Barcelona

Ok so continuing my blog. Call it a travel blog if you will. I haven't been here for a while - sorry about that. Again, I'm hoping someone reads about my adventures, if not its a cool way to remember where i went and what I did.

So I went on my first official sales trip to attend the annual tradeshow called EITBM. No idea what it stands for.

My awesome boss gave me a few days headstart so that I could explore.

A friend from school, Hilde, met up with me for the weekend. We rented an apartment in the gothic neighbourhood for the weekend. I arrived on the Friday morning and took a train to some station to connect with metro line three to Liceu on La Rambla. I was supposed to meet the landlord there for the keys but he was in a meeting so I set off to find the laundromat where he left the spare set of keys. It was actually really close to the metro stop but a slightly panicked and tired me walked for probably an hour (with my suitcase) to find the place. Ended up in the right street in front of a very dodgy black and graffiti'd door. I opened the door only to find the  most frightening staircase of my life. My first thought was, o my fuck, I'm gonna  get raped or robbed in my sleep. I managed to drag my suitcase up three flights of stairs to the apartment. The apartment is great though. It felt relatively safe, was beautiful though small. It was clean and ridiculously central so who was I to complain?

I took to the streets to shop my heart out only to be super disappointed. I was craving H&M and a proper Zara, but could not find anything. I walked and walked and walked exploring and ended up at a little tapas place on Las Ramblas to drink sangria and write post cards.

Hilde arrived just after midnight, it was so good seeing her and catching up. We went looking for a bar after we got her settled at the apartment but couldn't find anything close by that was open.

Saturday morning we woke up to a huge storm, thunder and all! We were extremely tempted to stay in bed all day but eventually set out to find some breakfast. After buying umbrellas we went to the food market and got some breakfast followed by delicious wine.

Thereafter we did the heaviest tourist thing and got onto the red hop on hop off bus. The bus took us to La Sagrada Familia which was ridiculously cool! Unfortunately the line was so long it went right around the church so obviously we couldn't get in. Always leave something to come back to right? We continued on the bus a little bit and then got sick of being stuck on a bus and got off at Tibidabo to have coffee and catch the metro back to La Rambla. Did i mention that it was super cold?

Instead of getting off at la Rambla we continued to Port Vell for some shopping. Up until this point it was pouring with rain and we were frozen so we opted for some indoor shopping goodness. Two hours later we left the mall with various purchases and went home to deposit our new goodies.

My main shopping mission for Barcelona was to buy a nice pair of leather boots. After we left the apartment the boot search continued in the pouring rain. Wet feet is a great incentive for buying boots :)

Literally five minutes before we had to meet the girlfriend of Hilde's cousin we found the perfect pair of boots.

Marga (the girlfriend) took us to the most amazing little tapas place. It was a bit of a wait but soooo worth it. The place was super nice and crammed with locals. We fought our way open to the bar and took our seats to start our tapa and wine feast. I cant even describe the food we had, but it was out of this world delicious! Marga took us to a bar close to our apartment for some late night sangria. We were met by a transvestite and a cross-gender cow person/thing. It was such a creative and awesome place and we literally just sat in a corner people watching.

What an amazing day!! I havent even told you yet, Marga is a big time celeb in B-town. She is on the Spanish olympic synchronized swimming team. It was so interesting and amazing listening to her stories and experiences. She is such a nice person and we are really lucky that our paths crossed with hers.

My last day with Hilde was also spent in the rain but we had so much fun! We woke up late and headed out for breakfast. A breakfast of champions. A chocolate croissant and a late. We walked a lot (in my new boots) and accidentally ended up at Barcelona's  own Arc d Triomph. What?! Yes thats right.. If im not mistaken it was for some world show thing (i cant remember the name, but will post as soon as it comes to me). We took a couple of jumping pictures in front of the fake landmark and missioned on. We landed up on a bus making our way up to Tibidabo. Tibidabo is sort of a mountain and a lookout point over the beautiful city. Once the bus drops you, you board an ancient funicular ( more scary than cool old!) to the top. Ed and Tyler shared the funicular with us - fantastic meeting these two actors from Canada land (?) - they were great photographers and even posed on a few pics with us. Hopefully somewhere around the world we'll bump into them again.

Tibidabo was gorgeous and the views over the city beautiful, but unfortunately we had only a few minutes at the top as we had to rush back home to get Hilde to the airport. We made it home just in time.

We said our goodbyes and Hilde headed off to the airport, and i took a cab to my hotel. The hotel, Murmuri is just up the road from the awesome tapas place Marga took us to. Its a beautiful boutique style hotel located very centrally and close to amazing shops.

Monday morning started early as i got back into work mode. I met Yolanda and Rupert for breakfast and chatted through the day's happenings. We went to the convention centre to go and check our stand and headed home to prepare for our meetings for the following three days.

For those of you who dont know, i work in sales and marketing for a destination management company. We sell southern and east africa as destinations for international corporate incentive groups. We attend various international trade shows all over the world to market our product - gorgeous dark wild africa. In conclusion, this is how i found myself in Barcelona. Barcelona is the host city to the annual EIBTM show in November. In feb 2014 we are heading to AIME in Melbourne, Australia.

Ive heard many things about these shows and to sum it up i was warned that im going to talk a lot, walk a lot, smile a lot and be exhausted after three days. Well they were right. However they made it out to be a bad thing. Yes i was exhausted, but i honestly enjoyed it. It was so empowering telling people about our amazing country and refreshing that most of them actually showed a real interest. I was so psyched up half way through the first day i couldve danced circles around the entire conference centre.

During the show days we visited amazing restaurants; i had an apple and basil martini, saw a dj in a unisex bathroom, had delicious spanish ham, beautiful white wines and moody spanish waiters. All in all Barcelona was one hell of an experience!

The trip back home was not so much fun. I flew back on Egypt Air - a dry, boring and slightly creepy airline. I really wouldn't recommend this, but it was cheap and the food was sort of edible :) ag no worries, i got to go to Barcelona and got home in one piece so all good.

Stay tuned for New Zealand and Australia.

Lots of love,
Netta

Cook Club

Myself and three girlfriends decided on starting our very own cook club. The idea is for us to have a proper excuse to catch up once a month and to exchange awesome recipes and also to learn a few tips here and there.

Each month one friend gets a chance to host cook club and have to provide a proper meal for the other 3 girls. The other three make sure there's enough wine and so the party begins :) 

Our first round of cook club was super successful. Santie was the first to host and made delicious homemade burgers.  What a great way to start cook club?

I was next up and made bobotie from the legendary Kook en Geniet. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
- 2 x onions
- Oil or butter
- 1kg x mince
- 1 x slice of bread
- 250ml of milk
- 2 x eggs
- 15ml Curry powder
- 22.5ml sugar
- 10ml salt
- pepper
- 30ml vinegar or juice from 1 lemon
- 7.5ml tumeric
- 125ml raisins
- 4 x bay leaves
- 45ml chutney

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Chop onions, and brown in the oil. Add meat.
3. Soak bread in milk and squeeze milk out - you want to work the bread into the mixture
4. Mix all the ingredients, except for 125ml of the milk, 1 egg and the bay leaves
5. Dish mixture into a sprayed oven bowl
6. Bake for one hour.
7. Beat the one left over egg and milk and pour over meat mixture an half hour before taking out of the oven.
8. Serve with yellow rice and chutney

Next in line was Lyall who made Paella. I'm not a fan of Paella, but couldn't get enough of Lyall's. It was delicious and a great night with the girls. We even had cook club cupcakes from charly's bakery.

Last but not least was Tessa. Tessa made a delicious lasagne with the best chocolate mousse for dessert.

Here's the recipes:

Beef Lasagne: (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
- 250 g packet instant lasagna sheets
- 1.5 cup freshly grated mozzarella cheese
- 1.5 cup freshly grated cheddar cheese
- 1.5 cup thickened or pouring cream
- 1.25 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Ingredients for the Cheese sauce:
- 60g butter or margarine
- 1/3 cup plain flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup freshly grated cheddar cheese 
- salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for the meat sauce:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 x onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 500g beef mince
- 2 x 425g cans tomatoes
- 1.25 cup red wine
- 1.5 tsp ground oregano
- 1.5 tsp ground basil
- salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Brush a shallow overproof dish with melted butter or oil, line with lasagna sheets - breaking them to fill any gaps. Set aside. To make cheese sauce, melt butter in a medium pan. Add flour and sit for one minute. Remove from heat. Gradually add milk, stirring until mixture is smooth. Return to heat. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until sauce boils and thickens. Reduce heat, simmer for three minutes. Remove from heat, add cheese, salt and pepper. Stir well until combined and set aside.

To make meat sauce, heat oil in a large pan. Add onion and garlic and stir over low heat until onion is tender. Add mince. Brown well - breaking up with a fork as it cooks. Stir in undrained, crushed tomatoes, wine, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer 20 minutes.

Spoon one-third of the meat sauce over lasagna sheets. Top with one-third of the cheese sauce. Arrange a layer of lasagna sheets on top.

Continue layering, finishing with lasagna sheets. Sprinkle with combined mozzarella and cheddar cheese.

Pour cream over the top. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until bubbling and golden.

The Choclate mousse:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/4857/choclate+mousse+in+minutes

Stay tuned for more from the cook club. Important to remember that we have rules:

1. You cannot prepare anything the day before. It has to be prepared after work
2. You have to make it from scratch
3. We have to eat before 21h30

Will post more soon x

Herb Trolley

I recently acquired a small shopping cart and got a few herbs for my birthday and decided to merge the two and make my very own little herb garden on wheels. This way I can move them out of the harsh Camps Bay wind and move them from sun spot to sun spot. They can either be on the balcony, in the kitchen when cooking or even my room.

I have started out with Parsley, Coriander, Chives and Basil.

There are various amazing tips and pointers you can find all over the internet, Pinterest is particularly good for this.

In order to start a good herb (or any) garden, you need good soil. You can use any soil, but be sure to add compost to the soil before planting your seeds. It's always a good idea to add the compost to the soil a week or so before planting, to give the compost time to do it's job. Compost can be bought at any garden centre. You can also make it yourself. I found a couple of cool websites, but this one is a good one to check out. Everything you need to know about Composting. The cool thing about doing it yourself is that you are actually reducing your amount of kitchen waste. There are ways of doing this as to not stink up your entire garden. Here's another cool link: http://www.makeandtakes.com/its-not-trashy-to-compost?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+makeandtakes+%28Make+and+Takes%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Another really cool idea that keeps away slugs and pests are crushed egg shells. I never know what to do with them. They protect your plants and provides nutrients over time that can help your plants grow and blossom.

This weekend I'm going to add to my garden, by buying a few more herbs. I will keep you posted as this is quite an experiment and something new to me. I have had herb gardens before, but nothing serious, just for fun, and each time I moved, I had to sadly leave them behind.

If you have any pointers or helpful hints, please pass them onto me by commenting on this post.

Wish me luck x

Young Blood

Hi Guys,

I need your help please. My super talented friend, Herman, needs your votes. He's gorgeous photo (the one above) is currently 6th in line to win R10 000!!! We have till the 26th of September to vote for him. Please share this on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and any notice board you can find. Unfortunately you can only vote once, but every vote counts.

Please click on the link below:

http://www.capetown.travel/photo-comps/lovecapetown-photo-competition-2012-vote-now/413453

You can also view the photo at:

http://hermanjordaanphotography.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/leeukop-pano.jpg

Please share with all your friends!

Thanks! Lots of Love xx

Paris

Wow, what to tell you about Paris?

This was my second time in the city of L O V E, but this time I feel like I explored more. We arrived in Paris, after driving all the way from Belgium and being stuck in traffic for half the day. Driving into Paris was quite an experience. Again, Joe was a really good navigator and assisted me all the way to the parking area at Gare de Lyon. Shoe was I tired when I got there!?

We walked to the hostel, met up with Ettienne from School, checked in and went exploring. We found ourselves at Charlotte Bar for a quick drink and then found a little french restaurant for dinner. We ended up drinking litres of wine and having great food. Joe had steak tartare, I had lamb chops and Pieter had delicious chicken strips.

Our first day in Paris we did all the sights and tried to go to the Louvre, but apparently it's closed on Tuesdays, cause it's cleaning day. Instead, we hired bicycles for the entire day. Paris has a really cool bicycle system. You pay with your credit card and all over the city they have docking stations. Once you have paid your deposit you get a membership number and everytime you get to a docking station you just enter your membership number and you will receive a bike. All the bikes are parked at the docking station and releases once your membership number has been entered. Then when you are done riding around you return your bike to the nearest docking station and automatically your credit card is charged for the amount of time you used the bike. It's amazing and it really works.

We saw the Notre Dame, Louvre, we went on a Ferris Wheel and much much more. The second night we met up with Cyn and Herm and had the most amazing picnic right under the Eiffel tower in a really secluded spot.

The second night we had a picnic at the Sacre Courre and Herm and Cyn joined us after ward for a walk through the Moulin Rouge. What a special trip :)

When it was time to leave Paris we drove back to Belgium, stopping at Versailles. What a cool place. We rented a little golf cart and drove all around the property. We got stuck in traffic on the way back to Belgium but made it in time for our special surprise dinner.

Fre suggested we spend the night at Puinstraat 24 (his house) and go for a surprise dinner. We didn't know who the dinner was with and ended up having a lovely and delicious dinner with Nathalie and Sarah. After dinner Fre and Tijs joined us at a bar for a few rounds of beers and we all had one last great night together. We left with heavy hearts to Amsterdam the next day. Driving there was quiet and sad, but getting to Amdam we were all happy again.

We spent our last night in the red light district :) shopping the next day and then went home.

This was definitely an unforgettable trip. Thanks for everyone who got involved and it was great, actually beyond great seeing all my friends again. Love you guys x

Rock Werchter 2012