Port Elizabeth Coffee Crawl: Bonamia

December 22's Coffee Crawl at Bonamia was one for the record books for three reasons: 1) We broke the record for the most Crawlers (19) set previously on St Pat's Day (March 17) at Keg and Swan (and not counting Thanksgiving which was at my home) 2) We smashed the 3 hour record for the longest Crawl (set at Blue-Orange on June 9) with a whopping 4 and a half hours! 3) It has taken me almost three weeks to get this blog post up!

So, the first two records were set because of a combination of Christmas spirit and the fact that we wouldn't be Crawling again until January 12. The third reason was that I was in the States for a few weeks. My fellow Crawlers were out of sight but not out of mind on the Thursdays that I was away. On Thursday, Dec 29, I had a not-so-bad cappuccino at the Delta Club in the Atlanta airport.... forgot to take a pic. On Thursday, Jan 5, I tried to coax my husband/children/grandchildren into stopping at Jittery Joe's in Cleveland, Tennessee for a family Coffee Crawl, but to no avail. I'll have to catch up with "Joe" the next time I'm in Tennessee.

Now, here I am, back in PE having a cup of Sumatran Single Origin Ethiopian (love it, Shaun!) trying to battle some hard-core jet lag and getting Dec 22's Coffee Crawl posted before tomorrow morning's Crawl! So, on to Bonamia, the last Crawl of 2011.

Meet the Barista and Manager
Tess and Jaco

Bonamia is situated in the Walker Drive Shopping Centre in Sherwood, a few shops down from Friends and Blends (May 12 Crawl). Right off the bat I need to give a huge THANK YOU to Bonamia's manager, Jaco Ferreira, and barista, Tess. With absolutely no notice (the Crawl's MO), both Jaco and Tess immediately got busy setting up a group of tables so that our large group of Crawlers could all sit together. Orders for tea and Caturra brand coffee started "pouring in" and didn't stop for the four plus hours we were there. Since it was our Christmas Crawl, most of the Crawlers broke the No-Food-On-The-Crawl Rule and enjoyed a variety of freshly baked cakes, pies, and pastries. If memory serves me I had 2 cappuccinos, 1 machiato, and 2 Americanos....oh, and a piece of amazing lemon meringue pie. Good thing I don't take sugar in my coffee.... the caffeine jitters were enough.

Bonamia is open seven days a week with breakfast/lunch/dinner menus and daily evening specials. The shop seats 70, inside and outside combined. As for the decor, when we were there Bonamia was decorated beautifully for Christmas contributing to the festive mood of the Crawlers. In speaking with the manager, Jaco, he told me that Bonamia also does catering (dinners and platters) for all occasions... "no order too big or too small." So, keep Bonamia in mind for your next event.... I know I will. ....And my list of catering options continues to grow!!!

This Week's Crawlers
from front left and going clockwise
Colleen, Nomusa, Margaret, Howard, Beth, Ann, Gail, Stella, June, Beryl,
Fr. Dominic, Fran, Therreza, Br. Anstey, Paul, Keith, Marie
not pictured- Lou

Speaking of growing lists, December 22's record breaking Crawler list included: Beth and Ann Vieira, Keith, Fran, Paul and Therreza de Beer, Howard, June and Marie Nash, Stella and Beryl Dawson, Gail Darne, Nomusa Nkomo, Margaret Zoetmulder, Colleen LeRoux, Fr. Dominic Griego, Br. Anstey Kay, and my husband, Lou. What a crew! Once assembled the Crawlers' first order of business was to open their Christmas cracker party favors. I only mention this as an explanation for the ridiculous paper crowns some of the Crawlers are wearing in the pics. As for talk at the table... considering the non-stop chatter among 19 people over the course of 4 1/2 hours it's tough to even know where to start.
However, three topics stand out for me:
1) SA English idiosyncracies, lovingly referred to as South Africanisms some of which were the cause of some big time confusion and/or miscommunication when Lou and I first moved here. There is a published book of these that I'm sure to add to my library "just now."
   2) The Fibonacci Series, a mathematical series of numbers discovered by Leonardo of Pisa (aka Fibonacci) in 1202. This series is found in the natural world... corn cobs, artichokes, pine cones, nautilus shells, galaxies, the list goes on.....ad infinitum......    Math talk over coffee at a Christmas party? Those crazy Crawlers!
   3)   Keith's Eskimo (Eskomou) joke.... with its SA spin, it may lose its humor in the translation, so I won't even go there. (I'm sure Keith will have something to say about this in his comment... stay tuned!)

~ Again, a big thank you to Jaco and Tess for your patience in accommodating the Christmas Crawlers
~ Belated Happy Birthday wishes to my brother, Bob in Waterford, PA (Jan 4) and to my brother-in-law,
   Joe in Binghamton, NY (Jan 8)

~HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until next week,

Ellen

More Christmas Crawl pics....