Tag Archives: Women’s Day

Whale Cottage Portfolio celebrates 18th anniversary!

August 9, 2014

On Women’s Day 18 years ago we opened our first Whale Cottage in Hermanus, then on the main road, but moved to a lovely seaview home twelve years ago. Subsequent Whale Cottages were opened in Camps Bay, Franschhoek, and Plettenberg Bay.

We salute our guests, our suppliers, and our women-only staff, for their contribution to the success of our Whale Cottage Portfolio.

We also salute all South African women for their contribution to our country’s economy and social well-being on Women’s Day today.

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

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 8 August

August 8, 2014

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* It’s Women’s Day tomorrow, and Franschhoek is celebrating! Hildegard von Arnim, co-owner of Haute Cabriere, will conduct the Cellar Master’s Tour with a sabrage tomorrow. Le Franschhoek Hotel & Spa is offering a High Tea from 11h00 onwards, at R135/R165 with bubbly. (received via newsletter from Franschhoek Wine Valley)

* Cape Town Fringe is an inaugural festival running from 25 September to 5 October, with 89 music, theatre, art, and comedy productions, created by the City of Cape Town in conjunction with the National Arts Festival. Some of the performances were recently staged in Grahamstown. The City Hall will be the ‘hub’ of the festival.

* SAA is offering flights to our country from the USA at the unbelievable low price of Continue reading →

Twelve Apostles Sweet Service and Neil Pendock Sour Service Awards

August 10, 2012

The Sweet Service Award goes to the Twelve Apostles Hotel and its GM Horst Frehse, for their invitation to attend ‘Horst’s Table of Friendship’ lunch at Azure restaurant last month, prepared by Chef Henrico Grobbelaar and his team, a regular lunch hosted by the hotel to reconnect with their GM, and to allow a mix of hospitality persons to meet others. The starter was a whipped goat’s cheese paired with Glen Carlou Pinot Noir 2010; the main course was springbok loin, paired with Bouchard Finlayson Hannibal 2009; and a dessert of chocolate moelleux was paired with Waterford Heatherleigh NV. Not only was the food, wine, and company a delight, but it was a perfect sunny winter’s day too.

The Sour Service Award goes to increasingly unkempt wine hack Neil Pendock, who wrote a shocking post on the Sunday Times blog on the eve (pardon the pun) of Women’s Day, degrading women generally, and those in the wine industry specifically, not acknowledging their winemaking skills, and is in extremely poor taste. No medium should be abused as a platform to vent female-hatred, especially relating to the public holiday that salutes the sacrifices and successes of women. Pendock does not appear to receive the same standing and space in the newspaper as he once did, and the Sunday Times should disassociate itself from such smut, apologise to all women, and delete the blogpost!

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in theWhaleTalesnewsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

Whale Cottage Portfolio celebrates 16th anniversary on Women’s Day!

August 9, 2012

Whale Cottage Hermanus celebrates its 16th birthday today, being the first of our Whale Cottages to be opened. Our first guests were welcomed on the Women’s Day weekend in 1996.

Initially located on Main Road in Hermanus, in a Victorian Cottage, we moved the guest house into a seafacing property ten years ago, to offer our guests the ultimate opportunity to see the magnificent Southern Right whales from our terrace, the lounge, breakfast room, and three of our bedrooms. Whale Cottage Camps Bay opened in 1998, and Whale Cottage Franschhoek in 2004.

To celebrate the 16th anniversary of the establishment of the Whale Cottage Portfolio, we have sponsored accommodation for the ‘Queen at the Ballet’ ‘Freddie Mercury’ singer Cito at Whale Cottage Camps Bay. The show opened last night, and runs at the Baxter Theatre until 18 August.

We are a proudly-women company, and only employ women to look after our guests. I salute my team of Carole, Teresa, Anna, and Hadjira for their contribution to our success. For Women’s Day we salute our lady guests in particular, and all the women who work for the supplier companies we deal with, and thank them for their support. We also admire the work done by our Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille and the Premier of our province Helen Zille, and all women who have broken through corporate glass ceilings, or who have started their own businesses, against tougher odds!