Weekly Events Round Up (13–19 Feb 2012)

Strawberries & Champagne

Love is in the air this week with Valentine’s Day on Tuesday. Valentine's Day tends to put a bit of pres­sure on people to come up with an idea for the per­fect date so we've decided to help you out with a couple of romantic, and fun things to do this week.

We also have a vari­ety of other events and activ­it­ies in South Africa that you can take part in and attend to keep you enter­tained — from sport­ing events to bridal shows.

Whatever you might be look­ing for we are here to help you with sug­ges­tions of what you can do to keep yourselves enter­tained so diar­ise the fol­low­ing events and enjoy one of the most romantic days of the year.

Continued

You Don't Need To Be A Book Nut To Visit Richmond, But It Helps If You Are

Richmond

The little town of Richmond lies in the middle of the Karoo of the Northern Cape, roughly four hours away from Bloemfontein, its slightly shaggy main street lined with period 19^th cen­tury archi­tec­ture, much of it restored, the upper reaches of which form a tun­nel of book stores.

Richmond is a book town. The only one on the African con­tin­ent. And a book town of note. If you are an avid book fan, my advice to you is that you set aside at least two days for a visit. And if you really want to indulge, time your visit with one of the annual book festivals.

From the N1 there seems noth­ing to the town. It appears to be little more than a rather small Caltex sta­tion that you use if you're des­per­ate for a full tank, are happy to eat the fare at Karma, or wish to stop at Meriman Meats, the butchery that lures the odd vis­itor for its biltong. Continued

Weekly Events Round Up (6–12 Feb 2012)

Comrades Marathon

If you are a sport­ing enthu­si­ast or your New Year’s res­ol­u­tion is to take on the Comrades or Two Oceans this year, then we have a list of this weekend’s sport­ing events to help you with your training.

From mara­thons and half mara­thons to swim­ming, we have a num­ber of sports events hap­pen­ing around South Africa to excite both ser­i­ous ath­letes to recre­ational competitors.

We will keep you up to date with the latest events hap­pen­ing around the coun­try, where you can add any new or upcom­ing events to your calendar.

So check back with us reg­u­larly to find out what new chal­lenges can assist you in achiev­ing your sport­ing goals ...

Continued

Weekly Events Round Up (30 Jan to 5 Feb 2012)

Up The Creek

If you haven’t thought about what you’re going to do next week, we’ve come up with a list of some of the most excit­ing events that will be tak­ing place. We will now be giv­ing you a weekly round up of the upcom­ing events and fest­ivals through­out South Africa.

We will keep you up to date with the hip and hap­pen­ing events that you can attend. Think sports, enter­tain­ment, cul­ture and more. Break out your diar­ies and start phoning your friends to make sure you don't miss out.

There are a host of fun events that take place every week and we really don't want you to be the last per­son to hear about them at the cof­fee sta­tion on Monday morn­ing. So check back with us on Fridays to find out what's going on ...

Continued

A Long Lunch and Celebration in Fairtrade at the Bosman Family Vineyard

Harvest Festival

If you are look­ing for a fant­astic exper­i­ence on the week­end of 17 and 18 March 2012 why not take a drive to Wellington for their annual Wellington Harvest Festival. Purchase your access pass at your first port of call or at the Wellington Tourism Office. Your pass allows you free wine tast­ing at par­ti­cip­at­ing cel­lars oth­er­wise it is a pay-as-you-go system.

Wondering where your first stop should be, why not stop at the Bosman Family Vinerard as they have joined together with Fairtrade Label South Africa and hope to show vis­it­ors to the fest­ival the true mean­ing of Fairtrade. Lunch will be a deli­ciously long affair and you will find out all of the details below ...

Bosman Family Vineyards prom­ises a Celebration in Fairtrade at their Long Lunch dur­ing the annual Wellington Harvest Festival on 17 & 18 March 2012.  Kick off your work­ing shoes and enjoy a leis­urely, fest­ive sum­mer lunch set against the back­drop of eleg­ant Cape Dutch build­ings, spread­ing oaks and soar­ing moun­tains. Continued

All I want for Christmas – some interesting and creative gift ideas

Christmas Gifts

Ding, dong, ding ,dong – it's Christmas. Again. The time of end­less stand­ing in queues listen­ing to Boney M re-runs of Christmas car­ols, tin­sel and tur­keys begins. Bet last year you made a vow not to get caught up in the may­hem. And yet, here we are...

If like most of us you've still not bought all your gifts, we've put together some easy, local (well, not all, but most) gift ideas.

Some have a travel theme in keep­ing with the blog, but we've also thrown in a few just because we like them so much, and couldn't resist.

Here's to a merry Christmas! Continued

Christmas Markets in Cape Town 2011 – it's that time of year again

Christmas Markets

Markets in Cape Town are extremely pop­u­lar. On Saturdays in par­tic­u­lar, you have your pick of food mar­kets and craft mar­kets, as more and more of these  pop­u­lar ways to shop emerge to sat­isfy our grow­ing urge to buy local.

And at Christmas, if you're any­thing like me, then avoid­ing the annual shop­ping 'rush' that hap­pens without fail is a top pri­or­ity! Having the option of Christmas mar­kets, where you can pick up loc­ally made, ori­ginal and highly indi­vidual gifts (that aren't made in China), as well as local food items, means that Christmas might again acquire a sense of gentle rest, neigh­bour­li­ness and fest­iv­ity, rather than the angst-filled, queue hop­ping night­mare that it has become.

Here are the mar­kets you can still attend (for some, like Kamers vol Geskenke, and the Constantia Gift Fair have already passed us by): Continued

Kamers vol Geskenke — where gifts are flying off the shelves

Kamers vol Geskenke

If there is one event you attend for all your Christmas gift shop­ping, then make it Kamers vol Geskenke at Lourensford wine estate in Somerset West, hap­pen­ing now: until 29 October, 9am to 6pm daily.

I'm just back from three hours of soak­ing up the ambi­ance of a mar­ket that gives new mean­ing to the word 'craft'. The recent term for this type of craft is 'high-end craft' (there's that word again, but obvi­ously it is irre­place­able). So, don't expect to see hand-knitted jer­seys and wooden toys as you might at your aver­age local craft market.

'High-end craft' describes ori­gin­ally designed, time­less 'craft' that could eas­ily, and does, grace the shelves of local boutiques as they open all over the coun­try to cater for this bur­geon­ing com­munity of artists who com­bine con­tem­por­ary cre­ativ­ity with inspired tal­ent to arrive at a level of flair and ingenu­ity that inspires all who pass through the rooms of this event ... Continued

Volunteer Wildfire Services — Awareness Day

VWS — Awareness Day

The Fire and Fynbos Awareness Day is an annual event held in Assagaaibosch Nature Reserve which is part of the gor­geous Jonkershoek val­ley that lies just behind Stellenbosch. you might be ask­ing what this event is all about, well it aims to cre­ate aware­ness about the fyn­bos and fires as well as the oppor­tun­ity to raise money to sup­port our char­ity. So many people think that because we are fire­fight­ers that we get money from gov­ern­ment, unfor­tu­nately this is not case.

Because of the hot­ter sum­mers and drier win­ters the fires that these fire­fight­ers fight are get­ting lar­ger and more intense and are becom­ing increas­ingly fre­quent. This has neces­sit­ated a push in recruit­ment and fund­ing for the equip­ment we sorely need. Top on the required list is a new landrover that will enable another team to be ready to go out and fight the fires. Continued

Tulbagh Spring Arts Festival 2011

The his­toric Cape Winelands town of Tulbagh is host­ing a Spring Arts Festival over the week­end of 26–28 August 2011, cel­eb­rat­ing the arts in all their var­ied forms. The fest­ival also coin­cides with the spring wild­flowers, which include sev­eral vari­et­ies of rare endemic bulbs that only flower in the Tulbagh val­ley. It is aimed at rais­ing funds for the Tulbagh Community Gardens and Galgeheuwel Reserve ini­ti­at­ive, which will cre­ate a pub­lic pleas­ure garden for the enjoy­ment of all in his­toric Church Street. Continued

Franschhoek Bastille Day Festival Photographs

Some of our team mem­bers atten­ded the Franschhoek Bastille Day fest­ival on the week­end of 16 July and brought back some won­der­ful pho­to­graphs of the fest­iv­it­ies. We espe­cially like the pho­tos of the Solms-Delta march­ing band — aren't they a hand­some bunch? Franschhoek, South Africa’s Gourmet Capital, cel­eb­rates its centuries-old French Huguenot her­it­age with a won­der­ful feast of food, wine and enter­tain­ment at its annual Bastille Festival. Its a great time to be in Franschhoek and if you haven't been yet, we sug­gest you try to get there next year! Its a won­der­fully fest­ive time ... Continued

Events in July — Spring into the second half of 2011

Prawn & Jazz Festival

We are now offi­cially into the second half of 2011, you might be ask­ing your­self where has the time gone? But what you should be ask­ing your­self is what am I going to be doing with the rest of the year? How can I fill up my free time with things to do, what is hap­pen­ing around me? We're here to make the answers a little bit easier and we're giv­ing you a snip­pet of some of the fant­astic events that will be tak­ing place this July.

Don't let this month slip past you, because before you know it we'll be in 2012. Get rid of some of those winter blues and be a part of the magic that these events offer. You will find some­thing for every­one from sports enthu­si­asts, art lov­ers, food lov­ers, fam­il­ies, friends and more. Don't get left out in the cold... make sure you are there!

Continued

Liberty Midlands Mall Motor Show – A review

Motor Show

Once dubbed ‘Sleepy Hollow’, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal’s cap­ital, has become a vibrant city thanks largely to the estab­lish­ment of a mod­ern shop­ping centre there some years ago. Situated on Sanctuary Road, just off the N3 high­way, The Liberty Midlands Mall is home to nearly 180 shops includ­ing many house­hold names like Game, Pick ‘n Pay, Woolworths, Edgars and Cine Centre Cinemas.

Besides the many shops and res­taur­ants, the Mall has a num­ber of attrac­tions with one of the most pop­u­lar being its annual motor show, which is always a crowd puller. Many of the city’s motor deal­ers have real­ised the import­ance of dis­play­ing their products at the Mall and judging by the massive turn out once again, it cer­tainly was money well spent. Continued

‘Concert in the Park’ – A review

Concert in the Park

Established in the early 1870s for the pur­pose of con­serving and propagat­ing rare and endangered indi­gen­ous plants, the National Botanical Gardens in Pietermaritzburg is always a great venue for any­one look­ing to relax and unwind amongst the beauty of nature. Flowers of every descrip­tion birth forth a kal­eido­scope of col­ours and hues while tall trees shade vis­it­ors strolling along the neatly man­i­cured lawns cre­at­ing a sense of uto­pia sel­dom exper­i­enced in any city setting.

The ever pop­u­lar ‘Concert in the Park’ has been staged annu­ally in the Botanical Gardens since 2005 and when Continued

A day out with the cars in the park

Cars in the Park

Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal’s cap­ital city, is home to many attrac­tions, not least of which is the col­our­ful Alexandra Park, con­sidered for many dec­ades to be the city’s main social activ­ity centre. Established in 1860, the park boasts a dazzling array of flower and plant spe­cies while the Cricket Oval with its fas­cin­at­ing Victorian Pavilion (a national monu­ment) reg­u­larly hosts cul­tural city events.

The park itself is well known for show­cas­ing annual events like ‘Art in the Park’ — the largest out­door exhib­i­tion in South Africa; ‘Cars in the Park’ – all wheels vin­tage and future; and ‘Maritzburg Fantasia’ – a Christmas night mar­ket with a dif­fer­ence. For those who don’t like crowds, there’s always the option of a week­end braai with the fam­ily while swim­ming, cyc­ling and soc­cer facil­it­ies are avail­able to keep the more ener­getic mem­bers of the fam­ily out of mis­chief. Continued