I love downtown Joburg. Everyone knows this. I am constantly singing the inner city’s praises and defending it against detractors. I visit the inner city as often as possible and I love discovering fun things to do there.

My grandmother, Frances Mason (aka Cooncie), loved visiting cemeteries. When I was a kid, Cooncie was always nagging me to come with her to visit our family cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. I brushed her off. To 12-year-old Heather, nothing sounded more boring than walking with Cooncie around some stupid old cemetery. I was busy with important things like playing softball, shopping at the Limited, and chasing boys.

A couple of weeks ago I went on a walking tour of Jeppestown with Ancient Secrets. Jeppestown is one of the oldest and most interesting neighborhoods in downtown Joburg, in my opinion (I once did a whole photography project about life in Jeppestown and Maboneng), so I was excited to go on the tour and learn some new things.

My recent post about the pop-up burger joint was a big hit. Since I seem to be on a quirky restaurant roll, I thought I’d tip you off to another hidden joint I recently discovered: Mr. James’ Ethiopian restaurant on the edge of Maboneng.

A couple of years ago, before I had a car, I bought a bike and planned to use it to get around. (Read the post about my bike purchase.) I liked the idea of riding a bike around town, but it turns out I didn’t actually like doing it. I used the bike about five times before deciding that cycling in Joburg is too hard (hills, traffic, minibus taxis, etc.).

I’ll start with the most recent: yesterday’s Fête de la Musique in Melville. Fête de la Musique is a free music festival sponsored by the Alliance Française. This is the second year in a row that the Fête has taken place in Melville, which is a great source of pride to those of us who live here and believe our suburb deserves more love.