There’s nothing like traveling on a long flight en route to my honeymoon to inspire me to write about my pet peeves of flying, general courtesy awarded to others and basically just trying to remain sane on your way to your destination. Here are some of my flying pet peeves that I realised I had.

Credit: The Oatmeal http://theoatmeal.com/comics/airplane

Armrest hoggers

So yes I am tiny and yes I can sit comfortably without having to use my arm rests but it is highly annoying when the people sitting beside me stretch out their bent elbows into my space. Arm rests may be communal but I also like to think of them as space barriers. It marks my space and no one should come within those barrier markings. Unfortunately, my newly pronounced husband is an armrest hogger and my attempts at reforming him have been futile. Looks like I’m going to have to live with this one for the rest of my life.

Weak bladders in the window seat

So you need to pee every hour? It’s understandable. How about you pick an aisle seat next time and avoid making your weak bladder everyone else’s problem by making them get up for you all the time.

Noisy passengers

I’ve travelled with many people together. It’s fun. You have so many people to talk to and you’re all so excited. This is fine for a little while. There’s nothing worse that passengers noisily talking well after the plane has taken off just annoying others who need to get some sleep.

Stupid parents

One day, I’ll have kids that I cannot manage and you can complain about me too. But I will definitely not be trying to keep my kids entertained with a movie on a laptop with the sound on full blast for the whole plane to hear. I personally don’t understand why we can’t give irritating kids sleeping pills during flights. And if they have to be awake, can we not implement a system where we charge parents who just let their kids annoy others like kicking the backs of chairs like it’s a game...despite all the in-house entertainment on offer?

Reading lights

Speaking of getting some sleep, people who leave their reading lights on after the plane lights has been dimmed for people to sleep, do you know how annoying that is? I feel like shining a bright light into their eyes the moment they try to take a nap…so they too can know how it feels.

Standing up when the plane hasn’t yet come to a complete stop

We all have places to be but the ones still sitting down have the sense to know that you, Mr Impatient, aint going any faster than the rest of us. I secretly hope the plane jerks to a stop so the idiots can fall and learn their lesson.

Toilet manners

When in the airplane toilet, sit down. I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman. I’ve seen enough filthy wet toilet seats and *gags* floors to realise that you’re not winning at squatting or aiming. We all don’t want to sit but there’s sanitising wipes now so you won’t catch anything.

So that’s my list of pet peeves while traveling. If you fall into that category, please try to consider others when flying. It’s uncomfortable for all of us. Do you have any flying pet peeves that you want to share?

I’ve been meaning to write this post for ages but I only really got on to it after stumbling upon this post right here. It’s about a girl who’s trying to climb her way out of debt. I totally related to her post. After all, I was there. This is me sharing some experiences on how I got out.

All the experts say that the key to being financially sound is to pay off your debt and start saving. I agree…in certain circumstances...but what happens when saving is not an option? When I first moved to Joburg, I earned peanuts. I was all alone in Joburg with no financial support from anyone. I was living in a commune and managed to buy the cheapest car out there. After rent, car instalments, insurance, petrol and my student loan, I barely had any money left over for groceries. This is mostly the reason I hated by first job.

How did I survive? Well, firstly, I knew what I was getting in to. I knew that I didn’t have a lot of money to work with so I made sure that my spend on everything was as little as possible. I stayed in a commune close to work – so my spend on accommodation and petrol was minimal. Being all alone in Joburg, I needed a car and I chose the cheapest car possible. I shopped around for insurance. In fact, before I bought my car, I budgeted for it and saved what I would have spent on a car so I had some money to keep me going when my salary wasn’t enough.

So yes, saving is important. Although you need to know what you’re saving for otherwise, you’ll be spending it very quickly. Don’t get me wrong though – spend your money when you want to. After all, you work hard for it and you need to feel like that hard work is worth it. With all of my financial responsibilities, my savings ran out very quickly.

That’s when I learnt all about the debt that banks happily offer you. My salary just about covered the important stuff. I still needed to worry about food, clothing, money to have fun and helping my mom out. I learnt about buying my car on residual. On paper, I extrapolated my salary to 5 years later to ensure that I could actually afford to pay off the residual when the time came. This reduced my car payments to something more affordable.

My corporate credit card quickly became my most used card in my wallet. I used it for everything! Wherever Diner’s was accepted, I used it. But that meant that the next month, I had to pay everything I owed. I was literally was living off next month’s salary but with zero interest.

For places that didn’t accept Diner’s, I took out a personal credit card. In hindsight, I must have paid a crap load in interest. I only paid the minimum instalment but it helped with the additional money that I needed.

Eventually, my responsibilities grew and so did my financial knowledge. I learnt all about overdrafts. It made so much sense but again, it’s like living off next month’s salary. With all this debt to pay off, I had no money to save…and therefore, no way to get out of debt.

What the financial experts don’t tell you is that you need to have enough money to survive in order to save. Eventually, I moved jobs and earned more money. With the additional cash injection, I paid up my credit cards and my car. Earning more money also helped me save up for a deposit on a house.

Right now, my only debt is my home loan. I drive a car that is fully paid off and use a credit card with a positive balance. I even have enough savings that I will use as a deposit to buy my next house. The financial experts will say that I’m doing it right but it was a long road to get there.

So if you are earning very little or if your debt is huge, here are my tips to help you get through it…from my broke experience:

- Ensure that you are spending money on the most essential things. Daily lattes are not a necessity.

- Use credit when you need it. Yeah, the financial experts say that credit cards are bad but those financial experts probably have enough money to not need credit. 

- Set financial goals – know what you want and by when you hope to get there. Paying off my car was a great way to look forward to some extra disposable cash which I saved up for the deposit on my house.

- Don’t be afraid to move jobs. If someone will pay you more for the job you currently do, why not think about that for a bit. You can sometimes only become better at managing your finances when you income exceeds your expenditure for the basic necessities.

- Be patient. Getting out of debt or earning more money doesn’t happen overnight. It took me about 4 years to be free of my credit card debt.

If you’re in this position, I hope my tips helped. If you overcame your financial troubles in a different way, I’d love to hear how you did it. 

This trip to Dar es Salaam marks my third visit to Tanzania. I definitely haven’t seen or experienced as much as I should but every time I come here, I feel more and more comfortable in this charming city. There are things that are just so unique to Dar and I decided to put together my list of things you need to know when you visit.

1.       The humidity

I love it when I get off a plane and feel that warm wave of humidity…but I realise I’m probably the only one. Dar is pretty much by the equator. It’s practically summer all year round and it’s hot and sticky even when it’s overcast. Be sure to pack your sunscreen and deodorant.

2.       Airport charges

I had no idea who Julius Nyerere was when I first arrived in Tanzania. He’s a pretty big deal. He’s Tanzania’s Nelson Mandela and I felt so uncultured for not knowing that. The airport in Dar is named after him and offers a very unique airport experience.

When you arrive, you are required to pay for a visa in US dollars whether you’re visiting Dar for business or pleasure. Now, there are standard fees that you can find out before you fly but it varies based on what you’re here to do and where you come from. For people that aren’t used to this, it feels like a bribe! I mean why do we have to pay to enter the country – in cash? The first time I set foot in Dar, I was trying to haggle for the price of the “bribe” but it’s a standard fee that goes to the Revenue Authority of Tanzania.

You’ll hand over $200 with your passport to an official who then takes it to an office for the paperwork to be done. Don’t worry. Someone will come out with your passport and receipt – it just might take an hour – but the plane full of people you arrived with will be waiting right alongside you.

3.       Swahili

Swahili is the national language of the locals although you could get around speaking English a lot easier in this city than in most of Africa. Even if the people you speak to understand English, it’s nice to be able to speak a little bit of Swahili as a sign of respect. Here are some of the basic words:

Karibu: Welcome. Everyone is so warm and welcoming and you are mostly likely to be greeted with “karibu”.

Mambo: Hello. The correct response to mambo is “poha”.

Asante (sana): Thank you (very much). These two words were made famous by Rafiki in the Lion King.

4.       Masai culture

Yep, the Masais you learnt about in school walk the streets of Dar! I love their traditional dress and it looks so refreshing to the usual western wear. Some luxury hotels like Seacliff have their doormen dressed as Masais to remind their patrons of the rich culture Dar has to offer.

5.       Po-le po-le

I think I spend way too much time in the rat race in Joburg. Even though I don’t like to be stressed in my personal life, I’m a frenzied mess at work meeting deadlines and fighting fires. I love the po-le po-le attitude that all Tanzanians seem to have. They say, “po-le po-le” – just chill – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being late for a meeting or responding to you later than they promised. There's no bad intent - whats the rush. Oh how I wish the Joburg business community could be this relaxed about life.

6.       A friendly people

They say South Africans are friendly. Yeah we’re a chatty bunch but I don’t think we’re as friendly as Tanzanians. They go out of their way to make you feel welcome – whether it’s a waitress or someone you work with. They will check up on you, make you feel at home and stop whatever they are doing to help you. And if they really can’t help you, they will be late for where they need to go but they will find someone who can help you instead.

7.       Traffic!

If you’re in Dar for business, you’re bound to experience the traffic. If you’re not there for business, try to avoid the roads during peak times. Most people get to work at 8 and leave at 5 so the roads are packed with everyone trying to get to and from work all at the same time. And just like the rest of us, everyone tries to weave in and out of traffic as best they can. It’s not surprising to see someone driving on the shoulder of the road in the wrong direction of traffic. Motorcyclists generally with a passenger and bajajs (tuk-tuks) weave in between cars.

Without proper road infrastructure, it seems like absolute chaos but they have nowhere near the rates of road accidents that Joburg has. Everyone seems to understand exactly how to let some people in and squeeze through others. Traffic circle rules aren’t the same as what I’m used to – it’s like: “let’s all try to get in first and then figure out who drives”.  Either way, I love that the city has its own unspoken road rules that work for them and everyone still gets home safely.

Karibu! Welcome to Dar es Salaam!

Happy New Year! A little late, I know but I figure a normal post seems kinda outta place for the first blog post of the year. I’m not too big on resolutions even though I’ve had quite a few successful runs with them. I think it’s great to reflect on life and identify what changes you want to make.  And…(cynical remark) you can do this at any time of the year – not just when it begins. 

This year I don’t have any hard and fast resolutions. I know goals are important but so is living life. I’ve never really thought of a bucket list cos I prefer taking life as it comes. Life throws you so many hurdles anyway. With everything that one has to deal with, who has time to set a long list of goals and then chase after them? With that in mind, I decided to put together a retrospective bucket list – a list of all the things I managed to accomplish this year that didn’t start out as goals but achievements that just materialised when life happened.  

Getting married!

This has always been one of dreams. Not the wedding bit but just the being married bit. My friends do not understand this but I think it stems from me never being lucky in love. I was one of those girls who were defined by my single status. And while I’ve only been married for three months, it’s better than everything I imagined it to be. I love falling asleep in his arms, cooking for someone and just plain having someone around all the time. I’ve been accused of dissing the single life but hey I can’t help that I love being married…to the right person.

Going on my dream holiday

I cannot believe I managed to convince The Husband to part with a small fortune to celebrate our newlywed status in the Maldives. I’ve looked at photos of this heavenly place for years and I finally went there. I’d recommend it to anyone. My advice is to just do it! Whatever your dream destination is – go for it. Money was tight while we were planning a wedding so we decided to book it on our credit cards and pay for it later. Was it a smart financial decision to make? Not at all. Do I regret it? Absolutely not!

Understanding the important things in life

We weren’t even married for a month before the husband received a letter from work informing him that he may be affected by the upcoming retrenchments. Suddenly, our newly-wed dream of buying a house was put on hold. The husband was upset about being put in a position where he couldn’t provide me with everything I wanted. It was then I realised what was important. I have many wants that I’m working towards but I really don’t need a big house or international holidays. I was grateful that I married a man who loves me and even if life threw us more curveballs, I’d be happy even if I only had him, my friends and family.

My first roller-coaster ride!

Yeah yeah…everyone gave me funny looks when I exclaimed that. I had a sheltered childhood, ok. I went to Gold Reef City for the first time and my inner child was let loose. I had permanent smiles and intermittent screams for my entire visit. If I could, I would have been covered in ice-cream and candy floss too.

Learnt how to swim

I don’t know why people call this a life skill. Surely, if you never need to be in or near water, you don’t need to learn how to swim. I did it cos I needed to fully enjoy my honeymoon destination – which was surrounded by water. I’m so glad I did it – it helped with playing on the beach and snorkelling in the deep ocean. If you’re planning an island holiday and you don’t know how to swim, you should learn.

Developing a pretentious palate

I was en route to a proper restaurant when I spotted Spur and convinced the husband to go there for supper. When the food arrived, I couldn’t believe I ever enjoyed Spur’s cuisine before. I remember calling Debonairs my favourite pizza joint and McDonald’s my favourite fast food outlet. In a few years, my palate developed to enjoy the finer foods and to understand that my previous favourites weren’t all that. In fact, I recently had the best steak of my life. I think it’s because I had finally gotten accustomed to it and that I ordered my steak medium – instead of well done. Yes, I’m embarrassed about my culinary past but I’m also worried about the cost of my pretentious culinary future.

Visiting the Kingdom of Lesotho

The problem with visiting new countries for work is that there’s never any time to sight see but you do get a flavour of the culture just by interacting with the locals at work. I hadn’t realised how South African Lesotho is. In comparison to the other African countries I’ve been to, I’d probably be more at home in Maseru. I can’t wait to go back, but this time to go up those famous mountains.

A rather short list but I’m hoping that without the stresses of planning and paying for a wedding, this year will be a lot more spontaneous and fun. I hope to travel more – both internationally and locally. I want to not only eat great food but cook it too when I entertain. I am getting my husband to study so that I can get more blog time. I’d like a bigger house with more home projects that I can busy myself with. I just want to do so much with what I have and above all, I want to be happy!

Why don’t you try looking back at the things you’ve done. You might just be surprised with your retrospective bucket list.

It should come as no surprise to you that I love Zomato. I really enjoy working with them and catching up with people like me – who love to eat. My growing waistline might disagree though ;-).

I even see Zomato increasing in popularity among the people I know. In fact, last week, the husband wanted to surprise me with a romantic evening and logged on to Zomato and browsed their romantic collection to find the restaurant we eventually went to.

I love Zomato because it’s a comprehensive listing of restaurants in the cities they support with all the details you will ever need to make your restaurant decisions – menu, opening times and reviews from real people like you and I so you can make an informed decision. Well you know my opinion on Zomato so I asked some people what they think. Here’s what some of what they had to say.

The good

I have friends who are really jealous of my Zomato foodie meet-ups and are fervently trying to rack in their reviews to get to the top in the hopes of being invited. Ooh the foodie events are nice. It’s like Zomato thanking you for spending all that time on their website.

Zomato’s best feature is that you can easily find a restaurant’s menu and browse through it before arriving at the restaurant. Surprisingly, a lot of restaurants don’t have their menus and opening times on their website (if they have a website at all). Unless I’m in a really picky mood, I actually prefer perusing through a menu at the restaurant but there’s been many occasions where I’ve had to organise dinner for many people with dietary requirements. This definitely comes in handy then.

It’s honest reviewing. Zomato verifies reviewers and you can read those reviews knowing that it’s not Internet trolls or people hired by the restaurant to write up a good review. Yep! That’s my favourite feature. I like that I know what foods to try or give a miss without having to experience it all by myself.

I’m an indecisive person so I sometimes play around with the filters to narrow down my choices. You can filter on price, cuisine, whether you want to dine in or take out and you can even filter on wifi availability at the restaurant! The result is a filtered list that you get to pick from that meets all your criteria. I’ve never used this feature but I’m sure in a few years, I might want to know how baby friendly a restaurant is.

Collections are the greatest thing to hit Zomato. Dependent on my mood or reason for eating out, I browse through a collection like Great Breakfasts or High Tea. Again, not a feature I use very often but if I’m planning high tea, it’s nice to be able to easily see what other restaurants provide that service that I don’t know about.

The bad

Because Zomato groups restaurants by city and not province, when I look for a restaurant that kinda borders Joburg and Pretoria, I sometimes have to search both section.  I don’t have that problem because I’m generally in Jobrg but it must sucks for the people bordering both cities. I wonder whether Zomato will allow searches in two cities instead of one…

There are tons of great places to eat just outside the great cities but since Zomato hasn’t mapped out those areas, people might never know about it. Zomato is growing – they just launched the Garden Route last month but yeah the growing pains means you’ve found a great restaurant to share but it’s not listed yet cos it’s outside the cities they support.

Now that you’ve seen what others are saying about Zomato, what are your thoughts? If you haven’t used Zomato yet – you don’t know what you’re missing out on. Use it now before you plan your next night out.

To end off the year, Zomato has graciously given me meal vouchers for 2 to spend at Rodizio to the value of R250 each. Luckily, the post office strike seems to be over so it makes it ideal to run this competition.  Entering is easy – tell me what you think about Zomato and why you use it. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was far too busy at work today to even realise that we were up for load shedding tonight. So I went about my usual business and came home just after 6 to a dark complex. Instead of being grumpy and hating on Eskom, I decided to get on with my unexpected Friday evening. Here are my tips on how to survive a night of load shedding without having to leave home.

Take advantage of natural light. We’re so used to switching on a light whenever it gets a little dark and sometimes all you need is to open up the blinds and curtains…and then there was light.

Invest in an emergency light. I had the bare essentials when I lived alone. I don’t think I even had candles. The husband has an emergency light – you charge it when you have electricity (I would totally forget to do that) and voila! Light…for when the natural light runs out.

Acquire a gas stove. Or a gas cylinder thingy with a stove-top attachment – that’s the one we have. The husband actually told me there are actually tons of these kinds of gas powered stove things. Some even come with a wok attachment! I suppose a braai would do too. Anyway, get one of those and you don’t have to resort to KFC for supper. We made a gourmet dinner on a little gas stove – coffee crusted steak with mash potatoes (couldn’t quite do a potato gratin without an oven) and a blue cheese dressed salad.

Always charge your laptop. And make sure you have series or movies loaded on it. Entertainment for the evening sorted! Who needs TV anyway.

I just found the flaw in my post – the router is off. How am I supposed to upload this? *Goes back to hating Eskom*

When I first met the husband, his friends loved meeting at their favourite Thai restaurant. At that time, I already knew that I was pretty much the only person in the world who didn’t like Thai food. So I would look through the menu for a tried and tested dish I could stomach: crispy duck with some stir fry veggies and maybe pad thai.

Of course, his friends would be super amazed by the food, each person boasting that their food was tastier than anyone else’s. And so, in true Thai style, everyone would share each other’s food and I’d dread it cos it really didn’t taste that great to me.

Fast forward to a few years later when I suspected that I actually just didn’t like the taste of coconut milk. That explained why I hated those dreaded Thai dishes I tried. I had pretty much written off Thai food from my palate repertoire. That was until Simply Asia opened up close to home in Kyalami. The husband insisted that we go as it used to be his favourite restaurant when he lived in Cape Town. He also maintained that this restaurant would get me to like Thai food.

And how right he was! From the first time we went there, I loved every dish I tried. Since I know that the curries are all coconut milk-based, I steered away from that and tried anything else off the menu. I loved it so much that I pretty much go there at least once every two weeks. But it’s more than just the food that I like.

The staff are really friendly and I really like that they help you decide what to eat. They’ll often point out the specials or tell you what their popular desserts are. And if you pick a meal that is slightly out of the usual Thai dish expectations, they tell you so that you know, e.g. if I dish is prepared very dry and isn’t saucy. I’ve also overheard them advising customers on what heat level to choose which is so important to being able to enjoy your meal instead of burning your taste buds off. While I can handle hot, I find medium a lot more enjoyable.

If you fancy yourself a vegetarian dish, they have quite a few veggie options but you can pick any meal and they will transform it to vegetarian for you by substituting the meat for tofu or soya. It’s so handy when you’re fasting. I also like that they cook with loads of veggies so I feel like I’m eating healthily.

I wouldn’t recommend any specific dishes (since I like them all) but a dessert you should definitely try is the mini chocolate spring rolls. Decadent chocolate encased in light spring rolls served with a huge dollop of vanilla ice-cream. It’s a lot lighter than it sounds…so you’ll definitely have space for it. But don’t just take my word for it, try it…I know you’ll like it. 

If you’ve met me in real life, you’ll know that all I want to be when I grow up is a lady of leisure. Unfortunately, I just don’t have that funding to do that. So I work and although I do my job really well, I hate that I’m forced to play to The Man’s tune for the best part of the day and best years of my life.

I live for the weekends and public holidays when I am free to do whatever I want to do. Last week, coincidentally, Diwali fell on Thursday with the Gujarati New Year on Friday. I managed to get both days off from work extending my weekend. The husband couldn’t. At first, I was quite upset that for our first Diwali as a married couple, the husband had to work. Eventually, I embraced this as an opportunity to try out this whole lady of leisure business.

I’ve jotted down the amazing benefits of being a lady of leisure and if I could do it forever, I definitely would. It looks like it’s not on the cards for me yet. So while I buy a lotto ticket, here are some of the things I learnt spending a few days without the mad rush in the rat race.  

Money talks

I mentioned this already and I am sure that everyone knows this. I was only able to enjoy my time off because of the money I made working. In a world that revolves around me, I would have money streaming in from daddy dearest or….the public’s taxes. Without that, it’s more like a sad woman who can’t afford to do anything but sit at home.

Playing housewife

Now that I had the time, I could do things like make elaborate breakfasts for my husband. Heck, I even invited his work colleagues over for lunch…for a meal that took more than two hours to prepare. I unleashed my inner domestic goddess with all the cooking and baking all because I loved seeing that proud smile on his face.

High maintenance pampering

In my normal world, there is just way too little time in the day to do everything I want to. So where does one find the time for non-essential admin? I managed to have a pedicure and manicure in between everything else I needed to do.

The benefits to my husband

I recently read an article of a stay at home mom proving her worth by talking about the benefits she staying at home has on the family. I totally concur! The husband came home to home-cooked meals and didn’t have to worry about weekend errands. All of a sudden, our evenings became a relaxing time together. And because I got the admin like selling my household goods out of the way during a week day, our weekend was filled with catching up with friends and family – the stuff we really want to do.

Sleep

Sleep – glorious sleep. Imagine waking up when your body tells you to wake up, not cos your boss expects you in at a certain time :-).

Do whatever you want to do

My life is so busy trying to squeeze in everything I want to do. Essentially, this post is about how, during this time, I could do whatever I wanted to do...that includes the nothingness that comes with watching mind-numbing television.

Blogging

This title is for all the things that I’d rather do besides work. I even found the time to write this blog post ;-).

If there is one event that I try to go to every year, it is Taste of Joburg. It’s an outdoor food festival at Montecasino that runs from 25 – 28 September 2014. The highlight is that some of Joburg’s top restaurants are featured all in one place. They all offer starter size portions of their menu offerings. I love it because I get to sample a few dishes from restaurants I’ve never been to so I know whether I like them enough to dine there.

Restaurants aside, they have loads of wineries, artisan producers and drink brands exhibiting their wares. There’s something for everyone – whether you like to chill out at the beer tent, browse through artisan food products or watch cooking demonstrations.

I’m quite excited about the restaurant offerings:

- The Blackanese Sushi and Wine Bar

- Beluga

- Prosopa

- Le Sel @ The Cradle

- Spiceburg

- GweFey

- Licorish

- The Green Peppercorn Bistro

- Roots @ Forum Homini

- 2 Thai 4

- Vivace

- That’s Amore

- Sprout 360

- Braeside

- Woodview

Sounds good? Visit the Taste of Joburg website to buy tickets and check out all the exhibitors and sponsors so you know what to expect. 

Also exhibiting at Taste of Joburg is the lovely gang at Zomato. In case you haven’t already realised it yet, Zomato is the coolest and most comprehensive restaurant directory that is taking the world by storm. They’ve already mapped out all the restaurants in South Africa’s big cities on their website where you can go in order to write a review and read reviews before trying out new restaurants. Truly one of the best online start-ups of our time but my business views aside, their mobile app fits in perfectly in our online social world so if you haven’t checked them out yet, do it now.

Zomato has kindly offered two sets of double tickets to give away to my foodie readers. Enter through Rafflecopter below by following the easy steps.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weddings seem so glamorous when you’re not the one getting married. For the ones getting married, it is stressful. I’m constantly stressed about money and wondering whether everything will run smoothly. I have arguments with my family to keep them in check. My in-laws to-be are no better and I have to walk a fine line between having my wedding my way and being the respectful daughter-in-law. The worst part, though, was realising that my fiancé and I were upsetting each other during the emotional process of combining two separate small apartments into one.

We needed a break from all the wedding stress and the hotel stay I won from Deelish Life ‘n Style couldn’t have come at a better time. We spent the weekend at the luxurious Southern Sun Hyde Park hotel. 

I know what you’re thinking – that the hotel is about 20km away from where I live but the great thing about that is that I get to have a weekend getaway without travel time eating into my weekend and without the costs of flights added to my getaway costs.

Hyde Park is the epitome of upmarket. You feel it from the moment you walk into the hotel reception to the quality of the rooms. Their 4 star grading means enjoying that upmarket-feel without the price tag of a 5 star hotel.

The Southern Sun Hyde Park is situated on the same premises as Hyde Park corner. The sundeck overlooks the lush green surrounding suburbs and is renowned for being the bar with one of the best views in Johannesburg. When I was single, I loved coming to the bar after work on a Friday. It still has that same vibe I used to come for with a wonderful view of the setting sun. On a quieter night, it feels quite comfortable cosy-ing up on a couch with a cocktail.

Our room was spacious. I could have spent all weekend in that room without feeling claustrophobic. The room overlooked the Jan Smuts-William Nicol intersection and while we could hear the hum of the traffic, it was surprisingly a nice background sound to compliment the view. We also had a room right at the corner of the floor so we weren’t bothered by other guests or hotel staff.

I loved the bathroom! If I could, I would copy-paste it into my fiancé’s apartment. I loved the tiling, the walls, the rain showerhead and even the wall mounted toilet. Most importantly, I loved the clean feeling in the bathroom. I hate when I feel like a hotel room hasn’t been properly cleaned.

 The only downside of this hotel is that it doesn’t have a spa. It has one of the best bars in town, an extremely popular restaurant and a gym with a view but no pamper station. But...that’s what Hyde Park Corner is for. Sorbet is in the centre and you can book a massage there. Or for some couple time, you can get a manicure at their nail bar.

The hotel’s restaurant is Bice, a popular Italian restaurant. A tip for hotel guests: book a table on weekends. It gets insanely busy on Friday and Saturday nights and we were unable to get a table. After an hour wait, we were accommodated which was great but by then they had already run out of their specials. That wait was totally worth it, though.

Service was superb. The waitrons were chatty and ever so helpful regardless of how late we kept them up until or how early they had to serve us breakfast. I don’t quite see that level of friendliness in any of the hotels I previously stayed in so I loved the friendly atmosphere. Given that a lot of business travellers frequent this hotel, it’s not surprising that the world thinks that Saffers are a friendly bunch.

Despite us only being seated at 21:30, we had a lovely lady assist us by picking out the perfect bottle of wine to complement both our meal choices and our palettes. I must say that she did an excellent job. In fact, next time I go to Bice, I won’t even bother reading through the wine list. This lady would pick the right one a lot faster.

With Bice being an Italian restaurant, I loved that there were three risotto dishes on the menu. I never had risotto before so I liked the variety. I chose a seafood risotto and I was not disappointed. Despite being pasta, it was rather light. The chefs somehow had baby mussels and baby clams in there which made scooping up a forkful so easy.

The fiancé tried the spaghetti ala vodka which was fresh pasta served with prawns. Again the prawns were cut up into tiny pieces making eating so easy because you only needed a fork.That’s how pasta is supposed to be eaten. Really, who has time to be cutting up prawns into bite sized pieces or de-shelling them when you’re eating spaghetti? Because the pasta was fresh, the meal was light yet filling. The uneven-ness of the spaghetti and the thickness meant the pasta had a much better grasp of the sauce. The portion sizes were just perfect - none of those obese-American-sized portions that most restaurants are in to.

For dessert, I really wanted a soufflé – just to check whether the souffles the fiancé and I make are right. We realised for R15 more, we could get chocolate mouse and brownies so obviously we went with this really sweet chocolate dessert plate. The soufflé was ridiculously light with a delicious chocolate sauce oozing from it. It was the best item on the plate. The brownies are the standard ones which left me wishing there was a scoop of ice-cream to cut the richness. The mouse was sweet and light. The soufflé just caught my eye but they have a page full of other desserts to choose from if sweet and chocolate isn’t your thing.

Breakfasts are my favourite meals at larnie hotels. I love the variety. You can never re-create the variety at home and even breakfast joints don’t lay everything out as nicely. I am not much of a bacon and egg kinda girl so I loved everything else they had on offer like the extensive fruit, yogurt and the variety of syrups and compotes to go with it. The hot breakfast has your usual English breakfast options but with so much more – the lamb sausage was my favourite item. After all that food, I hardly had any space to attack the bread table with all the cold meats and cheese.

My weekend getaway ended with me feeling well-fed, relaxed and de-stressed. If, like me, you feel like you need a little getaway, consider Southern Sun Hyde Park. You will not be disappointed.