October flew by!

October has gone and November has come!

We've been through so many changes during October I just didn't have time to blog!
Firstly I went on leave and moved house - Maritzi took care of the shop while I was gone. And while I went on leave and moved house, The owners of Victoria Eatery came and gave the shop a big internal operation (electicity wiring, plumbing etc) and a little bit of a face lift while they were at it.

We closed shop for 4 days and gutted the kitchen to redo it again - and I must say it works like a dream, I never could imagine that this little kitchen could have so much space!

Purple rain fairy and homebaking

My my my what an interesting month we had!

First off there was Casual Day where some of our customers showed up in fancy dress. Our early morning coffee customers are already a nice chatty bunch - we always have such a nice buzz here in the mornings, everyone has become friends with everyone and it's one big group chatter, jokes and laughs.

So when Michelle from the Purple Shop showed up here as the Purple Rain Fairy she lifted the atmosphere to an almost festive feel.

Springday!

The first of September always tends to be a bit of an anticlimax for me; I remember when I was still at school the big hype throughout August, the planning of the outfit (we were allowed to wear casual non-school-uniform clothes), the excitement to look pretty and springy etc etc etc just to have mother nature throwing us a curve ball and send the next cold front in full vengeance on the exact day we planned to celebrate the coming of spring. Well ... 20 years later and today was no exception (at least I didn't have to plan an outfit to compete with the other prettier girls to at least feel like I could be in the running for "Miss Spring") but today the wind blew through our alleyway in a serious attempt to cleanse every corner from any morsel of dust or dry winter leaf that might be hidden in a crevasse somewhere, and deposit it right inside our little shop.

Spring, hayfever and other bodily functions

It's the first week of August and spring is in the air. It's already starting to get light earlier in the mornings - the sun starts to rise as I carry out the tables, chairs and umbrellas for the day whereas a couple of weeks ago it was still midnight dark while walking in and out the shop with furniture. Isn't it strange how the extra light makes the early morning furniture moving feel less menacing than when it's dark?
Together with the returned light comes the flowers the Western Cape is famous for this time of year, and together with the flowers, comes the pollen floating through the air and of course then the hay fever follows....

Here are a few pictures of the beautiful flowers I'm surrounded with in the arcade. Just a pity my sinuses and

Time flies

My oh my it's been long since I've been here!

Not much has happened since my last blog, I locked myself out of the shop the other day - with my keys (the only set in town) inside, but I managed quite well to break into the shop without calling the professionals.
I took a couple more photos of customers the past weeks, so I guess I'll just put them on here for all to see while I try to figure out what to write.

This is Melany and Ana Voigt - Melany used to help out here every second weekend

Maurice - the water guy

Anel Henn and her newborn son (I can't remember his name though - I think it might be Thomas?)

My beloved parents, Alysia and Albert... our biggest supporters :)

Annalisa Prak - the cup, no mug, no cuppa coffee girl

And finally, now all can see what Maritzi, my waitress/righthand-girl looks like.

Hope you all enjoyed the photo show - I think that'll be all from me for the time being.

Cheerio!

Winter is here!

This has been a week of freezing, teeth clattering weather.
I guess I shouldn't really complain because even though this week has been cold we had the most perfect weather last week - a summer in the middle of winter.
The owners of our little restaurant came for an official visit yesterday.

Felix's amazing technicolored cupcakes

We had a birthday party today, Felix turned 1 !!!!!

I spent all Friday making, baking, throwing away, baking again and icing amazing technicolored cupcakes. Aveline asked me to bake them about 2 months ago already but I wanted them to be absolutely fresh so I waited until the last minute to bake them - all 72 of them :)
She dropped off the 3 primary colours food coloring and I had such fun mixing colors! Blue, Purple, Yellow, Orange, Green and Red.