Streets of Purple

November 10, 2013

In late spring, something amazing happens in Joburg. All of the seemingly bare and twisty jacaranda trees bloom, and the streets are lined in beautiful bright purple trees. Jacarandas are not indigenous to South Africa; they were planted throughout the city over 100 years ago, and have formed an integral part of the city's identity. Interestingly, while a law was passed to allow the non-indiginous trees to stay, new trees are not allowed to be planted/imported. And so, when these ones are gone, so are the streets of purple. 

I may have had to scale a wall topped with an electric fence in order to take this photo (and the one before it), and the heavens may have also decided to lash back with a flash thunder storm at the exact moment I was standing on said wall...

The King Protea

November 9, 2013

Despite their leathery leaves and thistle-like centres, King Proteas are mysteriously striking and appealing flowers. Something about these strange and gorgeous flowers intrigues me, and it seems very fitting that they are South Africa's national flower. A lovely (and very sweet) couple of friends gave me a generous bunch of proteas for my birthday, and so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make them the subject of a photo shoot (and, incidentally, a blog post): 

Birthday by the Sea

November 1, 2013

After our first visit to Cape Town back in March, we knew this was a place we would come back to. We loved it. It's like taking the best parts of Vancouver, San Francisco and Sydney and rolling them all into one. When I had an opportunity to make a trip to the Mother City for work, I jumped on it, and bought an extra ticket for M to join me for the weekend. We re-visited some of our favourite spots (V&A Waterfront and Camps Bay), and also had a chance to visit a few new spots (Robben Island and the Old Biscuit Mill market). It was a timely visit as it happened to occur the weekend preceding my birthday, so it was a great chance to celebrate in style. Here is a glimpse of what turned out to be a very relaxing and sunny birthday weekend...

The Old Biscuit Mill & Neighbourgoods market made for a perfect Saturday morning (and when there's banana-bread-french-toast, who's arguing?).

It was too windy on our last visit to make the trip to Robben Island, so we made a point of going this time around. The view of Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town from Robben Island is stunning.

Exploring around Robben Island.

Receiving a tour by a former prisoner of the inside of the prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 prison years. 

V&A Waterfront: checking out the newest tourist attraction, a giant yellow picture frame. 

Late afternoon drinks and snacks at a beach club on Granger Bay.

Birthday dinner at the Cape Grace Hotel, followed by an evening visit to Madeba.

Walking up to a gorgeous view of the ocean, and spending the morning in Bantry Bay running along the seaside promenade followed by a walk to Camps Bay. 

Clifton Bay: home to the freezing Atlantic ocean, but gorgeous all the same.

Pure Bliss.

View of a lone kite surfer and Table Mountain from Bloubergstrand (just north of Cape Town).

Kite surfers enjoying the Monday evening winds.

Stunning pre-storm clouds over Table Mountain.

Now Now or Just Now?

October 25, 2013

This weekend we were invited to a braai and to watch a rugby game at a friend's place. Sitting around with a few beers (and with the South Africans greatly outnumbering the Canadians), we started talking about some of the differences between Canadian English and South African English. I know it is common knowledge that every English-speaking country has slight differences in wording uses, names for things and slang. That being said, I thought it might be interesting to share some of the particulars between Canada and South Africa specifically because, well, that's my current point of reference.

For starters, in South Africa the trunk of a car is the boot and the hood is the bonnet, my purse is my handbag and my wallet is my purse, a car horn hoots rather thank honks, the elevator is the lift, and ballet flats are pumps. A traffic light is a robot, a pickup truck is a bakkie, running shoes are tekkies, a water heater is a geyser, a shopping bag is a packet, and a mortgage is a bond.

Given that English is just one of eleven official languages in this country, and is the mother tongue of less than 10% of the population, it only makes sense that even in English there are many non-English words woven into everyday speech. Braai for example, being the Afrikaans word for barbeque, and "yebo" meaning "yes" or "hello" in Zulu.

This is all supplementary to the fact that South Africans pronounce and annunciate differently than Canadians. It's true: "bad" sounds like "bed", "bed" like "bid", and t's are sharp- "but-ter" versus "budder". And when it comes to spelling and grammar rules, there are of course differences there as well. South Africans replace "z" with "s" (realise, recognise, and organise, for example). Also, dates are written (and spoken) with the day preceding the month: for example, "I'll see you 2 November".

Like everywhere on the planet, South Africans have their fair share of sayings, and since I never get away unscathed when I drop an innocent "about" into the conversation, I feel I've earned the right to share a few of these:

One of my personal favourites is that "now" is South Africa actually means anything but now. "Now", "now now" or "just now" could mean anywhere from 30 seconds to never...for example: if you're passing someone in the hallway, going the opposite direction, they might say "I'll meet with you just now", yet they are going the other way and are clearly not going to meet with you now.

"Shame!"- somewhere along the lines of "oh, that's too bad", or "I'm so sorry to hear that", but used much more frequently and in a wider array of circumstances.

"Hectic"- this one has many meanings, and can be used in both a positive and a negative context. It could be anything from wild, chaotic or impressive, to ridiculous or insane to downright awful or bored.

"Howzit?"- an abbreviated version of "How's it going?", but less as a question and more as a statement.

"Are you winning?"- somewhere along the lines of asking if things are working out well for you. Along the same vein, "first prize" is often used to represent the best case scenario. Perhaps everything is a competition…?

"Sharp" or "sharp sharp"- this is more of a closing statement or to end a conversation...while I cannot think of the Canadian equivalent, it seems to somehow fit where it's used, without actually replacing a word.

"As well"- this is used in the traditional sense of "I'll have some as well", but also as a bit of a filler, and with the emphasis on the as more than the well.

Throw a piercing Canadian accent into the mix, and well, as you might imagine, I've received more than a few blank stares when asking for something or telling a story…it's all part of the fun though, eh?

Africa's Kingdom of Pleasure

October 19, 2013

No, this post isn't R-rated, that's actually the slogan of Sun City. With no weekend trip plans to speak of for the month of October (gasp!), we decided to take a day trip to Sun City to see what it's all about. A mere two-hour drive from Joburg, it is South Africa's version of Vegas meets Disneyland (in an odd sort of way). Sun City includes (in addition to many other things) a casino, a golf course, a giant outdoor wave pool, and an over-the-top hotel. The main attraction is the Palace of the Lost City, which is supposedly one of the most opulent hotels on the planet. We perused the grounds of the hotel (so I could take a few photos of the buildings and the stunning jacaranda trees), and spent the day relaxing in the sun and enjoying margaritas on the fake sandy beach. 

Canadian Keeper

October 13, 2013

Meet the Canadian keeper.

While M's been playing soccer with a local team here for a few months, I am only posting this now as it took me awhile to get to a game to take some photos. And really, how can I write a post without photographic evidence?

I thought I would attempt my interview skills again for this one:

Me: Who are you playing with and how did you find the team?

M: I'm playing with my lovely wife's work team, and was introduced to it by S when he was here.

Me: Where do you play?

M: At an outdoor park that also has cricket and baseball fields, about a 10-minute drive from our place. It's in Melville, which is the same neighbourhood as the guesthouse we stayed at when we first arrived.

Me: How often do you play?

M: Once a week. It used to always be on Sundays, but I just recently started playing indoor-outdoor (indoor-style soccer field outside) on Tuesday nights. 

Me: What is it like playing soccer in South Africa compared to Canada? 

M: The rules are exactly the same, but it is much more serious here. South Africans takes soccer more seriously than Canadians do;  kind of like how Canadians are with hockey. This makes for more tension on the field. It's been good to be playing again though, and I'm really enjoying being a part of the team in South Africa (especially since my golfing days are over…).

Me: Have there been any interesting moments/stories you want to share?

M: After my first game of indoor everyone said I played really well and they were really happy to have me on the team. The interesting part of the story is that we lost 8-3. I think there were 50 shots on net…

Move Jozi

October 12, 2013

R, G and I post race.

A 10km night race through the Johannesburg CBD? A cool shirt, a couple of great friends to run with, and a chance to run over the Nelson Mandela bridge in the dark? Not really something I would typically turn down, so no sense in starting now. And besides, wasn't it a goal of mine to run a race here? 

Apparently this Nike-sponsored night-race started a couple of years ago; initially the slogan for the race was "take back the streets"...As you might imagine, this didn't have the desired impact on the city that the American-based company hoped it would. Leading up to this year's race radio announcers were still making fun of the previous slogan, asking questions like "take the streets back from who?", "What gives one the right to take it back from someone else?", "Who had the rights to it in the first place?",  and "why can't we all just share the streets?". Nike has spent the last couple of years trying to change the image they initially created for this particular race, and this year's slogan was "Move Jozi". The idea being to ignite a spirit of excitement and movement throughout the downtown core. As such, the race consisted of two routes: one running downtown and the other uptown, with colour coded-shirts indicating your route choice (grey for downtown, red for uptown). As is expected with a fun-run of this nature, it was a very crowded run, but the energy was incredible. The runners were psyched, spectators were cheering all along the route, fireworks were set off during the race, and there were bands playing at the finish line to welcome runners in. 

Seeing children high-fiving the runners, hearing local drummers entertaining participants enroute, looking up to see groups of people crammed on balconies with inspirational posters tied to the railings and cheering everyone on, and running the home stretch of the race over the fully illuminated Nelson Mandela Bridge are a few of the moments I've committed to memory from this event. 

Moving Jozi: 10,000+ runners moving and being moved in this incredible city. 

Sharing Jozi's Gems

October 6, 2013

One of the things I love about travelling is the people you meet. On our recent trip to Swaziland we met a group of travellers from Belgium who were two months into a year-long trip around the world. They found themselves with five unplanned days in Joburg, so M and I offered to show them around a bit and share some of the Jozi gems we've found over the past six months. Thanks Maxime, Casper and Gerrit for letting us play tour guide- enjoy the journey ahead! And of course, we'll stop by for french fries, waffles and beer if we're ever in Belgium...

Clockwise from top left: Thai food at the Good Luck Club followed by cupcakes and tunes by Brett Newski at Wolves; posing with Madeba, the icon; Sunday afternoon backyard braai; beers, shopping and skyline viewing at the Arts on Main night market.

Teaming Up

October 5, 2013

Go Team Moran! (together with the rest of our business unit).

A few years ago when I was visiting my sister in Perth, Australia we participated in the annual City to Surf race. It is a massive public race, but it also has very strong corporate representation. At the finish line there were huge tents for each participating company, and sure enough, my company was there (we were really tempted to make friends with them in hopes of being offered a hot dog...). While I know the firm in Canada does participate in community events, it is on a much smaller scale (and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a team tent anywhere) and does not seem to have the same buy-in as it does in other countries. This likely has a lot to do with how small the Canadian offices are compared to other offices around the globe.   

The local firm in Johannesburg has over 3000 employees, and there is significant value placed on taking full advantage of opportunities to unite employees as a team and get out in the community together. And so, our office entered over 50 teams in the National Business Challenge Relay. It was a marathon-distance relay race completed by a team of six runners (or walkers) in the capital city of Pretoria. It provided an opportunity to work together as a team in something fun and inspiring, that had nothing to do with work. And yet, ultimately, it has everything to do with work (which I realize is exactly the point).