Richard Scott Blog - 18th August 2024

Monday was a better Monday than most. I got up super-duper early and made Joanne coffee. I also made myself a proper espresso for a change. I was in the mood to get going this week as it was a full jam-packed week. I saw Joanne and the kids off to university at 6.15 and got stuck into drawing up a list of what I needed to get done for the day. It was quite an extensive list and was going to be tough to get through. Then Angelique reminded me of a lunch with Les from The High Road wines and Chef Martinus from Jordan wines. Les had a plan to do an event with the three of us. We brainstormed and came up with a few options.

We lunched at the usual Pane e Vino in Stellenbosch. Eleonor’s food was delicious. We all opted for the two specials. I was also good to catch up with George and his dad Georgia.

One of my top 10 favorite Restaurants. You know it.

Business lunch with Martinis and Les.

The big boss himself George.

After lunch I took an uber home and chilled with Joanne and planned our UK trip.

Tuesday was up early and off to the Airport for a Johannesburg trip. We decided to take the 7am flight to get a good start on the day. It was a bit hard getting out of bed at 4am, but once you are up, its easy, you know the drill.

Chad picked me up and dropped me off. This time I was carrying some art, so I had to check it in. Not something I am used to doing.

As we hit the ground in Johannesburg, we were off to the first meeting. Quick check in to the hotel and we were off. We decided to go to Steyn City Art Gallery and say hello. They have two incredibly beautiful large works of mine on resale. The gold and red Ana even took my breath away the way it was so proudly hanging in the reception area. I felt quite honoured. We got to meet the owners Bianca and Kyle and had a chat with them.

Always stop and admire any Angus Taylor sculptures.

No words.

What an honor. Resale at Steyn City Gallery.

Then we were off to see the first client of many. After that, we popped into Saint for a lunch and a caught up with David Higgs. It is always great to see him and check in.

The man himself. David Higgs.

Nom Nom pizza from David at Saint.

Main Course.

Big Boss at Saint Philisani.

Hout Bay Gallery posted a cool photo of my new wallets.

After lunch we headed to see another David who has recently acquired an original large Candy Ana. It was awesome to see the piece. I created in 2009, and David recently acquired it.

Honored to see these old works still in such good condition.

Then David’s mother Janine hi-jacked us and took us to meet her husband and asked me to take photos of a blank wall for her first Richard Scott.

Then it was back to the hotel for a quick splash and wash and off to see Andy at Sele e Pepe for the best Italian in Johannesburg. We had a good catchup and even got to chat to the manager Massimo for a change. The food and company were awesome.

Johannesburg Sights.

Besties.

The it was the 7^th UBER of the day back to the hotel for an early night.

Wednesday morning it was time to give Joanne a call at 5.30am and then up and about for the day. My first stop was POSTNET to get some Buff Tape to re-wrap one of the decanters for a client and then off to see Dean, a new collector of my work for a breakfast at TASCHAS in Morning Side.

It is always nice to see new collectors and how excited they are to acquire my art.

Happy collector Dean. Thanks for breakfast.

The boys at Russel Kaplan happy to meet me: Pleased, Jabu and Trison.

After Breakfast we were off to see Paul in Pretoria. It has been ages since I was in Pretoria.

Super ecstatic Paul with his new decanters. So cool to meet such energized human beings.

Nonetheless, we dropped off three decanters with Paul and headed to see Jean, another collector of my art on the east side of Pretoria. Jean treated us to lunch and a tour of his offices and car collection and art collection.

Proper little spot with Jean in Pretoria.

Best piece in the house.

NO PHOTOS. Road Sign commission.

Then it was time to head to the airport to board a late afternoon flight back home to Cape Town. We booked the flight so that I could be present at the Sabrina Love charity auction, but the flight was delayed 40 minutes which did not help my cause. We only landed at 7.20pm. I jumped into a UBER and headed home to participate in the auction.

On the way to the airport i spotted this. I grew up in this town. from 11-23 years young.

Joanne made us a delicious supper of Karoo lamb chops, vegetables and mash potato.  Joanne, Chad and Amy were all at it with the auction when I arrived and it went very well.

I still had to print three prints before I went to bed as we were heading out to Dubai and UK for 3 weeks on Thursday morning. I got them done in time and packed our cases and went to bed.

Thursday morning, we were up early and ready to go. I used to get to the airport 3 hours early and go to the lounge and eat and do work, but since I do not travel much after covid, I have been downgraded form GOLD to BLUE on Emirates. Boo Hoo. So, we still got to the airport a little early just in case.

Richie dropping us off.

Here we go.

Joanne checked me into the Bidvest lounge, we had a nice breakfast and managed to get quite alot of business done in the lounge. I needed to pay a few bills and get figures off to the auditors for month end. I also managed to plan the trip a bit and get in comms with my brother Ben in Dubai as we were staying with him for 3 days.

Lounge life. Had to post the pic now that I am demoted. LOL.

Stewart, my brother-in-law, booked the rental car in the UK while we were at the airport – thanks Stewart.

We decided to stay as late as possible in the lounge and try being the last on the aeroplane. Also, something I am not used to anymore. It was kinda weird, but I think it is the new plan. Joanne is onto something.

I decided to have an early lunch as well so that I could just take it easy on the plane. We said our goodbyes to the kids, and we were off.

We decided to watch a movie together and started with Planet of the APES. Quite nice to have a selection of movies as we only have Netflix at home.

The movie was a tad boring, but I was not complaining, as it was passing the “Sitting in Economy” for 9 hours.

Joanne decided to watch a girly movie while I sit here mid Africa typing to you about my life.

Anyway, as I sit here and type this, Joanne has fallen asleep while watching her movie. I am trying to connect to the onboard Wi-Fi to download the Blog images, but I am having no luck. You would currently think internet connectivity should be just as good 31,000 feet into the sky and on the ground. Ah well, I am going to use the time to go through my phone and clean it up a bit by deleting all the unused photos.

We landed in Dubai at 00.35am and only got to Ben at 2am. He made us a cup of tea and we were off to bed.

We got a great nights sleep. We decided to do “art” on Friday and “beach” on Saturday. So, we were off to Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) where we popped in to see a few galleries but more importantly Sylvain at Opera Gallery. It has been a while since we connected and caught up. Sylvain runs the Opera Gallery and is a wealth of information. It is nice to be able to connect with likeminded people around the world. The art world is so small.

Dubai Uber's are next level.

DIFC. Got the pic.

Turkish Egg Breakfast at Common Ground.

Joanne opted for the wrap.

The Famous Sylvain of Opera Dubai.

After Sylvain we popped over to Alserkal Avenue where you will find 10+ art galleries all of which are top notch. It was super cool to pop into them and chat to the people there and see the shows. The galleries in Alserkal are more academic compared to the DIFC. Quite clicky but very cool. After gallery hopping, or as Joanne put it “air conditioner hopping,” because it was so hot outside.

Joanne thrifting.

Gallery hopping.

Here's a pic for Denise in Epernay France.

A real Brainwash.

Joanne with some beautiful artworks of Dale Chihuly.

How does Dale do this? So amazing.

After 5 galleries we were kaput and found a coffee shop that was very trendy called NIGHTJAR. In fact, it was super cool and trendy.

Confirmed, best coffee shop in world. @nightjar

One for Carl Smyth. If you know, you know.

Joanne ordered a Dirty Macha and I ordered a Nitro infused African blend espresso, next level. I can confirm that NIGHTJAR is the coolest coffee spot in the world.

livingthe best life with the love of my life.

It give you the illusion that your drinking beer.

After coffee we took an Uber to the new mall in Dubai Hills to get some small necessities like Dates and Saffron. We both got ourselves a pair of Havaianas as they were “Buy two get two free” so off we were back home with our stash.

There she is The Burj Kalifa

Shopping like we like to.

Time for a haircut at  Bekky Barber in the mall.

My new Stylist.

Ben ordered in some takeaway Chinese, and we had another late night as we only ate around 9pm. The food was good. All the food in Dubai is good. Things are so efficient and clean.

For example, we ran out of milk for coffee Saturday morning and milk was ordered and delivered in 20 minutes.

Saturday, we got up nice and late as we only planned to go to the beach late. After cheese and biscuits for brunch and a proper catch up with business back in South Africa we decided to head to the Atlantis Theme Park on the Palm Island.

Such an honor to show Joanne the Dubai Palm.

Joanne has never been on the Palm, and we thought we would kill two birds with one stone. The park was jam packed and we only got to go on three rides. We chose the three most adrenaline fuelled rides and even got to try Poseidon, if you know it. I did a tandem ride with Richie back in +-2018 and swore I would never do it again. Well Joanne was with me, so I had to go.

After the rides we swam in the sea and took out some time on the deck chairs on the beach. I lay there looking across the ocean and the houses on the sand of the palms that the Emiraties have created. What a marvel. What an honour to lie on a beach on the palms with the love of my life and soak up the sun and some deserved time alone.

Thanks to my brother Ben for hosting us and looking after us.

We popped into the beach bar and had lunch and a cocktail and soaked that up as well.

Then it was time to Uber home as Joanne was taking us to a Lebanese restaurant as a treat. Joanne invited Craig’s niece Amy who lives and works in Dubai to join us. It was nice to meet Amy and Joanne enjoyed a catch up.

My Brother Ben. Did you know he makes snow in Dubai.

Joanne, Amy and Ben enjoying Al Beiruti Lebanese food.

Meet Omar, our host.

Waiting for Uber.

On the way home we decided to pop into IKEA. Ben wanted to show us the IKEA operation and oh my word, it is proper. We need you in South Africa IKEA.

Ben showing us how things are done.

Then it was off home again for a cup of tea and an early night as we were up early Sunday morning for a flight to London.

The next thing I knew it was 6am and I was awake and up making Joanne coffee. We packed our suitcases the night before, so it was coffee, shower, final pack, say goodbye and thank you to Ben and we were off to the Dubai Airport. I told the Uber driver, who picked us up in a black seven series BMW, that we were going to Terminal 3, business class, he asked? Economy, please I said. Remembering the days when I was GOLD status. LOL.

Dubai airport is so efficient these days. No human interaction and 10 minutes and you are sitting down inside the terminals and having coffee.

We stopped in at the Budweiser Café and ordered a coffee while we caught up with business.

We decided to try being the last people to board the plane. We checked in what we thought was last, but some people beat us to it. In fact, about five peeps were later than us.

Yes, were last on board.

Off we go to England.

The flight to London was nice. Joanne and I synchronised our TV’s and watched the I.S.S. movie. It was ok. One of them movies that you have to watch to tick the box. I think im going to become a storyteller or movie script writer, because there were so many parts of the movie that I would have changed. Nonetheless, I am not a movie script writer, so I will just enjoy it.

I tried to get in 30 minutes of blog time before we boarded but there was no chance. So, here I am again at an altitude of 31 998ft typing to you about my life and art.

Almost there.

So, it is Sunday, and as usual, I post my blog on Sundays. I will finish off here and post it when I land in London. Or at least when I get to my Uncle Stuart and Jane’s house in Pangbourne, where they have so kindly allowed me to make my base over the last 10+ years of my travelling to the UK and Europe what I call the “Lawrence Graff” move. Google it.

We landed and headed to our rental. Well that's a whole other story. Uncle Stuart rescued the day and came to fetch us. Jane ans Stuart had made us an awesome Sunday Roast Lamb to welcome us and oh boy did it make us feel better and more so at home.

NOM NOM, Uncle Stuart carving the Sunday Lamb.

What a welcoming feast.

Until next Sunday

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