An Entertaining Picnic at Admiralty House

Attending a performance by the South African Navy Band is always a huge treat. Even more so, when it is preceded by a leisurely picnic on the lush green lawns of Admiralty House. Last Sunday, four of our friends joined us for just such a picnic.
When we arrived in the pretty suburb of Simon’s [...]

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Cape Town Military Tattoo of 2008

The Cape Town Military Tattoo is coming up on 19-21 November, and I’ve just bought tickets for one of the performances. I am very excited to be going, as it promises to be an exhilarating event! As in previous years, it will be held at the Castle of Good Hope in central Cape Town. (If [...]

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“I am my own wife” returns to the Baxter!

I am my own wife, the fantastic one-man/woman play starring Jeremy Crutchley, acteur extraordinaire, is returning to the Baxter Theatre from 27 October to 7 November 2009 (see Baxter Theatre).  The play was written by Doug Wright, and is directed by Janice Honeyman. The venue, like last time, will be the small and intimate Baxter [...]

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A formidable performance: A review of “I Am My Own Wife”

On Tuesday night, we attended an extraordinary, spell-binding performance of I Am My Own Wife (Wikipedia), a play written by Doug Wright. The venue was the small and intimate Baxter Studio upstairs. It was packed; I don’t think there was a single empty seat. It is a one-wo/man show (although that one man takes [...]

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A concert of 100 male voices

We went to a fantastic concert last night at the City Hall in central Cape Town. Two choirs participated: the touring British and Irish Lions Male Choir (consisting of 70 members drawn from 18 UK choirs) under their highly entertaining conductor Dr Haydn James, and the Cape Welsh Choir (almost 30 people) under their conductor [...]

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Diesel and Dust photographic exhibition: Walkabout with Obie Oberholzer

A couple of days ago, a friend forwarded me an invitation she had received from the Friends of the South African National Gallery to attend a walkabout with Obie Oberholzer at his exhibition Diesel and Dust. She wasn’t able to attend, but she urged me to go.
I didn’t know anything about him, so I read [...]

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Things to do in Cape Town

A blogger from Ireland, who is intending to visit South Africa, recently asked the question: “What are the ‘must do’ things in and around Cape Town?”
Although we have on occasion received visitors from overseas and given them some suggestions on what to do and see, I’ve never sat down and made a list before. So [...]

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Yay for Monty Python!

The irreverent bunch of Monty Python have created their own channel on YouTube here! They have started to upload high quality snippets of some of their funniest routines, like the Argument Clinic, the Silly Olympics and Biggus Dickus.
Their reasoning:
“For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our [...]

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Learning Irish: In the name of the fada

My curiosity for the Irish Gaelic language sometimes leads me to strange places on the internet. A month or two ago, for instance, I came across an RTE series called In the Name of the Fada, which ran for six episodes from 13 March to 17 April 2008.
No, that’s not a mis-spelling of “In the Name [...]

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“A Thousand Splendid Suns”

Wow.
I finished reading Khaled Hosseini 2007 novel A Thousand Splendid Suns in one day. I started reading the opening sentence on Saturday evening:
“Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami.”
And the final sentences 24 hours later on Sunday evening:
“But the game involves only male names. Because, if it’s a girl, Laila [...]

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