Quartier Mayence - #227

"We mostly open at 5 or 6 pm, sometimes at 11am and then again, sometimes at 1 or 2pm.
We mostly close at around 1 or 2 in the morning, sometimes even at 11pm or midnight, sometimes the cleaning lady has to throw us out in the morning.
Some days, we don't turn up at all, but recently we've been pretty good. Just turn up and take your chances..."

So goes their website.

There's not much to say to that, is there?

Quartier Mayence has been in the Altstadt since 1977.

Difficult to describe. Pub? Bar? Cafe? Dive?

All of the above and more.

To say it has legendary status would be a gross case of understatement...

I'm pretty sure that this is a sketch by Schorch( Hans-Georg, actually) Lautner, an artist and architect who used to run the Altstadt Gallery in the Augustiner Strasse until his untimely death in his mid-40s.

He was a regular, for sure....

"Don't look at me... - #226

...in that tone of voice."

Half-jokingly, I said that to Dad once.

Just once.

(That was back in the days before physical punishment was frowned upon.)

But don't pansies sometimes look so malevolent?

"Dark looks" doesn't even begin to describe these guys on the market last week.

You Jane... - #225

...me Kurth

The name of this outfit gave me instant flashbacks to Johnny Weissmuller, but it's really a hearing aid/aural protector retailer in the Schillerstrasse

Very 80s

Death in the afternoon - #224

There was a smashing noise and everybody stopped to look.

At the toddler in the pushchair, looking quite forlorn at the pattern of Smarties sprinkled across the cobblestones of the market.

A communal " Ooooooh...." and a hush before the expected wailing.

Nothing of the kind.

Mum picked up the transparent car-shaped container - empty by now - and, with a last glance at its cargo, they walked on

I would have thought that the 5-second rule would have applied...

Beet this - #223

Sugar beet fields with the refinery merrily steaming away in the background

Sugar beets used to be one of THE crops around here.

Still is, with 25 million tons produced in 2005, although a combination of subsidy reduction and higher prices for alternative crops sees more and more acreage being converted to maize for biogas production and cattle feed.

Interesting history, too.
Beets were first processed commercially in the early 19th C, when they only had 5-6% sucrose compared with 20% these days.
Production really kicked in during the Napoleonic Wars, when the Brits began a blockade of France, preventing its access to sugarcane. The French subsequently did the same to the Brits, resulting in flourishing sugar beet industry on both sides of the Channel.

It's a hell of a process to remove the sugar from the beet.
First they're washed, then chopped, then soaked in water during the diffusion process, then pressed to extract the moisture (the fibrous residue is used as fodder), then carbonated to remove the non-sugar in the liquid, boiled to evaporate the water and then spun before getting a final heating with hot air.

And if you think THAT'S a hell of a process, just look at how they used to be harvested, this from Wikipedia

Up until the latter half of the 20th century, sugarbeet production was highly labour-intensive, as weed control was managed by densely planting the crop, which then had to be manually thinned with a hoe two or even three times during the growing season. Harvesting also required many workers.
Although the roots could be lifted by a plough-like device which could be pulled by a horse team, the rest of the preparation was by hand. One labourer grabbed the beets by their leaves, knocked them together to shake free loose soil, and then laid them in a row, root to one side, greens to the other. A second worker equipped with a beet hook (a short handled tool something between a billhook and a sickle) followed behind, and would lift the beet and swiftly chop the crown and leaves from the root with a single action.
Working this way he would leave a row of beet that could then be forked into the back of a cart.

These days, harvesting is completely mechanised - just sit in your air-condition cab, listening to the radio and the big machine you're dragging behind you does the rest.

A bit late for Lieschen Schmitz,my mother-in-law, though.

At 86, she spent most of her working life doing the italics stuff.

Not a big surprise that she can't move without pain

Tags: Lieschen Schmitz, sugarbeet, farming

It's a dog's life.. - #222

Not if you're a guest at Cafe Dinges in Mainz, though.

The first thing you'll see when you come in the door will really get your tail wagging....

2 bowls with water, one with with some snacks, various squeaky toys and a ball.

And just in case you weren't aware how good this all really is, there's an award from Feinschmecker, a gourmet magazine.

A gourmet magazine for people, that is.

Woof, woof!

Tags: mainz, cafe dinges, dogs, feinschmecker

Leaf peeping - #221

It's getting darker by the day in the mornings, but when we look out onto the deck, it's almost as if someone's splashed day-glo (tm) paint on this maple

Tags: Klein-Winternheim, Maple, leaf-peeping

Here comes the bride... - #220

Images removed on request of subject

Elsig Daily Photo anywhere out there?

No, I didn't think so, either....

(Although there IS an Elsig blog which has nothing to do with Mrs jb's village

Mrs jb's niece, Andrea's, wedding to Stefan yesterday 190km up the road, so off we toddled.

Great day - perfect blue sky, 24ºC - and an excellent time was had by one and all.

And didn't the bride look radiant....

I was particularly pleased by the late afternoon sun on her bouquet, too.Tags: 

Say cheese... - #219

I was tempted to do a "John Whatley" - (you know - "Aren't we lucky people..!), but it's pretty self-evident when you figure that is just ONE of the cheese merchants on the market in Mainz

And there are at LEAST 4 others.

At least.

Kiwis are such vane creatures - #218

Not very often, though.

This chappy's been on our roof since my 50th birthday - 9 or so years now.

Wasn't an easy task to get it, says She, and I can believe that.
German suppliers were out of the question " You want a WHAT as a weathervane?" .
Probably would have ended up with an oval hairy fruit stuck on the roof....

Someone in the UK had one with a hockey stick in its beak (look, just don't ask me...) so it was easy enough for them to get the oxy-acetylene torch going and away we were.

Much admired and a fixed point on kiddies' birthday party activities - When does the next bus leave for Mainz, what's the name of the bird on the roof at blablabla, how many battens are in the picket fence at wuggawuggawugga. That sort of stuff.

So we've become quite good at imparting the knowledge to ankle-biters that there are 3 types of kiwi - bird, fruit and inhabitants of New Zealand.

There was something about eating roots and leaves too, but I've forgotten how it goes....

You know it's Autumn.... - #217

....when massed chrysanthemums appear on the market.

Although a Fall trip to New England a couple of years ago had me confused for a while.

"Mums for sale" signs all over the place.

I thought they'd brought back the slave trade until someone put me right......

Cluck, cluck - #216

This is one of those things that can only happen in Mainz.
(Not that outrageous things don't happen elsewhere...)

There's a guy on the market who sells eggs.

Nothing else.

Just eggs.

And in a brilliant piece of marketing, he brings along one of his chooks which lurks around on the stand, lets itself be stroked by one and all and thoroughly enjoys being the centre of attention

So a couple of years back, one of the tubby little bureaucrats who strut self-importantly around the market in their uniforms, making sure that everything complies with their rulebooks and collecting the rent, finds a clause stating that the Mainz market is not a livestock market (Yeah, right..!) and decides that the chook has to go.

You can guess the rest of the story - public outcry, spluttering noises from the bureaucrats, chook stays.

Sanity does rule on occasion....

OK, so it's not strictly Mainz... #215

...but there's no Frankfurt Daily Photo and I'm actually pleased as Punch at having this image from the Schirn Gallery in Frankfurt chosen for an online travel guide.

It's a shot of the atrium during a PopArt exhibition earlier this year, with a revolving excentric disk on the ground floor. Zipped up to the top floor, set the shutter speed to 0.25 seconds, which almost froze the revolving disk and the schoolkids in the vortex and blurred the outlying planets, as it were.

There's more over here at Flickr, including this one that ended up pretty close to top of the pile in a B/W group competition.

The exhibition was mildly mindblowing and it's never a Good Idea to move quickly on these occasions, just in case the brain goes into lockup mode and you keel over onto the floor. (One picture was especially tricky, causing the eyes to see all sorts of strange stuff and I was glad to have something to hold on to.)

Took me back to my bachelor days, when you quickly learned not to iron striped shirts (very fashionable in the 1970s..) after a evening down at the boozer...

Follow the leader - #214

Living in the country, surrounded by fields and vineyards, we've got a fairly good variety of wildlife.

A family of long-eared owls (Asio otus) colonised the birch tree in the front garden for a number of years and we've got the usual parade of common European woodland and garden birds, with a blue jay popping in now and again.

The clear and calm weather we've been having has had a good few birds of prey circling high above us, calling with a high-pitched whistle.

I'm sure that Abe can identify them for me.

I'm tempted to say that the leader of the group is a sparrowhawk, but I'll admit to being fairly cluelss...

....and Gomorrah - #213

The Rugby World Cup is happening right next door in France.

You wouldn't notice.

DSF, the national (commercial) sports channel did a big blurb about providing live coverage for all the group games involving the major teams.

Friday night, for example.
England vs. South Africa at 9pm.

Saturday afternoon, for example.
All Blacks vs. Portugal at 1 pm.

Get well settled in, turn on the TV - regional tiddlywinks championship or something similar.

(Actually, it was handball on Friday and the German basketball team, trying to qualify for a spot in the playoff for 7th - seventh....! - place, on Saturday, but I don't really see a big difference...)

Sod 'em.

Now I shall be forced to find a pub with Sky Sports.

The hardships we're forced to suffer in the name of sport....

Hardy. Yeah, right - #212

Some shady character on the market sold this to Ms. jb while my back was turned. "But it's hardy! That's what he said, anyway" "Who's "he"?" "That chappy over..... well, he was there 5 minutes ago..."[Pure fiction!. Ed.]

So we're the proud owners of a swamp hibiscus (Hibiscus semilobatus) aka Texas Star, Scarlet Hibiscus and Swamp Mallow.

Native to the USA and supposedly good up to USDA Zone 6a: -23.3°C (-10 °F).

We shall see.

Attractive while it lasted, anyway...

Dig this - #211

Dig around here at your peril.

These days, anyway.

At one stage, you could get away with cultural murder.
In 1884, for example. Laying a new track for a railway station just below the Zitadelle they stumble across some Roman ruins. Anyone looking? No? Good. Let's knock them down and build the station as planned.

Turns out it was the foundation for the fly tower for the biggest Roman theatre north of the Alps, with a capacity of over 10,000.

People had been searching for it for decades....

The next bunch of accidental archaeologists was a gang of drain layers in 1914 who were clued up enough to pass the word on to the REAL archaeologists who acknowledged that the chance of getting funding in competition with the war that Kaiser Bill had just kicked off was pretty low, so they documented it and filled in the hole again.

Fast forward to 1998, when things started again in earnest.

By now they've got the foundations and the remnants of the pillars pretty well visible and concerts have been held in the original location, using temporary seating.

There's supposedly an amphitheatre around here somewhere, too.

Now, where's my shovel....?

Google Earth Streetview 39AD

Tags: Mainz, Zitadelle, Roman Theatre, Römisches Theater

Forting around - #210

It's not a big surprise that Mainz shows distinct signs of having been fortified.

Centuries (Centuries? Millennia...!) of Romans, Huns, Swedes, French, Austrians and sundry ratbags thrashing up and down the Rhine, pillaging and looting to their hearts' content, makes fortification a Good Idea.

The Jakobsberg (James' Hill) was located outside the city walls, which was perceived as Not Being A Very Good Idea, given that it was an ideal possie to occupy and wreak havoc on the city below, so a fortification was first erected in 1620, with the Zitadelle (Citadel) in its current form completed in 1660.

There had been a Benedictine monastery on the hill since 1050, but it was "preventatively destroyed", as they say, in 1329 to avoid presenting Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg will a tempting target. ("Monastery? What monastery?")
Rebuilt as from 1404, consecrated in 1461 and destroyed by the French bombardment in 1793.

At which point they gave up.

Over the years, the Zitadelle has been occupied by whoever happened to take a liking to Mainz, most recently by the French until 1955.

In fact, the city fathers also took a liking to it (actually, the real estate under it) in the early 20th C and only a rapid classification as an Historic Place saved it.

Talk about robber barons...

These days, it houses a number of city administrative outfits and the City Museum.

It also hosts the annual Open Ohr festival (another nice play on words - "Open Ear/Open Air") and occasionally major concert events. Peter Gabriel (supposedly excellent), Van Morrison (experienced it, absolutely appalling, should have bought a bottle of wine and a couple of CDs and stayed at home), Joan Baez, Willy DeVille etc

And last weekend, it was open during the National Trust-equivalent open day, with guided tours and the opportunity to walk the 1.5km or so around the ramparts, cut through the tunnels and out to the perimeter.
That's the photo top left.
The one next to it is a poster of the area, with the local station on the foreground, the Roman amphitheatre (tomorrow?) and the Zitadelle in the background.

And this is the Google Earth view from 1921

Cascone #209

"Aren't we lucky people!" my mate John Whatley would say.

We certainly are, having the Cascones just up the road.

Michael (in the background) is the head honcho - the company carries his name-, but his Dad, Giuseppe, is the public face of the business.

Apart from having a wholesale business that serves the Italian gastronomy in the region, they have a smallish Italian supermarket with pretty much everything you could want or need.

Fennel salami, for example, in the process of being thinly sliced by Giuseppe.

Tags: Cascone, Klein-Winternheim

She Blinded Me With Science - #208

I thought I was back in Kazakhstan. Or perhaps in Lapland.

All of these white domed structures on the Gutenbergplatz.

Were they yurts? Or igloos?

Nope. Pavilions for the Gutenberg University's Science Fair on Saturday and Sunday.

Great stuff.

Polymer researchers doing molecular cuisine (turning apple juice into globules that pop like caviar on your tongue), physics professors steering cereal flakes around bowls of milk with magnets (if Kellogg claims extra iron in their cornflakes, they're not always lying...), magnetic propulsion racing car tracks, using building blocks to demonstrate the principles of creating 3D images from 2D X-rays , magnetic levitation experiments (that's the picture).

All the stuff that drifted in and out of my brain when I was at Westlake, but only really interested me in later years when it was a bit late to correct some pretty miserable exam results.

So I had a really good time.

Such a good time, in fact, that when I drifted over to another tent village in front of the cathedral, I was hoping for more of the same.

The Lazyboy display threw me a bit, as did the retirement village salespeople who zoomed in on me fairly rapidly, but it was only when I saw the Alzheimers Association tent that I realised I'd blundered into a seniors' event

I beat a rapid retreat and refreshed my knowledge in the area of chromatography....

Tags: Johannes Gutenberg University, Wissenschaftsmarkt, Mainz

Job - #207

So after Job's wife was morphed into a pillar of salt, Job evidently also had a look back.

He appears to have turned into a glass recycling container.

Or was it Lot...?

Floored - #206

There's no such thing as an "Oberwesel Daily Photo", so I'm claiming the territory for MDP.

The monastery in Oberwesel was built in 1240, 40 years after the Franciscans established a convent in the town.
The usual ups and downs for the region. Napoleon dissolved and sold it along with all the others in the area in the early 19th C, arsonists got in on the act in 1836 and the villagers moved into the ruins.

Including the vestry, which was used as a cellar and store from around 1900.

Floor too low? Fill it in.
Need a doorway? Rip out a medieval window.
Central (load-bearing....hello?) pillar in the way? Knock it down.
Roof (as a result of the above) starting to cave in? Do a botched job to stabilise it.
And so on.

So - all in all - it was a bit of a mess when they started restoration in 2006.

After they'd dug out the floor, they discovered some of the original tiles dating from the end of the 13th C and - after much deliberation - asked Beate Thiesmeyer, whom we know well and who - together with her partner, Michael Sälzer - was a participant in the cheap dinner the other evening, whether she could reproduce, say 2000 or so in the original size, texture and colour.
"No worries", she said and you can see the result above.

The decorated tile is 13th C.

The rest are 21st C

Hers.

Oh, and there was a dedication ceremony today with very good wine, [irony and sarcasm] an exceptionally interesting speech by a leading light from the local equivalent of the National Trust of a mere 45 (in words: FORTY FIVE) minutes in incredible detail about every phase of the restoration [/irony and sarcasm] during which he said "And the tiles turned out to be just about acceptable..." Boo, hiss. Followed by a succint and exceptionally perceptive speech, focussing on the increasing leverage of cultural tourism, by the Undersecretary of State for Culture, Prof. Joachim Hofmann-Göttig and a couple of other local heroes.

Followed by some more very good wine.

And a gift of one of the tiles.
21st C, not 14th.

Inferno II - #204

Another incendiary milestone in Mainz's history - this one more physical than moral - is documented on the base of the Heuensäule

From the official history of RAF Bomber Command

27 February 1945

458 aircraft - 311 Halifaxes, 131 Lancasters, 16 Mosquitos - of Nos 4, 6 and 8 Groups to Mainz. 1 Halifax and 1 Mosquito lost. The target area Mainz was covered by cloud and the bombing was aimed at skymarkers dropped on Oboe. No results were seen by the bomber crews but the bombing caused severe destruction in the central and eastern districts of Mainz; this was the city's worst raid of the war. 1,545 tons of bombs were dropped. 5,670 buildings were destroyed, including most of the historic buildings in the Altstadt, but the industrial district was also badly hit. This was the last heavy raid on Mainz.

Tags: 27 February 1945, heunensäule, mainz

I touched the cloak of the Prophet... #203

Big do at the Gutenberg Center (their spelling, not mine...), a greenfield site with a mega-supermarket and a mega-electronics store in Bretzenheim, yesterday evening.

MediaMarkt (aforementioned mega electronics store) and Mainz 05, our local professional football (soccer to you...) team got together for a big PR stunt with late opening and special prices for folks in Mainz 05 kit and the whole team on hand to autograph whatever was laid before them.

So the team fronted up, looking none too happy at just having finished a training session and definitely none too happy at having to hang around to sign autographs for hours on end, but they warmed up when they saw the fans - well over a thousand.

And The Prophet, Jürgen Klopp, the trainer, (pictured above), was on hand, too.

And do people deify him....?!

He's just the nicest guy. Kiddies stand in front of him with open mouths and eyes as big as dinner plates and he chats to them, gives them a big grin and they're fans for life.

Just look at the way the lady's looking at him. Given half a chance, I think she would have adopted him.......

And one thing's for sure around here - all you need is a scruffy camera bag (Mumbai 1979) and a professional looking camera (i.e. black bodied Nikon) and you're accredited.
Wander around wherever you want.
Talk to whoever you want.
Take all the photos you want.

Even touch the cloak of the Prophet....

3 Generations - #202

That's what I thought, anyway.

Postwar, slung-together, utilitarian apartment block, medieval building and the appallingly ugly Erbacher Hof in the background, looking like a set from one of Kevin Costner's direst films.

The first and last are correct, at least.

The medieval house - "The house of the Roman king" (didn't the Animals sing a song called that...?) or "Zum Lateran", depending on the historical period - suffered the same fate as the predecessor of the apartment block at the hands of some fairly effective carpet bombing in February 1945.

Initially reconstructed in 1949 around 2 sandstone portals and the remnants of the back wall - nothing else remained standing -, it was returned to its pre-1945 architectural style in 1986.

Good guys II - #201

Hans-Joachim Ströher runs the local Euromaster franchise - tires, wheel alignment, tech inspections, simple maintenance - in Hechtsheim.

What a cool guy.

Natural aura of authority, calm, competent, personable.

If I ran a business that needed people skills, I'd hire him away from Euromaster in a shot.

They wouldn't have a chance.

Määnzer Mädcher -#200

These three flossies must have been related to Job Lot (I stand anonymously corrected - check the comments).

His wife, as you might recall, was instructed not to turn around and look at the shop windows as she left what ever town she'd put on her credit card.

Well, of course she couldn't resist and ended up as a pillar of salt.

I think that's how the story goes, anyway.

A similar fate appears to have encountered these three (ex-students of the Maria Ward school?).

Something along the lines of "Now, go straight home from school, girls, and no looking at boys on the way"

Too much to ask.

Kapow! Bronze statue.

And there they stand, fountainised, right outside the entrance to their school, with water gushing off their opened brollies.

There is another version.

"A bronze fountain by the Austrian sculptor Magnus featuring the Girls of Mainz - Määnzer Mädcher - can be found outside the entrance of the Maria Ward school on the Ballplatz."

Take your pick....

Maria Ward - #199

Being half a DINK, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to education around here, but the Maria Ward School for Girls in Mainz appears to be pretty good, both by reputation and by personal observation of the finished product.

Lena, for example, my young friend from across the road, who graduated a couple of years back, did some voluntary work in India and is now studying law.
Shame about her choice of career, but maybe she'll come round....

Maria Ward (pronounced to rhyme with "hard" in German, which threw me off the track) was born Mary Ward in 1585 in Yorkshire into a Roman Catholic family at a time of persecution of Catholics in England.

She joined a convent in France as a lay sister, but - feeling unfulfilled by a contemplative life - envisioned women living a life in companionship and discernment, inspired by the gospel and engaging with the world without the constraints of the traditional cloister, nor an established 'Rule', placing them under the governance of men. She also believed that women were equal to men in intellect and should be educated accordingly.

Which wasn't exactly too popular with the hierarchy of the church.

The order that she inspired - the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary - continues her work.

Here in Mainz, too. Since 1752 and at its present location on the Ballplatz since 1846.

Good guys I - #198

Adam Weber is a vintner in Bodenheim and the proprietor of the Urige (translates as natural, down-to-earth, real, authentic..) Weinkeller, a wine bar that's open for 10 months of the year and where we've been going regularly pretty much since it opened in 1982.

Sit in the courtyard, lined with decommissioned wine barrels on long benches or head inside if it's too cold.

Decent wines, really good food and nice serving staff.

Reasonable prices, too.

And isn't he just a fine figure of a man...?

Tags: Adam Weber, Urige Weinkeller

Street Lights/Street Signs - #197

OK

The female of the species and their offspring are instructed to take the detour.

And we blokes?

Are we meant to clamber over the fence and risk our lives being masculine, tramping through the building site, or what?

My Uncle John was onto something when he said he preferred flying Air France.

"If there's an accident" he'd say " there's none of this crap about women and children first..."

Welcome to the rest of the world, illuminating our darkened streets and keeping us on the straight and narrow:

Seattle (WA), USA - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Singapore, Singapore - Boston (MA), USA - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Kajang (Selangor), Malaysia - Mainz, Germany - Evry, France - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Sequim (WA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Nottingham, UK - Toulouse, France - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Manila, Philippines - Mumbai, India - Montpellier, France - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Stayton (OR), USA - Moscow, Russia - Paris, France - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Austin (TX), USA - Lyon, France - Stockholm, Sweden - Hyde, UK - Hong Kong, China - Joplin (MO), USA - Seoul, South Korea - Chandler (AZ), USA - St. Louis (MO), USA - Arlington (VA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Villigen, Switzerland - Sydney, Australia - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - San Diego (CA), USA - Bandung (West Java), Indonesia - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Nelson, New Zealand - Quincy (MA), USA - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Bend (OR), USA - Wellington, New Zealand - New Orleans (LA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Detroit (MI), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Selma (AL), USA - Phoenix (AZ), USA - Miami (FL), USA - Arradon, France - Sheki, Azerbaijan - New York City (NY), USA - Inverness (IL), usa - North Bay (ON), Canada - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Tenerife, Spain - Auckland, New Zealand - Forks (WA), USA - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Chateaubriant, France - Madison (WI), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Orlando (FL), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Ajaccio, France - Baltimore (MD), USA - Crepy-en-Valois, France - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Budapest, Hungary - Lyon, France - Saarbrücken, Germany - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Le Guilvinec, France - River Falls (WI), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Naples (FL), USA - London, UK - La Antigua, Guatemala - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Paris, France - San Diego (CA), USA - Trujillo, Peru - Haninge, Sweden - Prague, Czech Republic - Oslo, Norway - Grenoble, France - Shanghai, China - Toronto (ON), Canada - Durban, South Africa - Zurich, Switzerland - Cape Town, South Africa


For your musical enjoyment or otherwise...

Streetlife - Randy Crawford

Blinded by the lights - The Streets