My Little Black Book

The Last Resort

8 September 2010

I have to admit to having been very reluctant to start reading The Last Resort, Douglas Roger’s family-based account of the crisis in Zimbabwe (or Zimbodia, as a Sunday Times satirist calls it). By default, any white person in Zimbabwe (especially an exile), is a victim, and there are only so many victim stories one [...]

Read the full article →

In Amazon We Trust

20 August 2010

When the all-encompassing history of online retail is written, it is likely that the author will identify trust – or absence thereof – as perhaps the biggest initial factor inhibiting the growth of ecommerce. Fears around credit card security have largely been dealt with by banks’ continually tightening up procedures, but the main issue remains: [...]

Read the full article →

How to Increase Sales

12 August 2010

Sales and marketing – or S&M for short – are often lumped together as one function. While they are related, and both necessary to the success of an enterprise, they comprise different stages of the product eventually reaching the customer. For me, marketing prepares the environment for sales; the textbook example of Kottler’s demand expansion. [...]

Read the full article →

Gewurztraminer Meets Banana

4 August 2010

Often, I think, too much is made of food and wine pairings. Achieving the perfect complement between the flavours of the wine and food (in the midst of myriad subjective factors) is almost impossible, and threatens to distract from the enjoyment of either the food or the wine. Having said that, wine dinners can be [...]

Read the full article →

Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

24 July 2010

I sometimes get asked, as one does, for a list of my favourite books of all time. The one I’m about to share with you may not get into even the top 1000 of the most absorbing, entertaining or stimulating books. However, it’s right up there as a simple encapsulation of life wisdom. Moreover – [...]

Read the full article →

Vaudeville’s July Menu

30 June 2010

It is sensible, when feeding many people off a set menu that offers only three main course options (meat, fish or vegetarian), to stick to the safe, middle-of-the-road options. Any menu items that deviate from the broadest base of acceptance run the risk of creating problems due to the limited number of diners that would [...]

Read the full article →

Cape Town’s hottest new (old) address

19 June 2010

One of my favourite parts of the Cape Town city centre is the top of Adderley Street, where Wale Street joins from the right. If one continues up Wale it cuts right across the city (parallel to what would have been coastline), ending up in the Bo-Kaap, just below the point where the Noon Gun [...]

Read the full article →

Great Software Finds

17 June 2010

Leaving the secure embrace of full-time employment at Cloof in December last year had a number of implications. One of the most significant was the need to get my own laptop. I really, really badly wanted a Mac, but it was going to cost about R6000 more than a Windows machine. The first consideration was [...]

Read the full article →

Shades of Grey

16 June 2010

My online work often puts me in the position of needing to select colours for navigation menus, not to mention buttons, headings and many more. The problem is that one can’t just call something red, or green, or yellow. Not only does one need the Hex code for the colour (e.g. #000000 is black and [...]

Read the full article →

A Night of Vaudevillian Pleasure

30 May 2010

Before Vaudeville opened, one of the management team was doing a quick mental calculation of the number of people involved in making each evening’s performance happen. I seem to recall a tally in the vicinity of 60 or 70, covering everything from performers to kitchen staff and waiters. As I have so indulgently reported, my [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →