My Little Black Book

Planet Restaurant

29 April 2011

As a young adult, the Grill Room at the Mount Nelson Hotel was high on my list of special occasion outings. With jazzy-type live music (and mini dance floor), plush banquettes and dark wood it pressed all the right buttons. Most of what happens at the Mount Nelson has remained pretty much the same as [...]

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A-1 Pork Chop at DW Eleven-13

21 April 2011

I went through a craving for pork chops a month ago. It started when my golf group went for lunch after our monthly game at De Zalze (lovely course, by the way). Pork chops were on the menu at our chosen lunch venue (so bad I cannot possibly mention it by name), and instantly I [...]

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Where’s the Glory?

29 March 2011

Jon Krakauer’s book Where Men Win Glory is one of the most thought-provoking I’ve read. On one level, it’s the story of professional footballer Pat Tillman’s life, ending at the hands of ‘friendly’ fire that the US Army did its best to obfuscate. It’s a heartbreaking story, made more tragic by the knowledge that dozens [...]

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Sport in Cyberspace. Champagne in Real Life.

16 March 2011

We’ve all had “you had to be there” moments, when we’ve been recounting a humorous experience, which in the retelling is not as funny as it was first time around. In fact, it may not even be the slightest bit amusing, in which case one is desperately looking for the nearest carpet to hide beneath. [...]

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The Power of Pass-it-on

1 March 2011

It is a requirement of people who live an online life – especially those who do it professionally – to be at the cutting edge of whatever is new. In doing my own little bit of ‘pass-it-on’, about a wonderful book I’ve just finished reading, I am revealing myself to be a long way behind [...]

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One Man’s Gnocchi

21 February 2011

Eleven years ago I attended an intimate performance of Via Dolorosa by John Maytham at Pieter Toerien’s Theatre on the Bay. Nothing I’ve read, nor anything I’ve watched on TV, has done a better job of explaining the Israel-Palestine conflict to me. John was brilliant, as he always is when he puts his radio mic [...]

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An ‘F’ for Cell C

28 December 2010

4 February: Following a comment (published below) by Cell C’s CEO, we have spoken on the phone. Once he’d got the apologies out of the way, he first wanted to know if there was any assistance I needed (I didn’t, the Speedstick is working just fine), and then went on to ask if I could [...]

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For the best use of a barcode in a label design, the award goes to…

13 December 2010

Awards used to be simple things. Time’s Man of the Year (which one year went to the PC), the Novel Peace Prize (which used to be collected in person), or the Oscar for Best Picture. These days there are awards in so many niche categories that almost anything has a shot at getting an award. [...]

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Putting the Family back into Family Day

30 November 2010

Mention the word Joostenberg, and a whole lot of positive associations spring to mind. The first of these relates to their Chenin Blanc Noble Late Harvest, which I think is one of the finest botrytis wines produced in South Africa. When it was first released – coinciding with the Joostenberg launch in the late 90s, [...]

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A Taste of My Own Medicine

27 October 2010

Life has a great way of dishing out a taste of one’s own medicine. Take restaurant wine lists. These are guaranteed to get me grumbling, especially if the list has obviously been compiled by one of the wine distributors, without care being taken to put interesting wines onto the list (actually, drinkable would be a [...]

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