Shop handcrafted feel-good items on Luuks!, discover new book Stilspraak: Strijdom van der Merwe en Landkuns, dine at Eendracht’s new eatery and go roller-skating in the Mother City. MIRANDI NEL brings you new stores, new designs and new flavours in and around Stellenbosch.
Luuks! online
Stellenbosch-based Ilse van der Merwe and Edith Thiart have always shared a love for quality craft and design and now they also share a new enterprise: Luuks!, an online gift shop with an emphasis on handcrafted feel-good items that spark joy. ‘Luuks!’, they say, is a modern Afrikaans slang term that expresses admiration for something that brings great satisfaction and is often associated with the simpler things in life, the essence of feeling good. And that’s what you’ll find in their shop: kitchen accessories like wooden serving boards, knife magnets, salad servers, oven gloves and aprons; leather wine carriers and lifestyle bags. Support local and order online, it’s definitely ‘luuks!’
Speaking silently
Stilspraak: Strijdom van der Merwe en Landkuns looks like a coffee-table book but is as much a scientific study. In it, author Carina van der Walt, a South African poet who evolved into an art journalist after moving to the Netherlands in 2007, writes about the background to ‘land art’ (landkuns) and the connection between poetry and the arts. Her main focus, though, is the work of Strijdom van der Merwe, who has been active as an artist for almost 25 years. Following his art studies at Stellenbosch University, in 1996, he went on to Prague (concentrating on sculpture), and then Utrecht and Cambridge. Today his work can be seen in galleries throughout South Africa. He actively participated in the making of Stilspraak (silent speech) and quotes from his conversations with Carina often appear in this beautiful book.
A new eatery at Eendracht
Eendracht Hotel and Apartments, located in the oldest part of Stellenbosch, has opened a new restaurant. Named after the mother of the hotel’s owner, Daniel Lutz, Senobia’s offers a menu inspired by many of Mrs Lutz’s own recipes that Daniel remembers from his childhood. In addition to a breakfast selection and a seasonal à la carte menu of South African favourites, there’s a blackboard special that includes a dish of the day, dessert and wine or coffee, all for R95. Snacks, Bootlegger coffee and organic teas are also available, and all can be enjoyed on the beautiful garden patio. At Senobia’s you’ll find South African hospitality at its best.
Flying high
If you’re confused by the look of this Longines timepiece, you’re obviously not a pilot. The style is reminiscent of a time when aviators wore their watch on the inside of their wrist to better track the time. The dial is offset 40 degrees to the right, enhancing readability of the indices without releasing the plane’s control yoke. The Longines Heritage Avigation Type A-7 1935 is a chronograph that reinterprets the Type A-7 model ordered by the US Air Force that year. The fluted crown at 12 o’clock eases handling of the chronograph functions in the air, even by gloved hands.
Roller-skating comes to Cape Town
The city’s first indoor roller-skating park opened in December last year at Battery Park in the V&A Waterfront. If you’re looking for something new and fun to do, head over to Rollercade, an indoor skating park that provides a safe and friendly environment for the entire family. Enjoy roller-skating,
a game of pool or just sitting back and listening to the music. The park is located on P3 (Parking Floor 3) at the Battery Park entrance off Alfred Street or Dock Road in the Waterfront. Those keen to roll on in will pay R150 for a 2.5-hour session, which includes rental of skates and safety gear (R80 if you bring your own skates), and R40 just to enter and enjoy the arcade. Visitors skate in three main sessions and two extra slots, beginning at 10:00 and ending at 18:30 on weekdays and 21:30 on Fridays and Saturdays. The room and items are sanitised after every session. Visitors are required to wear a mask and socks throughout their skating experience.
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