Navigation

Archive | October, 2013

Etsy Craft Party 2013

By on October 18, 2013 in Out and About, Photography

Back in June, Durban had their very own Etsy Craft Party at The Upstairs. Why am I only blogging about this now? Well I was asked by Nadia to take some photos when the photographer cancelled on the day. Poor show that, whoever you are! In any case when taking official photographs I generally give the official people a bit of time to use them before I post them myself. When Nadia very kindly dropped off a lovely gift for me today to say thanks, I realised that more time had gone by than I realised and I still hadn’t added anything about it on here.

So, better late than never, I give you the Etsy craft party photos as well as some pics of the nifty little pen disguised as a pencil and a lovely journal/notebook from Typo. It was all wrapped beautifully as only Nadia and other crafty types can. Me, I have no patience for wrapping. You’re lucky if you get something wrapped in tinfoil from me. Not very green, I know, but super easy to fold over anything.

1

Caffeine Injection

By on October 15, 2013 in Out and About

Roy and I were in Cape Town over the weekend and we came up with a cunning plan to visit as many coffee shops as we could fit into our already overladen schedule. By the time we had completed our little coffee bar hopping excursion, however, I felt a bit like I’d been mainlining caffeine. Nevertheless, it was a rather fun way to spend a few hours and learn where everything in the City Bowl is in relation to everything else. These are some of the places we visited.

Deluxe Coffee Works
25 Church Street, City Center, Cape Town
Website: www.deluxecoffeeworks.co.za

This place is tiny, but it makes me want to move to Cape Town. They seem to know nearly everyone who walks through the door by name, which is completely amazing! Their coffee is pretty darn good and they also sell beans by the bag, just remember to to some cold hard cash with you as they don’t have a card machine.

Truth Coffee HQ
36 Buitenkant Street
Website: www.truthcoffee.com

Okay so we went here more to see the Steampunk décor for ourselves than for the coffee, as you can get Truth coffee just about anywhere these days but it was still rad. I’ve always loved Steampunk, and it’s cool to see such a massive space dedicated to the sci-fi sub-genre outside of a movie or dingy club in the middle of deepest, darkest Europe.

Haas Collective
67 Rose Street, Bo Kaap
Website: haascollective.com

This place is pretty darn cool. The space consists of a “design gallery, concept store and high end coffee house and roastery”.  The art on the walls is beautiful and if I had a spare R10k lying around I’d definitely buy something. Sadly, I’m not that lucky, so I’ll have to give that idea a miss for now. I was ready for a break from the coffee at this point so I opted for a pot of Rooibos tea but I have it on good authority that the coffee was delicious. (That’s Emil @thelimeline in the pic on the right, he doesn’t work there but does in fact give good tours of the city to friends from out of town.)

Left image of Truth taken from their website. The other pics are either mine or Roy’s.

0

Car Hire Comparison

By on October 7, 2013 in Out and About

Yes, weird post, I know. It’s just so hard to figure out which Car Hire company gives you the best value for money without tabling the info. Some of the sites have tons of info, some of them have hardly any. Some companies charge a daily rate which includes basic accident or theft waiver fees, others exclude it and charge you additional fees. Most companies have a whole host of other additional admin fees, weekend deposits, waiver fees etc. It can all be a little confusing.

In any case, I put all the info I could find into a table for myself and then figured why not share it. Don’t hold me accountable if anything is wrong, there could very well be errors. These were all calculated with a pick-up and drop-off at Cape Town International Airport. Hope it helps.

 

2

Urban Descent

By on October 6, 2013 in Out and About, Photography

We were up bright and early for the Gunslinger / Quiksilver Urban Descent in Glenwood. The weather was rather iffy and the wind was howling, so I was super surprised that so many people turned up to watch. It’s not something us Durbanites usually do. We generally like to stay home at the mere hint of rain, we’re bratty like that. Roy took photos of the riders, I took some candids of people in the crowd, all in all, not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning. Hope you all had a good weekend.

0

I Heart Market – October

By on October 5, 2013 in Out and About, Photography

What a beautiful day it was in Durban today! I mean really, it was hot, the wind died down and clearly half of Durban visited the market at some point. I haven’t seen it that busy in a while, which was great for all the stall holders. As usual, the first stop had to be lemonade stand for my monthly gin & lemonade. Some days I’m there so early I get funny looks, but my theory is that I’m not early, I’m a month late; which means that 9am is gin o’ clock if you ask me.

I’ve had my eye on the Kayla Midi Skirt from Jane Sews for a while now. Today, I bit the bullet, twisted my rubber arm and bought myself one. Of course, me being me, I couldn’t help buying a second dress as well. The thing is Amy’s attention to detail is ridiculous and not only is the fabric amazing but the structure of her garments is impeccable. Seriously, the finishing is superb! If you have some spare cash I can’t recommend her highly enough. You can visit her online shop, try one of your local stockists or wait until the next market come around.

The Stadium has added a “Before I Die…” wall for people to write their dreams on. Some people really dream big, while others have super simple wishes. It’s interesting to see just how different everyone is. In any case you can find the wall at the bottom of the stairs near the fountains, in case you’d like to add your two cents.

Tomorrow is the Urban Descent downhill race in Glenwood. I’ll be there taking pics of all the cool kids, if you’re planning on going maybe I’ll see you there. If not, have a super Sunday.

2