Thank you to all who nominated CTG for a Best New Blog Award in this year’sSA Blog Awards.Very nice of you! Would bake you all cupcakes but I don’t bake cupcakes, I just eat them. Same goes for macarons. I just create the demand. Anyway, you can now be a part of the voting process -click here and it will select CTG from the list and you can cast your vote for me in the Blog Award Finals. Or you can just click on the massive blog awards badge on the top right of the page. Hopefully we can take this ‘chick blogger’ thing to a whole new level! Maybe even ‘release my own fragrance’ (smells like Macarons) or ‘design a limited edition range for a department store’ (smells like Macarons) or ‘release an album’ (all about Macarons..)
Thank you again. I really do appreciate the support.
It’s hard being a chick blogger. We’ve been over this. Plus I have this hardcore macaron habit to support. Not sure if you know but 1 x macaroon goes for R5, and if CTG eats 20 macarons a day, that means weekly macaron expenditure is almost 5 million rand. But you can help. Literally by just clicking here, and confirming your nomination of CTG for an SA Blog Award in the email they send you. That simple. Would appreciate it a lot.
en masse massage studio - lots of screens and mirrors and beds
As a big fan of friendly human contact – cuddles, hugs, massages, gentle back patting … I’m there – I was THRILLED at being invited to experience an interesting concept, namely MASSAGE CLUB. This is how it works:
You joinenmasse for either R550 per month or R900 per month.
For the former you get 2 x 1 hour massages a month, and the latter you get 4 x 1 hour massages a month. Is that not a brilliant idea? Sign me up Scottie! Click here to view their menu and see what’s available. You can also just get once-off massages from R350 for 1 hour. Great for a no-frills no-fuss lunchtime massage quickie.
Anyway, I had the 1-hour Thai Massage. I’ve never had a Thai Massage before, and it’s quite interactive. It’s a mixture of stretching, pressure point pressing and massage, and I really, really loved it. Am usually stiff due to being a bit OCD about running and exercise so this took the relief of a normal massage and made it amazing with the stretching vibe, and the pressure points – thought you may scoff – really hurt! And it works. Felt totally centred and light.
Where you have your massage
Thai Massage is different in that there areno oils involved – you walk in, they give you a white shirt and wrap pants, you get changed and the whole thing is done on a mattress on the floor. And while i LOVE oils, they can be impractical if you just want a quick massage in the middle of the day, which is where Thai Massage comes into its own.
Teas. Lots of them.
They also have a ridiculously huge collection of delicious teas, so once you’ve had your massage you can chill and drink a cup of something soothing and yummy. Enmasse is centrally located in Gardens in Mill Street.Click here to make a booking.
PS Ladies - guys will love this place. They won’t call it ‘gay’. Treat your man xx
Am typically Capetonian in that am a total creature of habit who gets very stressed out when I can’t get MY table in Beluga and MY heater at Sevruga and if I can’t eat ALL the crying rolls I order at Minato (like, if you want crying rolls, will you just order crying rolls and not eat mine okay? cool) and also I don’t really trust any sushi that doesn’t come from either Beluga or Sevruga or Minato’s and DESPITE all the time I spend at One&Only Cape Town I have not actually eaten the sushi at Nobu yet. Shocking, I know. So Saturday was time to ‘live on the edge’, ‘take a risk’ and try something new. Since Nobu is Paris Hilton’s second home we reckoned it couldn’t be that bad could it?
You can watch the chefs making the sushi upfront
Nobu at One&Only Cape Town
First impression would be the space – LOVE that you sit in intimate booths and LOVE the double triple volume that makes it so spacious and honestly, you come to Nobu because their service is so incredible you end up having a collaborative eating experience rather than a meal. After lengthy chats with the hostess we settled on a selection of their menu’s finest rather than ordering specific dishes, with a focus on white fish – not something we’ve eaten very much of.
A selection of whitefish sashimi. Ask them what they have in - I could eat this all night. I basically did.
Softshell Crab roll - stop right here because I CANNOT recommend these enough! Softshell crab is my sushi future!
Sushi salads usually disappoint me but the Lobster Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing was completely OUT OF THIS WORLD.
Lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing
We were served a really delicious 10-year old Saki with the Lobster salad and it was yummy. Very clean and fruity with banana flavours. Ask for it when you go – it’s the Hokusetsu Ongakushu Semi-dry 10-year old.
Dessert finished us. Passion fruit mousse jelly thing, chocolate fondant (best dessert on the menu IMHO), green tea ice cream, kelpers & pineappple sorbet (the other best dessert on the menu), malva pudding and a coffee mousse thing which was also delicious.
After all this eating, Priscilla and I really should have gone home. But we didn't. We did something else instead, which I'm not sure about blogging yet. Oh Cape Town... you offer 2 girls too much on a Saturday night...
A story for another time...
A huge thanks to Nobu for being so utterly gracious in hosting CTG. The service was truly out of this world! And you absolutely have opened my mind to whitefish. It is the way forward! Salmon seems so… pink in comparison! Click here to make yourself a booking at Nobu. You won’t regret it. You may also never eat sushi anywhere else, which could be inconvenient but well, the risk is yours to take.
Nah just kidding. Although that would be nice. Ladies, some srs girl talk quickly please gather round gather round. Y’all know that women in this country make 85% of ALL shopping decisions? That includes buying houses, holidays, food, cars and clothing? And did you also know that women bring in half or MORE of the household income in MOST SA homes? And that women control the finances of over half the households in SA?
Why am I telling you this? Because I was telling a friend of mine this the other day and she was like, really????? So women are actually economically more… powerful than… men??? YES. Really, this is a woman’s world. If y’all thought men had the upper hand economically in ANY way you were deluded. Especially if you work in HR and you pay your male employees more than your female employees. Best you rectify that ASAP. Tell them CTG said to whop yo ass and get with the program.
We at CTG are VERY well aware of this and have been ‘living the dream’ for quite some time now. One thing I’ve been sure to take full advantage of are products and programs that reward females for being, you guessed it, female. This is a nifty trick. You can basically save a million trillion rand if you’re smart about using certain female-focused financial products.
Basically, cancel half of your twenty billion insurance policies (I keep taking out new ones coz I don’t know that I already have 10 and I just think what the hell, more disability cover can’t hurt right?), and move your credit to the Standard Bank MyCard. I just did. Right. Diamond-shopping anyone? Frances?
The lovely Estee Lauder ladiessent me these pics from our 3 Steps to Beautiful Eyes makeup session. Ladies this was so much fun and we walked away feeling all pretty. Strutting. Like ponies. Hoofs up. Clop clop clop. Trying to figure out how to make this part of my daily routine somehow.
Eyeshadow being applied - colours being the Vintage Violet and Roseberry Duo, liner is Jet Black Auto and Mascara is Turbo Lash in Black.
Nearly there, looking good so far. Have discovered a new foundation - the Lauder Nutritious in Intensity 2. I am SO over matt foundation - matt is sooo granny! - and Nutritious gives you this lovely, dewy, just-had-a-breathy-makeout-session-with-my-exotic-lover glow.
Finishing touches - Blusher in Nude Nuance, a touch of Bronzer in Soft Shimmer and lips in Strong Coffee.
The result: Pretty Eyes! :)
Thank you so much to Lulu and Toughieeda for having us! And for helping CTG with colour. Am normally scared of colour when it comes to makeup and tend to stick to browns and blue greys on my eyes. Feel free now! Free to use purple too! :) (Was super inspired by Lulu who was wearing the most amazing shade of BRIGHT purple!)
Lulu and me :) Lulu is so glam! She is super inspiring!
Head over to an Estee Lauder counter if you want Pretty Eyes too – tell them CTG sent you :)
CTG was invited to go out to Elgin to experience theOld Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park Hotel, cousin to theGrand Daddy Hotel on Long Street, prior to its opening. This was a wild experience, let me tell you. Firstly, CTG and PD took their sweet time heading out into the country, getting our makeup done at Estee Lauder first,dawdling around Vida and then, only then hitting the N2 out to Elgin. We were then informed that we were holding up the boat ride. Oh Lord! Only us. So we then spent 4 billion hours driving around trying to find the rest of the boating party, which we eventually did, which eventually made it worth it.
You can get a boatride at nearby Mofam farm for only R70 - very serene and lovely.
Sunset from the boat.
After the boat ride we then drove another 4 billion kms back to the hotel, which is designed like an enormous barn, with overturned buckets as lights, and all the staff wear Old McDonald checker shirts! Ah, it’s lovely to look at.
Barn vibes in the main dining room
But the driving left us feeling like this, I won’t lie. As did the denial of my request for a cappuccino:
Taken right after it was revealed to CTG that Old Mac Daddy does not serve cappuccinos, or any filter coffee of any kind at all. Bleak.
I mean, what kind of a hotel doesn't serve FILTER COFFEE? An unfinished one apparently. We were assured that cappuccino machines were arriving the very next day.Which we have chosen to believe.
The food was at least delicious. We were served bobotie with banana, custard, coriander, basmati, almonds, green beans and chutney, which perked us up bigtime. Compliments to Siya the chef – he really did outdo himself. I could have eaten 2 servings, to deal with the emotional trauma of being denied cappuccino.
We then retired to our room – the specially requested Dirkie Sanchez Suite, whose development I have been following over at this blog since they started building the Old Mac Daddy. And this is when our evening really started. So inspired were we by this incredible take on hotel decor – the whole room is them Mexican Luchadore with the bed being a wrestling ring! - that PD and I decided to make a video, and spent the rest of the night doing just that. Please enjoy the fruits of our ass-shaking to our get-up-and-dance track of the moment, Beyonce’s Girl Anthem Why Don’t You Love Me:
The making of this was too much fun. We even took a break at midnight, and, starving, ventured down to the hotel to see if we could get a snack. Not only did we get a snack, but owner Jody totally went completely out of his way and opened his kitchen to make up toasted sandwiches, tea, rusks, milk tart and koeksisters. Unreal! That more than made up for the cappuccino debacle. So thanks for that Jody. And thanks for having us! Guys, Elgin is beautiful, and the Dirkie Sanchez Suite has a view of the whole valley. Go spend a night there. They should have cappuccino machines by now. And take a camera.
BUT WAIT. Hidden in the back cupboard of the Dirkie Sanchez Suite is a pair of luchadore costumes. You know, Mexican Wrestler Nacho Libre vibe. We discovered these as we were leaving so took a few quick snaps but why don’t you use them in your video?
xxCTG & PD
PS video footnotes: CTG & PD wear sundresses R80,00 each by Mr Price, shades Roberto Cavalli, Ray Ban and Armani by Sunglass Hut, POA, makeup by Estee Lauder POA. Contact CTG for more specifics editor@capetowngirl.com
Photo by Dave Southwood - click the image to see more
LOVE being on holiday because it allows you to do things like meander around the inner city and stroll into the National Gallery if the fancy takes you. I did such a thing at some point last week and discovered a really great exhibition called From Pierneef to Gugulective and it’s such a great spread of work – please please please go take a look, it’ll be a worthy hour or so.
Lisa Brice - one of CTG's fav SA artists
Can't remember the artist here but this bro appears in my dreams from time to time.
How beautiful is this packaging? Got a sample of this new rooibos iced tea called BOS(love the name) created by the same guys who did Afro Coffee (also love their packaging). As a big fan of rooibos I had high hopes and have not been let down – it’s honestly good. Had a taste of the Slim version because teal is one of my favourite colours and it’s actually really good.
Stunning.
Also really like the Energy variant as it’s lightly sparkling. Definitely going to be picking these up for summer – the perfect beach accessory! They also came in a beach bag!
Love the localness too. Wonder how they’d mix as cocktails… Look out for them in shops in these gorgeous fridges:
