Happy birthday Robyn

To celebrate Robyn’s much older than me birthday, a breakfast and photowalk was arranged to the small rural town of Heidelberg, just south of Johannesburg. The town, named after a city in Germany, started in 1862 as a trading store run by a German who came from Heidelberg in Germany.

We started the day with breakfast at Her Majesteas which is a quaint Victorian styled restaurant. Afterwards we went on a walkabout led by John, a local photographer. The walk led us past the Town Hall, a groot kerk (a large stone church) in the middle of the town, Heidelberg Club, the Tronk (the jail) which is now the Shellhole then the walk ended up at the old cemetery just outside town.

All in all a wonderful morning in Heidelberg with friends, what more can I ask of the Freedom Day holiday since the government decided to celebrate Robyn’s birthday by granting her a public holiday. Today's photo is of Robyn in the Heidelberg Tronk. I will post the rest of the photos in a Facebook album.

Ceri Dupree and the Ladies I Love

I regret nothing. Non! Je ne regrette rien. I joined a group of friends tonight to watch a Welshman turn himself into a gender illusionist and put on a beautiful frock built like a cheap hotel with no ballroom. Accused of being a dark horse, I joined my fringe friends to watch Ceri Dupree and his one man or was that how many women show called "The Ladies I Love" which opened tonight at the Fringe Theatre in Johannesburg. Soon to be in Cape Town.

Honestly, the first half was a bit under the belt for my liking but he had the audience rolling with laughter at Ceri's rude and very risqué comedy. Hello Possums, Ceri's impersonation of the gorgeous Dame Edna Everage with her wisteria hue hair and outrageous glasses was so good that I thought it was Barry Humphries himself at first. I can picture Dame Edna now on stage while a camera crew is going through my home looking for incriminating stuff to show on telly. Dame Edna once said "My mother used to say that there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet" How true are those words, my possums, as Dame Edna goes through my drawers.

Now the second half of the show is where Ceri Dupree blew us away literary. I mean he had Robyn in tears. Here is Robyn with Shaida, photographed earlier. Hope you don't mind a little side track but doesn't Robyn look like she is putting on some extra pounds? I mean wow Shaida's waist is smaller than my one of my biceps. Anyway enough on the side track, Robyn was in tears with Ceri's performance of Robyn's favourite singer, Édith Giovanna Gassion or also more famously known as Édith Piaf. Ceri had the sparrow's mannerisms down to a T as he sang Je Ne Regrette Rien.

Oooh I mustn't forget how he also had us rolling with laughter as he did a perfect rendition of Amy Winehouse's song, as they tried to make me go to rehab, I said, "No, no, no!" So Yes, no regrets, the show is worth going to see, but be aware it is an adults only show. Oh and if you ever get to read this blog, Ceri, I am the one with the goatee in the third row that you had a dig at about some website that you saw me on. Well maybe it wasn't the website you originally thought but this one.

Non! Rien de rien
Non! Je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie, car mes joies
Aujourd'hui ça commence avec toi!

Slowveld Swim

"I don't know what we did, no no no, I don't remember, no no no" said Robyn when I asked her about today. Day Two Twenty Twelve started as any other day, except we weren't in Kansas anymore but in the Slowveld.
"Why the Slowveld" asked Robyn, well the area we in is technically called the Lowveld but time slows down here hence it is also known as the Slowveld. And we can do slow very well when on holiday. Today was earmarked for swimming in the pool, drinking litres of ice cold cool drink, eating hotdogs and ice-cream. So that is what we did, slowly. We just relaxed by the pool all day and finished the evening with prego rolls and more ice-cream.

Fourteen, Thirteen, Twelve and Eleven

Before I say anything, I want to wish all my readers a happy New Year and may 2012 be so much better than the previous, oh I know it will be.

The first day of 2012 fell on a Sunday and Matthew and I went up to a small disused railway sliding called Hendriksdal which in the middle of a forest plantation to visit my folks for a Sunday roast. Oh course my three Italian Greyhounds were dragged along, not that they minded.

After a huge lunch, I took some photos of all my mom's grandchildren, Danielle (fourteen), Matthew (thirteen), Jean (twelve) and Robyn (eleven). Then all of us went on this long walk which must have been over 5km long into the forest with three Italian Greyhounds and two Dachshunds. We enjoyed ourselves getting lost in the forest. With the wind blowing through the trees and the dogs bouncing ahead, the cousins had fun being together.

Northcliff Ridge

Ah cool dude we have da mountain and if you wake up it's still there, awesome dude. But Cape Town lacks one thing and that is friendliness, I mean genuine friendly not this oh wow friendliness. Yes Cape Town is beautiful with its stunning scenery but beauty is only skin deep. Don't get me wrong I have awesome friends and family in Cape Town but sadly that is were it ends. Well time to let Johannesburg's secret out, we too have a mountain in the city, okay it just a couple of ridges cutting through Johannesburg but this city is the full of friendly Joburg Photowalkers. Plus Johannesburg has become the biggest urban jungle in the world with the most trees per square meter. Because of all the trees, bird species and bush babies never seen in Johannesburg are now calling it home. And that is not all, in last Convention On Climate Change, Johannesburg was voted as the most greenest environmental city in Africa. Talking about climate change, the macro climate in Johannesburg has changed from summer thunderstorms to a more tropical rainfall but that I believe is because the vast amount of trees we have here. And did I mentioned that it has the Joburg Photowalkers?

Inner City Doodle

The Joburg Photowalkers joined a doodle event at the Ansteys building but added a photowalk before hand around the inner Johannesburg city. I got permission to take the group into the famous Blue Room at Park Station. It is someplace that the older Joburgers remember nostalgically as having the best restaurant in South Africa but that is now all ruins. To see the tall columns of the old concourse is a sight to behold. On the way back we climb to the top of Ansteys sister building, the Manners Mansions build in 1937 by the same architects that did the Ansteys. I am unfit. Here are some of the Joburg Photowalkers, in front are Adrian, Robyn and Gary, and while seated behind are Desiree and Karen and her husband.

Feet up Friday

When your friends around you start getting old, you know that you not far behind them. Here is my good friend Robyn, who pull a ligament while skiing in Europe last season, battling to read the message on her phone. Oy vey I am nearly there.

Satori

This evening the Joburg Photowalkers held their first slide show evening at Morning Star in Linden. It was a great turn out and the few die hards ended up at Satori afterwards. Here are four of them sitting down for dinner - Craig with the iPad with wings, Robyn looking on in envy, Desiree and Mark with both heads in menu.