1 (too many) Time.

I’m not sure what to make of this 1time eNewsletter that arrived in my inbox (I never seem to remember subscribing to half of the newsletters I receive, but anyway that’s off the topic). It sold itself on the slogan “life’s short, go on holiday”. Huh? I guess they’re trying to be humorous? Maybe a stab at trying to occupy some of Kulula’s cheeky differentiation strategy? But I have a number of comments about this:

Firstly, 1time, get your own brand. Secondly, is playing on people’s fear of death really going to sell seats on your airline? With a subject like “Holiday deal to die for” and a mention of a death certificate, it’s kind of ironic that a 1time plane had to make an emergency landing just the other day. Bad timing? Fact of the matter is that life might just be cut short if you do fly those horridly out-of-date planes you own, 1time.

It’s concerning. Let’s just think of it this way. What is the one thing that a consumer is most concerned about when travelling via airplane? Any guesses? Well, in my opinion it’s safety. When one of your planes’ engines blows up (1 November 2010, read that story here), and your cabin crew freak out more than the passengers, and you follow that incident with a marketing campaign about “Holiday deals to die for”, it kind of surpasses any humour and just becomes kind of sick. Let's not forget the "precautionary" landing in Bredasdorp (12 April 2010) and the landing gear emergency landing in Durban (23 June 2010). I think you're forgetting the lesson learnt from the crisis of Nationwide airlines. Their profits plundered rendering them bankrupt and forcing them to close. Why? Because their customers began to see their planes as unsafe. Watch this space 1time - you're fast on your way to becoming the next consumer behaviour case study.

Good luck 1time. After 1 too many times rattling my way back to Cape Town on the tin cans you call your fleet, I sure as hell will never be flying with you again.

P.S. Cherry on top was the R60 compensation voucher given to the passengers in the last incident. I don't even have the words to comment further.

Letters from Christopher.

Life has been particularly weird lately, and today was no exception when I received a hand-written letter from a Mr. Christopher Velile Paliso, a prison inmate. I assume Christopher got my name from one of my company's media publications because he addressed the letter to the Johannesburg office (we recently sent out a supplement with the Sunday Times, which carried my name and the address of the Johannesburg office). Christopher was writing to me in the hope that I could assist him in anyway to start acquiring the skills he needed to enter the workplace when he left prison. He aspires to become an architect. But it wasn't his request so much that shocked me, it was his story and his honesty.

The amazing thing is that Christopher has been in jail since 1991. He's never lived in freedom, never seen South Africa's democracy. The image he has of South Africa is still one of an apartheid regime - as he says in his letter, "I've never tasted the fruit of freedom or democracy". He was 18 when he was convicted to serve 32 years in prison for possession of fire arms, assault, theft, and robbery. Can you even begin to imagine what South Africa and the world is going to look like to him when he does get released?

The weirdest part of it all is that Christopher's conviction date is the same date as my birthday, and I received this letter today, exactly 1 week before my 25th birthday and 1 week before his 20th anniversary of being imprisoned. I know most people would say that it's just coincidence but for some reason it seems the universe wanted me to hear this man's story. So I'm going to help him by sending him some publications from our company, as well as some old architecture books to aid him in his learning (from a general company signature that is). It's weird having the choice to better someone's life in your hands.  

Receiving & reading this letter gave me a new found meaning to the term "mixed emotions"... I felt freaked out, shocked, sad, sympathetic, empathetic, confused, worried, scared. I also felt morally confused as to whether I should in anyway respond to a convicted criminal or not, a criminal who expresses his guilt in a letter to me, but also his desperation to make amends and to better himself. Funny enough, I learnt a thing or two about myself from Christopher's letter, and from that respect, I'm glad I received it.

I'm going to end this post with an excerpt from his letter [in his own words]. You can read the full letter below:

"I have a dream but I have no wings to fly. To me to be in Prison is to facing the consequences and the challenges experience of life, life has good a good and bad surprises so that we have to accept them as we all sometimes learn from our mistakes there's no one is 100% sure about life guarantee. What will happen tomorrow, I am not focusing on the past, I am focusing on the future plans, because the past confused the way to go forward. There's no one can change me unless I change my ways of thinking and actions when I falling down, I wish to wake up again and make my dreams come true"

Letter

Voting for Cape Town's Next Demolition Now Open!

Last week I posted about the upcoming demolition of the Athlone Cooling Towers. Now the event has passed and although most Capetonians didn't even get the chance to see it happen (perhaps the demolition team should have called 1026 to check the time before they hit that button), I've decided that there are a couple more demolition projects that Capetonians could enjoy to make up for missing this one.

1. Good Hope Centre

Seriously. Has this place been used for anything useful since KTV Market Day when I was like, 8? It's horrid, it's falling apart (note tiles on roof) and it really looks like something teleported out of the 80s...oh correction, it was built in 1976. Yuck. Apparently, the city of Cape Town has budgeted approximately R3.5 million for the general upgrade of the venue...and that was over a year ago. I see no change. Take it away.

2. Disa Park (a.k.a the Tampon Towers)

I didn't even know the name of these towers until I googled it now. For all 25 years of my life I have referred to them as the toilet roll towers or the tampon towers. They are HIDEOUS flats on the slopes of our beautiful beautiful Table Mountain! They stand out like an eyesore to anyone gazing up at the scenic view of from Table Bay. I would feel great satisfaction seeing these three towers go BOOM.

Disa Park

In an article on the same topic (Cape Town's Ugly Buildings), Real Estate Web ran a poll amongst readers to ask if they thought the Good Hope Centre and the Ritz Hotel should be demolished (I disagree with the later because the revolving restaurant is way too charming and makes up for it's terrible exterior). The results? 54% said yes and 46% said No...but maybe after the excitement of this past weekends demolition, the poll will swing.

But anyway, those are my votes...further suggestions for Cape Town's next demolition project are welcome!

Oh and for those of you who are actually interested in checking out some footage of the Athlone Cooling towers coming down, here's a video we shot.

Top Notch

My good friend Nicole (you can read her blog here) reminded me that I have just completed one of the things on my Pre-Dooms Day List (read that post here), namely, visiting Top of the Ritz! And now I have to tell you all about it.

Firstly I need to say that I didn't even know that this place existed until this year (SHOCK! HORROR!) and I've been living in Cape Town for almost a quarter of a century. For those of you who share this disgusting oblivion, let me fill you in. The Top of the Ritz is the Western Cape's only revolving restaurant situated on the 22nd floor of the Ritz Hotel in Camberwell Road, Sea Point. While you eat some Swiss Cuisine, the restaurant rotates (very slowly) giving you a 360 degree view of Cape Town. Each rotation takes an hour and 15 minutes, which is just about as long as it took for them to serve us our mains. The funny thing is that usually I would complain about waiting that long for my food, but I didn't even notice the time had gone by...we were having too much fun with the whole rotating restaurant thing!

When you sit down you do feel a bit funny, but after a while (perhaps it was the wine) you don't even notice the movement. Be careful of where you put your handbag though - I promptly put it down next to me (I was sitting window-side) only to look down a few minutes later and see that it was gone...the outer ring does not rotate (only the floor does) so my handbag was sitting comfortably where we had started our dinners. I'm sure a lot of people have experienced "stolen" bags at Top of the Ritz.

Before you go you should definitely brush up on your cuisine knowledge. My Blackberry came in handy for googling words like Cafe de Paris sauce, Chateau Briand and Spatzle. The menu is quite extensive (and I have to add that they have 4 options for vegetarians...panzerotti, risotto, gnocchi, and cous cous). Meals aren't badly priced, I would say between R 70 - R 100 for a main. I wasn't remarkably blown away by the standard of the food but the experience made up for it. But let's be honest...most people would say "when is vegetarian food ever excellent at a restaurant that doesn't specialise in it?". I meant to ask everyone else about their food but again, we were all getting too involved... or should I say REvolved (sorry, I had to!).

Describing the atmosphere I would say it's quite a romantic place...they have a pianist playing all throughout dinner, and you get to see the pretty lights of the city...you get the drift. A dinner for two there could be very elegant and romantic. On top of that I'd say it has quite a European feel to it - especially the bar; it reminded me of this awesome bar I went to in Stockholm called Sky Bar. What amazed me was how packed the restaurant was! It seats 120 people and it was almost at capacity on a Tuesday night??!! I suppose that's always a good sign.

Even if you don't venture up to the restaurant, the bar below (on the 21st floor) is pretty awesome and offers some great views as well. I had a cosmopolitan cocktail that was super...and it only cost R35 which I think is damn inexpensive for a fancy bar miles up in the sky. The decor is a bit old-school and could definitely do with a refurbishment to modernise the place, but I guess keeping it that way adds character. I would definitely recommend visiting the bar and the restaurant - it really is one of Cape Town's gems.

Thumbs up:

• Awesome cocktails at the bar (get there early for pre-drinks!)
• Friendly service
• Amazing views
• Absolutely fun and unique experience
• Extensive menu that caters for everyone

Thumbs down:

• Dodgy lift ride (I don't think the lift has been replaced since like the 60s...it feels that way! But I just have a thing about lifts)
• Decor (the place has such potential to be a very upmarket Cape Town bar and restaurant, but again to be fair, I'm not exactly their target market I don't think)
• The long wait for food to be served might annoy some - but as I said, the experience made up for that. It was really busy on the night we went.

Top of the Ritz restaurant

The bar at Top of the Ritz (on the 21st floor) - this part doesn't rotate.

Homage to the Twin Towers

This weekend marks a very sad occasion (well I'm feeling the nostalgia, I don't know about you)...the destruction of the Athlone Cooling Towers. Love them or hate them, these towers have been a prominent landmark since 1960, especially for Capetonians hurtling down the N2. And although they aren't really that pleasing on the eye (some would go as far as calling them an eyesore), for me personally, they've been a feature of my Cape Town landscape my entire life. As a young child traveling back from our holiday home in Arniston, I always felt relieved the moment we reached the towers; it meant we were nearly home. I'm going to be sad to see them go.

Tours au revoir.

P.S. CIVAIR is running an awesome competition to win a helicopter flip during the demolition. All you have to do is sms the word CIVAIR to 34445 before noon today (Friday 20 August).

Tea at Three

My mom is crazy. It's official. Each morning I stumble out of bed towards the kitchen, half asleep, to make some tea. Before I know it she's at me like a bat out of hell with some strange dream or story or even "what do you want for dinner?" before I've even thought of breakfast. I don't know anyone who can literally wake up in the morning and jump out of bed and be as active and talkative as she is.

Anyway, this morning confirmed my suspicions that she is in fact, crazy. She comes into the kitchen laughing hysterically. I look at her in horror through my messy just-woke-up hair and puffy red eyes.

Me: "And now?"

Crazy Mother: "What a horrible night! I hardly slept!"

Me: "Why?"

Crazy Mother: "I duno, your dad and I just couldn't sleep. So at 3am I decided to come downstairs and make us some tea. But you know, really, that's when the best ideas are generated!"

Me: "What idea mom?"

Crazy Mother: "Well your dad and I have decided to open a coffee shop for insomniacs"

Me: "oh.my.word..."

With a massive sigh I continue focusing my efforts on my tea while she proceeds to tell me her new business idea.

Crazy Mother: "It's going to be called Tea at Three, our opening hours are from 1am - 4am. Dress code is pyjamas and when we give our insomniac customers the bill, we won't give them mints, we'll give them sleeping pills!"

She bursts into another round of hysterical laughter. I shake my head and swiftly make my exit and leave her to stir up another one of her mad morning plots.

Got to love mornings with my mom. I should get her to start her own blog.

I was there

So the month of July is coming to a close tomorrow & the only thing at the forefront of my mind is an official goodbye to the Soccer World Cup. I have to admit that before the whole thing began I was one of the negative ones...I didn't think the stadium would look good, I didn't want the traffic to affect my daily routine, I laughed at the though of South Africa pulling it off...but to my surprise I got SO involved in this World Cup. From day one (the opening ceremony) I proceeded on a month long supporter streak that culminated in me spending a fortune on game tickets and supporters gear. I was there. And I wouldn't have been anywhere else. It was truly one of my best South African experiences. Check out the postcards I made in remembrance of 2010 on my Photoblog.

Swipe your world beautiful

The mailman finally came with my MyPlanet card & I'm too excited to start swiping my world beautiful! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please read my post, Pengiun in my Bonnet). Every time I buy something from Woolworths, Engen, Reggies, Waltons, Kalahari.net, Quiksilver, Club Travel, Supa Quick, Bargain Books etc. up to 1% of my purchase will be donated to SANCCOB to help the penguins. I've also recently learnt that I can link my card to up to 4 beneficiaries so I'm considering adding the SPCA to my card as well.

Woolworths just launched the cutest tv ad to promote the MyPlanet initiative. Check it out here.

This has to be one of the easiest ways to make a difference - get a card here, the mailman will deliver it to you within a week, then the next time you're in Woolies or Engen doing some shopping, remember to swipe your card!  

I'm still vegetarian at 35 000 feet

I really enjoyed this article written by iAfrica's Rebekah Kendal on being a vegetarian traveller. I travel quite a bit domestically for business and it's a constant stress...god knows why I stress about eating plane food anyway with it's notorious reputation. But I think it's the expectation...it's part of the flight, and face it, scoffing your face for 30mins does help to pass the time. Secondly, if I've paid over a grand for a flight, I want all the perks regardless.

The best part of ordering the veg option on any flight is that you get served first...waaaaay before all the other passengers who glance over at you and wonder to themselves "what makes her so special?". And generally the veg option is much better than the meat ones in my opinion, but notice I say generally. Once, on a lunchtime flight, I received a sandwich that had nothing more than sauce on it, atchar sauce to be precise. Ever had an atchar sauce sandwich? I do NOT recommend it. I wanted to ask the air hostess to take a bite herself and tell me just how much she enjoyed it.

British Airways gets a big thumbs up from me for their new partnership with Woolworths (Cafe Cloud...cute name as well!). I have to say, the veg omelette they have for breakfast is by far the best omelette I've ever had. And with that you get a muffin, juice, fruit salad and a chocolate. Now that's how plane food should be. They also always offer a veg option or a meat option, so there's no need to request the veg option prior to flying (being veg seems so normal to me, I forget I have to continuosly remind the rest of the world). So thanks British Airways for considering the veggies of the world. To SAA...I'd rather starve than eat your food.

Getting in Shape

I flipping love Shape Magazine's website. I mean the magazine itself is great but I'm not so big on buying magazines or subscribing because they're just too damn expensive and they end up half-read, dog-eared on a rack in my bathroom.

I, like many people I know, battle to stay motivated to exercise. There is nothing more soul-destroying than watching the 20mins count down on the treadmill while you jog, at the same pace, and stare, at the same wall...20mins of your life you'll never get back. Last year, after many failed gym contracts, I resorted to road-running. The last time I did road-running was for cross-country in Junior School, and I was that chubby red-faced kid who complained every few metres that she couldn't breathe. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly difficult in the beginning...I think on my first run I did 1km stopping every 50m gasping for breath and feeling like I might die. But after a few weeks of running 4 to 5 times a week, I was up to running 5 - 6 km with ease. And that felt liberating. 5km may not be a lot to all you hardcore exercise freaks but my little legs going continuously for 5km, is a big achievement.

What I realised was what a mind game running is. It's all in your head. You can go a lot longer than you think you can if you just put your mind to it. I really enjoyed the challenge, and I really enjoyed being outdoors on a beautiful evening, running around the Rondebosch Common...it really was refreshing after a day in the office. BUT if you haven't noticed, I've been talking in the past tense this whole paragraph....

Winter arrived annnnnnd the awesome running regime went AWOL. Now, more than a year later, SHAPE Magazine is helping me get back into it (in WINTER, shock horror!). They have this awesome SHAPE Challenge on at the moment where they send you a running plan each friday. It should have you running up to 10km in 12 weeks. Sign up to take part here. Best of all, it's actually free. And for all you lazy sods, the first week is something like 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, so no excuses...that's really hardly exercising at all.

Close(d) Call

I have to admit...this blog has started off with a rather "Activist" tone. But hey, why stop now.

I guess this is something that I've already written in my Notes on the Book (you know what book I'm talking about). But I think it's worth mentioning again, because IT'S WORKED! To bring you up to speed...

[Posted on 1 July 2010] Today I received yet another annoying telemarketing call. This time, I'd been selected to win a weekend away at any hotel in South Africa...all I had to do was pay R299. Lucky me. Last week in the post I received a pre-approved credit account from Truworths with R300 shopping vouchers...even though I've never signed up for a Truworths account and probably never will. Again, lucky me!

Back to the holiday voucher call: upon asking the caller how she received my details, I was told it's because I'm listed on the National Consumers Database...huh? So I finished ranting at her and got off the phone and turned to my trusty friend, Google. What I found was quite surprising...1 in 3 South Africans are automatically added to this delightful database that is distributed amongst direct marketing companies in South Africa. On top of that, our banks tend to sell our credit history (without my permission as far as I'm concerned) to this database as well. So I thought I'd share this little fun fact with you...

If you would like to ensure that you are never ever contacted by these stupid sales people ever again, you need to deregister yourself from the National Consumers Database. Go to this site and also this site, fill in nothing but your ID and name, and voila! it is now illegal for telemarkers using this database to ever contact you again.

I've now gone almost an entire month telemarketer-free, which is definitely a first for me. Coupled with getting myself off the National Consumers Database, I'm also getting clued up on the Consumer Protection Act, which sounds brilliant. I'm still battling with the random credit accounts in the post though (another one from Mr Price arrived...groan!). If anyone's got some insight into fighting these guys off as well, please do share. For now, go forth and enjoy the fact that everytime your cell rings, it's a worthwhile call (I hope).

Penguin in my Bonnet

So it's not enough that I'm vegetarian. Every now and then I get on this random mission to save some sort of animal. At the moment, the animal of choice is the penguin. I think I can blame this choice on the whole BP oil leakage in the Gulf of Mexico (which currently could be worsened by a tropical storm in the area). It made me want to drop everything, hop on a plane, and go and save the sealife from the horrid fate inflicted on them by a greedy oil company (yes I know we need oil, we need petrol, blah blah blah... call me a hypocrit but back to the penguin).

I heard today that penguins are starving to death in Brazil because of over-fishing; there's just no food left for them (and yes I guess warming ocean currents also have a part to play). But again, in my eyes, humans are to blame, myself included [Insert subliminal message here about not eating fish!]. And lastly, if you really need any more convincing to support the penguin just head on over to your video store and rent March of the Penguin. All of the above sent me on the quest to find out how I can help one of the most awesome animals on this planet.

Something I've always wanted to do is to volunteer at SANCCOB, and I will. Soon. But for now I stumbled across a great initiative called MyPlanet. It's run by the same group as MySchool which most people will be more familiar with. But instead of selecting a "human" charity, you can choose a "planet" to donate to (call me selfish but I prefer to save the animals). I chose SANCCOB, naturally. But there are other worthwhile animal causes i.e. the Guide Dog Association, SPCA...

You sign up on the web and they send you your free card which you can swipe at any of their partners (Woolworths being the most well-known I think). A percentage of your purchase will then go to the charity or cause you have chosen to support, and in my case, it costs SANCCOB R1o per day to feed one penguin, so this is a great way to sponsor them some much needed extra cash. Nifty, methinks.

Get your own card here. DOOOO IT!

I'm starting to remind myself of Molly Shannon in Year of the Dog. Weird movie.

Pre-Dooms Day To-Do List

The other night on Discovery Channel I watched a program that told me the world was ending on 21 December 2012. The end of the world, according to this delightful program, would be brought about by a culmination of economic meltdown, disease and "something" from space. This wasn't the first I'd heard of the 2012 theory (hello hollywood!) but it really got me thinking...and not sleeping.

I guess I'm being over paranoid about the whole thing, but it's suddenly dawned on me that there are really a lot of things that I want to do in life before my world ends. Irrespective of how lame believing this 2012 thing might be, I think it's a damn good excuse to get me off my arse and find time for the more important things in life. So here's my to-do list...

• 
  
  Work part-time (so that I have time to do the rest of the things on my list)
• 
  
  Volunteer at SANCCOB
• 
  
  Adopt a penguin from SANCCOB
• 
  
  Travel the world (starting with Bali, Thailand, Phillippines, then Canada, Sweden in winter, and the States)
• 
  
  Donate blood
• 
  
  Join the bone marrow registry (and hopefully save a life)
• 
  
  Take more photographs
• 
  
  Get a nose ring
• 
  
  Fly a plane (or sit in the cockpit while someone else flies it...this might be a safer option)
• 
  
  Learn to snowboard
• 
  
  Eat dinner at the revolving restaurant at Top of the Ritz (which I only found out existed in 2010 after 24 years of living in Cape Town - shocking, I know)
• 
  
  Paint more
• 
  
  Visit the town of Paternoster
• 
  
  Swim with dolphins
• 
  
  Wakeboard more
• 
  
  Get engaged to Nick
• 
  
  Run more

I know there's more, but those are obviously the most important because they're the only ones I can remember right now. I'm planning on doing posts for each of these as they happen...before 21.12.12 that is. And if on that day I'm still not complete, you can find me in the middle of the Karoo, because I think that sounds like a safe place to be if the worlds going to end with waves etc. (que Hollywood).

C.