I’m so deep in the trenches of little kids sometimes it feels as if all I do is juggle. If I can I head off to the Atlantic and paddle for two hours. I only started paddling at the beginning of the year — my wife was fed up with me coming home grumpy after failed surfing lessons. She suggested I take up a water sport at which I would have a chance of succeeding.
I like the whole subculture that comes with paddling. I have yet to meet an uptight person in a kayak. It also appears to be without any restrictions in terms of age or sex and from a Cape Town perspective it’s pretty multicultural. It’s a sport for everybody.
When I spend quality time with my children, we head off to the forest — Newlands is the only one left with any trees. We hunt for tigers, obviously, and look for dragon tracks. We have picnics. I teach my three-year-old how to throw rocks. And we throw pine cones for the dogs. They seem to like this even though [my wife] Tracy still makes the dogs cordon bleu meals every night. They were our first children. I think she has guilt about the four-legged ones since the two-legged ones came along.
In the old days we’d cook dinners for up to 12 people at a time — I can barely boil an egg but Tracy takes entertaining very seriously. She allows me to do things like chop parsley.
She used to be known as Tequila Tracy. People would come to us knowing that they would start with a civilised three-course meal and crawl out on their hands and knees, begging for mercy. I married well. We don’t drink as much tequila as we used to, though. It’s a shame.
Touching all the right nerves
I love music — if I hear something I like, I’ll seek it out, get it on my iPhone. I like soul, blues, bluesy American rock, everything from the 1950s and 1960s right up to contemporary acts. Aloe Blacc is touching all the right nerves.
I’m also having a little bit of a Cult revival in my car, Depeche Mode, too (I’d been off them for ages) and Motown — the Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye. All played as loud as possible.
I’m getting introduced to a lot of local bands by [local bloggers] Dan Nash and Mike Sharman: Plush, the Plastics, Captain Stu — Once I was sitting at &Union and I commented on a great song that was playing. ”Sounds just like Fall Out Boy. It’s a bloody good cover,” I said to the guy sitting next to me. Turns out it was by Dance, You’re on Fire. The guy was their drummer.
I read mostly histories, non-fiction. I got the Deneys Reitz trilogy Adrift on the Open Veld as a birthday present. It’s the most incredible read. And I keep having a flirtation with 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies.
Last year I couldn’t put down Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series — the movie Master and Commander was based on some of the books. It’s historical fiction but written incredibly well. I became a total naval nerd for most of 2010.
Tracy and I are both quite partial to The Economist. I like the tactile feel of paper in my hands, the smell of printed paper. I like looking at books. I’d much prefer to look at a bookshelf full of books than an empty shelf with just a Kindle.
Paul Raphaely and his wife, Tracy Foulkes, are the team behind NoMU, a local range of food and lifestyle products now stocked in more than 27 countries. www.nomu.co.za.