Simon’s Town Real Estate News

What’s Happening In Simon’s Town?

Well, the seasons are changing and the evenings are getting cooler but we still have some lovely days, Elmarie’s book club became a wine club, the successful Navy festival broke all records, the Argus Cycle tour saw many bicycles passing our village and real estate sales are slower.

Here’s a few tidbits of news that may interest you

• A fellow Simon’s Town resident suggested that we create an alternative by-pass route and although not a new idea but still an interesting idea. According to Nicky Holderness the idea has merit in time of crisis. Another say, “I think this is actually a busted flush!”
• “Although not unexpected the latest interest rate hike came, like always, as a shock to our highly indebted nation. It’s no wonder when you consider that the cumulative impact of an increase of 450 basis points since June 2006 has upped the monthly repayment on a mortgage of R1-million by R3200. To paraphrase Tito — it’s belt tightening time”. Kabous le Roux iAfrica.com
• Thanks Kabous; the real estate market is quiet and the agents are all waiting for an upwards turn but it might get worse before we can expect better days. While we wait for the buyers we decided to publish a good news Newspaper, called Coffee News, promoting your Simon’s Town homes for sale. This fun publication is available every week at the local restaurants and also gets delivered to homes in the area.
• Have you heard of the Simon’s Town Hawks? Basically the people with the caring and open eyes. They are the Simon’s Town residents who see things that they don’t like and do not want in our village and they make an effort to resolve these issues. The way to do it is to empower us as a group to amplify and coordinate the process to resolve the issues. I have created a forum for you to add your concerns. I believe this will help our “hawks”.
• We had nasty graffiti on the bus stop to Boulders beach and Bay Primary was asked to be creative. They did an amazing job and added colourful penguins to the bus stop. I know that some people don’t like penguins that much but I did not realize that they will go to the extreme to paint the bus stop white again. The STcivic association is following up to get the bus shelter repainted.
• I noted that the City plans to resolve most of valuation objections by end of June 2008. Interesting. Let’s hope they can do it. When ready I will send you the average valuation stats per suburb. For what it’s worth. I prefer to use the average selling price per square meter to establish some idea of your property’s value and then compensate for issues that will inflate the value.
• Cell Phone Reception: This is issue was voted as the top issue in a recent poll. Vodacom, Nicki Holderness and they Navy are working on a solution to erect a reception tower at Joe Maseko’s. Unfortunately Public Works need to say yes because they are the owners of all Navy buildings. And that may take many moons. Another out of the box suggestion; why not erect the tower at Roman Rock Light House, there’s sun panels and it’s out of the way and it’s inline of sight?
• On a personal note:
  • I decided to bury the hatchet and apologized to Andre at Salty Sea Dog for the unfortunate article I wrote on his restaurant. I did it because I wanted to. Thanks Andre for your forgiveness.
  • Supporting the local businesses: Never did I realise that a book club can also become a wine club and that is how I learned about a fine wine sold by a local resident and liquor store owner. Read the story here. Read the story here.
• Business to Business meeting: If you run a business or do business in Simon’s Town why not attend our one hour get together every fourth Wednesday from 08:00 till 09:00 at the Sweetest Thing. We meet in an informal environment to discuss different businesses and you get the change to promote your business. More…

To conclude I believe these wise words from Kabous says it all. At least for the optimists:

The economy is expected to grow by ‘only’ four percent this year — hardly a meltdown. So keep your chin up! What goes up must come down and interest rates are no exception. And when they do, don’t take on more ‘cheap’ debt. It won’t stay that way — what goes down will go up again.

May you have fun enjoy this great time in Simon’s Town.

Johan and Elmarie Horak

Tags: cell phone, Civic Association, coffee news, Forum, Inflation, Navy, nicki holderness, Restaurant, Roads, simonstown, wine

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Book Club Or Wine Club

Elmarie reads seven books a month and she enjoys wine. Good dry white wine and great books. Good for her. But when we decided to move to Simon’s Town she had to say goodbye to her dear book club friends and the wine they shared. Not for long.

While asking people to subscribe to this blog I met Nicky. She said, “seeing that you are moving down to Simon’s Town why not invite your wife to join our new book club.”

Well, well, I believe that there are no coincidences and this was just more proof. And I reminded myself that, “The world conspires to give us what we want”. Elmarie jumped at the opportunity.

This week Elmarie was off again to her monthly book club with her books and obviously her bottle of wine.

Elmarie came back late because the book club turned into a wine tasting exercise. Judging from the time she returned I knew that no wine went to the sink.

Andre, partner of the hostess for the evening, arranged a “blind” wine tasting for the women. He had eight bottles of Sauvignon Blanc and they had to rate the wine by colour, nose and taste.

What they did not know was that Andre’s own wine was included. And, for what it’s worth; Elmarie ranked Andre’s Sauvignon Blanc under the top three.

Interesting.

When Elmarie mentioned that Andre’s ThornTree sells for only R23, compared to more than R60 a bottle for the others, I considered buying a bottle. And ended up buying a case. Good stuff.

There’s more to a book club than I meets the eye. Elmarie continues her reading while we share great glasses of wine.

Thanks Andre for the introduction to your wine and to Nicky for inviting my wife to your book club.

Tags: books, dry white wine, Interest, sauvignon blanc, wine

Posted in Simon's Town, Things To Do | Comments