Pretty packaging

Although I believe that goodness lies in the inside, good packaging makes the thing inside even better (kind of like how good looking food tastes better or a well dressed man kisses better).

A little hostess gift of pomegranate and lemon olive oil from Cheska from Melissas

 Exotic chocolate in fine flavours

 I picked this bar of soap up at a drug store in NY. I wish I had bought back a year's supply Dr Bronner's Magic Soap (completely natural and delicious)

South African wine

Five Hundred

Last night I had the pleasure of dining at Five Hundred, David Higgs's new restaurant at the Saxon. The six course tasting menu was a delightful dance of the tastes buds through the culinary equivalent of Alice's Wonderland with red cabbage marshmallows, crayfish sausage, oyster macaroons, foie gras and white chocolate, and meringue and ice-grapefruit on a stick all vying for your attention. We were regaled with stories of stolen wine bottles (two our of the three were returned) and the origins of the restaurant's name (the restaurant is in the old presidential suite, room number 500). We had a view of Jo'burg and the service was beyond, Mr Higgs himself introduced a few of the dishes and we were given fresh honeycomb in a little black box as a we left. My only criticism would be the black and white Chinese symbol carpet. But who's looking at the carpet when the plate in front of you is such a masterpiece.

From Casablanca to Pecs

NY Times recently wrote an article entitled The 46 Places to Go in 2013. So before planning your travels this year, forget the usual and take a look at these places (I went on a mini trip via day dream just reading about these places). Some of them are the usual suspects (bonjour Paris!), but some are places I would never have thought of (Mergui Islands anyone?). I quite a fancy a wild adventure into the Rupublic of Congo (less violent than it's neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo), or perhaps a week of leisure at a luxe surf spot in the Philippines or an eco lodge in Nicaragua. Houston is also on my list due to its culinary ambitions, as are Bhutan and Mongolia for their remoteness. Where are you going to go?

  Philippines

 Republic of Congo

 Sri Lanka

 Bhutan

 Mergui Islands

 Nicaragua

A good way to look at it

"The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always dead sure about every damn thing they are doing in their life." Vasudev

When one finds oneself in some four-star ten years ago lodge (the website for this place could be a lesson in euphemisms), in the middle of nowhere (I think a half hours drive outside of Polokwane qualifies as middle of nowhere), one does start to question what one is doing and if this is how one should be spending an otherwise perfectly good Monday afternoon. It's not all that bad as I am here to present at a client's annual conference, which will be a good experience and hopefully an opportunity to take our work from theory to real life. However, as the rain starts to fall by the bucketful and I contemplate the saturation I will incur by running to the main lodge area to get a drink (yip, no fridge in the room), the questions can't help but arise. But that is not such a bad thing either.

Happy weekend

(via here)

Happy weekend little chicks.Here are 10 links from around the web to get you through Friday afternoon.

I could very easily spend the weekend here
This hotel also looks fun
Best of Obama 2012 (love the Spider man pic!)
Cute dress (I have a weakness for dots)
Pinterset versus reality LOL!
If you live in Jo'burg, this is a must (yes, our very own meme)
Yum + pretty = a good combination
Imagine what it feels like to walk through a rain storm without getting wet...
This looks awesome but I don't think I would be brave enough
Pretty gold bowls you can make yourself (although careful of becoming a Pinterest fail - see above)

Have a good one.

xoxo

Hold your breath

We're in the middle of a sweltering Jo'burg summer. Even when the sun goes down the heat emerges into balmy evenings, sticky nights and bright mornings where you switch on the aircon at 7am when driving to work. Icy swims and bare bums and sounds of little kids partaking in the former and baring the latter. Mangoes and litchis for breakfast lunch and dinner. Magical skies.

I am the type that is usually a bit chilly and a cardigan is my constant companion. So the fact that I can don my sparkly sandals and leave all semblance of warmth at home makes me feel a free as a little bird riding the hot air currents outside my bedroom window. 

I love it. 

Gust post: Great advice for the new year!