Say farewell to St Yves with one last bash (plus a ticket giveaway)

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Karisa

So St Yves Beach Club has been there for the Cape Town party scene for the last 4 years, bringing folks top DJs, great parties and really one of the best views in town:

Photo credit: taken from the St Yves website – styves.co.za

Now sadly, the venue has been taken over for hotel development, and therefore they are planning one last big bash, going out in true St Yves style on Saturday 4 May before they have to close those doors…

And with that, the St Yves team (Jack, Dale & Shaun) invites everyone to come and party with them one last time as they say au revoir to this beautiful lady.

Important details to take note of:

Date: 04 May 2013
Time: 10pm – 4am
Address : St Yves Beach Club – The Promenade, Victoria Road, Camps Bay
Cost: R100.00 at the door
Dress Code: No effort, no entry
Event page: http://on.fb.me/ZztyB1
For more information you can contact Leozette at leozette@redcarpetconcepts.co.za or for table bookings, just contact Kim at kim@styves.co.za.

BUT listen up now guys & girls. There’s going to be an invite only VIP pre-party from 8pm to 10pm and I’ve got 4 tickets to giveaway to one lucky reader. VIP includes welcome drinks and cheese platters, and of course total bragging rights, because these VIP tickets cannot be purchased. Also you’ll save on that R100 entry. Sweet!

All you have to do is send the following tweet:

Hey @CTmylove I’d love to say au revoir to @styvesbeachclub in style this Saturday #LoveStYvesWin

Or if you’re not on twitter: just copy & paste this tweet into a comment below – just make sure you provide your email address as well so I can contact you if you win.

Terms & Conditions:

This competition is only open to people who will be in Cape Town on Sat, 4 May 2013.
Only one entry per person.
Competition closes Thu, 2 May at 5pm.
Winner will be determined by lucky draw & announced here on my blog and on Twitter Thu evening (before midnight)
You have to be ready to provide the names of your 3 guests by 2pm on Fri, 3 May

Good luck everyone. It’s always hard to say goodbye… but a big ass party sure as hell helps soften the blow.

xxx

Get swept back in time with Short & Sweet’s Full Moon Drive-in Cinema

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Karisa

Where will I be this Wednesday evening? At the Short & Sweet Full Moon Drive-in Cinema, and I’m so freakin’ excited…

Everybody loves a night at the drive-in right? (even if it totally gives away your age…)

I’m a huge Short & Sweet fan and you should’ve seen previous mentions of their short film evenings here on the blog. They will be sticking to their usual winning formula of carefully selected short films over a 2 hour period, featuring a total of 8 films as well as a special live digital illustration from Cape Town based artist, Ed Loverock Babb. But this time it will be presented to you with some major twists…

You’ll be watching these films on Cape Town’s biggest inflatable screen while sitting in the comfort of your car, just like back in the day, and enjoying freshly popped popcorn and refreshments which will be on sale (just no alcohol allowed folks).

** There’s also the option of pulling up a lawn chair or blankie and chilling on the lawn in front of the screen if that’s better for you.

Sound good? Then here’s all the details you need to know:

How much? R60 for a single ticket (if you’re arriving in a car with less than 3 ppl – you’ll need one single ticket per person), R30 if you arrive by bicycle (moonlight mass folks will score), R200 for a vehicle ticket (that’s if you’re going to be a minimum of 4 ppl in the car) – so I suggest getting all your peeps together for some cost saving carpooling.
When? Wed, 27 Mar – gates open at 6pm, films start at 8pm
Where? Maiden’s Cove, Camps Bay. Directory off Victoria Rd, take Maiden’s Cove turn off heading towards the ocean. This road takes you down to a sports field below The Bungalow & you’ll be able to drive directly onto the field
Ts & Cs to take note of: Only 200 parking bays available. All types of 4 wheeled vehicles welcome, but sadly no motorcycles allowed.

Hop on over to Quicket right now, not now-now or just-now, like for realz now to secure your tickets because I can guarantee you it’s going to sell out like hot cakes baby.

So see you fine folks at the drive-in. (when last has anyone said that hey )

xxx

Dinner & a movie with Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Karisa

Wow, wow wow wow. That pretty much sums up Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa in my book. I mean a 5 star luxury hotel overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with the Twelve Apostles Mountain range as its backdrop, if we’re just talking setting wise, you really can’t get better than this. Then add to that beautiful decor, great food, and incredible service & attention to detail which makes you feel like royalty from the moment you walk in, #bliss.

Leigh and I popped in for a visit this past Sunday eve to enjoy their dinner & a movie special. At just R350 pp you get a 3 course dinner in their beautiful Azure restaurant, followed by a movie in their awesome little movie theatre where they utterly spoil you with popcorn, sweets & milkshakes. How good a deal is that? The only things that are excluded are drinks & gratuity.

I absolutely loved the Azure restaurant’s elegant blue theme (inspired by the ocean of course, which you get to look out over thanks to the restaurant’s kick ass views).

Food wise, expect a top class fine dining experience. For us they kicked things off with a little free amuse-bouche (ooooh, someone’s been watching the food channel ) of pulled pork belly. Then for starters Leigh & I both couldn’t resist the sound of the Prawn Risotto with crayfish clarified bisque:

Left: pulled pork belly taster; Right: prawn risotto. Both amazing.

Then there was quite a bit of excitement as they brought us our palette cleanser – mango sorbet served next to a pot of foaming/bubbling (not sure about the correct term) dry ice:

Oooooh…

For mains Leigh opted for their Cape Malay Chicken Curry served with star-aniseed basmati rice, sambals, warm butter roti and a poppadum. Apparently it’s one of their best sellers. I on the other hand, being a big lover of steak, went for the Springbok fillet with orange sweet potato, warm Puy lentil salad, red wine apple & oyster mushroom:

Left: Cape Malay Curry; Right: Springbok fillet

My fillet was cooked to perfection, the meat was lovely and all those different elements on the plate complemented it perfectly. I also had a taste of Leigh’s curry and I loved that it was a nice spicy curry with lots of flavour and get this, you get 9 different sambals!

Yes, 9!!!

Heading into dessert we were already feeling quite stuffed. So we opted for the lightest dessert option which is simply 3 scoops of creamy ice-cream:

Simple. But exactly what the doctor ordered at that point…

We had to keep in mind that we still had to keep space for all the movie treats right…

So after dinner they take you up to the movie cinema which is this cute 16 seater space with big comfy red seats, blankies (in case you get cold) and all. Here they let you loose on the sweets section and they bring you some freshly popped popcorn with a choice of milkshake or hot chocolate to drink.

So so cool…

We watched the 2007 Bruce Willis & Halle Berry movie, Perfect Stranger. But before you book you can just check out their movie schedule first to see what looks good. They have three dinner screenings daily at 17:30, 20:30 and 22:30. So you can also work around those options for your dinner reservation.

We for example started dinner at 7pm and then did the 8:30pm movie. I’d say the real key is to make sure you give yourself enough time to pace yourself and enjoy all the food on offer (we left there with HUGE pot bellies and we had to unbutton that top button on our jeans during the movie). I’d say we should have given ourselves probably about 30min more for dinner, just to take longer breaks in between courses. So a 6:30pm starting point would have been a little better. But we had Argus road closures to keep in mind.

Pot belly aside, I am going to give this experience a Miss K Kiss-o-Meter rating of:

To make your booking, contact their restaurant reservations on 021 437 9029 or azure@12apostles.co.za. Do it, do it now…

If you’re in the mood to splurge a little, they’ll also give you a special deal if you decide to spend the night. You’re looking at between approx. R4000 and R7000 (in total, not per person), depending on when you go, and this includes the room, the dinner, the movie with all snacks and a full English breakfast the next morning. Maybe a good option to spoil that special someone hey?

Oh and just for the record, they had no clue I was going to do a write up, I always prefer to keep my review plans to myself. So no special treatment was given to ensure a good review. They just seem to specialise in special treatment.

xxx

Biking it in the summer sun

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Karisa

So with all the Christmas eating and general silly season overindulgence, I’ve been in desperate need of getting my wobbly butt movin’ & shakin’ again.

But with the beautiful weather we’ve been having, it just seems a bit of a waste to spend your time indoors at the gym. Much better option? Getting on a bike and cruising from the Sea Point promenade all the way down to Camps Bay baby!

One minor problemo is that I don’t actually own a bike. But luckily the folks at Virgin Active Green Point have me covered. You see, if you’re a Virgin Active member you can take out their slick Schwinn cruiser bikes for a couple of hours of biking fun. How awesome is that right? So that’s what Bjorn and I decided to do the other day and just like that, we were off…

I have to note that this was only my 2nd time on a bike as an adult. So I’m certainly no pro and still a little shaky. You see I was totally put off riding a bike as a kid when something absolutely horrible happened to me… absolutely horrible I tell you… let me explain. When I was little, all I wanted was a bright pink bike. I asked Santa to please hook me up and promised to be a good girl and all that. BUT THEN… Christmas came around and my little sister (who didn’t even want a bloody bike) got my bright pink bike of awesomeness and I got… dun dun dun… a purple one!?! Purple… purple!!! I tried to suck it up, be the bigger person and all that, but every time I saw my little sister on MY pink bike I just wanted to push her off it. Needless to say, biking became a hate activity for me and certainly wasn’t going to be my favourite pastime. I also started hating the colour purple.

Anyways, fast forward to current day and I’m finally over that pink bike and ready to move on… (that only took like 20 plus years haha). And for me, the best part of biking it on the promenade down to Camps Bay and back is the incredible views you get to take in. I mean just check this out:

Can’t imagine anything better than that. Can you? This is definitely my new favourite way to get some fresh air in my lungs, get my body moving and make the most of summer all at the same time.

So hopefully I’ll see you guys on the promenade. It’s like totally hot right now.

xxx

Win with the St Yves grand re-opening this weekend

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Karisa

This Sat, 13 Oct, sees the re-opening of hot Camps Bay beach club, St Yves, and it’s promising to be one hell of a party.

St Yves to me certainly has one of the best backdrops in SA with it’s balcony area overlooking our incredibly beautiful Camps Bay strip. The perfect spot for summer sundowners without a doubt…

So why a “re-opening”? I mean, they’ve been around for about 4 years now. Well you see, St Yves has undergone a major revamp recently with new state of the art lighting & special effects, a fresh line up, a luxury SKYY Vodka VIP lounge & DJ box and a new look & feel thanks to top SA designer, Gregor Breber, the man who also did The Bungalow in Clifton as well as big JHB night spots, Taboo and Hush. Ooh and then I hear he’s also worked on some Playboy houses… hmmmm, sure this man’s seen some crazy parties in his lifetime.

On the night you’ll see top summer trends from Beach Cult with a little fashion show after which you’ll get to shake your boo-oot-ay to tunes from popular SA DJ’s Shaun Duvet, pH, Gareth Kenward & Dale Parker. This will be one of those parties which will take you into the very early hours of Sun morning for sure.

But listen up, I’m not just telling you about it because it’s going to be a great night out and all that. I’ve got some tickets up for grabs! Two lucky readers will each win the following:

2 VIP tickets (for you plus your partner / friend) which also includes selected complimentary drinks (between 7 and 10pm) and some light snacks.

All you need to do to win is send the following tweet:

Hey @CTmylove please hook me up with some tickets to the @styvesbeachclub grand re-opening this weekend! #MLAWCTwin

Terms & conditions:

This competition is only open to guys & girls who will be in Cape Town on Sat
Girls have to be 21 yrs of age and guys 23
Only one entry per person
Competition closes at midnight on Thu, 11 Oct
Winners will be determined by lucky draw & announced here on my blog and on Twitter by 9am on Fri, 12 Oct
Dress code for the evening is strictly ”Glitz & Glam” – so no holding back
And arrival time is 19:00 for 19:30 (doors to the public will only open at 10pm)

Good luck guys! You can also check out the event’s Facebook page for more info.

xxx

Congrats Cape Town! You beauty…

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Karisa

If you haven’t already heard, Cape Town has just won the title of Africa’s Leading Beach Destination in the 2012 World Travel Awards. Woohoo!

Now I know some of you might not think that this award is all that impressive seeing as it’s only for Africa and not the whole world. BUT please don’t forget that we still kicked the ass of incredibly beautiful places like Mozambique, Kenya & Zanzibar to name a few – even though we have that little issue with our freakin’ freazing water. Brrrrrr. So ja, in my book, that’s pretty damn impressive and I’m very very proud…

To celebrate I decided to pull out two of my favourite beach pics from my personal stash. Two photo’s which I feel show exactly why we came out tops:

Taken at this year’s Caprice Volleyball tournament

Pink sunset over Camps Bay… just doesn’t get better than that.

Again, congrats Cape Town! Keep up the good work.

xxx

A whole lot of “fondle”ing going on

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Karisa

Last Thu eve I attended a little soiree at the Sunbird Bistro in Camps Bay to get a sneak peak at new fashion lable, Fondle.

Upon arrival, my first priority of course was to get “refreshed” (it was a loooong day at the office OK ). I was offered to try some Tipo Tinto rum – which according to the boys serving it is like the only thing people drink when they visit Mozambique:

Hmmmm… really?

I have to be honest… I don’t remember this from my recent visit… and noooo, it’s not because I was just too drunk to remember… But I’m thinking it could have been because I was far too distracted with all that crashing into trees with quad bikes and stuff. Maybe if I did indulge in some Tipo Tinto, my biking skills could in fact have been much much better.

Next up I browsed through the Fondle goodies on display. They’ve started things off with a good line of basics. For the boys – a selection of short & long sleeve Ts ranging from R349 to R499. For the ladies – vests (R299), fitted dresses (R399) & bodysuits (R399). And then some colourful headgear for those who like a bit of extra flare (caps going for R299 and beanies for R199).

My favourite thing was the bodysuits… I’m weirdly obsessed with bodysuits at the moment… I never in my life thought I’d utter those words again after swearing them off back in high school… but I must have one!

Then I was also quite taken with this fluffy hat (as you can see by my “Hmmm… will this fit in my handbag” face):

I guess dreams of being a hot snow bunny in my early 20s are still haunting me today… #agirlcandream.

Now Fondle has already raked up a pretty impressive list of brand ambassadors. They have model Tracy McGregor, surfer slash model Roxy Louw, District 9 actress Vanessa Haywood, media personality Kuli Roberts, TV star Loui Fish as well as Lee Ann Roberts who just so happens is also the May cover girl for Playboy SA.

Here’s a lovely line-up of Fondle ladies, with Tracy in the slinky black number in the middle and the sexy Lee Ann to her right.

Fondle mastermind… we’re going to call him Max… Max Fondle… was also there:

“Max” with Tracy

He told us that Fondle’s plans for the rest of the year include a hot swimwear range designed by the one & only Tracy McGregor, which will be available from September as well as naughtly lingerie & underwear ranges which will be available from August. You’re also gonna want to keep an eye out for events (read crazy parties) hosted by Fondle Entertainment.

I’m picturing something kinda like this… hell yeah.

Leigh and I decided that we needed to get in on the Fondle action by doing some fondling ourselves… Bar One Manhunt hottie, Dene Botha, was our obvious unsuspecting victim:

Girls… I did this for you of course… that’s cause I’m a “giver”…

A great kick off from the Fondle guys & girls. I can’t wait to see more. And a huge thanks to Clayton Morar who put together this fabulous bash.

If you want to get your hands on some Fondle merchandise, check out www.fondlelifestyle.com. Also go ahead and poke them on Facebook or stalk them on twitter to keep up to date with the Fondle madness.

xxx

“Meh”zepoli…

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Karisa

Last week I joined some fabulous folks for a birthday dinner at Greek spot, Mezepoli, in Camps Bay. It’s a beautiful restaurant with a crisp white & blue palette which makes you feel like you’ve been transported to a sunny Greek island. Loved it.

If appearance was anything to go by (I thought), this should be quite a cool dining experience…

To kick off we got some tzatziki, hummus & pita breads to snack on. Then we followed that up with a good selection of mezes and light meals:

From top left, clockwise: falafel (R34), haloumi (R55), Sheftalia – Cypriot mince meat balls (R39), chicken Souvlaki in pita (R45), calamari (R39), spanakopita (R39)

To be very honest, I was seriously disappointed by the food. You know when someone doesn’t really like something, but they’re trying to be polite, so when you ask them they say: “Ja… it was… it was nice…” It’s kinda on par with a woman saying that she’s “fine”. Well that’s exactly how I felt about it. To me, Mezepoli was more like “just another pretty face”… great location, lovely decor, but no oomph were it really matters. The service btw wasn’t great either…

I decided to give them one last chance by ordering some baklava (R39) for dessert:Again, it looks pretty good. They certainly have the presentation part down. But it was dry and tasteless, kinda like it had been standing around for about a week before being served. A not-so-great end to a not-so-great experience overall. Best way to summarise it? 3 words: Wah-wah-wah (yeah, I know – that doesn’t really count as a word – but it works for me OK )

As much as it breaks my heart… because I had such high hopes for this place, I can only give Mezepoli a Miss K Kiss-o-Meter rating of:

Maybe we were just there on a bad night. For the record, it was a Monday eve and we were the only table there… whatever the reason, I won’t be going back. Life’s too short for bad food I say!

xxx

Watching the sun set over Camps Bay

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Karisa

As the last glimmers of summer are fading fast, last weekend I just had to take the opportunity to snap a few shots of yet another amazing sunset over Camps Bay…

Images like these just reinforce how much I love this city. I feel like such a lucky girl to be able to live, play & explore in such a beautiful place. This is the stuff happiness is made of.

xxx

Girls night out

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Karisa

So as I told you guys in my previous post – I was put in charge or organising my friend Lucy’s bachelorette celebrations.

After the success of part 1 (the pamper party), we had a short break to line our stomachs. For this there is obviously only one option – Steers! Gawd I love Steers. You’ll often find me in my car basically inhaling a packet of their chips – it’s my favourite guilty pleasure. Add a cheese burger & a Cream Soda and you also have the perfect hangover fix. Trust me on this one.

After getting all spruced up back at mine, we hopped into a taxi and headed over to Camps Bay for stop nr 1 for the evening: Sapphire Coctail Bar.

So pretty...

Sapphire was one of only a few places that didn’t require a crazy minimum bar spend or a food order to book a table. And for only R450, there was a bottle of Vodka with various mixers waiting for us on our table. These guys were so helpful & friendly and for that I will definitely support them again.

Some of the gals: Tatum, Sabeen, Lucy (the bride to be) and moi

Now obviously what happens on a hen’s night stays top secret… kinda like that “what happens on tour, stays on tour” saying. So I can’t divulge too much for the fear of being “taken out”. But what I can say is that the caramel vodka shots flowed…

Blegh... just looking at this pic make me feel ill all over again! hehe

And we got Lucy to work those beautiful blue eyes of hers to collect money to fund the rest of our evening out.

That R20 was only the beginnning... she did VERY well, even scoring a $20 note as part of her money stash.

At around 11pm we moved upstairs to St Yves. I had emailed them beforehand and they were awesome enough to put us all on the guest list. That meant we saved on the entrance fee. Sweet!

The VIP bar area. Don't be fooled by the emptiness in this shot, by midnight the place was packed. Capetonians are known for arriving fabulously late of course...

Here we decided to mix things up with some new shots (well half newish, it still contained that damn caramel vodka stuff):

Apparently this is called a Bar-One: half chocolate vodka and half caramel vodka. And yes, it does taste as sickeningly sweet as it sounds... eerggghh.

I was fascinated by some of the images on the walls. I kept joking that this girl below on the right is exactly what I look like when I wake up in the morning:

Of course, that's like totally me at 8am... it could happen... in some alternate universe or something...

More money collecting continued and we did quite well as the place was packed with foreigners, including some very friendly Canadians and also a group of fun Austrians who were in town to shoot some big fancy ad. A huge thanks to all of them for letting us invade their space for the evening. They were great sports.

There’s only one more picture that’s safe enough to share, cause I had the sense to take one more shot of Dani & I looking “fresh” before our imminent downward spiral…

Ah, we look so innocent... Mwhahahahaha

The rest of the pictures will be kept in a safe place… never to be seen by our significant others… never to be tagged on Facebook… and never to be spoken about ever again.

Oh btw – Lucy’s tiara, pink “bride to be” tie and “bad girl” garter (not seen above for obvious reasons) are all from King Cake in Gardens – my # 1 stop for any party & dress up related needs. I also got these super cheesy (but fun nonetheless) “dare cards” which had a pretty good entertainment value.

All ‘n all, it was an awesome night out with my girls. Yes, we suffered the next day, BIG TIME. But dammit, it was worth it. Evenings like these are good for the soul.

xxx

My Love Affair with Cape Town…

Just random fun in my mother city

Tag Archives: Camps Bay