All posts in Cape Town

Everyday Awesomeness- two fantastic post-Christmas sales

by on January 5, 2012 in Cape Town, Shops with No comments

The post-Christmas sales are on!

Woolworths

For iMod readers in the Upper Highway (KZN),Woolworths shops in Hillcrest and Kloof are running an “up to 50% off” sale on their festive goodies, ranging from Christmas cakes to biscuit tins to gammons and a whole lot more in between. Woolies mince pies for R11? Yes, please.

(This promotion doesn’t seem to be advertised on the Woolworths website, so please let us know in the comments if your local Woolies is offering the 50% off sale)!

Cape Union Mart

Cape Union Mart is having a “Save the buck” sale.

Buy bags, shoes, clothes, tents or even a telescope for up to half-price! Check it out on www.capeunionmart.co.za.

Do you know of any great post-Christmas sales? Share the good news in the comments.

Everyday Awesomeness: giving hope (and food) to people on the street

by on December 30, 2011 in Cape Town with 7 Comments

Many of us are regularly approached by beggars asking for money. Often we want to help but are concerned that handing out cash supports (and encourages) alcohol and substance abuse. If you want to make a difference, you may be interested in this social initiative. The following excerpt is taken from the Pick n Pay website:

The Broccoli Project

“Pick n Pay Food Vouchers is a joint social initiative between Pick n Pay and The Broccoli Project. Find out more below…

The Broccoli Project is a registered non-profit organisation established to uplift the needy. Together with Pick n Pay, they have created Pick n Pay Food Vouchers – the perfect way to help those in need while knowing that 100% of your donation is being spent on the right things.

Unlike cash donations, Food Vouchers can only be redeemed for food and therefore cannot be used to obtain cigarettes, alcohol or narcotics such as glue or thinners.

Food Vouchers cost R50 per pack of five R10 vouchers and can be redeemed against purchases of food and other approved basic products at some Pick n Pay outlets. Currently, the vouchers are available at Gardens, Waterfront, Constantia and Claremont, with plans to expand to other stores soon.

Food Vouchers received by the needy can be handed in at any Pick n Pay till in return for R10 off goods purchased – excluding alcohol, cigarettes, airtime or addictive substances (glue, thinners etc.) The vouchers have a high quality ‘banknote’ printed background, an expiry date and a unique code, and there is a holographic foil on each voucher to ensure it is not a fake.

The Broccoli Project is a South African non-profit organisation that has gained international recognition for its unique system that ensures the effective and transparent use of donor funds in the aid industry. The system combines biometric fingerprint scanning, vouchers and web-based tracking technology to allow all those involved in the aid process to monitor the flow of funds and ensure maximum social benefit is obtained from donations.
Visit www.broccoliproject.org for more information.”

Responses to the initiative vary widely and the topic of how to help to help street-dwellers is a hotly contested debate, but the project offers a great opportunity to feed the hungry. What do you think?

Image from homeless.org.za

December 27 is now a public holiday in South Africa!

by Chris M on December 14, 2011 in Cape Town with 11 Comments

That’s right folks, our Government has announced that the 27th of December will now be a public holiday. Acting President Kgalema Motlanthe has just announced this in terms of the Public Holiday Act. This comes shortly after the trade union federation FEDUSA called upon the government to approve this.

Pretty awesome to have another holiday at that time of the year, cool for me because I am taking forced leave, but now I’ll have another day off for a rainy day in 2012!

I wonder if this will have an impact on the economy, considering that this time of the year is normally incredibly busy for some industries.

Who’s stoked?

Watch the Australian Grand Prix Live!

by Chris M on December 9, 2011 in Cars, Events with 10 Comments

When it comes to cars I find myself being able to spend hours looking, touching, test driving and discussing the cool things you can do with cars. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember, guess it’s a boy thing? One thing I haven’t been too involved with is F1 racing, from time to time I tune in and watch a Grand Prix on the tele, mostly when someone I follow on Twitter starts jumping up and down. I enjoy watching, and would probably enjoy it more so if I could attend a live Grand Prix one day – imagine going to one of those tracks and physically seeing the speed at which those drives burst around the track? Sjoe!

So, the good news is that Red Bull Mobile South Africa is actually running a competition where you could win one of six double tickets to the Australian F1 Grand Prix – just imagine! Bonus! You get entered into the draw if you sign up for a RedBull Mobile contract or use their pay as you go services – no a shabby opportunity.

I’ve been tasked with finding out from you, my dear readers, what you would do to attend the Grand Prix – think of the most amazing thing you would do and let me know in the comments below please. Your comments will then get voted on, let’s see who can come up with the best scenario! I need your support here, so please pop me a comment with what you’d do.

And, go!

Democratic Alliance goes up against the Information Bill

by Chris M on December 6, 2011 in Cape Town, World News with 1 Comment

When it comes to the Protection of State Information Bill, a lot of people disagree with the reason for implementing it, this mass of people includes the powers at the Democratic Alliance. Subsequently, the Democratic Alliance is taking a stand, DA leader Helen Zille feels that the public should be included in the decision as to whether the Bill should be passed or not and she’s deploying an e-campaign to raise awareness against it.

The Democratic Alliance has published a generic letter on their website for people to download and email to the presidents office, a further petition is circulating collecting signatures from people who are against the Bill being passed and there’s also the ability to lodge a complaint on the Presidential Hotline on 17737. With all these options, the Democratic Alliance has created a page on their website that lists all the campaigns and allows us to read about them and involve ourselves if we are against the Bill being passed.

So, if you want to get involved (you should want to), then head over here and involve yourself, it’ll only take a tiny amount of time and it’s incredibly important that we express ourselves and support this cause.

BaretoCare – Green Point to Camps Bay

by Chris M on December 5, 2011 in Cape Town, Events with No comments

BaretoCare is a Cape Town based charity fun run from Green Point to Camps Bay …… in Speedo’s.

From the organizers: “We decided to do it in memory of Chris Henderson who passed away from Diabetes related complications earlier in the year and who was a loving father to one of our runners. None of us knew what a positive response the run would receive, with people hooting and running out of restaurants to have photos with the brave guys in their crazy hats. This year we have decided to add more purpose to the run by doing it to raise funds for the Saint Angela Trust and harness all the attention and hype surrounding our 1 year anniversary run.”

Take a watch:

Pretty classic initiative, must have been a huge amount of fun being involved!

Obs Arts Festival 2011

by Chris M on November 28, 2011 in Cape Town, Events with No comments

If you’re interested in local arts and culture, then the Obs Arts Festival is an event you should probably put in your diary.

The event is run on December 9, December 10 and December 11 – Entry on the days is R50, R70 and R20 respectively and you’re able to buy a weekend pass for R90 entitling you to enter on all or any of the days as you wish. The event takes place at the Observatory Recreation Center and an expected audience of 15,000 people is expected!

There will be street performers, visual arts, spoken word and plenty of great music. Music includes live acts by the likes of aKING, Hot Water, Tidel Waves, Gazelle and others.

For more information please head over to the website, ask a question on Twitter or buy your tickets now on Webtickets.

Durbanville Beer Festival

by Chris M on November 28, 2011 in Cape Town, Cuisine and Beverages, Events with No comments

2010 saw the first Durbanville Beer Fest, which saw 1,500 beer-thirsty people and this year promises to be even more popular after the success of the first event spread high and wide.

The event takes place on December 10th from 10h00 until 20h30 at the Hillcrest Wine Farm (M13 Durbanville Wine Route) and has a cost of just R50.00 per person!

The event will feature beers from South Africa’s Craft breweries as well as larger commercial brew masters and whilst you’re enjoying some great beer you’ll be able to enjoy some live rock and blues bands.

durbanville-beer-fest-03
durbanville-beer-fest-02
durbanville-beer-fest-01

You can book your tickets online on Computicket.

Harfield Village Carnival

by Chris M on November 28, 2011 in Cape Town, Events with No comments

Saturday was the annual Harfield Village Carnival, which presents the people of Harfield Village, and anyone interested, with a day of great food, crafts and lots of drinks. I went through just after lunch and had a walk around, was a little sad to see that a lot of the stalls didn’t have proper crafts the the likes, but in general there was a good vibe and people seemed to be having a good time.

Later in the evening I went back again to enjoy more of an atmosphere and Home Bar was going full steam ahead. Apparently everyone was sitting outside in the road at tables enjoying music and good times, but the police arrived and asked everyone to go inside, so by the time I go there Home Bar was absolutely packed, I’ve never seen it like this before! The restaurant area was opened up, there was a live DJ and even an additional bar. Had a really good time having drinks with some good friends and being able to walk home afterwards.

I wish the wind hasn’t blown as much as it did as I think the carnival would have been far more successful – fortunately it didn’t rain, which looked like a big possibility!

Here are two pics I snapped inside Home Bar:

home-bar-harfield-village-carnival
harfield-village-carnival

Looking forward to next year!

Macro’s got some good booz!

by Chris M on November 22, 2011 in Cuisine and Beverages, Shops with No comments

Haha, I saw this in a Macro flyer earlier on today and didn’t get a picture of it, but someone else posted it on Facebook so I grabbed a copy to share with all of you, see if you can spot it:

Not shabby, I’ll welcome a bottle as a Christmas present any day! ;)

Nothing like some good Glenfiddich.

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