Jozi

Here’s a bit of a quick glimpse and tour of great Johannesburg blogs and sites I discovered over the last weeks . Many with plenty of amazing photos. Jump into the world wide web for a bit and explore Jozi, aka the City of Gold.

There is for instance therealjohannesburg.blogspot.com which brings updates on the rejuvenation of the city.

And stop at urbanjoburg.blogspot.com for nearly daily updates on events and happenings around town. Nice mix of photos and commentary.

Take a hike (in a positive sense) to jhbdaily.blogspot.com. This site tries to capture the rhythm of Jozi and it’s contrasts through photography. Nice one.

From the contrast through photos to walking the streets of the urban sprawl is just a click away:www.jhburbanwalks.blogspot.com

And why not visit the official Joburg city site too. It’s informative and well done:
www.joburg.org.za/

I for instance discovered there some contacts for dune surfing. People from Joburg are a creative bunch. They don’t have the beaches of the Cape or the surf waves of Durban,... but it doesn’t stop them for organising thrilling ‘snow’boarding activities on the old, high mine dumps. For real! Check it out and call Pure Rush Industries (the name says it all): Marco on +27 82 605 1150 or Duncan on +27 72 443 7000.

And yeah, don’t wait till June 2010 to try out some of these sights and adventures...

To the rhythm of the music

To start the world cup with a loud bang and in swinging African tradition, FIFA has announced that on the eve of the kick off there will be a big concert at Orlando stadium in Soweto. So that’s on June 10th. And in the brand new Orlando stadium!

The list of the performing artists is not known yet. The international events company Control Room (they organised for instance the Live Earth gig) has been appointed to make this show a memorable blast. And the hunt for big names is on. Beyonce and Jay-Z are already in the rumour mill.

And the proceeds from the concert tickets will go to the “20 Centres for 2010” campaign. That’s a FIFA project to build 20 centres in disadvantaged communities across Africa to deliver education, health services as well as football/soccer training. Nice one.

Music and football/soccer. Nice mix. South Africa will be big time on the world map next year!

Puppets on the web

On October 2nd I mentioned Archbishop Emeritus Tutu’s birthday (TODAY!!!) and the launch of his lovely children’s book God’s Dream.

The Star newspaper has a nice supplement today on the Archbishop’s book and his amazing life so far. Let me repeat what I said on October 2nd: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! And thanks for being a beacon of sense and hope throughout and against the world’s madly spin.

Moving on.

Finally after 10 years in the making internationally acclaimed cartoonist Zapiro’s TV show is on air. At least on the web.

Influenced by the famous 70s, British TV show Spitting Image, Zapiro (with the help of friends) has put together the ZA News Show.

After controversies and failed deals with local broadcasters SABC, M-Net and e-TV, the puppet satire is finally alive and kicking on the web under the slogan “Because here we can”. Watch it on www.zanews.co.za

It will have 3 minute clips from Tuesday till Friday and a longer version on Saturday. The show is sponsored by Kulula and the Mail & Guardian . You can also watch the show via their sites. SA political, TV satire finally has arrived.

Landmark

Have you ever been on the corner of Menton Road and Park Road in Richmond, Johannesburg?

It’s kind of stuck between more known landmarks like Melville and the SABC hq. It’s the corner with that pink shop. It’s The Chef. A great place for coffee and breakfast or a snack at noon or in between. And friendly staff in fitting pink tops on top of it all.

Plenty of NGO types and journalists seem to hang out there. Fresh almond croissant with an espresso. Or a seriously-sized omelette with ham, onions and Emmenthaler. And so much more. Including fine confectionary like so called nut triangles. Can eat in or take away.

And if you see a big lad in The Chef,... well that is The Chef.

Go there and enjoy. Been there, done that. Many times.

The Rosebank

Sad. Apparently in Franschhoek amidst the lovely valleys and near 5-star restaurants, a group of women had been making leather soccer balls for some time. Great initiative that created jobs while riding the 2010 fever.

But I just heard that their activities were stopped recently as they could not find people, or shops, or companies to buy their soccer balls. Sad story because it just looked like such a simple but great local initiative.

From the wine region back to highveld and the City of Gold.

I was in the revamped, renewed, done-up Rosebank Hotel yesterday for a business meeting. It’s now officially called Crowne Plaza The Rosebank. You really cannot recognize anything from the old hotel anymore. It’s totally different. The old one was like time had stood still in the early 70s and you expected Starsky and Hutch to walk in with some Bee Gees music playing in the background. It was a time warp machine.

The nouveau Rosebank is modern with am obvious 60s touch. Stylish. The large lobby feels like you are in a trendy London hotel. It would fit a James Bond movie. It has a Sean Connery-as-007 feel to it. But with that modern extra to it.

By the way, very nice colour panels in the elevators to the basement garage.

Check it out. It’s worth it. And certainly for those that passed through the old hotel, it’s worth the positive shock treatment.

Oh, and the glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc was pretty nice too. And delivered with a smile.

The dream

If you are in Cape Town on October 7th this would be a great one to attend.

Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace Prize winner (1984) Desmond Tutu will launch his wonderful children’s book God’s Dream. And the moral voice of our nation will read from his book in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.

And on top of that the Archbishop will be exactly 78 years young that day. Happy birthday already from me in advance of it all!!

Just had a lovely Tutu-memory popping up in my head. In December 2006 I met the Archbishop in his office near Cape Town. I remember specifically 1 line from that moment. “I am happy I am not God”, he said, “because God created Osama Bin Laden as well as George Bush Jr.”. And then his oh so lovable laugh followed. What a man! Much respect!

So God’s Dream is published by Jacana Media in all of our 11 official languages. How nice! It will make it accessible to all of the children of the rainbow nation.

For details about the book and the launch, contact the Centre of the Book in Cape Town, or I guess the publisher.

252

A new month today. October. And 252 days to go to kick off at Soweto’s Soccer City in June next year.

FIFA just finished a tour of the newly built stadiums across the country. The world cup will be spread over 10 football/soccer temples in 9 cities, but 6 of them are brand new and near completion. All are smoothly on track it seems. Smiles all over!!

Officially Soccer City in Soweto was “only” upgraded, but to be honest the whole old stadium was put down and a totally new one was built from scratch. So for me that fits the brand new category.

And so far already 650527 tickets have been sold. World cup fever guaranteed.

I am slightly surprised that by now only 11 national teams of the 32 that will be present here have already the qualification in the bag. By end of November all 32 must be known because on December 4th in Cape Town the groups for the first round of the world cup will be drawn. So I guess in the coming weeks we will see a lot of do or die matches across the globe to grab qualification – or to lose out. Tensions are rising for sure. Travel agents anxiously awaiting final whistles. Footballers’ wives hating the doubts if it will be a (winter) holiday in South Africa or a beach show off in Bermuda. It’s tough living a stress full existence! Sandton shopping mall checking out which ladies will come and spend the husband’s earned millions. The men sweating on the training grounds as the ladies run around shiny corridors with overloaded shopping bags. Now I understand why VISA / Mastercard is an official sponsor of the world cup.

Here’s a little, sporty update amidst the fever. I was curious and did a quick search.

So, if I’m right, for now the only teams with already guaranteed presence in SA are Bafana Bafana as host, star-attraction Brazil, Paraguay, Spain, North (!!) as well as South Korea, Ghana, the Netherlands, England Australia and Japan.

It’s unlikely the world’s most expensive player will be here. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal is facing a nearly impossible task in their qualifying group. In Africa Nigeria is nervous as they might miss the world cup too because Tunisia is leading in their group. Same stress for African giants Egypt. They are currently second, trailing 3 points behind Algeria. And for Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast it all just seems a formality. Am sure they booked their air tickets already.

Back in Europe, little Switzerland is making a strong chance of visiting SA. Germany and Russia are pretty much guaranteed presence too. A world cup without Germany seems near impossible. France is sweating it out. They are currently second in their group behind Serbia, but have Austria breathing down their neck. Italy, despite disappointing matches during this year’s Confederations Cup, looks likely to be back in the country.

Others likely to grace us with their presence are the USA, Argentina (hopefully still with coach Diego Maradona), Mexico, and maybe also the All Whites from New Zealand.

If rugby fans are a bit drunk they might think this upcoming world cup is a rugby competition as England, SA, Australia, and maybe New Zealand and France too will be battling it out on a grass pitch.