So I’m in Cape Town dear reader. I’ve just spent a week in Johannesburg, visiting my sister-in-law and mother-in-law. They are Portuguese so the whole week was all about lots of food and visits from other members of hubs’ family. A whirlwind of entertainment and stuffing my face. I became somewhat obsessed with Cafe Bembom – a Portuguese cafe in Comaro Crossing, Oakdene, J’Burg. Sooooooo many great Portuguese cakes – my favourite being a milk tarte – although I also like the South African version, Melktert. I visited every day to make my way through their menu.
At the risk of offending any South African readers I may have – sorry but J’Burg is the most awful city I’ve visited. I’ve been there four times now and it’s all about living behind security fences with guard dogs and going to one of the many shopping centres around J’Burg. Sure there are lion parks and places like Sun City within spitting distance of Johannesburg but the way people have to live in this city would put you off making the effort to visit. At least that’s how I felt.
My sister-in-law lives in a large house in a pretty good area. She lives behind a huge electronic gate complete with razor wire. She opens this gate as she approaches in her car and then drives straight into the garage. The garage door also automatically opens from a control in her car. Then she has to open two locks on a metal door before she even gets to the front door.
Once inside, we’re talking video cameras bearing down on the front gate and front door; two large German Shepherd guard dogs; and alarms that go on inside the house during the night. The whole saga of hassling with keys and opening and closing gates actually makes you feel you are locked inside peering out from behind endless security grills on windows and doors. My sister-in-law won’t have any knife blocks on display in the kitchen just in case the hired help get any ideas (as she put it to me).
And to avoid any hijacking at traffic lights (called robots in J’Burg), you lock all car doors and drive behind heavily tinted windows (at least in my sister-in-law’s case). I was warned not to walk around wearing any jewellery, unless I was prepared to lose it in the event of a mugging and certainly told not to go out at night.
So I was quite happy to leave J’Burg and head to Cape Town, which so far seems to be a much trendier city with less visible razor wire fencing. The trade winds in the afternoon are refreshing and Table Mountain is just the most magnificent backdrop. We had coffee this morning at a great little cafe (Carlucci’s) at the foot of Table Mountain and it was amazing to gaze up at this huge natural wonder looming large against the bright blue sky.






























Pure Kiwi
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