The Madd House

21 January 2013 PicknPay Head Office   Customer care: xxxxxx@pnp.co.za Marketing: xxxxxx@pnp.co.za   To Whom It May Concern, It is with some incredulity that I noted a headline on the front page of the PicknPay “Goodness News” Summer 2012 stating “Keep Them Safe ... PnP supports the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), which is spearheading several rhino projects”. As an anti Rhino-poaching activist I find this to be in rather bad taste and I certainly hope that you are not merely using your “we-love-the-rhinos” attitude as a marketing ploy. How can you, in all honesty, profess to be supporting the plight of our Rhino when each and every item of clothing and shoes in your (many) clothing franchises and your hypermarkets are made in China?   China, along with Vietnam, is currently one of the biggest importers of Rhino Horn – the very reason why our Rhino are being murdered at such an alarming rate. Is it possible for a large company...

All good things come to an end and it seems our holiday was no different.   The last official day was supposed to be spent at Granger Bay but because Jerry and I had worn our party-animal hats the night before (Jerry with her new friends and I with mine) and we’d only rolled in at 02h00 – the day started slowly. We had a lovely lunch with Michelle and chatted, at length, about her big adventure.   She’s off to Japan for a month in April.   How enthralling! I’m awfully proud of her. She’s finished her Honours now and because of her immense interest in all things Japanese she has worked really hard and saved even harder and wants to spend a month in Japan during cherry blossom season. Wow! Then began the tedious task of packing. Foof!   And for some reason or another we had accumulated a lot more than we came down with and I needed to borrow a suitcase from poor Chris and we booked an extra bag on Kulula – at least they have that facility. And our final da...

Time flies when you’re having fun! And as we dash towards the end of our holiday everything becomes manic as we try to squeeze in whatever last few things we can. Thursday we dashed (again) off to Atlas Trading to purchase the spices we’re taking back to Jo’burg and then headed off in our car for a splendid tour of the Sea Point and Granger Bay areas. At home just in time to get ready for our evening of curry with our friend so that I could have a look at the technology she uses as a professional musician to possibly incorporate the same into our band. Jerry learnt a valuable lesson in how not to behave as there was a little girl there with the most atrocious manners who speaks rudely to her parents, doesn’t sit at the table when they eat and treats her playmates with derision and disrespect.   She is rather overindulged which, in itself, is not a bad thing but she is the epitome of a spoilt brat. Friday saw us heading towards the Aquarium – what splendid fun that...

This is Cape Town, right?   The folk here are renowned for their curries, right?   So where the hell do they get their ingredients from? Let me start at the beginning.   Séan had promised our friend, Sharon, some of his legendary curry – we were supposed to visit her last night and take a pot of curry with in exchange for having a look at her keyboard/midi set up. We cook with the basics like onion, garlic, chilli and ginger regularly but needed to purchase the more unusual spices so we set off yesterday morning and after a breakfast at the Mugg & Bean headed towards the Bo Kaap to find Atlas Trading. Well, we were extremely dense and completely forgot that yesterday was the 2 nd  of January – Tweede Nuwe Jaar, when the Coloured inhabitants of Cape Town dance, play and sing through the streets wearing brightly coloured clothes in a carnival of note!   It’s a wonderful tradition, but most shops around town remain closed .... and Atlas Trading was...

The old year was clearly very tired and sent a totally rambunctious wind in an attempt to blow us towards the new year quickly.   I had to dash out to the bank and do a spot of anniversary present buying (wh ever decided on the themes for anniversary presents should be shot at dawn), so I plaited my hair into a French plait that was so tight that my ears were almost touching at the back of my head.   Did this help?   Not one bit!   Within five seconds of stepping outside I looked a little like a cat that had gotten one helluva fright. The afternoon was chilled with Séan leaving to trawl the malls on his anniversary preset buying adventure whilst Jerry and I played games and started preparing for our traditional New Years Party with the Maraiseses. The night blew in rather quickly and not long after Chris left for his New Years gig we also departed with trays of snacks, a well stocked cooler bag and ourselves all bright eyed and bushy tailed in anticipation o...