Tag Archives: Naspers

Corona Virus: Lockdown Journey Journal, Day 40 of Level 1, 9 April 2021

 

Friday 9 April 2021, Day 40 of Level 1 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for yet another beautiful day, at 23C, with no wind; for a busy writing day, feeling cross-eyed at the end of the afternoon; for two meetings cancelled, giving me more time and space to finish my work ahead of the weekend; for enjoying setting up my new iPad, luckily having all my passwords on hand; for a short snooze this afternoon; for a lovely peaceful walk with Vivian Warby, sitting at the Tidal Pool, so grateful for the sunset and catching up on each other’s day; for a walk to Bakoven after Viv left; for a very successful Blog week, with very good readership of my posts, especially the one of yesterday about KLEIN JAN having opened in the Kalahari; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 11 March

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Speculation about the reason for the stepping down of Koos Bekker as CEO of Naspers at the end of last month is that Bekker may be planning to create the world’s largest global internet, media, and digital group.

*   Bloomberg Businessweek has highlighted Cape Town as the jet set holiday destination of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey, paying R50000 per day to stay in the new villa at Ellerman House, which houses owner Paul Harris’ art collection and new Wine Gallery (a serious one, not a six bottle one like that of the petite Pendock Wine Gallery)! Unfortunately the article contrasts the opulence of the villa and its guests with the poverty of the inhabitants of the townships in Cape Town, and highlights the city’s poor reputation as the ‘most violent city in Africa‘!

*   Top UK chef Michel Roux Jnr has resigned from the BBC produced ‘MasterChef: the Professionals’ and ‘Food and Drink‘, describing negotiations with the BBC as a ‘frustrating process’, the corporation not having an appreciation of Roux’s commercial relationships.

*   Moderate wine drinking could help prevent heart attacks and reduce heart-related deaths amongst Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 21 – 23 February

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Koos Bekker, Naspers CEO and founder of M-Net/Multichoice, is to step down on 31 March, the company which also owns M-Web and has internet interests in China has announced.  He and his wife own the magnificent Babylonstoren outside Franschhoek.
*   Qantas has announced the cancellation of its codeshare agreement with SAA, which will be effective as of July.   The move appears to be due to pressure from the Australian government to not collaborate with competitors.
*   President Jacob Zuma has declared 7 May, the date of the General Election, as a public holiday.
*   Cape Town International has been announced as Best Airport in Africa for the fourth year. Western Cape Tourism Minister Alan Winde’s office has announced.   The other Top 5 African airports are Durban, Mauritius, Cairo, and OR Thambo.  Upington airport is top airport in the category of 2 million and fewer passengers.

 

*    The City of Cape Town clearly has too much money to waste, running a footbridge naming Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 20 November

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Prince Harry arrived in Cape Town yesterday, on his way to the Antarctic, where he will accompany the British team in the Walk with the Wounded charity trek, on a 200 mile trek over 18 days, competing against Australian, Canadian and American teams.  Poor weather has delayed Prince Harry’s flight to the Antarctic.

*  Free wifi is now available at the Sea Point Pavilion, a service offered by the City of Cape Town as part of Cape Town’s status as World Design Capital 2014.

*   The Naspers building is more than 50 years old, and once was Africa’s tallest building.  One of the Cape Town World Design Capital 2014 projects is a competition to redesign the building, with a prize tag of R200000, as well as the implementation of the transformation, with a R15 million budget. (received via WDC Cape Town newsletter from the Cape Town Design NPC)

*   Catharina’s lunch guests will be entertained by band Blacksmith on Sunday 24 November. (received via media release from Communication Services Africa)

*   Nose blog carries a controversial blogpost about an article written by James Conaway, which is extremely critical of Wine Spectator‘s Robert Parker’s 100 point wine evaluation scale, which he describes as a  ‘dying’ system.  The retirement of Parker, announced last year, has opened for a host of wine judges to evaluate wines, including Joe Roberts (1 Wine Dude), Jancis Robinson, Stephen Tanzer,  and Eric Asimov of the New York Times.  Conaway is quoted Continue reading →