Interesting Concert Venues & Other Recent Ativities

During the week 12th - 19th February I visited three very different venues for a concert or seminar.

The first was at a local church building, called Powerhouse, which is an Afrikaans-speaking group, situated above a meat emporium. This whole building was formerly a small campus for an independent high school.  It is in Pasita Street, near to where our flat is located and I pass it almost every day, when I go out running and also when I visit my dance class, which happens to be next door.

It's a large, almost semi-circular building with access to the upper story via metal steps and has a large open topped balcony.

This close up shows the signs for both Powerhouse (upstairs) and Skaapland below.

When I visited Powerhouse for a Saturday morning seminar entitled, Israel and the Second Coming of Jesus, it was the first time I had entered upstairs and I found it very creatively decorated.

The ceiling, walls and windows of the whole of the largest meeting room have been lined with pieces of silk, which are suspended from one or both short ends of the material, creating banners, which move in the breeze from open windows behind. You feel like you are in a giant marquee, and the colours chosen, blues, purple, red and small strips of gold and silver at the front, are reminiscent of representations of the first Tabanacle in the wilderness, which the Israelites erected as a place of worship, in a moveable structure, like a tent.

At first I wondered if this arrangement had been specially done for this meeting, but realized that it would have been a very costly and time-consuming preparation for one meeting. Later I found out that Powerhouse decided to decorate their building in such a manner because of the large glass windows, which allowed lots of light into the room (ideal for an educational setting) , but made it feel uncomfortable in the summer heat. This was an alternative to putting blinds up at every window.

However, it does mean that very little natural light enters the room and even with the many spot lights they used, it was a bit dark. They had several other smaller rooms, which had not been decorated in the same way. I didn't mind it at all, but others I was with, said they found it quite claustrophobic.


Skaapland is a meat (or vleis - in Afrikaans) emporium, another term for a South African specialist butcher's shop, that deals mostly with making the dried meat called 'biltong', so when you pass by there is a very strong meaty smell coming from the back drying rooms. Although I don't like the taste of biltong much and find it too chewy, the smell is quite nice and not at all like the nasty raw meat smell of butchers in UK. In the shop they also sell a range of fresh meats, usually packed ready for braai-ing, complete with a marinade sauce in the vacuum packs, together with a host of subsiduary products, including condiments, cheese and wine, and even pre packaged snacks like crisps. It's like a one-stop place for all things related to hosting a braai - but it is very expensive, so although we've popped in a couple of times, we rarely buy anything there, as the local supermarket is much cheaper.

Another place we visited when we had visitors was the Barnyard Theatre, again very close to where we live, which is unlike any theatre I know of in UK, apart from the stage area.

Barnyard have pioneered this idea of making theatre accessible to a wider audience, perhaps those who would not normally visit a theatre because it is rather formal and the focus is totally on what is happening on the stage.  At Barnyard, eating and drinking, and audience participation is encouraged and so the room is set out with large wooden tables and benches, like they may be at a barn dance. Around the edges and in the balcony, people sit facing the stage, but at a fixed narrow ledge, which forms the table with fixed table lamps dotted along the rows. When the house lights are dimmed, the table lamps are very attractive and provide background light for the eating activites.

People bring picnics for a whole table to share throughout the evening and drinks are ordered from the bar.  Some people even order pizzas to be delivered part way through, or bring pizza boxes in with them.

The first time we visited, in 2007, we found it so different from what we were used to at the theatre. This was our third visit and now it feels so friendly and relaxed, and definitely innovative.

By the way, the concert was a tribute band for Abba and the BeeGees, so the music was from several decades (60's, 70's, 80's and 90's) following the changes in their history, especially the dress styles and music tastes.  We were in a group of six, all of whom grew up through the 60's and 70's and so much of the music was familiar and extremely well done.  It was a very good show, with some special effects, numerous costume changes, interesting sets and the six vocalists, who played lots of different roles throughout, were accompanied by a top quality band. All in all it was a real treat and we enjoyed relaxing, singing along, muching our picnic snacks and even standing up and waving at times, to join in with everyone else, after a very hectic day of intense meetings.

Once a month the Barnyard Theatre is used for a local businessmen's prayer breakfast meeting, and it is packed to the doors.

If the concert at Barnyard was a 'blast from the past' the third event was like stepping into a 'time warp'. The building was not old, in fact it was held at a modern purpose-built facility of a large church grouping in Cape Town, called His People. This venue had been hired out, just for the concert and was set out in a large semi circle of blocks of 500+ seats around a stage area.  There were thousands of people and I did take a photo but it came out too blurd to use.

The concert was the 'Gaither Vocal Band' SA tour.  They are a traditional Gospel group, which was started in the 1950's by the patriarch of the band, who is now in his 80's.  Other members over their long history have been family members and friends who have, or still do participate from time to time.  They also do cruise tours and their style of music is obviously big is USA.

Andy & I had never heard of the Gaither Band, but they have been popular in South Africa for decades.  We were surrounded by people much younger than us, in fact multi-generational groups of black, white and coloured South Africans (those are the correct terms to use for racial groups in SA) who sang along with gusto, cheered loudly as certain songs were introduced and who knew all the tear-jerking stories.  We looked at each other with amazement when it started and had to supress some surprise laughter, which tried to escape, because it felt so old fashioned and twee.  However, as the concert progressed we did quite enjoy it, especially when the highly accomplished blind pianist raised the beat and the mood moved away from 'syrupy' harmonies to quite good arrangements - for a while. Nevertheless, we were quite glad to leave at the interval - it had been a long week, and our guests were rising to fly to Angola at 6am the following morning. 

The warm up act was a lady singing traditional Afrikaans Gospel songs - again she was very popular with the locals, but not really to our taste.

On the Sunday we heard about another concert, which had taken place on the same night - Bono and U2 had played at different venue and lots of the young people in the church we are part of (Josh Gen) had been to that. I'm sure we would have REALLY enjoyed that one!

We are certainly experiencing a diverse range of musical styles in Cape Town. 

My birthday in Cape Town - 10th February

This was the third time I've celebrated my birthday in Africa: in 2007, I was travelling with our family on February 10th, from Cape Town to Zambia, so not much time for celebrating; in  2008 we visited an interesting place called !Khwa Ttu, learning all about the San people of Southern Africa; and in 2011 we had a lazy afternoon in Langebaarn, on the West Coast, about 90 mins drive from Cape Town.

                                     


We had only visited Langebaarn once before and had never been to the fishing town of Saldanha, further round the bay.  It's only a small place, with large fish processing plants occupying much of the harbour, but we finally found a little place, called Slipway, for a drink and spent an hour reading local papers and folk lore about the restaurant's owner, who had sailed around Africa in a homemade sailing boat (made for fishing), with his young family in the 80s. They had devoted a corner to newspaper cuttings, maps and photos from that time:

                                                  

 It was fascinating reading and we got the impression that the family are still local heroes in Saldanha, as the most recent news items (2009) were about them selling plots of land specifically for eco-farming.

                                         

The restaurant is an eclectic mix of seafaring paraphernalia, but we found it very friendly, once we had gotten over the surprise 'welcome' of the waitress, who said "I hope you've not come for mussels, as there aren't any!" We said we only wanted a drink, but did look at the menu, quickly realising that mussel dishes are their speciality, along with snoek (a very South African fish), served with jam!

Another interesting feature at the restaurant were lumps of granite sticking out of the paved floor. They weren't signed with a warning or fenced off and would definitely NOT be allowed in UK.

 We weren't rushed, in fact we had to ask eventually for our bill, as it was now 4.30pm. We found a shorter route down to Langebaarn, which is situated on the edge of a large lagoon and part of a nature reserve. Had we left Cape Town earlier we might have ventured into the reserve, and also to explore some fossils, marked on the map, but decided to walk along the beach instead.

The bay forms a natural harbour, which is sheltered from the fierce currents along the Atlantic seaboard and later we discovered that mussel farming is one of the main industries (hence the waitress's remark).

Nevertheless the water was still quite cold and I had a very short paddle:

 We walked along the beach to some rocks,

 and then found evidence of the mussel beds in the bay:

Andy wished he had brought his fishing rods with him, as it was just approaching high tide and the rocks would have made an ideal place to fish from.

We walked back along the soft sand, looking for interesting shells and then made our way to the restaurant we had booked for our evening meal.

                                                 
 ...not this one, which is called Lekker by die see (lekker is a very popular Afrikaans word meaning, great or good), and has this enormous concrete duck sitting in the middle of the lawn...

 ...but the one next door called Boesmanland, Plaaskombuis, which means farmer's kitchen.

 It faces the beach so we had a spectacular view of the setting sun.

                                       

All the food is cooked in huge cast iron pots, so the meats and casseroles (called potjies - pronounced poikies) were delicious and very tender .

                                        

Here we also had mussels in garlic and snoek. They served jams to have with fresh, still warm, hunks of bread, and I noticed that Andy had taken a spoonful on the same plate as his snoek. He thought it maybe was chutney, so after tasting and realising it was very sweet apricot jam, we laughed, remembering the menu from earlier. For dessert there was icecream, SA melktaart (similar to egg custard, but denser & sweeter) and koeksisters (which is a deep fried syrupy mixture, often twisted together to form a plait). I decided to try a little jam with my icecream! 

Again, this was an interesting venue: quite rustic with homemade tables and 'seats' (logs covered with pieces of blanket) and in-house entertainment.

 When the two musicians approached us for our request, Andy commented that they'd got the best pair of Elvis hips he's seen in a long time.  So they quickly went into a rendition of Elvis' song Blue Suede Shoes, complete with lots of hip twists! It was really entertaining.

                                  

 Growing in the middle of the restaurant was this large tree with green fruit (looked unripe), and I have no idea what it could be.  If anyone knows - do let me know.

Ducks, Geese and other birds

 Near to our flat there is a large duck pond, which drains the surrounding area of surface water. This photo was taken in October 2010, just after we had arrived back in Cape Town.  It was good to see that the duck and geese population was healthy.

 Very recently I took this photo (a similar view) which clearly shows how the water level has dropped, due to lack of rainfall.  However, there are still plenty of ducks on the pond.

 One delight has been watching many clutches of chicks grow and mature (and sadly a few reduce in number to just one chick left).

 Here are a thriving group of older chicks becoming independent.

 And a pair of large geese with fluffy goslings.  I expect the darker one is the female, and the white one the male, but am not sure.

 We also have a lot of guinee fowl not just by the pond, but all around the gardens and streets. I always look out for their polkadot feathers and collect them.  Recently, I noticed two lighter birds amongst a large group, and wondered if they were albinos.

 Here is a close up of one of the light coloured ones. You can clearly see the white spots on light grey feathers.  It would be a great find to discover one of these lying around.

Just by the electric gate to our complex lives a pair of plover birds, with long spindly legs. They have tried to raise a brood of two, sometimes just one on several occasions, without success. Before we left for UK over Christmas we saw that another chick had hatched. I didn't get a photo of it, as the parents are so protective of it and I didn't want to risk it being rejected by my interference.

However, when we returned after Christmas we noticed a third bird, almost the same size as the parents and, which undoubtedly must be the, now grown chick. The birds are so well camaouflaged they are difficult to see in the bright sunshine. We think the juvenille is the one in the middle, as the legs were a bit shorter.

Over this last weekend we noticed that they had gone.  Then only two were back again and so really hope that their brief absence was due to the juvenille fledging.

 This colourful little bird was one of many near a pond at a winefarm we visited.

 They roost in hanging nests from the lower branches of trees. This nest was found by a friend of mine, who kept it as a teaching aid for her children. The inside was lined with feathers, and other soft material collected by the bird.

   Finally, this magnificent owl is one of several at an owl sanctuary, which is housed at the winefarm. I think it's a tawny owl.

Summer Sunsets, Water Shortages and a Storm Brewing

Sunset is my favourite time of day.  I love to be able to watch the sun wane and disappear from view. When we lived in Rio, it was easier to watch sunrise, than sunset, but it usually involved getting up very early.  So now on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, sunsets are are more easily seen.

Obviously, the best place to watch the sunset is facing the ocean, where the sun dips below the horizon, with accompanying pink and purple clouds, depending on the sky. However, there are many other interesting sunsets to watch, even when you're not on the beach.

 This is the view from our apartment window, across the roof of CVC Media, towards Table Mountain, about 25km away (as the crow flies).  When the days are at their longest (late December) the sun sets directly behind the mountain, making it look at though Table Mountain's on fire.

This is a close up of that sunset of a few days ago as the sun fell between the main Table and the peak known as Lion's Head...

... and tonight, as a storm was brewing and heading our way.

The photo doesn't really show the beautiful pink hews of the sky to their best, especially as the sky has been a constant blue since we arrived here three weeks ago.

Throughout the winter months last year (June - August 2010) Cape Town received very little rain. These are usually the months of highest rainfall, and although they did get some rain in spring and early summer (September - November), many areas of open grassland are looking very dry and there are fire warnings in several places. Householders are still allowed to use sprinklers and hoses, so things are not critical yet, but the pond near our home has shrunk dramatically since before Christmas.

 The ducks and geese are now standing in a dry area which used to be under water. (Notice the dark clouds to the extreme left)

 Tonight, as the skies were filling with clouds, they started their walk up the hill, to their night time roosting place, about an hour earlier than normal - maybe because they need to walk much further than they used walk, due to shrinking of the pond!

 From the brow of a hill, near the pond, we look across to the hills near Stellenbosch (heart of the Cape Winelands) and the Hottentots mountain range, behind. Tonight, there must have been a break in the clouds causing the evening sun to fall Stellenbosch, while the surrounding area was very dark.  The hill stood out dramatically and the fields look almost white, in the sunlight.

Now it is late evening, very dark and the storm came and went, with just a few peals of thunder and little rain. It will be another sticky night.