The V & A Waterfront has issued a commemorative issue of its Winter 2021 magazine to honour ‘30 years of hope, connection and the best of the V & A’.
It is a reflection on the history of the establishment of the Waterfront in 1990 as well as its growing expansion and development, the harbour area which has become South Africa’s most popular tourist attraction. Continue reading →
Since having created a Facebook Group for Food Delivery and Collection during Lockdown, I have become aware of women restaurant owners, something I had never written about or even thought about, only being aware of female chefs in our part of the world. For Women’s Day I planned this article, to profile the female restaurant owners in Cape Town and the Winelands, sadly only finding a small handful of 12.
I have also compiled a list of the Top 13 women Head/Executive Chefs in Cape Town and the Winelands.
The Sweet Service Award goes to Famous Kalahari Biltong in Camps Bay, and its assistant Erika, for gifting me a packet of droë wors when she felt that she had been unfriendly to me a few weeks ago. From being not so nice when I first shopped there, she now waves at me when I walk past, and was very welcoming when I went there to buy some Biltong for my son before he returned to the UK.
Yesterday I had to be present as the claimant in a court case relating to housebreaking and theft of my house in Plettenberg Bay ten months ago. My 24 hours in the town were a huge disappointment in more ways than one, the lowlight being dinner at the Island Café at The Turbine Hotel & Spa on Thesen Island in Knysna, a most unprofessionally run 5-star hotel.
I had wanted to stay at The Turbine Hotel for my short visit to Knysna, and had tried to make a booking with the gentleman answering the phone. He told me that the hotel cannot take bookings on a Sunday, and that I would have to be called back the following day. Millicent Jack from Reservations dutifully called the next day, and described her colleague as having been ‘lazy’ in not taking my reservation the day before! I could not stay there, fortunately in retrospect, as the Knysna Court advised that I could only stay at Tonquani Lodge in the Knysna Forest outside of town. An offer to pay in the difference was rejected, this being a Department of Justice directive, I was told. But that is a different story to come, the 5-star Tourism Grading Council of South Africa grading for the lodge being completely inappropriate. Continue reading →