That Blog

Last year, I started That Blog with my first post of the fab Winter Specials Restaurant List happening in and around Cape Town. The list does the rounds every year and generally offers some GREAT specials at some fantastic restaurants. This year is no different…

There are a couple of lists doing the rounds this year…but I really like this one and think I should point it out to you too. It covers the whole country…although, can safely say that the best specials are available to the lucky peeps in Cape Town…and you are able to click on each restaurant name and be taken to a link that has reader reviews and details of the restaurant. What a great idea!!

Click on the pic below to go and see the great work that the clever foodies at Eat Out have done for you!!

Link to the great Winter Specials list on Eat Out site

Thanks so much to Katharine Jacobs and Jana Cilliers for the great work!!

And for some Winter Special reviews, keep an eye on Batonage and even post some reviews there too to help all out!!

Happy dining!

It is not a closely guarded secret that I do enjoy the finer things in life…so, I need to tell you about my most recent discovery- just incase you too have a penchant for these things! 

Anything that has the tag line “eat + drink + enjoy + celebrate” is going to be close to my heart…so when I saw these words in an e-mail a little while ago, I knew I was on to a good thing! Winestyle magazine launched a few months back and the second edition, arrived in my postbox (the actual thing, not my inbox) yesterday. I can’t wait to kick back, relax and read it this weekend…hopefully, whilst sipping a nice glass of wine and enjoying the last bits of summer! (more…)

I received this e-mail and thought it too good not to share with all of you.

This woman is 51.

She is a TV “health guru” advocating a holistic approach to nutrition and  ill health, promoting exercise, a pescetarian diet high in organic fruits and  vegetables. She recommends detox diets, colonic irrigation and  supplements, also making statements that yeast is harmful, that the colour of  food is nutritionally significant, and about the utility of lingual and faecal  examination. 

This woman is 50.

 She is a TV cook, who eats nothing but meat, butter and deserts.  

So forget “join a gym and eat more celery”.

This festive season, it’s food  and booze all the way!!! And the only exercise you need is dancing!

Have fun!

So girls, are you secretly hoping that your man finds his way into a shopping mall over the next few days and purchases you something a little racy and gorgeous this Christmas? Perhaps, you are hoping he will spice up your underwear drawer a bit and give you a bit more to choose from other than those unexciting, but ever so practical Woolies bras??

Well, perhaps you want to point him in the direction of this little video clip…I have a sneaky suspicion that once he has seen these gorgeous girls, he will be high-tailing it off to La Senza faster than you can say “Ding, Dong, Merrily on High” and your underwear drawer will be looking fab by Boxing Day!

The ‘Cup Size Choir’ is made up of seven models dressed in just their bra and knickers singing a note from A to G based on their cup size in cheeky ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’.

Those of you that have been reading That Blog for a while now, are familiar with my lamenting over the Barren Manscape in Cape Town. I have decided to test the waters in Jozi and see if the Manscape is any less barren.
I took the bold step of signing up for internet dating…

The responses to my profile thus far have varied considerably (which indicates that there have been responses, so that is a good thing). Whilst there have been a limited number of suitable looking gents (whom I hope to meet up with soon…reports to follow), I can report that there is also a healthy collection of nutters out there! Maybe my standards are just too high??

Married girls, please take this moment to thank your lucky stars for the man in your life…because even when he is driving you completely bonkers, or comes home late from a night out with the blokes, he almost certainly doesn’t describe himself like this…

Pation – could he possibly be referring to passion??? Actually, am really hoping he has misspelt Patrón, my new favourite tequila! If that is the case…he might suddenly come back into the mix and I can overlook his lack of a fancy, little, nerdy car!
Tame nudist – what exactly is that? 

Or perhaps this guy:

Anyone else getting the feeling that he might be a little needy or perhaps desperate? Or maybe he is just casting that net far and wide to see what he finds!

Then, it all looked a lot more promising…there was a guy, that on paper, looked every part the suitable candidate…the picture was acceptable, he could spell correctly and seemed to be looking for similar things to me. We exchanged some banter on-line and arranged to meet for a date. Much excitement!!! If I were in London, I would definitely attribute the heavy snowfall to this event…anyway, date went well, no sign of axe murderer/psychotic tendencies and I was rather excited about it all. Imagine my surprise when I got an sms a day later along the lines of “it’s not you, it’s me”…blah, blah, blah…”I’m just not ready for a relationship right now…” blah, blah, blah.
Mmm…I know, if that is the case, may I suggest you give dating sites a wide berth??!! Oh well…

Anyway, I am going to persevere with this avenue of adventure and shall keep you posted on how it goes!

Please let me know if you have any good tips or suggestions…or single friends !

A few years ago, my family discovered the amazing meal that just keeps on giving…The Tur-duck-en. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it is a  deboned turkey, stuffed with a (deboned) chicken, stuffed with a (deboned) duck, stuffed with stuffing…or if you find it easier to say, Tur-duck-en. (I prefer to hyphenate the word, as it seems that some people are a little put off at the thought of eating something that has the word Turd in the name.)

So, as you can well imagine, this is a gargantuan amount of bird to get through and if your family is as small as mine, not even a post-Christmas Turkey Curry buffet will save you from Turkey/Duck/Chicken sandwiches for days to come!

So, if you aren’t up for putting together the old traditional Christmas feast and can’t be bothered with constantly having to peer into a hot oven to see if that little red thing has popped out the Turkey’s rear, why not get the good peeps at the Mount Nelson to do it all for you.

Check out the variety of Christmas meals they are hosting…

CHRISTMAS EVE

Planet Restaurant
Date: 24 December 2010
Time: 19h00 onwards
Price: R890 per person. We regret – no children under the age of 12
Menu: Festive 5-course Table d’ Hôte Menu
Dress: Elegant

Oasis Restaurant
Date: 24 December 2010
Time: 18h00
Price: R495 per adult / R195 per child under the age of 12
Menu: Extensive Festive Buffet Selection
Dress: Casual
Entertainment: J Russel Instrumental Jazz Duo

Join the choir for Christmas carols around the fountain from 18h30 to 19h30.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Oasis Restaurant
Date: 25 December 2010
Time: 12h30 onwards
Price: R695 per adult / R220 per child under the age of 12
Menu: Extensive Festive Buffet Selection
Dress: Casual
Entertainment: Enjoy a relaxing afternoon in the company of the B3 Jazz Duo.

Planet Restaurant
Date: 25 December 2010
Time: 12h30 onwards
Price: R730 per person. We regret, no children under the age of 12
Menu: Festive 5-course Table d’ Hôte Menu
Dress: Smart casual

The Ballroom
Date: 25 December 2010
Time: 12h30 onwards
Price: R730 per adult / R280 per child under the age of 12
Menu: Extensive Festive Buffet Selection
Dress: Smart casual
Entertainment: Mike Perry’s 4-piece band

Good news is that the Planet Bar will open on 25 December from 12h00 onwards for festive pre-lunch and dinner drinks…to ensure you get the whole family in the Christmas spirit, or is that drinking the Christmas spirit?

They will also give you a complimentary sparkling wine and Pimm’s on arrival!

If you are looking for something completely different to do on Christmas day, what about…

Afternoon Tea in the Lounge
Date: 25 December 2010
Time: 14h30 onwards
Price: R185 per person / R95 per child under the age of 12
Menu: Festive-inspired Afternoon Tea buffet
Dress: Casual
Entertainment: Resident pianist

No need to slog away preparing that massive Christmas lunch/dinner in Cape Town this year (and dealing with the mess afterwards)…the Old Mount Nelson can do it all for you! Although, I can’t guarantee that they will have Tur-Duck-en on the menu,

By the way, these prices are inclusive of festive novelties and service charge.

For reservations, contact restaurantreservations@mountnelson.co.za or +27 (0) 21 483 1948

www.mountnelson.co.za

Girls, do you agree that despite the fact it is for a good cause…the concept of MoVember is just too grim for words? The old ‘tache never has and never will do it for me!

It seems that everywhere I look, there are perfectly normal men disfiguring their otherwise good looking faces with a hideous display of facial hair. All I can say is that 30 November, and the eve of the shave-a-thon could not arrive soon enough!

Well done to all the girls that put up with a MoVember bloke in your life…does it entitle you to participate in Fanuary?

Despite the fact that I tried to be at everything, including the opening of an envelope,  it would appear that his attempts to meet up with me over the time of the Soccer World Cup were unsuccessful and so, Prince William settled for second best and asked Kate to be his wife. Congratulations to them!

The Happy Couple

I can say I will definitely booking the afternoon off to watch the ceremony on 29^th April 2011. I do love a royal wedding and despite the rather pear-shaped ending of the marriage, I still clearly remember watching and loving the marriage ceremony of Di & Charles can’t wait to see what Kate looks like on the Big Day!!

All this and more...in 3-D

Even though you might not have a 3-D ready telly at home, broadcasters are talking about showing live footage to pubs and movie theaters that are 3-D ready!! So, if you think your Cane & Cream Soda Wedding drinking antics might mean you are excluded from the Royal guest-list, worry not…you will feel just like you are sitting there with Betty, Phil, Charles, Cammy…you know, the fam! Might need to bust out those nerdy glasses, crack open the champers and enjoy the pageantry!!

Those of you that have been following That Blogger on Twitter, will know that the time on the mud island continues…as does my fascination with the bizarre events reported in the spectacular piece of free news called the Metro. For those of you that aren’t familiar with this paper…The Metro is a newspaper that is given away each morning at every station in London and reports on a few important newsworth items, some pretty random things…but mostly hyped up, tabloid news.

The article on page 2 of today’s Metro caught my eye. You see, I was always lead to believe that the closer an article was to the cover of the paper (front or back), the more important it was. This is why I was a little perplexed at the content of this article and how it could possibly be deemed important in ANYONE’S life and why it should be on page 2.

This is the jist of the story…A mother and her daughter were taking their daily stroll somewhere in Shetland (I am assuming they were fighting their way through herds of little horses at the time) and a seagull flew overhead and dropped a live budgie on the mother’s head. Yes…a budgie…you know, those little pretty little blue/yellow/green birds that spinsters have?? See below for example

This is a budgie

 From her account of the incident, the woman was most alarmed…as I imagine most people who get a budgie dropped on their head might well be. Anyway, after the initial shock had passed, the 2 women managed to catch the little bird and it is now living with a friend of theirs who’s budgie recently ‘fell of it’s perch’…

The article then goes on to speculate where this stray budgie might have come from and how it got into the mouth of a seagull…including speculation that it travelled 14,500km from Australia (I assume not in the mouth of a seagull). At NO point is there even the remotest suggestion that the budgie might have escaped from a home or an aviary in the area…

Clearly, South African spinsters are not the only ones to own budgies…as demonstrated by the fact that they mentioned it had gone to a happy home in Shetland and I haven’t noticed Sky News having to cover that as a rare occurance…I guess the thought of a well travelled budgie is far more exciting from one that escaped from the clutches of Sylvester the Cat somewhere in an old age home, only to be snapped up by a seagull and then dropped on someone’s head…that is the stuff news headlines are made of. Earth shattering stuff isn’t it?

[Source: The Metro]

Jozi girls, do I have a treat for you…

One of my favourite boutiques in Cape Town, Habits,  is making their bi-annual trip up country and you need to get there…I know that when I lived in JHB,  I always used to get VERY carried away at the Habits Trunk Shows, but if you think that you are saving yourself the cost of an airticket to Cape Town, then you are actually saving by spending!! Makes sense doesn’t it??

They will be bringing some great crushed linen numbers for summer, 7’s jeans (oooh, we love those!!!), the core travel wardrobe (because being the international jet setters we are, we all need a core travel wardrobe), a new safari story, all the brights, stripes and and and… 
Check out the website www.habits.co.za to see what other little treats they are packing into their trunks for their trip to Jozi or email joburg@habits.co.za for an invitation to this one and a half day affair

Where:  The Wanderer Club, Illovo
When:  Wednesday 15th September (07h30 – 17h30)
                Thursday 16th September (07h30 – 12h00)

Happy shopping Girls!! Tell them that That Blogger sent you!!

A Hadeda would be very happy with this nest...

Right…so just so you know, Barnet is cockney rhyming slang for hair…as in Barnet Faire.

Anyway, so we all know how much we love a good hair day and even better is a good hair day at the end of a VERY windy day in Cape Town…OK, is there actually such a thing? I suspect the only good hair day at the end of a windy day in Cape Town would be if you were going to give a talk about birds and you needed to show what a Hadeda nest looks like.

Anyway, this NFL player’s barnet is so valuable, that it has been insured for $1m by a shampoo company. That is a LOT of money for a head of hair…he does have an awful lot of hair, but Head ‘n Shoulders is no Kerestase or L’Oreal or whatever you get persuaded to buy from your hairdresser, and you really need to use a lot of it to justify that insurance value!!! I just hope it has AWESOME detangling properties!

By now, I am sure you have heard about the crazy woman, Mary Bale from Coventry, UK, that thought it would be funny to pick up some unsuspecting kitty cat and drop it into a wheelie bin. Maybe my sense of humour is just a little too mainstream but not sure where the humour in that lies. Pretty odd behaviour if you ask me! Anyway, unfortunately for her…and fortunately for Lola the Cat, the bizarre action was captured on CCTV and is now available for all the world to see. Needless to say, her actions have gone down like the proverbial lead balloon and I fear that the full might of the RSPCA will descend upon her (not sure what might they have, but whatever it is, it will certainly be exercised!)

Anyway, in response to Catgate – as the whole drama is being called…a little clip is doing the rounds on the old interweb showing the Revenge of the Cat.

Am fairly sure that this will spark off a flurry of letter writing to the local newspapers and MPs about abuse of the aged.

So, when the time does eventually come for me to head back to Sunny SA…I really do plan to keep a VERY low profile when whisking my case through the Green Aisle and hoping for the best…so really, what I am hoping for is that someone sees fit to stick one of these little beauties on their suitcase and head through just ahead of me. They are apparently designed to stick to anything and are bound to attract the attention of pretty much everyone at the airport…

If the baggage handlers leave this one alone...you have done VERY well!

Customs might take some interest in this one

Looks like something from CSI

Not entirely sure why you would want to attract the attention of anyone at the airport to be honest! I have spent a considerable amount of time in my life hoping that my suitcase escape the attention of the baggage handlers at OR Tambo!

[Source: The Cheeky]

So girls, we have spoken about the dire state of the Manscape and deliberated over the best techniques to lure the Eligible Single Bloke into our lives…and I think we have found the answer. Take up pole dancing!

She looks like she is having fun and has a hot bod...it must work!!

Honestly, it is fun, it supposed to be an awesome way to tone your bod, lose those winter centimeters and improve your fitness. I have never heard a bloke complain about a fat pole dancer at Mavericks, so it must work…so maybe it is worth a try!! Not to mention what images it will conjure up in the minds of ANY bloke when you casually throw into conversation that you can’t do drinks on Tuesday evening because you have pole dancing lessons !!!! I don’t think the Manscape will be barren for much longer if you can throw that little line around a few times!!

“That is a brilliant idea!!” I hear you say. “Where do I sign up for it??”

Well…Do you remember I told you a while back about Twangoo (The Great Introduction)…those clever people that source AWESOME specials and you can sign up for them and if enough people sign up, the offer kicks in and you all save? Well, guess what? They have a special on Pole Dancing lessons…get a lesson for R50 instead of the usual R100!!

All you need to do is head to their site (Click on the link Twangoo) as soon as possible and sign up. The special is limited…so you need to get there quickly to sign up! Although, if you do miss it, R100 is not a lot of money to add a VERY valuable arrow to your quiver (so to speak )

Every year, South Africa blog readers nominate their favourite blogs for the SA Blog Awards. This year is no different and I would be really appreciative if you could demonstrate your love of  ThatBlog by nominating me for the Best New Blog award…or any of the others that you see fit!

It really is easy enough to do…all you need to do is click on this link (Nominate That Blog) and this should take you to the nomination page where you can work your magic.

 I know you really love That Blog and really want to see your favourite Blog recognised for the joy it brings to your life so often…but every nomination you send will just overwrite the last one you sent, so it won’t really help whiling away your work hours by clicking on this loads and loads of time…unless you have more than one e-mail address of course then go for it!!

Please don’t forget to click on the confirmation e-mail that they send you once you have done the nomination, as otherwise it won’t count as a nomination.

Thank you so much My Lovelies….

That Blog fans, I am sorry…I have been neglecting you and I am a BAD blogger!

I am still in London town and life is very social and busy…what with trawling the High Street for fashion finds and visits to Buckingham Palace, I have been a busy little Gal. Anyway, I am back and will do my best to keep you up to date as often as possible.

So…this morning, I was paging through the Metro (classic tabloid journalism) and happened upon this clanger of an article.

It would appear that Manhatten’s wealthy cat owners decided to have a fancy dress birthday party for Matilda, the puss-in-residence at Algonquin Hotel. Please peruse some of the Kitteh’s that strutted their stuff…

Matilda - The Birthday Gal

Halebop, a sphinx cat, models an appropriate costume

Wizard, who came dressed as the popular American doll Raggedy Ann and looks pretty pleased about it too...

Halebop, dressed as a Japanese geisha (nice to have more than 1 costume at a fancy dress party)

Carmel sports some delightfully fruty headgear

Elvis has NOT left the building

Words cannot begin to describe this...a Cat Wig??

Don’t think there is much more to say really. 

[Source: Metro and Guardian]

So, I have come to realise that there are actually those that are not quite as fortunate as I am…i.e. they will not be doing their shopping on Regent’s Street this weekend and instead will be trawling the malls of Sunny South Africa for their retail therapy. If you are one of those less fortunate peeps and happen to be living in Jozi…there is a little treat install for you that should make your feel a little better about your lot in life. The International Fashion Sale is on again at the Coca Cola Dome from the 29th of July to the 1st of August. Admittedly, the Northgate is not as well known as the fashion and shopping meccas of London, New York, Rome and Paris…but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t a whole heap of new brands and exciting purchases to be made. So…if you are looking for somewhere to spend your hard earned loot this weekend, why not make your way to the Dome.

I did spot this picture advertising the sale and have only one thing to say…even if you are young, gorgeous, have a good bod and are wearing precious little…you still cannot get away with wearing black shoes and white socks EVER!!!

Fashion Help Needed too...

Anyway, hopefully, if you spot this young man, please will take him under your wing at the Fashion Sale and help him out a bit…

To read up for on the sale check out their website www.internationalfashionsale.co.za

So, a little bird tells me that it is all happening at the Big Pink thing behing the Labia…you know…the Mount Nelson!

Yip, the legendary restaurant, Cape Colony , will be closing at the end of July, and something brand new and VERY exciting shall open in its place on 1 November 2010. They will be doing an overhaul of the original dining hall and turning it into something slick and stylish…hope someone makes me slick and stylish when I am over 100 years old!!

Anyway, the Executive Chef Rudi Liebenberg and his team of specialist chefs are in the process of testing recipes which will form the basis of the new restaurant menu, and the hotel’s Food and Beverage team is compiling a new wine list to complement it.  This sounds very exciting and I certainly hope that the barren manscape has changed to feature a few suitors that might like to entertain me at the Cape Colony!!

Don’t forget that the Winter Special of a 5 Course meal for R200 per person is still running at the Cape Colony until the end of July…so get there quickly before the overhaul begins!!

Visit the website http://www.mountnelson.co.za/web/ocap/cape_colony_restaurant.jsp for more information.

Shy Armani Potgieter realises that a tough life lies ahead

Well, whilst paging through that spectacular display of British journalism known as the Metro on the way to work this morning, a rather entertaining article caught my eye.

A while back we spoke about the impact that Vampires are having on naming trends of children and may have been chuckled at people naming their children after said Vampires…well, I have to say that I would bank one of those Vampire names ANY DAY compared to some of the other options that people seem to be going for these days.

I can’t even begin to understand why you would want to call your child Puppy and have to say that you are really setting your child up for something if you call them Shy (referring to their name rather than their disposition). These are just some of the unusual names parents have given their children over the past ten years.

Other very unusual choices include celebrity names such as Rooney, Bowie and Cobain, along with hippy-style names such as Stone, Gift, Heaven and Echo and fashion names such as Denim, Diesel and Armani.

‘It’s great to see parents being creative and wanting their children to stand out from the crowd with more unusual names but there are a few here that children may find hard to live up to!’ said Faye Mingo, of www.Bounty.com.

‘Parents need to think carefully about everything that comes attached to an unusual moniker as it can definitely shape a child’s experiences at school and beyond.’

One in three of the 3,000 parents polled by Bounty said their offspring had an unusual name, but more than one in ten regretted their decision. Awesome…imagine your parents being interviewed and saying they regret the name they chose for you…that has to have some impact on your psychological well being!!

One in ten say their child doesn’t like their name, and 14 per cent of the children have asked to change it.

The poll also shows that three out of four parents who gave their child a traditional name believe children with wacky monikers are more likely to be bullied.

Top 20 most unusual names

Sensational isn’t it?? What ever happened to good old fashioned names?

[Source: www.metro.co.uk]

A failed Britain’s Got Talent contestant is suing the show for £2.5million and accused the makers of not putting up clips of her singing ‘beautifully’ on their website.

She has even been quoted as saying ‘I do have the ability to move people. People have cried when they have heard me sing.’ I think maybe you should judge for yourselves…

The former nurse claims the show erred by failing to take into account a medical condition she says affected her performance. She says she suffers from cervical spine neuritis which can affect hearing. Symptoms include head and shoulder pain and and can mean that suffers may not be able to hear their own voice in noisy environments.

Since the whole event took place, she said: ‘My health and wellbeing has been damaged. I have been going downhill quite markedly this year.’ And despite having once built up a reputation as a singer at charity events, she added: ‘Last year I had no phone calls at all.’

Mmmm…after watching that video, I would be interested to hear just how popular she was at charity events…

[Source: www.dailymail.co.uk]