Clowns

Definitely a clown but it's not Coco we're dealing with...

RSA - Part IV

 

Our fourth day in Cape Town was mainly taken up by a "local food tour" on foot, we met our guide at 9am in the City Centre and he lead us around eight venues where we sampled a different local food (or drink) at each. We also did a little sight seeing along the way as well, one of the stops was in the historic Bo-Kaap district where most of the buildings are painted in bright colours (see above) 

This district is one of the oldest in the city and was established in 1760 it was formally known as the "Malay Quarter" and is still home to many Muslim residents (there are a couple of old Mosques there too), it's said that some are even ancestors of the Malaysian and Indonesian workers bought here by the Dutch, initially as slaves, but later in different waves of immigration. During the Apartheid years this areas was zoned under racial laws meaning that only "Malay" people could live here, other districts in Cape Town (i.e. District 6) were bulldozed and re-developed as "white only" areas, luckily the race-zoning rules probably saved Bo-Kaap from being leveled.

The area is changing now though, being close to the city centre (i.e. within the "city bowl", as it's known) it's gradually being bought up by wealthier Africans, "gentrified" as it's commonly known as, it's a shame because the character of the place will almost certainly change or even disappear. Understandably, Bo-Kaap is the centre of "Cape Malay" cuisine and the food here has spicy far eastern origins although it's morphed somewhat over the centuries from what you usually get in Malaysia and India, our guide told us that it originally had to change because the Dutch overlords didn't take to the ample spice in the food, back in the day meat and two veg was more their thing.

In the picture above you can see some of the dishes on offer from a local cafe, curries of course but also more Indian style bites like Samosas (Samoosas), Pakoras (Daljies) and Rotis (an Indian flat bread), despite the Dutch influence in reducing heat in this style of food, some of these snacks were still pretty (spicy) hot!

In another spot we had a BBQ selection or traditional South African "Braai" this was a popular option with our tour group, ribs, sausages and chops, very nice (see below)

After our tour we headed back to our hotel and freshened up then headed out for a bite to eat (back at the Jamaican themed bar!) and a reasonably early night as we had a very early start the next day, more on that in part V..

Triple Tipple

Had one of these at the weekend, it's a TIPA or Triple IPA, made down in Cornwall by Verdant it's their annual "Puttty" offering, deep, rich, thick and bursting with hop flavour a real assault on the senses. I managed to snag one of these last year too and wrote about it at the time, I would say that this years beer is more balanced, another triple T winner!

Same ole, same ole...

It would appear that the latest Epstein avoidance scheme trumped up by, well, you know who, means that the shopping malls of the desert are being attacked by the parties of God.. I'm not sure how this particular member matching contest will turn out but a couple of things are guaranteed, firstly plenty of totally innocent people will lose their lives, secondly nothing will be achieved and lastly shares in the industrial-military complex will rise, praise be...

Feelin the heat

I thought this was interesting, the number of days per year when the temperature exceeded 30 degrees Centigrade comparing the first halves of two decades 20 years apart.

Friday Smirk

It's a good point made by the boys here, there's something sinister about most religions in that they demand that their petty conformities become compulsory in society, worst of these is "love" and the surrender of our rational faculties, the very definition of sadomasochism..

Thoughts on a scandal

Here are my thoughts on the whole  Andrew/Mandelson thing going on at the moment..

They are both career liars, parasites and grifters so don't bother with an expensive investigation and trial, just sequester the money direct from their offshore accounts and make them do community service, in Ukraine..