Cape Town:Rooftop Airstream Trailer Park

Last night myself and a friend were given a private tour of the entire airtream penthouse suits at the Grand Daddy hotel. Atop this swanky Cape Town hotel Grand Daddy Hotel, part of the Daddy Long Legs group of boutiques hotels, previously known as the Metropole is a trailer park like no other, a collection of vintage Airstream caravans nestled beneath the backdrop of Table Mountain. This cluster of Airstreams is more an experiment in conceptual interior design with each of the seven vintage trailers hosting a different theme. Cape Town design studio Whatiftheworld directed the project, which tasked local artists with decorating a space with a motif of their choice. The concepts ranged from The Ballad of John & Yoko, adorned with a guitar and simple white interior, to The Love of Lace, Goldilocks and The Three Bears, which has a quaint storybook feel to it. While I'm unsure about falling asleep in it, I loved the dizzying floor-to-ceiling polka dot interior of Dorothy. The two-person Airstreams are situated neatly around the rooftop bar, which is open for afternoon drinks to guests and just the plain curious alike. What i found most fascinating was the fact that the trailers were oddly spaceious, which i hadnt expected and also how they managed to incoroporate enough comfort and luxury to make these trailers qualify for 4 star luxury rating. The trailers start at R945 per night, thinking of hosting a small intimate party on one of these sometime soon.
The Grand Daddy hotel 38 Long Street, Cape Town 021 424 7248 www.granddaddy.co.za

A New Nexus Of Creativity In Long Street, CT

So last night me and a friend decided to walk around Long Street, to try experience and perceive Long Street from the eyes of a tourist of a first timer in Cape Town, it turned out to be a very informative and inspiring walk. We visited one of the buildings I’ve written about in the past, turns out is a new theatre. The Space Theatre, which was established in 1972, has been revived as the New Space Theatre at 44 Long Street. The New Space Theatre on Cape Town’s vibrant Long Street will function as a mini-precinct, intended to be a hive of activity from 9am until late, offering a wide variety of cultural activities and facilities as well as eateries, related retail outlets, information and booking services. The theatre itself will be state-of-the-art and air-conditioned, and accommodate an audience of 200.We met two of the young blokes that manage the theatre, I forgot their names, blank stare – and we spoke to them for a fair bit and their passion of theatre was inspiring even though they actually come from backgrounds most removed from the arts, Finance & Accounting. Their aim is to create a nexus of creativity and culture, where like-minded people can come together at any hour. The Space Theatre Project is being developed as a modern theatre complex. Its floors are occupied by restaurants, bars, a tea shop, bookshops and visual arts galleries, I’ll report more on the restaurants once I try then, one of them is by Bruce of The Showroom restaurant fame, (which has recently closed its doors). What irretrievably won me over was the expansive roof, soon to be decked with a bar for an ideal summer sundowners spot. Office space will be tenanted to “theatre friendly” enterprises such as casting agencies. Above is a pic of the theatre and below is the pic I took of the building way before I even knew what it was, purely cuz I was taken by its beauty and after finding out last night, turns out I was correct with my guess on the architectural origins of the building. Check pas post: Design: Cape Town Victorian Architecture or Not.

Design: Cape Town Victorian Artitecture or Not?

My love of architecture and design in general means I’ll often stop and take random pics of arb buildings, the older the better, like this one, I took this over my lunch, this is in the vibrant Long Street in Cape Town. I love the Victorian style, solid yet romanticized detail, probably stemming from late 18th century – the colours are also very decadent, reminiscent of a time of luxury & opulence yet the structure as a whole is not as ornate as typical Victorian styles, its more structures, straight lines, flat roof, so I’m guessing this must be an Italianate or Neo-Renaissance Victorian style – anyone who knows better please feel free to advise accordingly. Anyway so I thought I’d share this building, pic taken by me, today around 13h44, the weather is overcast as you can see.

Midweek Release: Night Out In Long Street

After a rather exhausting day yesterday, I had my French lesson - thankfully we were watching a movie (Oui, mais..) last night, even though the teacher paused it after every second to point out phrases we should look out for, it still required much less concentration than a normal class and this was welcomed. After the raunchy teenaged movies, all French movies involve women touching themselves at some point, this one was no exception - After class I went home to change and head out to Julep where I was meeting some friends to watch a performance by Dave Ferguson, calls himself Lonesome Dave (he’s a one man act;), which was surprisingly really good – he…., I’ll get back to describing his style of music, cuz I don’t really know, it sort of basey-muffled style (I know it must have a name), sings into the mic, plays the harmonica, cranked out tunes like stripped down/folky blues version of Ring of fire by Johnny Cash. Julep is an awesome cocktail lounge, between their overpriced cocktails, relaxed décor, artsy ambience, ridiculously hot people and music that is not too loud you can still chat with your mates; Julep comes second to none as the best bar to go out to for a weekday night out. I’ll be there next week again, now I need to figure out where I’m heading tonight!
Pardon the poor picture quality I took this with my phone, eve 5 mega pixels can’t quite cope at night - the picture is of Long Street – I took it last night – for some odd reason I didn’t take one of Lonesome Dave performing or of Julep – oh well maybe next time!

I Had A Chimichanga and Now I'm Sh*tting!

Its quite simple really - i went to dinner last night with a friend, after our French lesson we decided, ag, why drive all the way home when we could take a stroll up Long Street and find a neighbourhood place to eat - well we did just off long - a Mexican restaurant called Mexican Kitchen called our names, we sat outside, made corny, if not slightly inappropriate Mexican jokes and had a wonderful meal that arrived at a staggering 3.5 mins (no kidding) after we ordered - i worried - i'm used to places i have to wait a good 10 mins, minimum, for my meal, especially when it involved this much beef - anyway i had a Chimichang, purely for amusement sake - a chimichanga is a popular Mexican dish which is basically a deep friend burrito - wasn't as tasty as anticipated but still enjoyable - except today i'm paying the usual Mexican price. Ask anyone who's ever been out for Mexican food - they'll tell you they had a runny tummy the next day - I'm no exception, have had a serious case of the sh*ts since i got to work, its exhausting! So next time i'll be sure to stay clear of the anything with an amusing name! The restaurant as a whole was charming with very authentic slash kitch-y decor. I'm definitely gonna go back there for some Margaritas & Sombreros.
UPDATE: Okay this minor situation I seem to have on my hands seems to be getting worse, just now i was in a meeting with the Director and i could feel the surge, anticipating a charge, I had to stand up and say: ''Tim, I'm sorry but if i dont leave now something rather unseemly might take place'', he looked puzzled, I had little time to explain, I bee-lined for the loo! To think that i ordered this purely for a laugh, who's laughing now.