Champers, lingerie & some dirrrrty laundry

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Karisa

Last Thu eve I attended a girly blogger evening at one of my favourite new Cape Town spots, I ♥ My Laundry. Remember I told you guys all about this awesome little “multitasking queen” of a venue about two weeks ago here. The event was organised by the incredibly lovely Allison Scotsman from Skinny Bitches in the Making and the idea was for us girls to mingle while being treated to fine French champagne and oogling over beautiful lingerie. Now what could be better than that?

First up let me tell you about the fabulous Taittinger tasting. We got to try 3 varieties: the Reserve Non Vintage, the Rose and the very exclusive Vintage 2005. The beauties come all the way from the regte egte champagne region in Reims, France and trust me, once you’ve gone French daaahlings, nothing else compares…

SA distributor, Mike Cox, told us that they’d be running a special through the I ♥ My Wine club where you can get a bottle of the Reserve Non Vintage for only R420. And get this, if you order a case, they’ll deliver anywhere in SA free of charge. Sweet. All that exciting news brought out my “champagne face” (which also closely resembles my “fish face” – guess I’m a bit of a one trick pony like Zoolander. haha):

I actually have to brag a little before we continue… back in 2008 (feels like centuries ago now) I spent about 3 weeks in France and I actually visited the Taittinger cellars! Check it out:

Ta da! That strained smile is due to the fact that it’s like fekking freazin’ down there…

And a cool thing about Taittinger that you might not have known is that they do this amazing range of limited edition artist designed bottles. Here are a few pics I snapped of them while I was there:

These babies are very hard to come by. But incredible right?

**Check out more about the range and the artists here: http://www.taittinger.fr/#/en/ArtAndCallings/TaittingerCollection

Then we were also introduced to After Eden lingerie. You’ll find their gorgeous things in Edgars, Temptations, Stuttafords & Foschini stores nationwide as well as in a few smaller boutiques.

They’ve also launched a comfy loungewear range which is perfect for when you’re chillin’ at home with with a cup of hot chocolate, watching a chick flick. I actually had to try keep my distance though… you see, I am a total lingerie addict and my little shopping problem has spiralled out of control of late. Let me show you what I mean… Over and above my normal wardrobe where I already have a rather large shelf dedicated to undies (and filled to capacity), I had to buy an extra freestanding set of drawers to fit the rest of my crazy collection:

Yup… feathers and all!

So instead of feeding my shopping need, I decided to stuff my face with food in an attempt to fill the hole in my soul…

Mmmm… from tomato & pesto sosaties, to beef with mango & chilli and mini brownies with a strange but yummy foam…

I have to say a huge thanks to Allison for putting this little party together. It was just what I needed to unwind after a long day at the office.

Me with Allison…

And then also to Clayton from I ♥ My Laundry for letting us “squat” in his beautiful venue for the evening.

Me!, Leigh, Clayton & Clouds

And as if we weren’t already spoilt enough, I left with a goodie bag which contained this stress relief Bath Sea from Body Thrills as one of our take home treats:

I’m very excited to give this baby a test drive…

Thursday evenings now have a new standard for sure…

xxx

OMG, Engelbert Humperdinck is coming to Cape Town!!!

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Karisa

If you’re thinking “Who the hell is Engelbert Humperdinck!?!” That’s exactly what I thought when I got an email from Real Concerts announcing his show at the Grand West Arena on 20 June…

Um… OK then…

The email started off by saying that because I had attended a previous Real Concerts event, I was included in this email distribution. That got me thinking… what shows have I watched recently and how the hell did that make them think I might be interested in this one?

I quizzed my friend Darryn – cause he’s my concert insider guy – and he could recall Jimmy Carr, Russell Peters and Faithless being amongst the Real Concerts events we’ve attended within the past year or so. I was like… seriously… two comedians with a pretty dark sense of humour and then Faithless!!! These people think the girl who watched this:

And totally lost her brain to legendary songs like “Insomnia” and “God is a DJ” might be intrigued by this old dude who I’m sorry to say looks pretty damn creepy in his promo pic? Let’s keep it REAL here Real Concerts. I see this as a serious communications FAIL.

I would suggest they look into improving their mailing system. Maybe best to make a note of people’s preferences and keep track of their show choices, then send out info accordingly. I certainly don’t think they were hitting their target market with this one. Hehe.

xxx

PS. In case this looks like it could be your kind of thing… the email went on so say that he has sold over 150 million records during his career, including 63 gold and 24 platinum discs. And people like Jimi Hendrix and The Carpenters, started out as opening acts for him in the late’60′s, 70’s and ’80′s. ALSO at one stage he took a # 1 spot away from the Beatles nogal. Wow, maybe I should go…… nah.

The weekend that was…

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Karisa

This is my very own “artistic impression” of what went down this weekend:

Apologies. I can’t draw to save my life. But let me try to explain what you are looking at…

This is my cublicle at work. The sides of the cublicle and also my chair are all in a matching colour of “zesty” lime green. I couldn’t find the right colour pen, so picture something lighter & brighter than the green I’ve used above. Now according to the study of Colour Psychology, green symbolises nature and the natural world and is usually used in decorating for it’s calming effect. Well I can guarantee you guys one thing, being stuck in a green cubicle does precisely none of that.

On my desk there you’ll see my PC, my phone and my company branded desk calendar slash clock combo unit which we all got as a gift at the beginning of the year. I don’t really understand why they gave us these desk clocks in the first place… I mean, you can just check the time & date on your PC screen. Duh… I would totally re-gift it, but I think my friends would be suspicious of the big ass company logo on it. Hmmm.

Then that’s me in the chair. I’m double facepalming myself while banging my head on the desk. Yes, this hurts… a lot… but it strangely makes me feel much much better.

This artistic moment came about at around 5pm on Sunday – after pretty much spending the entire weekend at work (after a loooong week of working late and oh also working the weekend before that). At this point, I had hit a serious low… Then I remembered reading somewhere that “drawing your feelings” helps you release all your pent up anger & frustration and all that other good stuff. So I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a bash. If anything it allowed me to laugh at my situation a bit which I guess is a good thing. Well… except if it’s an evil laugh. Kinda like a psycho serial killer in a horror flick. That wouldn’t be a good sign at all.

Anyhoo, I still have a long road of crazy hours and weekend work ahead of me. So maybe I’ll be posting more “art” as I go. I’m guessing they’ll be taking more of a darker turn though. My creative side is feelin’ some flames and firearms…

xxx

Massimo’s for killer pizza

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Karisa

On Sun I was really in the mood for some Italian food… I think it must have been thanks to my disappointment at Ragù the day before. It seemed to have left a lingering need in my soul.

I didn’t want to hit up any of my usual spots, so I decided to consult my trusty EatOut website. They do this “Best of” thing, for example “Best of… sushi” or “Best of… bistros” and then they give you their top picks for each major city. In the “Best of… Italian” list for Cape Town I spotted Massimo’s out in Hout Bay. I checked out their website and looked at one or two online reviews, liked what I saw and decided this would be the dinner spot I would drag two of my friends, Lara & Grant, to that evening.

Now just a tip for getting there. It’s on Hout Bay Main Rd, but if you’re coming from Cape Town via the Llandadno side and then hit that traffic circle which gets you into Main Rd, turn left at the circle towards Constantia, not right towards Chapman’s Peak. You see I made this mistake and then got horribly lost. Add to that the fact that I have seriously poor night vision and that area (and the road to get to Hout Bay) isn’t well lit, you get a minor panic attack. But hey, nothing a glass of wine couldn’t fix…

Massimo’s is part of a little country style shopping center and sits snug in the far right hand corner. It’s definitely got a strong country kitchen feel, nothing too flash, just nice and cosy, with lots of wooden details and a big pizza oven right where everyone can see the action.

For starters I tried their soup special which was green pea & mint. Lara had the Bresaola (air dried sliced beef with parmesan shavings & extra virgin olive oil – R42). And Grant had the Tagliere (Coppa ham, salame felino, Mortadella, bread & preserves – R42. So his was basically a plate of meat – just the way die manne loves it right.

My soup was quite blah. I would have preferred it to have a thicker texture and I needed to add quite a bit of seasoning. Lara & Grant enjoyed their starters. Of course, there wasn’t any cooking involved in those 2 dishes, but the ingredients were fresh and tasty.

For mains I was initially totally set on having a pasta. But as we were sitting there beautiful pizzas kept coming past us and the smell of those freshly prepared stunners totally got to all of us. Pizza it was!

Lara and I both opted for the half & half option (you only pay R7 extra). Grant wasn’t as indecisive as us and opted for a normal pizza. Below you have mine on the left. I went for half Pere (olive oil, gorgonzola cheese, sliced pears – R72 for full) and half Cacio (garlic butter, Italian sausage, cacio cheese, roasted peppers – R118 for full). So the cost of mine came to: R36 + R59 + R7 = R102. On the right below was Grant’s pizza, he opted for one of the special pizzas for the day.

This pizza was right up my alley. Super thin and crispy base. Not too much heavy, rich sauce, like with damn Debonairs pizza. Blegh. A solid spread of toppings. Fresh ingredients. To me it was pizza heaven.

After starters & and a BIG pizza, we were totally stuffed. Dessert was not on our minds at all… well that was until the table next to us got the most amazing looking baked cheesecake. We basically drooled all over their table and then were like “for us too please!”.

Yeah, nothing soothes the soul like ass killing cheesecake WITH ice cream… Mmmm…

Now when I mentioned on Twitter that I was heading to Massimo’s, I got a mixed response. But I must say we really enjoyed ourselves there. I will give Massimo’s an overall Miss K Kiss-o-Meter rating of:

And I will have to go back to try the pasta at some point. But before I do that I’ll have to do lots of running to get rid of the after effects of this meal first. I hear “muffin top” is like so not a good look with your skinny jeans this winter.

xxx

De Waterkant dining

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Karisa

On Sat I popped over to the De Waterkant area with the “Ou bros” (aka the Asian Twins) for lunch. Our original plan was to try out new spot, Ragù @ 123 Waterkant St for a little summin different.

It’s a cute little spot which serves up a mix of Italian fashion & food under one roof and then I hear they also serve up some great cocktails. The menu apparently changes daily and therefore only has a limited number of options. Decor wise, I absolutely loved it. It’s quirky and fun with lots of awesome little details which makes for a cool visual impact.

BUT the prices were just plain crazy. Most lunch options were around the R120 mark and a spaghetti bolognaise was a whopping R130! I’m sorry, but on no planet am I spending that much on a spag bol daahlings. Even in Italy, when I was paying in euros, I did not spend that much… craziness I tell ya. All 3 of us agreed that there wasn’t anything on the menu that looked enticing enough for us to “fork out the cash” so to speak, so we decided to rather opt out and find another place to dine…

We figured we would just walk around the area and see if we could find something else we hadn’t yet tried. Thing is at that point it was almost 2pm and a lot of the freestanding smaller dining spots in that area close their kitchens at 2pm… problem. We also tried Cape Quarter, but we weren’t really feelin’ any of the options there. I was however quite surprised to see that a few places had actually closed down recently - Aqua in the old Cape Quarter for example and then also Vanilla which used to occupy quite a big part of the new extention. To be honest, neither was a favourite of mine. Guess other people felt the same.

Eventually we settled in at Soho - a Thai restaurant which is part of the Village Lodge, a 15 room boutique hotel offering bed & breakfast accommodation on Napier St.

Love the building…

The restaurant interior is quite nice. It has a chic, cosmopolitan feel with lots of rich colours and a very cute bar area:

It was relatively decent weather though, chilly but the sun was out, so we decided to soak up some rays outside instead. We would have preferred the roof-top pool bar area (which Joe & Ben assure me is a must see), but sadly it was closed for the afternoon. Not too much of a loss though as it was very chilled out there on the stoep. They had Cafe Del Mar style tunes pouring out onto the street and you got to take in the beautiful street view:

De Waterkant just has a special feel about it… doesn’t it?

Totally starved by that point, I was ready to dig in. Joe (who cheated and already had lunch round 1 at home) decided to go for something light. So he got the fishcake starter and some Tom Yum soup (didn’t get the prices of these two dishes – sorry):

Tord mun pla – deep fried spicy fish cakes served with cucumber salad and a delicate sweet & sour sauce

Thailand’s most famous soup – a spicy hot & sour soup served with mushrooms, lemon grass & coriander.

I on the other hand needed something more substantial, so I went for a green chicken curry (R90 – steamed rice included):

Kaeng kiew wahn – green curry cooked with coconut milk, fresh herbs & thai aubergines

Then Ben who NEVER eats light (seriously this guy can eat… don’t know where he puts it all!), opted for their Phad thai noodles (R85 – also the chicken option):

Phad thai – famous thai noodles with peanuts & bean sprouts

Now I can’t fault the food, everything was really good. My green curry had such a lovely flavour and just the right amount of burn to go down like a treat. Joe also said that his Tom Yum soup was the best he has had in Cape Town. But we did wait quite a while for the food to come out and I did think the prices were a bit steep compared to some other good Thai options in town.

I will give Soho the following Miss K Kiss-o-Meter ratings:

Vibe & Food:
Service & Price:

And I definitely want to go back for some drinks at that roof-top bar at some point.

xxx

The Cosmo Jeans bash

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Karisa

Last Thu eve I attended the Cosmo Jeans 2012 fashion show which was held at QV54 in Queen Victoria Street. The dress code for the evening was of course “denim”, which is an easy one cause let’s face it, everyone loves a toit jean pant.

Now as much as I love the city centre, I absolutely hate the limited parking. Add a big event with lots and lots of guests and what do you get? PAIN… and lots of it… Sure I have considered getting a scooter, but it’s just too damn cold here in winter PLUS you don’t get any street cred on one of those and I’m far to cool for school…

Anyhoo, when we finally got there I had to first stop to do the obligatory “pic in front of massive banner” photo:

Ta da!!!

Apparently thanks to that we just missed out on the last few free Brutal Fruits they were handing out. Damn my love of being in the spotlight!

Bjorn and I were teased because we apparnetly looked like we had totally coordinated our denim looks. But I don’t see it… Yes we were both working the “double denim” trend (that’s when you wear a denim shirt with jeans, in case you didn’t know – the key to this look is to make sure the two items are totally different shades or even colours of denim, matchy matchy is like a massive no-no). But I was rocking some red and he was doing a bit of brown leather… Ag I’ll let you guys be the judge:

Too close for comfort maybe? Are we just one step away from matching parachute material tracksuits?? With our initials embroided on them??? hahahahahaha. My home town of PE would be so proud…

My friend Leigh even compared us to the 2001 Brit Brit & JT denim tuxedo crisis! (Check her comparison here) Now that’s not fair… we’re like way hotter and stuff. hehe.

Anyways, we were not there to harp on about our fashion choices, instead we were there to check out some winter denim trends from Michiko London, Ackermans, Edgars, Adidas, Donna-claire, Foschini, Bronx & Calvin Klein.

Sadly, as much as I loved the building, it was terribly cramped inside and there wasn’t really any great ramp viewing spots. This meant I was standing on my tippy toes, camera far above my head, trying desperately to get a few shots of the action. These were the only ones that came out half decent(ish):

The show had a strong “Wild Wild West” theme, so for the finale they did the whole cowboy/cowgal thing and then tossed their stetsons into the crowd as the last Yee-haw.

Ride along now cowboys…

** You can check out the offical pics on the Cosmopolitan website or on Channel24.

For entertainment breaks in between the fashion we got to enjoy the guitar stylings of Tombstone Pete:

The golden voice of Natasha Meister:

And then my personal fave, the quirky awesomeness that is Yoav:

I’m totally obsessed with this guy…

Leigh being one of those lucky people who always wins random lucky draws and such, walked away with a gleaming white stetson. I have my suspicions that she probably pushed poor Clouds out of the way to catch it…

Hmmmm, lucky or just reaaally competitive…

Either way, it was her pride & joy for the rest of the evening. I didn’t stay for the after party because 1) I had a crappy day at the office and was totally pooped and 2) the new Steers at the 24 hr Woolies was calling my name (Steers chip attack!! – my ass has been cursing that place. haha).

So tell me, who out there is brave enough to also give the double denim look a test drive this winter? I say we should start a mass tuxedo revival and then do a flash mob to “Hit me baby one more time”. Who’s in? Come now people, you know it’s the right thing to do.

xxx

The Ooh! Box… oooooh

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Karisa

Last week my first Ooh! Box arrived and I’m happy to report that it’s totally awesome. Check it out:

It’s biiiiiig!

But what’s inside? Well first you have some wine – 4 glorious bottles to be exact:

Jislaaik, check out all those award stickers… hectic bru.

And then a variety of gourmet “foodie” things:

Mmmmm…

And the best part is that I got all that, including FREE delivery for only R295! Ooh! Box is a new initiative where you sign up for a monthly “taste box”. The products are hand picked by the Ooh! Box experts to ensure that you’re getting only the best… and for way less. This is for example the value of the items in my first box:

1 x Avontuur Chardonay Pinot Noir -R58
1 x Kanu Keystone – R120
1 x Spier Creative Block 5 – R115
1 x Zevenwacht Sauvignon Blanc – R67
1 x Rio Largo Balsamic Vinegar – R48
1 x Morgenster Black Olive Paste – R32
1 x Dalla Cia Grappa Chocolates – R85
1 x Khoisan 100% Organic Bourbon Vanilla Rooibos – R18

TOTAL = R543. So that’s a saving of about 46%. Impressive stuff…

The contents of the box will change month to month and the saving won’t always be exactly the same (some months might be more, some might be less), but they do guarantee that it will always be a pretty damn good deal AND the subscription price stays the same, no matter what the value of the box is.

Other costs? Just a annual membership fee of R114. Minimum subscription is for 3 months only, after that you can opt-out anytime you want.

The only catch is that they only have 1000 spaces available. So if you’re keen, you need to act fast. I have confirmed with them that there are still a few of the May boxes available at the introductory price of R295. The June boxes will be released soon and they have decided to keep them at the R295 price for now as well. The subscription price might go up slightly at some point, but they are playing it by ear for the moment.

If you’d like to sign up – register over here (they do nationwide delivery btw). But if you have more questions – check out their FAQ page or just pop them an email to: member@theoohbox.com (they respond quite quickly – I’ve tested it quite a bit )

I’m very excited about the June box. I hear it’s going to include wine from Waterford, Diemersfontein and Asara PLUS a Bubbly from Moreson called Miss Molly. This is definitely something which is going to make the cold winter days more bearable.

UPDATE as at Sep 2012: I see the subscription price has gone up to R495. But as I understand the value of the box contents has also gone up.

xxx

News “flash”

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Karisa

Now I won’t lie, I am not really a newspaper reader or SABC/ETV news watcher. But even so, I do still want to know what’s going on in the world. So I usually just end up skimming through the news headlines on my Twitter feed, making the assumption that the headline pretty much explains what went down and therefore I’m totally covered.

Then this past weekend I was paying for lunch at a restaurant and I had to go up to the till to use the card machine. As I was waiting for them to process the transaction something caught my eye on the front page for the Cape Times:

Seems one of SA artist, Brett Murray’s pieces seriously pissed off the ANC…

I thought to myself… Hey, that painting of our president actually seems quite nice. It had a cool modern feel, I liked the use of colour… I really didn’t see anything wrong with it at all. Why would they even waste ink on printing this story? Meh.

Luckily the card machine was a bit slow, so I had a bit more time to kill. I opened the newspaper and as I passed page 8 I had a very stong “Oh… now I see…” moment.

Right… right…

I have learnt a very valuable lesson here – ALWAYS get the full story.

xxx

Mozam life…

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Karisa

So Flamingo Bay has a sister lodge, Barra Lodge, which is just around the corner and has direct access to the beach. There are free shuttles every hour that will take you between the two (it’s only a 10min drive) and then you can make use of all their facilities.

Me in my element… right next to a shop!

I would say Barra Lodge has a more family friendly vibe. Flamingo Bay is for couples looking for a romantic getaway, in fact children under 12 are not allowed. But at Barra Lodge they cater for all ages. Just look at the pool for example, it’s like a water based playground:

Pimpin’ pool… I like…

Then you can walk right onto Barrra beach which is a beautiful stretch of seemingly untouched coastline:

And you can chill at their beach bar for a bite to eat…

And cocktails of course!

From Barra we decided to WALK to Tofo. For some reason Bjorn had it in his head that it was only about a 30 min walk (you see he had stayed on Tofo beach once before a few years back). So I was like yeah why not. It sounded like some good exercise, especially with all the food we were eating and this would be a great opportunity to check out the more scenic route. But we knew we had made a very poor choice when about an hour in a local fisherman asked us where we were heading. When we said Tofo he said “Tofo!?! That’s really really far. Are you really going to walk!?!” Hmmm… 30 min hey… yeah right… About 3 HOURS later we finally made it to Tofo. I was proud that I didn’t try to drown Bjorn along the way in a fit of rage… but I seriously considered it though.

Things were cool again after we settled in at Fatima’s for some lunch. It’s a popular spot for locals & tourists alike and apparently a big party spot in the evenings.

A proper beach bar with lots of African flavour.

Then the Tofo market was just around the corner. Here we bought delicious coconut breads (so yum!) and these super sweet small bananas:

A must try. I don’t really like bananas normally, but these were really cool

Not wanting to do the crazy walk home again, we asked some locals how to get back to Barra. For the first leg of the trip we took a combi taxi which cost next to nothing. It was quite amazing watching them fit up to 25 people into that thing at one point – small babies and all! Then we had to wait for a connecting taxi – which is basically a dude driving back to Barra from Inhambane after work in a bakkie. He then slows down and people just jump on. It’s totally informal, but it works like a charm.

He even gave us the best seats, right up front.

The next day, back at Flamingo Bay, we did a catamaran trip to Pansy Island. Check out our slick mode of transportation:

Here’s me trying my best “I’m on a boat” pose. If you haven’t yet checked out that clip which was featured on Saturday Night Live, go check it out on Youtube. It’s pretty awesome.

Oooh and check out how crystal clear the water was:

Our first activity was to pick up pansy shells on so the so called Pansy Island – which isn’t really an island, it’s more like a sand heap that happens to be visible at low tide. Hehe. But it was cool to walk around and collect these pretty shells nonetheless. For those who don’t know, this is what they look like:

Pretty incredible huh… I love the detail, it’s so perfect.

As our “island” disappeared with the incoming tide, we headed out again, passing some fishing boats along the way…

Then we stopped in what I’m calling “starfish alley” to do some snorkeling. The incredible thing is that there are like hundreds and hundreds of these guys all chilling in one little area. We were really bummed that we didn’t have one of those disposable underwater cameras, cause it was truly incredible to see. This pic I tried to take from the catamaran as we started passing over them really doesn’t do it justice at all:

But at least you can kinda see how big they are. They are big meaty guys, about the size of your face and they come in all different colours. So cool.

On our way back Bjorn wanted to maximise his water time, so he got them to drag him behind the catamaran with a rope (like one does of course).

Boys will be boys I guess…

The next day we headed out for an ocean safari. The goal was to see & swim with whale sharks – which I was reeeaaaally hoping to do… like I was crossing all toes & fingers. But sadly it didn’t pan out. You basically head out on a rubber duck and spend a few hours searching the ocean. But as you can guess, it’s very hit or miss. We did at least get to snorkel a beautiful reef and this time round we were clever enough to get a little disposable underwater camera at the shop before hand. We just haven’t gotten around to developing the film yet. But once we do, I’ll do a little post on our underwater adventure.

On our 2nd last day in Mozambique we did some quad biking. I have to note that this was my first time ever on a quad bike (or any kind of bike for that matter – other than a bicycle). So I was a bit nervous going into it.

Ready to rock & roll. But hoping I come out of it in one piece.

After some basic instructions on how to change gears and all that, we were off:

We crossed Barra beach, checked out the lighthouse, then headed through the little villages of the area, all the way to Tofo and back. Along the way we passed lots of kids who would stand on the side of the path with their hands out so you can high 5 them as you come past. It was so cute. We stopped in one of the villages and this little guy totally stole my heart:
He walked up to us like he was the mayor of that town… hand sticking out for a firm handshake, checking us out and then giving us the nod of approval to pass through. Soooo sweet.

Along the way we also got a close up look at a cashew tree and its fruit:

See that little bit at the top – that’s the part you get the nut from. Cool hey? I had no clue cashew nuts actually came from a fruit.

As we took in our beautiful surroundings, I got more comfortable on the quad bike and we picked up some good speed.

To peaceful…

Everything was going really well… until… I crashed into a tree! Haha. I was trying to turn, battled, put a bit of extra muscle into it, then over steered, panicked, over corrected, totally forgot about the breaks and wham… Then just 10min after that I almost went off a cliff! (but luckily my fall was blocked by another tree) For obvious reasons we took it very slow on our way back. Bjorn now calls me “stuntie”. He says I crashed like a pro.

My body certainly didn’t feel like a pro afterward. I was covered in scrapes and bruises with this one stretching my entire calf muscle being the most impressive out of the lot:

Boom! I’ve been thinking about starting a twitter account for it… it’s THAT BIG.

Anyhoo, injuries aside, I had a total blast. Our week in Mozambique was the perfect blend of relaxation and adventure. I can highly recommend this absolutely beautiful country to anyone & everyone. And the fact that it’s so easy to get to from SA is a total bonus, I mean Joburg people simply drive up. Easy peasy.

I’m hoping a return trip or two will be in my future.

xxx

Livin’ it up Flamingo Bay style!

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Karisa

I’m going to hijack My love affair with Cape Town for a mini love affair with Mozambique. I was recently lucky enough to spend 7 nights in this beautiful location, staying at the Flamingo Bay water village which is in the Inhambane area.

Mozambique to me had a bit of a Thailand feel, but with lots of African flavour of course. It’s an absolutely stunning place with palm trees in abundance, a flawless coastline, warm water, great food and lovely people. I would go back in a heartbeat…

Getting there was relatively simple. Most packages only include flights from JHB, so we did a Kulula flight from Cape Town to OR Tambo, then from there we flew with LAM (the official Mozambique airline) to Inhambane which is about a 1 hr 40 min flight. I did have a little giggle at something I found on our e-tickets though:

Say what?!

Now I’m sure that doesn’t actually mean “keep passenger alive”, but it sure as hell looks like it! I was like, yes please – that’s way more important than any special meal needs etc. haha.

The LAM plane is a bit old school with propellers and all… not gonna lie, that made me a little nervous. I’ve travelled with African airlines before and they can be a little bit hairy at times. But I’m glad to report that this was a relatively smooth ride.

Bjorn very excited to have landed safe & sound…

Now you know you’ve landed in a laid-back tropical destination when your airport looks like this:

Doesn’t that immediately make you feel like sitting back and having a cocktail?

Procedures at the airport are pretty manual still, so don’t expect super speedy service. Just chill like everybody else and you’ll be fine… A 45min bus ride from the airport then got us to the heavenly Flamingo Bay resort, our happy home for the week.

The main lodge area is fully kitted out with a bar, dining area, free WiFi, a TV room/lounge (no TV in the water cottages) and a pool with sun loungers and all that.

A nice thing to note is that they accept all major currencies at the resort: SA rands, US Dollars, Euros & then their local currency, Metical. When we were there it was about 3.4 metical to the rand.

So from the main lodge you then follow the wooden walkways to get to the 20 water chalets which are built in a little half moon shape some distance away from the main lodge, deeper into the water. Just walking down the walkway we realised we were in for something quite special… Check it out:

Side note: If you get lazy, there are guys with golf carts who will take you from your chalet to the main lodge and back. Very sweet, especially when the sun starts getting too hot.

Our water chalet was everything the website had promised. Spacious, luxurious, kitted out with aircon and mosquito nets with a little deck area with deck chairs and of course direct access to the water. Absolutely amazing.

Now the water village is built on an estuary which means you’re not on the open sea so there are no waves to worry about. The water level however does change during the day as you hit high & low tide. When we were there the water level could change from around knee deep only to about 2 and a half meters deep. At high tide it’s totaly save to even do this:

Diving from your balcony… Bjorn was in heaven, him being a total “water baby”. I preferred to take the stairs.

The water is filled with all kinds of fish, even some tropical fish, but you don’t have to worry about sharks. The closest we came to a shark was this guy:

A little fisherman’s boat with lots of attitude. hehe.

We were there over full moon, which obviously means the highest water levels which are pretty damn impressive. So I would say that would be a good thing to aim for if you were booking for yourselves.

Evenings involved watching the beautiful sunset:

And then heading to the main lodge for dinner, which is 4 courses baby! You’d normally start with a soup, then an entrée, mains (they normally have a red meat option, a chicken or fish option and a vegetarian option), followed by dessert. Oh and if you’re a big seafood fan, do inquire about their seafood platter, it’s pretty insane.

In the mornings, breakfast was served buffet style – with a good selection of fruits, cereals, baked treats and hot options. You ate so much at breakfast and dinner that lunch just usually ended up being a small snack somewhere.

Here is a little collage I put together of some of the food we had (by now you should know that I always photograph my food. I’m weird like that. ):

The food standard is excellent btw.

Oh and a cute (and also slight cheesy – not gonna lie) thing is that there are always a few tables at dinner time with special decorations, like so:

Just in case you’re celebrating an anniversary or something or you’re just in a very romantic mood.

Some evenings they also have a musician there, playing some ambiance music. Then on Fri evenings the dinner setup changes to a buffet (so get there early) and they bring in a marimba band with some “mini” dancers:

They were so cute.

It was cool cause it creates a very festive vibe. But food wise I preferred the 4 course set menu over the buffet.

Oh and then just when you thought this place couldn’t get any better… they also have a spa! We went for amazing massages, the perfect thing to de-stress just before a long afternoon nap. (ah the tough life)

The treatment room I thought was very pretty. They only use Africology products at the spa, something I’ve never tried personally before, but the massage oil they used had a heavenly scent…

Total cost per person was just over R13 000. That included the flights from JHB, airport taxes, transfers to and from the lodge and 7 nights stay including breakfast & dinner. Only lunch & drinks were excluded. And then of course any excursions you book through the hotel (which I’ll still tell you about).

I booked our trip through a lovely girl named Keri from Barefoot Breaks. They specialise in “chic and intimate beach hideaways” and they certainly made sorting out this trip an absolute breeze. I would highly recommend them if you don’t have the time to shop around for flights, etc yourself.

Best time to go? Well apparently you should only avoid Jan – Mar, that’s their monsoon season. The rest of the year the temperatures are pretty constant. When we were there it was about 28/29 degrees every day which was really pleasant, not too hot.

OK, that’s it for now. I’ll show you guys what over cool stuff we got up to in my next post.

xxx

My Love Affair with Cape Town…

Just random fun in my mother city

Monthly Archives: May 2012