Prestige Magazine September issue

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CARBON NEUTRAL

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VIRGIN GALACTIC

BAUME & MERCIER

BENTLEY ISSUE NO. 31

R49.95

Bavaria Cruiser 55

SET SAIL FOR SUMMER

Panton Chair, Verner Panton, 1999 Because of progress in plastic technology, the Panton Chair has been through a number of production phases since its original launch. The last version of the chair authorised by Verner Panton was produced in collaboration with the designer at the end of the 1990s. This model realised one of Panton’s fundamental objectives for the first time: a plastic chair as an inexpensive industrial product.

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contents

Š BRENTON GEACH

62

12

motoring & aviation 12

Space Tourism

32

Bentley Flying Spur

36

Why Wait

46

Flying First Class

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Va-Va-Va-Vroom

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The Romance of Flying

Virgin Galactic

Masters of the Universe

Yesterday's Bentley; Today's Favourite

James Park Associates

Hamann Volcano

Project Phoenix CRJ

marine

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Bavaria Cruiser 55

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Tracking Sea Changes

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Riva Italia

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SuperYacht

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Eden Island Lipton Cup

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New Cruising Flagship

Setting Sailing Standards

SeaKeeper Society

A Summer of Love

Man of Steel

Fresh Wind in the Sails

The MSC Splendida

AVOID THE RUSH

ROLLS-ROYCE 200EX Arriving December 2009. Contact Marek on 082 560 1023 Rolls-Royce Sandton: Sandton Isle, Cnr Rivonia Road and Linden Road, Sandown,Telephone: +27 (11) 676 6655

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lifestyle 22 Before Life 44 Bakos Brothers 56 Baume and Mercier 74 Cloudless Computing

Exhibition by Araminta de Clermont

Completely Carbon Neutral

Celebrating Fine Craftsmanship

Personable Technology

special features 16 Adam Smith 64 How Old is Music?

70 Historic and Contemporary Artists The Wealth of Nations

35,000-year old flute

South Africa’s Spring Landscape

travel 26 Matjiesfontein 66 Gorah Elephant Camp 80 Panama Captivating Spirit(s)

Stay Among the Giants

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In the Forest of the Night

regulars 10 From the Helm 90 Savour 92 Sip 94 Live the Life 8

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from the helm

Issue 31 PUBLISHER: Tanya Goodman (PhD Yale) tanya@prestigemag.co.za Chapel Lane Media

How much is enough? Where do we draw the line between what we need and what we want?

We have often spent long evenings in front of the fire with friends, trying to come up with an answer to these questions. Most everyone always seems to have a ready figure in their heads about when they will be satisfied, yet one cannot help but observe that this figure is almost always totally out of relation to the dreamer’s current station in life. The only thing that everyone can always agree on is the absolute minimum we need: food, water, shelter and air. Beyond that, the sky is the limit for dreams and delusions.

In the Next Edition: Fact is, even when closing the gap between Indiana Jones fantasy and reality, as many of our readers have successfully done, some things are just never obtainable. No-one will ever own the great Colorado Aspen, the largest living organism in the world. Other things remain outside the realm of private ownership, even as our global pool of public goods keep dwindling. The oceans, the air and, for now, outer space at least remain common to us all, even as we have been entrusting mountains and rivers increasingly to private hands.

Then, there are the few rare items that can never be replaced nor recreated. Great works of art, even if privately owned, will remain in the possession of an elite minority and no money offered may persuade them to sell. In this issue, we feature such a rare item – a first edition of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations – the treatise on which our modern economic system is built. And even if the words and his ideas have been reproduced, misquoted and plainly abused many a time since 1776, the first edition can never be reproduced. What finer object to possess in celebration of one’s own success than an original printing of Smith’s remarkable tome, perched on a bookshelf over the fireplace?

Adam Smith’s finest work, though, was a book called The Theory of Moral Sentiments, where he pinned down human behaviour in all its folly and glory. What he highlighted most was the notion of “fellow-feeling” – our need to be recognised and respected, and our capacity to sympathise with other human beings. In this edition, we feature some of the fruits of humanity’s best material successes that reflect these sentiments. What a luxury to live a life of quality that can command the esteem of our fellow beings. At a time when the world is seeking solutions for a new economic order and novel ways of enjoying our luxuries in meaningful ways, it may be worth revisiting the ideas of a master philosopher like Adam Smith.

Finally, we are proud to announce that Prestige is now available at Woolworths nationally and flying off the shelf. And if you are worried that you may miss out on a copy, we offer several stateof-the-art Canon cameras as prizes over the next few editions for new subscribers.

Join the Prestige family.

Charl and Tanya

PO Box 13404, Hatfield, 0028 Tel: +27 82 671 2762 Fax: +27 866 78 6370 MANAGING EDITOR: Charl du Plessis (MBA Yale, PhD Darden) Tel: +27 82 452 8110 charl@prestigemag.co.za EDITOR: Toni Ackermann toni@prestigemag.co.za ADVERTISING: Rui Barbosa Tel: +27 84 290 2070 rui@prestigemag.co.za Adie Pranger Tel: +27 83 601 2291 / +27 11 465 1572 adie@prestigemag.co.za Lodene Grobler Tel: +27 79 876 4130 lodene@prestigemag.co.za DESIGN & LAY-OUT: Liesel van der Schyf VDS Design Studio Tel: +27 82 336 7537 liesel@vdsdesign.co.za SUBSCRIPTIONS: R499 for 12 issues; R949 for 24 issues SMS the words SUBSCRIBE PRESTIGE, followed by your name and email address, to +27 82 452 8110.

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Print: Type & Repro, Johannesburg DISTRIBUTION: Prestige is available at major news stand outlets, retail stores and through subscription. Prestige is freely distributed in leading five-star hotels and airport lounges, as well as upscale coffee shops, wellness centres and spas, and waiting areas for private banking clients.

Cover Images Credits:

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The PowerShot SX1 IS offers a revolutionary series of features never seen before on a Canon compact camera – a 10 Megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, 4 frames per second continuous shooting, and full HD movie capture.

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Main: Bavaria Thumbnails: Bentley; iStockphoto.com; Virgin Galactica; Baume & Mercier; Bakos Brothers

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All rights are reserved. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. PRESTIGE is published by Chapel Lane Media. Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher or any of its clients. Information has been included in good faith by the publisher and is believed to be correct at the time of going to print. No responsibility can be accepted for errors and omissions. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information and reports in this magazine, the publisher does not accept any responsibility, whatsoever, for any errors, or omissions, or for any effects resulting there from.

No part of this publication may be used, or reproduced in any form, without the written permission of the publisher.

Copyright ©2009. All copyright for material appearing in this magazine belongs to Chapel Lane Media and/or the individual contributors.

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Virgin Galactic

Space Tourism

d l r o W s i h T f o Out

Where did you spend your last vacation? Earthbound on Bali, the Maldives, or Machu Pichu?

Perhaps you climbed Kilimanjaro? Wherever it was, consider it to be imminently mundane.

Rather, imagine a view so untouchable that the horizons literally stretch out for a thousand miles in any direction. Imagine a trip to the edge of space to cast your gaze down on the entire planet – from a perch 110 kilometres aloft.

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Words: KEVIN BARKER Images: © VIRGIN GALACTIC

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oon, post sabbatical chatter will be less about marlin, Martinis and mountains.

Prepare to hear tales of rocket launches at 6-G, floating around in Zero-G, and relaxing, re-vitalising re-entry procedures. 3, 2, 1, 0, prepare for space tourism.

Space has unquestionably fascinated humanity since we first laid eyes upon the twinkling, night skies of our planet. Can we go there? Can we live there? Questions that science fiction movies, comic books and B-grade storylines have answered long ago.

Yet strangely, with regular visits to space by astronauts since the 1960s, mainly on research, military or communications missions, it is interesting to note that there

has never been a parallel space tourism industry developing, seeing that the technologies were available.

That was, until Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic group stepped into the fray. The idea was born out of the Ansari X Prize Competition in 2004 that sought to provide a catalyst for private sector innovation in the field of manned space exploration. The rules were remarkably simple: Privately fund, design and build a vehicle that could carry the weight of three people, including one actual person to sub-orbital space; defined as an altitude of at least 100 kilometres. The vehicle had to be 80% reusable and had to fly twice within a two week period.

The competition was won by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a Paul G Allen company, using designer Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne (SS1). SS1 was a complete step away from all previous thinking on the issue. Launched from an airborne “mothership,” and then propelled by its own hybrid rocket power into sub-orbital space, the all-composite vehicle would, at the end of its high, out-of-this-world cruise, control its re-entry aerodynamically

by lifting up (or feathering) its wing to control the rate of descent, so as not to suffer the same heating problems experienced by free-falling space craft as they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. From here, the vehicle and its passengers would glide back for an unpowered landing. Flying into space four times in 2004, SS1 laid the foundations for what is sure to become the next frontier of travel.

Enter Richard Branson, who agreed with Paul Allen and Burt Rutan to invest in the development and construction of a second generation vehicle for commercial ventures. Called SpaceShipTwo (SS2), the new vehicle is twice the size of its predecessor, and will carry six passengers and two pilots. The cabin size closely matches that of a Falcon 900 executive jet, but features large viewing windows right around the cabin, allowing for an unobstructed view of any horizon. Not only will the journey be worth remembering, but so will the preparation phase, in which potential space tourists will undergo two to three days of medical check-ups, team bonding, G-force acclimatisation and simulation before setting off on a

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FEATURE

short, but epic journey to the edge of the atmosphere.

Carrying SS2 aloft is the mothership, known as WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) that completed its first flight in December 2008.

A total of over 50 flights have since been completed in the flight test programme that is expected to last 18-24 months. It recently made its first public display at the AirVenture air show at Oshkosh Wisconsin.

WK2 is the largest all-composite aircraft in service today, its four Pratt and Whitney PW308 engines producing enough power to lift SS2 up to its launch altitude of 50,000 feet. With a wingspan of only 16 feet less than a Boeing 767, WK2 is not a small aircraft, and the cutting-edge design technology behind the high lift wing and extremely strong surfaces allow it to be flown so as to simulate all of the forces that SS2 would experience in flight – almost acrobatically in layman’s terms. This allows WK2 to be used as a training platform for future SS2 pilots, as well as a simulation tool for the training and preparation of space travellers, as both cabins of the twin boom design replicate the SS2 interior.

Once prepped and ready, space tourists will board from the deluxe, futuristic Spaceports that are to be built in Abu Dhabi (following a recent purchase of a 32 percent stake in Virgin Galactic by Gulfbased Aabar Group), New Mexico and

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Sweden once licences are obtained. Aboard they will be strapped into their reclined seats in SS2 and enjoy a relaxed, airlinestyle take off and climb to 50,000 feet – champagne not included.

At altitude, passengers can expect a jolt and brief free-fall as the pilots allow the vehicle to fall clear of the mothership before firing up the rocket motor and pointing the nose to a near vertical attitude.

Imagine being forced back into your seat with four times the force of gravity, effectively making you weigh four times as much. After only eight seconds the announcement comes that you have broken the sound barrier, and 22 seconds after that you hit Mach 3: faster than a bullet – faster than a missile.

Looking out of the myriad of windows passengers will see the curvature of the Earth as the sky slowly morphs from a twodimensional blue, into a thicker, darker, pastel-fringed relief of beckoning stars and endless horizons. An “out of this world” view takes on a whole new meaning up here. Reaching its apogee (the furthest point above the Earth) at 110 kilometres above our home planet, passengers will be free to undo their seatbelts and experience zero gravity flight as they levitate freely around the cabin like fish in a sub-orbital bowl. At the top of the curved flight path, passengers will float gently back down to their seats prior to the re-entry phase of

flight, in which they will briefly experience up to six times the forces of gravity as SS2 deploys its wing into the feather position to arrest the rate of descent, and glide back down to Earth for a gentle touchdown, two hours after launch.

Until now, over 85,000 people from 125 countries have signed up as being interested in becoming Virgin Galactic astronauts, and the company expects its first flights to launch after 2012 once all safety and flight test programmes have been finalised. Branson acknowledges that they are not in any sort of a race, and that providing the public with a safe, efficient vehicle in which to explore the boundaries of our planet is the goal. Flights are advertised on the Virgin Galactic website as $200,000 with over three hundred deposits ranging from $20 to $200,000 already collected. Furthermore, the company has set up a specialist network of Virgin Galactic Accredited Space Agents around the world to provide a local reservation service.

So, can the Jones’ keep up with Mach 3? You have to doubt it. Can any Earthbased view compete with one of the same Earth when seen from 110 kilometres above? One would assume not. The next frontier in travel is to escape the clutches of gravity – to slip the surly bonds of the Earth, and to experience what “out of this world” really means. 

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506093

FEATURE

Adam SMITH The Wealth of Nations The ideas of Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, in his most famous work, “The Wealth of Nations,” are often invoked to justify certain behaviour in the market. Owning a first edition copy of this famous book must rank high as one of the most sought after collectibles on any captain of industry’s shelf.

Words: Charl du Plessis Images: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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dam Smith entered the University of Glasgow in 1737 at the age of 14 (not unusual at the time). After spending three years at this epicentre of the Scottish Enlightenment, he won a six-year stay at Balliol College at Oxford, laying the foundations in social studies that would later earn him the honour as the founder of the modern field of economics. Returning to Glasgow as a Professor, and in the company of other eventual greats such as philosopher David Hume, Smith wrote his first seminal book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which was an instant success.

S TA C K People came from far afield to hear Smith lecture, and he attracted the attention of Charles Townsend, an influential statesman (and later the Chancellor of the Exchequer whose tax measures in the new world provoked the American Revolution).

Townsend wanted Smith to tutor his stepson, the Duke of Buccleuch, and offered Smith a stipend that was hard to refuse. Smith set off with his young charge for France and beyond in 1763, embarking on as much a journey of learning for himself as he had in mind for the Duke. In Geneva, he met Voltaire, and spent significant time in Parisian salons with François Quesnay (to whom The Wealth of Nations would be dedicated) discussing French agricultural and tax reforms. During this time he started writing his next book, which was to become The Wealth of Nations when finally published in 1776. Back in Britain by now, Smith was elected to the Royal Society and offered the post of Commissioner of Customs for Scotland, a position that kept him in considerable comfort until his death in 1790. Shortly before his death, Smith ordered all his papers and unfinished manuscripts burnt, and little else is known of this enigmatic loner who never got married.

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, as is the book’s full title, was one of the earliest attempts to systematically study the historical development of industry and commerce in Europe, as well as a sustained attack on the doctrine of mercantilism (the theory that large reserves of bullion are essential for economic success). Smith's work helped to build the foundation of the modern academic discipline of free market economics and provided one of the bestknown intellectual rationales for free trade, capitalism, and libertarianism. In the Western world, The Wealth of Nations is arguably the most influential treatise on the subject ever published. When the book, which has become a classic manifesto against mercantilism, appeared in 1776, there was a strong sentiment for free trade in both Britain and America. This new feeling had been born out of the economic hardships and poverty caused by the American War of Independence. However, at the time of publication, not everybody was immediately convinced of the advantages of free trade: the British public and Parliament still clung to mercantilism for many years to come.

The Wealth of Nations also rejected Quesnay’s Physiocratic school's emphasis on the importance of land; instead, Smith believed labour was paramount, and that a division of labour would effect a great

increase in production. One example he used was the making of pins. One worker could probably make only 20 pins per day.

But if 10 people divided up the 18 steps required to make a pin, they could make a combined amount of 48,000 pins in one day. However, it is less well known that Smith also concluded that excessive division of labour could be harmful, leading

Despite the enormous significance of Smith’s work, and the frequent reference to his thoughts, The Wealth of Nations has not been read in its entirety by many people.

However, to own a first edition of this seminal work and to actually read it might be just what sets some apart. humans to their most stupid and ignorant state possible, as repetitive tasks would become mind-numbing. The Wealth of Nations, nonetheless, was so successful that it led to the abandonment of earlier economic schools of thought, and later

economists, such as Malthus and Ricardo focused on refining Smith's theory into what is now known as classical economics.

Despite the enormous significance of Smith’s work, and the frequent reference to his thoughts (cited correctly or not!), The Wealth of Nations has not been read in its entirety by many people. Perhaps because its structure is dense and technical, or perhaps because we have come to readily accept his ideas as taken-for-granted.

However, to own a first edition of this seminal work and to actually read it might be just what sets some apart.

Recent rare book auction reviews show that some first editions of Wealth have reached as much as $145,000. There is quite a bit of variability in pricing, given the personal journey that each one of these books has travelled over the span of more than 200 years, and one may find even rarer versions in private collections than what I could sniff out at New York, London, Hong Kong and Bangkok rare book collectors. As a matter of interest, these first editions went to market on 9 March 1776 at £1.16s. Good news is that you might as well scan the globe for a good first edition for your own collection, as the shipping costs of one volume pales in comparison to its acquisition investment. 

A Special First Edition An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: W Strahan and T Cadell, 1776. First edition. Tipped-in on the front pastedown is an original document signed by Adam Smith, Edinburgh, 15 May 1786, acknowledging receipt from his cousin Colonel Robert Douglas of Strathendry by the hands of William Lumsdaine, clerk to the Signet, of three sums, to a total of £40, representing a year's interest on two bonds and one obligation to a total of £800 (one page, folio, on blind-stamped paper, docketed on verso). Colonel Robert Douglas was the nephew of Adam Smith's mother; Smith referred to him in a letter to Henry Dundas, 18 July 1787, as "the oldest friend and one of the nearest relations I have now living in the world." His youngest son David Douglas, later Lord Reston, was to be Smith's heir. 2 volumes, quarto (280 × 215 mm). Contemporary sprinkled calf, rebacked with the original spines laid down. Quarter morocco slipcase.

With the half-title in volume 2 only, as called for. Contemporary ownership inscriptions of H Minchin on titles (faded).

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Bavaria Cruiser 55 Setting Sailing Standards

When Bavaria Yachts creates a sailing yacht in close cooperation with Farr Yacht Design and BMW Group DesignworksUSA, one has every reason to eagerly await the result. This cooperation has resulted in a performance-driven cruiser combining maximum functionality, elegance and convenience. A special yacht with no trade-offs that leaves nothing to be desired.

Words: Charl du Plessis Images: Š BAVARIA YACHTS

F

arr Yacht Design is one of the top racing yacht design teams in the world, with an impressive record of winning races for a single design group. Their extensive racing yacht portfolio is complemented with a diverse number of comfortable custom and production cruising yachts. Across a broad range of styles, Farr excels in providing well-detailed yacht designs. This extensive knowledge has been combined with the expertise of BMW Group DesignworksUSA, and the production boat building tradition of Bavaria Yachts to produce the innovative new Cruiser 55.

When some of the world’s best designers for performance collaborate with the best designers of form and style, several novelties emerge that create a completely new sailing experience.

With a view to enhancing its performance, the Bavaria Cruiser 55 was equipped with a twin rudder, allowing for optimum water flow to the rudder in the healed position and therefore less drag. At the same time, the twin rudder is entirely redundant which makes it fail-safe. To the same extent, the new positioning of the tank around the yacht’s centre of gravity makes for well-balanced sailing qualities.

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One of the lovely innovations with the Cruiser 55 is its multifunctional settee/ gangway concept. The extremely elegant rear end of the cockpit simultaneously serves as a gangway and convertible aft settee. The aft settee marks the stylish, as well as safe, rear end of the cockpit. The settee may either be converted into a gangway providing easy access to the pier,

When some of the world’s best designers for performance collaborate with the best designers of form and style, several novelties emerge that create a completely new sailing experience. or pulled out to create a spacious seating area accommodating up to 10 people.

The completely flat sundeck with flush mounted hatches is not only visually appealing, but the 5 x 3 metres of deck space offer enough room for everyone to find his or her very favourite sunbathing spot. A maximum degree of variability above deck was created, allowing for a

range of sail options from a self-tacking jib and a 105 percent genoa all the way to code 0 sails. Doing without inboard forestays paves the way for a clean foredeck. This caters for effortless manoeuvring and spacious sunbathing.

Thanks to the special performance shape of the hull, the Cruiser 55 also offers a generous spatial concept down below to which owners can add a personal touch.

The saloon impresses with an abundance of natural light, a lavish, inviting settee as well as a freestanding kitchen isle. Owners can personalise the interior according to taste and choose from different types of wood and upholstery.

Depending on the interior layout, there are three- to five-cabin options available and four standard cabin configurations from which new owners can choose. The three-cabin version has a spacious owner’s forward cabin, and port and starboard aft cabins, each equipped with a shower/head.

The four-cabin version A starts with a spacious owner’s forward cabin equipped with a shower/WC, two port side aft cabins (one double-bed, one bunk-bed) and a starboard aft cabin equipped with a shower/head, while the B version has two double-bed cabins forward, each including a sink/WC and a shared central shower, still

Specifications

allowing for port and starboard aft cabins, each equipped with a shower/head. The five-cabin version has two double-bed cabins forward, each including a sink/WC and a shared central shower, two port side aft cabins (one double-bed, one bunk-bed) and a starboard aft cabin equipped with a shower/head.

Working with the utmost parsimonious usage of space, the dinghy garage offers room for a tender of three metres in length, including the outboard motor. The bathing platform, which is protected by a guideway, serves as a launching ramp. In addition to the sails, the fenders as well as the allpurpose ladder can be accommodated in the spacious sail storage located in the foredeck (1 x 2 x 2.5 m). The ladder can be fixed at the four points of the deck (stern, bow, port and starboard side), thus providing safe access to the vessel.

Since 1978 Bavaria yachts have been synonymous with premium quality, solid and lasting values as well as an outstanding price-performance ratio. More than 3,000 motor and sailing yachts per year leave the shipyard, ranking it among the world’s largest and most successful yacht manufacturers. In representing Bavaria Power Yachts, Wiltel Marine, the South

African agent, has established a reputation as being one of the most reliable and professional outfits in local industry. Now, with Wiltel also selling Bavaria Yachts’ sailing yachts, and with the international sailing expertise of some team members on the Wiltel team, the full range of Bavaria’s production excellence has been made accessible to all local yachting enthusiasts – motor or sailing alike.  Contact Wiltel Marine • Tel: +27 (0) 860 MARINE • Tel: +27 82 562 5145 (all hours) • www.wiltelmarine.co.za

CE category Length overall 1 Length hull Beam overall Canvas area “Sport” Canvas area “Comfort” Ballast percentage Height above water line Draught Unloaden weight

Fuel tank Water tank Cabins Engine

A 6.72m 16.16m 4.75m 145m2 139m2 approx. 35% 23m 1.90m/2.35m from approx.

15.5tons 380l 700l 3/4/5 Volvo Penta D3-110 81kW (110 PS)

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Before Life Araminta de Clermont is a British-born photographer best known for her raw, revealing photographic documentary, Life After, the subject matter of which was Cape Town’s hardened gangster population. De Clermont’s latest exhibition, Before Life, features a series of portraits undertaken during South Africa’s 2008 matric dance season.

S YNER G Y

Green Business B a n y a n Tr e e

An Exhibition by Araminta de Clermont

FEATURE

T

he project began as a documenting of South Africa’s youngsters at a seminal moment in their lives. For most matriculants and their families, the matric dance has huge significance on many levels. For some, it is an opportunity to celebrate the achievement of an important academic qualification, which previous generations may not have had the chance to reach. For others, it marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. And for others still, particularly for some of the more impoverished families, it is primarily a night of fantasy escapism, a chance to live out their dreams through costume and styling. For many, this is the night of these youngsters’ lives; their first and possibly their last real opportunity to dress up, no holds-barred, to be the centre of attention, to shine in a world where not much is certain.

Such an incredible amount of thought goes into the whole ensemble that one could say that each outfit is in a way a work of art on the girls’ part. Many families will deny their children nothing for this outfit; costs will be budgeted into household expenses up to a year in advance.

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Words: TONI ACKERMANN; LIZA DYASON Images: © ARAMINTA DE CLERMONT

Countless magazines are scoured for ideas, hundreds of music videos watched and rewatched, the imagination excavated, cultural backgrounds revisited, and family members consulted. The resultant look, De Clermont believes, speaks volumes: about the hopes, dreams, aspirations and influences of young South Africans today.

“I initially shot matrics from all walks of life,” De Clermont says, “but it was the youngsters from the notorious Cape Flats to whom I ended up being repeatedly drawn. They are the ones who again and again shone out for me, in their attitude, bearing, sense of self, and outfits chosen… but also because of my preceding series Life After, a documentation of Cape Town’s tattooed number gangsters, in which many of the men I had shot, (perhaps understandably) blamed their environments and the often grinding poverty from which they came, for the route they took in life.”

De Clermont continues, “I became fascinated by the youngsters I met from these same areas, (but born a decade or more later), who are hoping to go a different way. They seem to know they deserve more and are, in many cases, fighting to get it, hoping to ultimately soar up out of their surroundings and the attendant problems of

a formerly forcibly displaced and fragmented society. And so the relationship between the youngsters and the environments from which they hail became paramount to this body of work. At the same time I was drawn to looking at the way the matric queen presents herself, when she and her dreams are exposed to the neighbourhood and, to a degree, the greater world, through the lens of an outsider. This is the new generation of South Africa, before any disappointments, before their dreams are crushed. May they shine on.” See Araminta de Clermont’s exhibition Before Life at Cape Town’s João Ferreira Gallery from 2 September to 2 October 2009. 

João Ferreira Gallery In 1998, João Ferreira opened the first contemporary art gallery in Cape Town, it has gained a reputation as one of the country’s leading galleries for contemporary artists and art collectors. João Ferreira has been in the art world for over 20 years and represents, among others, Sanell Aggenbach, Araminta de Clermont, Kate Gottgens, Stephen Inggs and Michael Taylor.

• Visit www.joaoferreiragallery.com • Email info@joaoferreiragallery.com • Tel +27 21 423 5403.

info@neoafrica.com

s o l u t i o n s

e x o t i c a

The Captivating

SPIRIT(S) SPIRIT(S) SPIRIT(S) of Matjiesfontein Where “Champagne” Air Remains an Eternal Pleasure

The haunt of royalty, country leaders and cultural celebrities, Matjiesfontein’s rise to fame held such appeal for seekers of spirited society gatherings and those in search of healing alike in its heyday that some souls never fully departed…

Words: SHELLEE-KIM GOLD Images: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

S POO K Y

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t is eerily silent in the high-ceilinged hotel dining room – without so much as a creak on the old wooden floor. Restaurant hours are long gone and I am completely alone…or am I? I am gazing nervously into the Lord Milner Hotel’s mammoth antique mirror, as instructed. It is just above the fireplace but I am shivering with fear as I repeatedly spin around to slash at the air in front of me, certain that invisible presences are crowding in on me. Yet, I am still hoping to glimpse what others here have seen – the reflection of the lone female ghost diner.

Sounds of the collective clatter of cutlery, people eating and footsteps are all known to frequently emanate from this same room – after hours. Perhaps it is some of the 10,000 British troops who were stationed in the surrounding hills during the Boer War when the hotel was used as a hospital. Locals regularly hear the uncanny sound of scores of horse hooves thundering across the hills in the dead of night. I am following in the footsteps – or more accurately, spook steps – of various past visitors, including Lord Randolph Churchill (Winston’s father), Olive Schreiner, Rudyard Kipling, Cecil John Rhodes and the Sultan of Zanzibar.

The quaint Victorian village of Matjiesfontein is located in the Great Karoo and was established in 1884 as a stopover for those travelling by train to and from Cape Town. By the late 19th Century, Matjiesfontein became a fashionable health resort due to its high altitude, “champagne” air and its savvy Scots founder, Jimmy Logan, who touted this hamlet as an oasis in the semi-desert. As rumours about lively dinner parties being hosted by the Logans spread far and wide, guests including the British aristocracy, international political figures and local high society flocked here.

Today, village buildings are national monuments. Ranked as the most haunted town in the country, the intricately trellised Lord Milner Hotel continues to play a starring role in Matjiesfontein. Upstairs, a woman called Lucy, who never checked out, allegedly breezes around in a negligee. And then there is Katie. A nurse who died under “mysterious circumstances” at 19 years of age, Katie used to play cards with the

patients. Some claim they have seen her in her nurse’s uniform and heard the sounds of laughter, billiard-playing and cardshuffling at night. A room at the top of the hotel bears the plaque “Katie’s Card Room,” if you would like to find out for yourself.

Matjiesfontein without John Theunissen is like a gin without the tonic. Undoubtedly the village’s most colourful character, he spirits you away in what is likely the world’s

One celebrity ghoul who resided here was author Olive Schreiner. “I saw her one night walking up the hotel staircase in a dress of the times. It was as if she was walking into wind.” shortest tour of 10 minutes on a red, double-decker London bus. Later, amidst antiques in a frosty back corner of a lounge in the hotel, John tells us: “Cecil John Rhodes drank tea in this chair. He’d stop here on his way to Kimberley’s diamond mines. But it was Lord Milner I’ve seen here; he walked right through the window and smiled at me.”

One celebrity ghoul who resided here was author Olive Schreiner. She came to this place to heal from tuberculosis but eventually died. “She’s been seen walking into her old house. I saw her one night walking up the hotel staircase in a dress of the times. It was as if she was walking into wind.” The sounds of piano-playing have also been heard coming from her house.

Clearly this was one building where gallant ghost hunting would require going beyond the witching hour. And where my travel companion, Coral, featured.

Named the “ghost girls” by staff, we felt pressured to become spectre-spotters enough to at least capture one on camera.

Preferably the nameless, headless soldier who reputedly walks the railway line at dusk or midnight with his head tucked under his arm. But I would also happily settle with a sighting of the legless woman (literally – and not to be confused with alcohol excess!) who wafts down the street in a long white dress.

Enthused by things ethereal, Coral thought she had seen something fleetingly pass outside the patio door. “Oh no, it was only a hotel worker”, she quickly retracted.

No doubt Coral was getting herself psyched up for things that could go bump in the night in her Room 14. Reputedly the hotel’s “busiest” room and where many have seen a woman sitting at the edge of the bed – watching…

I was a door away in the comfortable and phantasm-free (so I hoped) Room 15.

Deliberately arranged, I was close enough to rush next door should I hear postmidnight shrieks coming from Coral’s room and far away enough not to have to sacrifice my beauty sleep if it was the spectre’s night off.

It was grave news over our buffet breakfast the next morning. The night had indeed been silent. So we decided to take our hunt for chills and thrills to a deeper level. I wanted to visit the basement of the Marie Rawdon Museum on the station with its reputed presences and prison cell – and its famous commode collection. Logan’s home was the first in the country to have both electricity and a flushing toilet.

Our potty quest revealed one Edwardian throne-like commode complete with huge wooden back and a bizarre, disfigured female dummy atop another. Other fascinating collections here include early photographic equipment and an old apothecary with a filled prescription book from 1930 on display. Although the basement was typically cold, frequent gusts of unnaturally icy air passed through me while lingering in certain spots. An eerie and spine-chilling atmosphere.

Could it have been Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia guarding his cloak or Mrs Logan protecting her finery worn at King Edward VII’s coronation? As both Rhodes and Logan were Freemasons, was it metaphysical activities at Matjiesfontein’s Masonic hotel that provided a gateway to the many souls trapped in the twilight zone here?

Whatever the reasons, one thing’s certain: Matjiesfontein’s ghosts are gracious, benign and entertaining. And this is one mysterious oasis in an African desert I’ll be returning too for a closer encounter with those who live timelessly. 

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FEATURE

Tracking a Sea Change

SeaKeepers Society

Chairman Michael Moore of the International SeaKeepers Society poses the question: “What do you do if you are concerned by the terrible decline in the marine environment and the unthinkable consequences these changes augur for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren and the countless souls whose well-being depends on healthy, productive seas for their food and livelihoods?”

Words: TANYA GOODMAN Images: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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e face extraordinary challenges in terms of protecting the quantity and quality of marine resources at a time when society is stretched to its financial limits.

And yet, as Moore argues, “problems such as overfishing, pollution and issues such as the rapidly increasing acidification of our oceans will not wait for economic recovery.

In striving to cut costs and by the lack of resources to develop cleaner, more sustainable ways of conducting our daily lives, we may in fact accelerate some of the very processes that are contributing to the loss of marine abundance we are experiencing.”

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With headquarters in Florida, the International SeaKeepers Society is comprised of an elite group of entrepreneurs, yachtsmen, divers, corporations, scientists and concerned citizens who are making a difference by monitoring and gathering data to provide critically important scientific measurements of the sea, the weather and our changing climate. The International SeaKeepers Society was founded in 1998 by a small group of yacht owners who were horrified by the deteriorating conditions of the seas.

Their initial mission was to develop a compact, automated and cost-effective ocean and atmospheric monitoring system to install aboard their yachts, providing data to scientists on the health of the world’s oceans. The resulting platform, the innovative SeaKeeper 1000™ monitoring system, is now deployed in more than 55 locations around the world, including private yachts, cruise ships, ferry boats, freighters, government buoys, research vessels and a US Coast Guard Icebreaker.

The SeaKeeper 1000™ system is a fully automated unit that samples, measures, records and then transmits its data to various scientific and public communities across the globe. It plots a broad and continuous picture of the critical measures of ocean health, such as salinity, temperature, oxygen and pH. Data is gathered and beamed via satellite to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin (NOAA) satellites which, in turn, relay the data via satellite to the United Nations’ World Metrological Organisation where the data is made available free of charge to the world scientific community.

The Society actively solicits commercial firms to adapt to its standardised sensor interface. By encouraging the use of the freely licensed SeaKeeper system as a standard for the ocean-monitoring community, SeaKeepers hopes to make this kind of data collection less expensive, expand the market for new sensors, and contribute to the greater good of an enhanced global ocean-observing system.

A number of prominent yacht builders have joined as official yacht partners in the Society. The SeaKeeper 1000™ system is endorsed by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation and

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used by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NOAA’s National Data Buoy Centre and National Marine Programs. The Society was also awarded Silicon Valley’s prestigious “Tech Museum Award” for Technology Benefiting Humanity in 2002.

SeaKeepers, through partner Palladium Technologies, has recently developed a visualisation of its fleet of ships and other platforms carrying the SeaKeeper 1000™ monitoring system.

In the past, conservation was viewed as a “luxury” item, something we could

indulge in when we had an abundance of time and financial resources. But, as Moore suggests, “time and tide wait for no man,” and so SeaKeepers is committed not just to surviving our current economic downturn, but ensuring that “plain, unadorned science-based facts” contribute to practical solutions to the degradation of our oceans.

For more information, to donate and/or to turn your yacht into a research vessel, email info@seakeepers.org, visit www.seakeepers.org, or phone them at +1 954-766-7100. 

Silverton Yachts B u i l t

f o r

t h e

W o r l d

Sport Bridge

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Kevin Jenzen + 27 82 338 0659 Duncan Campbell + 27 82 443 0611 Tel: +27 11 608 2755 kevin@bluewatermarine.co.za www.bluewatermarine.co.za

FEATURE

Bentley F l y i n g

S p u r

Masters of the Universe

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FEATURE

To sit in the driving seat of the new Bentley Flying Spur is to feel afloat above the rest of the mere mortals on the road. With the smell of fresh leather and the quick response of 449kW to your slightest touch, one cannot but help feeling on top of the world.

Words: JACQUES GILROY Images: Š BENTLEY MOTORS

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I

do not buy motoring magazines. The last luxury car I owned was a lefthand drive, 1980 MG convertible, and since then, I have become a practical motorist who has to share the South African roads with maniacs. This was about to change as I was handed the keys to the new Bentley Flying Spur on a lovely sunny weekend in Cape Town.

Settling into the perfectly understated and oh-so-old-world interior felt just a tad more sensual than the spa bath on a private island we had visited the previous month.

Awash in luxury – the feel of the upholstery, the padded leather seat with adjustments to whatever body part needs it, the stylish instrument panels, the signature Breitling timekeeper bisecting passenger and driver sides, the cool metal trim and touch of levers and handles. And then, in the only interior design concession to modernism (apart from all the DVD and audio accoutrements), I found the discreet start button, despite the availability of a key hole for real traditionalists. I could have sat gob-smacked in this car all day, until a knock on the window reminded me that I had offered to test how the Flying Spur drives and that I was free to head out.

Lured into a sense of surrealism by the self-levelling air suspension, all happening out of mind while cruising down the Cape Foreshore alleys, and by the flattery of stares from the production model drivers who stopped next to me at traffic lights, I was soon jolted back to reality when I hit the

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highway. True to its name, the Flying Spur responded as soon as I cut my heels into its ribs. The 48-valve, W12 biturbo engine of almost 600cc kicked right in and wrestled me to the back of my seat. At 75kW/l, without any noticeable increase in sound in the interior, the two-and-a-half tonnes of master engineering catapulted me forward at break-neck speed. The usual concern with cameras and Metro cops was left behind in a dust cloud. Surely, they would understand why I had to drive this way – it’s because I could? Besides, I felt an intrinsic trust that this level of workmanship also must have considered all that is humanly possible on the safety side. I need not even enquire. I worked through the gears with ease, and kept myself out of trouble with the welltuned vented and cross-drilled ceramic brakes that could evidently handle the momentum produced by this awesome combination of mass and speed.

A stop or two later in the winelands, with enough space in the boot for a barnload of Chardonnay, and the joy of many a small conversation with admirers at every estate, I finally started getting it why someone would dish out the R3.8 million for this car. I even phoned an old colleague who was the butt of our jokes in our late twenties when he opted for an old-world ride like this at a time when we all went flat and fast after our first big deals. I told him just that: “I finally get it. It’s that Master of the Universe thing.”

This is what the idea of a Bentley has

come to mean to me: Yes, I am a Master of the Universe when I drive one. Not only because of the sheer sense of luxury when you step into the car, but also for all it represents. There are just a few on the road – anywhere in the world. That sets me apart. And although Capetonians are way too cool to demonstrate excessive adoration, or way too affluent to be surprised by the car next to them, I felt noticed. But the true beauty of this car and all it embodies is that I could choose to bathe in the attention, or simply shrug it off as vulgar. Not so with a flashy red Italian jobbie that shouts to be noticed.

Opting for this Bentley allowed me to claim that I have made it and could define the rules in my own way. Opulent? Yes, but I earned it. Loud? Only if I so chose. Oldworld? Actually, not. This car is no throwback concession to a misplaced colonialist nostalgia. Rather, it represents the best of different eras and can speak to the mood of the modern man in any location, without suggesting some jingoistic lordly-wannabe status. It is speed, style, class, luxury, and reward all in one for the person who has conquered the complexity of our modern world, and feels that the time is ripe for an amazing treat to the self.  To test-drive your Bentley, contact: • Rens Rademeyer in Johannesburg on +27 11 361 6600.

• William Miller in Cape Town on +27 21 419 0595 • Visit: www.bentleyapproved.co.za

FEATURE

Why Wait?

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FEATURE

Get Your Classic Bentley Today Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS Images: © BENTLEY MOTORS

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Arnage, Azure, Brooklands, and Continental Supersports. The names of famous Bentley models roll off one’s tongue as smoothly as the ride they represent. With the waiting period for a new imported model now anything up to six months, and with a fantastic stock of heritage and classic Bentleys readily available in the country, Bentley Motors South Africa is witnessing a phenomenal surge in interest shown for these older models.

I

n the early 1920s, WO Bentley, an engineer, stoked his passion for cars by building the Experimental Bentley No 1. "I wanted to make a fast car, a good car: the best in its class," he said. His ambition held true and the era of the famous Bentley Boys, who ran roughshod over all entries at Le Mans for most of the 1920s became legendary.

Bentleys achieved Le Mans victories in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930 – taking the first four places in 1929. Financial difficulties beset Bentley and started a long period of subservience to its new owners, Rolls-Royce. By 1952, when the Bentley R-Type Continental made its debut with a Mulliner-bodied coupe capable of 120 mph, it would be the last Bentley to be built with no equivalent Rolls-Royce model for 30 years. By 1971, the fusion of the two brands had reached its apex when both the Bentley T Series and Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow two-door saloon and drophead models were renamed Corniche. This was also the year when WO passed away.

Arguably not the best year in the Bentley history.

The early 1990s saw the gradual emancipation of Bentley from its owner’s shadow, with the unveiling of the Bentley Continental R, the first Bentley model with its own, dedicated body since the1954 R-Type Continental. In the following year, the Mulsanne S and Eight made way for the new Bentley Brooklands. The march of the newly energised Bentley brand had begun.

In March 1994, the Bentley Java was one of the stars of the Geneva Motor Show, a two-door concept car based on BMW 5-Series underpinnings. Later that year, the Bentley range was extended with the Turbo S and Continental S versions. Enjoying a substantial increase in power, they were able to move from 0 to 60 mph in less than six seconds. The next year saw the launch of the Pininfarina-designed Bentley Azure convertible, still one of the most beautiful Bentley’s to rest your eyes on.

Powering ahead, 1996 saw the introduction of the 400bhp Bentley Continental T – the marque's most powerful road car. The

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Bentley Turbo R Sport was introduced at the same time. The Bentley Arnage joined the stable in 1998, sharing the same body as the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, yet powered by a BMW V8 twinturbocharged engine.

In July 1998, Volkswagen AG completed their purchase of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for almost £480 million. BMW bought the rights to the Rolls-Royce name and it was announced that from midnight on 31 December 2002, Bentley and Rolls-Royce would be separate companies once again, after 67 years together. With a good stock of excellent models and a very sought-after reputation, Bentley finally came to stand for an idea of its own.

To own a Bentley is to become part of a family, and an interesting one at that.

Having shed the stiff-upper-lip snobbishness of their long-term sister company, Bentley could return to its roots of melding style with performance rather than showmanship. True to its roots, Bentley was back at Le Mans in 2000, and on the podium. In the same year, the Bentley CGT was awarded the prize as “The Most Beautiful Car in the World.” Sadly, this was also the year when Bentley finally exited Le Mans.

The mid-2000s introduced several stunning new models that kept on raking in the accolades at motor shows and among motoring press and car enthusiasts alike.

Convertibles dominated 2006, at which point the Continental Flying Spur burst onto the scene, with 4,500 sold in its first year. In 2007, Bentley finally returned to the luxury coupé market to reaffirm its reputation as the creator of the world’s most exclusive coupés with the launch of the Bentley Brooklands (named after the site of some of its earliest racing victories).

The Bentley brand has kept some of the enigma of its daring owners alive all these years. Sometimes a foster child, sometimes the rebel, yet always, in each and every model, the ability to surprise everybody with its star quality and amazing individuality. Non-conformist, you bet. And that is the exciting part of owning one of

these great cars of the distant or recent past – there is nothing about it that could ever make you predictable.

Why wait? If you feel you deserve it and could not care what others think, get over to Bentley Motors SA now and start picking from the most expensive toy box in the country, yet at yesterday’s prices.

Contact: • Rens Rademeyer in Johannesburg on +27 11 361 6600.

• William Miller in Cape Town on +27 21 419 0595 • Visit: www.bentleyapproved.co.za

Bentley Johannesburg will be hosting a special event later this year for twenty very select guests. The Zwartkops Air Force runway will be closed for one hour, during which time guests can push the new Bentley Flying Spur to its limits, and then zip out to a private game lodge by military helicopter for dinner. If you think you have the means to play in this class, contact Deirdre Cupido at deirdrec@bentleysa.co.za, or on +27 (0)11 361 6600.

SEDUCE

No other designer has ever captured the essence of the good life in quite the way that classic Italian boatyard Riva has done for decades.

In the late 1960s, Brigitte Bardot was the owner of a Riva Junior while young, Italian playboy Gigi Rizzi,

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her companion that magical summer, had practically grown up aboard the family Riva Super Florida. Evoking an atmosphere of sea, love and the unrepeatable era of the Dolce Vita on the Cote d’Azur, Rizzi recalls those days in this excerpt from his memoir.* Words: Gigi Rizzi, Translated by Neil Davenport Images: Š GALLO IMAGES/Getty IMAGES

SEDUCE

I

t was out of that bedlam, amidst the rumble of an Afro-American music that would have had even the paralytics dancing, that the vision of BB (Brigitte Bardot) appeared. She was with her group of friends and Jean-Jacques Manigot, the white hunter, a blue-eyed, bearded giant who lived in Africa and had taken the place of Gunther Sachs in the heart of the world’s most enchanting woman. My unhappiness must have been clear, because after a toast at a new bar we were about to inaugurate, Brigitte took me to one side and whispered something in my ear, “Don’t be sad, my man’s leaving too. Let’s get lunch and then go waterskiing.”

When something is about to click with a woman, you feel it instinctively, you recognise it in an instant. I was delighted with the invitation and felt that it was no casual date. I’d seen La Madrague so many times in the press and as I approached, the closer I got the more I could smell the scent of its mistress.

Brigitte Bardot was the queen of this impregnable fortress and had for years fought a bitter war with the world’s photographers to maintain her privacy. I braved the battery of telephoto lenses and presented myself with a tray of croissants, “Tea or cafe au lait?” she asked. “A glass of rosé,” I replied. “What, after just waking up?” I held firm and shamelessly even had a second glass.

We went out in the motorboat towards Chez Camille: fish for lunch and then waterskiing in the bay. She complimented me on my performance. I could hardly take my eyes off her: I was entranced by the way she moved, by her blonde hair, by those incredible lips, by her magnificent body

Riva then... with that skimpy bikini glued to her skin, by the thin gold chain around her waist. I remember falling asleep in the sun on the Madrague jetty, with the rest of crowd splashing around in the water. I awoke with a start, feeling a shiver but instead it was a hand caressing my foot. The others had all suddenly disappeared. I looked at Brigitte and we kissed without saying a word. Her eyes purred as if we were in a Peynet cartoon. ******* Lunch, love, waterskiing, love! Those public and private kisses were so tender yet even more so was the discovery of a real woman, light years away from the image of her films. A woman capable of great leaps and absurd fears, Brigitte was adorable in her little fixations, her terror of the dark, her fear of solitude, her almost child-like shyness in the presence of old people. Then she would grab her guitar and sing her songs or play incredibly sweet gypsy serenades, with her cat-like eyes and her hair in a braid. I never knew and hardly wanted to know whether this was true love or a diva’s whim; I was there with her and she was happy; I dragged her out at night with friends and she sparkled.

Brigitte was a home lover, extremely jealous of her privacy. She would recount her highs and lows to me. I would see her as unbelievably melancholic, but then all it would take was a smile, an affectionate gesture and she would let herself go. She could also be irascible, furious and desperate when the siege staged by the photographers or the curiosity of the journalists got to be too much. She wanted to hide herself away, she hated the scrimmages, the fans, the questions prying into her private and sentimental life. She

also hated the bars, the people who gossip, drink and get drunk, the drugs and all that was harmful and I had to ask myself what I was doing there, a great drinker of Negronis and gin and tonics, an unrepentant smoker, and a night club habitué. ******* I had had an excellent waterskiing instructor at Portofino, my friend Alberto Pederzani, a Milanese jeweller, a great ladies’ man and world champion in that year of grace, 1963: he taught me to ski at night on the wake of the moon. I followed his advice and danced on the water: Brigitte loved it and it was great to see her smile, as happy as I was. Afterwards, we would let the Riva Junior bob on the waves at the edge of the bay and abandon ourselves, naked, to the sun. A sensation of freedom and peace that lasted through to the early afternoon when we arrived at Chez Camille, a small restaurant on a fishermen’s beach that offered fresh fish and seafood served with white wine chilled to 10 degrees below.

Maybe we shared the same ideas regarding seduction. She was BB and whatever she wanted was hers for the taking, but she looked for attraction in a look, in the skin or the scent. She acted instinctively, a woman capable of inspiring love at first sight, they said. I’ve always believed in instinct, in first impressions. It’s extraordinary how much passion can be enclosed in a kiss, in an embrace. BB and I had a very similar vision of the future: we saw ourselves with someone at around 70, still beautiful, because love allows us to feel strong, to feel magnificent.  * Gigi Rizzi's book, Me, BB and the Other ‘68, is published by Carte Scoperte of Milan.

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FEATURE

...and Riva now.

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FEATURE

Bakos BROTHERS

Completely Carbon Neutral Bakos Brothers has made history by becoming South Africa’s first carbon neutral retailer. The prestigious family furniture store, led by visionary CEO, Ryan Bakos, has introduced a treeplanting programme to offset the company’s carbon emissions; the first step in its offset plan.

Words & Images: © BAKOS BROTHERS

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S AV E

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acilitated by Food & Trees for Africa – a greening, climate change action and food security social enterprise – Bakos Brothers have been planting a number of trees at each of eight disadvantaged schools across South Africa, creating a nurturing environment for the students. This project will also provide lasting benefit to generations of children and their communities. “I believe it is every person’s responsibility to adopt low-carbon practices, and businesses are made of people,” says CEO Ryan Bakos. “Raising public awareness and encouraging choices that support ethical companies will result in pressure being felt by other suppliers to follow suit. I believe the chain reaction is the only thing that might save our wonderful and precious planet!”

Bakos is not only committed to offsetting the company’s monthly carbon emissions, he has also implemented a plan to reduce its energy consumption, which accounts for over 75 percent of the retailer’s total carbon emissions. A carbon footprint and energy report by Global Carbon Exchange (GCX) highlighted how reductions could be achieved. Using this, Bakos devised a financially-sustainable plan that spread the cost of converting his current lighting system (the most energyintensive component of Bakos Brothers’

furniture retailers’ operations), into an energy efficient system.

Total payback of the entire project, including the lighting conversion and service fees, will be achieved after a period of two years. However, emission reductions and financial savings began with the first lights that were converted and will continue steadily as more energyefficient lighting is fitted. This will also result in less and less offsets being purchased monthly until the new system has been fully installed at all five of the company’s premises.

This approach to business by leaders and innovators such as Ryan Bakos shows how today’s most successful companies do not separate responsible environmental and social practices from increasing their financial returns. The old business model of profiting at the expense of everything and everyone has been replaced by a sustainable business model which recognises that a company consists of people and resources, and that its success relies on creating a harmony in which to operate. This is seen with international market leaders such as Marks and Spencer’s, HSBC, Google, Nike, and the World Bank, all of which have committed to reductions, with carbon neutrality being the ultimate goal.

For further information, visit www.bakosbrothers.com. 

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FEATURE

Aston Martin

V8 Vantage 420

Words: ELLA TURNER Image: Š ASTON MARTIN

Flying First Class

with JPA

First-class air travel is not what it used to be. In days past, travellers would have expected it to offer slightly more comfort, a little more space and somewhat better service than other classes of travel. Nowadays, however, passengers can expect an experience quite unlike that enjoyed further back in the aircraft.

Words & Images: Š JPA

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ou see, as a first-class traveller you can relax with a glass of champagne, relishing your greater comfort, space and privacy. You can power up your laptop or watch the latest movies as you anticipate a mouth-

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watering meal selected from a menu designed by a Michelin-star chef. Or you can change into your specially-provided, designer nightwear and stretch out in your long, wide, completely flat bed and be lulled to sleep by one of countless pieces of music available through your personal

state-of-the-art entertainment system. In actual fact, what airlines now offer their first-class customers might be closer to a five-star hotel experience than to a longhaul flight.

This is little surprise, given that one of the companies leading the reinvention of

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premium air travel is the London and Singapore-based design consultancy, James Park Associates (JPA). JPA has built its reputation on designing stunning interiors for both aircraft and hotels. Singapore Airlines' Boeing 777, Boeing 747, Airbus A380 and Airbus A340 trans-Pacific fleets all feature JPA seats, while India's Lake Palace Hotel, the Maldives' Taj Exotica Resort and Spa and New York's Hotel Pierre all feature JPA interiors. The company's founder, James Park, explains that there is a strong link between these two. “With both hotels and premium air travel, the overriding ambition is to design an environment in which customers can relax in comfort and enjoy the hospitality,” he says. “Both need to enable customers to do what they want to do, when they want to do it, with minimum disruption or fuss. As a result, in aviation we have seen innovations such as private suites, fully lie-flat beds, ottomans

that can be used as a guest's dining seat and swivelling tables that allow the passenger to leave his or her seat even when the table is in use. There has also been a host of technological features introduced that allow passengers to work or to use the in-flight entertainment systems whenever they want. As a result of all this, much of the control of the inflight experience has passed from cabin crew to passenger.”

Andrew Brown, a London-based company director with 20 years of luxury flying experience agrees. “First-class air travel has always been a pleasure,” he says.

“But it has changed enormously, and all for the better. Nowadays, there is a huge range of choices available and, while the seats up here were always more comfortable than elsewhere on the plane, I still used to arrive at my destination with a stiff back. With flat beds, that no longer

happens. In fact, the bed in the new JAL Suite onboard Japan Airlines has a mattress more comfortable than the one I have at home!”

The JAL Suite is another JPA design that will soon be joined by magnificent, brand new cabins for Gulf Air, Arik Air and a number of other airlines. Each will offer a fantastic travel experience – one of unashamed luxury that anticipates the passenger’s every whim.

The battle between airlines for the attention of the first-class traveller may be fierce but, with more space and comfort – in fact, more of everything – there is little doubt that the winner will definitely be you, the passenger.  Contact details: • Tel: +44 20 7083 7088 • Fax: +44 70 9211 3066 • Visit: www.jpadesign.com

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S LI C K

Vroom Va-Va-Va-

H a m a n n Volcano

Words: Ella Turner Images: Š Hamann America

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S LI C K

How do you make one of the most impressive Mercedes-Benz cars on the road even better? You give the conversion project to Hamann Motorsport, who has taken the SLR McLaren to new heights with staggering styling and cutting-edge, high performance tweaking, and turned it into the Volcano. The end result: an aerodynamic, drop-dead gorgeous vehicle. w w w. p r e s t i g e m a g . c o . z a

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his Volcano doesn’t rumble; it roars. Once again, Hamann Motorsport proves its mettle when it comes to refining superb sports cars. From a lift-reducing body design to a powerful performance enhancement to a lavishly styled interior, Hamann focuses on all components of this luxury car and makes the automobile dreams of its exclusive clientele come true.

Hamanns’ total visual makeover is based on extremely light full carbon and consists of front and rear wing extensions and also new side skirt attachments and sheathings.

The front view of the Volcano is optically perfected with a newly designed bonnet which enhances the overall impression by its

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integrated hood scoop. When it comes to the rear, the refining technicians

From a lift-reducing body design to a powerful performance enhancement to a lavishly styled interior, Hamann focuses on all components of this luxury car and makes the automobile dreams of its exclusive clientele come true. implemented new ideas, giving the SLR appearance its finishing touch. At the front

axle, a newly developed front spoiler renders the necessary contact pressure. If desired, an especially developed overall paint for the Volcano in either aluminium/chrome or white/matt distinguishes it from the standard SLR McLaren and completes the striking appearance of this supercar.

The “Edition Race” 21-inch rims with tyres measuring 255/30ZR21 at the front and 345/25ZR21 at the back create optimal road grip. As a result of the extraordinary light forged wheel, you get a combination of vitality and elegance that also perfectly fills out the wheel houses. The ultra light three-piece wheel also reduces unsprung weight, thus improving performance and handling.

Under the boot lid cover, Hamann

FEATURE

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placed a powerful carbon fibre diffuser, which channels and greatly improves the underbody airflow and significantly improves the car's downforce in combination with the rear wing. All aerodynamic improvements were verified in wind tunnel testing.

Under the bonnet, it only gets better.

The Hamann motor technicians fully exploit the Mercedes Benz V8-aggregate (5.4 litres, 626hp, 780Nm) to get 700hp / 515kW and a maximum torque of 830Nm at 3,300 crankshaft revolutions per minute.

Because of these modifications, the Volcano gets a newly programmed control unit, especially developed high performance exhaust manifolds and an amended belt pulley combination for the serial

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compressors. In order to facilitate the increased motor performance, Hamann adds a second water pump and adjusts the gearbox electronics. Invigorated in this way, the Volcano accelerates from 0 to 100 in only 3.6 seconds. With a maximum speed of 348km/h, the Hamann Volcano is 14km/h faster than the serial model and even beats the factory-provided performance-enhanced special series SLR 722 by an impressive 11km/h.

Stepping inside, a skilfully refined interior awaits the Volcano’s pilot. Here, the Volcano features aluminium pedals and foot rests, with door sill protectors, headrests and floor mats sporting embossed embroidered Hamann logos. Custom-made carbon parts for the dashboard and centre

console plus high-quality Alcantara trim for the roof interior, all pillars, the cockpit including the steering wheel and sun visors are also options.

If you want yours now, you’d better get cracking. Because of the extensiveness of the modifications, the rebuild can take up to four weeks or longer to do. Price is available only on request. In addition to the Volcano project, Hamann America modifies all the high end Euro cars such as BMW, Bentley, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Porsche, Land Rover, RollsRoyce, Mini and Fiat 500. They ship worldwide. Contact: Tel: +1 888 9-HAMANN Email: info@HamannAmerica.com www.HamannAmerica.com ď ?

LIFE PASSION ADVENTURE

OfямБcial agent for Fairline luxury motor yachts in South Africa.

DURBAN HARBOUR : Durban Yacht Mole Tel: 031 301 1115 / 083 324 4630 DURBAN POINT : The Quays Tel: 031 332 1987 / 079 872 2335 CAPE TOWN V&A WATERFRONT : Breakwater Boulevard Tel: 082 881 2607 / 072 860 6401 www.boatingworld.co.za | info@boatingworld.co.za

LIFE PASSION ADVENTURE

FEATURE

&

Baume Mercier Celebrating Fine Craftsmanship

Throughout its history, Baume & Mercier has demonstrated its willingness to embrace new techniques, fashions and ways of doing business.

Words: TONI ACKERMANN Images: Š BAUME & MERCIER

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SWISS

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heir tradition of introducing stylistic innovations, which frequently required technical and manufacturing developments that pushed the limits of existing capabilities, has established Baume & Mercier as one of the world’s leading watch brands.

Styling has always been one of Baume & Mercier’s strong points. As early as 1896, the Baume firm pioneered the introduction of wristlet watches for women. In the 1920s, it was among the first to produce women’s watches with sophisticated designs, described at the time as “luxury fantasies for women.” Such legendary models of the brand as the 1946 Marquise, the 1973 Riviera or the Hampton of 1994, are impossible to ignore given the influence they each had on contemporary watch design.

Celebrating the Baume & Mercier Hampton model's 15th birthday this year with the launch of a new collection, this design has overturned existing watchmaking codes with its rectangular steel case, becoming an instant best seller. These chic, sporty models combine the classic, authentic watch-making tradition with a modern design; one inspired by a

Watch-making is an enthralling world of fine mechanisms and accuracy, values with which I have a definite sense of affinity. – Swiss photographer Maarten van der Ende rectangular pink gold watch introduced by Baume & Mercier in 1960. The Hampton collection has evolved through numerous variations but, whether curved or square, has always succeeded in preserving its identity.

Swiss photographer Maarten van der Ende, when photographing these beautiful timepieces, recreated the changing light at different times of the day for each of the Hampton watches. In photography, light is essential and is, believes Van der Ende, what gives a soul to the object being captured. “I generally work a lot with chiaroscuro (the Italian term in art for a contrast between light and dark) so as not to reveal everything and to retain a certain aura of mystery,” he says. “In this case, I photographed the watches in full light and played on shadows and on the

intensity of the lighting to represent different moments in a summer’s day.”

Van der Ende likes to take his time with the object that has become his subject, allowing it to inspire him, and reveal what light is needed to achieve the best possible result. He says, “A watch is a fascinating object that is really interesting to photograph, with its extremely varied materials such as leather, steel, gold or mother-of-pearl. Watch-making is also an enthralling world of fine mechanisms and accuracy, values with which I have a definite sense of affinity.”

The new Hampton collection features three different identities: Hampton Classic, Hampton Manchette and Hampton Magnum. The Classic design confirms the untainted elegance of the original Hampton model, with a redesigned rectangular case featuring flowing, contemporary lines.

With the Hampton Manchette, femininity

and glamour are in the spotlight as this jewellery-watch embodies the essence of the Hampton spirit. Hampton Magnum, the sporty, sophisticated variation on this theme, is larger than ever and enriched with an all-white feminine version.

Baume & Mercier has, over many years, demonstrated innovative manufacturing and creative marketing techniques by systematically being among the first brands to adopt the latest technical novelties in watch-making. Clearly, it has stood them in good stead. For more information visit www.baume-et-mercier.com or contact Baume & Mercier on +27 11 317 2600. 

The Birthplace of Baume & Mercier It is not by chance that the village of Les Bois in the Swiss Jura was the birthplace of Baume & Mercier in 1830.

This region is one of the crucibles of Swiss watch-making; the others being Geneva and the Joux Valley. No fewer than 12 out of the 20 oldest brands still operating were founded within 20 kilometres of Les Bois. Around 1,000 people live in the commune, at 1,000 metres altitude in the Swiss FranchesMontagnes on the border with France, Canton Bern and Canton Neuchâtel.

The watch-making industry came to the Franches-Montagnes in the late 18th Century, spreading along the Jura crescent from Geneva in search of qualified workers. It first took hold in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle at the end of the 17th Century, thanks to the talents of Daniel Jeanrichard, a young metalworker from La Sagne. Jeanrichard managed to copy an English watch brought to him for repair by a trader, and he went on to introduce watchmaking in Neuchâtel and the FranchesMontagnes.

The Frères Baume watch dealership, which became Baume & Mercier, was established in Les Bois in 1830 and soon became the biggest watch outlet in the region. By 1850 there were some 500 people employed at Les Bois, producing 30,000 watches a year.

The building that housed the workshops of the Frères Baume business in Les Bois from 1854 onwards still stands in the centre of the village.

Bolliat Frères, another watch company founded in 1928, used it as a workshop until 2005. Today, watch-making continues to flourish in Les Bois.

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S u p e r Ya c h t

MAN of STEEL

S U B M ER G E

Egypt's

Red Sea Full of Surprises

While I am no Lois Lane and this is no mild-mannered, bespectacled yacht, Man of Steel, with a wink to both to Superman and his owners’ font of wealth, is a vessel worthy of taking your breath away. Scooped up in his arms, you would indeed see the world from a different height.

Words & Images: © Claudia Pellarini-Joubert and Leon Joubert of www.bittenbysharks.com

Words: ELLA TURNER Images: © HEESEN YACHTS

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uperman – the comic hero of mythic proportion – possesses extraordinary powers, with the character traditionally described as "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." Man of Steel embodies all this, and more.

Launched in late 2008 and built by naval architect, Heesen Yachts, Man of Steel's exterior design is attributed to Omega Architects, while her interior was a joint project between Omega Architects and Mark Wallace. Owners and designers combined their philosophy into one, and this merging has produced a dream yacht that was, according to all parties involved, both a great experience in its execution and its final outcome.

From the inception of this project, fun was always at the forefront for this 50-metre (164-feet) “home away from home.” For the young, active family, emphasis was placed on the division of available space into outdoor living rooms for play, relaxation, sharing meals, and exercise. The helipad, for example, cleverly doubles as a fitness and aerobic area.

For the interior, designers drew upon Morocco’s brilliant colours to create a lively, bright atmosphere in the lower level.

This is especially evident in the themed family room, dominated by a customised Bisazza tile mural of the boat’s namesake.

The look and feel was generated by their young daughter’s fascination with the pop culture movement and the energy it eludes. With this sense of whimsy at play, the shared areas on Man of Steel give off an electric energy that parallels the family itself.

The Art-Deco movement was selected as the genre that best reflects the elegance of the young owners’ style, both as they interact as a family and how they entertain their friends. Elements of such décor include the Maccasa ebony wood, use of

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period-correct sterling silver, crystal, and a platinum colour scheme. Asian and Zen influences are also evident in the custom platforms for the furniture, the square proportions of the cushions, the glassencased black river rock floor, and the simplicity of the floral arrangements.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of this yacht is the use of hot rolled steel threaded seamlessly throughout the vessel; a tribute to the product and industry in which the owners have flourished. The stairway, for example, floats off of the wall, supported on a steel column and was designed and engineered by the owner himself. Among other noteworthy features aboard Man of Steel is the floating glass floor over a bed of black river rock that is illuminated with dramatic effect and leads visitors to other areas on the yacht such as the dayhead and VIP suite.

Man of Steel accommodates 10 guests in a master stateroom, VIP suite, two doubles and one twin cabin. The VIP suite is full-beam and located in the space typically reserved for the owners’ suite. Its unusual placement reflects the owners’ desire that their guests share the peaceful experiences they so love about yachting.

This large suite contains a private sitting room and a fold-down wall that becomes an outdoor balcony.

The owners’ suite was really the vision of the owners themselves. Having owned several previous yachts, they proposed that their suite be built over the VIP area and be enclosed by glass, with a 240-degree view and a bed that rotates to take this all in. In addition, there is an owners’ balcony that contains a negative edge spa and its own sundeck for total privacy and relaxation.

For Heesen Yachts, Man of Steel represents an important achievement as it is the second yacht under the same name commissioned by a repeat client. Having previously owned a 37-metre Heesen Yacht, the owner signed a deal for the larger vessel even as he took delivery of the

original. "It’s not that he was unhappy with this boat,” explained Captain Nigel Jenkins, “in fact, quite the opposite. We knew that Heesen was fully booked and that the project would take a number of years to complete. He just wanted to get in the queue so that the boat would be nearly completed when they were ready for more space as the kids grow up." Who knows what the owners have in mind next as the yacht is currently listed for sale at a price that might make even Superman gasp – €39 million ($55 million).  For more information contact Heesen Yachts, on +31 412 66 55 44 or visit www.heesenyachts.nl. To register your interest in purchasing the yacht, speak to International Yacht Collection (IYC) on +1 954 522 2323 or visit www.iyc.com.

FEATURE

Fresh Wind

in the Sails Eden Island Lipton Cup

In 1909, when Sir Thomas Lipton handed a gift to the Table Bay Yacht Club (now known as the Royal Cape Yacht Club RCYC), little did he know that 101 years after the race was staged for the first time, the best sailors in South Africa would still be going head-to-head to lay claim to the treasure. And that new sponsors would be attracted to the event.

Words: Jason Acar Images: Š Trevor Wilkins

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he recently renamed Eden Island Lipton Cup, in honour of the new sponsor, is currently regarded as the biggest challenge on the South African sailing calendar, and in recent years has been dominated by Western Cape clubs as the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) clubs struggle to regain their early victories. Over the years, Cape Town has hosted the event 27 times, while the warmer waters of Durban have seen the race 21 times in an ongoing tug-of-war between the two coastal cities.

Craig Miller, the skipper of KZN’s Point Yacht Club (PYC) entry, has declared his

FEATURE

intention to revive his club’s successful history in the event. In 1911, PYC became the first club to challenge for the trophy after it was given to RCYC and they won it on their first attempt. They then held on to the trophy for six consecutive years before RCYC reclaimed their gift.

What makes this race different to most is the fact that only L26 yachts can compete, putting everyone on an even footing. Another crucial element is the fact that no discards are allowed over the six days of intense racing. This means conservative racing is the key, as one bad day on the water can spoil your entire challenge for the trophy. A course of no less than 12 nautical miles is navigated every day during the event and the position you finish in determines the amount of points you receive (eg finishing 28th earns you 28 points). The team with the least amount of points is declared the winner. “The best sailors in the country compete against each other in the same design of boats, putting the result in the hands of the competitors and not the designer or the size of the cheque book,” says Miller.

Theewater Sports Club, Zeekoevlei Sailing Club, Royal Natal Yacht Club, PYC and RCYC have been the most successful clubs over the years, while skippers Rick Nankin, Chris King and Greg Davis have lifted the trophy seven times each. Davis has dominated the race since 2006, winning three consecutive titles with coskipper Gareth Blanckenberg to tie with Nankin and King, and still has time to become the most successful skipper in the history of the race.

But among the old sea dogs, a number of young vibrant sailors are beginning to climb the ranks. "It's great to see the number of youth teams entered in the Eden Island Lipton Cup," said John Martin, Commodore of RCYC. "This goes to prove that with input from the older sailors and our dedication to promoting the sport – internationally, nationally and at club level – our efforts are paying off and we are now reaping the benefits.” The tournament has attracted several school and youth development teams such as Isivunguvungu from Simonstown and Diocesan College (Bishops) in Rondebosch. Says Martin, “The crews are from all colours, creeds, from wealthy to previously disadvantaged backgrounds and this is the future for yachting as a sport.”

Martin’s hope is that these achievements will be recognised by the captains of industry so that more sponsors can be solicited to further achieve this aim.

His vision found some realisation this year, when Eden Island, a residential marina property development in the Seychelles, took on a major new role. "We are extremely excited to be a part of this world renowned sailing event," said Richard Epstein, Pam Golding’s Project Sales Manager for Eden Island in South Africa. “From a marketing perspective, being associated with such a professional event and getting exposure to the South African yachting fraternity is a great opportunity to showcase our property development, which is a perfect match for those who love this lifestyle.”  Visit www.liptoncup.org.za for race results. To find out more about Eden Island’s marina and property development in the Seychelles, visit www.edenisland.sc or call Richard Epstein on +27 82 882 8996.

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FEATURE

At first glance it looked like a piece of bone that had been thrown away. But what Katharina Koll found in a cave in southern Germany was, in fact, the world's oldest known flute.

Words and Image: © MARC HERWIG/FEATURENET.CO.ZA

How Old is Music,

Really?

35,000-Year-Old Flute Uncovered

"I

picked it up, looked at it and then quickly put it aside," said Koll, a trainee at the Institute for Archaeology in Tuebingen.

According to archaeologist Nicholas Conard, Koll’s superior, the find demonstrates the presence of a well-established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonised Europe, more than 35,000 years ago.

The 12 fragments of the 22-centimetrelong flute were discovered in Hohle Fels, a cave 140 kilometres west of the city of Munich and which has been the source of

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other Ice Age treasures over the years. Just 70 centimetres from where the flute was discovered, archaeologists last year found the oldest known figurine of a human, a buxom female carved from the tusk of a mammoth. Both the six-centimetre-tall figurine and the flute appeared to have been discarded, though archaeologists do not know why.

The flute was carved from the wing of a griffon vulture, but in its form resembles a modern instrument. There are five finger holes, which enable the tone to be changed, though the instrument cannot be played

because the bottom end is missing. Even if it was complete Conard says he wouldn't allow it to be played because humidity might damage it. Conard built a replica of the flute from another vulture bone, which can be played. The sound is a bit hollow but is nevertheless similar to modern flutes.

Conard's team found fragments of three other flutes carved from the tusks of a mammoth. “Such finds are not as rare as we thought,” Conard said. “Music played an important role in this period and could

The flute was carved from the wing of a griffon vulture, but in its form resembles a modern instrument. have helped established social networks as far back as 35,000 years.” That, in turn, is possibly a decisive advantage that modern humans had over the Neanderthal.

The finds, made in the Swabian Alps, have reignited a discussion about whether this area is the cradle of European culture.

While acknowledging that the finds made in the region are the oldest known to man, Conard does not rule out that similar treasures exist elsewhere. “It's possible that music and performing arts were practiced in other regions, but nobody has bothered to excavate the objects there,” he said.

According to Conard, whose findings were published in the science journal Nature, it is possible that objects found in the chalky Swabian caves were better preserved than elsewhere.

The flutes and other objects found in the cave are to go on display in the city of Stuttgart from September 18 onwards, in an exhibition entitled “Ice Age, Art and Culture.” 

S TO M P

Gorah Elephant Ca m p

Staythe Among Giants

The incomparable thrill of quietly observing a passing herd of elephants while sipping tea on the veranda of a stately colonial manor house might seem like the stuff of dreams. At Gorah Elephant Camp, it is an everyday occurrence. This exclusive safari lodge recaptures the romantic mystique of authentic safaris of centuries past – the awesome natural world of Africa fused with nostalgia and modern sophistication – to deliver an unforgettable five-star adventure.

Words: TONI ACKERMANN Images: © HUNTER HOTELS

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eep within the shadows of the dense valley bushveld of the Sundays River region is Addo Elephant National Park, where the evenings are punctuated by the strident howl of the black-backed jackal and where the francolin's call heralds each new dawn.

Safe from the unyielding persecution of the past, the grey leviathans of the bush now roam this region in peace, offering a muchanticipated sight for those visiting Gorah Elephant Camp.

Located in the heart of Addo Elephant National Park, Gorah was the first private concession ever awarded in a South African National Park. Near the Zuurberg mountain range of the malaria-free Eastern Cape, this fenced park was proclaimed in 1931 to preserve the last remaining survivors of the once large herds of elephants that roamed this region. Previously hunted almost to extinction, these herds have gradually flourished and Addo is home to the highest density of elephant on Earth – some 450 of these gentle giants now roam the Park.

Originally built in 1856, Gorah Manor House is a National Monument. It has been fully restored and, with elegant period furnishings that instil an ambience of comfort and opulence, reflects the grace and glory of times past. Wide, shady verandas spill out onto the African plains overlooking the waterhole while the service – personalised, warm and unobtrusive – is of the highest standard.

Loafing in comfy armchairs around the original fireplaces of Gorah House’s welcoming lounges, flushed travellers regale each other with tales of the day’s adventures. The comings and goings of wildlife around the waterhole are a constant source of fascination. For those looking to beat the African heat, the natural rock swimming pool is a perfect place to wallow about, or simply relax on the sun decks alongside, or in the shade of Gorah’s porches and patios. For those with a curious mind, Gorah has a small library

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comprising a classic collection of books all donated by guests who visited the Camp.

The highlights of the daily activities are the game drives, while complimentary Wi-Fi is available for those who just cannot leave city living behind.

Gorah offers lodgings in romantic tented suites sheltered beneath thatched canopies. These 11 suites are spacious and well-appointed, harking back to safaris of the early 1900s. All the finer comforts one would expect of a Hunter Hotels property can be found, and each tent has an en suite bathroom with shower, relaxation area and private deck offering unparalleled views across the expansive wilderness.

Once the sun dips behind the horizon,

Previously hunted almost to extinction, these herds have gradually flourished and Addo is home to the highest density of elephants on Earth – some 450 of these gentle giants now roam the Park.

Gorah’s attentive but inconspicuous staff light candles and lanterns, setting the mood. Delectable gourmet fare is served in either the elegant, softly-lit dining rooms of the Main House, which offer views of the surrounding savannah, or on the veranda overlooking the waterhole. Weather permitting, alfresco dining can be enjoyed around a crackling log fire in the open boma, under a canopy of stars, surrounded by the night-time sounds of the African wilderness, watching, enchanted, the animals trekking through the darkened bush for a drink or a cool bath.

Addo contributes to the conservation of the endangered black rhino, with over 48 of these animals roaming here. The over 400 Cape buffalo (one of the largest disease-free herds in South Africa) are now being seen more often during the day, thanks to the reintroduction of lion to the

Park in late 2003. The cats have adapted well to their new environment, growing into three prides. Spotted hyenas were also reintroduced in 2003, fulfilling the same role as the lions in restoring the natural balance to the Park’s ecosystem by controlling herbivore numbers. A variety of antelope species, as well as the unique flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo, can also be seen. For birding enthusiasts, some 320 bird species have been recorded in the Park.

There are plans to extend the existing 164,000-hectare park into a 360,000-hectare mega-park. In addition, plans include the proposed proclamation of a 120,000-hectare marine reserve that includes islands which are home to the world's largest breeding populations of Cape gannets and the second largest breeding population of African penguins.

For over 250,000 years, people have visited this region. Early Stone Age transcended into Middle and then to Later Stone Age. The indigenous tribes created a sense of place, mystery and spiritual presence. Colonial settlers moved in, changing the landscape and the history, while the characters played out the drama of the typical Eastern Cape bushveld or “fynbos veld.” There was love, sorrow, and tragedy here, and a war left Gorah in ruin. After many years standing derelict, the old farm house was resurrected and incorporated into the then-rapidly expanding Addo Elephant National Park. And thus Gorah Manor House was saved, its grandeur restored and its proud name reinstated. And from these almost-forgotten ruins came one of the most beautiful camps ever seen in South Africa.  Gorah Elephant Camp is a proud member of Relais & Chateaux. For more information or to book, contact Ron MacKenzie at Neo Odyssey: • Tel: +27 82 711 8554 • Email: ron@neoodyssey.co.za

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FEATURE

ART

Eleanor Esmonde-White (1914 - 2007); “Fishermen Carrying a Boat”; Oil on Canvas; 55.5cm x 112cm; Signed: “Esmonde White” (Upper/Left); Dated: 1956

The Women Behind the

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S PLEN D OUR

South Africa’s

Spring Landscape Through the Eyes of Historic and Contemporary Artists

Piet van Heerden (1917-1991); “Landscape, Namaqualand”; Oil on Canvas; 46.5cm x 65.5cm; Signed: “Piet V Heerden” (Lower/Right)

Landscape painting has a long and embedded history in South African art, and the African terrain itself manifests in an incomparable variety of scenes both subtle and majestic. From the imposing magnitude of the Drakensberg mountain range to the sparse and arid Karoo desert; extensive coastlines to verdant wine lands; the South African landscape presents an endless array of natural resources for artists.

Words: AMY THORNE Images: © GRAHAM’S FINE ART GALLERY

Scats Esterhuyse (1954-); “Boschendal Lily Pond”; Oil on Canvas; 101.5cm x 75.5cm; Signed: “Scats Esterhuyse” (Lower/Right); Dated: 2008

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André Francois van Vuuren (1945-); “Before the Spring”; Oil on Canvas; 150cm x 200cm; Signed: “Van Vuuren” (Lower/Right); Dated: 2009

he extensive choice of vistas available to inspire painters in this country has resulted in various themes and subcategories developing, including that of the picturesque and idealistic South African landscape in spring time. Historically, landscape painting has been, and still remains, a predominant theme for many artists because of its diverse nature and compelling features.

Landscapists have rendered views of the South African terrain in a wide range of approaches, traversing local and international art movements including Realism, Impressionism, Modernism, German Expressionism, and Post-Modernism.

In the South African art community, landscapes have traditionally comprised the largest oeuvre, and at the turn of the 20th Century, it seemed that the only variation from landscape painting were those works that were commissioned portraiture. Indeed, it is very rare to find that the landscape, as a genre, is ever totally excluded from an artist’s collective work, as it is an enduring and enigmatic theme.

There are many historical examples of South African artists whose careers were predominantly dedicated to the delineation of this vast topography. In particular, the representation of such an environment bursting into fresh spring growth following the winter season has often captivated the imagination of artists.

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One of the first and most significant landscapists was JEA Volschenk. Having previously only painted as a hobby and without any formal training, Volschenk became a professional artist in 1904. His focus on the Western Cape landscape was one he revisited time and again, never tiring of his obsession for nature, which he emulated on canvas in painstaking detail.

Volschenk’s skilful portrayal of colour and tone creates a sense of luminosity in his compositions. This is particularly evident in his later works, which contrast with the

The picturesque qualities of Volschenk’s unblemished, romanticised landscapes reflect his South African audiences’ ingrained affection and nostalgia for this land. brooding, misty atmospheres characteristic of his earlier works. The picturesque qualities of Volschenk’s unblemished, romanticised landscapes reflect his South African audiences’ ingrained affection and nostalgia for this land. Volschenk’s inimitable success as one of the country’s earliest pioneering artists paved the way for other artists of this genre.

Another important South African landscapist was a contemporary of Volschenk, the acclaimed Pieter Hugo

Naudé. Showing great promise as an artist from an early age, Naudé became one of the first South Africans to travel abroad to further his artistic studies. In his travels, Naudé was involved with the Barbizon Group in Fontainebleau, France. This Barbizon school comprised several artists who focussed on depicting an idealised nature and rejected academic traditions in order to create their own ethos, which aimed to represent the purity of rural scenes.

Originally a part of the Realist art movement and associated with Romanticism, the Barbizon Group was also highly influenced by the English school of Landscape, of which John Constable was a noteworthy member. Their styles and ideology are considered to have set the foundations of Modernism by instigating the Impressionist movement, of which Naudé was a pioneering member.

An important technique used by this group was to paint en plein aire, to paint outside in the open, taking direct motivation from the scene itself. This was a practice that Naudé continued for much of his career. The impressionistic impasto painting style he used creates scenes of Africa that are full bodied, the vivid colours of this unique landscapes reflecting his ability to capture the remarkable tensions in nature of light and shadow, which he developed pictorially in his own personal application of Impressionism as a formal style. It is within these landscape paintings

that Naudé’s admiration and pleasure for this subject matter is truly comprehensible.

Piet van Heerden studied under the tutorage of Naudé, living in his home until Naudé’s death in 1941. The influence that this master artist had upon the life and work of Van Heerden is unmistakable in both subject and initial style. Van Heerden is considered a Cape Impressionist, part of the group of South African artists based in Cape Town who embraced the developing characteristic style of European Impressionism, yet applied these European techniques to an African subject. Van Heerden is best known for his portrayals of the lush Boland area though, as with many landscape artists, he was also fascinated by the striking beauty of Namaqualand in spring time, when the dry earth erupts with the splendid colour of wildflowers.

The extensive genre of Landscape has more recently been developed into what has been termed the “universal landscape,” scenes of which are inspired by certain characteristics pertaining to celebrated areas such as the Karoo, Namaqualand or the Boland valleys. These portrayals evoke specific traits that form part of an idiosyncratic iconography for images.

Contemporary landscape artists such as Scats Esterhuyse integrate a wide view of South African landscapes. Esterhuyse,

travelling across the country, embarks on a search for the individual nature and structured identity that exists throughout the historic towns and regions which form the diverse and rich character of the South African nation. Esterhuyse’s works deal with a layered set of elements and influences that come together to create a collection of paintings which are radiant, superlative and intriguing.

Yet another contemporary landscapist to take note of is André van Vuuren, whose typical subject matter ranges from an investigation of line and form, as seen in his early works, to a socio-political commentary on South Africa’s transition into democracy during the 1990s. Van Vuuren’s works are not only inspired by his home country but also his travels, which have taken him across the globe. In 1985, Van Vuuren spent some time in West Germany, where his work became much bolder and more colourful in reaction to German Expressionism. In 1999 he visited Zanzibar and East Africa. His paintings after this period mark a change in direction, exploring the East African landscape and the light and shade of Zanzibar’s Stone Town. A trip to Italy followed in 2000, where Venice and Tuscany became favourite subjects.

When Van Vuuren is not dealing with figures and portraits, his subject matter is

often focused on landscapes, in particular those places he visits in pursuit of solitude and tranquillity. These landscapes are filled with a haunting luminosity, which, together with his skilfully-developed brushwork and sensitive colour pallet, create a scene imbued with hidden meaning and magnitude.

The vernal landscape is one which epitomises all that is beautiful and rejuvenated in the South African scene. As a specific subgenre in this illusive and eclectic category of artistic imagery, the spring landscape relays a set of works by both master Modern Impressionist artists and contemporary painters who are full of promise, conveying the optimistic beauty that belongs to a land engrained with historical and social complexity.

Graham’s Fine Art Contemporary Gallery will be holding an exhibition of new works by celebrated artist André van Vuuren, opening on 1 October 2009.

Scats Esterhuyse’s 2009 exhibition of new works will open on 5 November, with a central focus on images of the beautiful Boschendal.  For more information, contact Laurelle Baard at Graham's Gallery: • Tel: +27 11 465 9192 • Email: laurelle@grahamsgallery.co.za • Visit: www.grahamsfineartgallery.co.za

Jan Ernst Abraham Volschenk (1853-1936); “Amongst the Rocks and Aloes”; Oil on Canvas; 24.5cm x 30.5cm; Signed: “J Volschenk” (Lower/Right); Dated: 1925

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FEATURE

Personable Technology

What are the trends shaping our use of technology in the near future? For those of us familiar with the growing phenomenon of being always-on, always-in-touch, how will the gadgets we use on a regular basis become even more seamlessly and usefully integrated into our working and leisure lifestyles?

Words: RJ VAN SPAANDONK Images: Š ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; CORE

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up permanent placement on the Internet, where people have now become as much producers as they previously were consumers. Witness the emergence of social networks like Facebook and Twitter and content sharing sites such as YouTube.

Because of this, people really want to use technology because it is fun and brings them together, and therefore they are willing to learn how to use the various new tools.

Secondly, as a result of the increasing prevalence of technology, the boundaries between personal and professional life spheres are disappearing, and we are now expected to be technology savvy and have access to it at all times. It is, for example, not uncommon these days for people to take their laptop with them on vacation, not only to store and publish their holiday pictures and play games, but also to keep up with office email.

Thirdly, technological advances allow for the integration of several functions into one device, getting ever smaller. The smartphone is the clearest example of this trend. With the latest models, often not bigger than a deck of cards, you can not only make calls, but also send email, play games, take pictures, play music, shoot video, browse the web, navigate

I

t is telling that HP adopted the slogan, “The Computer is Personal Again” in its latest advertising campaign. Invented over 30 years ago, the PC has never managed to establish a personal bond with the majority of its users. For most of us, it remains the one piece of technology we “hate” the most. With the corporate markets saturated, however, manufacturers now all of a sudden have to convince consumers that a PC is something with which they can be friends. Fortunately, a number of trends are conspiring to make information, communication and entertainment technology (ICE-t) ever more relevant to our daily lives and, most importantly, easier to use.

First of all, previously distinct media, such as print and broadcasting, have blended together into multi-media, taking

The logical conclusion of this trend towards convergence is for employers to give their staff a technology budget, akin to a car allowance. traffic, edit documents, and create a spreadsheet. Such handy and powerful devices are known to turn their users into technology junkies, sometimes referred to as “crackberries.”

Finally, networks (fixed, mobile, Wi-Fi, etc) are literally all around us and are becoming easier, faster and cheaper to access. Because of this ubiquity of connectivity, we are reverting back to a model of centralised computing. Instead of having all your applications and files on your computer, your information is now

stored in one central location, easily accessible via the Internet (for example, on Google’s servers). This so-called “cloud computing” allows us to connect to our data from whatever device, wherever we are, whenever, taking away every excuse for not being in touch.

These four trends, often labelled as convergence, will create a situation in which we have to carry only one universal device for all our ICE-t needs: one central processing unit, which in turn connects to all kinds of peripheral appliances depending on the application. Think of a souped-up smartphone or a laptop small enough to fit in your pocket. In the office, you connect it wirelessly to your screen, keyboard and mouse to convert it into your workstation.

In the car it acts as your hands-free kit and navigator, and at home you plug into your home “cloud” to access your music library, family photo albums and private email. And yes, you can still use it as your phone, camera and music player. But whatever you want to or have to do, for work or leisure, you will do it through this single gizmo.

Because this will be the only gadget people use they will start to feel a personal attachment to it, and see it as something that requires care and attention – not unlike the affection that many of us feel for our cars (although most of us won’t admit it). More and more, we will choose technology products and brands that are a reflection of who we are and how we want to be seen by others. To a degree this has already happened for mobile phones, which have become fashion accessories.

The logical conclusion of this development is for employers to give their staff a technology budget, akin to a car allowance, so that they can buy the technology of their choice, as long as they meet the minimum requirements for use in the office. It is my prediction that unshackled from corporate IT departments people will buy devices that are easy to use and a pleasure to look at: truly personable technology.  RJ van Spaandonk is a serial entrepreneur in Africa who, among other enterprises, runs a computer and gaming distribution company in South Africa.

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MSCSPLENDIDA A New Flagship for the World’s Most Modern Fleet

South Africans looking for the most extraordinary European holiday at sea will soon have the option of cruising onboard MSC Crociere’s brand new flagship, the MSC Splendida, which promises to take the concept of a floating city to an entirely new level.

Words: DI MEEK Images: © MSC SPLEDNDIDA

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escribed as a magical destination in its own right, the MSC Splendida was officially handed over to MSC Crociere by the STX Europe shipyard at Saint Nazaire in France, during a traditional flag ceremony in July this year. She was christened in suitably splendid style in Barcelona a week later in an event as dramatic and as grand as the ship herself.

Featuring an exceptional Flamenco performance by Joaquín Cortés and a spectacular display of castells (the Catalan tradition of human towers), the evening included a special concert by world famous tenor, José Carreras. Performing in his hometown, the maestro was accompanied by the 60 musicians of the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès. Completing the colourful ceremony was a parade of the ship’s officers and, of course, the traditional cutting of the ribbon by the godmother of the MSC Cruises fleet and goddess of the silver screen, Sophia Loren.

MSC Splendida’s design, by leading naval architects De Jorio Design International, boasts numerous technological innovations dedicated to ensuring unsurpassed levels of guest comfort and environmental protection.

In addition, MSC Crociere is the only company in the world to receive the “6 Golden Pearls” Award from the Bureau Veritas in recognition of its high level of quality management and environmental protection. Said MSC Crociere CEO, Pierfrancesco Vago: “We are delighted to take delivery of this fabulous new flagship.

With MSC Fantasia we believed we had built the most beautiful ship in the world. Now I know we were wrong. MSC Splendida truly lives up to her name, bringing more splendour to cruising than has ever been seen before. Not only is she a pioneering example of environmentally-friendly ship design; but as the tenth ship in the fleet, she also represents an important milestone in MSC Crociere’s growth. The €5.5 billion investment programme we initiated in 2003 is nearing completion, and we now look forward to the arrival of MSC Magnifica in 2010.”

MSC Splendida and sister ship MSC Fantasia, launched in Naples last December, are the largest ships ever built by a European ship owner, and boast staggering statistics. Each capable of carrying 3,959 passengers, these “floating cities” are 333 metres long, 66.8 metres tall and weigh in at 137,936 metric tons apiece. That’s longer than the Eiffel Tower laid horizontally and as tall as a 23-storey skyscraper. The ship’s two propellers are bigger than doubledecker buses, span more than six metres

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and weigh more than 17 tons. Together, they can move the ship at a speed of 23.3 knots – considerably faster than the average speed of a London bus.

MSC Splendida has a total surface area of 450,000 square metres, the equivalent of around 60 football pitches, including 55,000 square metres of usable floor space, which is more than the Palace of Versailles. The 1,600-seat Strand Theatre alone occupies over 2,000 square metres – the size of eight tennis courts. A further 1,700 square metres are dedicated to the sumptuous MSC Aurea Spa, another 1,000 square metres to the Royal Palm Casino and 400 square metres to children’s play areas. The ship has five swimming pools, including one covered pool

A total of 1,637 cabins gives MSC Splendida more guest rooms than New York’s famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. and a spectacular Aqua Park with 150 water jets and 12 whirlpool baths. A total of 1,637 cabins gives MSC Splendida more guest rooms than New York’s famous WaldorfAstoria Hotel.

The ship’s 18 decks are served by 25 different lifts, two of them panoramic. Her lavish décor involves 43 different colours and includes 17,000 square metres of pile carpet, enough to carpet London’s Trafalgar Square as well as New York’s Times Square.

You could also cover five ice rinks with the 8,000 square metres of marble used onboard. Now, such beautiful interiors deserve to be properly lit. That’s why the ship is illuminated by an incredible 65,000

light bulbs – more than the entire New York subway system. What’s more, if all the electricity cables on MSC Splendida were connected end to end they would stretch from Barcelona to Hamburg.

When it comes to eating and drinking on MSC Splendida, guests are simply spoilt for choice. There are 18 different bars and lounges, four restaurants and two buffets on board. Between them, they serve 14 different menus each day, comprising 2,000 different recipes – so you could try five different dishes every day for a whole year and still not have tasted them all.

MSC Splendida’s six-day maiden voyage called at the most beautiful ports in the Mediterranean: Tunis, Valletta (Malta),

Messina and Civitavecchia, and arrived in Genoa on Saturday 18 July. More enchanting ports of call in Malta, Greece, Egypt and Turkey will complete the ship’s itinerary through to the end of the year.

The MSC Crociere fleet cruises year round in the Mediterranean and seasonally in Northern Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, North America and Canada, South America, the Indian Ocean, South Africa and West Africa. The MSC Sinfonia will be arriving in South Africa in November.

She will operate from Durban and will be the biggest and most modern cruise ship ever operated out of a South African port.

Visit www.starlight.co.za for more information. 

MSC YACHT CLUB - EXCLUSIVITY AND PRIVACY The MSC Yacht Club was designed as an elegant ship within a ship for guests who demand the highest standards of luxury and privacy because of fame, social status or a desire to celebrate a special occasion in uncompromising style.

Featuring 99 sumptuous Italian designer suites on the ship’s most desirable foredecks, the MSC Yacht Club has its own concierge reception, a private lounge, swimming pool and other elegant amenities served by an exclusive 24-hour butler service.

The suites, each with private balconies or breathtaking panoramic windows, boast marble spa bathrooms, the finest Egyptian cotton bed linen, a pillow menu, full complimentary mini-bar with premium beverages, interactive wide-screen TV, internet access and Nintendo Wii consoles.

Your personal butler offers discreet personal assistance for almost anything from packing and unpacking to traditional English afternoon tea, prime seats in the ship’s w w w.Aurea p r e s tSpa i g e mfor a g . massage c o . z a 79 theatre, and private lift and access to the exotic MSC and treatments.

Forest Night In the of the

Pa n a m a

Panama wants us to think of it as more than a feat of engineering; more than a continental bridge; more than headquarters for summer hats. Panama is just the place for coffee, canal locks and animal sightings deep in the tropical jungle.

Words: PETER MANDEL; FEATURENET.CO.ZA Images: (C) ALFREDO MAIQUEZ, COURTESY OF AUTHORITY OF TOURISM OF PANAMA; ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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anama shines on every map.

Unfold one and your eye will land on it. This is the spot; the link that keeps us Northerners connected to places like Peru.

When I meet my International Expeditions tour group I find that I am not alone. Everyone seems equipped for observation. There are excellent binoculars, extraordinary lenses for cameras, bug spray that is state of the art. And though we've just arrived, there are already factions, “Pleased to meet you,” says Bruce Huston of Muscatine, Iowa. “Ever seen a Harpy eagle in the wild? Well, you might on this trip.” “Oh, are you a birder?” cuts in Dowrene Hahn of Irvine, California, “I sure hope not. I'm an animal person myself.”

Hahn, who is in her late seventies, shows us a typed-up list of countries she has visited. It is extensive. No one in the group can come close. Does she have a favourite? The answer is yes, the Kingdom of Bhutan. “Visiting there is like going back in time,” she explains. “Only the airport is new.” Panama, on the other hand, has stretches near Panama City that look like a Latin American Los Angeles. It has its national fast food: Pio Pio Chicken, Don Lee Oriental Cuisine. It has the complexes of its canal: locks and wharves and dredgers; and freighters stacked up waiting to move through.

After lunch we get going, we’re off to the highland forests where coffee is grown.

My ticket tells me that we're flying “Aeroperlas-A Carbon Neutral Airline.” I wonder how they do it. “Maybe,” says Elliott Brown from Salinas, California, “it's all the stuff that's not allowed onboard.”

We pore over a posted list: no measuring tape or glue, no detergent, no clamps or hammers, no salt, no umbrellas, no inflated balloons. “Flying Aeroperlas means flying

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light,” says Brown. I have to agree. I'm wondering if it's drizzly in the highlands as I hand over my folding umbrella to the man inspecting my suitcase.

The hill country isn't about rain, I discover, it's about mist. At Finca Lérida, the coffee plantation and lodge where we are staying two nights, there are droplets in the air that Panama's sun cannot destroy.

“Finca” means farm, and we get a tour through row after row of what looks, to me, like holly. Waxy leaves. Fat red berries. But these aren't berries, they're beans, peelable and soft to the touch until they get to the roaster and go brown. According to the foreman, Andres Lopez, Panama isn't like

We explorers are trying to keep our feet out of mud, mighty ant mounds and trap-like knots of vines. We get buzz-bombed by flies and walk smack into a shower that sends down not just drops of rain, but tropical nuts and sharp chips of bark too.

Colombia or Brazil. Panama is a minor coffee player. “On the chart of global production,” says Lopez, “we are listed as 'Other.' But what we grow is good.” We taste a specialty blend called “Geisha.” It is light and spicy like tea; like coffee that has been gently distilled, not brewed. Lopez shows us how to slurp it from a spoon to air it out and get its spectrum of flavours.

“Like trying a good wine,” he says, “when it is right.”

Back in Panama City, I break away from the group for an afternoon and join a

busload of tourists for a rainforest walk. As the coach bounces us along, I roll with the rhythm, mumbling some jungle lines, “Jaguar, jaguar, burning bright. In the forests of the night.” I know that's not exactly how the famous poem goes but I am told there may be jaguars in this jungle.

And I am keeping an eye out for one as we set off on a trail.

We explorers are trying to keep our feet out of mud, mighty ant mounds and traplike knots of vines. We get buzz-bombed by flies and walk smack into a shower that sends down not just drops of rain, but tropical nuts and sharp chips of bark too.

Thanks to our guide, Wilberto Ordonez, we are inching along between cashew trees and giant philodendrons. I keep whisking mosquitoes off my watch to double-check it. There are so many leaf fans overhead that it feels like evening already, no matter where we walk.

Maybe it is the filtered light, but for the first part of our tour, nothing appears alive.

This gray rock, Ordonez tells us, is a sleeping iguana. I am eager to believe. That silvery object, perched on a bush, is a type of butterfly. It would be a better butterfly, I think to myself, if it would spread its wings.

Ordonez wants us to see a rainforest filled to the brim. I am holding out for something that moves. Suddenly, he is pointing and, for a second, I think it is another one of those sights that are invisible except to guides. But then I see it: a hairy foot that's hanging upside-down from a branch. There is more. A chest and a drowsy head, and Ordonez outlines its shape for us, the shape of a three-toed sloth.

We are glad to see him, and the second someone in our group snaps a picture, the sloth begins to move. His muscles work deliberately as if he runs on batteries that are losing power. Tensely, like a performer

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in the Cirque de Soleil, the sloth changes his branch. “He do not come down to defecate!” says Ordonez in difficult English.

“Maybe one time a week, on Saturday, he do it. But he do not come down.” That sounds fair enough to me. But, though this is only Wednesday, we get slightly nervous.

Suddenly, as the animal arches his back, it is as if someone has set off a stampede. We all scramble at once, tripping backward, tearing our TravelSmart and LL Bean khakis against a clump of thorns. A man falls down into the thorn bush and because it happens so fast, he does not let out a yell.

But we can see his yellow vest inside a network of spooled-up branches and spikes.

For a second no one says a word. This is a puzzle for experts, and it will take a person who is very smart to solve it. Ordonez is reaching for something and I see a glint of steel as it is hoisted into the air.

“No, wait!” someone yells, but it is no use. There is a chuff, chuff, chuff as Ordonez hacks and chops, working like a talented chef, slicing and mincing, but never catching the turned-up feet and legs of our group member. The chopping does not take long and the man is soon back on his feet with only a few scrapes on his wrists and neck. Ordonez seems pleased. “OK,” he chirrups, and soon we are walking again, moving even more carefully now. Ordonez stops at a tree to tear off a piece of bark.

“Try it!” he suggests to a woman in the group. “Go on and try it!” Before she can decide, Ordonez nibbles it himself and breaks into a delighted smile. “It tastes like Pepto Bismol!” he announces triumphantly and now everyone is curiously chewing.

Ordonez is right.

The sun has turned orange now and our path is even more shadowy and tricky.

Ordonez uses his machete to slice off shards of what he calls a “shrimp plant,”

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tinged with pink and red, and sour ginger that he sticks in his bag. We approach a tropical anthill and Ordonez calls us to gather round. This time his gaze lands on a girl who is maybe 10 years old. “Stick your finger in there!” he commands. “Stick your finger in!” he repeats, “it hot!” Again, curiosity wins, and all of us are sliding our pinkies into what Ordonez tells us is a compost pile constructed by cutter ants.

“Nice,” says one man. “It feels nice.”

When we stop for a rest, Ordonez goes to work hacking at a large-sized palm frond. Passing the machete back and forth like a wand, Wilberto the Magnificent gives the palm a shake. Just like that, he is holding not a branch, but a dangling mop

I tell no one, but I am picking up the sound of something crunching. It stops whenever we stop.

And it crunches again the second we begin to move. of fibres. We applaud. “Do you know what I am showing you?” he asks. “This is how you make the thing that Panama is famous for!”

Although we are thinking “canal” Ordonez shouts out, “hat!”

I wonder how you weave a head covering out of this mess, but members of the group have moved on, and suddenly there is excitement: wiry figures scampering around in the highest branches of a very tall tree have been spotted. “Howler monkeys!” says Ordonez, wide eyed. “Look at the tails!” We are snapping pictures, amazed that we are seeing these outside of a zoo. Mostly they watch us as we watch them. Ordonez lets out a sigh. “They are

very peaceful monkeys,” he explains.

“Nobody likes them as pets because they lazy. Sleep all day.”

Something about seeing the monkeys makes us walk more quietly. Maybe it is the fact that every monkey stopped what he was doing to peer down at us. We are whispering now, and I have the sense that it is us – and not the jungle – that is on display. As in old cartoons, I start to imagine pairs of eyes peeking out of the leaves. I tell no one, but I am picking up the sound of something crunching. It stops whenever we stop. And it crunches again the second we begin to move. Just when I am about to alert Ordonez, it happens. We hear a roar.

Everyone has stopped, and we are listening for more. Jaguar! I think. And despite my eagerness to see one, things have changed.

There isn't a bone in my body that doesn't wish this animal away. Not a muscle that doesn't tense for retreat, that doesn't plan to slip behind Ordonez and his sharp machete. But the crunching is steady now, and there is a sound of puffing, and then a low, dark growl. The jaguar, which must be a dominant male, is padding steadily towards us around a bend on the path. We grab elbows, we sweat, we crouch low.

There is a gasp. Something black and yellow has sprung out of the bush into full view. It is our bus.

With its final crunching of gears and a breath of air brakes, the coach has wheeled off the road and onto the end of our path.

The driver has popped open the door. Some of us are loading our gear now. Some of us are thinking about Panama: about its wild animals, its birds. And some of us are wiping our brow.

Peter’s 8-Day tour, “Panama: Wildlife Bridge of the Americas,” was run by the Alabama-based outfitter, International Expeditions. Visit www.IEtravel.com. 

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Project Phoenix The Romance of Flying

J R C

Time to spare – go by air…an axiom that grows truer by the day, as the bleating queues grow longer, and delays clog up the information boards. In this day and age, air travel has become a necessary evil; however, for some who have bought into the idea of aircraft ownership the pain has been largely alleviated through the use of personal aircraft. But why stop at a personal business jet? Why not buy a personal airliner?

Words: KEVIN BARKER Images: © PROJECT PHOENIX

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he idea of taking a reliable airliner and converting it into a customised private business tool is not new, yet it has remained largely in the realm of industry moguls such as the Turners, Trumps and Travoltas, and inhabitants of oil-rich Gulf States. In fact, a number of manufacturers are now offering corporate versions of their mainstream airline airframes to cater for just this set of customers – the catch is that it costs the same price, if not more than the full airline version.

Another school of thought was to take an existing, proven airliner and re-equip it as a super-luxurious corporate or VIP aircraft – a task made simple by the inherently large amounts of cabin space available inside an aircraft purposely built

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with airline requirements in mind. A factor that came into play was that airliners are built to spend most of their time airborne, generating cash, while a business jet is there to ensure that the captains of industry and corporate decision makers can utilise their time in the most efficient manner, not necessarily flying hundreds of hours per year. Combine these two ideas and you end up with a business tool that is highly reliable, cost effective, requires little maintenance, and offers airline longevity.

Realising a need for a real “game changer” in the conversion market, the Dubai-based group, Project Phoenix, conducted an in-depth study as to the most suitable airframe for conversion. They identified the Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) 200, one of the world’s most popular 50 seat commuter jets, as offering the most

bang for your buck. Traditionally, acquiring a similar sized corporate jet that could accommodate 16 passengers in VIP luxury would cost in the region of $55 million – a figure that seems to fly in the face of the current global economic state. The Phoenix CRJ comes in at only $15 million.

Surely such a difference in price would indicate an object of less value. But during the investigation conducted by Project Phoenix, figures showed that on average the largest business jets were conducting flights of between three-and-a-half to four hours – although being capable of flights of up to 12 hours or 6,000nm. Thus, when looking for an “everyman's jet” they realised that a range of between 2,300 to 3,200nm would suffice, as the low acquisition and running costs would mean that a fuel stop on an extra-long distance flight would not

S OAR mess up the bottom line. The fact that the Phoenix CRJ was designed as an airliner further meant that it was built for quick turnarounds, single-point refuelling and is easily serviceable – factors that take even more of the sting out of an en route fuel stop.

The Conversion

The first misconception that needs to be cleared up is that the buyer is getting an “old” aircraft. Sourced from the secondary market, Project Phoenix’s CRJ-200s undergo an extensive pre-purchase programme to ascertain the suitability of the airframe for the conversion project, with a specific maintenance work scope designed for each aircraft separately depending on the amount of work that needs to be done.

Major components such as auxiliary power unit (APU), engines and landing gear are removed and overhauled, before all plumbing and wiring is inspected and replaced as necessary. All cosmetic damage is also replaced or repaired, before the new, client-customised interior is installed, resulting in an aircraft that is a good as new.

Once the aircraft has been refitted, the owner receives it in a “near new” condition, with a theoretical life remaining of 60 years and at least eight years before scheduled maintenance on major components. At entry into service, a minimum of 4,000 cycles remain on major components (engines, landing gear and APU) and all airworthiness directives, service bulletins and calendar items are up to date.

Furthermore, all checks up to and including 96-month checks are completed, with an entire avionics modernisation to the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 suite for long range operations. Owners can opt for a fully customisable interior as well as exterior paint, and can choose between a low utilisation maintenance programme (LUMP) or an optional Ejet maintenance support programme.

The interior completion sees the installation of a three-zone cabin that provides for a well-appointed 15-passenger VIP interior, customisable to the exact requirements of the buyer who might opt for changes to the cabin layout, galleys, lavatories and all furnishings, colours and finishes, or seeks to add some personal flair.

Changes include a fully equipped minigalley, between the forward cabin and cockpit, with a galley annex on the port side providing for additional storage and equipment. A forward lavatory is available for crew and passengers and is positioned between the main galley and cockpit.

The main cabin consists of a club-four arrangement forward, with extra wide seats and a conference/dining grouping of six to the rear. Two 600mm flat screen monitors are installed as standard on the front and rear bulkheads with all seat positions having their own screens and controls for the in-flight entertainment system, reading lights and air vents.

The aft cabin is separated from the forward cabin by a pocket door to provide privacy if needed, and consists of a berthable, four-place divan opposite two extra wide seats. The aft lavatory is available to all passengers but can also be used as a private lavatory by the principal if required. It features a large hanging closet, and has access to the rear baggage compartment in flight.

Understanding buyers’ needs and preferences is where we start. Where we finish is only limited by their imagination.”

The Phoenix CRJ certainly seems to be the right jet, at the right price, at the right time. 

The Result

Starting at an acquisition cost of nearly 30 percent less than its competitors, the Phoenix CRJ offers the owner much more than just a personal business tool. With a high speed cruise that matches that of its rivals, such as the Gulfstream 550 and Bombardier Global Express, and a range that translates into a one-stop solution to Europe or the Middle East, the Phoenix CRJ will also prove to be a very strong competitor in the charter market, especially on the African continent.

The low acquisition and running costs mean greater charter revenues for the operator, with studies showing that Phoenix CRJ offers the lowest cost per seat in the class, while turning the greatest profit. So, not only is the owner getting a powerful business tool, he is also accessing a secondary income stream from the aircraft, thanks to the high profit margins when measured against its competitors.

Whereas traditional corporate aircraft are built for low utilisation, at very high cost per seat, the ex-airline lineage of the Phoenix CRJ means it was created for numerous daily cycles and extremely high utilisation, and its multiple systems redundancies translate into a much higher dispatch rate – with less accompanied maintenance – not to mention the safety of numerous backup systems.

The business model allows Project Phoenix Ltd to offer total customisation from start to finish, with engineers and designers assisting the buyer in achieving the exact look desired. “We appreciate that owners are used to getting what they want.

So we give it to them,” says Mike Cappuccitti, Project Phoenix President about the infinite customisation capabilities. “Attention to detail is what separates the good from the extraordinary.

Specifications Crew:

2-3

Passengers:

19

Engines:

2 x General Electric CF34-3B1 producing 9 ,220lbs of thrust at take off

Pressurisation:

Max diff 8,6 psi

Max alt with sea level cabin: 21,100ft Cabin pressure at max alt:

7,990ft

Fuel capacity standard:

6,889kg

Fuel capacity aux tanks fitted: 8,290kg Design limit factor:

2,5G

Max ramp weight:

24,154kg

Max take off:

24,040kg

Max landing:

21,319kg

Basic operating weight:

15,150 (standard) 15,286 (long range)

Max payload:

4,808 (standard) 4,672 (long range)

Payload with max fuel:

2,515kg (std) 579kg (long range)

Fuel with max payload:

4,915kg

Speed:

High speed M0.80 Normal M0.77 Long Range M0.74

Range:

Take off distance (SL, ISA, MTOW):

2,300nm (standard) 3,200nm (long range) 6,305ft

Take off distance (5,000 ft, 25 degrees, MTOW):

11,344ft

Max altitude:

41,000ft

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FEATURE

Do you Get the picturE ON LUXURY LIVING?

SUBSCRIBE AND WIN Subscribe to Prestige and stand the chance each month to win a

Canon Powershot SX1 IS camera, valued at R7,999.

SMS the words 'Subscribe Prestige' to 082 452 8110 or email your name, cell number and delivery address to mail@prestigemag.co.za.

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DHOW SAFARI ISSUE NO. 28

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LASTING GRACE

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Prestige magazine has grown from its roots as a luxury yachting magazine, to become the leading South African luxury lifestyle magazine for high net worth individuals, and those who aspire to that lifestyle. Prestige incorporates the latest on the sport of kings and the king of sports (yachting), luxury travel, exotic motoring, private aviation, style and design, food and décor, arts and architecture, collectibles, jewellery, fashion, property and holistic wellbeing. Working with a finely nuanced definition of luxury, namely “meaningful and successful lives beyond money, old or new,” it is a magazine for families with finesse and financial freedom who engage with the world across many interesting dimensions. With each edition, Prestige pursues a mix of luxury elements that include rarity, nostalgia, elegance, understatement, freedom, curiosity, generosity, intelligence, wit, aesthetics, adventure and more. Simply holding and enjoying Prestige should already feel like a luxury in itself.

SMS 'Subscribe Prestige' to 082 452 8110 (R499 for 12 issues; R949 f o r 2 4 i s s u e s )

FEATURE

Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat

Rooibos-Buchu Crème Brûlée Words and Image: © BUSHMANS KLOOF

Ingredients • 4 Rooibos tea bags • 20g dried Buchu Leaves • 2 vanilla pods • 100g castor sugar • 300ml fresh cream • 200ml full cream milk • 8 egg yolks • 80g sugar Method Preheat the oven to 140°C. Pour the milk and cream into a pan. Score the vanilla pods lengthwise and run the knife up the pod to remove the vanilla seeds. Scrape these into the pan of milk and cream. Add the Rooibos tea bags and Buchu and slowly bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, beat together the yolks and

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castor sugar until light and fluffy. Just as the cream and Rooibos mixture start to boil, remove the vanilla pods and tea bags and discard. Add this mixture, little by little, to the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Remove any bubbles or froth from the mixture before dividing into ramekins. Stand these in an appropriatelysized roasting tray filled with water to a level halfway up the ramekins, and bake for approximately 25 minutes until the custard mixture has set but is still slightly wobbly in the centre. Allow to cool to room temperature and then transfer to the fridge.

Just before serving, sprinkle with sugar and caramelise under a very hot grill or using a kitchen blowtorch.

Serves 6.

Accolades continue to pour in for South Africa’s jewel in the Western Cape – Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat. Very recently, Bushmans Kloof was named “Global Winner of Wildlife Conservations Programs” (2009) in the prestigious, third annual Condé Nast Traveller World Savers Awards. This honour was bestowed in recognition of its exceptional conservation efforts to replenish and protect wildlife in the area.

Bushmans Kloof has also just been voted the “Best Hotel in the World” in the 2009 US Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards readers’ survey. In 2008, the reserve was listed among National Geographic Adventure Magazine Top 50 Eco Lodges, and in 2007 was awarded the Relais & Châteaux Environment Trophy.

The exclusive Relais & Châteaux retreat, located 270-kilometres north of Cape Town, is an ecological oasis of 18,533 acres (7,500 hectares), nestled at the foothills of the breathtaking Cederberg mountains, where majestic views, staggering rock formations, open plains, invigorating outdoor activities, luxurious accommodation, award-winning Cape cuisine and soothing spa treatments combine to create an unforgettable, luxury wilderness adventure.

Bushmans Kloof is the home of Contemporary Cape Cuisine, with a menu showcasing local cuisine and home-grown ingredients such as fynbos and the indigenous Rooibos plant, artfully added into select dishes to reflect the eclectic flavours of this region. With dishes handselected for their unique, natural taste, the cuisine is a delightful taste profusion of gastronomic, healthy and home-style comfort foods.

For more information: • Visit: www.bushmanskloof.co.za, • Call: + 27 21 481 1860 or • Email: info@bushmanskloof.co.za

Rooibos Words: Chris Maré/BUSHMANS KLOOF Image: © With permission from “A touch of Rooibos,” Rooibos Ltd 2009

Ingredients 2 litres water 9 Rooibos tea bags 65 ml honey 3 whole star anise pods 1 stick cinnamon 100 g sugar 250 g apple juice

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Iced Tea

Method • Place all the ingredients, except the apple juice, in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

• Next, strain the Rooibos mixture into a jug or container. Add the apple juice.

• Mix well.

• Finally, place in the refrigerator until cold.

Makes about 2 litres.

livethelife Sign your

Signature for Good

Montblanc’s “Signature for Good” collection is an exclusive assemblage of writing instruments, jewellery and accessories designed to benefit longtime partner, UNICEF, in its Schools for Africa programme, which promotes access to basic quality education for African children. The collection’s signature piece – the Montblanc Meisterstück Signature for Good Special Edition – provides a unique interpretation of Montblanc’s coveted Meisterstück, a writing instrument first launched in 1924. The Special Edition piece marks Meisterstück’s 85th anniversary. The fountain pens in the collection boast a handcrafted 14-carat gold nib with rhodium-plated inlay, meticulously assembled in 35 individual stages, polished and tested by hand. Each piece bears distinguishing marks: the esteemed Montblanc emblem on top of the cap, along with the Signature for Good elements of a sparkling blue sapphire and a gold-plated wreath. The collection is available at Montblanc boutiques in Sandton City, V&A Waterfront, Gateway Durban and selected outlets. For more information, call +27 11 317 2600 or visit www.montblanc.com.

The Baignoire Watch

from Cartier

Beauty of the day and beauty of the night, the Baignoire watch, with its streamlined silhouette and simple, elegant design, has an ageless femininity renewed by a modern infusion of character and energy. Its charming and original oval shape was created in 1912, though the watch was only christened Baignoire in 1973. The perfect oval shape and gracefulness of this classic Cartier timepiece make it the jeweller's most Parisian creation. With its exquisite lightness, the Baignoire shines with excellence and balance to glorify the House’s legacy through innovations in style – the gleaming faceted surfaces and precious curve of the original Baignoire’s domed case have been replaced by finely sculpted glass. It revisits the brand’s major aesthetic codes – the straightness of Roman numerals, long flowing lines and a dotted “rail-track” detail on the dial, and dazzles with the radiance of all-gold or diamonds.

Price on asking. For more information, contact +27 11 666 2800.

Whisky

Like No Other

The Compass Box Whisky Company excelled at the recent World Whiskies Awards 2009, with Hedonism named “World’s Best Grain Whisky” and The Peat Monster the “World’s Best Scotch Vatted Malt Whisky.” These awards recognise the outstanding quality of Scotch released by this boutique whisky producer, started by John Glaser in 2000. Glaser developed a passion for whisky while working for Johnny Walker, one of the world’s leading producers.

With the birth of Compass Box he realised a dream of starting his own company, and began blending whiskies in his kitchen. Yes, Compass Box has no distillery. Instead, the company sources quality single malt whiskies from several distilleries. The Compass Box secret lies in the blending and additional barrel maturation.

Glaser’s unusual techniques have sometimes drawn criticism from traditionalists, and the guardians of the industry even went so far as to outlaw one of his whiskies, believing his innovative method of wood maturation has no place in the industry. Compass Box’s unusual but exceptional whiskies are imported into South Africa by Cape Town-based Liquidity and are available countrywide.

Hedonism sells for about R780 per bottle and The Peat Monster for around R460 per bottle.

Visit www.liq.co.za or call +27 21 905 9066 for more information.

LIFE PASSION ADVENTURE

OfямБcial agent for Riviera luxury motor yachts in South Africa.

DURBAN HARBOUR : Durban Yacht Mole Tel: 031 301 1115 / 083 324 4630 DURBAN POINT : The Quays Tel: 031 332 1987 / 079 872 2335 CAPE TOWN V&A WATERFRONT : Breakwater Boulevard Tel: 082 881 2607 / 072 860 6401 www.boatingworld.co.za | info@boatingworld.co.za

LIFE PASSION ADVENTURE

livethelife

Can You Handle It?

With green being the new black and thus far the focus of 2009, Handles Inc, leaders in door design, have increased their exclusive imported range of chic eco-conscious Italian handles by Olivari for the enthusiastic South African market. Seemingly a simple accent to any door or window, collaborations between Olivari and several of the most prestigious names in the field of architecture have resulted in some of the most attractive art pieces. Olivari has its roots in Borgomanero, Italy, and dates back to 1911 but its constant research and development in the fields of manufacturing and finishing processes maintains the company’s forwardthinking position. Through their use of Biochrome, a new and environmentally-friendly chroming process, Olivari is recognised as the world’s first and only company that has succeeded in applying trivalent chrome – as opposed to hexavalent chrome, which is a pollutant not only harmful to our health but to the environment too – to brass. Handles Inc stocks this entirely bio-finished, state-of-the-art Italian range of handles at its two showrooms in Johannesburg and Cape Town. For more information, visit www.handlesinc.co.za.

MURALTO

@ Jo Carlin You Gotta Have

Faith

Faithful to Nature, winner of the South African Ecommerce Awards’ “Health & beauty Category” is leading the way in online organic retail.

The website currently stocks over 1,000 original lines of genuinely organic and natural products, ranging from organic sugar to a luxurious organic overnight replenishing cream. Faithful to Nature recently introduced SA’s first natural and organic gift registry to help gift givers solve the problem of sending, and perhaps also receiving, non-organic versions of the products they love. Although physically based in Cape Town, they deliver nationwide. For more information or to order, visit www.faithfultonature.co.za, or contact +27 21 709 0110.

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At Jo Carlin, the furniture is designed and manufactured by Cape Town-based Muralto, an oasis of style and quality.

They’ve been around since 1968 and their models are still highly innovative, reflecting current trends in contemporary furniture. They have just released their newly-designed Contemporary Range. For 40 years, Muralto’s trademark has been hand-crafted furniture of superior quality, proportions and aesthetics. With a mix of contemporary furniture, designer clothing and local art, the shop has a distinct energy. Everything at Muralto @ Jo Carlin is original and locally manufactured, which leaves plenty of room for adapting to changes in trends and lifestyles. Check out their new offerings at Shop 1, 35 Rose Street on the corner of Hout Street, Bo-Kaap, Cape Town. For more information, contact +27 21 481 1019, email jocarlin@mweb.co.za or visit www.jocarlindesign.co.za.

TEXTOPHOBIA

~ The fear of fabrics.

There are lots of things to be scared of. Insurance needn’t be one of them.

At Alexander Forbes, we’ve learnt a thing or two over the years about putting motor and household insurance-related fears to rest. We provide the widest cover with the least exclusions, and we give you the option of an up-front discount on your premium when you sign up with us, which puts money back into your pocket immediately. We also give each of our clients their own personal consultant who deals exclusively with their policy and all matters pertaining to it. Simply, we make insuring as effortless and as comprehensive as possible. Because we believe that while some fears in life might need to be accepted, insurance-related fears are just irrational. www.afi.co.za

Tel: 0860 111 234

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