Keep your Chinese goods – I’ll rather shop in Fish Hoek
ON MY recent trip to Canada and the UK, I was slightly depressed to find hardly any proper regional gifts to bring home to my friends. In Canada, I could buy cute little models of Indian canoes, Canadian T-shirts, scarves, little bears and moose; you name it, and every single one was made in China.
At Heathrow in London, they offered miniature London buses, models of Buckingham Palace, teaspoons with the British flag on them, coffee mugs commemorating the Queen’s birthday and, again, they were all made in China.
Why should I travel halfway round the world to visit Canada or Britain and bring back something from China?
I ended up buying chocolates, and later found they were made in Brazil. You just can’t win.
If you’re visiting South Africa, or have friends or relatives overseas, this week offers you a rare opportunity to buy something uniquely South African for them.
The South Peninsula Handcraft Centre in Fish Hoek is holding its bi-annual exhibition of handmade crafts from today to Saturday, and there will be plenty of charming gift items to take or send overseas. All of them locally made.
The craft centre has more than 100 members, each skilled in some craft that has been handed down through the generations – these include things like embroidery, quilting, paper crafts, toys, miniature making, pewter work, marquetry and beading.
Every second year, the members collect their most prized achievements and put them on display in Fish Hoek’s Civic Centre. The whole hall is transformed into a magical place – this year’s theme is “The Enchanted Garden”.
The show opens at 9.30am each day and stays open until 5pm today and tomorrow, and 3pm on Saturday.
And when you’ve done wandering among the exhibits, you can relax with a cup of tea or coffee and eats (home-made, of course). Entrance costs R10 for adults and R5 for children under 13.
There are also several beautiful hand-crafted items offered as raffle prizes, so an additional rand or two could win you something to hand down to future generations.
There’s a lot happening in Fish Hoek all-year round and the craft show is one event I wouldn’t miss for all the world. I am amazed, year after year, by the exquisite items on show, each one a real labour of love.
Frankly, you can keep your Chinese tat. We are lucky in the Cape to be able to take – or send – home a unique piece of Africa.
Last Laugh
Two partners in a small business were having an argument and the one accused the other: “Why do you always say ‘I’ when you speak of the business? This is a partnership and you should just get into the habit of saying ‘we’. In a partnership, we do things together.”
To weeks later, the one partner received a telephone call from the home of the other. “Hello Charlie,” he heard. “I just phoned to let you know our secretary is suing us for child maintenance.”