Watch out on WhatsApp, but the snob list is genuine

What we want to know this week

Warning over Whatsapp voice notes in SA

Technology experts are raising red flags as cybercriminals increasingly turn to generative artificial intelligence (AI) to impersonate individuals and exploit business vulnerabilities.

One way is to use AI to clone voices, specifically through WhatsApp voice notes, which can be manipulated to create highly convincing scams targeting businesses and individuals alike.

Voice-cloning scams are proving alarmingly effective in personal and professional settings. Typical scenarios include fake kidnapping claims, requests for urgent financial help from family members, and emergency messages, each crafted with chilling authenticity.

Cape Town bids to host WorldPride in 2028

Cape Town is throwing its hat in the ring to host WorldPride 2028, a milestone event for the global LGBTQIA+ community.

If successful, the event will boost tourism, which is crucial for the country’s economic and cultural growth. WorldPride is an internationally recognised event that draws millions of participants.

Bree Street is now a car-free zone

Cape Town joined the movement to a greener future on October 27 when it turned Bree Street into a car-free zone. An initiative by Young Urbanists SA led the move. Reducing traffic creates an environment where people can gather, explore safely and enjoy their surroundings.

Snob list

British interior designer Nicky Haslam has released his annual list of things he finds common. This year, he targets people who get married abroad, have fire pits in their gardens, drink almond milk, hold gender reveal parties and have rescue dogs. Then comes succulents – horrible things – ordering a first course with lunch and festoon lighting.

Also featured are leather jackets for children, Antiques Roadshow and WhatsApp.

Meghan Markle took a back-handed compliment during his Sunday papers tea-towel press circuit. Haslam told The Sunday Times, “I know she’s ghastly, but she’s got guts … Who’d want to live in a damn cottage in Frogmore and open boring things and have to be part of that ghastly family, all of whom hate each other? It's much more fun to be with movie stars and tycoons in California and flying about. Much nicer life and she’s given it to Harry.”

He included Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour on the list for her “daily routine", which involves going to the gym and getting her hair done.

Last year, he poked fun at grieving, Puglia, “Aperol anything", the Northern Lights, “Pride in grown-up children", Fly-pasts, skinny lattes and “the Wales family in blue".

Haslam's 2018 list, the first one, included breakfast meetings, swans, hedge funds, mindfulness, Bono, intensely private people and central heating.

Foodie finds

One of the Fomolistas is a chilli-obsessive, but it's complicated. It has to be hot but not scorching, a hot that enhances but doesn't lacerate, which is the nature of your usual hot sauce. For a long time, the little green Tobasco bottle was our first love, but that place has now been taken by the green Me Julies Chilli paste we popped into her basket at the Oude Meul bakery in Simondium recently. We declare it the perfect chilli paste for lovers of not too hot but hot enough. There are Oude Meul bakeries dotted across Cape Town and the Western Cape, but from their website, it seems they supply some Spar stores as well. You can WhatsApp them to find an outlet or place an order. Their website says R73, but we bought ours for just under R99. It was worth it.

Dishwasher tip

Your dishwasher can clean far more than just dirty dishes and silverware. From toothbrush holders to sponges and baseball caps, you can toss in many household items – either alongside your plates and mugs or on their own – and they will emerge looking as good as new.  Martha Stewart lists 20 things you can wash that aren't dishes.

Sandwich obsession

The Fomolistas love a tomato sandwich, and we are crushing on this variation that we saw in New York Times Cooking. It uses furikake (the savoury-sweet Japanese rice seasoning that makes food sing and enhances the flavour of glutamate-rich summer tomatoes). The furikake’s seaweed and monosodium glutamate lend you that extra burst of umami (the fifth taste after sweet, sour, salty and bitter), helping the tomatoes taste even more like themselves.

Soft, just-toasted slices of brioche or milk bread should be spread with thick sheets of your favourite mayonnaise, then sprinkled with furikake, completing the harmony of fruit, carb and condiment.

Book on our radar

Going Dutch is a book by fabulous photographer Obie Oberholzer about nine South African towns with Dutch names and their mother cities in the Netherlands. It tells of Dutch trekboers journeying north into an unknown hinterland – with the accompanying contrasts, obstacles, loneliness, longing, love, hate, danger and often death. It is about the then and the now of South Africa, the country Obie has come to call the “Happysadland”.  On the other end are the Dutch cities of the European “Platland", after which the South African ones were named. Obie delves into the contrasts between the Dutch and the South African places, which have the same names, and the role that the Dutch played in the history of South Africa.

Going Dutch is available at Exclusive Books for R999.

Hot coffee shops in Pretoria

#1 The Daily Coffee Café, Park Shopping Centre
#2 Aroma Gourmet Coffee Roastery, Lynnwood
#3 Grounded at Echo, Moot
#4 Coffee on 18th, Rietondale
#5 Baristas@Work, Menlyn
#6 Yami Café, Montana
#7 Pure Café- Ring Road, Old Club Hall, UP- Hatfield

Rainforest skyscraper

Last word

–  @garyjanetti

Well, it would seem that Donald Trump is back in the Oval Office. While we let that reality sink in, here are sentiments from former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama.

#1 When they go low, we go high.
#2 I am still in progress, and I hope I will always be.
#3 It’s not about where you get yourself in the end. There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, owning your unique story, and using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others.
#4 Lead by example with hope, never fear.
#5 Try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zone and soar.

Mzansi vibes

Until next week, keep calm and carry on catching up.

♦ VWB ♦

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