Becoming an Award Winning Chef, a Wine Maker, & Swimming With Sharks (Not Really) | Read all about Niyi’s #CapeTownWithGoogle Experience
I don’t know if you guys followed my #CapeTownWithGoogle experience on Instagram (sorry if you didn’t), but I think it was obvious that I had a whole lot of fun (and wine).
Still, for those who didn’t, because I’m a nice guy, it’s necessary that I take you through, share with you some of the fun, have you experience some enjoyment, too. So, here’s how my weekend in #CapeTownWithGoogle went.
Let’s start from the very beginning.
It started from Jo’burg, actually, myself and other Nigerian influencers waiting five hours for our connecting flight to Cape Town.
See, guys, that face you see up there is the face of someone who cold wayaed! It was cold af. We had to chill someplace far from our boarding gate because it was especially cold there. We thought it was because of the air conditioning, but bruh, we entered the open air to board our flights and it was even worse. The wind that was blowing was cold.
We got to Cape Town and the hotel finally sha, and waiting in my room from Google were goodies. I love goodies.
We got right down to business (fun, actually) soon after, with a dinner with other influencers from Kenya and South Africa, together with the Google team.
(It’s not a dinner if there’s no food and wine.)
We learned so much about Google products, including the familiar ones like Google Maps, Google Translate and the Google app, and the unfamiliar things they can do. We also learned about Google Lens, which is basically a Google search, but with your camera.
Let me quickly take you through how to “Lens” s***.
So let’s say you’re walking down the road and you see this lady with a very nice handbag. She looks to be in a hurry, so the option of stopping her to ask what make the bag is and where to get it is out of it. What do you do? Simple: you open the Google app, click on the camera icon next to the microphone icon, and a camera app opens. Cleverly take a photo of the bag, and let Google Lens do the job for you. It’ll easily identify the make of the bag.
Of course, Google Lens does more than satisfy the shopaholic in you. You can use it to confirm the name of your favourite footballer, the specie of a bird, type of flower, make of wine, location of a building, anything at all, tbh. Think of it as Google Search, but with photos.
After the dinner, to wash off some of the alcohol, a couple of us took a walk around the V&A Waterfront, and were entertained by the marimba players.
After that was sleep, then Friday came and it was time to beginnnnnn!
First, this fine photo of me at breakfast just because:
Before we set out, right after breakfast, we all took an instagrammable photo. I just may have forgotten to Instagram. Still, better late than never:
Then we started the day, going first to Bo Kaap.
Hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself.
First, we were split into groups, with different tasks handed out to us. Check out my team (and some strays that were gumming to us).
Then we were off to Bo Kaap. I guess the easiest way to describe Bo Kaap would be to say that place where all the houses are painted in different bright colours. But that would be stripping it of its rich history that involves slavery, apartheid, great sense of community, and good good music.
Most useful on this trip was using Google Lens and Google Translate to identify and translate street names like Dorp and Buitengracht.
Then we moved along to Monkey Biz, where we made beads and I sorta kinda found love.
See me hard at work, guys. (I’m a natural!)
Then it was time to see the noon gun get shot (at noon, of course.) See, the shot was so loud that if you check out the #CapeTownWithGoogle hashtag, you’ll find videos of it and find that no one’s hand was steady after that shot rang. It shook our bones.
Then it was time to visit the Table Mountain, where we were to identify four different types of Fynbos (flowers) with Google Lens. I’m not sure how well my group did on this task, but I’m just going to lie and say we did great.
Thennnnn, later that night, guys, we cooked!
We visited the Kokkedoor set, where the South African cooking competition of the same name (think Masterchef, but in Afrikaans) is shot, and, see, we were asked to cook these things I had never ate or heard of before in my life. I mean, I knew what a venison was, but who don cook venison for naija before? Then samp risotto—wtf is that? Broccoli, sure, who doesn’t know that? And one last thing I can’t remember now.
Anyway, division of labour. The samp risotto fell on me and the Kenyan vlogger Joy Kendi, and, guys, our samp risotto was declared the best by the chef! All of us in our group won a Google Home mini each!
Winner o o o
That’s how I became an award winning chef.
The next day, it was time to become a wine maker.
So we were given three bases—the South African Pinotage, the Merlot, and the Shiraz—and were to mix them to come up with our own maths.
See, the sensible thing would have been to just Google, yeah? Well, we did not know. What my group made ehn, the winemaker told us she was ashamed of us. It was that bad.
Then your boy went wine tasting, and, people of God, sighhhh. See, I like wine. If you know me, you know I like wine. But I drank so much wine I got tired. We went to different wine makers, from Middelvlei Farms to Spier to Nederburg, and your boy drank at least 15 glasses of wine.
Google Lens to the rescue
I was ready to swim inside tbh
At this point too much wine don dey do me
Thennnn, it was time for the final dinner, where your home boy swam with sharks!
Okay, not really. It was an aquarium, and the shark was in a glassed pool behind us. But. See. I said what I said.
In the end, yeah. According to the tasks. It’s like my my group carried last again. I’m going to blame my teammates for that (if you’re reading this, sorry, not sorry).
It was a great trip, though. So much fun and so much wine (the former possibly because of the latter). Made great friends along the way, with Kenya’s Anto Neosoul crooning his way into our hearts, and the tourism expert Thorn Muli teaching us over and over about travel, Kenyan culture, and beer. South Africa’s Sunday Time’s Claire Keeton was also a delight, with our talks about books and white privilege. And, of course, my Naija fam Unilag Olodo, Moji Delano, Winnie Zeelicious, Pamilerin, Demola, Eniola Daniel, Susan, and Taiwo. The Google team, too: Mich, Dorothy, Lou and Andrew. S.A Tourism‘s Thekizo. And, of course, I can’t possibly forget the never-tired Caroline, and Hanru for his beautiful, beautiful photos.