Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

Cafe Peroni is bringing Italian flair to Camps Bay in Cape Town for the next three weekends, when the cool Italian beer brand Peroni sets up its home base at Bungalow on the Camps Bay beachfront.

For the next three weekends a different Italian theme will focus on fashion elements of Italian style and design.  This weekend it is Italian dining that is the focus, fitting for the Argus Cycle Tour, if it is pasta that they serve.  

Next weekend (19 - 21 March), it is Italian movies that come into focus, and Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita’, ‘La Strada’ and ‘The Italian Job’ will be some of the movies featured.

On the last weekend (26 - 28 March) it is Italian fashion that will sizzle, with Peroni models wearing Fabiani and Energy, spraying Armani and Versace fragrance spritzes. 

Cafe’ Peroni will be operating from Bungalow from 12h00 - 23h00 on Fridays - Sundays for the three weekends of March.   ‘Peroni e’ l’espressione dello stile Italiano’, says the marketing e-mail, promising “style, food, flair and class - the very essence of Italy”.

Bungalow, Victoria Road, Camps Bay, tel 021 438-0007,  www.thebungalow.co.za

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

A recent blog post by chef, Eat Out Top 10 restaurant judge and owner of Wild Woods restaurant, Pete Goffe-Wood, is the inspiration for evaluating how ready Cape Town’s restaurants are for the World Cup, a mere three months away today, and for becoming world class.

Goffe-Wood wrote that the local restaurant industry is “teetering on the brink of greatness”, and encouraged his colleagues to “make the leap” to offer the “foreign market waiting to be fed, educated and entertained and we must make sure that we give them what they came for”.    Goffe-Wood identified complaints about high food and wine prices, poor service, and inconsistent food quality as being reflective of problems facing the restaurant industry.

He explained how wine-markups of 200 %, whilst creating outrage, are the norm, and that restaurants have to follow wine producers when they increase their prices every year.   Goffe-Wood is critical about the lack of restaurant reviews in “print media”.  He believes that the industry needs “positive input from informed and educated sources”.   Service , he says “is not to be subservient”, and he seeks a “more professional attitude towards the service we provide”.

So what do we as customers say to restaurants in response to Goffe-Wood’s self-analysis, and to guide them to greatness:

1.  First, well done Pete, for acknowledging that not all is perfect, and for wanting to lift the standard for the restaurant industry in Cape Town.

2.  We expect consistency in a restaurant’s food quality, service, and value-for-money, plus an attractive and interesting decor, and an undefined feel-good factor of “I like it here - this is a restaurant for a person like me - I will be back”.

3.  Please answer your phones when we call to make a booking, rather than letting us speak to an answering machine, which may or may not return our call.  Have friendly staff that understand the language we speak, and that can spell a basic name like “Chris”!   Even better, recognise and acknowledge our voice as regulars when we call

4.   Trust us as customers when we have made bookings at your restaurants - confirmation calls are soooo irritating.  Allow a 15 - 30 minute cut-off time, for late arrivers, and then offer the table to the next walk-in.  By all means ban customers if they are habitual late-arrivers, or even worse, non-arrivers!

5.  Retain your staff - we see staff turnover even in the best of establishments, and it is often the staff relationships that maintain the relationship consistency and that influence the service perception we have of your restaurants.  Please do not let your new waiter train on me!   Start an industry initiative, to not appoint the waiter/kitchen person running off (often without notice) from one restaurant to another.

6.  Train your staff - start with the wines.  When the waiter does not understand the word “vintage”, I shudder, and wonder why you did not start at the beginning with your training, or why your winelist cannot list this important detail.

7.  Why do we as patrons have to pay the salaries of your staff via tips?  It is the only industry where the onus lies on the client to make such a payment.  Almost two years ago the Department of Labour promulgated the Sectoral Determination for the Hospitality Industry, and it demands that staff be appointed on a full-time basis, with a monthly salary.  I know of few restaurants where this legal requirement is being applied. 

8.  Charge fair prices.  It’s tough for everyone at the moment.  Price increases of up to 50% (Reubens) and exorbitant World Cup prices (Beluga and Sevruga) alienate customers and make you look greedy.  The days of hoping that tourists alone will fill your coffers because of their foreign currency are over. 

9.   The marketing of restaurants is very poor.  Blond sexy “poppies” in ads does not crack it for most of us!  Few restaurants have websites, and the fewest restaurants seem to understand search engine optimisation, in making sure that patrons can find more information about their restaurants on the internet.   If one does a Google search, restaurant websites often are ranked lower than reviews written about them by industry websites such as Eat Out, or by bloggers.   This means that prospective clients are not hearing the restaurant marketing message directly.   The fewest restaurants in Cape Town understand the power of Social Media (Pizza Club, Cafe Max, Nook Eatery, Arnold on Kloof and Jardine are the few on Twitter) and Goffe-Wood Twitters and blogs very occasionally only.  I am not aware of any restaurant which has an integrated social media marketing strategy! 

10.   Your customers have become your reviewers, horror of horrors, and they say it as it is.  No more white-washing, no more ‘incestuous’ relationships between reviewers wishing to remain best mates with the chefs.  Bloggers are evaluating restaurants as the man/woman in the street would experience them, and the more honest they are in writing about what they experience, the more their evaluations are valued.   Banning them from your restaurants, as Le Quartier Francais, Carne and Beluga have done, if they have given you a critical review or feedback, is not productive, and it means that the restaurants will not improve if they cannot accept feedback.

11.  Treat us with honesty - do not con us with a marketing claim on your website, that is not true - as does Carne, which claims that all its meat is organic and comes from the Karoo, which has proven to be not true.  The dishonest claim remains on the website!

Restaurant patrons will forgive a restaurant many sins if they feel comfortable and “at home”; if they feel respected, even if the feedback provided is not always positive, provided in the interest of making it better;  if they are kept up to date with information from the restaurant; and if restaurants learn to say thank you for regular patronage, for a review, or for business sent to them by a regular client.  Not too much to ask, is it?!

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

Renowned Irish-born and previously Australian-based chef Liam Tomlin has moved to Cape Town, and is to open a Chefs’ Warehouse and Cookery School in April on New Church Street, Gardens.

Tomlin has been in the country for a few months now, busy overseeing the renovation of the building that will become both a chefs’ school, as well as a warehouse, which will sell every ingredient and the equipment used in the preparation of the dishes when one attends a course or an event at the chefs’ school.   He is a consultant to British Airways, and also to local restaurants, La Motte’s new restaurant being one of his projects.  He is also opening a guest house in Tamboerskloof, so that he can accommodate Chefs’ School students.   I met Tomlin at Portofino at the end of January, when he first started revealing details of his new project.

Tomlin grew up in Dublin, and worked at the London Hilton, The Hotel Central in Zurich, the Regent Hotel in Melbourne, and in Sydney at the Park Lane hotel, Level 41 and Brasserie Cassis before starting Banc, named as Sydney’s top restaurant.   His staff and colleagues describe him as a tough and exacting chef, who demands perfection from all, yet lends a hand in peeling potatoes, to assist his staff.

When meeting Tomlin, he expressed his fear of writing - even though he has published two cookery books already.  I challenged him to blog about his craft, but he says he will leave this to his efficient wife Jan, who is very much his right hand in the new venture.

Tomlin’s “Basic Techniques and Methods of Cookery” courses will commence on Saturday 24 April, and will be held every second Saturday morning, from 9h30 - 13h30.  Twenty courses run through until 5 February 2011, and cover such topics such as sauces, plated desserts, eggs, shellfish, salads, stocks, potatoes and more.  The course costs R 10 500.

Local celebrity chefs will be invited as guest speakers, and the list includes Laurent Deslandes from Bizerca, Neil Jewell from Bread & Wine, Chef Bruce Robertson, Reuben Riffel of Reubens, Margot Janse of Le Quartier Francais, Topsi Venter, Pete Goffe-Wood of Wild Woods, and Malika van Reenen of Signal at the Cape Grace Hotel.  Richard Corrigan of Corrigan’s in London, and also the owner of Bentley’s in London and Dublin, will be invited to run classes, as will Brett Graham of London-based Ledbury, and The Harwood Arms, the first Michelin-starred pub.

The pay-off line for the new Chefs’ Warehouse is: “where retail and culinary education blend in perfect harmony…”.  The building will be used not only as a Cookery School and Warehouse, but also as a venue for shoots, product launches, book signings, food and wine events, and media events. 

Chefs’ Warehouse and Cookery School: 50 New Church Street, Gardens, tel 021 422 0128, www.chefswarehouse.co.za, info@chefswarehouse.co.za

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

The extreme heat in Cape Town and the Western Cape in the past week will have made one aware that climate change can affect our region too.  Record-high temperatures, touching 40C in Cape Town and 48C in Franschhoek, have affected every citizen.

The City of Cape Town’s head of environmental policy, Gregg Oelofse, has warned Capetonians that climate change will make itself felt locally, as the average temperature increase is estimated at 2-3C, “placing our coastal vulnerability as a very real concern that holds multiple implications for our city.  The risks associated with sea-level rise events can no longer be viewed as something to be addressed into the future, but must be considered as a priority in our immediate planning and management”, reports The Times.

The City’s report identifies Blouberg, Camps Bay, Kommetjie, Glencairn and the Strand to be “highly vulnerable” to a rise in sea level due to climate change.

Oelofse predicts that the Western Cape is destined to become drier, and that rain is less likely to be over a longer period of time and gentle, but shorter and more intense storms will bring the rain.   “The bigger the storm, the higher the wind velocity, and the higher the ocean swell that the wind pushes up against the coastline”.

The City is evaluating what it needs to do to protect the identified coastal areas against the rising sea levels.  It manages 307 km of coastline.

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

Despite a commitment made more than six months ago that Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited would work together to market Cape Town and the Western Cape, and would work to avoid duplication in their marketing activities, little synergy between the two bodies is evident.

Now Western Cape Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Alan Winde has confirmed that the two bodies will not amalgamate, and that nothing will change in the relationship between the two bodies until the end of the World Cup in July, reports Travel News Weekly.  

Winde also stated that a new focus would be the closer co-opration between role-players at national, provincial and local government levels in the Western Cape.   When the DA took both the province and the city in the last election, Winde stated that he would ensure that he would work to the unification of tourism at provincial and City level,  and would prevent it from being vulnerable to political party changes over time. 

The return of Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold from maternity leave on 1 April should result in new vitality for the city tourism body.  Du Toit-Helmbold is a dynamic and enthusiastic marketer.  In her absence, Belinda van Niekerk has run Cape Town Tourism, but as she comes from an admin and financial background, she lacks Du Toit-Helmbold’s flair, energy and communication skills.   The new Marketing Manager of Cape Town Tourism, Leanne Burton,  has used Du Toit-Helmbold’s absence to build her own brand name, rather than that of her organisation or (more correctly) of the acting-CEO, in her PR activities for Cape Town Tourism, and has created some hostility with the media.

With the World Cup about 60 days away on her return, Du Toit-Helmbold will have a huge challenge to help fill her members’ beds, given the disappointing bookings over the World Cup to date, and to excite Capetonians about the benefit of Cape Town being one of the host cities for the world’s largest sport event. 

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

The City of Cape Town has spelt out its public transport plans for the soccer fans attending the World Cup in Cape Town from 11 June to 11 July.

A combination of transport methods, including trains, buses, minibus taxis, and metered taxis will transport guests between the airport, the station, the public viewing areas, and the Cape Town Stadium, reports the Cape Times.

Soccer fans with World Cup tickets will travel for free between the stadium and any one of 25 park-and-ride centres in the city, even stretching out as far as Strand, and also including UCT, Camps Bay High School, and Kronendal Primary in Hout Bay, offering 7000 parking bays in total.   Park-and-ride centers include Century City, GrandWest Casino, Kuilsriver, Oostersee, Fish Hoek, Retreat, Brackenfell and Claremont.

A shuttle bus will run from Hertzog Boulevard at the Civic Centre to the Cape Town Stadium, starting 6 hours before the match starts until 4 hours after each match on match days.  

On match days too, an Atlantic seaboard bus service will run from Hout Bay through Camps Bay and Sea Point, to the Stadium, starting 4 hours before kick-off, until 2h00 the next morning.

Throughout the 31 days of the FIFA World Cup, a shuttle bus will transport soccer fans from Cape Town International airport to Hertzog Boulevard 24 hours of the day, in intervals of 6 - 30 minutes, depending on usage.   The cost is a reasonable R 50 per one-way trip.

A further bus service will operate in the city itself, running 24 hours per day, and leaving every 10 - 30 minutes, connecting Hertzog Boulevard, Table Bay Boulevard, Heerengracht, Coen Steytler Avenue, Long and Loop Streets, Buitensingel Street, Orange Street, Buitenkant Street, Darling Street, Oswald Pirow Avenue and back to Hertzog Boulevard.   This will allow soccer fans, with tickets for the stadia, or just coming to enjoy the fan park outside the City Hall, to obtain easy access to their hotels and to restaurants.  Another shuttle bus route will be to Queens Beach in Sea Point, via the Waterfront, until 2h00 every morning.

Trains will transport the soccer fans to public viewing areas at the Bellville Velodrome, Athlone Civic Centre, OR Tambo Sports Hall in Khayelitscha, and the Swartklip Sport Hall in Mitchell’s Plain.

The city has warned that one will not be able to park close to the stadium, and that disabled soccer fans will have to also make use of public transport, its shuttle stations being wheelchair-friendly.

Further information about the transport connections during the World Cup can be obtained on www.capetown.gov.za, or at tel 0800 656 463.

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

The countdown to the last 100 days to the largest sports event ever to be hosted by South Africa starts today.   FIFA has given South Africa 8/10 for its readiness to host the World Cup, with only 100 days left for it to become 10/10, reports the Cape Argus.

A whirlwind visit by the FIFA and Local Organising Committee top executives and 120 local and international journalists of all ten the World Cup host cities has focused attention on the status of the preparations for the event.

1.  The Cape Town Stadium is completed, and two test events which have taken place in the stadium went off reasonably smoothly.  FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke heaped praise on Cape Town for its stadium yesterday, and he said that the city stadium pitch should be the benchmark for all stadiums.   Valcke also said that “Cape Town will be the perfect place to be during the World Cup.”   He lauded the Cape Town Stadium, and said that it would attract many thousands of soccer fans, even after the completion of the World Cup. 

   The pitch at Mombela Stadium in Nelspruit is currently a sandpit, but will be ready for the June start. 

2.  The roads in most host cities and highways leading to them, have been significantly improved, and should be completed by April.  The roads in Cape Town in particular will be transformed, with the N1 and the N2 both having more lanes, and previous traffic blockages such as Hospital Bend on the N2 will be something of the past soon.   Even in the city centre, the roads and pavements have been radically improved in Green Point, close to the Cape Town Stadium, making it a pleasure to drive past the Stadium to get to the Waterfront, and to walk in the area.

    The roads around the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg and the Mombela Stadium in Nelspruit are still in a poor condition.

3.   Bookings seem to have slowed down to a trickle as far as accommodation is concerned, and this is FIFA’s current largest challenge, in that international media are reporting negatively about the “rip-off” pricing in South Africa and the level of crime.   These two factors appear to be the major deterrents to soccer fans attending the matches.   Accommodation in a leading suburb like Camps Bay in Cape Town, a 10 minute drive from Cape Town Stadium, is about 50 % booked for the World Cup.   MATCH, FIFA’s accommodation agency, has been severely criticised for creating the image of “rip-off pricing”,  by adding 30 % commission to all its package components, including accommodation, tickets, flight tickets, and transport.

4.   FIFA’s is expanding the number of low cost tickets it is making available to South Africa, and denies lowering the price of its category 3 and 4 ticket prices offered to South Africans.   But tickets are not selling as they should, meaning that the estimate of 450000 international soccer fans attending the World Cup will not be achieved, meaning more locals will make up the viewership, but will not be using the hospitality facilities which have been pitched at international soccer fans.   More tickets could be made available at lower prices closer to the start of the World Cup.

5.   Excitement in South Africa about the World Cup remains low, and in fact appears to have reduced in interest since the Final Draw of 4 December.   This follows the news that the international soccer fans will not be attending as expected, and that top international trainers are expressing their resistamce and restentment to FIFA for choosing South Africa and maybe even Africa as the host country for the first time ever.

6.   What was meant to be an African World Cup, stressed to be such by FIFA President Sepp Blatter over and over again, appears to be a South African World Cup.  Due to a reduced demand of accommodation, MATCH is not using accommodation in neighbouring countries or in Mauritius, as previously threatened.  Worst of all is that ticket sales to soccer fans in African countries are extremely low (about 2 %), due to the difficulty in making bookings via the internet in African countries, and the low ownership of credit cards on this continent.

7.   What is missing is a campaign of support, to enthuse South Africans to be positive about the World Cup, and to be friendly and generous to soccer fans.  In Germany an advertising campaign was launched in the last few months prior to the start of the World Cup 2006, with the slogan :”Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden” (The world at home with friends), to encourage the generally stiff Germans to reach out and welcome soccer fans from around the world.   The campaign was particularly successful in uniting East and West Germans at the time. Plans to teach locals foreign languages such as Spanish and French, and to guide them in regard to cultural differences,  have not been followed through.   Volunteers have been interviewed but not appointed.  Some of them will be appointed for their foreign language skills, and for their knowledge of their city.   But time is running thin, to train them as to how to deal with the calibre of such an event.

8.   What will give the marketing of the World Cup a much-needed boost will be the attendance of the World Cup by VIP’s : those that appear likely to attend include President Obama; Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder; top businessperson Lakshmi Mittal; Businessperson and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich;  Charlize Theron, who assisted with the Final Draw in December; Victoria Beckham, who is said to have rented an apartment in Camps Bay rather than join the England team in Rustenburg; rapper Akon and possibly Lady Gaga;  Franz Beckenbauer, previous German star soccer player and trainer, will spend the first five days of the World Cup on the MS Noordam outside Durban, reports The Times.

Cape Town celebrates the 100-day countdown with a demonstration of the Diski Dance at Cape Town Stadium, organised by Cape Town Tourism.

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

What was Ravi Naidoo, owner of Interactive Africa and ‘Mr Cool’, who boasts FIFA as a client, and organiser of 13 Design Indaba’s to date, thinking when he decided to put Martha Stewart on the programme for the 2010 Design Indaba, which ended this weekend?

Billing Stewart as the lead Design Indaba speaker on its website, Stewart was described as speaking about “Food Design” at the Conference part of the Design Indaba, about ”the creative principles and practical ideas that have made her America’s most trusted guide to stylish living.  Millions of consumers rely on Martha Stewart as their arbiter of style and taste and their guide to all aspects of everyday living - from cooking and entertaining to decorating and gardening, and much more”.  Stewart’s profession is stated as : entrepreneur, TV host and author.  

None of these “credentials” would have necessarily made Stewart eligible as a speaker at a conference addressed and attended by the world’s top designers.  So what went wrong? Firstly, through Twitter, one could track Stewart’s movements around the country, from the time she left New York on SAA, praising the airline highly (sponsored ticket?), she was met in Johannesburg and taken on a safari to Singita (sponsored?), and then arrived in Cape Town, where she stayed at the One & Only Cape Town (sponsored?).  Stewart’s talk was mid-morning on day three.  From her Tweets, it was clear that she had made no effort to attend any of the other talks on the first two days, choosing rather to go sightseeing and winetasting, but here her brand endorsements stopped.   It is the owners of the wine estates (which included Warwick and Graham Beck) that made one aware of her stops there on Twitter.  She did Tweet about her lunch at Waterkloof, mistakenly referring to it being in Stellenbosch!  Given that she has close to 2 million followers on Twitter, this would have had a good marketing benefit for the Cape.

At Design Indaba, the conference organisers as well as bizcommunity.com, were Tweeting from the conference.   Here is the take on Martha Stewart’s talk by Louise Marsland, ex-editor of and writer for bizcommunity.com and editor of AdVantage magazine, who Twittered the whole Conference every few seconds:

‘The always spectacular Design Indaba will this year be remembered, not only for the fabulous speakers such as Harry Pearce, Bruce Nussbaum, Priyush Pandey, Stefan Bucher, Mokena Makeke, etc, but for the worst presentation it’s (sic) ever hosted - by famous ‘homemaker’ Martha Stewart. Who will also now be credited with launching the first local “twitcom”. [view twitterfall)   Delivering a presentation more suited to the Krugersdorp Vrouefederasie or the Belville (sic) Housewives Scrapbooking Circle, she managed to inspire a mass walkout in both auditoriums - practically unheard of in the history of Design Indaba, which is the industry’s premier conference and expo showcase in the creative industries and an inspiration destination annually.  And so we get another twiord (twitter word): she was ‘twitter slapped’ (twitapped?) by the twitterverse. Twerrible.  The complaints centred around that fact that she used her presentation as a sales pitch (given how she is about to launch her ‘Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes’ in South Africa) and spoke to these highly creative and key delegates with a lack of awareness that was astounding. With the likes of local agency heads and creative directors and world-renowned designers and architects in the audience, you don’t talk about doing ‘glitter by numbers’ pictures and show 29 pictures of yourself holding various farm life (unless that’s part of your creative installation!). The laughter was cringe worthy indeed. The result was a walkout.  Basically she was boring and out of touch and self-promotional. Everything that Design Indaba is not. Design Indaba is about collaboration, sustainability, social entrepreneurship, less conspicuous consumption and looking towards redesigning a new world where product has less impact on the environment. General opinion was summed up by the biting comment of MC Michael Bierut as Stewart left the stage: “Dr Craig Venter is to the human genome as Martha Stewart is to paint chips.” Ouch!The subtle quips continued through subsequent speakers in the afternoon on Friday with references to the ‘millions’ to be made out of design (not) and pleas for people not to put gold glitter on their food, or anything else for that matter. Speakers following her were thanked profusely for “showing us what Design Indaba is all about” by Bierut. Groans and laughter greeted each aside.  Delegates who walked out gathered around Bizcommunity.com’s live ‘twitterfall’ screen outside the main auditorium which live-fed the deluge of tweets to delegates. “It was hysterical,” said one executive creative director of a leading SA ad agency. “The tweets were hugely entertaining, much more so than her speech!”  Another creative director pointed out that the real story was how fantastically social media worked in this case. “People didn’t like her… so they said so. That’s the real story. Brilliant.”   Delegates and journalists attending didn’t pull any punches, with scathing references to her ‘lack of a glittering performance’ and the fact that she could write a book on ‘How to clear a room’, rather.’

Yesterday Stewart addressed a less distinguished audience, who paid R 250 to attend a breakfast session sponsored by Woolworths.   From the blog and Twitter feedback it appears that Stewart used the same talk, but attendees had lowered their expectations, given the feedback about her talk the previous day.   Some comments seemed self-justifying, others remained critical: read Cape Town News Blog’s report here.

Stewart appeared unaffected by the furore, happily continuing her Tweeting about beautiful Cape Town and hoping that she could get up Table Mountain, after the gale force southeaster winds had prevented her from accessing this design icon of the city.  In fairness to her, she did not make any negative comments on Twitter about her visit to South Africa, and was gracious to her hosts and sponsors in acknowledging them, the main ones at least!

Martha Stewart’s visit to Cape Town will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

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

The Sweet Service Award goes to the Manager of The Big Easy restaurant in Stellenbosch, for making space for a table of two on Valentine’s Day, when the hostess had declined the request initially, even though only half the tables were occupied at the time.   The service and meal were excellent.   It transpired during the evening that a party of 22 had booked, and that the hostess did not want to burden the kitchen, or the new chef Simone’ Rossouw.  Shockingly, the large party did not honour their booking!

The Sour Service Award goes to the Darling Music Experience, for the organisation of an event at the Groote Post wine estate outside Darling.   After a long journey from Cape Town, driving on a poor quality gravel road to get to the farm, the attendees of the lunch session had to listen to a talk by German pianist Andreas Kern about music, concerts, etc, and only got to hear one short piece played by him!   All the attendees at the lunch table complained about their expectation of a concert, as it was that that had attracted them to attend.  Lunch was then served at Hilda’s Kitchen restaurant, and was most disappointing:  a salmon salad with potatoes as a starter, a slice of mixed vegetable quiche for the main!!!, and a lovely pavlova.   If it had not been for the long journey lying ahead to travel back, and the lovely persons at the table, one would have chosen to return immediately.  The cost of R 250 per head felt like a rip-off, and was used as a sales opportunity for the Pentz family for their wines rather than as a musical experience for the attendees.   Feedback received from the Darling tourism bureau was dismissive and unsatisfactory, although they did offer an invitation to attend a concert two days later.

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 the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

USA homestyle author and TV presenter, Martha Stewart, will be one of the guest speakers at the 13th Design Indaba, which runs from 24 - 28 February in the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

The Design Indaba is broken up into different elements, and the Conference runs from 24 - 26 February.   Stewart, who is America’s doyenne of style and taste, and editor of the ‘Martha Stewart Living” magazine as well as presenter of a TV programme, will address the conference.   Other speakers include Dutch designer Tord Boontje, trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, and local cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro.

From 26 - 28 February a Design Expo will take place, showcasing 260 exhibits of the best of design in advertising, architecture, craft, decor, film, fashion, graphic design, interior design, new media, publishing and product design.   The Expo is a “100 % local-is-lekker celebration of South Africa’s ingrained creativity”, says the Design Indaba website.

On Saturday 27 February a special breakfast has been organised in conjunction with Woolworths, starting at 9h00, with Martha Stewart as guest speaker.  The breakfast presentation costs R 250, and tickets can be booked at Computicket.

A fashion show, a focus on design for children, a film festival, and the search for South Africa’s most beautiful product also form part of Design Indaba 2010.  More information about the Design Indaba is available on www.designindaba.com.

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