Melville!

No, it's not the name of a guy I met here, but my new neighbourhood! Pretty cool place, one of the older suburbs in Johannesburg, where you actually have streets you can walk from restaurant to pub to bookshop and antique store. Probably the place with the more "European feeling" , compared to the newer Northern suburbs, where you take your car to go everywhere, everywhere meaning shopping malls for dinner, movies, drinks...

Melville is close to Wits University and the Media companies, so you find an ecclectic mix of (white and black) people along the streets, from the journalists sipping coffee at Whish, to the students enjoying happy hour at Ratz or Six.

I spent my first days at the 7th Street Guest House, run by Wessel, one of Enablis' member entrepreneurs who obviously started a new venture in real estate, before moving to the cottage next to his house. His parents Wessel (Sr.) and Eunika actually run the place, and they're so nice. I can alwasy pop in to have a little chat, ask for advice, it's like having your parents at the other side of the street. Wessel Sr. loves to entertain his guests and family at the outside bar, so last Sunday he was making me try his Portuguese / Mozambique specialty, consisting of mixing wine with...coke! Very sweet, a bit like mixing your own porto. Wessel (jr.) and his wife Monica are fun people to have as neighbours, always in for a laugh. Their 2 dogs Thabo and Mbeki (!) are a bit wild, but they certainly contribute to making our little cottage one of Joburg's safest places...Their latest hobby is to go bird-hunting.