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A shady spot for the Ironman cycle leg

Due to the change of route for Ironman this year we couldn't watch the cycle leg from our usual spot next to Buffelsfontein Road at Mount Pleasant.  After church this morning we packed our lunch in a cooler box, grabbed the camp chairs and headed off to the intersection of Victoria Drive and Sardinia Bay Road.  After having to walk from the previous intersection because the road was closed way back there (with tons of tuning space and parking at…

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10/04/2016
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Drama Princess at Ironkids 2016

Ironkids takes place the day before Ironman and consists of a swim and a run.  The Ironkids in Port Elizabeth is the biggest Ironkids competition in the world and would probably have been mush bigger if they didn't have to cap entries.  Drama Princess took park in her 5th Ironkids competition this year and had to do a 100 meter swim in McArthur Pool and then a 2 km run that ended on the main red carpet at Hobie Beach…

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09/04/2016
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Ironkids video

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GucppFH6TxU&w=500&h=400]Ironman weekend is upon us and tomorrow (Saturday 9 April 2016) we will be in the beachfront to support Drama Princess participation in the Ironkids event.  Ironkids take place on the Saturday afternoon and is made up of a swim in McArthur's pool and a run to the main Ironman finish line at Hobie Beach.  The video I've posted is a highlights video from a few years back as I couldn't find one from last year.

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08/04/2016
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The new Opera House stained glass feature

One of the new additions to the newly revamped Port Elizabeth Opera House is a stained glass window featuring the only three Africans on the continent to win the prestigious Tony Award – John Kani, Winston Ntshona and Athol Fugard.  And best of all, they're all from our city. Forty years ago, the trio were nominated for the best play Tony Award, for their co-written play The Island.  Kani and Ntshona both walked away with best actor awards for The Island and…

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07/04/2016
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Inside the Port Elizabeth Opera House

When last have you attended a performance at the Opera House?  Do you even know what it looks like in the main theatre?  I am ashamed to say that I haven't been there for many many years, but I got to see it while on a tour of the facility last week.  The curtain isn't the main stage curtain but the fire curtain, which they demonstrated to us.

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06/04/2016
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Somerset East’s whiskey bar in a church

I'm not much of a drinker preferring to do the sacrilegious thing of making beer shandy by throwing lemonade into a perfectly good beer.  But I am known to enjoy a good beer or wine tasting so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that I'm doing a post on a place where you can do a spot of whiskey tasting.  As long as I only need to taste.  But this isn't sommer any place, it's a whiskey bar inside a…

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06/04/2016
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The new Opera House extension and renovations

Yesterday's post was a Then and Now post featuring the Port Elizabeth Opera House.  As the photo was taken from the street corner, the latest addition to the building wasn't really that visible so I decided to post a second photo.  The wine coloured section is is the part that was built on to the original building in 1985 and was part of the extensive renovations that took place over the last year and was painted this was as part…

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05/04/2016
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Hofmeyr’s pink church

Most Karoo towns have a historic church with a church tower that keeps an eye out over it.  The Karoo Heartland town of Hofmeyr is no different...  or perhaps it is.  Why? Because it has a pink church tower standing out above the town.  The Dutch Reformed Church in Hofmeyr was built in 1875 and at some stage went pink.  It definitely didn't go pink for breast cancer awareness because it happened way before that but whatever the reason it…

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04/04/2016
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Then and Now – The Port Elizabeth Opera House

The first meeting to discuss a new theatre for Port Elizabeth took place in 1890 after which a company was formed, shares sold and a site was agreed upon with the Town Council.  The building was designed by G.W. Smith and opened on 1 December 1892.  The first lessees of the building was B and F Wheeler who also presented the opening performance of JM Barrie's "Walker, London".  By 1916 the theatre was taken over by African Consolidated Theatres and…

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04/04/2016
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A new coffee shop at the Athenaeum

There seems to be a coffee shop around every second corner these days, so you tend to look for the special ones.  Last week I got to visit the newest one in town and it may just become one of those special ones.  It is located inside the historic Athenaeum building in Central and is called Bakery Treats.  I was there on the first day and they are still getting their ducks in a row, but they will be open…

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03/04/2016