It is almost impossible to summarize the goosebump specialness of being in the company of two creative geniuses on Saturday afternoon, at Salon58 No 11, with the theme of ‘Trace’ – style and fashion icon Jackie Burger and Michelin-star chef Jan-Hendrik van der Westhuizen. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Trenery
SAA Sweet Service Award; Country Road Sour Service Award!
The Sweet Service Award goes to SAA, and its crew on the flight from London to Johannesburg on 27 February. It was a very empty flight, and the staff was extremely friendly in looking after us. Nothing was too much trouble. The only thing that did not work was the cellphone charger, the hostess telling us honestly that it does not work throughout the plane! It was a concern for tourism that the plane was only one quarter full
Trenery Sweet Service and ABSA Sour Service Awards!
The Sweet Service Award goes to Trenery in the V&A Waterfront, and its assistant Mariska de Klerk, who assisted me in finding shirts which were on sale in the right size, and for keeping them for me overnight even though the sale ones were not supposed to be kept for customers. I had explained to Mariska that due to my handbag and its content having been stolen, I would only receive a replacement credit card the following day. I have enjoyed subsequent good service from Mariska.
‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ – who is he, are SA viewers being misled, Woolworths pushing its Australian investments ?
The question on the lips of many South African viewers of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ is: why Hayden Quinn? Why choose a MasterChef Australia top 3 finalist (no, not winner) of 2011 (no, not even 2013) to promote the beauty of South Africa and its abundance of sustainable foods amongst South Africans? We did some research, and found that South African viewers are being misled about the TV show host, and that Woolworths appears to have a hidden agenda in pushing its Australian investments!
I started with the Cardova Group, the production company of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa‘, and of the ‘Expresso Morning Show’ and ‘Top Travel‘ too, all flighted on SABC3. A random e-mail landed in my Inbox from LinkedIn, asking me to congratulate Mark Bland as newly appointed Producer of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’, just as the series kicked off and my interest in it was piqued. I got Mark’s cellphone number via LinkedIn, and asked him for more information about the food series. He was extremely hesitant in talking to me, even though we have known each other for a good two to three years. He is a regular reader of my blog, and has commented on it on occasion. I was taken aback about his hesitancy to meet, to talk about the new show, stating that he had just been promoted, and did not want to jeopardise his new appointment in case I wrote something that could land him in trouble. As a regular reader he would have known that I can only write what I have been told. As the producer of the show, one would have thought that he would have wanted information about the series to be shared, or expected that he would have referred me to a PR person within his company, or at Woolworths, SABC3, and/or Nedbank, the major sponsors of the series. The best he could send me was this bland (pardon the pun) media release: Continue reading →