They say that you should do something new every day, and today I am going to do so in style!

I am off to Knysna to be an auctioneer – which I have never done – for the John Whiffen Trust, raising funds to provide communication and leadership skills to physically and mentally disabled people.

I have never been an auctioneer before, so I am a bit nervous. Unfortunately, there is not a Toastmasters manual "When you are the auctioneer" – TI here is a new manual for you!\

I will let you know how it goes!

I really do try to buy South African products, and I really do try to support the local economy, but I am thinking more and more that our local economy needs a very serious wake up call if it wishes to retain it’s proudly South African customers.

Why is it that I can buy 1500 full colour business cards from an online company in USA – www.vistaprint.com for R300 (incl shipping), and have it shipped to me in 12 days, whereby the best price that I could find from a local online printer – www.cardshark.co.za, is R375 for 500 cards? That is a cost of 20c per card, as opposed to 75c per card. In addition to that, they gave me an extra 250 cards free after I placed the order.

I have received the cards, and the quality is superb.

Yes, I know that there are a number of reasons why we cannot match those printing costs – our printing costs are higher, printers & parts are more expensive, it is more expensive to import the inks, our total volumes are smaller etc etc.

However, the fact remains that as a consumer trying to keep my business costs lower, it is cheaper for me to print all of my stationary overseas. My business cards from USA cost  almost 4x less per card than the local price!

I think that our local industry needs a very serious wake up call if they want the consumer to support and buy South African – more and more consumers are going to source their stock overseas. This is going to become more and more of an issue as companies become more net-savvy and start using it to find the best prices!

So, South African businesses – wake up, be creative and find ways to start competing. Get that local business otherwise you will be out of business!

I just discovered that you can create you own Blue Man Art – so here is my work of art which is going to make me famous and make me bucket loads of money.

You can create your own art here. http://art.blueman.com. In case you are wondering about why the Blue Man Group actually are – here are some of their videos http://www.blueman.com/multimedia/video/index.php.

Please spare a thought for our friends and their families that lost their lives today, six years ago. They were everyday people – just like you and me, going to work to earn a living for themselves and their families.

Their lives were tragically cut short because they were at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

"All we are saying, is give peace a chance" – John and Yoko

Hi

Just a quick note to let you know that my photos of my recent trip to Arizona and Nevada have been uploaded.

The Holiday pics are here.

The convention pics are here.

Enjoy!

As some of you say in a previous post, I saw the Blue Man Group recently when I was in Las Vegas. It was one of the most strange shows that I have ever seen, but it was awesome!

So, here is a desser that they will enjoy – Blue Pears! It is really easy to make – but it is fantastic, and a great party trick at the end of an evening.

Ingredients

• 6 pears (one each)
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup  blue Curacao liquer
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup fructose (or sugar)

Method

• Combine the water, Curacao, fructose & lemon juice in a saucepan.
• Peal and add the pears, and bring to the boil.
• Simmer on a gentle heat for abour 1 hour, until the pears are soft but still firm.
• Allow to cool, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
• Serve with icecream and maple syrup.

The recipe is from a book called "The Anti-Ageing cookbook", so it must be good for you! Ok, so the icecream is an extra addition.

You could probably make the pears any color by cooking in vodka and adding whatever food colouring you like – could be intresting – enjoy!

This is a really simple salad, but really yummy. It is based on a recipe in the BBQ Bible. I don’t really know the quantities – but hey it is a salad, so improvise!

Ingredients

• bunch mixed lettuce leaves
• bunch wild rocket
• about 2 cups baby tomatoes – halved
• 8 spring onions
• 50g almonds – crushed (or walnuts of you prefer)
• 2 avocado pears – sliced

Method

Cut the firm ends of the spring onions into 5cm long lengths, and then split length ways. Finely chop some of the leafy bits as a garnish.

Add all ingredients to a salad bowl and lightly toss. Garnish with the chopped spring onions.

Mustard dressing

Mix the following:

• about 50m vinegar
• 25ml olive oil
• 1 tablespoon wholegrain French mustard
• pinch of salt and pepper
• mixed herbs

Serve on the salad – the leftover dressing should keep for a while