Earthquake mashups

Fortunately, we don’t really have earthquakes here in SA, but if we did have a semi-active geological fault, we’d almost certainly build a nuclear power station on it.
Not so California, of course. They’re well used to living alongside the infamous San Andreas Fault. Fairly recently (January 1994), LA was rocked by a 6.7Mw quake, killing 57 and injuring almost 9,000.

But that was nothing on the April 1906 San Francisco earthquake of 1906. No exact figures have ever been calculated as to how many died that day, but it’s widely believed to be over 3,000, with over 275,000 left homeless.

Now, Shawn Clover of… er… shawnclover.com has done some blends or mashups of modern day San Francisco and the city after the 1906 earthquake. And they’re really rather good.


Shawn’s captions are also clever – seamlessly describing both the 1906 and current scenes.

Go and see more in the two parts of his 1906 Earthquake blends, here and here.

Photo credits: Shawn Clover, durr

Solitude

sol·i·tude

[sol-i-tood, -tyood]
noun
the state of being or living alone; seclusion: to enjoy one’s solitude.

And the name of a er… two person tent currently on promotion at Cape Union Mart.

Channelling Sickboy from Trainspotting, “the biggest misnomer since Pussy Galore”.

Don’t miss next month’s offer, the “Crowd” one person sleeping bag.

5 Rooms – 5 Stars

We went out dining last night, down to 5 Rooms at the Alphen Hotel (which actually is in Constantia) and we had a great meal.

The Alphen has history oozing from every Cape Dutch pore and there are heaps of pictures and photos on the walls documenting those who have lived and visited there. But they’re interspersed by huge contemporary pieces as well. It’s a theme carried through into the lighting. Huge original chandeliers hang alongside modern shades, occasionally dwarfing them completely. It gives a curious, almost theatrical feel to the place.

In the same vein, the atmosphere is further enhanced by the in-your-face music straight out of a chilled afternoon in an Ibiza bar [example], filling the small, intimate 17th century rooms with energy and life.

The restaurant – presumably so named since it occupies five separate rooms (I counted and they didn’t include the bathrooms – perhaps an oversight?) – has a well-stocked bar at its heart, with a drunk Englishman (not me) telling the barman how to identify and reject under-ripe limes, and Peroni and Castle on draught. The Rose Bar round the back also has Black Label and Milk Stout on tap. So that’s my summer evenings sorted, then.

The service was supreme, from booking through the welcome to the table service and the food didn’t disappoint. Mrs 6000 started with the Norwegian salmon and followed it up with the superb veal, served with pesto souffle wrapped in sweet potato and greens. I chose the duck pâté (roasted pistachio nuts, blood orange jelly and potato crisps) to begin with and then moved onto the remarkable value of the seafood platter – linefish, mussels, calamari, a tiger prawn and a crayfish tail – for R159. Excellent stuff.
That main course was part of their winter specials list though, so you’d better get in there sooner rather than later. Spring is almost gesprung.
[Update – Winter Specials are on until 30 September 2012]

The desserts were equally special. A delicious crème brûlée with refreshing berries and a terrifyingly sharp sugar nest for me and a trio of truffles served with frozen grapes (“they’re like, grapes, but frozen”) and a shot of Patrón for the other half (Mrs 6000 will do most anything for a shot of Patrón, so nothing else on the dessert menu really stood a chance).

The wine list isn’t huge, but there’s some very decent stuff on there. As an irregular (at best) white wine drinker, I was particularly impressed with my 2011 Professor Black Sauvignon Blanc from Warwick Estate.

It wasn’t a cheap evening, but as the Fund Manager reminded us last week at Hussar “this is what you pay to eat out these days”. However, I do think that it did represent really good value.

We’ll certainly be back at 5 Rooms, and as I mentioned, we’ll probably spend a few decent sunny evenings in the Rose Bar.
If this is representative of the rest of the hotel’s offerings, then The Alphen is fully deserving of its 5 star rating.

Everyone’s going somewhere…

And I’m going to a larney (that’s posh) restaurant for dinner, so I thought I’d slip a quick quota photo in between the lines here.

This was taken on the Pier Head in Liverpool while we were away in July. The place was a hive of activity with everyone seemingly having somewhere to go, something to do, save for the introspective girl looking over the Mersey.

I like the juxtaposition of the awkward but focussed gent struggling with his large case, with a destination in sight and the woman whose mind is probably anywhere but where she actually is.

I could just be reading too much into a couple of people in a photo though.

Bigger & Better on Black

Heavy task, big ask

It’s been one of those days. Little problems stacking up to make for one big headache:
A loony driver at Koeberg interchange, a rude lady in the parking lot at Canal Walk, experiments not bloody working like they’re supposed to, email issues, poor service from local companies (x3),  the utter, utter disaster that is the “new” M5 south, some “challenging” behaviour from the kids and then finally sitting down to write this blog post and the chair (possibly booby-trapped by my wife?) snapping and sending me left shoulder first into the tiled floor.

It was a full on Nhlanhla Nene moment:

After a day like that, still sitting on the cold, cold floor and with an internet connection which is bordering on the not connected, I trust that you’ll excuse my reluctance to actually produce anything reasonable or worthwhile. Nhlanhla Nene didn’t bother getting up and neither shall I.

Tomorrow will be a better day. Fewer problems. Greater governability.