MMXIV

No one likes goodbyes. Least of all me. But after 670 posts, I have decided to call it quits. And what a journey it has been. Together we have travelled to the four corners of the globe, uncovering architectural gems. Voyeuristically peeking through cracks and crevices, into windows and behind doors, all to find the illusive phenomenon known as Style.

To ring in 2014, here are fourteen of my favourite and more personal postings:

1. The Legacy of Utata Mandela (here)
2. Alphaville on the Esplanade (here)
3. Chandler House (here)
4. By the Rivers of Babylonstoren (here)
5. S.O.S. (here)
6. Three months in Cape Town: A Snapshot (here)
7. Our House at the End of our Street: Finale (here... and more here)
8. Searching for Sugar Man - Tribeca, New York (here)
9. New Year's Eve: Seen and Heard at the Stork Club (here)
10. Passage to Africa III - Stowe (Part I) (here)
11. In the Ring with Brooklyn Circus (here)
12. On Location: B'More (here)
13. My husband said I should call this Buying at Brimfield with my Husband's Money (here)
14. Quagga (here)

To all those who journeyed with me and offered input and appreciation, thank you and an enormously happy 2014.

*

Here is my last and final posting. My home in Cape Town...

Longing for Babylonstoren...

After pouring over photos from the past year, I came across these of a visit to Babylonstoren last winter. What a place! Must get my fix soon...

The Legacy of uTata Mandela

Mourning a Leader, Celebrating a Legacy - the South African Parliament pays tribute to a great man. It was a privilege for my family and I to be able to walk through the grounds of parliament in Cape Town yesterday. We were very moved by what we saw...

Alphaville on the Esplanade

Like a scene from a lost New Wave feature by Jean-Luc Godard, the Blue Waters Hotel on the Durban esplanade holds on to the last remnants of the geometric age from whence it comes. Largely untouched, the circular lounge looks onto the Indian ocean, with turquoise drapes weighted down as much by history, as by thick fabric. It was a beautiful morning to rediscover Durban via Beach Road; the technicolor saris and bold rhythmic Bollywood performances of the South Africa India Film Awards from the night before still pounding my head...

Awning Detail

Blue Waters (unchanged since the 60's)

Carpet (jaded and faded)

Wall Mural

Coimbra Cocktail Bar

The Versailles at Blue Waters

View to the Lounge

Revolving Door at Edenroc

Residents Only

Cleaning the turtle tank (Edenroc)

And a pic of us en route to the red carpet...

Adriaan Louw

Some of the enviable interiors photographed by the discerning eye of Adriaan Louw...

 All via here

Mandibles - A Natural History Collection

The mandible is the lower jaw of a vertebrate animal. This is perfectly apt since my mandible dropped from sheer wonderment the minute I crossed the threshold of this jam-packed creature emporium, and didn't quite recover until I was several blocks away. I really wanted to shout MANDIBLES from every Cape rooftop. Mandibles can be found up a rickety staircase in the Woodstock Foundry in Cape Town. Julia Jaki is the curator, Philipp Schulz, the taxidermist. Together, the Garden of Earthly Delights abounds. Our very own Deyrolle in Africa. In this jewel of a shop, those of a covetous nature like myself, really can be the proud owner of a simple egg of extreme fragility, the beak of a Bare-Eyed Cockatoo or (in my case) the skull of a baby Nile Crocodile...

Worth noting is the fact that all the birds, monkeys and small mammals come from zoos and bird parks - having died of natural causes - while the skulls, horns and skull-mounts of the larger Ungulata are by-products of South Africa's sustainable game farming industry.

All photographs by Philippa Berrington-Blew.