Blood, Sweat and Tears

Ok, well, there weren't any tears, but it makes for a good title. But it was hot, so plenty sweat. (overshare)
Friday was a good day. It marked the last day of work until the day after Boxing Day, so a chance to recharge the batteries.

Also, the world didn't end but, based on all the poor Apocalypse jokes, maybe it should have.
On the way to work Gareth Cliff played this awesome mash up of the hits of 2012 by DJ Earworm (An Annual event).

I had forgotten that we were hosting the Western Province Blood Transfusion Service in a blood donation drive. After Management Meeting, the management team decided that we would do our bit and go down and donate. So fueled by a cup of coffee, a cupcake and three biscuits pilfered from the pastry kitchen (hardly a breakfast of champions, mind you), I went to give the gift of life.

Donating Blood.

Being a first timer (I know..I know), I was surprised at how easy and painless it was. That was until after. That plaster hurts like a mofo and I now have an awesome bruise that makes me look like a junkie.
I did start to feel a tad light headed later in the day, drained even. I'm glad I did it though.

After I got home I had to start prepping my Christmas Ice Cream. Since last year's Ice Cream was a hit, the pressure is on. I've decided to be a bit more experimental this year. I'm going to make a Cherry Brandy Ice Cream for the adults and a Vanilla Ice Cream with blocks of Jelly (Cream Soda, Bubblegum and Candy Floss) for the kids. More to follow in a future post.

After watching our boys annihilate the Kiwis in the 1st T20 Cricket match (If NZ Cricket wants to be taken seriously, they should get Piri Weepu to teach the Haka to them. At least then we're guaranteed a show of sorts) I decided to head off to the Willowbridge Festive Night Market.

Festive lights at the Festive Market

 There was a much smaller selection of stalls than I had expected, but I was assured by one of the stall holders that tonight (Saturday 22nd December) will be a lot busier due to the regular Saturday Stalls being up during the day and then being joined by the Festive traders later in the afternoon. They had the usual suspects: handful of food stalls, clothing, jewellery, crafts and healing crystals..(this is Cape Town after all). They even had a Tupperware stall.

One of the keys to effective marketing is making use of catchy signage. I saw the sign below and immediately had the urge to buy some cookies for my two nieces to put out for Santa (I believe he favours Johnnie Walker Black in lieu of milk). The stall holder told me that they own a bakery and had completed delivery of around 6000 of these hand piped cookies. Wow. Imagine how much that hand must have cramped..

Santa likes a good cookie

I did a slow circuit of the market to see if anything else grabbed my attention and spotted a live band playing on the one side. They were playing laid back, background music but it was quite a nice touch. The folks sitting outside at Hussar Grill were enjoying the extra entertainment.

Live Band

I came across these wire crafts which I thought were pretty cool, although I'm not sure if I would buy one. Nowhere to put it.

Cute Bunnies

Wire Tree

I came across the Cape Mountain Charcuterie stall and tried some of their chorizo and saucisson samples. The chorizo is nice and spicy and the saucisson (french style dried sausage) is pretty tasty. Of course, I bought a piece of each. :D

Chorizo and Saucisson

They also had some oak smoked bacon, which I am about to try out. (now that's a breakfast of champions!) They are based in Porterville with offices in the City Bowl, so delivery to the City Bowl and Southern Suburbs is free.. I'm sure once they get their foot in the door in the Northern Suburbs, they will include free delivery for us too..

Finally, I walked past a T-Shirt stall with some nice designs. I have a weakness for t-shirts (I am getting better though) and I decided to have a look through their wares. The company is called May Bru (my broer) and is Cape Town based. They guy selling the t-shirts was a bru. A real fun oke who I, like, had a chat to.

May Bru

I tried on a green t-shirt, but there were no change rooms. It was the first time that I have taken my shirt off in the middle of Willowbridge mall. Luckily there were no small children to scare.

Authentic Cape Town

May Bru

All in all a good day. Now, let the weekend begin.
N.

Carols by Glow-Stick

One of the key indicators that it is Christmas in Cape Town is the annual Carols by Candle Light at Kirstenbosch. For those of you who were in a school choir (or enjoy singing in the shower..) it's a good time to dust off ye olde vocal chords. Unfortunately they are no longer using candles due to the mess this makes on the grass and pathways. Instead, you get a glow-stick with your song sheet.

Presented by Kirstenbosch Rotary, Carols at Kirstenbosch is now in it's 20th year and with Pick 'n Pay as it's main sponsor, it is a very well run, family friendly evening. Pick 'n Pay even had a stand where you could buy food and drinks.

I recommend getting there early so that you can secure a decent spot and also get to witness the pre-carols entertainment. I went on Friday evening with my sister, brother-in-law and friend and it was good fun.
I managed to catch the whole of The Brothers Streep's set, which is a laugh a minute. This Cape Town based acoustic comedy band is not only really talented, but it's hilarious too. They're doing New Years at the Brass Bell this year, so if you're not doing anything, head on down to Kalk Bay and enjoy. (You might also have seen them on The Graham Norton Show playing Anna Paquin)

It was an absolutely stunning day in Cape Town on Friday, perfect for a picnic, some bubbles (or your choice of poison) and some good old caroling.

Important to get a good spot

Make sure you get your song sheet

As mentioned, this was the 20th year of Carols at Kirstenbosch. The proceeds go to Kirstenbosch Rotary's many projects and beneficiaries. Being a former Interactor (Junior Rotary..I was president in my matric year) it's always good to support the Rotarians.

Service Above Self

Kirstenbosch Rotary's Beneficiaries

There is one important decision to make once you get settled. When it comes to singing Mary's Boy Child, are you going to follow the choir, or are you going to choose to sing the Boney M version. If you look at the lyrics below, you'll see that they make the decision easy. It has to be the Boney M version.

Them see a bright new shining star

My peeps

Glorious Cape Town Sunset

The Nativity is quite cute as well, as it is enacted by children from local schools.

Nativity Scene

More Nativity Scene

The evening ends off with a rendition of Silent Night, made even more amazing as everyone waves their glow-sticks back and forth in unison. It is an awesome sight (and I mean awesome)

After the carols end, it is always a mad rush to get to your car and get out before the masses..but that never works. We decided to avoid the stampede and have a drink at Moyo at Kirstenbosch. Not only is it a nice setting, but by the time we were done, our cars were the last ones in the parking lot. Perfect.

So, make sure that next year you keep your calender clear for Carols at Kirstenbosch. It's a good evening out. Remember, there are no bins in Kirstenbosch, so take your trash with you.
That's all from me.

N.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

Last week I got a call from a good friend, inviting me round for dinner last night.
After being surrounded by so many foodies the last few weeks, I decided to try my hand at making Ice Cream again. I last made Ice Cream when I made a triple layered Casata for my mom's birthday last year. (which went down very well, I might add...)

Two years ago I bought a Krups Ice Cream Maker for myself as a birthday present. (It's marked down at Dion Wired, in case you haven't figured out what you want for Christmas). Great for making small batches at a time. One drawback is that you have to re-freeze the bowl before doing a second batch.
The only thing left to sort out was what flavour I would make.

Vanilla is too easy. Make Crème Anglaise (from my trusty Larousse Gastronomique Dessert Book. Don't judge. I don't cook often enough to have these recipes committed to memory) and put in maker.. Et Voila.. No. Instead I asked those going to the dinner for inspiration. I got the brief to be creative..and Whisky would not be frowned upon. Capital!

One of my favourite sweets has got to be Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (or Reese's Pieces, or Reese's Wafers). To say I am partial to peanut butter would be an understatement. While browsing the baking shop for inspiration, I found a tub of chocolate ganache. I then found some peanuts and my mind was made. Peanut Butter Ice Cream. I blended the peanuts to a fine crumb and then added some smooth peanut butter and a pinch or two of rock salt. Blended again and came up with a sort of chunky peanut butter.

I poured my custard, which had been cooling in the fridge, into the Ice Cream maker and spooned in half of the peanut butter mixture. I let this churn a bit before adding a few spoons of ganache and then the rest of the peanut butter. The result was small pockets of chocolate and peanut butter spinning around. A nice surprise in your spoonful.

Peanut Delight

Once it was done, I scooped the final product into a container for further freezing.
Luckily, I made a double batch of Cremè Anglaise so I got to work on prepping my second batch. A quick rinse of the bowl and back into the freezer to prime it for it's next challenge. Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Ice Cream with bits of Sweet Temptations White and Dark Chocolate Toffee (The name needs a bit of work. Might be a tad too long..)

Love my Jack

After attending the launch of Jack Honey a while back, I have been advocating it's use as a social lubricant. Now Jack might not be to everyone's taste, but if you haven't tried Jack Honey, I suggest you remedy this oversight at your next earliest opportunity. With Appletiser it tastes like more, as a cold shot it tastes like trouble and served with Ginger Ale it tastes like hangover. It really is a smooth drink and I wanted to carry this over into my Ice Cream.

While tweeting my inspiration, I got some great advice from the Ice Cream Queen herself, Janine van Zyl. Boil the Jack to get rid of the alcohol. This would prevent the custard from splitting or not freezing. Sage advice.. if only I had seen it before adding three tablespoons of Jack to my custard. I mixed it in well and hoped for the best. By the time my bowl was sufficiently frozen, the custard was still looking good. And tasted amazing.

I poured the custard into the bowl and added in finely diced pieces of the toffee (the texture is similar to the Creme Caramels that you can find in any decent shop, more of a soft toffee than a filling remover). Again, after churning for a while i transfered the Ice Cream to a plastic container and put this in the freezer, ready for transportation.

I decided that I wanted some texture to the dish, so I bought some Stroop Waffels to serve with the Ice Cream.

After a lovely dinner of homemade lasagna and a bottle of David Finlayson Pinot Noir (really amazing stuff) it was dessert time. I'm proud to say that my friends enjoyed it, even though it was a bit on the rich side.

I was well chuffed with my handiwork.

Any suggestions for weird but wonderful flavours?
Leave a comment.

N.

Assignments, Hospital Visits, Ice Cream and Work. What did you do?

This past week has been pretty hectic. (I'm starting to sound as repetitive as the bloody twitch in my right eye)

Due to some very efficient procrastination on my part, I left my module 3 assignment to the last minute. Well, last half hour, but still. Thankfully it was a quiz and due to one silly mistake (rushing will get you nowhere) I narrowly missed out on 100%. I'll take it though.

That was Monday, which also included a visit to hospital, otherwise known as the B&B. The old man was in once again, thankfully this time it was just for observation while he was on a drip to get rid of some inflammation in his leg. Please make sure that, if you have a hyphenated surname, they put your full name on the board. Stupid male nurse nearly gave my dad someone else's medication which would have been catastrophic.. I hear he's in kak now..good.

The trouble is that after a long day at work, followed by visiting hours, you don't really feel like getting stuck into reading course notes. Besides, Mondays are reserved for Come Dine with Me SA. Trust me, you need to follow #ComeDineSA on twitter on a Monday evening. It makes for entertaining reading.

Tuesday and Wednesday was much the same, with the old man eventually coming out on Thursday. Just in time for Ultimate Braai Master. Possibly THE BEST reality show, cooking or otherwise, to be on the telly. And it's Proudly South African. I'm backing Rust 'n Dust all the way (@RustnDustCT). Karl matriculated the same year as me at York High. You go boy!

I'm off to dinner with some mates on Tuesday and I decided that I'd make some Ice Cream for dessert. I'm still pondering what to do to my creme anglaise base to make it magical.. After being surrounded by so many fantastic chefs last week, I fear my delusions of grandeur will lead to a flop. Best just to keep it simple, right? Nah.. So far I'm leaning towards mixing in some Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey to the mix to create a nice boozy ice cream. Any thoughts?

Month end is always fun when I'm weekend duty manager, but thankfully it's been rather measured. Everything is under control and while I'll probably have a late night again tonight, I'm on track to get done with all my paperwork.. Thankfully Module 4's SEO assignment is submitted (for better or worse) so that's one less thing to worry about.

Tonight I think I'll try out the new dinner menu. Lamb Shank or Rib-eye? Undecided...but it shall be Dinner for One once again.. Same Procedure...

Don't forget to check out http://derrycoffeecompany.yolasite.com/ and have a guess as to which coffee shop it's based on. There's a coffee in it for the first person to guess correctly.

Also, Marmite or Bovril.. Have your say in my poll.

Ciao ciao,

N.

Last Minute Invitation to the Eat Out Conference and Golf on a Sunday

I started writing this post last Sunday. It has been such a hectic week, that I'm only finishing it now. (Bad blogger...bad blogger)
Here goes:

By the time Friday came around I was ready for a nice quiet Saturday, filled with cricket, football and rugby.. and well, just general unwinding from the hectic week.
So when I saw the below tweet, I was in two minds about whether to respond or not.

What followed was quite funny. I replied to the tweet to both @Eat_Out and @Gabbles17 to say that it sounded like fun. A few minutes later I got a response from @Eat_Out asking if I was playing hard to get and if I wanted the ticket or not. I was caught a bit off guard. I hadn't seen anything about the Eat Out Conference, so wasn't sure what to expect. I decided that I would go. And with 45 minutes to get showered, dressed, drive from the Northern Suburbs to The Westin AND register to make the 9am start, I had to move it.

I made it on time and was more than pleased to run into an old friend who I hadn't seen in years.
I felt a bit intimidated as the room was filled with SA Culinary Royalty, as well as many well known food bloggers and critics (one of the critics felt rather strongly about the role of amateur food bloggers..).

I found the talks very interesting, particularly Margot Janse and Luke Dale-Roberts (actually all of them). I read a blog post from someone who attended who was less than complimentary of Luke's talk. Not being a fan of public speaking myself, I can imagine how daunting it must have been for Luke to get up in front of everyone and give a talk. I thought he did quite well and the videos that he showed were amazing.

During one of the breaks I took the opportunity to have a chat with Gabrielle. It's always good to put a face to a twitter handle. You can check out her work on http://www.deepfriedbananas.com/ .

After the event I found myself discussing the role of social media in the industry with some of the folk from The Culinary Academy. Thanks to my recently completed Social Media course, I actually made some sense. There's a first for everything.

Sunday brought my monthly round of golf with my social golf society. November was Mowbray GC and despite the greens being a little on the slow side (I mean slow), I had a decent enough round and shot a 92, which was good enough for my partner and I to claim second. Unfortunately, not everyone's wine knowledge is 'up there' and third place ended up getting a better bottle of red... Oh well. It's not about the prizes anyway. I had a lot of fun.

N.

Sometimes you just need to take a break.

Greetings.
Wow. What a super busy week! Between work and my second assignment for my Internet Marketing course, I've had no time for anything else. I think I only had one bottle of wine last week (Shock, Horror!)

So as mentioned before, this week we had to create a website for a business (real or fictional). As we progress through the different aspects of Internet Marketing, we will be applying our knowledge to this site.
I met up with my friend on Saturday morning to chat about a few ideas I had for the site. Decided to multitask and have breakfast at the same time. I was joined by my sister, her husband and another friend.
I just love the cappuccinos there!

As promised, if you can guess the coffee shop that I have based my fictional site on, the coffee is on me. (That means I'll pay...don't go throwing your coffee on me.)
So, check out the first draft of the site and hazard a guess in the comments section below. Really, it's not that difficult..

In the midst of finishing this assignment, I had some serious issues with the site builder that we are using. The templates are limiting and, when you do select a template you like, it's a bit tricky to place things where you want them. Add to that my dodgy Cell C connection and the site freezes. I'm not one for saving after typing every word (far too tedious) so if the site freezes, you have to start all over...very frustrating.

On Sunday I was making slow progress, so I decided to take a break and head off to the Blaauwklippen Family Market at Blauuwklippen Wine Estate. This is fast becoming one of my favourite markets. It's a nice drive out there and they have Alpacas!

Last time I was there I noticed a stall that was selling chopping boards and Japanese Chefs knives. I didn't take much notice then, but this time something caught my eye. If any of you are old enough to remember La Linea (Italian for 'The Line') you will appreciate that this is the best chopping board...EVER!

La Linea

I decided to buy this one for it's absolute quirkiness. The company who makes it is Setta, a local company. They have quite a selection of boards (Natural Bamboo and Solid Surface) so go check them out. The guy at the stall very kindly told me that you can watch all the episodes of La Linea on Youtube...(I've started already).

A trip to Blaauwklippen Family Market is not complete without stopping by Cold Gold Ice Cream for some awesome Artisan Ice Cream. A double scoop of the best chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone? I'll take two! Janine really knows her stuff when it comes to the cold stuff. I stopped by for a chat about how she got into the business and she sneakily told me that she was a fan of my blog.. Flattery will get you everywhere.
She then told me that she had brought takeaway containers, just in case someone wanted to buy some Ice Cream to take home. I went with a tub of Vanilla and a tub of Fat Free Macadamia, Nougat and Cranberry (so healthy, it's practically a vegetable).

Yum

So after my little excursion, I headed back home to finish off my assignment. I was a lot more focused and I was able to finish it off in no time. You definitely need to take a break every once in a while. And when you live in Cape Town, a decent destination is not far away.

Check out my site and let me know what you think.
http://derrycoffeecompany.yolasite.com/

Till next time.
N.

Busy Busy - Quick Update

It has been a pretty hectic few weeks between work and my Internet Marketing course that started last week. The first module was fairly straight forward, I just hope my marks reflect that..haha

The second module is a tad trickier. We need to select a business and build a basic website. Easy..right?
Not quite. We need to make our choice carefully because, as we go through the various modules, we will be tweaking the website with our new found knowledge. I'm looking forward to that, but in the meantime I've been trying to figure out what business to use for my site. Thankfully, someone awesome has come to my rescue and allowed me to use his coffee shop as my inspiration.

As this will be a work in progress, I am going to use a different name for this assignment website. I do not want to pull any traffic away from his current site, but pretty much everything else will be about the shop. I'm hoping I can use my 'expertise' to build an awesome (or at least semi-functional) website for him.
Keep an eye out here and see if you can guess the correct coffee shop. If you manage to guess the name, I will buy you a coffee (and the coffee is good!).

In other news, some of my colleagues from the Social Media course have decided to brainstorm a new support group. I found the discussion forums very helpful and stimulating, so now that the course is over, we want to continue learning from each other. I'm really looking forward to meeting up with them next week and seeing where this takes us. Very exciting, for me at least.

Catch you later.
N.

Getting Smarter with Get Smarter.

After 8 (plus) weeks of studying, and it's been a while since I last studied, I have finally completed my Certificate in Social Media Marketing through UCT and Get Smarter. It's been quite a learning curve as I do not hail from a marketing background, but I have enjoyed every second of it. Learning the nuances of using the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Blogging (to name a few) to it's full marketing capabilities has been a real eye opener.

I will definitely use the skills that I have learned on this course in the future and am looking forward to testing them out! I've made quite a few new contacts through this course and am looking forward to watching their development.
I enjoyed the course so much, I decided to sign up for the Certificate in Internet Marketing course as well.
And that starts today, so here's to 10 weeks of learning new and exciting things!

You're never to old to learn, so go and check out the courses that are available at Get Smarter. The courses are affiliated with UCT (unless stated otherwise) and the level of support that you get from the course conveners and coordinators is fantastic. I'm pretty sure this won't be my last course...

Meat Is Meat And A Man Must..Make Biltong

On Saturday I woke up and was craving biltong. It was then that I remembered that my mother had received a gift of a "Mellerware Biltong King" biltong maker a few years back that had never been used. I believe these to be fairly scarce of late. I remember a friend of mine was hunting high and low for one and could not find it anywhere.

Lightbulb sold seperately

So a little trip down to Fruit & Veg City for some of their pieces of 'Biltong Strips' (literally strips of silverside beef) would be my first task. I managed to pick up around 1.5kg for a little over R100. The trick then was to obtain my spices. I picked up some coriander and black pepper from the local spice shop, but I was keen to do something different as well. I decided I'd do a chilli piece (with some really hot chilli powder and peppadew salt) as well as a paprika/nutmeg piece.

Spicy

After a soak in vinegar, I applied the various spice mixes and left the meat in the fridge to draw in some of the flavours (about 2 hours). I decided to spend the time watching my beloved Province beat the Sharks in the Currie Cup Final (YES PLEASE!!)

That's a lot of coriander

The Biltong King (the machine, not me) comes in pieces, so some minor assembly had to take place. Once this was up and running (checked that the lightbulb and fan were working) it was time to hang some meat.

The recipes all suggested leaving the meat to hang for 3 - 5 days to ensure that it is thoroughly dry. I'm not a big fan of wet biltong, so I bargained on sampling my goods on Thursday. I checked my handiwork daily, just to be sure everything was going according to plan.

Day 1 - Decided to make some Droë Wors too

Looking good

By Monday evening, the biltong was starting to look good. I decided by Tuesday, that it was time to sample the goods. And it was good. Ready to come out.

Not a bad haul

I'm pretty happy with the end result. The Biltong tastes good and the droë wors is not too bad either. The chilli biltong definitely needs to be cut thin and you should have a beer handy. It starts with great flavour and then, when you least expect it, the chilli klaps you. I took a sample of the regular biltong to work today and got good reviews from my colleagues. I had to show them the pictures as they didn't believe that I had made the biltong. Pretty chuffed with my first attempt at biltong making.

Brain Fart of Note...

Everyone gets them. True Story. That moment where everything makes perfect sense and you wonder how you didn't put the pieces together sooner. Johnny Nash sang about it back in 1973.. The Brain Fart.

So, I've been hearing this awesome song playing on 5fm the past few weeks,
It's called When I Was 17, by Cape Town rockers McCree.
There was just something about the voice that brought back memories. It reminded me of one of my favourite local bands and albums: Kelvin Declined - Kelvin Declined.
I remember watching them perform at Mercury with Sugardrive (many moons ago) and I was hooked. I must have played that album over and over. 42, Stan 229 and Yellow are still on my playlist.

Maybe I've been hiding under a rock, or something, but some minor investigation (Read: Google Search) revealed what I've been suspecting to be true... Mark McCree was the front man for Kelvin Declined.
Duh! No wonder the sound was the same. Idjit.. Needless to say, I know which album I'll be buying tomorrow! Of Hopes and Dreams is out now.

Here's the song I'm talking about. It's awesome. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Another great day to be in Cape Town

Well, as far as Wednesdays go, this has been a pretty good one.
Even though I'm busy trying to recover from a bloody flu/cold thing, I was up early and off to work bright eyed and bushy tailed. (had the wet nose too..)
I've really been missing Rebecca lately. There's just something about your own car that feels like home. And I wanted my baby back.

And then I got a call from the panel beaters to say that my car was ready for collection! Fantastic! (except for the part where I had to shell out just shy of R3k for my excess. Outsurance claims they can't find the bugger who caused the accident.)

So Rebecca is back, looking sexy as ever. I am a very happy guy right now.

Before

After

And so, what with it being Wednesday and time for the 3rd installment in our Starfinder Astronomy Course at the Iziko Planetarium, we decided that we would have a little picnic in the Company Gardens. The last few days in Cape Town have been super windy, but today was just awesome.

No wind, nice and warm...A perfect precursor to summer.

A short detour to Woolworths (I believe everyone has stopped, or never started, boycotting them now..) for some snack and it was off to the gardens.

Picturesque

What a spot for a picnic

This dude was just watching us...#freaky

Turns out he was just finishing his Streetwise Two

The New Vanilla Steri Stumpie..yummy

We had some munchies, with the squirrels looking on. Spotted this random little dude in the pics above. Apparently he was winning the staring contest. At first I thought he was chewing on a stick, but it was actually a chicken bone. All in all, another fantastic impromptu outing in Cape Town. I love this city.

The Starfinder Astronomy Course was interesting as usual. We actually went outside this evening to spot two satellites one of which was the Hubble Telescope. Very cool. One of the guys asked the lecturer why stars seem to twinkle. Apparently the answer is not "Because that's how the song goes..." My bad.

And that was Wednesday.. Oh, Arsenal and Manchester City lost in the Champions League this evening. Can this day get any better? haha

N.

Life Day Spa Cape Town: 3 ways to de-stress

Every day we are confronted by the stresses of modern day life. Deadlines, traffic and cell phones that never stop ringing. There is nothing better than taking some time out to unwind and relieve the stress.

And there is no better place than Life Day Spa at African Pride Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa.

I have selected three treatments to relax and rejuvenate you.

This is your de-stress guide to escape the chaos:

 Rasul Treatment

A cleansing and exfoliating ritual that is based on the traditional Turkish Bath. 

The Rasul Chamber can accommodate up to four people.

The treatment starts with a medicinal earth mud application while you relax on one of our heated benches while an herb infused steam fills the room.

Finally, a tropical rain falls from the ceiling, washing away the mud and the stress. Enjoy this 30 minute treatment as a group or with a partner.

Rasul Chamber

 Floatation Room

Escape to the Dead Sea with a session in the Floatation Room. Warm water infused with a ton of Epsom salt will take all the strain off your weary muscles.

Soft, flickering lights will mesmerize you while you lay, listening to the gentle underwater music.

One relaxing session in the float is the equivalent to four hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Floatation Room

 Back, Neck and Shoulder Massage

The core elements of this treatment are designed to relieve tension in the more commonly over-stressed muscles of the back and neck. 

The therapists at Life Day Spa are internationally trained and can recommend suitable detox products and other treatments. They make use of light therapy and gentle flowing sounds to leave you completely relaxed.

Massage Treatment

With all of these treatments, I recommend making use of the complimentary Steam Room and Sauna to relax the muscles prior to your treatment.

Book now. You deserve a stress free day.

http://www.lifedayspact.co.za/treatments.php

Blaauwklippen Family Market - Sundays in Stellenbosch

Late last night I decided that today I would try something new. The weather in Cape Town is stunning, so I was not up to being stuck in doors. I knew I wanted to go for a drive, so I finally settled on Stellenbosch as my destination. More specifically, the Blaauwklippen Family Market.

Stunning Weather in Stellenbosch

Happening every Sunday at Blaauwklippen Wine Estate, it is a great way to spend the mid part of your Sunday. Parking is plentiful, they even let the older folk park quite close, which I thought was quite nice.

Specialized Parking

I did a few circuits of the market to take in all the stalls. You've got your usual craft stalls, pet items, jewellery, etc., but it was the food that I came for. And I was not disappointed. A taste exploration as many different ready to eat food stuffs were available. From Argentinian Steak rolls to Bitter Ballen, there was something for every taste, including Thai, Indian and freshly baked pastries and pancakes.  

Vendors showing their wares

I'll have mine medium rare, please

Bitter Ballen with mustard..I'll take two.

Belgian Waffles anyone?

I also managed to pick up some fresh deli meats as well as some pucker Cornish Pasties. (although, I was a tad disappointed with the pasties. Bit on the dry side, pastry and filling). On the fresh pastry front, I picked up a delicious Parmesan Twist, which was like a giant Croissant in loaf form.

Parmesan Twist

There is plenty place to sit, either under the umbrellas in the courtyard or on the many grass areas, where your kids (if you have them) can go mad after a sugar rush. Bring a blanket or some camping chairs and you're sorted.

Craft Beer and Wine Tasting are also available but, as I was driving, I only looked on and drooled. 

Plenty seating space

But for me, the stand out stall was Cold Gold Ice Cream. What could be better than some Ice Cream on a warm spring day? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was rather intrigued by the different flavours that Janine van Zyl had available, but eventually settled on Liquorice. (They even have a selection of Vegan Ice Cream...)

Loads of flavours to choose from

WOW. It was delicious. If you like liquorice (which you should) you must try this out. I tweeted about it while I was savouring it under a tree and got a response almost immediately. The beauty of Social Media and the importance of ORM (Online Reputation Management). This prompted me to go back and buy one for the road. I got the 66% Chocolate Ice Cream (last one that they had!). A little pot of chocolate gold. I swear, this had a halo around it when I opened it. Absolutely heavenly.

Chocolate Gold

Gabrielle over at www.deepfriedbananas.com is going to be doing a piece on Janine soon, so keep an eye out for it. I'm glad to say that I now have a reason other than wine to go to Stellenbosch. And with summer on it's way, you should definitely give this a try.