Category Archives: design

Corona Lockdown Journey Journal, Day 177 of Level 1, 26 March 2022

 

Saturday 26 March 2022, Day 177 of Level 1 😷

Corona Lockdown Gratitude 🙏

#grateful for a day of spoiling 🙏; for a quick post for a client; for a good Camps Bay Community Beach Clean, with 6 adults and 3 children, filling 10 bags, and meeting a new resident of Camps Bay, and a German family which has just taken over a Sea Point guest house; for bumping into Johnny Nortje on the beachfront, with a catch up after a long time of not seeing each other; for being spoilt by The 41 Restaurant, our Camps Bay Clean sponsors, with tea and water on the lawn at the Beach, and then with a breakfast, their Manager Emma Farquharson being extremely efficient 💙; for Continue reading →

Corona Virus: Lockdown Journey Journal, Day 17, 12 April 2020.

 

Easter Sunday 12 April 2020 🐣🐰, Day 28 of S A Corona Virus, Day 17 of SA Lockdown 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for a wonderful and peaceful Easter; for waking up to a gloriously wet garden, after it rained heavily all night long; for being connected to so many friends today, one going back to last communicating 4 years ago; for so many happy memories of past Easters, and lovely Brunches on my terrace, which we would have had today to celebrate Easter, had we not been in Lockdown; for the joy in giving on a day like today ❤️ ; for loving listening to the Messiah by Handel at the start to my day, in bed, it being performed on Easter Sundays in the City Hall year after year, my absolute Easter highlight; for so many Easter wishes from around the world; for it being warm enough to wear a summer dress when the sun came out; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →

Renowned Trend Forecaster Li Edelkoort sees Corona Virus COVID-19 cause major disruption, but has environmental and societal benefits too!

Trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, who visited Cape Town a few days ago to address Design Indaba, and has gone into self-quarantine thereafter, has made some startling comments and predictions about the effect of the Corona Virus COVID-19 on the way society, the environment, business, and the world will change as a result of this pandemic. According to her, life will never be the same again, as we enter an era of a ‘quarantine of consumption’, ultimately leading to the survival of our species! Continue reading →

Colourful Cape Town Carnival 2020 honours ‘Incredible Journey: Sounds of South Africa’ on 21 March!

 

Last week I was invited to a Media Preview of the 2020 Cape Town Carnival, at its Warehouse in Maitland, and introduced to the Carnival theme, float preparations, staff, and costumes. I was struck by the bold colours of this year’s Carnival, and the enthusiasm of the staff who we were introduced to. The theme for this year is ‘Incredible Journey: Sounds of South Africa’, and will be held on Human Rights Day, 21 March.  Continue reading →

Hermanus with Cape Whale Coast named UNESCO City of Gastronomy, the first in Africa!

 

Hermanus, and neighbouring towns in the Cape Whale Coast region, has recently been named the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) City of Gastronomy, in a bid led by Darryl David, surprisingly from KwaZulu-Natal. Hermanus takes its place alongside top international cities of Gastronomy, such as Parma, Italy; San Antonio in the USA; Phuket, Thailand; and Bergen, Norway.

 

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Gorgeous George Hotel and its GiGi Rooftop Restaurant & Bar simply…Gorgeous, bowled over by the design, differentness!

How does one summarise Cape Town’s newest trendy hotspot that is a 32 bedroom Hotel, a rooftop bar with a resident mixologist, and a restaurant with Chef Guy Bennett at the helm, located in an area in which such an offering is not expected, that is simply gorgeous? The Gorgeous George Hotel, and with it the GiGi Rooftop Restaurant and Bar, will bring the Cape Town city centre alive again, an area that has not seen any innovation in quite a while. Continue reading →

Carrol Boyes celebrates 30 years of Proudly South African homeware and lifestyle design!

Last week a host of media representatives was invited to attend a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Carrol Boyes company, an event at which founder, designer, and doyen Carrol Boyes shared with us the history of her evolvement as an artist, into building a functional art design company, creating a new homeward and lifestyle design every week. Continue reading →

IKEA Överallt truly everywhere but not in SA; highlight of Design Indaba in Cape Town!

While I have shopped at IKEA in Southampton with my son now living in the UK, I have not been near an IKEA anything in Cape Town. This changed last week, during Design Indaba 2019, when IKEA had a prominent IKEA Överallt ( meaning everywhere in Swedish) outdoor stand at the foot of the Artscape Theatre building. It reflected the best creativity in design in Africa, a social responsibility project of the global Swedish home interior design company. But there is little chance of the company opening any stores in our country within the next five years, it was confirmed.  Continue reading →

Salon58 by Jackie Burger and Jan-Hendrik van der Westhuizen indulgent, entertaining, and theatrical, with good food and MCC!

It is almost impossible to summarize the goosebump specialness of being in the company of two creative geniuses on Saturday afternoon, at Salon58 No 11, with the theme of ‘Trace’ – style and fashion icon Jackie Burger and Michelin-star chef Jan-Hendrik van der Westhuizen.  Continue reading →

Cape Town water supply Day Zero estimate was extended by two months, to 13 May 2018, now reduced to 3 May!

Yesterday I attended the launch of a water saving awareness campaign initiated in the heart of Cape Town by Urban Lime, on Church Square. Mayor Patricia de Lille announced that the City of Cape Town’s recent forecast of an extension of the water supply ‘Day Zero’ by two months, to 13 May, has been amended to 3 May 2018, given an increase in water consumption during the recent rain.  Continue reading →