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

A Blooming Great Day at The Durban July

The Durban July

Saturday, July 31^st sees the run­ning of the Vodacom Durban July.  This fam­ous horse race has taken place since July 1897 (that’s 113 years!) and has grown from humble begin­nings at the Durban Turf Club with only seven run­ners to what it is now; Africa’s greatest sport­ing and social event with a purse of R3 mil­lion.  Over 50 000 people des­cend on Greyville Racecourse to take part in the fest­iv­it­ies; R190 mil­lion is spent on nation­wide bet­ting with R36 mil­lion on the main race of the day!

By 1904 the num­ber of run­ners and increased from seven to 19 and the annual event soon star­ted to draw interest from around the coun­try with spec­tat­ors arriv­ing by trams and horse-drawn car­riages.  Horses were still only drawn from stables in the Natal Colony but by 1918 horses were trans­por­ted from the Cape and the Rand to make the July a national event. Continued

Parlotone’s at D’Aria on Valentines day

Are you look­ing for a way into your Valentine’s heart? Or would you just like to spoil your loved one? If you’ve answered yes then get a move on and book your tick­ets for the Parlotones live at D’Aria on Valentine’s Day (Sunday 14 February 2010).

The Parlotones have proved they are the biggest and most pop­u­lar English Rock / Alternative band in South Africa, play­ing to huge, sol out crowds as well as per­form­ing next to well know inter­na­tional bands (i.e. Kings of Leon and Evanescence). I wasn’t sur­prised to find out that in the last 18 months the band has sold over 100 000 records and per­formed in over 300 shows.  They have also won numer­ous awards, for example the People’s Choice Award for Best Music Act in 2008 ... Continued

Fundraising Spinnathon for child protection

Are you feel­ing a bit out of touch with your com­munity and you would like to do some­thing for a good cause but are not sure what, then why not head down to Canal Walk in Cape Town on Saturday 5 December and take part in the "Make a Difference Spinnathon".

Virgin Active and Canal Walk are join­ing up with the Friends of Child Protection (FCP) to host a fun­drais­ing Spinnathon and the pro­ceeds of this event will go towards the much needed Comfort Packs that FCP sup­plies to the fam­ily viol­ence, child pro­tec­tion and sexual offences units of the South African police. This is def­in­itely some­thing we should all get involved with ... Continued

Sisters with Blisters taking place 28 November

We’ve all had them, that extremely pain­ful blister after a fun night out wear­ing your favour­ite pair of stilet­tos. But this doesn’t really give us a sense of achieve­ment or make much dif­fer­ence to any­one but ourselves. So why not get a blister on 28 November 2009 that will actu­ally mean something?

Sisters with Blisters in an annual event that has been tak­ing place for the past 3 years. Jacaranda 94.2 and First for Women have joined forces to raise aware­ness on the abuse suffered by many women and chil­dren Continued

Pinocchio Pantomime in Johannesburg from 4 November

Adventures of Pinocchio

We have all heard of the story of the little wooden boy who was carved from a piece of pine by the wood­carver Geppetto and who was cre­ated as a pup­pet but dreamt of becom­ing a “real boy” named Pinocchio. This fic­tional char­ac­ter has been around since 1883 and has become a well loved tale and was cer­tainly a firm favour­ite of mine whilst I was grow­ing up.

And if you are in Johannesburg or its sur­round­ing areas you will be happy to know that Pinocchio will be the biggest pan­to­mime ever this year with 60 artists tak­ing part. If you already au fait with pan­to­mimes you prob­ably call them panto’s and already have your tick­ets booked. However, if you do not fall into this cat­egory let me give you a little refresher in what the pan­to­mime is ... Continued

Style in the city

Trinny & Susannah

You either have it or you don’t, style that is, but lucky enough for those of us to whom style doesn’t come eas­ily, we can be helped. And the MasterCard Style in the City is here to help. Taking place from Thursday 29 October to Sunday 1 November in the ever pop­u­lar V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, this event will show­case the crème de la crème of fash­ion and beauty and is hos­ted by top fash­ion guru’s Trinny and Susannah.

If you don’t yet know who these two straight talk­ing ladies are then let me enlighten you. I have been a fan of theirs ever since I first saw their show while vis­it­ing my sis­ter in the UK. What not to wear is a pro­gramme that takes ordin­ary people, yes that means you, your wife, mother, grand­mother, father, hus­band or friend and Continued

Get off the Couch — What's happening this Weekend

Tired of sit­ting on the couch every week­end, feel­ing a bit of the winter slump? If so, don’t stop read­ing as we have some answers for you to get up and have some fun this weekend.

Gravity Adventure Festival

If you are in the Western Cape you could take part in the Gravity Adventure Festival hap­pen­ing in Kleinmond from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 August 2009. There is some­thing for every­one from a trail run, MTB race (that is a moun­tain bike race for those not au fait with the lingo), down­river kayak race, K1 sprint, mile river swim, down­river croc race and adven­ture race as well as a climb­ing event. This fest­ival, one of South Africa’s most diverse adven­ture fest­ivals, takes place in and around the main road bridge on the Palmiet River. You will be able to see some awe­some sights, test your climb­ing skills on the wall or browse through the food and gear stalls. Continued