Africa Geographic Competition

Facebook is pretty amazing. Through one of my contacts, I found out about the Africa Geographic Photographer Of The Year competition and the prizes look pretty amazing, so I thought I would enter with a few of my own pictures.

There are 3 categories:
Travel
Wildlife/Scenic
People/Culture

I entered the below pictures for either the Travel or Wildlife category. Hopefully my pictures will soon be up on the Travel and Wildlife albums - if you see any of my pics, please like them so I can stand a chance to win the "most popular entry" category!

Travel - Rolling hills in Baberton

Wildlife - Amur Falcons

Travel - Baberton Sunset

Wildlife - Trio of Rhinos taken at Mabula Game Lodge

Travel - Sunset at Mabula Game Lodge

If this sound of this competition appeals to you, why don't you scour your pictures and see if you have anything that will fit into one of the categories? Let me know if you've entered by commenting below!

What is the point of a #Hashtag?

The hashtag has been around for a while now and lots of people use it in their statuses and photo captions - facebook, instagram and twitter posts often contain these little '#'s. But how many of you really know what the point of a #hashtag is?

• To make up cool phrases such as #bestfriendsforever, #I'mDoingSomethingCool, #bestideaintheworld?
  No.
• Used to add some #oomph to your picture captions/statuses/twitter feed?
  Not really.
• To annoy people who prefer to read sentences that aren't littered with strange symbols?
  Surprisingly - nope, not that either. 

The point of a hashtag, my dear readers (and yes, there really is a point), is to allow you to add keywords, known as "tags" to whatever the hashtag is associated with, such as a facebook post, photograph, blog post etc. These tags are used by search engines when they crunch out their algorithms in order to bring you the most relevant information. When you then publish this thing and let it loose into the www, there are a few things that happen. 

In facebook/instagram/twitter, if you use hashtags, you will notice that they're click-able or searchable, or both. Click on a hashtag to see what others have been posting about that topic. If you can't find anything, it means no one has used that hashtag. 

You can create your "own" hashtag in order to keep track of things. I'm thinking of using these to keep track of my Practical Cookie blog posts.

Lastly, if you search for something on a search engine, and it has an associated hashtag, it will probably show up at some stage. It might not show up on the first page, but it will eventually!

So - use the hashtag to get found, discovered and find out what other people are associating to particular words!

My Favourite Things About Christmas

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. As November starts to draw to a close, I start looking forward to the buzz that starts to fill the air as Christmas draws near. Holidays start to seem just a hop-skip-and-jump away and the summer days start to feel lazy, even on work days.

Here are my favourite things about Christmas:

• Christmas Carols
  My folks have a Christmas CD called Carols by Kings which we would put on every year and this would also indicate that it was time to decorate the Christmas Tree! Every year I look forward to listening to this CD (and others) full of Christmas Carols.
  

• Decorating the Christmas Tree
  What's not to love about getting your Christmas tree up - when combined with carols and some awesome decorations, an afternoon of Christmas Tree decorating is an afternoon well spent!
  

• Family Time
  As a kid, I always took for granted the time I spent together with my immediate and extended family. Now that I'm older and living far from my folks, Christmas time means that I can spend some time with my family, reconnecting and catching up with everyone.
  

• The Feel of Holidays
  This time of the year, the coastal regions become crowded beyond belief and everywhere else feels like ghost towns. Either way, the long summer days and evenings feel as if they will go on forever, which is such a great feeling.
  

• Making and Wrapping Up Presents
  When I was younger, mum often organised for us to make Christmas presents for our family members. I've carried this through to present day and usually have a combination of handmade and shop-bought gifts. I love sitting with a pile of presents in front of me, ready to be wrapped. Firstly because it means I don't need to worry about any more Christmas shopping (or present making) and secondly it means I get to make my presents look awesome!
  

• Delicious Food
  Christmas is always a good excuse to get creative with food as well as revert to some old favourite dishes. One of my old favourites is the cherries and pineapple from a delicious ham.
  

The Art of the Brick - Cape Town

A while ago, I found out that an exhibition called The Art Of The Brick is going to be coming to South Africa. I'm so so excited for this because by using Lego to create sculptures, the artist Nathan Sawaya has made art into something tangible and exciting for people of all ages (because, let's be serious, everyone loves Lego!). I really think that this is an activity that everyone would enjoy and be excited about - who knows, maybe you'll find yourselves inspired to make your own creations.

The Art of the Brick is going to be exhibited in both Cape Town and Joburg, so if you find yourself close to either of those cities over the following periods, do yourself a favour and take a peek.

---------------------------------
Here's a bit more information:
Cape Town:           12 Dec 2014 - 28 Feb 2015          
Joburg:                 13 May 2015 - 12 Aug 2015         
Opening Hours:      9am* - 7pm
Prices:                  R99 - R145 pp

You can buy tickets at Computicket - they are sold for specific hours every day in order to limit congestion. 

*9am - 2pm from Monday to Thursday are reserved for school tours.

Instagram Challenge Week 3

I've got a bit distracted last week, but here is my indieBerries Instagram challenge round up from week 3 (the last week of the challenge). It was great to see what people came up with from a simple prompt! I had such fun doing this challenge and now have a bunch of new apps and techniques for making stuff myself and being more creative - thanks indieBerries!

Day 11 - Shadow Play using Studio Design app 

Day 12 - Fake Calligraphy

Day 13 - An arrangement of things I had
with me at work

Tips for Visiting Cape Town

The Mother City is a place that many people fall in love with when they visit her. Complex and many-layered, she offers something for everyone - the foodie, the theatre buff, the outdoors enthusiast, the holiday-maker, the student and anyone in between. No matter what type of visitor you are to the Cape, there are a few things that apply to everyone - here are my top 5 tips for visiting Cape Town. 

5. Leave Your Umbrella At Home
Cape Town is notoriously windy and while an umbrella may seem like a good idea when the rain is bucketing down, it's not always practical because it's inevitably also windy whenever it's raining. I've seen way too many umbrellas lost to crazy Cape Town winds and they're more a hindrance than a help in the Cape. Instead of bringing your umbrella along with you, rather bring along a rain coat with a hood.

4. Drive In The Right Lane
When driving in Cape Town (especially along Main Road) stay in the right hand lane as much as possible. This will help to minimise your frustrations with taxi's and buses who notoriously stop right in front of you without warning, usually in the most inconvenient places.

3. Don't Drink and Drive
Apart from the obvious safety implications, there is a huge police presence in Cape Town. At night (and sometimes during the day) there are often road blocks along the roads and while you may get lucky and get waved through a road block, drinking and driving just isn't worth it. It's much easier to catch a taxi. Or use Uber (which means you don't need to worry about cash!). 

2. Make Flexible Plans
The best laid plans can be blown to smithereens when Cape Town weather doesn't play nice. If you're planning to do something "outdoorsy" during your visit to Cape Town, I would suggest having a plan B which is geared towards more indoor activities. Since the weather changes at the drop of the hat, you need to be prepared to be flexible. Wine-tasting is always a good alternative. Alternatively, the weather is sometimes completely different on the other side of the mountain, so you could always try going for a drive to the other side if the side you're on doesn't have the weather you're hoping for!

1. Always take something warm with you
This is hands down the best piece of advice I have been given and if you remember nothing else, then remember this. I clearly remember being told by a relative, just before I started at UCT, that no matter where I go in Cape Town, I should always take something warm with me. Especially if it's somewhere that takes you from afternoon to evening. I have been saved many an evening of chattering teeth by this simple piece of advice.

The view driving through Constantia Glen wine farm.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Bits

A few weeks ago, on a fine Sunday afternoon, I suddenly got this incredible craving for cookies - something warm and hard-soft-gooey. I quickly browsed through some recipes for peanut butter cookies and then found one that mentioned peanut butter choc chip cookies. I was sold on that idea. I decided to use this classic peanut butter cookie recipe as my base and then added my own twist to it.

Here's my version of the recipe above.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bar of chocolate (optional)
a handful of some real peanuts and raisins (optional)

Peanut butter cookies ingredients

Peanut butter cookie mixture

Method:

1. Cream the butter, peanut butter, white sugar and brown sugar.

2. Add the eggs and beat until everything is mixed.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Then add the dry ingredients, chocolate pieces and peanuts and raisins to the batter and mix.

4. You can cool the batter in the fridge or deep freeze if you don't want your cookies to "ooze" too much while baking.

5. Take pieces of the batter and roll into balls, put them on a greased baking tray and bake at about 180 degrees C for 10-15 minutes (or until the bottom of the cookie edges start to get brown). I chose to make small cookies, but you can choose to make bigger ones too!

Peanut butter cookies ready to go in the oven.