Of Local Artists, the 2010 World Cup, & Serendipitous Encounters

Lucille of Ivydene passed along some information about a local artist, Lesley Charnock, who has a studio in Newlands at Montebello Design Centre, just off Newlands Avenue and within minutes of many accommodation providers in the southern suburbs of Cape Town.

Lesley Charnock has painted a number of pieces in tribute to workers who are building the new Cape Town Stadium in Green Point, which will be used for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and which I have taken the liberty to display on this blog. She says this about her work:

Our home is close to the site of the 2010 Stadium in Green Point and I am surrounded by the excitement and activity of the construction workers, road diggers and cable layers. Driving across Cape Town to my studio every day I see street sweepers, the ‘The Big Issue’ vendors and the car guards. I find these vibrant groups of men and women at work to be wonderful subjects to paint...

I have empathy for the construction worker’s quest to realise their deadlines. The Stadium will soon be complete and the workers will move on. Their contribution will be a memory that I have sought to record in some of these paintings, a part of the progression towards this momentous event planned in 2010.

Lesley's art can be found at her studio in Newlands at the Montebello Design Centre. Her work will also be appearing at The Cape Gallery on Church Street in Cape Town throughout most of November 2009.

Mel's Place owner Mel, who knows Lesley personally, also commented on Lesley's work: "She is the BEST example of self marketing I know! Her experience and skill has soared and I really do admire her. She is also a very chatty, friendly person and her gallery is well worth a visit."

It is interesting too how people meet each other in the accommodation business in Cape Town, South Africa, and how such chance meetings can change the course of people's lives. Trish of Paterson House describes how she met Lesley:

I met Lesley when she arrived on the doorstep of Paterson House asking if I had any accommodation for her. It turned out that she was looking not for a bed, but for a space to paint and store her canvases while she was between houses.

She rented my pottery studio for a few months and we became friends. Without realizing it she gave me, through her own zest, positive energy and work ethic, the idea to expand my business.

I decided to build a studio cottage in the very large Paterson House garden, in a space where a vine and apple tree were growing …. and so was born AppleVine Cottage. Her studio is a delight, as is she, and the whole ambiance of Montebello lends itself to creative thoughts.

Cape Town Moving Towards 2010 World Cup

I was sent a video titled Cape Town's In Motion, the music and lyrics for which were written by Capetonian composer and author Peter Greenwall to highlight the city of Cape Town's eagerness and readiness to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The video showcases the Cape Town's natural beauty along with its cultural diversity. But rather than detailing in prose Greenwall's 2010 Soccer World Cup video, watch it here!


The FIFA World Cup is coming to Cape Town in June 2010, and all of Cape Town's residents anticipate the event. True, the World Cup will take place all over South Africa, but none of the other cities in which soccer matches will be played offer the natural beauty for which Cape Town is renowned, nor do they offer the cultural diversity and history of the Cape, which melds African, Asian, and European cultures.

Table Mountain will be the backdrop for World Cup football in Cape Town at the new Green Point Stadium, where World Cup soccer matches will be played. On the other side of the mountain, in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs, World Cup soccer teams will train for their football matches at Newlands Rugby Stadium as well as in Athlone.

Accommodation in these areas will be at a premium, so if you are planning a trip to attend the 2010 FIFA World Cup, now is a good time to start investigating Cape Town accommodation.

A big thank you to Jess of Hame Cottages, who found this video. Hame Cottages offer accommodation within easy walking distance of Newlands Rugby Stadium, where some of the World Cup teams will practise, and Hame is also conveniently positioned for easy access to Cape Town's city centre.

Cape Town's Southern Schools

When I started this blog, I knew I had to write about topics for those who were seeking accommodation, specifically accommodation in Cape Town, South Africa, and even more specifically accommodation in Cape Town's southern suburbs.  I know from experience that writing about what you know is relatively easy, but getting motivated to write can be a bit more challenging, particularly when you are unsure as to who your prospective audience will be.

That said, as I mulled over how to fill this first blog post, I thought about the type of people who would be looking for accommodation in Cape Town, and what might interest them.  Even more specifically, I wanted to write for people who were looking for accommodation in Rondebosch, Newlands, Bishopscourt, Claremont, Kenilworth, and the surrounding areas.

Then I read an article in this weekend's Cape Argus and it struck me that one of the reasons why people visit this area would be the same reason why people want to live here.  The schools in and around these suburbs are some of the best in South Africa, and on par with the best schools in Europe, and possibly throughout the world.

Now, I am not just talking about the University of Cape Town, which is one of the most prestigious universities in Africa.  Of course, parents who come to visit their children going to varsity need a place in which to stay.  Hotels are expensive, and so many parents seek out accommodation, and especially reasonably priced bed-and-breakfasts or self-catering establishments in the area.  But I digress.

There was not just one article that caught my eye about the Western Cape's schools, but three, though I will only get into the first one in this post.  The article dealt with high schools and how fifteen of the top 100 high schools were in the Western Cape.  On further investigation, I found that nine of those fifteen were in fact in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town! 

Bishops Diocesan College, Herschel Girls' School, South African College Schools (SACS), Bergvliet High School, Centre of Science and Technology (Cosat), Rondebosch Boys' High School, Rustenberg High School for Girls, Livingstone High School, and Westerford High School are all in Cape Town's southern suburbs, and were all acknowledged by the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation in their Circle of Excellence program. This program seeks to recognise secondary schools that consistently provide high quality education in general, and specifically those that successfully present candidates to the foundation.  The article gave a little blurb about each school, something that I'm not going to do here, though I think I will write something a bit more in depth on each of them, particularly SACS, as my son will be going to their junior school next year. 

The accommodation providers for which I write this are only minutes away from seven of these schools, and only 10-15 minutes from the other two.  In fact, they are also about 10-15 minutes from St. Cyprian's School in Oranjezicht, which is in the City Bowl.   Many of these schools allow students to board, and some parents live far away from Cape Town, with some not even living in South Africa.  It is for this reason why it is so important to find a place that offers something beyond accommodation, something a little like a home away from home...