South African Airways | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

The August Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting will ‘pair’ Food blogger Matt Allison of I’mnoJamieOliver Blog and Wine blogger Nikki Dumas of Swirl blog, and will be held at Den Anker in the V&A Waterfront on Wednesday 17 August, from 6 – 8 pm.

Matt Allison, author of www.imnojamieoliver.com blog, is a “husband, stay at home father, urban farmer, eco advocate, closet designer, photographer & designated household cook”, he writes about himself. His blog originally started when he committed to cooking his way through Jamie Oliver’s ’20 minute meals’ for the iPhone, completing all 60 recipes in under 90 days. It has since grown into a platform to explore the origins of food, rethinking it one meal at a time.

Nikki Dumas has always been in the leisure industry, as Training Manager at Greyhound Citiliner, having obtained her training background at South African Airways. She has managed restaurants in Johannesburg, including the first store set-up and operations of Moyo on Grant Avenue in Norwood. She moved to Cape Town in 2000, managing a number of restaurants: Villamoura in Camps Bay, Belthazar in the Waterfront, and Balducci’s in the Waterfront. Two years ago she started her own consultancy, called Winestyle.biz, and it specialises in wine list design, wine training, and wine accessories for several wine estates and restaurants. The company has received the highest accolades, both locally and internationally, for its wine list design and compilation from Diners’ Club International and Wine Spectator. With its restaurant on-site tutoring program, the company guarantees an increase in turnover in wine sales. Nikki has produced and manufactured a wine tasting journal, to record one’s tasting experiences. Nikki writes Swirl Blog.

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was formed to reflect the tremendous growth in and power of food and wine blogs in forming opinion about food, restaurants and wines. Most bloggers do not have any formal training in blogging, and learnt from others. The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club aims to foster this informal training, and to serve as a social media networking opportunity.

Each of the two bloggers will talk for about half an hour about their blog, and what they have learnt about blogging. The Club will give fledgling as well as experienced bloggers the opportunity to learn from each other and to share their knowledge with others. Attendees can ask questions, and get to know fellow bloggers. The Club meetings are informal and fun.

Future Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meetings have been organised as follows:

* 21 September: Chef Brad Ball of Bistro 1682, and wine speaker from Steenberg, at Steenberg

* 19 October: Roger and Dawn Jorgensen of Jorgensen’s Distillery, and Anthony Gird and Michael de Klerk of Honest Chocolate, with a chocolate and potstill brandy tasting, at Haas Coffee on Rose Street.

* 12 November: Visit to new Leopard’s Leap tasting room and cookery school in Franschhoek

Jordan Wines from Stellenbosch will lead bloggers through a tasting of their wines. Snacks will be served by Den Anker.

Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, Wednesday 17 August, 6 – 8 pm: Den Anker, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town. Bookings can be made by e-mailing Chris at whalecot@iafrica.com. The cost of attendance is R100. Twitter: @FoodWineBlogClu Facebook: click here.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com. Twitter:@WhaleCottage

In a surprise development, with no advance warning, flights from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London have been cancelled since this afternoon due to the ash cloud, caused by the eruption of the Puyehue volcano in Chile, having reached the Cape. A strong cold front, driven by strong west winds ahead of a bad weather system, is heading to the Cape.

Most impressive is the media release sent by Cape Town Routes Unlimited, at 21h14 this evening! This is what Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of the company, wrote:

“Western Cape tourism and travel industry monitors impacts of ash cloud closely

Tourism stakeholders, led by the MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism will visit the Cape Town International Airport tomorrow to assess the impact of an ash cloud over Cape Town airspace. The group will also talk to affected passengers to find it if they are comfortable and if their needs are being met.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, the ash cloud originated from a volcano in Chile. Flights in and out of Cape Town International, Port Elizabeth and East London airports were cancelled.

Alan Winde, Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC, says that both South African Airways and British Airways delayed some of their flights today: “I want to assure travellers that all tourism and travel industry role-players are attending to the situation and putting measures in place that will minimise the impact on travellers and the Western Cape tourism industry and we are monitoring the situation closely.”

Calvyn Gilfellan, Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO, echoes these sentiments: “Airports Company South Africa and the Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company are monitoring the situation very closely and will update travellers as and when new information becomes available. All indications are that the cloud will move past very swiftly and air traffic will return to normality.”

Airports Company South Africa has advised all passengers travelling within the next few days to contact their airlines in order to confirm their flight details”.

POSTSCRIPT 19/6: The flight ban over the Cape, including Cape Town, has been lifted. Some flights have been delayed, due to the flight cancellations since yesterday afternoon.

POSTSCRIPT 20/6: The following media release was sent by Cape Town Routes Unlimited today:

Flights in and out of Cape Town International Airport [CTIA] returned to schedule today as the ash cloud created by a recent volcanic eruption in Chile passed over. The ash cloud forced several operators to either cancel or delay flights over the weekend. Western Cape Tourism Minister, Alan Winde, was informed of the possible disruption to flight schedules in the southern hemisphere two weeks ago: “Shortly after the Puyehue volcano erupted, the General Manager of the CTIA informed me that the ash cloud may affect flights in and out of Cape Town. It passed south of us the first time around, circled the globe, and entered our airspace the second time around after being pushed north by the cold front.” The General Manager of CTIA, Deon Cloete, said: “In total, around 13 departing and 12 arriving flights were affected. We immediately deployed additional ground staff to assist passengers with information and to provide support to the airlines. We also increased staff at the security check point in order to make sure people pass through quickly once the flights were back up and running. Through our Airport Management Centre’s at the three main international airports, we ensured that all parties took decisions in a collaborative manner and were able to quickly respond as and when required.” The airlines made every effort to alert passengers about cancelled or delayed flights, and arranged hotel accommodation for affected passengers where necessary. Currently there are no active warnings relating to the ash cloud, however the relevant authorities are monitoring the situation closely in the event of any alerts. Minister Winde said: “Our first priority is for the safety of travellers. Because it passed so quickly, and was excellently handled by the staff at the CTIA, the ash cloud will have a minimal impact on our tourism economy. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Deon Cloete and all his ground staff for working around the clock this weekend to make sure that affected passengers were accommodated and comfortable – the airport operates as well during incidents as it does during major events. Operations at the airport have returned to normal and we look forward to welcoming travellers and tourists to the Western Cape.”

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com twitter: @WhaleCottage