Pretoria Restaurant restores faith

We moved to the Pretoria area eighteen months ago and since then have been on a vain search for a restaurant that not only serves good food but also provides a good service where the staff are up to date on what is on the menu, what ingredients the different dishes contain and the service is good and prompt.
Coming from Johannesburg we are used to good service where the dishes are served in the correct order and the food is hot. Here in Pretoria we have had the main course served before the starter, the food served cold after a long wait - probably because the waiter forget to collect it when it was ready, and a total show of indifference when we have complained about the service. At some restaurants we have been served the wrong food and when queried, the waiters have been unable to remember what we did order.
Even in the quick service fast food chain restaurants where one knows roughly what will be on their plate we have been given the incorrect burger i.e. beef instead of chicken. We were beginning to think that perhaps the one hour drive to Johannesburg was worth time and petrol simply for a well presented meal that delivered all that was promised on the menu and was served by staff that know what is going on and expected by patrons of their restaurant.
Yesterday we decided to go to the Menlyn Shopping Centre in a last vain attempt to find somewhere we could eat out and actually enjoy a meal.
The centre was astir with the anticipation of the Super 14 final match and all the eating places were busy and so we wondered around looking at menus and for what looked like somewhere nice to sit quietly and enjoy lunch. As we approached "Cappuccinos Cafe and Pizzeria", a polite well spoken young lady asked if we would like a table. Good first impressions always count and so we followed the waiter she had called to a table and were seated comfortably, handed the menus and asked what we would like to drink.
Drinks ordered we settled down to have a good look at the menu and were delighted to see that it gave descriptions of what the dishes contained and that there was a good variety to choose from.
Our order arrived in good time, was well presented, the plates and the food were hot and on tasting all on our plates we were both able to pronounce to the waiter that we were very happy with what we had ordered and lunch was in fact very good. As we were busy eating a young male staff member approached us to ensure that we happy with meal and service, we could only give him a positive reply about everything.
We will definitely go to Cappuccinos again and look forward to feeling happy to take friends and family there on special occasions.
As a final afterthought - the prices were reasonable and the servings large - but when one is happy with the service and the taste then these perhaps are irrelevant.

The road to Natal

We had to go to Natal on a business trip last week with a detour to Hattingspruit, a small village near Dundee on the way. We left Pretoria just after four in the morning and drove under a very beautiful starry winter sky, until we hit coal country. It was as if we were driving through a steam train tunnel, the air was thick and heavy with coal dust and visibility practically nothing. If the smog/fog was not enough the road was worse than the usual potholed disasters that we seem to find whenever we make a trip to anywhere, even the local supermarket.
As we were getting close to sunrise time we kept looking out for the glimmer of light in the east that declares the beginning of another new day. Fat chance, the smog was too thick and heavy for us to do anything but carry on driving in the hope that sooner or later we would get ourselves out of and off this man made road to hell.

Finally, after dodging trucks and numerous waits at road construction sites where there was only traffic going one way at a time we started seeing the first promises of light and life away from this Dante's hell of coal dust and pollution.
Yes, there still was a Sun, and as we went in and out of patches of despair and into what seemed to be a landscape of half dead trees and grass trying to survive in an atmosphere of foul air and dirty, smelling water holes we wondered what the God's were thinking about man's efforts to clean up the Earthly environment. Not very much I would imagine!

We finally made it to Hattingspruit, only one hour late, did what had to be done there and continued on our way to the coast. Wherever there was a sign of habitation, be it a small hut on a hill or a town or city we seemed to see signs of pollution, some just tiny wisps of smoke others great factories bellowing out their waste to the world.
Do these huge almost archaic looking monsters, that sit almost as if stalking us, ever get checked by any government officials as to what they are befouling our air with and why are they still doing it anyway? Or it it the usual South African attitude of well it is only a small percentage of the worlds pollution so why does it matter, speak to the big boy polluters in other countries first.
South Africans seem to be rather fond of complaining about things, but seem less willing to get off their seats, rumps or whatever they happen to sit on and get things done. We really are a rather lazy nation.
A short stop for body comforts and food and drink and back on the road for the final downhill drive to Durban and the coast. How great it was to see the sea, and to walk along the beach at Scottburgh with the waves lapping up to our bare feet.
Life is really so good but with a bit more effort from everyone it could be so much better.

Animal behavior versus human

The human factor!

What is it about humans that we seem to make a huge mess no matter what we are doing? Are we so absorbed in being technically inclined that we are forgetting the mundane things like picking up after ourselves or are we perhaps getting a bit to egotistical in thinking that we are to good to clean up our own mess or anybody else's for that matter.

The animal factor

Even animals are trying to make a difference these days!!