Window on George

In South Africa we make pancakes when it rains. Directly translated, we bake pancakes. These are not American pancakes, neither British nor French. They are neither crumpets nor crepes. They are pancakes. This afternoon Riyadh had a brief trickle of rain.  It rains, you make pancakes. You start off with the batter (a family recipe) which has thickened in the fridge for at least 3 or 4 hours.   You NEVER make the pancakes with freshly made batter.   It's simply too runny.   The gluten needs to develop so that the pancakes are soft and not chewy. You take the cold, thickened batter out of the fridge, turn on the heat and get a heavy pan ready.   Stir the batter thoroughly and add a bit water if its too thick.     Family tip:    add a teaspoon or two of sunflower oil to THE BATTER.     While you are waiting for the pan to heat up really well, mix white sugar and ground cinnamon in a bowl or jar.   Get...

My town, George was proclaimed by the  Earl of Caledon , governor of the Cape Colony on  St George's Day , 23 April 1811, and named after the reigning British monarch, King George III.       Adriaan Geysbertus van Kervel was appointed the first magistrate.     One of Van Kervel's first acts as magistrate was to dig a  furrow  to supply the first thirty six  plots  in George with water.      An 1819 map shows the original furrows and storage dam where they remain to this day in the Garden Route Botanical Gardens.     My house is right there.   If only they had supplied 40 plots... The Georgian era is a period of British history from 1714 to 1830, during  the reigns of the kings George I, George II, George III and George IV  (with the sub-period of the Regency, defined by the Regency of George IV as Prince of Wales during the illness of his father George III).  The st...

I loved my white sun hat. It offered glamorous protection from the sun. It could be folded or rolled up into my handbag or hand luggage. I washed it in the washing machine. It was the perfect accessory for my Dior sunglasses. It travelled well. And it loved the sea as much as I do. You live on Hong Kong island, you go on water. You go on water, you have wine. You want champagne? Go on Aqua Luna. My hat was still new here.   And very white. Water is water.   Sky is sky.   Sand is sand.    Earth is Earth. My hat lapped it up! My first visit to Phuket 2011 - many years after the tsunami.   I need more tops! Phuket again, July 2013.    Leaving Hong Kong.   Took my hat with me. My pool in George has JC le Roux.   The Westin in Macau has Pina Coladas. I need more swimsuits! Lamma island, Hong Kong. Post-typhoon. Stormy waters. Small but powerful waves. I lost my belove...

More than an island, Crete invites you to walk from its high snow-covered White mountains to the edge of the sunny and blue Libyan sea. Creta has everything: Tranquil blue sea, mysterious caves and traces of the past, including those of the Minoan civilization, stately Roman remains and frescoed Byzantine churches, spectacular orchids, aromatic plants, extended olive groves, and places like the Lasithi Plateau and the majestic Samaria Gorge National Park with the unique and amazing geology, picturesque villages, historic cities, architectural monuments since Venetian and Turkish conquerors, fabulous local gastronomy …Crete has it all.  Impact Urginea maritima Origanum Onites - Origanum Sauvages (Wild) Psarantonis - Lyre player Thymus Capitatus - Wild Thyme Ant carrying dried marjoram flower Bulb of Urginea Maritima Origanum Microphyllum Wild Thyme  - now safe and sound in my kitchen in Riyadh and still releasing its fr...