Nine Random Fun Things in Joburg (Featuring Venus)

2Summers | 29 November 2015
johannesburg art

November is the best month of the year in Joburg. It’s summer and it’s right before Christmas, so the city is buzzing and tons of cool things are happening before everyone clears out in December. After weeks of exhausting travel, I’m back just in time.

As I wrote in a previous post, I’m participating in a campaign with Venus that involves shopping and leg-shaving and doing fun things around the city. I’m always up for fun in Joburg, but this assignment is a great motivation for me to recover from my jet-lag and really get out there. Over the last ten days I’ve been all over town, going to fun events and exploring new (and old) places.

Heather-and-Venus
No, I did not shave my legs in the Oriental Plaza. But the Venus Snap looks nice there. (Photo: Fiver Löcker)

Here is my second Venus campaign installment: Nine random fun things I’ve done in Joburg over the last two weeks. I included several Fuji Instax Wide instant photos in my narration – an Instax Wide camera was one of the things I bought on my Venus shopping spree.

1) Night of 1000 Drawings

I attended the Night of 1000 Drawings, a charity event in which hundreds of people gather and buy drawings scribbled on small pieces of paper. The drawings – made by anyone who wants to participate and collected throughout the year at satellite events around Joburg – sell for R100 (about $7) each. Proceeds benefit the Streetlight Schools project.

1000-Drawings
dozen of the 1000 drawings for sale that night. I had a blast browsing through them.
1000-Drawings-Heather
An Instax shot of me with the two drawings I bought. I don’t know who drew the one on the left, but the one of the right is by someone named Marius Erasmus. Are you out there, Marius? I love your drawing because it looks like it was ripped straight from your sketchbook and it is rebelliously the wrong size. Thank you. (Photo: Fiver Löcker)

2) Bag Factory Artists’ Studio

I don’t know how it’s possible that I had never been to the Bag Factory before. But anyway, my artist friend James Delaney invited me there to check out a series of Jozi-themed lithography prints that he’s working on. So I grabbed my other artist friend Fiver and went.

We wound up missing James at the Bag Factory. But we did find our way to LL Editions, the lithography studio in the Bag Factory, and met LL Editions founder/owner Leshoka Joe Legate. We had a good chat with Joe and he showed us the prints he’s working on with James.

Joe-Master-Printer
Joe is a master printer and one of only two fine art lithographers in South Africa.
James-prints-Bag-Factory
A few of the litho prints that James created with Joe. The prints are made by overlaying old historic photos of Johannesburg and current Jozi photos that James shot with his phone. Look closely…
James-and-picture
Another one of the lithographs, which James showed us when we went to visit his home studio later in the week.

I’ll definitely be back to the Bag Factory and someday I’m going to buy one of James’ prints.

3) World of Samoosas

I’ve written about World of Samoosas, one of the best cheap-eats spots in Jozi, several times. World of Samoosas is in the Oriental Plaza, right next to the Bag Factory in Fordsburg, so Fiver and I went there for lunch.

World-of-Samoosas-Irshaad

Irshaad, the handsome samoosa man who is always behind the counter at World of Samoosas.

4) The Sheds @1Fox

After our samoosas and some wandering around Newtown, Fiver and I decided we needed bubble tea. We headed west to the Sheds @1Fox, another spot that I write about often. We ran into our friend Gerald Garner and his son Joshua, and held an impromptu Instax photo shoot.

The-Sheds-Joshua
Joshua inside 1Fox with the Instax I took of him and Gerald.

5) Photo walks

I love photowalks through random parts of Joburg. I’ve taken two in the last week: one on some abandoned train tracks in Bosmont and one through the streets of Hillbrow.

Ray-on-tracks
Ray on the tracks.
Hillbrow-building
Mid-century architecture and blue sky in Hillbrow.
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The De Cklass Nite Club and Pub. Because Hillbrow.

6) Hillbrow Boxing Club

In addition to photo-walking, I box in Hillbrow.

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An Instax of Hillbrow Boxing Club coach George Khosi.

7) Stellenbosch at Summerplace

In a drastic about-face from boxing in Hillbrow, I attended Stellenbosch at Summerplace: a food-and-wine festival in the ritzy suburb of Hyde Park. I drank champagne and ate tiny culinary masterpieces prepared by famous chefs from the South African winelands. It was fabulous. (Disclaimer: My ticket to Stellenbosch at Summerplace was comped.)

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Obligatory champagne-in-hand shot.
Summerplace-food
I can’t remember what was in this dish but I do remember that it was delicious.

8) Roving Bantu Kitchen

The Roving Bantu Kitchen is my greatest discovery of this Jozi fortnight. (Thanks for the tip, JHBLive.) I can’t tell you anything about the Roving Bantu Kitchen yet; I’ll be writing about it in a future article and it’s not even officially open. Wait for it, though. It will be epic.

Roving-Bantu
A secret glimpse of the Roving Bantu Kitchen. More to come.

9) Home with the Melville Cat

As most of you know, Smokey the Melville Cat returned this week after a dramatic journey to Westdene. So I spent lots of time at home with Smokey, shooting bad cat Instaxes (Catstaxes).

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Catstax fail.
Smokey-Instax-fail
Epic Catstax fail. I suck at Catstaxes.

So there you have it: nine ways that I’ve enjoyed Joburg this fortnight. Also, I’ve been using my Venus Snap the whole time – as recently as this morning when I decided to put on a dress and had to shave in three minutes before leaving the house. I love the Snap.

Smokey-and-Venus
I tried to shave Smokey with the Snap. He wasn’t amused.

Don’t forget: Venus Snap is running a contest and you can win a shopping spree worth R20k. Here’s how to enter:

  • Buy a Venus Snap razor.
  • Snap a flat lay image including your Venus Snap. (See examples here.)
  • Upload it to Instagram and use the hashtag #VenusOnTheGo.
  • Read the competition terms and conditions on the GilletteSA Facebook page. (Note the contest is for South Africans only.)

Good luck. More Jozi adventures coming soon.

This post is sponsored by Venus Snap. Opinions expressed are mine.