I’m in an industry where I see people every day so I kind of look forward to my alone time.
I can be a bit anti-social. I’m into sport – I like watching it. I play golf. I enjoy PlayStation, games like Gran Turismo 5 and Call of Duty. For me it’s not an interactive thing. I play against the machine. And I want to complete the game.
Electronics are one of my biggest passions. One of the things I’m looking to do – I guess it’s so I don’t have to be involved socially – is creating a virtual world, but in real life. It’s one of my motivations at the restaurant. We will have a sustainable herb and indigenous garden at Parktown Girls, and a worm farm at the back [of the restaurant]. In a couple of months we’ll have a breeding pair of ducks. All of this is going to be documented for a website.
There will eventually be an e-recipe book. It’s going to be a platform for like-minded people. You’ll be able to get involved, but it won’t be a one-on-one interaction.
I don’t Tweet or blog and I’m terrible on Facebook – I check in maybe once every six months. It doesn’t serve a purpose. But I spend a lot of time on the internet researching, mostly about food.
Food is everything I do. I don’t necessarily look for trends, I’m more interested in sustainability, things like gardening, gathering knowledge about how things work.
I’ve been catching up on old movies, revisiting food films: The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover, Mostly Martha, Tortilla Soup, Like Water for Chocolate— There are no great techniques to be learned, but there’s incredible colour and texture. Like in The Cook the Thief— every time the room changes, the dress changes, the colours change. It’s always interesting to see other people’s take on things.
I’ve been playing golf for about two years and, even though I’m absolutely useless, it’s one of those games I’ll never stop trying until I get it right. Every time I take a different shot it’s a brand new challenge. You can take the same shot 20 times over, and play 20 different shots. The only club I chose myself is my driver and it’s the only one that really works for me. As for the others, a guy was selling a set of irons and I bought them.
They’re probably too short for me. The point is it’s a nice way to spend four hours outdoors.
My other pastime is scuba diving. I just got back from Sodwana and it was wonderful. My favourite place, though, is Mozambique – I head just north of the KZN border. It’s a whole day’s driving just to get there, so I can’t do it in a regular weekend.
I think what I like about being underwater is it’s a great solitary environment. Sure, I’d love to see great whites swimming past, but that’s not going to happen every dive. I like looking at nudibranchs – sea slugs. Some are really big, some are tiny. One deep dive I went on there was lots of phosphorescence in the water and it kind of looked like you were falling into stars.
After a dive I’ll go sit at the pub, drink Tipo Tinto Rum with that Sparletta Raspberry stuff, eat prawns— it’s so peaceful. That’s going to be my retirement: a prawn shack on the beach.
For bookings call 082 422 8158 or email [email protected]