A Tale of a Snail.

The other day, I was weeding my little herb garden, and I noticed a huge nail eating my herbs! I immediately took him out and put him on one of our flagstone pavers. 

The little guy. FYI, I'm pretty sure the dark stuff is his poo.

 He looked pretty old because his shell was all worn and broken in some areas. He must have had a hard snail life.

Figuring out his new world out of the herb garden.

  

I grabbed my camera because he looked pretty cool. We had our little photo shoot, he slimed away into the grass, and I started playing ball with my dog, Reeses. 

Does he have eyes, or just antennae that sense his environment?

Well, um, lets just say I forgot where he was. I stepped on him, not with all of my weight, and I immediately pulled my foot off. 

Almost to safety, right? NOT.

I inspected him, and he looked intact. 

But I guess he wasn’t, because I found his shell in the same place two days later. 

Oh well. 

I try to appreciate nature, and look what I did! 

Anyone else done anything like that?

Song of the Post: Girl Next Door by Saving Jane.  The band is from Ohio and I was living there when the song was on the radio. A few years later, Taylor Swift’s song You Belong With Me had a very similar theme. Sometimes, Saving Jane would perform their song as a mash-up with Taylor Swift's because they were so similar.

On merit alone, ignoring that Taylor is now a mega star, which song do you like best for the "girl next door theme"?

  

And for fun, I stumbled on the hilarious video of Taylor Swift performing the song with a Japanese singing group. Funny and unexpected.

Charly’s Bakery: Cape Town.

Charly’s Bakery is a bright oasis in the downtown area of Cape Town. You turn the corner from the District Six Museum, and you see this oddly painted, garish looking building.  If you dared go inside, your senses would be inundated with color and scents of baking treats.

Charly's, with Table Mountain in the background.

 The décor is original- old tin ceilings, and the bookcases left from its former life as a Jewish bookstore during District Six’s heyday. The chandeliers are funky and unique.

This chandelier has cookie cutters and cupcakes on it.

This chandelier has little bride and grooms on it.

This chandelier has tea cups hanging on it.

The Chalk board explains their story a little and lists some of the small baked good you can buy there.

Some of the artists hard at work. See the old bookcases behind?

The bakery does make some savory foods, like these muffins and puff pastries filled with cheese or spinach.

Oh yum!

Savoury!

 

The bakery makes colorful cookies… They are good but I did expect the frosting to be a little softer than it was.

Mmm...cookies!

I heart you!

Sexy Ass?!

 

The stuff that makes them famous are the baked cupcakes and cakes- take a look, and you’ll understand why…

Petit Fours.

Mmm...cupcakes.

Whipped perfection...

Drool...

Two wedding cakes waiting for their finishing touches.

The place is pretty packed, so it’s hard to take everything in at one time. 

I seriously want to try everything they make. Seriously. 

Who’s with me?!

Due to the husband's presence, I only left with these three pretties (sigh)! That is a fresh daisy on top of the orange cupcake.

Here is a short video about the bakery if you're interested in learning more about Charly's. 

 Charly's had their own show for a while, Charly's Cake Angels, kind of like Cake Boss in the USA.

One final word: Yum. That's the way I like it.

Song of the post: Catch my Disease by Ben Lee. Fun song!

Soccer: Ajax Cape Town vs. the Moroka Swallows

Last April, we had some guests in town, and they really wanted to go to a game while they were here. I was looking forward to going because it was going to be in the Cape Town Stadium, the giant one used for the 2010 World Cup. Cape Town’s local soccer (football) team is Ajax (often pronounced “a-yax” here), and they played the Moroka Swallows, a South African soccer club from Johannesburg.  If you’re interested here is a brief look at the history of soccer/football in South Africa.

Game stated!

The Moroka Swallos.

Our seats were pretty close, but even still, the players looked tiny on the huge field! 

Teeny tiny!

There were not many people there, maybe because it was rainy and not a “big” game. When Manchester United was here a few weeks ago, it was much fuller. There were people with drums and vuvuzelas to add a rhythm to their cheers.

Most of the crowd. Raining in the picture.

The logistics of the stadium are a little awkward. There is no near-by parking- it was specifically designed this way so that people will bus or ride a train to the stadium. There were no open box offices, so to buy last-minute tickets, we had to buy from scalpers selling them for cheap. Also beware of bringing in long camera lenses because we almost didn’t get in. Small cameras were fine.

Ajax players warming up.

I would definitely go again, hopefully when the crowd was larger and more dynamic!

P.S.- Sorry that I haven’t been posting! We had a long-term guest in town (not staying with us), then others came for a conference- and they kept us busy being tourists. I’ll start posting more pictures of our adventures soon. Also, I’ve been developing my PhD proposal too! Eek!

Song of the Post: "Too Close" by Alex Clare. I heard this on the new Internet Explorer commercial and really liked it. I think I’ll look into more of his music. I'm posting two videos- same song- which do you like better? I'd really like to know.

Here is an "unplugged" live version:

Here is the official music video, fully studio worked version (used in the commercial):