going to a child in the form of items of clothing and necessities.

Mosaic Magic

Mosaic work is a craft I have wanted to try for a few years now. I've been meaning to read a book, watch a tutorial or go to a class and finally I have :)

Yesterday I went to a Mosaic class in Observatory run by Bit by Bit Mosaics. I got to make a potholder.

The things I have learnt from this; I will be leaving it to someone else unless I really cannot find what I want. Breaking up the glass into slivers in hard on the hands and I am terrible and laying out a design that I have not had a great of time to ponder over the final effect.

The final product was a bit too coarse than I wished, but I was rushed for time. The next step is grouting the tiles.

The picture below is my moms potholder, a sort of Asian style tree with copper and black background.

Klein Joostenberg

Joostenberg is a wonderful venue for an outing on a sunny day. There is a bistro, pork butchery, nursery, honey shop and Ludwig's Roses.

About 35 minutes along the N1, a little before Stellenbosch, the little slice of vibrant colour has some of the most amazing pork you'll find in Cape Town. The prices are very reasonable and the portions large. There are even fires to keep warm in Winter in the bistro.

Ludwig's Roses is also well worth a wonder through. The have all sorts on sale and the names are hilarious. On the last visit there I spotted a "Steve Hofmeyr" rose, you never know what you'll find. My favourite though is still the "Durban July" climbing rose.

Ringing in the New Year

A wedding on the 1st of January is definitely a nice way to start 2011 and especially when it happens to be in Hout Bay overlooking the ocean.

A new year starts with a new set of challenges, thesis chapters to complete and new dancing steps to learn. Hope everyone had an awesome party to ring in the New Year and made a few New Years resolutions (that aren't going to be broken by the end of the week)

The Sun Sets on 2010

The perfect end to a interesting and travel filled year...a Cape Town sunset taken across Hout Bay.

Innovate 2010

Yesterday was the first day of the three day conference in Innovate 2010 Schools ICT Conference held in Cape Town at the Cape Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology. I first started working at this conference in 2001 (when I was still in high school) and today I am presenting for Project Umonya.

The first keynote speaker of the day Masha du Toit discussed Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. I'd never really considered the difference or that the distinction existed, I'd sort of accepted that I was born when computers became ubiquitous but that others had an affinity to technology that could have existed in any age (someone had to invent the stuff)

The second keynote speaker for the event was Johannes Cronje from CPUT. He spoke about the Seven Ages of Technology in Education. It was a highly entertaining experience as he traversed the world of Shakespeare for examples.

During the afternoon I sat through what could have easily been a marketing pitch for Apple. I own an Apple MacBook and still felt both bemusement and despair of the missed opportunity to showcase a proper message. The Parklands Apple One2One project is an experiment in introducing laptops into the classroom. Teachers promoted iLife as the solution to all the learners problems. They forgot to mention that everything they trumpeted on iLife is available as Open Source software (and hence less expensive than buying a MacBook).

The Parklands teachers and IT specialists missed a key opportunity, one I hope others will correct over the next two days, that of user generated content. The team spoke about the learners enthusiasm at generating new content but this doesn't have to be done on a MacBook. I despair that the message was completely lost as the teachers attributed all success to the technology itself.

Because this is Africa

I've arrived home to glorious sunshine (and a frosty wind) on Friday night and have had a wonderful weekend touching base with family and a few friends. Its wonderful to be home, though it is weird being back in the office.

Farewell S&P pots

Tomorrow is the end of an era, the Athlone Cooling Towers are being demolished at noon. Having lived in Pinelands for the last 15 or so years I've grown quite attached to the salt and pepper pots nearby.

When I drive home from the airport in a few weeks time I'm going to miss this marker. I'm hoping that someone takes a video for me. The last cooling towers I saw implode were in Pinetown, Durban (Pinelands...Pinetown, noticing a theme here) over 15 years ago (on Red Nose Day I think).