Cape Town, Saint Francis & the Festive Season, South Africa – Dec 2011

December has been a month of new beginnings.  The 1st of December saw Katherine and I officially move into our new Bonne Esperance apartment on Beach Road in Three Anchor Bay.  The place has two balconies, two Weber braais and ocean views to die for.  With the Sea Point Promenade located a mere stone’s throw from our front door, a daily regime of morning runs and afternoon walks in our lovely new neighbourhood is sure to keep us fighting fit.

The new beginnings extended right through until the penultimate day of the month when my sister Sue married her long-time boyfriend of eleven years. The wedding ceremony took place in the Brooke Chapel at Bishops and was followed by a festive reception at the excellent Suikerbossie Restaurant (www.suikerbossie.co.za) in Hout Bay where, after concluding my duties as MC,  I wholeheartedly embraced the revelry.

The wedding also proved the catalyst for getting all the siblings and their partners back to South Africa for Christmas ahead of the wedding.  We kicked off proceedings with an enjoyable week catching up on the canals in St Francis (www.infostfrancisbay.com) before returning to Cape Town for Christmas in Llandudno.  This was followed by a family get together at Cathbert Country Inn (www.cathbert.co.za) in Franschhoek where we had some time to get to know our new in-laws a lot better.  And I must say that it’s great to be related to the Brown family and have Tom as my newest brother-in-law.

We concluded the month and saw in the New Year in grand style at the idyllically-located Tintswalo Atlantic boutique hotel (www.tintswalo.com) below Chapman’s Peak. I for one felt pretty bad that we were gate crashing the second night of the newly weds ‘mini-moon’, but the bride and groom were as gracious as ever.  It turned out to be a thoroughly spectacular and very special night.

The first half of December was dominated by deadlines and a pretty hectic writing schedule as I strove to try and get as many of my commissions completed ahead of the ‘silly season’ craziness.  I succeeded with the vast majority of my projects, but January will no doubt have its own share of excitement on the magazine stories front and with starting a new job … But that’s another story that I’ll save to share with you next month!