From my understanding of history, Napoleon Bonaparte wasn’t exactly a nice man. He ruthlessly lead the French army into battle against many peoples, including the Prussians (where my family is from).
Last weekend I was introduced to a vice of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Vin de Constance, a sweet dessert wine from Klein Constantia that’s been in the making since 1791 (bottle available at R60 000). It is an exceptional end to an amazing meal. The setting was Die Ou Pastorie in Somerset West.
Walking into this restaurant is incredible. Built in 1819 it has seen many things change, from ossewas to cars, rich wooden floors, warm fireplaces and friendly staff. I cannot picture a better setting on a cold winter night in Cape Town.
Warm friends around the fire, freshly prepared Duck la’Orange with rotkhol and crocheten and warm malva pudding for dessert, and then the Pièce de résistance, a fine glass of Vin de Constance.
I have found that after a long, bitter struggle after the recession of 2009 it’s a good thing to remind ourselves that life is not that bad. Sometimes there are simple pleasures that just make things worth-while, like a glass of wine, a fireplace and a few good friends.
So I noticed on the news today that Cape Town has launched it’s Integrated Rapid Transport service, having been called the IRT for a while. Anyone living in Cape Town knows all about the chaos on the roads as extra bus lanes have been added to the major routes in and out of the city.
For all it’s beauty and wonders this city is very poorly laid out. The road system looks like God dropped his bowl of spaghetti and there were it fell we laid roads. Public Transport is non-existent. From Table View (a suburb of over 300000 people) there is no train system into the city and the road that leads to town ends up in a single-lane. This means that Rush Hour in Cape Town is actually Rush-3-Hours. If you don’t leave home by 6am you won’t get to town before 8:30.
So we get this new road system, which they have called it MyCiTi and the first few buses were launched today, hopefully bringing the airport-city route online before the world cup. Nice.
But I have a problem with the name. I don’t think it was researched properly. Simple check: www.myciti.co.za will lead you to the Citi Bank Group website. While Citi Bank is hardly recognised in SA, I do think the City of Cape Town should have done a little bit of online research when choosing the name.
Why not just call it “IRT”? We’re all calling it that already. Argh. Politicians. The slogan is also a little silly. I have no idea what the Xhosa Phrase means, but “Laat Wiel” and “Going Places” – while both have something to do with transport, don’t seem much to do with each other.
Here’s a clip I found on Zoopy I thought you’d like to watch.
Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy the IRT is finally coming to Cape Town – we need decent transport. But what does concern me is the lack of thought when choosing a name … which brings me to my freetip for this Friday afternoon:
FreeTip: Do some research online when choosing a name.
From my understanding of history, Napoleon Bonaparte wasn’t exactly a nice man. He ruthlessly lead the French army into battle against many peoples, including the Prussians (where my family is from).
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