Eating meat is not everyone's choice, but if it is, what better place to buy good quality, ethically sourced meat than Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants in Metal Lane off Kloof Street, Cape Town?
Oh yes, and that's my son Phil - in Cape Town for a few days.
It really is the best hardware shop in Cape Town! Kismet, on the corner of Batts Road and Park Street, Wynberg goes back to 1957 when it opened as a corner store by Mahood Mohamed Fakier who still runs things today. What is great about them is that they are always open it seems, and will sell in small quantities too - most of the big hardware shops only sell stuff in great, pre-packaged quantities. Kismet means luck or destiny in Arabic.
A little bit of bling on a cold winter's day. I love the Swarovski Scotty dog in the Spilhaus window at Constantia Village Shopping Centre.
... remembering when it all started.
Tommy's wonderful and exciting second hand bookshop in Long Street has been around for quite a long time. It was definitely there when I worked in the SA Museum in the eighties.
The fishing village of Kalk Bay has become very touristy in the last ten years, with cute little gift shops, first-rate bookshops, bakeries and eateries of all sorts from ice-cream parlours to fish and chips takeaways to the smartest of smart restaurants. You can wander round for hours browsing and stopping for an espresso or, in this hot summer weather, a beer. I wonder what's up this alley ...
Christmas shopping along Simon's Town Main Road today - and this shop caught my eye. It is The Meeting Place 
where you can enjoy delicious teas and lunch in a wonderfully relaxing and pretty shop while admiring the lovely Christmas gift displays
like these well dressed reindeer (in Arran and Fair Isle knits) - and lots lots more. I feel positively Christmassy now!
Apologies for the hiatus - Internet troubles. Seems to be fixed. A strange little program was sharing my files with someone and blocking my bandwith.
Shopping can be tiring and Constantia Village Shops have convenient seats.
The shops at the Cape Quarter Lifestyle Village shopping centre in Green Point (near the new soccer stadium) are all rather upmarket. I think the word "lifestyle" is the giveaway. Its quite fun to walk around though.
In Wynberg, where Piers Road is intersected by the railway line, is the newly-refurbished Lion Voice Tabernacle. It is also the Frigo Robert Shop that sells sacks of flour, "produits alimentairs"and other stuff. There is also a barber (where you can have your hair beautifully braided), and a car panel-beater. It seems to be patronised exclusively by French-speaking people from North Africa who, typically, are much more stylish and elegantly attired than us locals. Not quite a red building Jane and Chris, but watermelon pink. Because it is cold and wet today, it was all looking rather gloomy and deserted.
Today is stormy - a bit of brilliant sun, then a dash of chilly rain. Long Street was looking grey, but a dip into this shop in Long Street - Imagenius - was enough to chase the greys away. Even their website is fun to visit.
I am reading a very exciting book at the moment called The Great Penguin Rescue by Dyan deNapoli which is all about our endangered African Penguins and the amazing rescue of thousands of them after a devastating oil tanker spill a few years ago SO I was almost tempted to buy this little Swarovski crystal penguin I saw in the window of Spilhaus in Constantia Village shopping centre, until I saw the price. For the same price I could adopt a real penguin through SANCCOB.
Despite his dubious credentials in Africa, Tintin is very much alive and well and rubbing shoulders with soccer players, colonial military askaris and pith-helmeted gents in the shops of Cape Town!
Scott House on the corner of Long and Church Streets used to be the old Johannesburg Hotel - one of the many Lion Hotels of the mid twentieth century. It was probably built in the 1880s, and now houses the oh-so-cool and trendy Mungo and Jemima fashion store.
Its raining today - so a fire and a glass of red wine while we watch Barcelona beat Manchester United is on the cards ... and this label at our local Pick 'n Pay supermarket caught my eye.
Cape Town Time