To Market, To Market on Reconciliation Day

Melrose House

It is Reconciliation Day in South Africa and since we had the day off, we visited two historic houses. The first was Melrose House in Pretoria and the second was the Smuts House in nearby Irene.

Smuts House

To be totally truthful, we didn't go to tour the houses - although we did. We went because their grounds played host to two markets. The Irene Village Christmas Market and the Melrose House Charity Antique & Collectibles Fair.

The Irene Village Market is an art market on the shady grounds of the Smuts House Museum about 40 kilometres north of Johannesburg. The market is famous for its rustic, 'old-world' setting on the slopes of Smuts Hill, just a stone's throw from the village of Irene on the banks of the Hennops River. Only original art and craft are traded with exhibitors and their wares undergo a strict selection process.






 

some WWII artifacts on the grounds

The Smuts House was originally an Officers' Mess in Middleburg during the Anglo-Boer Wars. The building was purchased by General Jan Smuts and re-erected on the grounds in 1908. The Smuts family took occupation of it in 1909. General Smuts died in the house in 1950.

entrance to the market

Afikaans toile tablecloths

Since Irene is steeped in Afrikaans heritage, many of the crafts reflected their culture.

there were some African crafts too

And lots of local fare ... like Vetkoek.

I got the one filled with apricot jam and cream cheese. It is about as close to an apricot cheese danish as I am ever going to get here.

And Rooster Koek.

Vince had the spek, eier and kaas Rooster Koek. (Bacon, egg and cheese, the original Egg Mcmuffin.)

Melrose House Antique & Collectibles Fair

Next stop, Melrose House.

I had been looking for an antique map of Africa. This "New Map of Africa" is from Antwerp and is circa 1596-1612.

I love the fictional animals on these ancient maps.

Melrose House itself became famous during the Second Boer War (1899 to 1902) because it was used as the headquarters of the British forces. For 18 months, the war effort against the Boers was strategised from 275 Jacob Mare Street.

The Peace Treaty of Vereeniging that ended the war was signed around the massive dining table at Melrose House on 31 May 1902.

Melrose House dining room

Happy Reconciliation Day!

ten bompas

remember that wine!

We are taking advantage of the dwindling population in Joburg - and our recent purchase of the Johannesburg Entertainment 2014/2015 book filled with discounts and coupons - to enjoy some of the city's best dining spots.

Once school lets out, practically everyone starts leaving Joburg for the month-long Reconciliation Day (December 16) through Christmas through New Year holidays. We will be joining the mass exodus soon too but until we do, we can actually book a table at some of the toughest tables to get in Joburg.

Like the winehouse at ten bompas in Dunkeld. Ten bompas offers between three to five choices each for starters, mains, and dessert and you could theoretically order only one. Or you can package your selections as a bespoke two or three course menu. Guess which we did. That's right. Three courses. It's Christmas.

wild mushroom consomme

I had the wild mushroom consomme, tortellini, truffle, radish, soy pudding as my starter. For my main, the sea bass with burned onion, green onion relish and black olive.

kudu carpaccio

Vince had the cold smoked kudu carpaccio, gorgonzola, grain mustard, sherry vinegar for his starter and the speciality of the house for his main dish. Joostenberg Vlakte duck breast, peas, polenta and saffron pear.

All the mains come with a side of "hasselback" potatoes and a really nice lightly dressed rocket and radish salad served family-style.

chocolate pudding

There were three choices for dessert and we were tempted to get all three just because they all sounded so good. After much deliberation though, cooler heads prevailed and Vince ordered the self-saucing chocolate pudding with hazelnut ice cream. (Order it early because it needs 20 minutes to prepare.)

crepe suzette

I ordered the crepe suzette, vanilla custard, Grand Marnier, Greek yoghurt sorbet, orange gel masterpiece. (We will have to return for the treacle tart, candied pecans, salted crumble and clotted cream dessert.)






We have only used the Johannesburg entertainment book gold card twice so far for their dining discounts and have only used one of the hundreds of entertainment coupons it contains and we have already made back our purchase price investment. From here on in, it's gravy!

We bought our book to benefit a very worthy cause, the Heavenly Valley Pre-School. Use this link to buy yours and you will ensure that R60 of the purchase price will be donated to Heavenly Valley Pre-school too.

Simon and the Zulu Shield

We met Simon at the Ncome Center when we visited the heritage site of the Battle of Blood River on Reconciliation Day, December 16. His name is really not Simon but he said it would be easier for us to remember and use than his real name, Thokozani Shabalala. He was right.

Simon had been our personal guide as we made our way through the little Zulu Museum at the Center. There was a small gift shop which we visited and we Vince was interested in buying a Zulu shield there. Unfortunately there weren't any available for sale in the gift shop, but as luck would have it, Simon said he could make us one to our exact specifications.

We told him what we wanted. The biggest size or "full house" as it is called (about 60 cm tall.) just like the ones Shaka's warriors used. We picked out the cowhide we wanted (white with brown patches.) And we settled on a price (pretty cheap as we found out later when we saw the identical shields for sale at Shakaland.) We exchanged contact information, shook hands and away we went. Simon said he would contact us "just now."

Then we waited.

We finally heard from him on January 27. Now I can accurately measure "just now" as it applies to Zulu shield making anyway. More than a month. He texted me this photograph of the shield drying. Looks good!

We wire-transferred half of the asking price into Simon's personal bank account - very new millennium - and waited some more.

Simon and the completed shield

Two weeks later, Simon texted us another photo with the news that the shield was ready to be picked up. Which we did the following weekend along with the second half of his money.

Next job, finding a way to securely hang the shield against a large white wall in our dining room. I figure we have until "just now" to do it.

Lou and Serge are out of the doghouse

Broshararm Kennels in Blue Hills, Midrand was "kennel sweet kennel" for Lou and Serge for the past 3 1/2 weeks we spent gallivanting around South Africa for our Reconciliation Day weekend to Christmas to New Year's to Epiphany holiday. They actually didn't hate it.
















They had their own roomy private suite to share (living room and bedroom!), heated floor if it got chilly at night, protection from the rain, lots of ground to roam around on their walks, tons of friends to play with  (they romped with like-sized little dogs) and a veterinary clinic right on site. The kennel also gave us regular reports on how the pups were doing. So comforting.




 




They pay very strict attention to feeding times and amounts, medical and dietary needs, and request you bring their favorite foods, toys and bedding to help with their emotional comfort.

I highly recommend them for a long term kennel.

Broshacarm Kennels & Cattery
011 318 2306

doggie crackers for my Christmas Ladies' Lunch & Yappy Hour

I left two doggie crackers with treats and chews inside for Lou and Serge to open on Christmas morning. I saved two more for them when they returned in January. The great thing about dogs is that they cannot see beyond the cheap attempts to buy forgiveness with treats in order to hold a grudge! I'm counting on it.

The Church of the Vow

In order to complete the story of the first Reconciliation Day, we visited the Church of the Vow in Pietermaritzburg. To refresh your memory, before the great Battle of Blood River, the Voortrekkers made a solemn vow that they would erect a church in gratitude to God if they were victorious in the battle against the Zulu leader Dingane and his warriors.

They did more than just win. They killed! Like  "Agincourt-killed." Just like the British at Agincourt, the Voortrekkers were greatly outnumbered by the Zulu army. And just like at Agincourt, the Voortrekkers came out of the battle with the bare minimum of wounded and dead while enough Zulu blood was shed that day to turn the Ncone River red.

The Voortrekkers chose to build their church in nearby Pietermaritzburg, a city named after their two great leaders, Piet Retief and Gert Maritz. The Church of the Vow is now the centerpiece of the Voortrekker Museum in the heart of the city. There is a museum, a conference center and a research library. You can also tour the remains of  the great Blood River commander Andries Pretorius' house which has been relocated from its original location to the grounds of the museum.












The Voortrekkers were nothing if not true to their word. God is Life.

Life is a Battlefield

American battlefields at ...

I knew the minute we drove through the historic KwaZulu-Natal battlefields on our way back from skiing in the Drakensbergs that Vince would insist we return to the battlefields at some point for a proper visit.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 

Vince is a sucker for US Presidential Libraries and any museum that showcases science and technology. And the same goes for battlefield sites. His ears perk up when discussing a travel itinerary that incorporates any or preferably all of the above.

But as much as I love history, I die a little inside every time we visit battlefield sites. Snore. You would think living for years with the combined testosterone of a husband and two sons - and especially with one of them a United States Marine - that I would either be dead or used to it by now, but I am neither.

However, we did have about a week to travel before our son Alex arrives for Christmas and we embark on our 10 day Christmas holiday. We wanted to do something other than the things we have planned for the itinerary with Alex. Safari, the Garden Route, the Klein Karoo, Cape Town and environs.

I proposed the archaeological World Heritage site of Mapungubwe. Vince put forth the KZN Battlefield tour, Durban and Umhlanga Rocks. In the end, the battle was a draw. Vince's itinerary before Alex arrives and mine right after he leaves to go back to the US. Truce and reconciliation. That's what it's all about, heh?

Besides, spending Reconciliation Day in the same place the holiday actually commemorates seemed appropriate. We stayed at the very central Battlefields Country Lodge in Dundee. Cute thatched rondavels, a swimming pool, a thatched wedding chapel, and the buffet dinners at their Cafe Tagati are pretty good. Make a note, when you are out in the country with independent restaurants scarce if available at all, your lodge is also your dining room. Bring your own wine.

We visited the Talana Museum in Dundee to get an overview of the various sites and go through the museum's interesting displays. Talana is a battlefield site itself when on October 20, 1899 the Boers "convinced" the British to retreat to nearby Ladysmith.

We found out that Dundee was nicknamed "Coalopolis" during its heyday as a British settlement when it "employed" thousands of Indians as indentured servants. There is a monument to Gandhi on site and a Satyagraha Center.

Vince in front of the bronze laager circle

We picked up a map of the local battlefield sites and set out. Islandlwana, Rorke's Drift (forever immortalized in the Michael Caine film Zulu,) and the big daddy of them all, Blood River.

The cliffnotes: Andries Pretorius, 450 kommandos, the Vow, the laager circle, 6000 Zulu warriors, the Ncome River turns red with the blood of 3000 dead Zulu warriors, victory for the Voortrekkers. Let's go build that church.

And then my ears literally perked up too. We heard quite an uproar coming from the Ncome Center next door to the Battle of Blood River battlefield site. And after we crossed the Blood River to get there, we found that there was a dance competition going on with tribal dancing! And tribal music! And tribal singing!



 


I bought some more beaded jewelry and Vince ordered a huge Zulu shield and bought a Nguni fighting stick.

Reconciliation at Blood River! It still happens.

Have a Grand Reconciliation Day!

Vince chipping away at the Berlin Wall in 1989

It is Reconciliation Day in South Africa, or as it is also known, the unofficial start of Christmas vacation.

I was not in South Africa when the Voortrekkers won the Battle of Blood River against the Zulu nation and declared December 16 a day of reconciliation in South Africa.

Nor was I there during the great South African reconciliation of the 20th century after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and became President of the new democratic republic. Reconciliation Day that year took on an enhanced meaning for the South African people.

But I was there for the other great reconciliation of the 20th century, the European reconciliation when the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was once again reconciled and reunited. When Václav Havel peaceably transformed Communist Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Poland's Lech Wałęsa and his unionists brought the Soviet Union to its knees without a single shot being fired. Ukraine became self-governing again along with all the other countries who were formerly part of the Soviet Union or otherwise under Soviet control and suppression. The Soviet Union downsized and became Russia once again.

my father and his Uncle Jan

I had visited many of the Soviet block countries, as they were known, in 1985 with my father who was born in the small village of Zborov in the High Tatras of eastern Slovakia. We also visited Hungary and Poland along with Czechoslovakia. And we had visited Kiev in the USSR.

Quite a different story when I returned in 2007. Unimaginable actually in 1985. Leningrad was once again St. Petersburg. Kiev was no longer a city in Russia. Moscow had a Ralph Lauren flagship store in GUMM directly across from Lenin's tomb! I am sure Lenin was inside "rolling in his grave," as my mother would say. Red Square was awash in Gregorian chants emanating from a loudspeaker atop a nearby onion-domed cathedral. Like a call to prayer. 24/7. Keep rolling, Lenin.

Ain't reconciliation grand?

Mandela Mural in Maboneng

The Maboneng Precinct is honouring the legacy of Nelson Mandela by commissioning a 40 meter high mural. It was started on Saturday and will be finished on Monday, December 16, Reconciliation Day. The mural is inspired by the famous Bob Gosani image of Nelson Mandela boxing on a Johannesburg rooftop. The mural is positioned so that it faces the site where the image was photographed.



We could see the painters working from the Top of Africa at the Carlton Centre.

They are actually on scaffolds painting the tops of the legs of Nelson Mandela! (Ros had a better camera with her and took a much better photo.)

The mural will include the phrase “I AM BECAUSE WE ARE”, inspired by the definition of Ubuntu: a philosophy highlighting togetherness and humanity.

Artist Ricky Lee Gordon or otherwise Freddy Sam

Artists taking a break. He is holding a photograph of his inspiration.

Sorry to disturb!

Ros showing the artists the picture she took from the top of the Carlton Centre of them painting the mural.

Can't wait to see the finished product!