House and Leisure – August 2019

Having just moved into this Georgian house
two months prior, there wasn’t a huge amount
to be done to tailor the space to the owner’s
taste. Truck loads of terracotta tiles were lifted
and replaced with his favourite checkerboard
flooring, a fireplace was installed and the walls
were painted in various shades – a delectable
tangerine in the main bathroom, electric blue
in the kitchen and ‘Dior grey’ in the rest of
the home. The latter was his brief to Francois
Burger of Top Paints, who matched the shade
used in the Dior shop in Paris. ‘I love this grey;
it’s soothing and warm and you can really play
other colours off it,’ the homeowner says.
I’m lucky to catch him; he has just returned
from singing a concert in Bloemfontein and by
morning, he’ll fly out to Munich to watch Pretty
Yende perform Lucia di Lammermoor. Directly
after, he’ll head to Italy to sing at a friend’s
wedding on the island of Ischia. Of course,
he works like the rest of us, seeing to a loyal
client base as a GP, but travel is dedicated to his
passion. ‘I plan every holiday around opera and
concerts. I was last in Berlin for my birthday,
where my friend Elza van den Heever sang
Richard Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder,’ he says.