Yes, I'm devastated. My team, Cameroon, and our national team, Bafana Bafana, didn't make it out of the pool stage of the SWC and I've had to turn to drowning my sorrows with frequent visits to Taki's, The Elephant and Barrel and The Station Pub. The proprietors of all three establishments have been most supportive and demonstrated a level of enthusiasm that the French would do well to emulate in the future. How it is that each of them keeps going despite having packed pubs day after day and night after night is beyond me. I know it's costing me a fortune. Oh, hang on…
Via his blog, Neil Pendock recently laid into 'frivolous' Franschhoek yet again and I found myself feeling more than a little peeved at the nerve of the man. My frustration is as unfair as his; after all he doesn't live here. He doesn't need half an hour just to buy milk from Pick n Pay (where buying the milk takes five minutes and the other 25 is spent chatting to the friends he'll invariably find shopping there); he doesn't take pride at the hanging of flags for the SWC or the Bastille Festival or look forward to the Bowls Club's AGM (to which everyone is welcome on July 8th at 6pm). He doesn't live in the village - he visits the tourist destination. This tension of ‘village' vs. ‘tourist destination' is not unique to us, but how we manage it will be. There have been many letters and comments in response to last month's articles about the development of Franschhoek and some of them are printed on page 26.
We have an exclusive insight into the life of international star, Eric Mabius, with a feature based on time spent with him on location while filming the upcoming BBC One television series, Outcasts, on page 21. We smack our lips in anticipation of Solms Delta's ‘veldkos' (page 6), enjoy the fruits of wine maker Susan Wessels' labour at Vrede en Lust (page 8) and visit the charming Knorrhoek valley for some good food and great wine on page 12. As always, local business is well-represented as we chat to Pat Ross of African Art Gallery about Pashminas and crack open the story behind the success of Avoova, both on page 22. We meet Denise Mall of Synura Initiatives on page 3, visit Just Rock and Voluptuous on page 4 and chat to the folks behind Chez d'Or (page 3) and Genot Restaurant (page 6). We introduce Gary Jolliffe, our new correspondent on all things equine and take pride in the achievements of Nutfield Stud's, Imperious Star, who we'll be watching in The July (page 10). Jim Waite learns nothing about Forex on page 28 and the publisher makes his SWC Parting Shot on page 31. Great finish or own goal? You decide.
And finally, The Month continues to evolve as a ‘magazine in a newspaper format' and as such has attracted a lot of interest outside of Franschhoek. The quality content, creative layout and colourful pics have highlighted the dearth of decent local publications and a number of rags have responded by upping their game and improving their offering. This is a good thing and demonstrates the value of competition – especially to consumers (who in our case are our advertisers). Despite the number of people who have suggested to me that the Franschhoek valley can't possibly accommodate multiple publications, I'm happy that more and more is being published in and about our beautiful valley and that the number of advertisers being accommodated increases each month, as does the quality offered to them.