On Friday radio station Kfm announced the winners in each of the 30 categories in its 2022 Best of the Cape Awards.
The winners are from Cape Town as well as from other areas in the province. Kfm introduced the competition in 2021 for the first time. Continue reading →
Tuesday 26 January 2021, Day 30 of Level 3 Adjusted, Day 307 of Lockdown š·
Corona Gratitude š
#Grateful for a lovely relaxed day, at 24C, the South Easter blowing now; for a productive working morning; for a surprise call from a former Camps Bay guest house neighbour in Camps Bay, needing a Social Media Manager, giving my day a pep; for a late afternoon walk to Clifton Fourth Beach and back, and for little litter along the way; for a power nap; for a beautiful sunset; and for being happy and healthy. šš Continue reading →
Friday 7 August 2020, Day 68 of Level 3, after 66 days of Levels 5 and 4 š·
Corona Gratitude š
#Grateful for the most fabulous day, starting with the perfect sunny day, forecast at 17C but in the 20sC for sure, a taste of summer again; for a busy morning, not having slept as much as I should but being very happy today just from the sunshine plus more; for meeting Vivian Warby for tea and a croissant š„ at Maison J, not having seen each other since Lockdown, so much catching up to do; for having a crown made, made in the dentist rooms with a 3D laser, taking 12 minutes, technically unbelievable; for finding a pair of walking shorts I was looking for at Sportsmanās Warehouse, with less good service than I usually receive at The Point Branch; for picking up some more poppy seed bagels at Kleinskyās; for meeting Bryce Shapiro at Latitude CafĆ© to tackle my Amazon problem, but we needed to contact an Apple Wizz friend of his, to understand the Browser problem we are experiencing in the application process, my phone software and Browsers all being up to date; for selling my house in Hermanus Yipee Yay ā¤ļø; for meeting with Lisa Hayden, coming to fetch a slice of the cheese cake which I kept for her; for a cat food bulk pack pet food shop at Pick n Pay; for dancing to Kfm š; for bumping into Tidal Pool swimmer Dave Talbot at the Pool on my walk, his first swim in more than 4 months, what a fabulous hug š; and for being happy and healthy. šš
My Blogpost today was the Sweet & Sour Service Awards, which went to Maison J and Telkom, respectively.
Sweet Service Award goes to Maison J; Sour Service Award goes to Telkom!
Vivian and I went to Caprice for tea, but the service was so slack that we left and went to Maison J.
Itās hard to summarize the drama of the five-year journey of getting my former Hermanus guest house sold. It was sold on an auction to a person who turned out to live in my house without paying occupational rent, who used my property to store furniture and other belongings from another house, stole the geysers, aircons, safes etc so that he could reduce the purchase price, didnāt once provide guarantees for the balance of the payment due, took us to court when we tried to sell the company owning the property to another person, and had himself registered as the only person allowed to buy the property, but never paying for it in the five years, finally buying a house elsewhere, and out of some bizarre spite still hung on to my sale until we threatened him with court action. A horrid notorious Hermanus man. š„µš„µš„µš„µ
And then by luck or was it meant to be, I didnāt just gain a Tourist Guide qualification as a result of the course I took, but I also met the lovely and kind Johan Prins, who heard my Hermanus tragedy, connected me to a property developer there, and the rest is history! ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
Today was the three year anniversary of starting a dental journey with my dentist Dr Wim de Beer in the Waterfront, having implants done, and recently the crown after a root canal. I also had to have a tooth extracted today, a tough job to get the molar out with all sorts of āpliersā, but finally it was out. I needed to take a pain killer when I got home and buy a course of antibiotics. 
Kfm, Dave Talbot, Tidal Pool, camps bay, sea Point, There were some service issues with the receptionist which I fed back to the dentist, and he promised that he is addressing them. So I gained a brand new tooth today, and lost an old unnecessary one.
The Red Bus started operating again today, only doing so on weekends initially. So sad to see a Bo-Kaap landmark Batavia CafƩ announce its closure on Instagram.
Loved my long chat with Jenny Stephens this evening ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø.
SA Corona Status: 545476cases 9909 deaths š·š¢
FitBit 15000 steps 11 km š£
Lovemylifeā¤ļø
The Corona Virus Lockdown (Level 5), announced by our President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier to commence on 27 March and to continue until 16 April, subsequently extended to 30 April, lowered to Level 4 from 1 May, and lowered to Level 3 from 1 June, is an unprecedented event in my lifetime. I am posting my daily Facebook post to journal this Corona Lockdown Journey, perhaps to serve as material for a future Book.
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein
Last week I invited my friends Clint and Llewellyn Lambert (GM of the Franschhoek Boutique Hotel, and influential blogger at Hospitality Hedonist) to join me for dinner at Le Petit Manoir in Franschhoek, which opened in July. Having had more than enough time to settle in, it was a severely (and costly) experience, of a completely dysfunctional restaurant. I apologise for the longer than average Review, summarizing my experiences with Chef Kevin Groblerās cooking since 2015. Continue reading →
Grant Dodd, Australia-based partner and CEO of Haskell Vineyards in Stellenbosch, hosted a #DombeyaDay on Thursday, a vertical tasting of five vintages each of their Dombeya Chardonnay and Shiraz, proving that their inexpensive wines can be cellared.
Haskell Vineyards belongs to Preston Haskell, who bought Dombeya, which makes wines under the Dombeya and Haskell labels, its winemaker being the highly regarded Rainie Strydom, who celebrates her tenth year with the wine farm this year. The farm was named after the Dombeya pear tree which grows on the farm, and originally produced angora wool.
Dodd related the conversation between Haskell and himself ten years ago, when Haskell bought the farm, about the Dombeya brand name. Ā Dodd suggested its Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Ā The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is encouraging its members to use IT to improve the customer experience, saying that airlines ‘fly people and cargo, not planes‘. Consistency of customer experience is not yet satisfactory for airlines, with little differentiation. Customers would like to use IT to check in online, tag luggage themselves, board themselves, and collect bags themselves, an IATA survey found last year. Ā IATA’s goal is that 80% of passengers have a ‘self-service suite based on industry standards‘ available to them by 2020.
* Ā PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is not known as a Tourism consultancy, so its prediction about our country’s tourism future is a surprise. Ā Its report presents growth of 4% in international tourists 2013, far lower than the 10% growth in 2012. Ā Growth is said to be solid and good, but ‘not fantastic growth‘. Ā Almost three quarters of international visitors to our country are from Africa, the report confirms. Ā Nigeria would become the leading source market for our country, the PwC study predicts. Ā The Guest House category is the fastest growing in respect of room availability. Ā South Africa’s strength is that it attracts leisure as well as business travelers.
* Ā France must be feeling the tourism pinch, having announced plans to become more welcoming to tourists, English speaking ones in particular. Ā The country hopes to increase tourist numbers to 100 million, Continue reading →