I only caught the tail end of this new item on Cape Talk this evening, but apparently the local minibus association is on a campaign to make its drivers more friendly. According to the spokesperson quoted on the radio "we are going to make our drivers as friendly as SAA staff".

I just hope that they are referring to the SAA cabin crew, who are generally pretty friendly, and not the call-center staff, who are quite friendly when spoken to, but otherwise impossible to get hold of!

Noble aims, but I wonder if they are not setting their heights a little too high?

A few months ago, I bought a few golf shirts when I was in USA. I bought them over there mainly because there is such a huge selection, the quality is great, and the prices are far cheaper than back home.

So, imagine my suprise when I discovered that one of the shirts that I bought was made in Lesotho, just around the corner (in fact inside) South Africa. This leads to an interesting question. Why is is that I can buy clothing in USA that were made just around the corner for about half what it costs in South Africa?

Our textiles industry has a fascination with the imported Chinese clothing, and how the imports are affecting our textiles industry. However it baffels me that I can buy clothing basically made in South Africa for fall less than it costs to buy a similar product in South Africa. Something doesn’t make sense.

Can somebody please explain?

The first orchid goes to the Malawian waiter from Jasers restaurant who called me after he arranged for a friend of his to bring us some Nali chilli sauce from back Malawi. Nali make the hottest peri peri sauce in Africa, and it is really good.

Anyway, we met him about six months ago when we were having drinks at Jaspers. We happened to mention how we love Nali sauce, and I gave him a business card. So, he kept it, arranged a couple of bottles, and I collected them last week. This was all for service sake, and for no benefit to him.

The second orchid goes to the training company that accidentally sent me their newsletter with my email address and about 100 other email addresses in the TO mail field. So they accidentally gave my email address to 100 other people. Now this is not why they received the orchid. That was onion behaviour!

They are receiving the orchid because after I complained, they made amends immediately. They offered to send me and anybody that I employee on their project management trainig course for free. This is a course that costs over R10000. Pitty they are in Johannesburg. I am not going to mention their name because they really messed up at first, but they were fantastic at resolving the problem.

It is good to know that there are still companies and people that are providing exceptional service, and that are doing their best to do right. These are the people that are going to perform and do well in the next few years.

So, what do you think of my new business card?

Craig's business card

Hi all

I have just upgraded this site to the latest version of wordpress – version 2.8. Everything appears to be fine, please let me know if you find any funnies.

thanks

Craig

This was our fourth trip to Club Med, but our first to Club Med Albion. It is one of the top Club Med resorts, and what a fantastic place it is.

There are two swimming pools – the main pool, and the so-called “quite pool”. Both pools have restaurants and bars right next door.

The main pool at night

The main pool during the day

The quiet pool

Drinks at the bar

All meals and drinks are included in your costs, including French Champaign, cocktails and the mini-bar in our room.

Evening cocktails

In typical Club Med tradition, the GO’s put on a show every night. The actual shows are a little “am-dram”, but nontheless, they are fun anyway.

Club Med show

We went to Club Med to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, and the resort gave us a small suprise by decorating our room with candles and flowers. They also left a note “Happy Wedding Birthday”.

Happy Wedding Birthday

Albion Beach

Club Med is our favourite resort – a great place to sit back, relax and recharge. There is loads to do if you want to be more active, but you can also just sit on the beach and enjoy the sunshine. We did have a little rain, but it was still warm, and wonderful to walk around in shorts and tee-shirt.
If you get the opportunity, you must go.

We have just got back from spending a wonderful week at Club Med in Albion, Mauritius. It was a fantastic holiday. One of the best things about Club Med is that all your costs are included, including all your food and drinks.

The resort serves three meals per day at the main restaurant, and the smaller restaurant also serves a late breakfast and lunch. They also serve snacks in the bar throughout most of the day.

There is a massive selection of food in the restaurant, including prawns, seafood, meat, salads, pizza, sushi, pasta, desserts and cheeses. Here are just a few pictures of the food that I took on one evening. Every night is a similar selection, but always different.

Grilled Duck

Salad with balsamic dressing

King Prawn

Sushi

More King Prawns - eat as many as you like

Dessert

More dessert

I am amazed that I did not put on any weight, I really should have!

Hi all

A huge thank you to everybody that was at our charity gig last month. After deducting the costs, I am very excited to tell you that we managed to raise over R3500 for the trust, which is fantastic. Thanks to everybody that was there, and thanks especially to our wonderful team of helpers, especially Rory, Lynne, James, Malcolm and Neil.

We had loads of fun, and judging by the reaction, everybody else did as well. Neil recorded the whole gig on video, so once he has finished editing, we will let you know.

This is our first gig in a very long time, and it has inspired us to do some more playing, so watch this space! Anyway, here are a few pictures.

Lois on guitar

Rory on Sound

Me playing my new guitar

Live mixing

Don’t you love this chilli from my garden – just a little rude?

Rude Chilli

An institution in Cape Town is the Adderley Street flower sellers. They have been selling flowers for as long as I can remember, and they are still the best and cheapest flowers in Cape Town. Best of all, they are about 500m from my work.

Flower Seller

Flowers for Sale

Red Roses

Even the Bees are attracted

The flower market is a must-see when you visit Cape Town. You will easily find it on Adderley Street, next to Standard Bank and the Golden Acre shopping centre.

According to Cape Town Travel, they have been operating for over 100 years.