#Johannesburg

The Joburg City Festival started two days ago and I’m already behind. There are at least half a dozen awesome events every day – I can’t do it all while also finding time to tell you about it. I’ve taken thousands of pictures already.

I had never heard of a Cronut until a few weeks ago, when I was browsing Instagram and came upon a picture of one. I was intrigued.

Introduced four months ago by Chef Dominique Ansel of New York City, a Cronut is a pastry hybrid – half croissant, half donut. A croissant-donut! How has no one ever thought of this before? Could there be anything more brilliant?

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.