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Yes indeed. They have built it, now get on yer bikes, Cape Town peeps!
C’mon, join us for the Critical Mass ride on Friday morning. It’ll mark the 2 year anniversary of this monthly early-morning cycle-promoting ride that leaves a smile on your face.
I’ll be at the CTICC at 7:15 am, meeting up with the more intrepid types who started from the Baxter Theatre at 6:40 am (ouch). It’s loads of fun, and the coffee at Deluxe at the end is the best R10 you’ll spend all day.
After cycling a bit in New York, I’ve felt quite downhearted about just how tiny the bicycle culture is in South Africa. But I just heard something that’s given me a lot of hope for what’s possible back home: Avid cyclists and excellent photographers Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler are travelling all over South Africa, finding cyclists to photograph and interview for their Bicycle Portraits project.
Stan and Nic are wanting to turn their portraits into a full colour book, so while they’re collecting the images and interviews – largely from the saddles of their own bikes – they’re also raising money to make the book (mock-up below) a reality.
Watch the video (complete with Papa Was a Rolling Stone in Zulu), and then go donate some money. They’re accepting anything from $1 upwards.
I love the spirit of this project, the stories they’ve collected so far (to read the stories, click on each portrait on the site), and the photos are just beautiful too. As far as I can see, this project isn’t just about bicycles and people, but also about the diversity of South African life and what is possible for us.
Despite getting a late start this morning (thanks to a fabulously fun Critical Mass ride), my Making Friday seemed endless. I started out by making purses once again, after a little article in Thursday’s Times about the purses I made last week got me loads of orders. Thanks, so much, Audrey Nyathi!
Then, I’m afraid, the making bug went belly-up, as the tidying bug bit, and I got seriously stuck into a massive Sort Out for the rest of the day.
So instead of more purses to show for my Making Friday, I’ll show the overlocked and top-stitched patched tablecloth I finished last weekend. I’ve been making it as a custom order, using linen Summer Weeds napkins. I think it turned out very nicely.
Any other Making Fridays out there? I’d love to hear about them. Happy weekend, everyone.
The last Friday of the month always means hopping out of bed and onto a bike to join the Cape Town Critical Mass ride!
Paul likes to call it “Critical Shortage”, as the Cape Town cycling scene is pretty teeny weeny (apart from the lycra-clad sports clones), but this one was not poorly attended at all.
Getting up early is not everyone’s idea of fun, but a leisurely ride in the fragrant sea air of Mouille Point, followed by a double-back past the 2010 stadium, along the amazing new Somerset Road cycle path is really something special. Usually we stop at Green Point Vida for a coffee afterwards, but this time we kept going all the way into town, where we had freshly roasted coffee at probably the most hipster spot in the whole city, also known as Deluxe Coffeeworks.
You’ll see beards, moustaches, huge specs, skinny jeans, plaid shirts, fixed gear bikes, Vespas… but it’s not all form and no content, no Sir. This is a quality establishment, with well-made furniture and fittings, and, most importantly, top-notch coffee, roasted on the premises. Oh, and a flat white is only R10. Yes, that’s R10. I’ll have two, please.
If you’d like to hook up with the bicycle bunch in Cape Town, check out these blogs and websites :
BMC (Bicycle Maintenance Company)
See you at the next Critical Mass ride – that’s 26 Feb 2010.
Critically silly, critically cute
Paul and I got all Halloweened-up for the Critical Mass ride in Cape Town this morning. He was a cat, with neoprene ears and cats-eye specs and I was a devil with carrot horns. Never forget, folks: the fridge can be your wardrobe too!
But Edith is the hands-down winner of this month’s newly instituted Cape Town Cycle Chic award. That bike’s so cute!
Cape Town critical mass
I remembered to join the traditionally ill-attended Critical Mass ride in Cape Town early on Friday morning. It left me beaming for the rest of the day, and also scored me some rather nice Cape Town Cycle Chic-style photos, thanks to Lynne and her super-stylish getup.
Lynne’s husband the rest of the Fittees crew helped out in the style stakes too, with Tobie on that nutso tall bike…
…and Steven (aka Savage) too.
Keep on ridin’, Capetonians. It’s a little bit dangerous, what with the general idiocy out on the roads, but the fun factor of being on a bike outweighs all that by miles!
Cape Town critical mass
I remembered to join the traditionally ill-attended Critical Mass ride in Cape Town early on Friday morning. It left me beaming for the rest of the day, and also scored me some rather nice Cape Town Cycle Chic-style photos, thanks to Lynne and her super-stylish getup.Lynne’s husband the rest of the Fittees crew helped out in the style stakes too, with Tobie on that nutso tall bike……and Steven (aka Savage) too.
Keep on ridin’, Capetonians. It’s a little bit dangerous, what with the general idiocy out on the roads, but the fun factor of being on a bike outweighs all that by miles!
Cape Town critical mass
I remembered to join the traditionally ill-attended Critical Mass ride in Cape Town early on Friday morning. It left me beaming for the rest of the day, and also scored me some rather nice Cape Town Cycle Chic-style photos, thanks to Lynne and her super-stylish getup.
Lynne’s husband the rest of the Fittees crew helped out in the style stakes too, with Tobie on that nutso tall bike…
…and Steven (aka Savage) too.
Keep on ridin’, Capetonians. It’s a little bit dangerous, what with the general idiocy out on the roads, but the fun factor of being on a bike outweighs all that by miles!
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