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A foreigner's take on Cape Town's new Stadium and the 2010 FIFA World Cup

February 8, 2010

Every four years, 32 teams gather in a host country to play 64 games of passionate football, watched by the entire civilized world, and most of the rest too. It's the FIFA World Cup. It's big. The 2006 final match in Germany was watched live by an estimated 715 million people. Each one of them saw an instant replay of Zidane heatbutting Materazzi. That's the power of television. Four years later, South Africa is hosting the 2010 World Cup. The first match will be played on June 11th at Johannesburg's 95,000-seat Soccer...

Running around Cape Town's Table Mountain

January 24, 2010

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup* coming to South Africa this summer, or rather this winter as we are in the Southern Hemisphere, crowds will no doubt descend on Cape Town like flocks of vultures circling a tourism prey. Some will be hooligans and care only about drinking and causing trouble in the name of their team. I wish them to fail and be arrested. Others, I hope, will arrive with healthier aspirations and a few might even be able to focus on something other than soccer. For the runners in this last category, here's my...

A Night on the Cape of Good Hope

April 30, 2009

It would seem the southern tip of Africa has two faces, one purely geographic and the other popularly romantic. Technically, the actual southernmost point is located some 200 kilometers to the southeast of Cape Town and called Cape Agulhas. An extension of Africa's gigantic landmass, that cape is wide and rather boring looking—on a map at least since I haven't been there (we have since). But if like me, you are a dreamer and cherish fractured memories of the adventures of Tintin et les cigares du Pharaon or those...

Snake!

February 21, 2015

We spotted this impressively colored specimen of puff adder, called pofadder in Afrikaans, during a drive through Cape Point last December. Indiana Jones' heart would have skipped a bit. Marie stepped on the breaks and I ran out with the camera. African puff adder - Bitis arietas One of the most common venomous snakes in Africa, the puff adder is typically dully colored, except for this rare bright yellow and black variation of males in the Western Cape. At the thickest, its belly would fit my wrist. The puff...

Happy Days!

April 15, 2014

Update: Bruce passed away seven months after I wrote this. RIP Chef Robertson. Scarborough is a tiny outpost on the Atlantic Coast, beyond Misty Cliffs, south of Cape Town. A three-way stop sign, a few houses, a long deserted beech and plush fynbos on the hills above; one normally doesn't come to Scarborough. This is just a pretty drive-through hiccup on the way from Kommetjie to Simon's Town, or maybe even Cape Point. But it is home to chef Bruce Robertson, aka Happy Days. There, in the absolute quietness and...

Once Upon a Time, Pixels

May 30, 2013

Roaming around Constantia and the Cape Peninsula, we are stocking up on beautiful food, delicious scenery and moody, rather wet weather. We've randomly gone mushrooming in the Tokai Forest and seen a pod of maybe a hundred dolphins off Simon's Town. Pictures to come. We ate the best polenta on earth at Kalk Bay's Olympia Cafe. We had family martinis at The Cellars in Constantia where I opted for my ritual ostrich dish. The chameleons are paid regular visits and owls have been heard at night. Loud flocks of hadedas tear...

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