Cape Crusaders - Adventures in Cape Town

Cape Town March 07 - January 08

2008-01-29T00:19:00.000+02:00

3800 Photographs
14 Flights
10 Months
6 Cars
4 Offices
2 Houses
2 Surf Boards
2 Oceans
1 Road Trip
1 BMX

And God knows how much wine..

Over and Out

Harbour House

2008-01-29T00:18:00.000+02:00

We went for a lunch at Harbour House before out flight as a last supper or sorts. As always the food was excellent.

The sea was pretty wild too.

Shut Down

2008-01-29T00:16:00.000+02:00

Saatchi & Saatchi

901

Church Square

Back in London

2008-01-22T11:43:00.001+02:00

Well we're back in London and back at work.

More views to come shortly..

Packing is going surprisingly well

2008-01-18T13:48:00.000+02:00

Yes, you're not going blind that is me throwing away shoes.

We booked some extra bags on the flight - this has turned out to be a very good move.

Britain is too expensive

2008-01-14T23:59:00.000+02:00

So here's a quick survey, completely devoid of scientific methods and economic knowledge.

Exhibit a: One Element Skateboard Deck - 7 Maple Plys, 4 Colour silk screen print.
Exhibit b: Worldwide Prices:

UK: £60
SA: R599 (About £44)
US: $70 (About £36)

Packing is rubbish but shopping isn't

2008-01-14T23:46:00.000+02:00

Yes that's right packing is rubbish. We've got too much stuff, so much so that we've actually had to buy another bag for the flight. Luckily though it's rubbish excuse to buy a very cool bag in the for of another The North Face base camp duffel this time slightly smaller than the 140 litre monster it now accompanies. The last time this happened I'd spent 4 months in Canada and i accumulated so much snowboarding gear i could hardly carry it. At least now I've got matching luggage - isn't that something everyone aspires to have?

So booked on this flight:
2x23 kilo free allowance bags
2x32 kilo extra bags
1xBMX in box

BA's being nice to it's baggage handers at the moment isnt it?

Noordhoek

2008-01-14T23:13:00.000+02:00

We took Paul, Vicky and Aiden to Noordhook to sample the wind.

More weekend wonders

2008-01-13T23:38:00.000+02:00

Beach got voted 2 to nil again, but this time we decided to head to the atlantic side after another trip to Muizenberg reveled a very very windy sea which was absolutly useless for surfing.

We took the reverse angle on Chapmans Peak which gave a few places to stop along the way.

Getting eventually to Udekraal for some more snorkeling.

And then on to Table view for ice cream, and some kite flying.

Weekend Wonders

2008-01-12T23:26:00.000+02:00

It being out last full weekend we decided that we'd better make the most of it. Taking a diplomatic approach 'Beach' wont 2 votes to nil, so we went to the beach, namely Boulders. I did try and go for a surf but Muizenberg didn't look too appealing.

But snorkeling with penguins seemed to be a pretty good compromise.

Also took a visit to Kirstenbosch where we saw probably the most bizarre and quite scary spider ever. Just walking down the path this thing appeared out of the grass, probably about 5cm across and pretty hairy. One onlooker tried to prod it with her flip flop (clearly been watching to much of the Really wild Show) and it suddenly reared up into some sort of defensive pose. Poisonous? No. Did we known that then? No. Did we hang around? No. Did i get a picture? No. Did I move ata pace which could be considered a jog? Yes.

Some other things I didn manage to photograph.

We also took a pilgrimage to Century City just to make sure the shops hadn't all changed since last week. They hadn't.

Friday Braai

2008-01-11T23:20:00.000+02:00

As a farewell from Saatchi & Saatchi, Nadine decided to throw a bit of a braai party round at her place.

How amazing is the idea of having and indoor BBQ? It would solve all out rubbish 'its going to rain so let's just go down the pub' excuses for BBQ's we have in the UK.

Sea Point

2008-01-11T23:04:00.000+02:00

Took the opportunity to cycle along to Sea Point before work. Apart from the super sunny day, the best bit about it was the smell of the sea air, which even though the day was blisteringly hot was cool and crisp and was the smell i first associate with being in Cape Town because when we lived in Sea Point in those first few weeks that's what I got when i went outside.

A Glossary for South African Driving/Drivers

2008-01-09T18:41:00.000+02:00

A Glossary for South African Driving/Drivers

Bicycles
You may see these now and again, only slightly less likely to see than an Osterich playing a guitar, only problematic if you have to stop and pick the cyclist up and explain your erratic driving – probably best to ignore them altogether and only remove the tangled bicycle parts from the undercarriage of your vehicle when you get home.

Carpet
When your dashboard has deteriorated so much it’s cracking and revealing the central foam core cover it in this material to restore the showroom finish. See: Fur Fabric

Drivers Licence
An optional extra. See: Vehicle Insurance

Exhaust Pipes
Cars generally come with these when they are new and help to silence engine noise as well as helping the combustion process. If your vehicles has one, you can improve the performance by shortening it or by removing it altogether*. Your car will also begin to sound like a Ferrari* or Porsche* and people will think you’re actually driving one*, albeit in disguise.
* Highly Unlikely

Fur Fabric
When your dashboard has deteriorated so much it’s cracking and revealing the central foam core cover it in this material to restore the showroom finish. See: Carpet

Green Traffic Lights (Robots)
On Change, fumble around with the controls of the vehicle, take in the view or simply chat to others in the vehicle – don’t worry, by now you’ve made adequate progress across the road during the red light phase to take your time and be guaranteed to reach the other side before the lights change back to red.

Hard shoulder
A highly innovative segment of carriageway which provides space for pedestrians and other vehicles pulling in to allow other to overtake.

Hazard Lights
Travelling at normal speeds and fancy a change? Turn on your hazards, you can then do absolutely any style of road manoeuvre and be forgiven.

Indicators
Generally these amber lights on the corners and sides of your vehicle are used to inform other drivers of your intended change of direction. However in South Africa these devices aren’t used and are essentially redundant vehicle accessories. You could sell them, but for a deal ‘Bobby Dazzler’ effect, you can modify the wiring of your lights to take advantage of the indicator’s flashing relay to make all the lights on your vehicle flash.

Iron Oxide
The primary structural component on the vast majority of vehicles on south African roads

Lapping
I know it’s a 1.4 and you’re trying to impress your ‘lady’, but it’s not big and it could probably only be considered a contender for being clever if you could actually use traffic lights and roundabouts properly. See, Red Traffic Lights, Green Traffic Lights and Round-A-Bouts

Mags
Known also as alloys, these vehicle adornments generally look dapper, but only if their value is a fraction of the value of the car itself and they’re not so big that your tyres actually mark the wheel arches when you roll over man hole covers.

Number Plates
An optional accessory. See: Seatbelts

Overtaking
A method of passing a slower travelling vehicle behind which you find yourself. Any lane can be used for this regardless of direction of travel. To communicate your intention to overtake to the driver ahead you should, flash your lights, wave, make a fist and travel as close as possible to the vehicle in front, this also helps with the slingshot effect of being in the other vehicles slip stream.

Passenger Count
This is simply the number of people within your vehicle. When space is limited such as in a hatchback to sedan, this number can be increased by having your children standing up. Also children sitting the dashboard can help when no seats are available.

Pavements
Mostly used by pedestrians, but if you find yourself struggling for a parking space, just pop the whole vehicle up on the pavement.

Piston Rings
Part of an engine that would generally be considered as having a finite lifespan. This is simply not the case here, blue smoke indicates your vehicles piston rings are at their optimum size and you find you go through quite a bit of oil.

Red Traffic Lights (Robots)
When approaching – accelerate and continue to pass until opposing traffic prevents this, then edge forwards slowly until the lights change to green, paying no attention to the stop line – it’s simply road decoration

Resin Filler
The second most common structural components of South Africa vehicles. See: Iron Oxide

Roadworthy Certificate
An unimportant piece of paper which certifies your vehicle is fit to be driven on the roads. Either obtain a photocopy or simply don’t bother.

Round-A-Bouts (Turning Circle)
A new invention, you may not have used before – don’t worry they’re simple. Select any lane approaching the round about and leave in any direction – it’s perfectly normal and in fact common to be in the left hand lane turning right.

Running
A method of getting from one side of the road to another, considered a highly dangerous but frighteningly common national sport and of particular importance around highways.

Seatbelts
An optional accessory. See: Number Plates

Shock Absorbers
The are the parts of the car that stop your wheels bouncing up and down erratically – and no it doesn’t make you a better driver if your shocks are shot.

Tyre Tread Depth
A measure of how close to formula 1 slicks your car’s tyres are. The greater the measure the slower your car will go. Some people believe that slick tyres are dangerous and replace their tyres before they reach slick stage. You can take advantage of these people by purchasing their so called ‘dangerously worn out tyres’ and fit them to your own vehicle without having to wear the tread off yourself.

Vehicle Insurance
An optional Extra. See: Drivers Licence

White
A shit colour for a car.

Window tinting and Mirroring
A method of obscuring the view into the vehicle from the outside, generally reserved for limos and presidential vehicles. No it actually doesn’t look so smart on your Toyota Tazz, particularly when you consider the number of bubbles in your home done effort.

Groot Constantia

2008-01-07T23:16:00.000+02:00

And then to the wine.

Cricket

2008-01-06T23:10:00.000+02:00

Not the most action packed game on the planet, but good fun all the same.

Get Right Out of Town

2008-01-04T13:00:00.000+02:00

Following our New Years carnival experience we learnt that January the 2nd saw another day of badly played music and drums and anticipating another night of no sleep we took the executive decision to get the hell out of Cape Town for the night. So to a light in Stellenbosch and the Protea Hotel. On the face of it we were facing a pretty dull time but when you combine the awesome sunset over the Vin Yards, the absolutely comedic dinner at Cape Town Fish Market and the awesome nights sleep it turned out to be a money well spent night away.

More Bowl Skating

2008-01-04T12:49:00.000+02:00

My new found friend is the bowl in Rondebosch. Me and bowl are learning some new tricks. 5-0 the corner over the weekend and in the pipeline front side disasters.

Pipe Track

2008-01-04T12:46:00.000+02:00

I took a walk along the pipe track which runs under the 12 Apostles while everyone else was being ill from the Christmas Bug.

A huge bird of prey - possibly a black eagle..

Sunset on New Years Day

2008-01-02T13:08:00.000+02:00

Here's the sun going down on the first day of 2008.

New Years Pipe Track Walk

2008-01-01T13:10:00.000+02:00

We both took a walk along the pipe track after my initial reccie a few days earlier.

Godzilla came along too

New Year

2008-01-01T12:51:00.000+02:00

New year was a mixed bag, starting well and ending pretty miserably..

Starting with the sun going down looking over Cape Town.

Then some fireworks down at the Waterfront at midnight, all 4 minutes of them.

And then the fun really started...

We've had to endure 2 weeks of night market on Adderly street directly below out apartment which hs involved lot's of load PA, music and packing up stalls until 2am.. But this took the biscuit - a marching band parade locally known as the Coon Carnival (I kid you not) was running from midnight right outside. Besides the thing being inexplicably loud, which was bad enough, the same troops marched back and forth all night playing the same talentless bit of music. At 5am after no sleep whatsoever I went outside and swore at someone in a uniform and learnt that it would be going on till 6am - by which time the sun was coming up. Awesome.

Safe to say, news years day was tiring..

Bettys Bay plus some others

2007-12-30T13:13:00.000+02:00

We took a drive out towards Hermanus to take in the coast.

Not a great hair moment, but you get the idea

Beach

The view back from the drive home

Sunset over the Townships

Some Goings on: Christmas

2007-12-25T20:57:00.000+02:00

So you'll all probably know, but we had Christmas in Cape town, and here's some pics from the day itself.

Christmas Morning on Lions Head

Someone having an expensive Christmas

Remember to bring your Tux for Christmas dinner

Top presents Survey:
Dave: Bushmans Knife
Nicky: Pashmina

We went for dinner at Five flies which is always good.

SHARK!

2007-12-24T20:04:00.000+02:00

Yes that's right we saw a shark today. We were driving along Chapmans Peak drive and spotted a fin in the water. Although it was hard to make out it wasn't moving like a dolphin or whale and you could make out it's white underside and mouth. It was probably about 3-4 metres in length and I was pretty glad I was on dry land.

Other sighting of the day included Mr Goat here

Boschendal Estate

Mr Lizard

Mr Crab from Nordhoek

Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T19:57:00.000+02:00

OK, I'm going to say this just because i can - Christmas Eve was HOT.

Anyway, do to the serios matter of our day.

We drove upto Langebaan and left a very dreary Cape Town, through sporadic lightening strikes to an awesome hot day.

This was the north end of 16 mile beach and the sea was wild.

Top sighting for the day were a massive Cape Cobra which we saw on the dirt road in the West Coast National Park and then when we were swimming in the Langebaan lagoon we saw a type of Ray called a Guitar Fish which was about 2ft long.

Then on the way back we could see the storm heading towards cape town.

To give you a really good idea here's another pic that you'll have to turn your computer on it's side to fully appreciate.

A very windy Camps Bay

2007-12-18T20:20:00.001+02:00

We finished the day, that for me started at 6am and for Nicky and 35,000 feet, with a beer in a very windy Camps Bay.

First Mince Pie of the season

2007-12-18T20:17:00.001+02:00

Before

After

This was Sunday evening

2007-12-18T20:13:00.001+02:00

Sunday was grim

2007-12-16T22:54:00.000+02:00

Yes, that's right, it rained today.

first thing i took a walk up Lions head to see if there was anything worth photographing, the cloud was rolling round the hills so i thought there might be some interesting things going on.

I guess this as about as close to public service broadcasting as graffiti can get - I didn't write this by the way even though I've lingered on dog poop in several other posts..

Then off for a bit of a drive along Chapmans Peak, which has finally reopened after it's extensive surgery over the winter.

Looking across to Hout Bay

I did take another walk up Lions Head for sunset, but my batteries dies and you'll have to wait for them to charge before i can upload the photos..

Saturday

2007-12-16T22:44:00.000+02:00

With Nicky in the UK, I thought i'd have another board sports and driving round day. Taking in Muizenberg (too much wind for surfing), Fish Hoek (skating), Rondebosch bowl (more skating) and Table View (feet cooling).

Here's some pics.

Milnerton, Table View

This seemed to be a wreck of some kind, but who knows what of..

Sunset

Some Photos

2007-12-16T22:40:00.000+02:00

This sums up how hot friday was.

Table Mountain and Lions Head

2007-12-14T09:11:00.000+02:00

Billabong Wetsuits are the best.

2007-12-14T08:54:00.000+02:00

I got the call we'd all been waiting for earlier this week - my wetsuit was back from the hospital. Well that's not strictly true, my wetsuit had been sent to the big place in the sky, Billabong decided to completely replace my old suit with a brand spanking new 2007 model - how awesome is that? I picked it up yesterday and I have to say it's super sweet. The new model seems to have been slightly redesigned and has lot's of extra reinforcement in the place it went bad on the old suit.

So thank you Billabong - here's some link love - www.billabongwetsuits.com/

And here's what I'll be wearing this weekend..

Sunday

2007-12-10T10:57:00.000+02:00

First stop today was Century City. I initially wnt to pick up some new wheels but as it turned out nothing much was occurring. However, when I was in Mischief skate shop I overheard the 2 guys having a chat about a bowl. My ears pricked up, and with a little but of butting in I got some directions to a concrete bowl over in Rondebosch.

Turns out the directions were spot on, so thanks to the guys in Mischief - nice to speak to skaters when your in a skate shop.

And here it is:

It was pretty fun, and it's probably the best park in Cape Town, the coping is pretty crappy in places, but it's so much fun just pumping around.

It still amazes me the lack of info on skate spots here, particualrly the fact it's taken me over 6 months to find this place.

So for anyone else looking for spots, here it is on Extreme Sports Map

Next on the agenda was to go to Kirstenbosh for Love Jones, one of south africas indie/rock bands playing at the summer concerts. It was a pretty good gig, although a slightly mixed bag of tunes from their obvious hits, to some acoustic numbers in the middle to even a James and Corrs cover!

Saturday

2007-12-10T10:50:00.000+02:00

With Nicky back in London for the week I've got to look after my own entertainment.

So, first off, a trip to Nordhoek for a walk along the beach.

Then off to Fish Hoek for a skate on the little home made park there. This park is probably the sketchiest park in the world but it's still fun.

I then spun over to Camps bay to cool the old feet off.

Electricity Insanity

2007-12-07T14:58:00.000+02:00

Electricity in South Africa is insane. Here's why:

The country is currently going through a spate of 'Load Shedding', which is Eskoms (the energy supplier) way of saying 'OK, we can't make enough electricity for everyone so we're just going to turn it off for a while....

Here's some reading on load shedding.

What amazes me is that they can say 'OK, on Friday there's likely to be country wide load shedding.'..

This country gets more sun than I have ever seen, and yet they still use coal and nuclear power - why not solar at both a national and personal level? I can't see why people aren't using personal solar panels on their houses - it seems ludicrous. I guess that solar is expensive but given how suitable it is for this climate i'm sure it's an economically viable solution.

Sunday - Graaf Reinet

2007-12-07T08:57:00.000+02:00

We decided to take a walk round Graaf Reinet, and it’s one of the first places beyond Stellenbosh where it actually feels nice just to take a walk and look around. We found probably the biggest collection of taxidermy this side of the Natural History Museum – I didn’t think we could get a full size Springbok including it's frieze back on BA.

We then set of on a drive to locate a meteor impact crater we’d seen on the map. By all accounts is was through a town called Aberdeen and then towards a place called Aberdeen Road – yes you did read that right; a PLACE called Aberdeen Road. To cut a long story short don’t trust anything written in an AA guidebook, they’ve clearly spent too much money on TV adverts in the UK diverting valuable funds from the factual wring department. I think a toddler born in St Petersberg would have been of more use to us on this holiday than the AA book.

Safe to say we didn’t find said crater and in fact when we looked on Google earth when we got back to Cape Town we’d been about 60-100km’s off. One thing I did notice from the drive was how interesting this part of the world is. You go though towns which on the face of it are ghost towns, but there is always people going about their daily routine, chatting on the street, shopping or relaxing. The tows made me feel like we were in Mexico, or at least the picture in my head I have of Mexico, the look, the people all had that feel.

Then back to Graaf Reinet for some Game Viewing, some relaxing by the pool and dinner in town where I had probably the best Spring Bok fillet in the world.

Saturday – Somerset East - Graaf Reinet

2007-12-06T22:11:00.000+02:00

Saturday was a monster of a day.

Somerset East

First we drove up to the Mountain Zebra National Park which was excellent. The one thing that stood out was the vastness of the landscape we were within which was far different from anything near Cape Town. The temperature was rising.

We saw lot’s of wildlife In the park, Zebras as you can imagine, but also various antelope and the odd lizard, plus the biggest ants I think I’ve ever seen. Camping is defiantly for the brave round here.

Just in case we saw nothing the visitors centre laid on a bit of a display.

We then had a big drive to Graaf Reinet which is in the middle of the Karoo, essentially hit scrub and desert for miles. On the way we saw a wide range of road kill, most notably black and white striped tails belonging to we imagine some kind of mongoose. Baboons were around but having learnt our lesson last time we kept the doors locked and kept the foot to the floor at a steady 140km/hr – I’d like to see a baboon beat that. The road went through some amazing mountain passes.

Lots of straight roads and not a Roman in sight

Dead tree

Graf Rinet is a really nice town, very colonial. Once we got settled into the B&B we drove up to the Valley of Desolation, which is one of the towns main attractions. It was amazing to see the sun setting over these towing stone structures and then looking beyond to see miles and miles of absolutely nothing.

Friday - Hogsback – Somerset East

2007-12-06T21:30:00.000+02:00

We left Hogsback pretty sharpish the next day owing to the weather and the fact that we were beginning to feel like we were in an episode of Twin Peaks, but not before a bit of exploring in the car. This was where the 4x4 was beginning to show itself as being a good choice. All the roads round Hogsback were gravel and mud and the amount of rain we’d had made them quite fun to drive.

At one point we ended up at a really nice little lake. Bird were flying round and swooping down onto the water picking off flies.

The birds didn't want their pictures taken.

The Madonna and Child Falls

The drive to Somerset east took us though some really interesting places, most interestingly lots of really small towns – we were beginning to get a real feel for Small Town South Africa.

Lunch was good.. Although purchasing lunch was fun too – I can’t remember the town but us and our car stood out like a sore thumb. In the supermarket it was defiantly elbows at the ready to get what we wanted – I did curse the locals for the pushing and shoving but then it’s so much easier than pleasantries and language agnostic, I might even use the technique next time I’m in the Post Office in the UK.

Mmmmmmmmmm

We nearly turned round when we got to Somerset East mainly due to the Alkatraz style fencing around our B&B, luckly though we pulled ourselves together and found it to be a really nice place.

We took a drive out into the hills, which again was more gravel, and hence, lot’s of fun.

More if this to come..

Yeah!

Pilot: Rogers, Navigator: McDougall

The Prada Sheep

We ate at the local nightspot – the Blue Crane, lots of sensible shoes and people saying Grace.

Holiday Thursday - Cape Town – East London – Hogsback

2007-12-06T21:22:00.000+02:00

Sitting on the tarmac in a 50 seater the week after an engine had dropped of a 737 at CPT was slightly nerve racking for one of the party, but the pilot assured us that planes can fly with only one engine as was witnessed the previous week. My particular solace was observing the various ‘business fashions’ we’d witnessed in the domestic terminal; safe to say South African Business men to tend to have a unique way of dressing. After a uneventful flight we came in for the landing of our lives caused by a particularly harsh crosswind blowing at East London airport. Nicky went white and I have to say that a little colour dropped out of me but it was fun all the same.

East London Airport

First stop after leaving the minuscule East London airport in out Nissan X-Trail was a destination recommended to me by our hair dresser Biancha - Hogsback. The forsight of renting a 4x4 was not to become apparent until later I the week but that’s another story.

Driving along the highway we turned into a road signed as Hogsback. It was raining and slowly as the elevation increased so did the fog and the brown water ominously using the road as a river bed. And then it happened the road turned from Tar to gravel – the first of many to come. Arriving in Hogsback was an eery experience, not being able to see more than a few hundred metres we knew we were in a forest and we knew there we houses set back from the road but not much more could be determined.

Picturesque Hogsback

Once we’d settled into the B&B with no water and a dripping roof we headed back out to explore some of the walks and waterfalls dotted around a very wet and misty Hogsback.

Slightly More View

The 'Truck'

All good fun. We had a pint in probably the smallest pub in the world and then went for dinner at the quietest hotel in Hogsback with a the Adams Family and their 2 Stafordshire Bull Terriers…Oh a note on dogs:

Here’s a tip for anyone owning a hotel or restaurant and has a persuasion for our canine friends: Not everyone likes dogs as much as you do. You might like them licking your plate, or sniffing your dinner or following you to the bog or drooling at you as you eat your dinner, but don’t assume your guests are going to be the same. 2 places where we ate in hogback had dogs, the B&B and the Hogs Back Inn both had dogs and both we’re a real pain. What made it all particularly annoying was when the owners seemed so blasé about keeping them behaved. Nicky got the brunt of Butch the Saffie for most of dinner but the owner and proprietor just kept calling him away rather than properly removing him. I felt like slipping each one of them a poisoned date like in Indiana Jones. I like dog’s just keep them in the fricking garden..

Oh and here’s one I forgot to mention – eating establishments aren’t that abundant on the road from East London to Hogsback – lunch today was at a Wimpy. This low standard if mid day eating was to continue.

Table Mountain Sunset

2007-12-06T21:18:00.000+02:00

I don't want to come back to London..

All quiet on the Western Cape

2007-11-27T12:04:00.000+02:00

Apologies for the lack of posts... We've just got back from our holidays and safe to say it was awesome.. In a vain attempt to try and post a less spelling blighted post to the usual diatribe, news of the holiday's going to take a little time..

Here's a taster of what's to come though..

How to ruin a walk

2007-11-13T21:01:00.000+02:00

There's one sure fire way of ruining a walk in the woods; and that's dog poop. Cecelia plantation has too much dog poop. South Africans clearly like scratching poop of their shoes with a stick more than they like being socially responsible.

Butterfly

2007-11-13T21:00:00.001+02:00

Cecelia Plantation pt 2

2007-11-13T20:55:00.000+02:00

We went back to Cecelia plantation again for a bit of a walk. This place is pretty awesome, primarily because it's a huge forrest but also for the fact that probably some of the most amazing trees i've ever seen are being felled for what appears to be no reason..Pretty sad really..

Photo Competition

2007-11-13T20:42:00.000+02:00

The Cape Argus weekend runs a photo competition each week thinly disguised as a restaurant promotion. The winners each week are some of the weakest photographs you've ever seen - Nicky herself commented that she thought she could take a better photograph. So I've decided to enter; not really for the prize, but more for the glory..

Here's this weeks entry...Hopefully we'll be dining out on this one...ha ha

2 Days to go and we're on holiday woooo

2007-11-13T12:01:00.000+02:00

I'm packing light - 12 kilos as of this morning. Nicky isn't.

Wetsuit Hospital

2007-11-13T11:18:00.000+02:00

My wetsuit's gone to the Billabong Hospital this week. A bit of back story: One of the seams is beginning to split, which results in a bit of a cold spot through the stitching. I've been looking into ways of repairing it and one of my options was to get some neoprene and use the Black Witch glue (this is the best glue in the world by the way) I bought a while back. I went into one of the surf shops in Century City, happened to mention the suit was Billabong and they sent me straight to the Billabong shop saying that they should repair it for a small charge. So into the Billabong shop and the guys working there couldn't have been more helpful, telling me that Billabong suits have a lifetime warranty in the seams and that they could send it away to repair no problems. So there we are, the suit is in the shop so we just have to wait and see what the outcome's going to be. If as I'm hoping it's going to come back repaired we're looking at probably one of the greatest reasons to buy a big brand suit and particularly Billabong. Fingers crossed..

Waterfront

2007-11-12T10:57:00.000+02:00

If you go down to the woods today

2007-11-12T10:34:00.000+02:00

You'll probably struggle to spot Nicky, but she's there..

World Record breaking boat

2007-11-11T21:18:00.003+02:00

Another interesting boat in the Waterfront at the moment is this amazing looking machine..

A bit of research and it turns out the be a world record breaker..

the boat is the Cable & Wireless Adventurer and it set the record for a circumnavigating the globe in 74 days, 20 hours, 58 minutes in 1998.

Here's some links for more information

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/125840.stm

http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/cable_and_wireless.htm

The Navy comes to town

2007-11-11T20:57:00.000+02:00

Someone at the South African Navy parked 3 massive ships in the Waterfront this weekend.

We got the obligatory tour.

This one was built in Germany 4 years ago for god knows what cost to the South Africa Tax payer, but you can't go wrong with German engineering can you?

Here's some interesting facts..

1 - The mid range misiles on board cost 7 Million Rand a pop.
2 - The ship can go from full speed to stopped in about a ships length thanks to the amazing gas turbine engines.
3 - And some other secret things that we probably shouldn't know, so i can't say here. woooo..

Plane loses engine after take-off in Cape Town

2007-11-07T22:37:00.000+02:00

So, for a family half scared of flying this wasn't great news..

(Oh, Nicky, don't read the rest of this blog, skip to the nice one about us getting Wet at Silvermine or me skating on Tuesday...)

Today a plane taking off from Cape Town lost an engine. What amazed me is that the old story of a plane being able to fly with one engine turns out to be true..

Here's some News coverage on www.iol.co.za

And here's some more interesting information

So it turns out that there's a website for looking up the history of commercial air liners.. Entering the registration of our one armed bandit from Cape Town reveals some interesting reading..There seems to be two possible registrations doing the news circuits but both paint the same kind of picture of a 25 year old plane that's had 3 previous owners..

Reg: ZS-OEZ
History of the aircraft
30/01/1981 Lufthansa D-ABFH
02/06/1992 Croatia Airlines RC-CTC
09/07/1992 Croatia Airlines 9A-CTC

Reg: ZS-OMG
27/08/1981 Lufthansa D-ABHP
23/06/1993 Croatia Airlines 9A-CTD
18/10/1999 Nationwide Air Charter ZS-OMG

go see on: www.airfleets.net

Half Day

2007-11-07T16:31:00.000+02:00

Took the afternoon yesterday for a bit of 'me time'.

First was a trip to Muizenberg for a surf which worked out well. Every session sees some small improvement and although I'm still on the hire boards it still a lot of fun. In the back of my mind is still Mr white and his 4 rows of sharp teeth, so the frigid waters of the UK are looking more and more appealing.

Second board sport of the day was a skate session over as Fishhoek at one of the sketchiest homemade skateparks going. Still fun though, althouhg in my 9 years of skating little has improved but a lot gone missing. Still, Ollies, Boardslides and the occasional Pop Shuvit are still fun.. Plus seeing kids faces which essential read "Who's this guy? He looks too old to be that bad at Ollieing up a kerb". Safe to say, I'm not down with the kids anymore.

Silvermine is cursed

2007-11-05T17:03:00.000+02:00

Seems every time we try and go up there it rains. Hard.

We walked up to 'Elephants Eye' which turned out to quite a wild walk given the weather..

Skateboarding Cape Town Loop Street

2007-10-29T18:30:00.000+02:00

I love how quiet downtown CT is at the weekend.

Jamvikt

2007-10-29T18:16:00.000+02:00

The new Jamvikt t-shirts finally arrived from the printers and have turned out to be pretty good.

The new jamvikt site is underway and very close to being finished too so watch this space.

Sunset

2007-10-29T18:13:00.000+02:00

I think this is probably the best sunset we've seen..

Seascapes

2007-10-29T18:11:00.000+02:00

I think I'm going to compile set of seascapes from South Africa..

Towards Robben Island from Table View.

Stellenbosch

2007-10-29T18:05:00.000+02:00

Visited Stellenbosch, amazingly, for the first time and it turned out to a pretty good experience. The town is exceptionally nice, very European. So nice in fact we're going to visit for a night on our garden route tour..

Spier

2007-10-29T18:01:00.000+02:00

We went to Spier to have a look at the Cheetah project again. Check out this 'kitten'.

Life's a beech

2007-10-26T20:01:00.000+02:00

And if you're Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town the car park's also a beach. Team building Cape Town style..

Name in Lights

2007-10-26T20:00:00.001+02:00

Yours truly got in a magazine recently. I’d say it was the GQ Man of the Year issue but that would be a lie. More accurately it was the new media /marketing industry rag Revolution and I got quoted on online publishing and the challenges face by doing redesigns. Wooooooo.

Ipod Death

2007-10-26T19:53:00.000+02:00

As if it knew that I’d just replaced it by bagging a new iPod Nano from Apple Refurb my little iPod mini sung it’s last song tonight and started the infamous had drive click of death that signals the end of the road for an iPod..

And here's the results of taking it apart to try and resurrect it..

But here's the new one woo hoo..

And here's a hacked Nike Plus armband turned into a neat little slip cover complete with screen printed controls..Nice.

Boat Trip

2007-10-26T18:23:00.000+02:00

Tamar.com organised a Catamaran Trip for Friday afternoon, on which I managed to catch an invite. All that can really be said was that it was absolutely excellent. Spending the afternoon sailing/motoring off the coast of South Africa, seeing dolphins, whales, drinking cool beer and taking the obligatory dive off the side can’t really be beaten.

The only downside which was completely self induced was that I somehow got the theme tune from Howards Way stuck in my head..

For those of you who'd like to walk a mile in my shoes here's the pain I was in: howards-way.mp3

So I know South Africa won the world cup..

2007-10-24T18:54:00.000+02:00

..but this is taking it a bit far.

This lady was presenting the news on SABC2, on Tuesday..

It's like putting Hugh Edwards in an England shirt...

Rugby World Cup Final pt2

2007-10-20T20:47:00.002+02:00

Having just turned on the TV and tuned into SABC2 it's a bit annoying that SA seem to think they've won already..

Patrotism isn't really my thing, but hell, England deserve to give them a run for their money..

Rugby World Cup Final

2007-10-20T20:47:00.001+02:00

So you might have noticed but England are Playing South Africa in the Rugby world Cup Final.

Being English in South Africa for the last week has had its moments. I’ve been told if England loose it might be a good idea to stay away from work for a few days.. I think that might be wise.

The plan for that match is to lock ourselves in with pizza.

And in a stoke of genius as a half memento half urban camouflage measure we picked up a neat South Africa flag.

So with 30 minutes to go before kick off. Fingers crossed.

Surfing Saturday

2007-10-14T20:13:00.001+02:00

An amazing day in Cape Town on Saturday.. A complete blue bird and probably about 27 degrees. So we directed ourselves to Muizenberg, so Nicky could sunbathe and I could surf. Amazingly the waves were down when we got there which is actually very rare for Muizenberg but I went in anyway but with little success. What was frustrating was seeing people on huge Mal board catching waves so I bit the bullet and went to hire a learners’ board to see for myself how much difference a big floater board made.

Turns out I can actually surf, and it’s now a pride swallowing exercise to admit to myself that buying the 6’9” was a pride induced mistake. Classic...So I paddled out and the first thing I noticed was how far I got out so quickly, this fact down the buoyancy. I then paddled into the first wave, caught it, a quick snap to my feet and I was on and riding and continued riding all the way in. Safe to say that in using the short board I’ve got stronger and got my technique for getting to my feet reasonably sorted but I’m just let down by the board sinking when it’s not got enough speed behind it. Looks like I’m going to be renting a board for the next few sessions…

Toys

2007-10-12T19:45:00.000+02:00

Not that I'm one for wasting money and particularly on designer toys from Japan but these guys are pretty cool..

Filiming again

2007-10-12T19:41:00.000+02:00

This time the crew rigged up an American Diner with man made rain...The one thing that stood out was the fact that if you work on a set you spend most of your time standing round doing nothing whatsoever.

Don't buy a Nissan

2007-10-08T09:59:00.000+02:00

So we swapped cars a couple of weeks ago. The Polo had lost all ability to read CD's and was having a few issues.. So we entered into the uncharted teritory of dealing with National Car Rentals customer service. It seems they only train their staff to deal with one scenario - customer arrives on plane, issue car, next.

So I think we had about 5 different phone calls (with about 5 different people all of which knew nothing about each other) trying to explain that we were bringing the car back to exchange etc etc. Complete waste of time - we may as well have used semaphore to communicate with a blind penguin who wrote things down on an Etch-A-Sketch. Safe to say after several rounds of drawn out nogeotiations and a 90 minute trip to the airport we were able to return the car and swap it for another.

Drum roll please - A Nissan Tiida. First impressions were good - nice finish etc but then after driving it for a few weeks you begin to notice the flaws. Above 100kmh the engine sounds like it's having a seizure, the gear box feels like it attached to your hand using a drinking straw and the astmatic air con is a bit unpreductable. My advise to anyone buying a Nissa Tiida (Although i don't think the UK is subject to them) - Don't. Save you cash and pump for somthing German.

I think i've got enough pictures of the sea for a book

2007-10-08T09:56:00.000+02:00

Between Camps Bay and Llandudno

And Llandudno

It snowed in Cape Town

2007-10-08T09:54:00.000+02:00

I think they're shooting the Chrsitmas commercials at the moment..But on Sunday it did actually hail at one point - it's supposed to be spring now...

Rhodes Memorial

2007-10-08T09:52:00.000+02:00

The Rhodes memorial sits on the slopes of Devils Peak and is a memorial to the legendary Cecil Rhodes of 'I'm going to name a country after me fame'. Hence the former Rhodesia.

Dubious charachter = dubious monument.

Kirstenbosh

2007-10-08T09:51:00.000+02:00

The new Proteas are out at Kirstenbosh. But pic of the day was this bee.

Whales

2007-10-08T09:47:00.000+02:00

Here's a whale we saw just off Muizenberg spotted from Boyes Drive alongside where the Shark Spotters sit.

I had a quick chat the the spotter about shark activity recently and he said that earier in the week he'd seen 2 4 metre Great Whites just off the breakers one of which turned in towards the surf. Here's s thing to know - the Shark Spotters wear Polarized shades to cut down on the glare off the water so they can more easily see the shaddow of the shark.. Nice to know..

A very very windy Nordhoek

2007-10-01T09:43:00.000+02:00

Sunset over Greenpoint

2007-09-29T20:09:00.001+02:00

Today we went to Langebaan again

2007-09-29T20:01:00.000+02:00

Lots of bizzare wildlife encounnters

Huge millipeads which were all over the road in the national park to point you have to slalom round them.

Tiny Tortoises

Huge god know's what

We had a very long beach walk to see and old ship wreck...

Plus saw some pretty impressive seas.

We then went to the lagoon which was somthing out of a paradise island photograph. Nicky found a dead Scorpion..and I crashed the kite into the sea numerous times..

It's been a troubling week.

2007-09-29T19:59:00.000+02:00

I've been at deaths door with some crazy South Africa flu. It took me out for almost the whole week, the highlight being the sickness dreams and of note was the dream where i was the shape of a Lozenge driving round a computer game.

I'm well again now..

We had protests in town today…

2007-09-27T20:13:00.000+02:00

People are protesting against forced evictions from the ‘informal settlements’ along the N2 highway.

From an outsiders point of view I can give this insight. The N2 Gateway project is a housing development set along side the N2, the highway that connects Cape Town to the airport. The process involves the informal settlements being bulldozed and in their place new homes built. On the face of it this seems to be a socially responsible initiative and gives those whop have sub standard homes the opportunity to live in decent dwellings.

However as with most things that seem on the face of it good there’s a more difficult side.

Firstly the N2 gateway project’s location off the highway to the airport gives a clue as to why the project’s running. Is the aim of the project to re-house poorer families in decent accommodation or is it really a project to mask the real poverty of the country from the World Cup revellers set to descend on Cape Town in 2010? What government wants the stark contrast between the rich and poor of a country to be the greeting ‘gateway’ for the world’s football fans and press?

The other issue facing the N2 project is it’s treatment of residents of the proposed houses. In order to build these people are having to be moved from their homes before they’re bulldozed to ‘temporary’ accommodation in Mitchell’s Plain. Now the problem is that Mitchell’s Plain puts the residents substantially further from Cape Town than their current homes and as such puts them further away from jobs and amenities that 1000’s of people travel into the city for each day. This is almost acceptable when you consider it a temporary move. However it’s recently emerged that the new homes are going to far out of reach financially for the people being moved from their home to make way for the new houses. Costs of R150,000 have emerged which although only £10,000 is a huge sum of money and makes buying one of the new homes prohibitively expensive.

It all sound pretty lousy for anyone who’s having to give up their home so good for them kicking up a fuss at forced evictions.

False Bay Regatta

2007-09-22T20:36:00.000+02:00

For all the boat people, harly a spectators sport but quote photogenic..

Kalk Bay Harbour

2007-09-22T20:20:00.000+02:00

Kalk Bay has a very active fishing harbour which is always a hive of activity regardless of the day. Fishing boats were just arring and unloading their very lively Crayfish catch.

Saturday surfing

2007-09-22T20:18:00.000+02:00

Went surfing again today and thankfully last week's progress hasn't gone - got stood up more time than not. Which was a result. Only downside of the day was the moment my board fliped and smacked me on the side of the face - it got me right on the cheek bone. Still pretty raw now with the start of a black eye on the way. Nice.

Cruising Town

2007-09-21T18:06:00.000+02:00

A Photo Set

2007-09-21T18:01:00.000+02:00

Cape Town CBD is a pretty interesting place, for every brand new apartment block or refurbushed bank there's forgotten, boarded up buildings, some in use and some deralict but completely devoid of life. I wonder how long they'll survive.

Sunday I went out a photographed some.

www.betterthroughdesign.com/closedsundays/

Happy Friday

2007-09-21T17:59:00.000+02:00

Roll on the weekend..

One man weekend

2007-09-17T14:42:00.000+02:00

So with Nicky back in the UK I've got the unenviable task of entertaining myself. Primary aims for the weekend were surfing and skating. Plus a bit of shopping.. So I got myself a board bag for the surf stick which almost guarantees it's voyage back to the uk. I headed over to Muizenberg to brave shark infested waves. Saturday was a but lame but sunday was awesome, i arriveed earlier so the waves were better and I actually managed to make some progress. 2 hours in the water and a little spot of sunburn later and I'd actually managed to get one some waves on my feet. I think the conclusion being that unfortunatly Muizenberg is the best place to learn and that you've just got to trust the conditions and the Shark Spotters.

Gotta love England

2007-09-17T14:34:00.000+02:00

So I was in a South Africa pub on Friday night. England lost, South Africa won. I kinda kept myself to myself.

Grow up!

2007-09-12T22:39:00.000+02:00

10% Extra free

2007-09-11T20:36:00.000+02:00

Holiday got slightly extended due the plane breaking down. 4 extra hours in Port Elizabeth. Ace.

So we had the pleasure of spending the evening enjoying PE's finest..

Afternoon in PE

2007-09-11T20:34:00.000+02:00

Got ourselves a great new crop of shells and went to check out the skate park that I spotted from the plane which turned out to be awesome. An 8-10 ft deep pool with roll-in, just a shame my board was in Cape Town.

Guess who got a new hat?

2007-09-11T20:33:00.000+02:00

Addo Elephant Park

2007-09-11T20:24:00.000+02:00

We got ourselves checked into the chalet style hut which on first impressions were very well done. They all had BBQ’s ready for the nights meat feast..

To preface all the rest of the Addo post it’s fair to say we saw plenty of wildlife.. A quick vote sees Elephants, Caracal (Kinda like a Lynx) and Spotted Eagle Owls as the top scorers… Here’s some photos..

and the accompanying check list...

We headed out on the first of the drives round the park. You can essentially drive yourself round or take one of the Safari tours, but we decided to begin with we’d drive round and head up to the main camp to books ourselves some morning and night escorted drives.

So if you’re in the bush you’ve got to have a BBQ meat feast.

So in no way do I consider myself a 'bushman', but growing up in the lakes you’d like the think that the wild doesn’t prove too much of a problem. How very wrong I am..

So we bedded down for the night in out lovely thatched cottage.. 11pm comes round and I suddenly find myself awake having heard rustling. Light on, delirious searching – nothing to be seen…So let’s try again..5 minutes later the same rustling, this time I had to find out what was going on? Bats?……Mice?….Scorpians?… – light on, suddenly I see a 5 inch tail disappear under the blinds.. we then hear ‘chattering’ in the thatch and catch sight of another furry friend on another beam… At this point both me and Nicky are in a kind of half awake half asleep mode. And then comes ‘underpants change time’ when we catch sight of a spider the size of a small dog sitting watching us…

At this point all rational decision making has evaporated and we elect that sleeping in the car is the only solution…

5 am comes and we wake for our early morning game drive as we emerge from the car with stoops like Albert Steptoe. I think we both need to go on some kind of wildlife rehab.

So then we had a full day of driving round the park. Starting with the early 6:30 drive then followed by a drive round in the car, punctuated by a sleep and then onto a night drive. The good thing was that on each drive we saw new things so even through we covered off the same ground it was still pretty interesting. The Night drive was probably the best as you got to see smaller animals that you don’t associate with the standard ‘Big-5’, but almost more interesting. Jackal, Spotted Eagle Owl and Spring Hares being notables.

Holiday Wednesday - Planes, Dolphins and Pistols

2007-09-11T20:21:00.000+02:00

First was our trip to Port Elizabeth to meet Mel and James before heading out on our hols to Addo Elephant park.

We got to sample the delights of Cape Town’s domestic terminal [shed] which was a charm.We we’re flying on what appeared from the outside to be a Lear Jet, but with 48 other people on board. I loved it, Nicky hated it.

Spotted an awesome looking pool from the plane which has now got itself marked on Extreme Sports Map. We also saw a group of dolphins in the bay as we flew in.

Other notables were the signs that you rarely see in a UK airport. Nice to know those requiring they gun to travel with them don’t have to put their fellow travellers through the ordeal of seeing their Holstered Colt 45 as they stretch to put their luggage in the overhead lockers.

Having an hour or so to kill we headed for the aquarium and got the tail end of the Dolphin Show – a classing anyone’s book if you ask me.

We met up with Mell and James, loaded the poor Polo with all our gear and got on the road out of PE, next stop Addo Reserve

Stopping for provisions just outside the park we were suitably reminded of being out in the sticks. Whereas the Spar in the UK tends to have things like lottery tickets, cigarettes and Pannini Football stickers, this one had an abundance of Torches, Knives and Gun Magazines – One particular advert in particular caught my eye. The ad for a torch, printed in lo-fi black and white created the scenario that if you didn’t have a good torch you wouldn’t be able to shoot any assailant who came your way. The illustration depicted an obviously white man taking aim at and dazzling a crowbar wielding man of non white origin to demonstrate the power of this particular brand of torch.

I now wish I’d got myself decked out with the gear including a blade and a torch the reasoning for which will become apparent later.

A surfing lesson

2007-09-11T17:23:00.001+02:00

VideoJug: How To Surf A Wave In One Day

Kite Corner

2007-09-02T20:45:00.000+02:00

I got slightly sidetracked at Muizenberg on the way to the toilet and ended up in a kite shop...

Only my ingrained northern tightness stopped me from plumping for a top of the line carbon fibre afair but there seemed to be a model for every pocket - how you tell that your kite 25 meters above you has carbon rods i'll never know, but still it did set off a little bit of carbon lust. But still we spent considerably less and ended up with a pretty decent machine.

Easy to put together too as Nicky can vouch for demo'd...

And here's the bad boy in action..

More from Muizenberg

2007-09-02T20:43:00.000+02:00

So I got a new lens for my G5, which has turned out to be a bit of a winner. It's a retro fit Ebay afair but acts as an x0.45 wide angle. It's a bit soft round the edges but not by anywhere as much as I was anticipating..

And you get those nice wide angle shots.

Sunday Shining

2007-09-02T20:15:00.000+02:00

The sun was shinign so much we decided we had to go to the beach. I'd seen online that there was some organised get-as-many-people-on-a-wave-thing at Muizenberg so we thought it might be good to check it out..

The first Sunday of September sees the anulual event held in several countries to put as many surfers on one wave..

Current record is 77 aparently and some rumours on the day put the best efforts at 69.. Not bad going considering the line up was huge and everyone that counted had to be organised and catch the same wave.

Here's everyone heading into the water..

Nicky enjoying the sun

And the partial line up on one wave