'Sari for that!' (My incredible fashion tip for all you ladies out there).

Welcome to the 'Sari for that!' blog posting

This is when the African blog returns, and Pamuzinda steps back into the spotlight.

Or at least weddings at Pamuzinda and Chengeta (our lodges) do, because I hope to show you over the next couple of weeks just what we do when we host a wedding here.

And, as an added bonus, I intend giving the girls a fashion tip which may just change the way the world dresses for special occasions! I have to admit I am astonished no-one has ever thought of this before.

So - weddings.

We recently hosted a wedding for 270, and we had 80 people staying with us for 4 days in the build-up to the ceremony. As we only sleep 32 at Pamuzinda and Chengeta respectively, and 20 at Shumba, the folk moved between the lodges for meals.

This was our Breakfast Buffet center-piece for a breakfast for 80 . . .

The fruit salad was served in the watermelon shaped like a swan, and our chef spent considerable time carving the pumpkins - even engraving the name of the host onto one. The wedding was for an Indian bride from Zimbabwe who was marrying a Caucasian groom from Australia.

And because the Brides' family were Indian - the whole week-end consisted of vegetarian food throughout.

On the Cold Buffet we served fruit salad, 2 yogurts, scones, croissants, bran flakes and corn flakes, fruit juices and teas and coffee.

And a special pat on the back for anyone who can tell me why we have the picture  of 2 lions on the wall that we do?



Obviously the picture is there to deter monkeys from stealing fruit from the buffet.

And, yes, it works!

Because we were serving 80 people instead of our usual 32, we also set up a second buffet station on the deck overlooking the river . . .

Did you notice the reflection of the trees in the water?

With guests in-house for 4 nights, the hosts provided lots of entertainment such as Game Drives etc, and they also arranged for dancing girls to come from Harare and provide an open-air spectacle early one evening.
We set up a stage on the grass, waited for the moon to appear over the horizon, and the girls did their thing to the sound of our lions roaring and the crickets going crazy in the background. The lighting was provided by candles in paper bags.

A rather special occasion for our Australian guests I think?

As previously mentioned, the entire week-end consisted of vegetarian food, and a specialist caterer came from Harare to provide for parts of the meals. I thoroughly enjoyed tasting their food - with the exception of the red stuff in the bowl which actually had a warning label on it! (You can just see the warning folded on the side of the bowl).

How hot does something have to be if you consider it necessary to warn people from India about it? Sheesh.

I didn't taste it, but tricked my assistant into gulping down a teaspoon-full of the stuff.

He took a while to recover!

On one of the evenings we put on a 'Mongolian BBQ' overseen by a Cape Buffalo for the Indians and Australians who were in Zimbabwe for the wedding.

A truly intercontinental occasion!

We took our gas rings from the kitchen, and flash-fried julienne of vegetables with sauces and spices - each plate being constructed by the guests from a selection of raw ingredients.

But the purpose of the gathering was a wedding - and so the time came to prepare the marquee, with the smell of incense heavy in the air.

Every wedding we host looks amazing, and this was no exception . . . .

I hope you noticed the serviettes in the wine glasses which have been fashioned to look like birds?

This was very much part of the theme - something I shall come back to.

Just look at the wedding cake!

A peacock - with the tail made up of individual cupcakes - each carefully painted with edible gold paint - which unfortunately my little camera couldn't quite pick up.

But it was stunning!

And now to the reason for the length of this blog - the fruit and vegetable carvings which accompanied and decorated the wedding feast.

These were amazing, and I shall feature a few of them here - purely because they appeal to the hotelier in me!

They were carved by a specialist fruit-and-vegetable-carver who came from Harare, and who spent the entire night before the wedding in the cold-room - quietly carving. Our chef provided the buffet carvings featured earlier, but he was too busy preparing food to be able to carve for the wedding itself.

Enjoy:

and again - showing just how delicate the petals of the watermelon rose were . . .

And vegetables . . . .

Amazing stuff!! The carving below is constructed from a complete watermelon:

So - back to the wedding itself.

Somehow they managed to create a purely Indian feel to a wholly African setting. Garlands of flowers, rampant elephants, and rose cascades all contributed:

Then the question was - 'How should the groom arrive'

Well, we didn't paint them, (and their ears were a little big), but our little family provided their usual delivery service with aplomb . . .

Here are some of the ladies waiting to welcome the bride and groom to the marquee - their distinctive dresses and the garlands of flowers behind them all very much part of tradition & culture. And as mentioned previously, the bird theme was followed through in the bright, colourful and shimmering saris that all the ladies wore.

Again, my little camera tried, and you get some idea of how stunning the ladies looked, but nothing like seeing them in real life.

Kind of like you can never photograph our carpet of stars in the sky at night - just doesn't work.

But I tried . . .

There was an amazing array of dresses - the saris of India.

While the photo below again does justice to the colours, it loses the sparkle of the sequins and gold thread used so much in their clothing.

They literally shimmered in the sunlight like a flock of exotic parakeets.

And I failed to photograph the best one - a midnight-blue with silver beading and miniature sequins

So a whole lot of exotic sights, sounds, and flavors.

Which brings us neatly to the fashion advice I promised at the outset.

My chance to set the fashion world alight - even though I won't get any credit for it.

A most unexpected sight was the Australian ladies (from the grooms' family) - dressed by their Indian counterparts . . . in saris.

Amazing.

So my advice to all ladies out there is this - if you want to make an impact, to really, really cause a stir, arrange for an Indian lady to deck you out in a sari. Because the oriental dress on a Caucasian woman really does work:

Again my little point-and-click fails to do justice, but something to think about? Tough to dance in, to be sure, but what an impact!

A fantastic wedding and the next few blogs I will devote to our weddings.

Because (in my humble opinion) I think the team at Pamuzinda and Chengeta have got this wedding thing sorted! We put on a pretty good show in conjunction with the bridal family - right here in the wilds of Zimbabwe.

Whadd'ya think?

Have a great day!

Shungu the baby zebra - an update.

Lots of silence from Selous, because we have been busy with a couple of weddings which have been taking up much of our time. More of those later, but a quick update on Shungu the baby zebra, as I have had a few queries from a few regular readers of the Blog. Everyone wants to know how he is doing.

He is doing GREAT!

He has stopped tottering around and is strong on his feet. His wounds have almost all healed - just one bite still weeping a little pus but very definitely on the mend. All other cuts are fully covered, and his bruises have faded, judging by his ease of movement. In addition, he has stopped shaking his head as if trying to clear it as I mentioned in my last posting.

He has started walking to the hotel and stays the night at the stables. Just look at how strong he is now . . . .

Shungu has also met the other stalwart of Pamuzinda - Jasmine the giraffe. Jasmine has featured in several previous blog postings. Here are Jasmine and Shungu meeting for the first time on the lawns in front of Reception . . .



Introductions over it was time to settle down to the serious business of finding some food for the morning. Shungu has milk - lots of it, and we use skimmed milk mixed with glucose for him - he drinks it out of a little green bowl. He is costing us a fortune! Jasmine eats leaves and is quite cheap to maintain. (If you don't count the horse cubes she is addicted to).

Apart from the weddings I have been busy with for the past week, we hosted a group from South Africa who stayed one night with us before going to Kariba for a week on Umbozha - our luxury houseboat. We put on a braai for them - lots of meat grilled over open coals and served with lots of salads and accompaniments such as sauces, guacamole, olives, beetroot and garlic bread:

One of the specialties we laid on was 'boerwors' - the literal translation being 'farmers sausage'. These are homemade sausages which are the specialty of the farming community where they are made, and a certain amount of pride goes into the making of them, with secret recipes using spices and obscure ingredients. Ours, obviously, are made from game meat, and you can see them in the square tin, and on the griddle. . . .



So which game meat did we use for our boerwors?

Erm - in this case they were made of zebra meat.

But we didn't tell Shungu.

Have a nice day!

Shungu - kicked to within an inch of his life . . .

Time for another childish post from the wilds of Selous - and this time it is indeed all about kids. In this instance a baby - a zebra baby.

Called Shungu.

He was so young that he still had the remnants of his umbilical chord, and he endured a terrible attack by 2 stallions who tried to kill him. This is normal. When a new zebra stallion takes over a herd - he tries to remove alien genes while at the same time safeguarding against future competition for mares; in this instance 2 stallions banded together and tried to kill one of the foals. (Because of this, a female will often remove herself and her new-born male foal from the herd until it is strong enough to run). A guest on a game-viewing drive managed to film part of the attack, and I will try and get a copy of it.

It wasn't pleasant, but it was nature in the raw.

The guests requested to be removed from the scene, and the guide on the vehicle radio'ed back to Pamuzinda.  The battered foal was picked up by a second vehicle, brought in, and taken to an old dog kennels that we have on the property, where he collapsed to the ground and couldn't move. His eyes were glazed, his breathing was labored, and he was obviously in deep shock.

He was covered with a blanket, and one of the dogs that lives here, Eli - a pointer, stood watch over him for a couple of days, keeping him warm while not allowing any other dogs near.

When the second vehicle arrived, the stallions were still kicking him, and the person who picked him up said he was kicked at least 30 meters in the time it took him to chase off the stallions. It really was unrelenting.

Despite the beating he had taken, he staggered to his feet the second day we had him. . . .

One of the most devastating blows was a kick to the eye which must have left the poor little fellow seeing stars. Certainly he was concussed, and from day one he has been shaking his head as if trying to clear it. As a lion will attest, a zebra has got a really tough skin - and to tear it down to the bone like this, even on a young foal, takes some brute force . . .

That was from a backward kick, and he must have moved his head a fraction because the kick would have been aimed to take out his eye.

One of the stallions took the little foal by the neck with a vicious bite, and threw him several feet into the air; he landed quite a few yards away. There was substantial damage done, and the resulting wounds were deep and painful.

He was bitten in the side as well as his neck, and the stallions kicked him both with their front legs as well as thunderous blows with their back legs - aiming predominantly for his head and chest area. There was absolutely no doubt they were trying to kill him, and his mother could do nothing to stop the assault.

The first positive sign was when he started drinking milk and glucose.

And though Shungu is stronger now, and recovering from the massive beating he took, Eli still keeps a protective eye out for his new best friend.

He was ready to pull me away of he thought it necessary!

We all now think Shungu is going to make it.

The following picture was taken this afternoon - much much stronger than when we picked him up - and though he still shakes his head as though trying to clear it, he is so much more alert now. He still hangs his head, and once he lifts that, we will know for sure that he is well on the road to recovery. Some of the sores on his side have become infected, and he has been given an antibiotic in addition to the gentian violet he was first painted with, and he has another stronger antibiotic waiting in the wings if needed.

Though he took in a lot of milk since arriving, he only urinated for the first 4 days, and on day 5 he was given an enema by Kylie - the Weddings and Events Coordinator for the group. It worked really quickly, and he must have been desperate for a little help, because she had to have several showers after administrating it. (That's a story for another blog!). But at least Shungu isn't all blocked up, and seems to be feeling much better now.

That's why I am posting on him - because I think he's going to make it. Poor little guy.

And for those of you who were wondering what his name means - it is the Shona word for 'heart', 'spirit', or 'guts'. All the qualities shown by this little chap in his short life so far.

Shungu. Of Pamuzinda.

Have a great day!

Iced watermelon soup and a case of rape. Valentines at Pamuzinda.

For those who read my last blog (you can see old posts at the top right of this page) you will recall me mentioning our signature dish for our Valentines Dinner was going to be an Iced Watermelon & Orange Soup. The trick is to make sure it has enough body to it, because otherwise you are simply serving a bowl of fruit juice.

I also put in a small drop (well, maybe a large drop) of vodka, just to give it that 'there's something I can taste' factor.

I think we nailed it!

The starters were 'Mushroom & Bacon on Bruschetta', cooked with white wine and cream and visible on the right and background below, and a Smoked Salmon Pate - the pink blobby bits on the other plates. I made a bit of a mistake with the Pate as I put in a little too much Greek Yogurt when blending it, and it came out a little loose - maybe more a mousse than a pate, but it tasted really yummy. Very smokey flavor, with a hint of lemon in the background.

In my last blog I mentioned that I was a little worried that we didn't have enough fresh spinach to use for stuffing the chicken breasts, and as it turned out, we didn't manage to find any.

I told one of the cooks - Smart, that we would have to use rape for Valentines Day, and I think he misunderstood me, because his smile was a wonder to behold! Ear-to-ear stuff. When I explained it was the vegetable rape that we were going to use, he still carried on smiling, though somewhat bashfully . . .

And how did the 'Chicken Breast stuffed with Rape & Feta' turn out? Not too bad, actually. We served it with a yogurt sauce, and my only concern was the color as the rape tended to bleach a little in the cooking. But it tasted yummy - and way more African in flavor than spinach, I think.

Quite often there is a temptation to 'overkill' the decor for a special meal - and we didn't. No need to worry about putting too much stuff on the table when you have a backdrop like this, is there? This photo was taken during the afternoon table lay-up. A nice clean and uncluttered table.

This was the dining room, locked, loaded and ready for shooting bears. In the end we catered for around 50 folk, and pushed a few beads of sweat in the kitchen.

And what was the most beautiful sight in the whole Lodge? Well the chocolates and wine in the rooms looked good, the dining room looked good, the food looked good, but without doubt the most appealing sight was  . . . .

Yup - the ladies toilet, with fresh white roses. Looking really snappy! Maybe next year I'll think about serving the dinner in there instead?

(You can see where the bush babies - also called 'night apes', or 'pookies', come in during the night. They have dislodged some of the thatching where they come in and out. I think they come for fresh water).

I hope you had a fantastic Valentines, and spent time with the special folk in your life.

Have a great day.

Kissing a whole bunch of frogs to find your prince! Or . . your toad?

So tomorrow is Valentines Day, and as it is unlikely that I will have time to post a blog with all my running around - here ya go.

For most people, this special day is one for love and romance, chocs and flowers, and fire-side snuggles if you are in the Northern hemisphere - poolside cuddles in the Southern one. And the guys on the equator don't see any difference and just carry on - same old, same old.

But for those of us in the hospitality game, it tends to be a time of sweaty kitchens, fingers shredded by rose thorns and lots of rush; this year at Pamuzinda will be, I am sure, much of that. We have 70 booked for lunch, and then a special dinner for about 40 in the evening.

So here is a sneak preview of my day tomorrow, and the plans we have in place . . . .

First off, the menu. All planned - though I am still to find fresh spinach for the chicken breast, and may have to make a last-minute adjustment. Maybe lemon, garlic & herbs? Or bacon & cheddar cheese?

Dunno - we'll see.

And the signature dish off this menu?

Well, believe it or not, it is the Watermelon and Orange Soup - something that not many people have ever had . . . . unless they have been to Pamuzinda! And I bet you won't find it on any Valentines menu anywhere in the world this year - except here. It is just watermelon and fresh orange grated through a coarse cheese grater, and then placed in the freezer until small ice shards form.

Yum! Especially on a warm and balmy African night in a dining room overlooking the Serui River.

Another typically African menu, no?

For the tables we will have candles - not just any old candles, but curly-whirly red ones with
rose-scented wax.

Why?

Dunno - but that's what we got!

We have roses for the tables as well - red ones for our dinning room tables, and white for the toilets. Because red is the color of love, and white is the color of toilet paper.

Obviously.

Then we have chocolates for the couples staying in the lodge.  Because we always give chocolate on this most romantic of days.

In little boxes.

With red ribbon.

And paper with hearts on it.

You know?

Finally we have the wines which we will place in the Guest Rooms for the folk staying with us on the 14th. They can bring their bottles to dinner, or take them home to enjoy at a later date.

This year - in a stunningly crafty and thoughtful move, I have carefully selected the wine to ensure that the ladies will think of their escorts the moment they see the bottle!

How much attention to detail is that?

Splattered Toad.

Could we give away any other wine on Valentines day?

The question is this - how many frogs did the beautiful lady in your family have to kiss before she found her prince . . . .  only to discover later on that it wasn't a frog or a prince after all, but a truly splattered toad???

Yup - we got Valentines nailed this year!

Have a great (Valentines) day!

(BTW - if you have enjoyed reading this blog - please click on the facebook item just below, and 'share' for me. And if you are new to the blog, you can click on 'View my complete profile' at the top of this page - and then page down to see all previous posts. There are now 190 posts, and I have had over 423,000 hits on the blog to date. How cool is that? Some are really funny like 'The day Jenifer ate a worm', 'Brain drain', and 'Can YOU spot the mistake?', and some are poignant like 'La Rochelle is closing down'. But all good reading.)

My way - the Zim way!

Time for another blog, and what better than a quick sneak-peek behind the curtains of Zim, what with surfing, dancing and floor-cleaning presidents dominating the internet as I write?

Tumble. Or not. Depending on your perspective.

I guess what I am saying is that we sure do things differently, even if they are exactly the same things you do in your world. So here are a few pics of stuff we see as perfectly normal, but which may seem a little odd to the outsider . . .

First off - our cat beds. At Pamuzinda we have a fine specimen of a cat who has, somewhat oddly, been photographed by day-trippers almost as much as Jasmine, our tame giraffe. I think in the West, they have cat beds made of stuffing, foam rubber, and fancy cloth coverings. Ergonomically-designed ones.

Here we use a cardboard tray that used to hold beer cans, and that seems to work just fine!

Sleeping with bugs is something of a natural hazard in my new home, and so I was given a 'bug-killer' for Christmas. I am sure you have the same thing in your part of the world - only I don't think you will harvest quite as many bugs as I do of a night. Here is the result of 8 hours run-time:

Come morning I have a fine selection of roasty-toasty freshly-crisped protein packs, just perfect for sprinkling onto my cornflakes!

I like the little green ones best.

When travelling around on my motorbike, I frequently have to yield to cross traffic. However, unlike in Paris, London and Rome, the easiest way to do this is to turn the engine off, kick back, wait for the road to clear a little . . . .

THAT'S the way to deal with a traffic jam!

So what do you do if you are building, and you create a window by placing a reinforced lintel over a large hole - and then you figure the window needs to be slightly larger, and higher, than you have made it? Well simple really - you just jack the lintel up on alternate sides, cementing in new bricks as you go, until you have a large, and high, enough new window! A car jack works perfectly well:

Problem? Solution!

Finally the one field in which we Zimbos have adapted and mangled standards as set by the rest of the world is sign-writing. Many previous blogs have featured fine specimens of signs as thought up by earnest and determined marketeers. And few have had as much effort put into them as this particular sign advertising - well, you tell me . . . .

Yup - advertising works! And I love the way this fellow decided it would probably be better to sell more than one flower at a time, but couldn't be bothered to completely re-write his sign!

So the lesson here is . . . . .if you think we trip up sometimes - we don't.

Really!

We just do things the Zim way. Our way.

Have a great day.

A study in spots!

Quite a few regular readers have asked for more photos of Jasmine, our rather special daily visitor to Pamuzinda. I last posted a blog on her on 3rd October 2014 - and if you have not yet read that, you can find all my old postings at the top right of this page. Just search by date.

So today will be a study in spots, and some pics of giraffe such as you have never seen before.

I promise

Because she is so tame, I was able to take some very unusual photos, and though I hardly ever devote a blog to one person (or thing) - in this case I shall. Jasmine is about a year old, and her mother died when she was 2 weeks old. She was brought up by one of the guides at Pamuzinda - Shepherd, who fed her milk with a bottle. Jasmine is now about a year old, and is growing nicely. She runs free in the park, but returns to the lodge pretty much every day for horse cubes (some call them 'nuts') at around 2.00pm most days.

She runs free the rest of the day - and has even been seen with the wild giraffes, so hopefully she will find herself a nice husband, and one day return with her baby. That would be really cool.

It is because she is so tame that I was able to take these photos while feeding her, and I shall feature various parts of her to show you what a giraffe looks like up close and personal. I start with the most obvious feature of any giraffe - her neck. Despite having the same number of bones in it as your neck or mine, it goes on for ever. . .

And if you stroke her on the neck, it is immediately apparent that she has huge muscles to support the weight of her head. It is not often that you can feel raw power without it actually being applied - but in this case you can. Amazing strength.

The strangest mouth - giraffes don't have top teeth, and they look very much like a camel. A very pouty top lip - rather like when my middle daughter is very, very cross, completes the picture

And though she has a mouth that only a very serious boyfriend could kiss, she has the most soulful eyes that literally swim as she looks at you, with lashes to die for . . . .

Despite the amazing eyelashes, her eyebrows are a little startling when seen up close - but all designed to protect her eyes from getting scratches when she is feeding off the upper branches of the thorny acacia trees where she finds the juiciest leaves.

This is my very favorite photo of her. Not many people have this angle of a giraffe in their collection, and it accentuates her eyes and grace . . . .

The question is this - how many spots does Jasmine have?

The answer is below the photo, but have a guess and see how close you get?

The answer is 1,467 or . . . . . . . 1,468 - if you pick up her tail!!!

Just kidding.

Have a great day!