Oh yea I have a blog

.. something i forget i guess the last weeks... sorry for that :)

As far as Cape Town goes it has been great!

Weather is going from warm to hot! Sun is shining almost every day, and the city comes more and more to life!

What have i been doing the last couple of weeks... well i've been to jeffrey's bay on a trip along the garden route. What a great place that is! Great surfing and very chilled town!

Had some nice parties here in cape town, and have been surfing a lot. With my new surfboard... still not a pro, but learning slowly how to stand up!

Been sandboarding... great fun!

More bars and clubs in cape town!

Went to a concert of Live! Great band, and what a performance!

We have a new room mate, Linette, also from Holland. Nice girl and great addition to Silverstream.


Well for the rest... i hope to put in some pictures here as well.. soonish

Coming up in december is an awesome trip through Africa (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe) and meeting up with Judith in Namibia! That's gonna be great and then parents comin over before New Years as well... busy times.

Ok cheers for now

Arne

How nice is a weekend

...because you have so much time to do things. Things i did where nice, but i wish i had been able to do more things.

For instance, i bought a surfboard this weekend. But i didnt get to surf. I went to the beach, but the wind blew us away. The same goes for saturday night, we went out at opium on saturday, and partied with prince harry (well i saw him partying, but still i'm sure he respected our party skills as well), but i didnt get him to make me king of schotland. Also made an awesome u-turn in front of the nelson hotel, but the wheels stayed on the ground. Had an awesome braai at stu's new place, but didnt get to stay too long as we tried to surf once again. Only to arrive in muizenberg, and find out that we are too late. Drive back through a township, and shit our pants.

Well there is always next weekend...

Update of some sort

Just a small update, to keep the blog going...

So what has happened since the last update, quite a lot.

- Sebastian has left the apartment :(
- Had a very big farewell/last night going out with Sebastian and friends
- Got an ulcer as a result of that night and many before.. or cuz of bad food/stress, take ur pick
- Spent that weekend with Stuart and Susi, went to airshow, had some classy dinner...
- Stuart left the following week as well :(
- Had a last party in the flat
- New roommate Douglas arrived, and new roommate Louisa
- Had a week of going out without drinking...
- Went to Stellenbosch on Friday with new roommates
- Had a nice student party there and went out in Stellenbosch
- Tasted some wine at some vineyards
- Went to rugby match
- Went out on saturday, got rejected to enter at Opium... the girls looked to young...
- Did nothing on sunday

photos to follow

Earth Dance festival

Last weekend I went to the Earth Dance festival, with other Dutch interns in Cape Town. The festival started on Saturday morning, we arrived in the afternoon. The weather was a bit shitty in the beginning, raining and cold. But after a few beers this was fine.

We confiscated a BBQ and made it our fire place, after buying some wood in the ghetto next to the festival area. After we called some late-comers to bring a BBQ, we had a nice little braai as well. In the meantime, John has locked his carkeys inside the car, and almost smashing in his window (did u know that a mercedes key can be used on most other mercedes...not sure if i am happy with that).

The rest that follows is much alcohol, partying and little sleep.

Making fire!
Set

Nice all Merc's in a square

Nice undercooked Chicken wings!

Me, Tom, Marielle and John

Statistics

Visitors of the blog (http://performancing.com) :

Very nice graph, but Japan. Someone care to explain?

Another week gone by

Finally got the camera hooked up on the notebook again and so got some more pics to show.

First I am now a member of the Aquarium, pretty stupid, but it was just a bit more then visiting once. So now I can visit the Aquarium all year *yay*!

Finding Nemo

Yoshi the seaturtle, the bad kid in the tank

Feeding the sharks and Yoshi

Saturday went out for dinner with the 'Silverstream gang' at the sublime Ocean Basket for Sebastians last night out in Cape Town. Then on Sunday we planned the trip to Robben Island... at 11 in the morning.

Felt alright, but in the small rooms of the prison almost filled the historic prison with Ocean Basket food from the night before, but some fresh air did me well.

In all seriousness. It was quite amazing to hear about all the cruelties that took place during the Apartheid. But also what a spirit most prisoners there had/achieved. By learning and not hating but forgiving they came out as stronger human beings. And like our tourguide said, former prisoner of Robben Island, 'racism is never good, we are all human beings'.

A 'luxurious' prison with a bed

The guide gives a talk on how Mandela wrote his book
Getting it out the prison secretly.

The limestone quarry where they had to work, many losing eye sight because of the glare
But also a place where they educated each other.

Me, Sebastian and his sister Julie

The Mother city

Failure to launch

Gandalf goes Cape Town

The ring has followed me to South Africa, and now we got Gandalf roaming the streets of Cape Town. Plus you can see Table Mountain, Clifton beach, Waterfront, the minibuses etc... and of course the three towers!

PG 12

Just a funny video, but also checking to see if it works to post a video here on my blog, and look here it works!

R.I.P. Steve Irwin aka 'Crocodile Hunter'

Today is a sad day, as one of my rolemodels has past away...

The man who was crazy enough to catch thousands of crocodiles, and other lethal animals, died today doing what he loved most. While filming an underwater documentary he got stung by one, and died on his way to the hospital.

Although very sad, especially for those he leaves behind, it is good to know he died doing what he loves most.

Respect goes to all the crazy people doing things they love to do!

Little bit crazy

Rest in Peace Steve!

Cape Point and/or Good Hope

So after fighting off the Baboons we climbed the Cape Point, or Cape of Good Hope, one of the two.

Cape Point and the wild Atlantic

Should get more touristy photos

The most South Western African Continent lighthouse, i guess

Spot the whale/shark

Famous sign, we wanted to be on the picture, but there was a big line of Italians and Japanese. So this is the best i got... damn tourists

Need to get some pictures from Sebastian, so more to come, no much more to come

Trip to Cape of Good Hope

To enjoy the beautifull weather that has arrived in Cape Town, A very sunny 25 Degrees Celsius, and to test the Merc a roadtrip was organized. This weekend with Sebastian and Katja to Cape of Good Hope, the most South Western point of the African continent.

An early rise after some irregular nights, so it was a tiring ride, but the scenery is amazing. The Mercedes, aka Hyacinth, slowed down a bit on the steep hills, but she came through. Not using too much fuel, I am very happy with the big girl. I already scratched it driving it the first day and one of the wheel covers is a bit damaged (damn parallel parking), but she did well.

On our way to the Cape we stopped in Simonstown, at Boulders beach, where there is a Penguin colony. They live there on the beach and it is also possible to swim with them, but unfortunately didnt bring our swimming gear, although the smell was not very inviting.

Living on the beach, in the bushes and near the parking lot.

And after checking this, we drove on towards the Cape to meet...

...some baboons

It is advised not to bring food out of your car and lock you car. The baboons had gotten to the parking lot and were having a field day. After seeing a baboon stealing the chips of the guy parked next to us, we saw this mother baboon jumping in a minivan and grabbing some lunch.

Dangerous Animal #1

Hmmm, i will continue the photo uploading tomorrow, doesnt work to well today.

So it is to be continued...

Ignite and Hyacinth

With Hyacinth we drove to Ignite and had a good time. She held up very well, the hill before you get to the gates of the apartment park was a real challenge for her, but she made it.

Ignite is a pretty cool club as well, on the ocean drive, with many pretty people being pretty.

Lekker.

Experiencing all of Cape Town

And so I finally have got the pictures on the web. Moved into this apartment last weekend, and I took a picture after it was cleaned, so you can see the might and awesomeness of the apartment!

This is the kitchen, with a bar!

The living room, with a sleeping couch, and the best view in the world

A view like this, of Cape Town center and Robben Island

Lions Head, still part of the view

So after moving into my apartment, I wanted to climb the Table Mountain, and convinced Sebastian to come with me, who was pretty hungover. Although it looked like he would have trouble climbing the mountain, I was struggling badly. As we also started climbing late in the afternoon, we almost missed the last cable car down... but after a long climb I made it and the views are amazing. Like I said we didnt have much time on the top, so I am definetly coming back to check out all the views from the top.

On top of the Table Mountain

The sun sets on Camps Bay

Besides the beautifull views and the amazing apartment I also experienced another side of South Africa this week. Easy Tiger Tourism supports a trust fund, TCD, which helps setup several projects in the townships of Cape Town. And this week there was an opening of a school and soup kitchen of Rosie, who started these projects by setting up a pre-school 20 years ago. My boss, Andre, invited me to the opening and here are the pictures.

The kids welcome us



All jumping up when you get in and grabbing my leg

Just a couple of weeks old, this little one was found in a garbage bin

It was a busy week

Arne

Living in Cape Town

Since last weekend I am now officially living in Cape Town, since I have moved into my apartment at Disa Park. On the edges of Table Mountain, the view is awesome, I have taken some pictures but cant upload them just yet, but below are the three apartment buildings. The left one, Silverstream, is the one I am staying.

When I came to the apartment on Saturday it was pretty messy. The guy that was in there before me had left just one day before I came, and they had been partying pretty hard for his last week. So that made the place a bit shabby. My room mates, Stuart and Sebastian, came back later that day on Saturday and we went out for a bit and on Sunday me and Sebastian climbed the Table Mountain. They cleaned the room Sunday morning, and it now looks awesome!

So soon some pictures of Table Mountain and the apartment,

for now

Ciao

Overlanding Africa Competition

A free trip overlanding africa...whats not to like?

Anyone planning a trip overlanding africa, going from Southern Africa to East Africa? You should definetly join the free Overlanding Africa Competition.

I helped making this competition, so even for my efforts I think you should just visit the site and check it out.

Overlanding Africa is an expert on these kind of trips and you can do a lot of crazy things like skydiving, quad-biking, white water safari's. But there is also a lot of safari's and wildlife encounters.

Check it out!

Arne

Lunch Long Street Cafe

Lunch in Cape Town on Long Street is not a problem, in fact most of the popular bars and restaurants in Cape Town are on Long Street. And the first lunch of me in Long Street then also had to be in the Long Street Cafe. This café is located on the North side of Long Street, conveniently close to the office of Drive South Africa.

The lunch(es) I enjoyed at the Long Street Café was a Thai Wrap with peanut sauce. The wrap itself was filled with stir fried chicken and veggies, with spices and a soy sauce. All in all it is a very spicy dish, for a reasonable price. Today I went to for Lunch at Long Street Cafe again, just because I am lazy, very lazy. And this time I had a chicken/avocado burger, on recommendation of the waiter, and it was very nice as well.

The café itself is a traditional bar and the service is very friendly. The café has a nice bar area, which is a mix of a sports bar and a business café, they also show football and other sports at the Long Street Cafe. Which is a good thing so close to work...

Greetings,

Arne