Events

Jack Mantis, Magic Carpet Ride, Loyiso and the J&B Met

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Jack Mantis Band at the J&B Met

While relaxing in style at the J&B Met we were treated to music by local star performers - the Jack Mantis Band, Magic Carpet Ride, and Loyiso.

I've heard Magic Carpet Ride's music previously, and I'm sure every South African has heard Loyiso by now, and while both were great entertainment it was the two members of the Jack Mantis Band that blew us away. Their music was a chilled and laid-back mixture of blues, reggae and rock - and the perfect accompaniment to an already outstanding event.

Visit their website and take a moment to listen to a few of their tracks, or watch this YouTube music video - a love song featuring Jack's (strikingly beautiful) girlfriend whom, by chance, Kerry-Anne found herself chatting with while watching the show.

If you haven't yet seen our other photo albums from the J&B Met click here for horses, and here for people, and finally here for photos of Loyiso, Magic Carpet Ride and the Jack Mantis Band.

Celebrities and beautiful people of the 2011 J&B Met

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Miss South Africa - Bokang Montjane

While most visitors to the J&B Met found themselves on the outside of the racing track, we got to hob-nob with celebrities, socialites, and wealthy business people in the J&B Hospitality Marquee on the inside of the track. As you perhaps can tell, we're not socialites, celebrities, or wealthy business people so it took a while for us to become accustomed to being waited on hand-and-foot. But, once we settled into it, it came as naturally as scooping water from a fresh mountain stream.

What I found surprising, and awesome, about our time with the prominent people in society was that they were far less pretentious than I'd imagined they would be. Folk were friendly, everyone had huge amounts of fun, and we didn't once feel out of place. In fact, we felt quite comfortable sliding into celebrity life - even if only for a single day. :)

One thing that I haven't mentioned is that while it's obvious that the lady in the photo is Bokang Montjane, Miss South Africa, I have to be honest and say that I have no clue who most of the other celebrities and well-known people that I may or may not have photographed are. So, this is where I'd love some help from you! If you have a little while, please visit our photo album and leave a comment below photos if you recognise the person in the pic.

Racing at the 2011 J&B Met

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The 2011 J&B Met

Even though J&B have been sponsoring the J&B Met for only 34 years, as mentioned in a previous post the event's history goes back to the 1800s, when the Cape was still under British rule. Each year sees dozens of horse racing events taking place at tracks like Kenilworth, Royal Ascot and Durbanville, but this, the J&B Met, is the premier of all races - the crème de la crème!

Despite being aware of horse racing for many years, I've never really known how betting takes place, and I've never really understood the different types of betting. Included with our ticket for the day was a small betting voucher and a guide that explained the three most popular bet types:

  1. Win : I guess this one is obvious; you place an amount of money (at least R6) on a particular horse to win the race.
  2. Place : You place money on a bet that a particular horse will finish in the first three places (or four if there are more than 7 horses in the race).
  3. Swinger: Your fate rests on two horses both ending in the first three places.

Unfortunately for us, we didn't win any money this time around. But after the main race at 16h30 there seemed to be several very happy faces in our vicinity, which I took to mean that a lucky (or clever) few actually did win some money. :)

Click here to see an album with a few more photos of the horses and the track. And check back during the week - we'll be posting another album or two with photos of the celebrities, the food, and the stylish outfits we spotted in the J&B hospitality marquee.

Getting a tattoo at Southern Ink Exposure 2011

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Getting tattooed at Southern Ink Exposure

I went along to check out the Cape Town International Tattoo Convention, aka Southern Ink Exposure 2011, at the Waterfront's BMW Pavilion. I was slightly apprehensive because for me the world of tattoo artists and their canvases is an alternative one and I wasn't sure how not to stand out like a sore thumb, a tattooless outsider.

Apart from this, I'd once asked a tattoo artist if I could take a photo or three in his shop, and he looked at me as though I'd crawled up from under a rock, and expressed his displeasure at the idea in a manner that left me feeling like I'd overstepped some unseen boundary.

I guess it was for this reason that I took some time to observe the various artists before whipping out my camera and shooting away. I'm happy to report that these artists (and most of their clients) seemed quite happy for me to record their work. They seemed more pleased with the idea of photos than I'd anticipated, and for the most part were actually really friendly and sometimes unexpectedly chatty.

Click here to see an album of a few photos taken at SIX 2011.

The J&B Met’s Most Elegant Couple competition

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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.

Cinderella in December, by Cape Town City Ballet

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Ballet dancer

I'm not sure that this is in fact a ballet dancer; her shoes seem to indicate otherwise.

However (and don't you think this is clever of me? ;) ), now that we're on the topic of shoes, I found out that Cape Town City Ballet will be presenting the story of Cinderella at the Artscape Opera House between 17 and 24 December, with music by the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Don't you think this would be a magical way to build up towards Christmas (assuming you celebrate Christmas)?

Guys, if you and your loved one don't have other plans, and if you think she'd love something like this, take the opportunity and buy tickets for Christmas Eve. Even us un-balleted guys should be able to follow such a well-known story. :)

Painting the town red

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Painting the road red
You may not have thought that I was being literal in the title of this post - but I am - I found a handful of guys with red brushes painting the streets of Cape Town red with buckets of red paint. Heck, I think they may even have painted that car in the background! (I'm kidding, but you knew that, right?)

Anyway, enough of my silly jokes - we're going to be giving one of you four tickets to Funny Bones, a night of comedy at the Purple Turtle (map) in Long Street on (this coming) Tuesday 23 November. To win, you'll naturally have to be able to get to the Purple Turtle on Tuesday evening, but in addition, you'll need to leave a comment on this post mentioning who the headline act for the evening will be. (Check out the Facebook event to find out.)

I'll leave the competition open until some time on Friday night, and then select a random winner using my famous inky-pinky-ponky random-winner-selection technique. :)

G-South Africa at the Bay Hotel

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The Bay Hotel
Last week Google hosted an event named G-South Africa at the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay. If you're unsure exactly where it is - The Bay Hotel is the hotel between the sports field and Blues in Victoria Road; you know, that really expensive-looking one? :)

I was excited to attend the event - partly because of the interesting things that I thought I may learn and partly because it was being held at in the beautiful Camps Bay. Unfortunately the weather failed to play along, so the two days weren't quite as awesome as it could have been!

For those of you who are interested in what was presented - here's a link where you're able to find a few of the presentations offered over the two days.

If you've just realised that the end of the year is almost upon us, then you may be looking looking for a 2011 calendar. Click here to buy Cape Town Daily Photo's first annual calendar! :)

DSK Basar – An Oktoberfest in November

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Lamppost poster
We missed this event at the DSK german school in Cape Town this past Saturday. Based on their Facebook event page it sounds like we missed out on a lot of fun, food and something called a "FUFFY SLIDE". I call the event a "basar" because that's what the poster says, but based on the description of the event it sounds like we missed out on a good old Oktoberfest, albeit an Oktoberfest in November.

Did you end up at the DSK Basar? What did you think?

South African Scottish Whisky

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Drayman's Single Malt Whisky
This South African whisky is made after the style and tradition of Scottish whisky (which is why it's called whisky and not whiskey). I drew a tasting from this bottle at the whiskey festival (that I mentioned in my previous post) and was surprised that even though it wasn't manufactured at one of the legendary Scottish distilleries, it tasted - well - pretty good! Granted, I'm not a whisky or whiskey connoisseur - but it sure tasted like the real deal.

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. :)

The whiskey festival

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Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Malt
Mandy from brainwavez.org dragged me along to the annual FNB Whiskey Live Festival in the CTICC. Okay, to be truthful, perhaps "dragged me along" isn't quite the right turn of phrase. ;)

We arrived at the doors at about 18h30 and spent the evening walking from booth to booth sipping an array of whiskeys far too complex for either of our pallets.

I'll fill you in a little more about the festival in my next post, but for now - if you enjoy whiskey (or the ridiculousely beautiful ladies serving the drinks) make your way to the CTICC asap. Note that time is short - Friday 5 November is the last Cape Town day. If you miss this one you'll have to fly to Jozi next week!

Remember to be safe - don't drink too much and then think it's okay to drive home. It's way cooler to have your mom fetch you than to be locked up your local police station for the night. :)

Noordhoek Country Fair

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Carousel of Kids
What makes you think that the guy on the right wasn't impressed that I was taking photos of the kids on the carousel? I guess he was doing his dadly duty; but, damn, it sucks.

I took Kerry-Anne through to Noordhoek to have breakfast with an entire troupe of girlfriends. While she and they sat at one large table at Noordhoek Farm Village's Cafe Roux, I joined another outcast husband and his mate for a boys' breakfast (which I guess isn't quite as cool as a boys' night!).

After exhausting our boyish chatter Allan and I headed across the road to the Noordhoek Country Fair which seemed abuzz with excitement. Unfortunately for us, most of the excitement was to be had by families with kids (a condition that both Allan and I have craftily avoided. ;) ).

The fair had pony rides, food stalls, a foefie-slide, a brass band, clothing stalls, and of course - this tiny carousel. However, to be brutally honest, I think the fair was good fun for locals with young kids, but wasn't really worth making any kind of long trip to attend. But then, that's just the opinion of two kidless men!

I, perhaps cunningly, never realised that there would be an entrance fee - so thanks be to Allan for sponsoring my ticket. Big up to you Mr Kent! :)

Halloween in Africa

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Discotheque, The Sangoma's Curse
I don't know how it happened - but somehow this year America's Halloween became big in South Africa. Oh, wait, I do know how... business owners realised that they could make more money by throwing just a little marketing into Halloween. I don't like it, but it is smart. :)

Kerry-Anne and I were stuck at home (as she's still recovering from that arthroscopy), but over this past weekend many of our friends attended fancy-dress Halloween parties and nightclubs organised special parties to draw the crowds.

Did you do something "special" this past weekend? Did you attend a Halloween party? Please leave a comment here.

The Flamjangled Tea Party

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The Flamjangled Tea Party
Whatever it takes, I have to go to this (somewhat different) tea party next year! In fact, I'm adding 19-20 March 2011 into my (seldom used) Cape Town Daily Photo diary right now. :)

To quote from their website, The Flamjangled Tea Party brings to the winelands of Durbanville "a collection of madcap melody-makers, artists flamboyant, syrupy tea-ladies, freakish party animals, cross-dressing gorilla’s, candy-floss cowgirls, rooibos sippen diva’s, greased-up rockers, disco deviants" and many more wonderfully weird (and some times magical) people. In my mind it's a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp's version), with a bit of a Woodstock-like music festival tacked on just for fun. Doesn't it sound wonderful?

For a little more insight into what goes on at this kind of tea party - have a peek at the photos taken at the one held earlier this year.

Us two going to U2

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Cape Town Stadium
After last touring South Africa in 1998, the famous U2 will be stopping over in Johannesburg and Cape Town as part of their 360° tour in February 2011 - and this time, we have tickets!

I took this photo of these strange zebra-men at the Cape Town Stadium a while ago (during the Football World Cup), and share it with you today because this, dear friends, is the place where 72,000 fans will arrive to watch the spectacle that U2 is so well known for.

Kerry-Anne and I hate queuing for tickets (it's far too boring!), so we normally take our chances with purchasing from an online ticket booking site, Computicket. I say "take our chances" because South African sites, and I guess this one specifically, are known not to handle well huge volumes of people trying to buy tickets at once, and invariably slow to the pace of a reluctant teenager on a family hike - leading many close to death from pure frustration.

This time around Kerry-Anne paid the $50 registration fee and pre-bought our tickets through U2's website. No mess, no fuss. :D

Air show at Ysterplaat

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Gripen Fighter
This weekend sees the Africa Aerospace and Defence expo taking place at Cape Town's Ysterplaat (which translated literally refers to a sheet of iron) air force base. I visited today to get a small preview of what would be happening over the following three days.

Although the little bit that I saw was awesome, unfortunately the weather never played along so we were rained out by around mid day! Fortunately for you (if you're in Cape Town, that is) rain isn't forecasted for Friday and Saturday, however rain is set to dampen Sunday visitors - so be there early this weekend! :)

Our friends from the USA may like to know that 11 of your country's USAF air crafts have landed at Ysterplaat to join in with the expo. Although... I just think they're keeping an eye on us. ;)

The Undefind – living the dream

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Gareth James, The Undefind

The Undefind (that's right - it's spelt without an "e") is a Cape Town-based band that's on a mission to make it in the world of full-time music. It's often said that American musicians have it easy, but South Africa's music market is so small and the number of good bands so large that it makes surviving purely as a musician a huge challenge.

The Undefind are a reasonably young band of five, and according to their website they are all full-time musicians. Gareth (guitarist and lead vocalist, pictured in this photo) recently enlisted two of the band members, Chris (bassist) and Jeanré (drummer), to start up a three-piece acoustic version on of the band, which will be playing quieter sets at local restaurants and bars.

Check out their latest music video, Fragile Skin, below; and if you like it, take a moment to vote for them here on the KFM Homebrew Top 10 list.

Concert season at Kirstenbosch

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Just Jinjer at Kirstenbosch

On 22 November last year Johnny Clegg opened this season's Summer Sunset Concerts at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Since then the Gardens have hosted the likes of the Johnny Cooper Orchestra, Zebra and Giraffe, aKING, and many others.

After a day out in the sun watching cricket, we met up with two friends at the packed concert venue in the middle of the botanical gardens. The vibe was happy and relaxed, and even though it was windy elsewhere, the gardens had comparatively little wind. And, as always, Just Jinjer were phenomenal.

A few more concerts remain this season, but the upcoming highlight for us would have to be The Dirty Skirts. They have a super-energetic stage presence (which makes for awesome photos), and it seems that they have an interestingly euphoric effect on the ladies. We have our tickets already; I suggest that if you want to go, you should make sure that you book your tickets fast. :)

Autopilot performing at Mercury Lounge

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Kevin Sykes, guitarist for Autopilot

As I mentioned in my previous post, we were invited to go along to Mercury Lounge in Cape Town to take photos at Autopilot's new video launch gig. This particular show must have been one of the most challenging that I've shot - the stage was very small, and although the lighting was great for the performance, it was terrible for photos.

Nevertheless, I felt challenged and had plenty of fun trying to come up with angles that would work. I've uploaded an album of photos here.

Autopilot was born in 2005 as a 4-man band. While Kevin Sykes (the guitarist in this photo) and Shane Coomber (the other guitarist) seem to be the only original remaining members, the band has seen a shift with the introduction of a female vocalist, currently 22-year-old Brigette Greybe (who according to the drummer, Nicholas, has a great butt ;) ).

At the time of writing this article, the new video hadn't yet been uploaded to their website, but if you'd like to hear their sound take a look here for one or two other music videos.

Thanks for a great show, Autopilot!

Radical Rhubarb, an episode of GeekDinner

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The Wild Fig restaurant

Radical Rhubarb was the codename for this month's GeekDinner, held at The Wild Fig restaurant (map), near The River Club, in Observatory.

As usual, we ate plenty of good food, many people drank good amounts of the wine supplied by Delheim, and several interesting talks were given - taking risks by carrying out small actions, running a community-based support forum, and an introduction to a constructed language called Toki Pona. And as always, of course, we got to giggle at the fun and popular slideshow karaoke.

If you're interested in attending one of the dinners, take a look at the website, subscribe to the announce list, and put your name down for the next GeekDinner!

Ladysmith Black Mambazo at the V&A Waterfront

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Ladysmith Black Mambazo

There's something soothing about the deep bass voices of a group of singing black men. I think it's completely unlike what any of their white counterparts could do. If you're not from Africa (or are, but haven't heard it before) then it's something that you should certainly experience. I didn't even understand the words that were being sung, but in some ways I think that's a good thing - it prevents you from being distracted by the words, and helps you to feel the music and perhaps the meaning of the words.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo (LSBM) and their style of music has its origin in the mines of South Africa. Joseph Shabalala (here's a photo of him), leader of the Grammy-Award-winning group, assembled the members of LSBM from family, relatives and friends in his hometown of Ladysmith. The group quickly rose to fame by winning every singing competition they entered.

The group's name is made up of one place-name and two concepts: Ladysmith is their home town, Black refers to the strong black oxen that were prevalent in their farming community, and Mambazo means axe. In other words - the singing group from Ladysmith that is so strong that it cuts down every other group in every competition. :) Voila! Ladysmith Black Mambazo!

An interesting fact that you may not be aware of is that LSBM co-wrote and recorded two tracks on Paul Simon's Graceland album in 1986. Do any songs come to mind? Of course they do! Possibly the first one you may think of is Homeless; the other is Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.

LSBM will be singing at the V&A Waterfront again on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 January at 20h30 (see my photos from the event here). If you haven't seen them before, go along and prepare to relax to the sound of deep, dark African voices. (You can buy tickets online or at the little Computicket caravan near the Aquarium's entrance.)

Axene – Princess of Pop

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Axene, pop star
Axene is a 17-year-old pop princess from Vredenburg (near Saldanha, just a little way up our West Coast). While her song choice and style appeals mostly to kids and younger teenagers, I have to admit that her show at Aqua Festival (see the photo album here) wasn't bad at all - in fact, she could have a really great career ahead of her. She's got a really good voice, awesome stage presence, and a whole lot of energy. And besides for playing piano, she also plays guitar and drums. Now that's not too shabby at all for a teen pop artist, is it?

Her show also included a young lead guitarist, who accompanied her on several songs; award-winning solo artist Shaun V; and a talented team of dancers from the Waterfront Theatre Company. Together they performed songs by Rihanna, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Abba, Michael Jackson and more. And they were all really pretty darn good!

Axene is playing at the Waterfront's Aqua Festival until 6 January, so if you have young kids, perhaps take this opportunity to introduce them to the world of live concerts. I'm pretty sure you'll end up enjoying it too. :)

Do New Year’s with ABBA at the V&A Waterfront

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AquABBA at Aqua Festival

"I work all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to pay - Ain't it sad?"

After the brilliant performance by Johnny Clegg on Saturday we found ourselves at the Aqua Festival's AquABBA show at the V&A Waterfront. What a spectacular spectacle it was - especially with the likes of Amra-Faye Wright (cast as Velma Kelly in The Broadway Company's musical, Chicago), Jody Williams (winner of SA Idols 2007) and the members of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra gracing the stage. Other artists taking part were Craig Urbani (known, amongst many other things, for his role in the SA soap-opera Isidingo), Chrissy Caine, and Alistair Izobel.

They sang all ABBA's best-known hits, as well as a few songs from the musical Chess (which was written by Benny and Bjorn, of course); and by the time they got to "Thank you for the music" the crowd was on their feet, singing and dancing along. Kerry-Anne pointed out that the setting was absolutely perfect for an ABBA tribute show, as the harbour backdrop was very reminiscent of Mamma Mia.

If you don't yet have plans for New Year's Eve, (and especially if you're going to be at the V&A Waterfront anyway), consider booking your seat for AquABBA - I believe the ticket price includes not only the show, but the NYE afterparty at the Aquarium as well.

I've put together an album of photos from the performance. Check it out here.

Music, lights and performance at the V&A’s AquaFestival

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Johnny Clegg performing at AquaFestival
In my last post I spoke about the Johnny Clegg performance that we were invited to see on Saturday night at the V&A Waterfront's AquaFestival. I've just managed to finish going through all the photos and have put together two albums for you to look at. Click here to check them out.

Isn't this setting just beautiful? Unfortunately the sun had fully set by the time that I got away from the photographers' area down below and up onto the grandstand. At night it's really difficult to capture the beautiful lights and Table Mountain in the background, but can you imagine the ambience of watching such an awesome performance in the fading Waterfront light from this vantage point?

Check my previous post or the AquaFestival website for more details about Johnny Clegg's show later tonight, and other shows that you may want to see later this week.

On a final note, have a look at this iconic shot of Johnny floating both on water and in the air. :)

Johnny Clegg at the V&A Waterfront AquaFestival

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Johnny Clegg at AquaFestival

Kerry-Anne and I were invited to watch the legendary Johnny Clegg performing at AquaFestival at the V&A Waterfront last night. This year is the first AquaFestival, and if last night's performance, vibe and setting were anything to go by, I can only imagine that the performances over the remaining week and a half will be magical, and that the festival will definitely be back next year!

You can't see it in the photo above, but in this photo you'll see that the entire stage on which the band performed was floating about 5 metres off the pier in the V&A's yacht basin. Table Mountain, the setting sun, beautiful yachts, and the city lights filled the background to make the setting comparable in beauty to that of the Kirstenbosch concerts.

Johnny Clegg is performing again on Monday night (at 20h30), and I think there are still a few tickets up for sale. Even if you can't make that show, check out the circus that's performing at 14h00 every day until Thursday, or book tickets for the evening ABBA or ballet shows; tickets cost between R60 and R250, depending on the show.

P.S. In case you're concerned about the persistent wind we've been having - I can't speak for the shows that I haven't been to, but there was only the slightest of breezes in the yacht basin last night, which was a freakin' fantastic break from the wind we've been enduring!

The Christmas market at Neighbourgoods Market

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Christmas Market

On Wednesday I popped in at the Neighbourgoods Market's special evening Christmas market. When I arrived, there was hardly place for a sardine to squeeze between the bustling shoppers. The after-work rush only started to disperse after 8pm (which is when I managed to find a spot to take this photo).

The market had plenty of gift-like items inside the main building, with the courtyard dedicated to all kinds of edible treats - just to make sure that people didn't leave early to go and have dinner. The organisers even arranged for a band to keep things festive, and by all accounts they did a pretty good job of that.

The best part of the evening for me was when I spotted a young woman and her accomplice carrying away a crate filled with delicious if-they-were-any-fresher-they-would-be-warm loaves of bread - presumably from Knead (who had a stall at the market). When I enquired of her as to where they were taking the yummy-looking loaves she said that they weren't selling fast enough, so they were taking them to a nearby homeless shelter! How's that for generosity? Instead of keeping the loaves to see if they'd perhaps sell a few more, or even trying to sell them the following day, they decided to give them away while still fresh.

Don't you think the gesture was appropriate for a Christmas market in particular?

2010 Football World Cup draw celebrations in Long Street, Cape Town

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Brazillian football supporter
Following on from my previous post about the 2010 World Cup draw - after walking down from where we'd parked, we arrived at the security checkpoint, where our bags were checked and metal detectors were used to scan for weapons. That was the easy part. From then on we battled the crowd to work our way to a spot where we could see one of the large television screens.

The road got so crowded that we could hardly move at times, and the police eventually closed the gates to prevent any more people from entering Long Street. Apparently there were in excess of 120,000 people in the street! Still, everybody was having fun and it seemed there were smiles permanently etched on most people's faces.

From early afternoon, the stage (which was way up ahead of us) had hosted popular bands and entertainers; and all evening we had stilt-walkers, huge puppets walking over the crowd, and topless dancers keeping us entertained. (Nah, I'm kidding about the topless dancers. ;) ).

The crowd quietened down as the live telecast of the final draw started playing, and huge cheers erupted each time one of our national heroes was introduced. There was a palpable sense of collective pride at what South Africa and its people have managed to achieve. All in all, the atmosphere was fantastic - a taste of what visitors can expect to experience during next year's World Cup.

Take a look at our photo album for more shots from the Long Street party.

Getting to the 2010 football draw in Cape Town

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Walking to the Football draw in Long Street
After work Kerry-Anne and I rushed in to the city to be a part of the 2010 World Cup Football celebrations. If you're not aware of what was happening - it was the final draw of who would play against who in the first round of matches.

Contrary to what I thought, traffic in Cape Town was a breeze, although finding parking close to Long Street (where the festivities were being held) was next to impossible. We eventually found a spot somewhere far above Long Street and took a brisk walk down to Long Street past groups of excited people - many talking about how awesome it'll be in June next year.

The evening was awesome, and in a little while and I'll write follow-up article with more detail about what happened along with a photo album that'll give you a feel for what it was like in Long Street.

Do something different – Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset concerts

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Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concert

Summer has arrived in Cape Town, and with it the annual open-air Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset concerts. If you're coming to Cape Town between now and 4 April then check out the lineup and book your spot online with Webtickets. (Oh, and I'm not kidding when I say that you shouldn't delay - tickets do sell out fast).

The music styles range from rock to orchestral, so there's pretty much something for everyone's taste. Even if you're not into the particular music of the day, the crowd's vibe, the beautiful botanical gardens, and the Cape Town sunshine makes any concert worth the time.

Let me say again that if you'll be in Cape Town over the period, do make an effort to get to at least one concert. It really is something different and memorable. Even if you're alone, the people are so friendly that you're bound to make friends. (All that you need to do is to take some wine, beer, and snacks along to share. ;) )

Just for interest's sake, some of the awesome bands that we'd like to go and see are Prime Circle, Just Jinjer, The Dirty Skirts, aKING, Zebra and Giraffe and Flat Stanley.

GeekDinner at Café Max

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GeekDinner at Cafe Max

Café Max was the location for the 17th GeekDinner, codenamed Quarrelsome Quince. We were introduced to Café Max's spectacular buffet dinner, as well as two brand new Internet start-up businesses based in Cape Town.

The first, Personera, allows you to import photos (along with your friends' birthdays) from Facebook into a calendar that they then print and mail to you. The second was JobCrystal, a new (and different) careers portal that matches you to the most suitable available jobs, based on information you provide and questionnaires that you complete.

Dinner at Café Max was great - the dessert of Malva Pudding with Creme Anglaise was to die for, and the rare rib-eye beef was perfectly complemented by the Delheim red wine. The area that you see in this photo is a large hall alongside the main restaurant, and it's actually a lot prettier and more cosy than it appears here. It really is a nice little restaurant; take a look at their website to see what I mean.