[Skip to the end if you just want the "what I thought of JHB" part...]

Friday

We picked cheap accommodation near to Friday’s wedding, which was great in terms of the (lack of) driving.
The B&B was… interesting. I think it was set up in the 70s and tricked out big style, and looked great.
Since then, though, all they’ve done is clean it every day.
It wasn’t awful, but it was very basic and very old school, and we were looking for somewhere just to sleep, and that was cheap.

The friday wedding was at the very posh Avianto and was great.
It was a nice, smallish, wedding and we met some very cool people.
Alas, the travelling and early wake-up took its toll, and about an hour into the boogie part of the festivities we had to roll home and collapse into bed for sleeeeeep.
Some pictures from Friday’s wedding on Flickr.

Saturday

We decided to asplore a bit and we tripped off to Melville.
It was lovely.
We walked around and looked in a bookshop and had a nice breakfast.
It was leafy and green and sort of Obs-y.
And, what a coincidence, Outer Li JHB is there!
We managed to collar Grant for a coffee and a chat, which was very groovy, as is he.

Then we headed off for the second wedding, a more traditional affair, in Soweto.
This one was more even fun than the Friday.
There was a big mix of people, but we were the only whiteys.
We had a couple of especially cool interactions with the kids, who were surprised / happy / interested to see a white face.
Reminded me a lot of travelling, actually.
My closest frame of reference for the Africanness of the wedding (me being from the UK) is what I can only call Bollywood Extravaganza.
Loads of singing and dancing,by everyone. Full of Win.
Some pictures from Saturday’s wedding on Flickr.

We left as the sun came down, determined not to get lost in Soweto in the dark, which we didn’t.
We did get lost outside Soweto in the dark, though, and spent an hour or so getting through and out of inner city-ish Joburg. Squeak!

For din dins we went to the very posh, very deep into the dark farmlands, Roots restaurant.
Pricey. Excellent, but not amazing. One or two of the six courses blew my socks off (salmon tataki was one), the others were merely good (but still better than most places). Service was also good, but, to be honest, I was expecting better for the price / vibe. Not that they were incompetent, but the overall experience wasn’t particularly smooth, especially the timing – too inconsistent.

Sunday

We decided not to do any touristy things and just to crash the hell out. We were tired!
So went out in the morning, bought a DVD or two to watch later, some wood and food for a braai, then spent the rest of the day in big comfy chairs under a big tree reading big books.
It was big awesome.

Some observations of JHB by me

• Driving. A faster, more concentrate-y, affair than driving in CT, but I kinda liked it. If you’re trying to join the flow of traffic, GP drivers (hmm, coincidence?) give you a gap. You have to be quick, but they do leave you a gap. Also: the onus is on the faster driver to get past the slower, not for the slower to get out of the way. No flashing, honking, get-out-of-the-way bullshit. Just zooming past when there’s a gap.
• Dark. Where are the streetlights on the highways, dammit? And on the signs? And why has the useful reflect-y stuff that has worn out not been replaced? Grr.
• Dry. Probably just me, but I felt dry. Often thirsty, eyes watery.
• Big. Like, totally. Srsly. It takes aaages to get anyway because the distances are so beeg. And I’m not one of these Capetonians* who won’t drive into town from the Southern Suburbs because it’s “far away.”
• Secure. Well, tries to be anyway. funny how just a metre difference in everyone’s wall height (well, often plus electric buzz lines) makes such a difference to the vibe.
• Professional. I’m thinking mostly of waiting staff here, but it was true of other sectors too. The staff are professional. I’m not wanting a waiter totreat me like I’m the Prince of Persia (ahem) of something, but the waiter should have a certain level of respect for the customer, and for themselves and their job. No throwing down of plates or splooshing of beer as the glasses hit the table here. I thoroughly enjoyed being serviced in Jo’burg.**
• Foody. The food there was consistently good, but pricier than CT. CT still better.
• Expensive. In general. I’m sure that part of this is not being a local, but there didn’t seem to be much to do that didn’t invovle handing over large wodges of money. What can you do up there that’s similar to going for a walk in Newlands?

So, I might go back.
If I do I’d like to do so with a native guide.

I’m definitely a Cape Town guy, though.

* – by the way, I am now officially a Permanent Rresident – woot! Picking up the bit of paper was a bit of an anti-climax after all the kak I went through to get it…
** – erm…

(Parfles is in JHB for the rest of the day for a beeg meeting.
As she was dropping me off, she asked me if I wanted her to have a word with a member of staff so that someone would keep an eye on me.
And give me crayons.
Apparently you’re not supposed to eat them, though…)

Last Friday I finished the biggest chunk of my biggest project on the go at the moment. I’m now waiting for feedback from the client.
It is as though a giant (php-, html-, css-shaped) weight has been lifted.
And it’s made me a little bit manic.
I keep interrupting people (including myself!) mid-sentence.
I am, however, being quite productive wrt personal, fun, projects. My notebook has been sitting there looking sad for a number of weeks, but it’s glowy now from the speed of the scribbling and page-turning that it’s being subjected to now.

I’m looking forward to the (very) long weekend and doing lots of fun stuff and reading lots and – squirrel!

Jeremy, pig-wrangler and all round awesome guy.

Gratuitous Hobbit shot:

Eckhard up his tree:

Eckhard out of his tree (ahem):

Huddling around the piggy:

The hordes descend…

Being a bit of a photo geek I took the snappy cam along, because I suspected that the castle would be looking kinda groovy.
I was not disappointed .
The lighting throughout the castle was great.

It offered interesting interpretive-shadow-dance opportunities.

After dinner (starter – springbok carpaccio, great; main – lamb in a wotsit, okay; wine – reds, fantastic (springfield work of time, anyone?)) there were Fire Dancers. On the roof, too!

Then, a band, playing an eclectic mix of old & new, local & foreign that kept the crowd jumping and bumping. First pic below was about 30 seconds into their first song.

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1 – or possibly as CEO or Accompanying Person Pty, Ltd.

KGwafnak! :-/

And now, to work.

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¹ – taking photos at Gay Pride Parade on Saturday⁴, followed beers and burgers^{5, 6}, following by usual suspects for dinner, taking photos at Navy Festival on Sunday⁷, followed by lunch at Fsh in Kalk Bay⁸, followed by Actuarial conference welcome picnic thing at Leeunwenhof⁹ (ask me about the security – wew!).
² – but all fun stuff. Seeing people, eating and drinking lots .
³ – very difficult to sleep last night…
⁴ – awesome as usual, stinking hot as usual, pics to follow from the Big Gay Threesome of Barners, AHS and Parfait Barners (flickr stream currently showing last year’s great pics).
⁵ – insert witty comment about beefcakes followed by beefcakes here.
⁶ – we went to Hudsons on Kloof. Great burgers, Jack Black on tap.
⁷ – which was groovy, but super, super, hot. We (Parfles & I, Betty & Panic, Ottie) got about halfway through all the stuff there and called it a day. Too… hot…
⁸ – which was really great. Great food, great cocktails, great big umbrellas. I’m seriously considering this for one of my Salty Cracker venues.
⁹ – which turned out to be much nicer than expected. Met lots of cool people, mostly actuaries – shocking!

There were many, many, people (50ish, including 10 younglings), and lots of them spent lots of time in the pool.
It was awesome.

Presented below are a few blurry, incoherent, but happy-inducing photos.
:-]

Yesterday evening, me, Jo, Jim and Julie had a plan to go to The Quarter, touted as a gourmet Bunny Chow joint.
Excited, we were. (Interesting, but now essentially useless restaurant info at Rossouw’s, 24, Relax with Dax)
Alas, upon parking on Long Street (thanks, Jimbob for driving!), we saw that the place was closed.
As in not open.
Ever again.
Hmm.

Perturbed, we were.
Defeated, we were not.
We did what all great folk do in times of distress: had a sit down and a nice cup of tea.
Except the tea was cocktails on top of the Grand Daddy Hotel.
The cocktails were good (Caipirinha with a kick for me) and the venue is lovely (it’s unusual and pleasing to be a good few floors up in the city centre).
Miffed, I was, that three of the cocktails took about 15 mins to arrive, and mine took 5 mins after that. On the point of almost walking out, I was.
But, tasty, and weren’t in a rush.
Amongst the topics of conversation were where to eat now that our target was already neutralised.
Julie suggested Headquarters.

Wow.
And wow again.
The place is very swish and pretty inside, but I won’t waste time with that for now.
The menu is simple:

• Salad;
• Sirloin steak;
• Chips.

The only choice you have to make is how you want your steak done. Oh, and what to drink. I’m sure you’d get more than a funny look if you ordered anything more done than medium rare, though (rightly so, too! Ahem).
The sauce on the steak is delectable, and they have the genius idea of coming round during the meal with offered top ups on chips and / or sauce.
Full of, as they say, win.

I really highly recommend this place.
R140 a head for the food, the wine is a little on the pricey side, but where isn’t in Cape Town? Sigh.

Hmm, quite a lots of words up there ↑.
You can see where my priorities lie these days: fooooooood!

Started Saturday with an early(ish) morning walk in Newlands forest. Always makes me happy to be surrounded by Nature TM in the mornings.
Then, off to the other Tokai Market: Porter’s Estate Produce Market. Cute, and not as pretentious as other markets of a similar type. Like Parfles said: much more like an actual farmers market. Bit exposed. Had a mucking afazing burger (with bacon) for breakfast. Nom, om.
Then, moved lots of furniture with Eckbert and Sveno. Felt useful. And a bit tired.
Then, back to Tokai for a very enjoyable 40th birthday party Masked Ball affair (thank you masky-loany stuff, peoples). Even had a bit of a boogie, despite slightly dodgey DJ duo.

Sunday similarly lovely.
Huevos Rancheros, with a starter course of bacon (because why wait when you can have bacon NOW?), and a bottle of champagne (and OJ) between us and Honoured House Guest, for breakfast, picnic style in the garden.
Various bits of lounging, pool dipping and outdoor shower screen installing during the rest of the day.
Fantastic braai at Sveno’s house in the evening (dude, those lamb kebabs were especially incredible).

Can’t really believe how much we crammed into the weekend, especially Saturday.
Very pleasing.
: )

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* – blimey, was a bit hectic this morning. Me, Parfles, Jimbo and Max the dog went walkies from Fish on the Rocks around the Sentinel, then over the saddle back to the Harbour. Walk now includes unexpected trips through the informal settlement and steep downhill Scrambles in Shingle ™!