Birthday treats, foodie tips, Trump truths

What you want to know this week

If you are celebrating your birthday in Cape Town, make sure to take advantage of free entry to top attractions. 🎂 We’ve gathered the best free experiences and deals the Mother City has to offer. 🤩 They include:

• Table Mountain Aerial Cableway: Enjoy a free return ticket during your birthday month.
• The Cape Wheel: Receive a free ticket valid for 30 days when you sign up with the Birthday Club on its website.
• City Sightseeing Red Bus: Kids between 4 and 15 receive a free one-day classic ticket, plus one free ticket for a friend (also aged 4 to 15).
• UpCycles: Receive a free one-hour ride on your birthday.
• Two Oceans Aquarium: Enjoy a free ticket valid for seven days.
• Zeitz MOCAA: Receive a free ticket during your birthday month.
• The Galileo Open Air Cinema: If your birthday falls between November and April when the experience is open, you can get a free ticket.
• Sky-HI Ride: Enjoy a free ride during your birthday month. 

Duolingo vs LingoDeer   

                                                             
An interesting insight shared by Zirk van den Berg on Facebook:

I made the tough choice to abandon Duolingo after 200 days. LingoDeer is simply way better, at least for Korean, and that is where I will focus my efforts from now on.

The LingoDeer course is more sensible — no learning the Korean word for a “raccoon dog" (whatever that may be) and sentences about cows wearing gloves! It explains the grammar rather than hoping you'll divine it somehow, the way Duolingo does. Plus, it has a very nice dialogue function and perhaps other features I will discover along the way. The people behind it are very responsive, too. I used LingoDeer for three months last year and when I raised an issue with them, they took it seriously and even said they may change their user interface to address the problem.

But it really is hard to give up on Duolingo, which has become part of my daily routine since late last year — not to mention those frequent dopamine hits when it congratulates you on absolutely everything!

Fancy a stroll?

Portugal is developing a 3,000 km trail, set to be the longest circular walking route in the world. The route will also be cyclable, with part of it accessible to the less mobile.

Up for the challenge? Read more here.

Finds

#1 Anneliese loves Mr Price Home's floating shelves and has used them in her kitchen to maximise the tiny space. They come in a range of different sizes. From R129.

#2 Small glasses are a new obsession. The Fomolistas loved the bodega tumblers they saw all over Italy, especially the small fluted ones used to serve a shot of water alongside espresso. And the short squat ones in trattorias for water. We found this set of three classic bodega tumblers for R185 on Takealot.

#3 But our hearts belong to the iconic Picardie tumbler from Duralex, a timeless brand that produces high-quality, beautiful glassware in France. Using a tempering process that Duralex invented, it's able to produce glasses that are extremely difficult to break through impact or temperature changes. They come in different sizes but we love the classic 250ml at R185 for a set of six from Cape Coffee Beans.

Ginger sesame dressing

This is hands down our new favourite dressing for quick salads, crunchy greens or grain bowls.

Into a blender (or mason jar):

• 4 tbsp each of sesame oil, olive oil, soy sauce and maple syrup
• 5 tbsp of rice vinegar
• 4 cloves of garlic
• a chunk of fresh ginger (the size of half of your thumb)
• 2 tbsp of tahini

Food tip

From our editor-in-chief, Max du Preez:

Not only is he a connoisseur who loves seasoned food, but our Max also has a fine sense of styling:

They say

#1 Before you get a tattoo, check out this post from RSG medical reporter Marí Hudson:

#2 Three things you should know about coffee

Sweet poison

More and more scientific research points to the negative impact of sugar in our diets. In an extensive review of 73 meta-analyses — which included 8,601 studies — high consumption of added sugar was associated with significantly higher risks of 45 adverse health outcomes, including diabetes, gout, obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, cancer, asthma, tooth decay, depression and early death.

This video on Instagram is not portrayed scientifically, but still gave us food for thought.

Last word

Quote of the week

Inside Donald Trump's mind 

1. “Success comes from failure, not from memorising the right answers."
2. “Controversy sells."
3. “It’s always good to be underestimated."
4. “Remember, there’s no such thing as an unrealistic goal – just unrealistic timeframes."
5. “Show me someone without an ego, and I'll show you a loser."
6. “Sometimes, your best investments are the ones you don't make."
7. “What's the point of having great knowledge and keeping them all to yourself?"
8. “There’s an old German proverb to the effect that ‘fear makes the wolf bigger than he is’, and that is true."
9. “I've read hundreds of books about China over the decades. I know the Chinese. I've made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind."
10. “I’m a bit of a PT Barnum. I make stars out of everyone."
11. “I discovered, for the first time but not the last, that politicians don’t care too much what things cost. It’s not their money."
12. “Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score."
13. “The real excitement is playing the game."
14. “There are people — I categorise them as life’s losers — who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability, they wouldn’t be fighting me; they’d be doing something constructive themselves."
15. “My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades."
16. “Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken."

Video of the week

♦ VWB ♦

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