Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates pantomime at the Joburg Theatre

Robinson Crusoe

Janice Honeyman’s new panto: Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates — We’re near­ing the Festive sea­son and while I cringe at the Christmas dis­plays and music that we are begin­ning to be bom­barded with in the shop­ping malls am I more than a little bit excited because I know this means it is panto time! And this year Janice Honeyman once again does not disappoint.

I am a big fan of panto’s, I’m not sure what it is about the singing, dan­cing and comedic exper­i­ence that is so great. Perhaps it makes me feel like a child again, per­haps it is the whirl­wind of action on stage, I’m not entirely sure but what I do know is that they are thor­oughly enjoy­able no mat­ter what age you are. So this is the per­fect oppor­tun­ity to get the whole fam­ily together to enjoy some­thing ... Continued

The International Stamp Show in Gauteng from 27 to 31 October 2010

International Stamp Show

When I was younger I used to col­lect stamps, I’m not sure if this was because I was try­ing to get another badge to sew onto my uni­form or if I just decided to do this as a hobby. Either way, I spent a fair amount of time col­lect­ing a vari­ety of stamps and put­ting them into my stamp book – which I am sure is col­lect­ing a ser­i­ous pile of dust on my mom’s book­shelf now. Stamp col­lect­ing, or phil­a­tely, is an extremely pop­u­lar hobby world­wide and this October you can visit the International Stamp Show at the Sandton Convention Centre from 27–31 October 2010. Continued

Follow the yellow brick road to the National Children's Theatre in Johannesburg

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz will be play­ing from the 15 November to the 23^rd December 2010 at the National Children’s Theatre (NCT) in Johannesburg. Follow the yel­low brick road as L. Frank Baum’s heart-warming children's clas­sic, The Wizard of Oz,  is brought to life on stage. This spell-binding tale will trans­port audi­ences to the magical land of Oz dur­ing the December hol­i­days, start­ing Monday 15 November 2010.

Join the irre­press­ible Dorothy together with her beloved dog Toto on her remark­able jour­ney over the rain­bow to the Emerald City. Along the way she meets a rusty Tin Man in search of a heart, a Scarecrow in need of a brain, and a Cowardly Lion who lacks cour­age ... Continued

Nik Rabinowitz's show uNik in Johannesburg this October

Nik Rabinowitz

If you live in Johannesburg and are in need of a laugh then you have to get to the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton to watch one of my favour­ite South African comedi­ans, Nik Rabinowitz, in his one man show uNik. The show runs for two weeks only and I’m pos­it­ive it will be very pop­u­lar so get to the front of the queue to get your tick­ets. The dates are 26 October to 6 November so you have a week or two to get your act together!

Directed by Brent Palmer and co-written by Tom Eaton you can expect to laugh like crazy at this pro­duc­tion. Nik is here to remind you that we are all uNik (unique) – aside from the 6.5 bil­lion of us who are exactly the same, and he’ll take you on a jour­ney of jokes and clever think­ing to get you think­ing. Continued

Moyo at Zoo Lake

Moyo at Zoo Lake

As men­tioned in an earlier blog post, I flew up to Johannesburg last Friday for my broth­ers birth­day week­end and my Dad joined us, fly­ing up from the new King Shaka International Airport in Ballito.  On Saturday morn­ing I headed the quest for get­ting out of the house and doing some­thing ‘cul­tural’ and touristy and Zoo Lake was where we ended up.  Now, I am not scared of a mid morn­ing snack and nor is my Dad — safety in num­bers I always say — so we put that option to the rest of the party and after a unan­im­ous vote decided that tea and cake it would be!

On arrival at Zoo Lake we were poin­ted in the dir­ec­tion of the Zoo Lake Bowling Club but with all due respect I had my reser­va­tions about the cal­ibre of the pot of tea on offer and after fur­ther enquir­ies found out that there was a Moyo Restaurant in front of the lake.  Now that’s more like it and off we went ... Continued

Doing the touristy thing at Zoo Lake in Johannesburg

Zoo Lake, Joburg

I found myself at Cape Town International Airport on Friday after­noon board­ing the 16h00 Kulula flight to Lanseria International Airport — a week­end up to Egoli for my brother’s birth­day.  My brother has lived in Johannesburg on and off for a num­ber of years and I’ve vis­ited a few times but have never really done the touristy thing.  So, this time I wanted to at least see some­thing that the city is known for.

I'd decided that the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens would be our nom­in­ated tour­ist visit but we couldn’t find our way there and en route drove past a sign for Zoo Lake so we opted for that instead!  I’m sure the botan­ical gar­dens are equally as lovely but I was really impressed with Zoo Lake … I’d read some­where that Johannesburg is the most ‘treed’ city in the world and I can believe that now that I’ve seen the size of the Zoo Lake park ... Continued

Absolute 80’s Spring Day at Broadacres Barnyard Theatre

Absolute 80's

September 1^st tra­di­tion­ally marks the begin­ning of spring (whether the weather plays along is another story entirely) but the Broadacres Barnyard Theatre is def­in­itely play­ing along with their Absolute 80’s Spring Day R80 Special, includ­ing a free wel­come drink!  That’s prac­tic­ally giv­ing it away!

What could be bet­ter than an even­ing of 80’s music?  Absolute ‘80’s takes the theme of a school reunion with the school head mis­tress guid­ing the audi­ence of their trip down an ‘80’s music memory lane!  Continued

African Tapestry will explode onto the stage at the National Children's Theatre in September

African Tapestry

"I believe that chil­dren are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way" - Dionne Warwick

African Tapestry will explode onto the stage at the National Children's Theatre (NCT) in Parktown, with the intox­ic­at­ing beat of African drums, folk tales, music and dance from across the con­tin­ent, to weave the fab­ric for a fab­ulous inter­act­ive musical for chil­dren. This cul­tiv­ates a love for Africa and her many cul­tures and has as its under­ly­ing theme an aware­ness of envir­on­mental issues ... Continued

La Grand Cirque Fantazie at Artscape

La Grand Cirque

I am so excited; last week I bought two tick­ets for La Grand Cirque Fantazie at Artscape in Cape Town on Thursday even­ing.  Granted they are the cheapest tick­ets avail­able (R100) and will prob­ably be up in the heav­ens but a good friends mother always used to tell us that the price of the ticket is irrel­ev­ant just as long as one makes effort to get to the theatre.  So the effort has been made and off to the theatre we will go!

I saw La Grand Cirque on Top Billing last week and was mes­mer­ized.  Direct from Las Vegas, the show, seen by mil­lions of people around the world is set to be one of the most magical shows ever.  With acts routed in the acro­batic tra­di­tions of Russia, China and Eastern Europe, La Grand Cirque is a thrill­ing, fast paced spec­tacle of breath­tak­ing acro­bat­ics and stunts.  The per­formers of the show are hand-picked from around the world because they are the best at what they do and have jaw-dropping abil­it­ies and pre­ci­sion skills. Continued

Brightwater Commons "Serving up Soccer" for the school holidays

Serving up Soccer

The Brightwater Commons in Randburg has come up with a few ideas to keep act­ive chil­dren busy and frus­trated par­ents calm dur­ing the World Cup. With the long school hol­i­days approach­ing it is an excel­lent idea to keep your fin­ger on the pulse of things you can do with your chil­dren and we’d like to make your job a little bit easier.

Keeping with the phe­nom­enal spirit of the 2010 World Cup, Brightwater Commons will be host­ing a num­ber of activ­it­ies and events that will be enter­tain­ing from 11 June to 11 July 2010. And to use a soc­cer ref­er­ence the good times will kick off at 12h00 on Friday 11 June with an African Tribal Show. Get into a spirit of Africa with this col­our­ful extra­vag­anza fea­tur­ing a Marimba band, tra­di­tional sing­ers, dan­cers and the soul­ful beat of African drum­ming. Continued

Boys in the Photograph musical at the Joburg theatre.

A dif­fer­ent take on soc­cer as South Africa and the World gear up for the 2010 World Cup on 11 June, Boys in the Photograph began it’s month long run this week at the Joburg Theatre. This is a musical by the great Andrew Lloyd Webber and lead­ing writer and comedian Ben Elton.

Boys in the Photograph was ori­gin­ally staged in 2000/1, but was ori­gin­ally titled The Beautiful Game. The story is set in Belfast, Ireland amid reli­gious con­flict between Protestants and Catholics, the char­ac­ters are made up of a young  soc­cer team. The story unfolds as these young men move through their lives, some of the char­ac­ters stumble and fall at the chal­lenges life presents them, while oth­ers rise to the occa­sion. Continued

Holiday Fun at Emperors Palace

Holiday Fun

If you are a par­ent with a child at school you will be well aware of the long school hol­i­day that has been set dur­ing June and July. You may be pan­ick­ing slightly about how you will keep your kids enter­tained, because inev­it­ably you will hear the words “I’m bored” dur­ing this time.

If the World Cup is not your child’s thing and you would like a safe and fun envir­on­ment for them, then Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Gauteng has come up with a few options. They have a super child­care facil­ity, Jupiter’s, which is both run and man­aged by qual­i­fied and exper­i­enced child­mind­ers. They provide a safe, fun and stim­u­lat­ing envir­on­ment for young chil­dren. Your child can be cre­at­ive in the art room or get the cre­at­ive juices flow­ing in the play room or dis­cover new things in the edu­tain­ment room. Teens are not for­got­ten at Emperors Palace and they can play arcade games at the Magic Company with some of the latest video and arcade games. Perhaps they can even chal­lenge Mom and Dad to a round or two? Continued

Afternoon Tea at Rosemary Hill Farm

Tea at Rosemary Hill

I'll admit it, I’m a com­plete tea snob.  I don’t mean that I have to drink a fine Ceylon or any­thing like that but I do love my tea.  I have a cup in the morn­ing and a cup as soon as I get home in the even­ing and it must always, always be made in a pot.  I’ve been told I make the best tea.  My very dear friend, and fel­low tea lover, Vanessa will vouch for this — on any visit from Cape Town to her home in Ballito she will announce ‘Helen will make the tea because Helen makes the best tea’ and she’s abso­lutely cor­rect.  I make the best tea ...

I also have a sweet tooth and nat­ur­ally, tea and cakes go per­fectly well together.  So, if you are like me and have a love of tea and all things sweet then per­haps you should make your way to Rosemary Hill Farm and par­take of their Afternoon Tea?  Tea is served in the res­taur­ant at the farm and weather per­mit­ting, out­side.  Tea is also served at 2pm on Market Day Sundays. Continued

Soccer City — 23 days to kick-off (photographs)

23 days to kick-off — The 2010 FIFA World Cup starts in exactly 23 days today with the open­ing match between South Africa and Mexico at Soccer City in Johannesburg. One of the most artistic and awe-inspiring foot­ball ven­ues on the African con­tin­ent, the newly-reconstructed Soccer City Stadium will host the first and final matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa ... Continued

Johannesburg — musings of a former resident returned

Welcome to Jozi

Johannesburg is covered in rain. Outside there is a deluge. Inside the car, we are fight­ing to nav­ig­ate the M1 – the east­ern bypass around the city some people liken to New York (won­der if the Big Apple could func­tion without any road mark­ings?) — whilst the wind­screen soon begins to mist over. We crank up the heater and lean for­ward in a bid to make some sense of the mess in which the M1 finds itself.

It's around 60 days and count­ing to the World Cup and Johannesburg, like most of the other major cit­ies of South Africa, is reel­ing. Continued