Breakfast Review - Gaslight Café

Today is Worker's Day and having a day off in the middle of the week is something our forefathers should have fought for as a right and not only left for public holidays to decide. A perfect opportunity to test a new restaurant and this time with a bit of pre-investigation. The idea was to spend the day at Muizenberg and incorporate it with another breakfast review. Checking the internet before venturing out makes it actually simpler than driving around and not knowing where to stop. I had three restaurants lined up in the area of Surfer's Corner, but the menu of two of those made me feel like I will be ripped off again, so I went for the Gaslight Café right on the beachfront situated in between the Surf Shack and Lifestyle Surf shops. 

What convinced on this restaurant was the fact that they had a breakfast called "Surfer's Choice" and the fact that they did not have a web site or pictures of their food on the internet. The pictures of the food from the other two restaurants were those typical arty-farty concoctions styles where you pay for what you see and not what you eat. Secondly it looked to be a very normal no-frills hangout for people with sandy feet and wet hair. My kind of place. The prices on the menu was also very reasonable. There are very few places in Cape Town where you can still find a coffee for under ten bucks and a Latté for thirteen bucks. Usually a Latté ranges from R18 to R25 and sometimes even up to R30. The menu I found on the internet was a bit outdated, but the prices were still acceptable. Anchovy Toast for R16 and the breakfast of my choice for the day, The Gaslight Breakfast, a mere R33. For this exact breakfast you will pay R45 bucks at the Wimpy. My wife pointed out that everything was served with chips, even the omelettes. That actually made me feel even more convinced that I was at the right place. To me that is in line with what I would like to see at a restaurant that I believe caters for surfers. After a good surf session you want a breakfast that can fill your stomach and not empty your pockets at the same time. The Gaslight Café seemed to be such a place where that is indeed not going to happen.

I always wonder how a restaurant situated on a prime spot keep its prices so low, but when you look at their interior decorations you might get a clue.  Basic and simple, nothing exorbitant or over the top. The restaurant has a smoking side with a bar and some couches which obviously makes more money than the other side where the table is. Obviously more money and time has been spend on the bar area, but when people come in with wet feet to grab a snack you don't want fancy chairs and expensive carpets. 

This will definitely be a regular breakfast spot for me in the future, seeing that I will have regular surfing weekends at Muizenberg. I will just try and do the surfing BEFORE the breakfast and not the other way around like I did on Worker's Day. In all fairness it was a rather flat day and did not take much effort to get onto the board, even after the huge meal...

Breakfast Review - Cocoa Oola

My initial plan on Sunday was to go paragliding at Sir Lowry's Pass, but when a friend called me to tell me it was already blown out I decided to take my family for what we normally do on weekends...breakfast. It was  quite a mission to find a place, we want to try a new spot every time and we eventually ended up in Kloof Street. There are quite a few restaurants in Kloof Street, so we took the nearest one to the fist parking we could find. 

I am always looking for a place that seems to have a nice relaxed atmosphere and preferably a good view. In Cape Town you have to pay for view so Kloof Street with not much view convinced me that we might get a good breakfast at a reasonable price. So what is a reasonable price? I don't know. How long is a string? To me it is value for my money and lately a place where I can have my kids run around without disturbing the other clients.

Cocoa Oola seemed to be a good start. My wife jumped out to go see if they serve breakfast and when she was waving that we can park I knew this was going to be our next breakfast . BTW, my wife is willing to pay much more for breakfasts than what I am, so I initially still had my doubts. The sign on the door that said "Sunrise Special - Breakfasts + Coffee Specials every day before 9am" put me at ease. I was quite impressed with their extensive breakfast menu. There is really everything you can think off and I didn't take a picture from the menu because "Breakfasts" covers three pages of the menu. I didn't want to look like spy. Their prices are all reasonable I would say and the food was presented rather well. I took scrambled eggs and bacon on toast which was R33. It looked and tasted pretty much the same as the breakfast I had at The Roundhouse which cost me 70 bucks. Only the tomatoes was prepared differently, but I don't even like tomatoes and usually leave it on my plate.

I read on the Internet that Cocoa group actually have four restaurants scattered across town. I might just visit one of the other sometime soon. Although my kids were running round I think that people sitting in a quiet spot early in the morning don't really want kids around. As the place got busier I felt more comfortable, although I still tries to keep my kids away from other customers. The place was not bad and I will definitely go there again.

Surfer's Corner

I don't surf at Muizenberg and the only reason for that probably is the distance from my house. Two weekends ago the Atlantic side was flat, but a friend on mine told me that she was surfing at Muizenburg on that same day. This weekend it was once again flat on the Atlantic side but I was in a desperate need to get into  the water so I decided to drive through to Muizenburg with the hope of finding a wave as per her claims.

In hindsight the drive to Muizenburg is not really that bad. Onto the N7, then the N1 and finally the M5 and I'm there. OK, it took me 45 minutes in Sunday traffic, but it is such a mellow drive and such a lame excuse to have never gone to Muizenburg for regular visits. Parking is a bit of a problem though. People seem to be arriving and leaving all the time and with a bit of patience a parking spot will soon become available. Unfortunately I wasn't born with much patience but I managed to find a spot not too far from where all the action seemed to be.

When I looked at the surf I was quite surprised. It looked like a public holiday on South Beach in Durban. In the water I counted more than 150 surfers, and I am not lying. In Muizenburg everyone in the water seems to be surfing or learning how to surf. From the age of 4 I guess up to over 70. If it can float and you have a reasonable chance of standing on it, you have an argument to be called a "surfer". When I saw the amount of people in the water I was a bit reluctant to go in at first. The word "crowded" pops up indiscriminately, but once you are in you realize that you can surf wherever you find a suitable wave breaking close to you. What was fantastic though was the temperature of the water. Although my friend told me that she recently bought booties for the cold I was rather pleased with the water which is probably 5 degrees warmer than on the Atlantic side where I do most of my surfing. 

After my hour and a half surf session I went out to get something to eat and hoping to enjoy the surf atmosphere you find at Surfer's Corner. Not difficult with so many surf shops and nice places to grab a surfer meal. In my case it was a coffee and two samoosas. 

I think I have missed out a lot in the past because of what I believed was "too far to drive". From now on I will make more frequent trips to Muizenburg.....

To Hout Bay and Back

After my breakfast at The Roundhouse Restaurant I decided to take the scenic route back home via Hout Bay and stopped for a picture or two....

Three beautiful subjects in one picture.....

 

A local fisherman threatening some Chinese tourists for not giving him money after taking pictures of 3 large seals that he was feeding....

Fishy, fishy.....

Fishing trawlers in the Hout Bay harbour....

Wonder if her name refers to Plettenberg Bay....

Hout bay's iconic Sentinel Mountain in the background....

Windy much!?

If you think this picture was taken at the ghost town of Kolmanskop in Namibia, think again. This is a building next to the beach at Hout Bay. This is what makes South Africa cling on to their status as a Third World Country. No-one seems to care about a building which slowly but surely gets engulfed by sand. This does not happen overnight, and this is not the only example of public buildings covered in sand along our coast. Just last week there was an article in the local newspaper on the ablution facilities at Kite Beach which is covered up to the roof, no-one would even know that there are toilet facilities there.

Breakfast Review - The Roundhouse Restaurant

If the price of the view is included in the food prices on the menu, then I guess it was rather reasonable. The reason I ended up at this restaurant for another breakfast was because a family member had breakfast here and suggested it. He did mention that the prices are a bit steep, but my wife was rather determined to try it out so I had no choice.

If you don't miss the slightly hidden turnoff down Kloof Road then the chances are good that you have found the restaurant nestled in the forest on the slopes of Lion's head. Better to reserve your table as the place is quite popular. When you get to the parking area where you find SUV's and fancy sport cars then you have to look for parking. Drive a little further where you find pick-ups and kombis then you have passed the Restaurant and headed for the Glen trail. The place is obviously catering for the upper class Capetonian, the ones probably also living on that said of the mountain.  The web site advertise that it is child friendly but there was nothing on the menu for kids and when I asked for a small juice I was told that the only juice is a Juice Box for R28. I am sure my son will not finish a quarter of it and even less appreciate what it costs, so he had to share an Appletizer with his sister. So apart from some really stiff upper lip "we-have-it-all" guest and the fact that nothing is cheap for a kid who never finishes his meal, the place is actually quite a pleasant experience.

On the day the weather was a bit overcast with a chilly wind in our backs, but that did not stop the regulars to come and have their weekly breakfast there, and it is not difficult to see why. The view to Camps Bay and The Twelve Apostles is magnificent and the food  is in the same class. I had Scrambled Eggs and Bacon with Roasted Tomatoes on Sourdough Toast for 70 bucks. Now to me that is too much for that meal, but let's look past the price and focus on the meals and the way they were presented. All meals were served on wooden boards and your table utensils are in a little picnic basket on the side of the table. My wife had Eggs Benedict with English Muffin, Bacon and Hollandaise which she shared with her mom who had French Toast and Roasted Bananas with Toasted Pecan Nuts. According to her the best Eggs Benedict she has ever had.

What I did notice on the menu was the section "From the bakery" which in future might be motivation to come back for a quick coffee and something sweet. The setting will be then be a bonus. If you want to feel "exclusive", you love to sit and mingle with the rich and talk about your race horses or your last vacation in Greece then you will find this is just the place for you.

Better Days Take 2

After I posted the first shortened version of the surf clip I made yesterday, I decided to see if it would make a difference if I create the movie being more patient. What usually happens when I input too much information my Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8 software hangs. Last nigh I waited for each processing step to finish before I clicked my next click, and somehow I managed to win the war.

What is a problem to me now (and I have consulted the Internet where I got many explanations and none that would really seems to be the right one) is that the quality of the video on YouTube is very poor compared top the crystal clear quality I see on my computer. There are many suggestions on what to do, but none of them seems to be the magic solution. Anyway, here is the initial clip I aborted after the umpteenth crash and eventually got right when I aplied a bit of patience. I guess better days are coming indeed....

Inspiration to Frustration

After being inspired by Jack Johnson video of his song "You and Your heart", I decided to go do a quick surf session and see if I can get a similar shot or two. I bought my Sony Vegas Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8 some years ago when I got my Sony Handycam. Although I am not an expert on creating movies I did manage to make a few memorable videos of my son which he will probably one day be grateful for. The time  and effort that went into those videos know one will ever appreciate, because the amount of times that I had to start all over because the program crashed is enough to make anyone give up. I never knew if it was the software or if my system was just not fast enough to cope with large amount of video's and music files. Nevertheless, it was never a pleasure to make these movies, more a frustration.

When I got my GoPro I thought that it would give me better footage to make even better clips. What a disappointment in not only the fogged-up lens. Once I load more than two clips into the movie software, the whole program crashes and I have to start all over. I am sure that the quality of the clips are way too good for the Sony Vegas software to handle...or maybe my machine just cannot handle it. Not enough memory maybe? I went surfing today and although I got some nice clips, I only managed to make this short video. One extra clip and the software stops responding. A real frustration and maybe this time enough to quit my movie making career after all. The day's surfing was good though.....

Calm Before The Storm

Cape Town's climate is dominated by two opposite forces, the dry southeastern wind in summer and the wet northwestern wind in winter. What is quite interesting is the change of seasons in Cape Town. Although one can see the days getting shorter and some leaves turning orange, autumn does not appear slowly over a period of a couple of weeks or months. No, Cape Town has not been called the Cape of Storms for no reason. This transition period between summer and winter is more like a "Battle between the Winds". For a couple of days the southeastern will blow and eventually the wind will turn and the northeaster will push back. This pushing and shoving forward and back lasts until the northwestern finally takes over and it eventually becomes cold and wet for longer periods. That's when winter is here. What is fantastic about this struggle between the winds is the days in between the onslaughts of the two winds. There is usually a short period of calmness which can last anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days. Today is such a day, a day one would call a "Perfect Day in Cape Town"....until the next wind attacks....

Breakfast Review - Deerpark Cafe

After my doctor told me that I am aiming for high cholesterol and high blood pressure and that I should take it slow on the bacon an eggs, I thought that my breakfast days might be over. It is in fact true that bacon and eggs does not always make for the perfect breakfast and that I can have a healthier option in order to lower the cholesterol while still enjoying one of my favourite activities..having breakfast. I am also pretty sure that a nice breakfast at a beautiful setting like the Deerpark Cafe on the slopes of Table Mountain will lower the blood pressure as well.

I guess the main attraction to this little restaurant is the nice playground attached to the restaurant which makes it a perfect place to take your kids...and apparently dogs as well. At this stage of my life I prefer child-friendly places so that I can send them off to play and enjoy my breakfast in peace. Underneath some pine trees where I am sure Jan van Riebeeck also enjoyed a cup or two, there are plenty of activities and apparatus to keep the kids occupied for a while.

The food is great, nothing to complain about at all. The staff is friendly and the place in general has a very nice atmosphere. I skipped the bacon and went for plain scramble eggs on toast. My first latte was a bit cold on arrival but my second caffeine-free one was better. They even brought the empty sachet along to prove that they made it with caffeine-free coffee. Not that I would have noticed because I am totally resistant to any caffeine side-effects. I just thought it might be a healthier option seeing that it was going to be my third mug of coffee for the morning. What I did appreciate though was that my children were playing on their own, although my little one had to be watched due to the steep slopes leading down to the play area. 

I didn't ask but I assume the place is dog friendly as well. I have nothing against dogs and nothing against dog owners, but if there is not a leash between the dog and the owner then I sometimes tend to change my mind. Especially if I am having my breakfast with a strange dog in between my legs begging for food. Some dog owners don't understand this, but if I remove my children when they disturb other people I would like dog owners to do the same when their dog starts bugging me. If you have to remove your dog for the SIXTH time then something must have registered that your feeble attempts to discipline your dog is not working. After informing your best friend for the second time that "begging for food is not good behavior" then you either put him on a leash or you don't bring your friend to a restaurant again, especially not when he or she gets served water from a bowl on the lawn. If you are a dog lover then the above paragraph might encourage you to visit Dogpark Cafe...excuse me, Deerpark Cafe, but if you believe that dog owners should control their dogs then try somewhere else. 

Breakfast at Deerpark was good, healthy and affordable and despite untrained dog(owner)s I will for sure visit the restaurant again. 

Blue Lagoon or Lagoon Blues?

The closest place to Cape Town where you can kite surf in warm water and get the "blue island style" feeling is on the lagoon at Langebaan. This is a very popular spot for kite surfing beginners as the water is nice and warm and when it is high tide then you can walk in knee-deep water for large distances making it easier to relaunch your kite or recover your board if you had to. This is also where I had my first two lessons, none of which went well. The third time I went there was without an instructor and with my recently purchased kite gear. That day I got dragged through the mud and eventually pulled my emergency release to prevent myself from getting dragged over driftwood en eventually over a fence. Ever since then my relationship with Langebaan Lagoon has not been a memorable one.

I eventually taught myself to Kite Surf at Dolphin Beach and I have always wanted to go back to Langebaan to spend a nice day on the lagoon kiting in warm flat water with no worries of sharks and blowing out into the ocean. As a matter of fact I was hoping of getting some nice pictures with my GoPro and possibly some of myself as well. My photographer unfortunately were running after my children so I had to depend on my GoPro footage alone. Two attempts to go to Langebaan after the mud dragging episode did not work out either. The first time the wind was too strong and the second time the wind never picked up as promised by Windguru. Driving out 110 kilometers only to turn around "empty handed" is not my idea of money and time well spent. Today was going to be the prefect day and my family was going with me, so I was rather excited. What I completely forgot was to check the tides. Low tide leaves you with not much water in the lagoon and taking into account fishing boats and the distance you have to walk to get to the water, it is actually better to face the cold water of the Atlantic than to arrive at the lagoon during low tide. With the full moon hanging around the last two days I could have had either the best day or another Langebaan disappointment. When I reached the lagoon I was in for the latter. Spring low and not much water to play on.

I first rigged up my 10. I walked all the way to the water's edge but soon realized that the wind was way too strong for a 10. Fighting my way back to where I left my family and the rest of my kit on drier sand, I changed over to my 7 kite. Pumping two kites in one day is already more than what I am usually prepared to do. I took my board with the GoPro secured and went for my session hoping to get some nice shots, despite everything that has been against me so far. Maybe I could revive my relationship this time.

As usual the water was nice and warm but as expected with not much room to move and in between some rather irritating fishing boats. My GoPro for some reason also did not want to stay up. I took about 20 pictures of my board and not much of myself. The foot clip of my GoPro also broke off and after making sure that I didn't lose my second GoPro in a year I decided enough is enough and packed up. For some reason I just cannot get the rewards that Langebaan Lagoon has given many kite surfers before. The place is beautiful and perfect for kite surfing, but for some reason for me it never works. I guess I will just stick to the cold water at Dolphin Beach and Kite Beach and leave the lagoon for the beginners and other more fortunate kite surfers out there.

Mtwara Evenings....Bliss

I took these pictures with my iPhone after I had an afternoon snorkel close to the Msemo Hotel in Mtwara, Tanzania. The water was so warm that it made me feel uncomfortable at times. Having a beer afterwards and watching the sun go down added to the amazement of the day....

Your best one ever?

I was fortunate this weekend to camp with my family at a very secluded camping spot near Greyton. As usual my son was having the time of his life building shelters, catching fish with no bait on his hook and swimming in the river. At some point I heard a cry and realized that he must have hurt himself. Expecting the worse I rushed down to him while he was still sitting halfway in the water crying. After he explained to me what had happened I tried to calm him down and make use of the opportunity to teach him about the dangers of jumping into shallow water, especially when you cannot see the bottom. I carried him back to the camp while explaining to him that he might not be able to walk for a while. He gave it a long silent thought and then replied: "Dad, it was still the best camp ever!"

I had to smile. How many times do we still say those words ourselves? We go on holiday and come back complaining about the traffic, the poor service and the weather that did not work in our favour. I thought the safety lesson on jumping in murky water was a valuable one to ponder over, but the lesson he gave me on the day left me with more to think about. Why can't we enjoy every opportunity we have with the same enthusiasm and excitement than what children do? No matter how it ends can we still say in the end "Wow, this was the best one ever"?

Natural Insect Control

I have various creatures in my garden that help with insect control. I prefer to live in peace with them, but they do have their own habits that sometimes make me wonder what the easiest is to live with, the insects or their predators. Twice in one evening my security alarm was triggered at around two in the morning. If you are in a deep sleep and the alarm suddenly goes off the first thing that you think of is a possible intruder in your house. In South Africa this is very common, that is why most people have alarms that they set at night before they go to sleep. I took me some time to discover the culprit though, it was a home gecko that was walking across the Passive Infra-red Sensor, or PIR. When the security company installed it they told me that animals won't trigger it, but the gecko for sure does. Although I appreciate the gecko's efforts in combating insect invasions, I had to take it outside hoping that it would not return.

As I was leaving the house I nearly walked into a different insect pest controller. This time I got the fright of my life. Hanging on one of the most perfect webs I have ever seen was a large white spider looking very intimidating. My first thought was the kids and if it would be safe to have him hanging around in my neighbourhood where the kids play. Is this spider dangerous or not? It for sure looked rather venomous. I know my mom always killed everything with six or eight legs without asking questions first and this one surely would not have survived in her house. My mom was not going to take the chance of finding out if it was dangerous or not, so no benefit of the doubt for the poor creatures. Myself on the other hand first want to find out, and despite my effort to identify it on the Internet, a friend of mine eventually did that for me and told me that it was one or other Orb Weaving Spider. I then did some reading up on the spider and what was quite interesting, apart from the fact that it is as harmless as a mosquito (not the malaria kind), is the fact that the spiders spins a web every night and then breaks it up in the morning. So despite leaving his web where I have to walk every day, the next morning the web is gone. Compared to the geckos that mess on my wall and never clean up this creature has the decency to remove all his insect trapping devices in the morning. Such a nice gesture from a very ugly looking creature. Now can you imagine if I had to kill that dude just because I "wasn't taking any chances"....

"Patience"

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kiye

Ni kêra môgô

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kagni

Ni kêra môgô

Some of the smartest dummies

Can't read the language of Egyptian mummies

An' a fly go a moon

And can't find food for the starving tummies

Pay no mind to the youths

Cause it's not like the future depends on it

But save the animals in the zoo

Cause the chimpanzee dem a make big money

This is how the media pillages

On the TV the picture is

Savages in villages

And the scientist still can't explain the pyramids, huh

Evangelists making a living on the videos of ribs of the little kids

Stereotyping the image of the images

And this is what the image is

You buy a khaki pants

And all of a sudden you say a Indiana Jones

An' a thief out gold and thief out the scrolls and even the buried bones

Some of the worst paparazzis I've ever seen and I ever known

Put the worst on display so the world can see

And that's all they will ever show

So the ones in the west

Will never move east

And feel like they could be at home

Dem get tricked by the beast

But a where dem ago flee when the monster is fully grown?

Solomonic linage whe dem still can't defeat and them coulda never clone

My spiritual DNA that print in my soul and I will forever Own Lord

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kiye

Ni kêra môgô

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kagni

Ni kêra môgô

Huh, we born not knowing, are we born knowing all?

We growing wiser, are we just growing tall?

Can you read thoughts? can you read palms?

Huh, can you predict the future? can you see storms, coming?

The Earth was flat if you went too far you would fall off

Now the Earth is round if the shape change again everybody woulda start laugh

The average man can't prove of most of the things that he chooses to speak of

And still won't research and find out the root of the truth that you seek of

Scholars teach in Universities and claim that they're smart and cunning

Tell them find a cure when we sneeze and that's when their nose start running

And the rich get stitched up, when we get cut

Man a heal dem broken bones in the bush with the wed mud

Can you read signs? can you read stars?

Can you make peace? can you fight war?

Can you milk cows, even though you drive cars? huh

Can you survive, Against All Odds, Now?

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kiye

Ni kêra môgô

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, yonkontê

Sabali, Sabali, Sabali, kagni

Ni kêra môgô

Who wrote the Bible? Who wrote the Qur'an?

And was it a lightning storm

That gave birth to the earth

And then dinosaurs were born? damn

Who made up words? who made up numbers?

And what kind of spell is mankind under?

Everything on the planet we preserve and can it

Microwaved it and try it

No matter what we'll survive it

What's hu? what's man? what's human?

Anything along the land we consuming

Eatin', deletin', ruin

Trying to get paper

Gotta have land, gotta have acres

So I can sit back like Jack Nicholson

Watch niggas play the game like the lakers

In a world full of 52 fakers

Gypsies, seances, mystical prayers

You superstitious? throw salt over your shoulders

Make a wish for the day cuz

Like somebody got a doll of me

Stickin' needles in my arteries

But I can't feel it

Sometimes it's like 'pardon me, but I got a real big spirit'

I'm fearless.... I'm fearless

Don't you try and grab hold of my soul

It's like a military soldier since seven years old

I held real dead bodies in my arms

Felt their body turn cold, oh

Why we born in the first place

If this is how we gotta go?

Damn.

Pemba Boats