Hotel Lamunu in Braamfontein

A couple of Saturdays ago, my husband and I ended up at the Grove courtyard in Braamfontein at lunch time. Luckily you are spoilt for choice if you are looking for a laid-back lunch destination. We decided on the restaurant at the Lamuna hotel.

With its bold orange décor and funky modern artwork all over the lobby, this small, contemporary hotel captures the very essence of the urban rejuvenation all around it in the Braamfontein area. I loved the bucket seats on their outdoor patio!

Hotel Lamunu
90 De Korte Street
Braamfontein

Johannesburg

You can visit their website here or like their Facebook page.

Paris Postcard: A Dog's life

Today’s weekly Paris Postcard leaves me with a smile every time I see it. I’m not sure what happened after we passed the scene, but I’d like to believe that the dog did get his slice (or two) of saucisson in the end. I took the picture here.

Medal Ceremonies

Still on a Paralympic note, you might walk right into a medal ceremony if you come and visit at the moment. My husband competed in a mountain bike race over the weekend and his medal was enough inspiration for our little "Mister Maker" to make his own from carton and ribbon. For the rest of the weekend, Daniel was (always!) the gold medal winner and my husband the silver. I received the bronze, but then, I was doing double duty pronouncing the winners and presenting the medals and flowers. After a passionate rendition of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (full version, everytime!), with only the winner allowed to shed any tears, it was time for me to get on with my duty as the official photographer :-)

Paralympics

Run, run as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

A very charming nursery rhyme that we all know (except it stops being charming after being repeated for the thousandth time, but that’s a story for another day!)

So you can imagine the tragedy, the horror, when an accidental trip causes a fall which breaks the gingerbread man’s arm clean off… Whereas Daniel was almost inconsolable, I could not help thinking back to the scene in Shrek where the gingerbread man gets tortured – “no, not the buttons…!”

The solution to the tragedy came from a charming and unexpected source: “You know what, mommy? Now he can compete in the Paralympics…”

Kids. They say the darndest things.

Love Food Café

My friend Korien is currently in town on her way to Berlin for a 6 month study program (lucky fish!). So we decided to “do lunch” and we ended up in Braamfontein at a lovely new deli that opened only a week ago. I took a few pics and Korien provided the words to tell you about our great discovery, love food café:

If the Eland standing at the gateway to Braamfontein weren’t made of concrete, it would certainly take a Sho’t Right down Ameshoff street to love food for healthy, wholesome fare that will transport city-dwellers (animal and human) to the wide open farms responsible for the provenance thereof. Owner Jamie (no relation to Mr. Oliver) considers London-based chef Yotam Ottolenghi a major influence. His philosophy requiring “that everything is hand-crafted with extreme care and attention, from [only the best] basic raw ingredients” is evident in the love food menu.

Jamie changes the menu on a daily basis, based on what is fresh and seasonal. On the day we visited, the menu included a Mediterranean lentil and chickpea salad, chilli broccoli salad and roast sweet potato, maple and nut salad. These salads along with beef kofta and fishcakes made for a delicious lunch. All the food, as well as sandwiches, are available for take-away in Green Home’s biodegradable packaging. And just in case you have more of a sweet tooth than the Eland, there were double choc brownies to go with the coffee.

You can visit their website here or like their Facebook page.

Adlene et Rian

Here is a quick update on the blog earlier about my parents’ love lock (read here). Coincidently, they actually visited the Pont des Arts earlier today to add their lock to the famous cast-iron bridge. My brother took this picture and I just love the view of Pont Neuf over the River Seine and Ile de la Cité in the background. Looks like a perfect autumn day in Paris….

Image credits: Neel Potgieter

Love locks....

Last week my parents were in town en route to France to visit my brother. My dad showed me their own version of a love padlock he had specially engraved for this trip. And I absolutely LOVE it!!! On the one side it shows their names and if you turn it around it has “Britstown, ZA” engraved to say where they come from. On the sides of the lock they engraved “September” and 2012”. 

The two most famous spots in Paris were the love locks are on display are the Pont de l’Archevêché that spans the Seine just behind Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Pont des Arts, the small wooden footbridge closer to the Louvre. Its fenced sides have been garlanded with thousands of padlocks. Lovers write their names on the padlocks, lock it and then ceremonially throw the keys into the Seine to symbolize their everlasting love. Some, maybe the less optimistic ones, use combination locks J

My parents’ plan is to add their padlock to the Pont des Arts. Their hope is that it will be there long enough so that my brother will one day be able to take his French kids to show them the lock with their South African grandparents’ names on it…

Collectors Treasury

Just before you get to the Maboneng precinct in the Johannesburg CBD, located at the eastern end of Commissioner Street, lies one of those places I think very few Joburgers know of. Collectors Treasury dates back to 1974 and it is the largest second hand bookstore in the southern hemisphere. But having said that, don’t picture a huge warehouse style bookstore with endless shelves that run up and down. No, this store has over two million books, stacked with very little order, in the corridors, on the floor, in between shelves and on top of boxes. The three floors of the eight story building that are open to the public are a treasure trove of books, books and more books, antiques, old prints and maps. Some of the floor space is dedicated to half a million vinyls!

I unfortunately had very little time to spend in the shop between two appointments, but when you visit, allow for a lot of browsing time. At first it is a bit overwhelming. But as a friend remarked when I said I visited the store : “You don’t find a book in there, a book finds you.”

Collections Treasury
C.T.P. House 

244 Commissioner street

Johannesburg 

Their books are also available online through www.abebooks.com and www.antiqbook.com. You can like their Facebook page here.