Hiding Behind Your Podium of Expertise

I subscribe to a number of blogs; some of these are dailies and others “as and when”, some are a bit off the wall, some thought provoking and others deadly serious.

One of my favourites (daily, off the wall type) is Havi’s blog, The Fluent Self. Today she used the phrase “hiding behind your podium of expertise” which I have swiped for the title of my blog – thank you Havi. And this is what Havi has to say about hiding (my comments: apply this to blogs, the way we communicate with colleagues, clients, the man in the street, family friends etc etc ….)

“The more you hide behind your podium of expertise, the more distance you put between you and the reader. And not the sexy kind of distance. The off-putting, chasm-building, “I can’t connect with this person” kind. We all ruin posts all the time by thinking we have to have a point every single time, or forgetting to admit that yeah, there are things we don’t know. Puffed-up biggified experts who speak only in authoritative lists of seven ways to do this and eight ways to screw up that … they’re a dime a dozen. They’re interchangeable. They’re expendable. We’re not coming for your expertise, really. There are all sorts of places to get that. Sure, the information is nice. But we’re really coming for you.”

Thanks again Havi.

Some people make the world go round

Yes, some people really do make the world go round - and are exceptionally special.

I need to talk about my cousin’s wife Avril. Michael and Avril transferred to the US towards the end of last from Germany. Another strange country for Avril – Michaels job has taken them to a number of countries and Avril has be truly amazing. She gets involved with whatever is happening locally, joins clubs, learns the language (at least they speak English where she is now – well sort of), keeps a fabulous house and is very often left on her own as Michaels work takes him off on business all over the world. And I have never heard Avril complain.

But the most special thing about her is that she is always in touch with her family – and Michaels. She is the only person I know now that takes time to buy the birthday cards and Christmas cards and, low and behold, a few days before your birthday the card is in the mail box. All too often now days, a quick birthday email is what one expects – so this “old fashioned” card makes the day so much more special – she never forgets. And not to mention the regular newsy emails about their lives, the dogs, what they have been doing and seeing. I swear Avril should put all these letters together in a book. She writes so well and it is a pleasure to share their travels and happenings with them!

She is such a star and my first resolution for the New Year is to follow her lead.

Joy – a new car!

I at long last decided to take the plunge and get a new car – well almost brand new with only 8000kms on the clock - and picked it up over the weekend.

I have had a couple of heart-stopping moments of not being able to find it in parking lots because I am looking for my old red car – this one is gold. I have a more than one heart-stopping moment thinking that fully laden taxis are heading straight for me or pulling onto the freeway at 25kph. I am still getting used to controls as they are all on the wrong side and keep flicking the windscreen wipers instead of the indicators – my brain will hopefully be imprinted soon!

I now have to teach my cat about the new car – she runs down the drive to meet me and jumps into the car for a little ride…. So she must get used to the new sound, shape and colour.

And yeah – it is so nice to drive a new car – it is comfortable, goes like a rocket (haven’t fully tested this yet!) and is lovely to drive.

Bracken: A Mighty Fine Cat

When I started my blog at the beginning of the year I vowed that I would never ever, ever write about my pet. But, I have buckled and have to share these life lessons from a little cat.

A couple of weeks ago I packed away my duvet – it was far too hot. I put one of those large waffle type throws on my bed and had some really “cool” sleeps. Except that Bracken wasn’t feeling so well and took to sleeping in the spare room on a cat cushion with her cat blanket. She also feels the heat so I didn’t think too much about it apart from missing the cat body on my bed – this probably also explains why I was sleeping so well *grin*.

Then Lisa came to stay for a week whilst her house was being fixed up after her robbery. Bracken continued to sleep in the spare room, with Lisa, and in the morning I would find both of them snuggled up, sound asleep.

Lisa moved back to her place on Sunday and Bracken carried on sleeping in the spare room on her little cat cushion and, because it has been a bit chilly at night, I would make sure she was covered up with her blanket before I went to bed.

For the past few days I had been feeling pretty miffed that my cat was still sleeping in the spare room and even dumped my bucket on a few cat friends who listened patiently and graciously to my tale of woe and rejection.

Last night, because it has been a bit chilly, I unpacked my duvet and invited Bracken to “help” with the cover. This is always a great game and I usually end up slashed to pieces, dripping blood but we do have great fun. (An aside: I now know why my maid complained that Bracken was very naughty) Anyway, when I finally had the duvet in its cover and reasonably straight on the bed, Bracken sprawled out, full length and almost had a smirk on her face.

And guess what? I had Bracken on my bed, in my bed all of last night – muddy feet and all.

The lessons:
· Cats don’t do change very well and will make this known
· Cats always win in the end because I wont ever pack the duvet away again
· The number one priority in a cats’ life is their comfort
· I now know that we just work to support them
· I do want to come back in my next life as a Bracken cat
· To have love and cuddles withheld by a cat is the worst thing in the world

Ballet Lessons

My friend Frances is a ballet teacher and very involved in the ballet happenings in Gauteng. She phoned me at the beginning of this week to say the person who was to compere the ballet festival on Friday (yesterday) couldn’t make it so would I fill in.

So, off I went at lunchtime and Frances gave me some instructions on what to do etc. and how to operate the music system. Horrors! I had to play the music as well and this involves stressed teachers mumbling a girls name and track number and then disappearing…. I think Frances saw the look on my face and went off to find an ex student to help – thank goodness. She went off to help in the tuck shop at the dinner break – this was a 7 hour marathon dance festival. Michelle was replaced with a much younger Crystal who, with about 10 second instructions from me (by this stage I was pretty savvy with what to do), grasped the workings of tape decks, cd slots and sound control. Amazing – just give it to a teenager.

Anyway, I was feeling a lot more at ease with my tasks. I was however just a little disappointed and feeling a bit inhibited that I had to stick to a script – no yelling out “Yeah for the girl in blue”, or “give the lass who lost her skirt a big round of applause”. No, it was all quite sedate and controlled.

But the script was about the only sedate thing happening back stage and this is really the purpose of this blog.

A ballet festival is the most hectic and stressful place backstage – which is where I was and hundreds of little girls, teachers, stage hands, bits and pieces of scenery, bags of props, the odd mother or two who got chased away. The teachers have groups of girls (and one little boy) or solo dancers they have to get on stage, pacify restless children, praise the ones coming off the stage, give me instructions, give us the music, make sure the kids have the correct outfits, makeup, hairstyles and so on…… The festival is the result of months of work – possibly the entire year. And some kids get and A+ and some get Cs. There are tears and disappointed faces and some very happy ones.

But here’s the thing – this is actually a public performance appraisal of the teachers. They dancers are judged by the ballet adjudicators and the teacher is judged on the results her pupils get. This is how she gets students to her studio – this is her livelihood. And all the results belted out by the adjudicator in public. And if that is not enough, during the 3 sessions in the afternoon and evening, I told the audience (the parents) 7 times that if they had a problem with the results they were to talk only to the people at the back desk. The teachers take a pounding from the parents. It is very difficult – I now know what Frances means when she rolls her eyes heavenward and says “ballet mothers”.

In conclusion: I wondered how many of us sitting in comfy offices would take having our performance review done with the entire staff and customer base looking on and allowing them to object if they felt like it. …. Not likely.

Terms and Conditions

A few years ago I had the enormous privilege to work with a start-up non profit fund raising organisation. This organisation has a novel method of collecting funds and consequently had to ensure that all the complicated legal and other governance issues were well and truly covered. Our attorneys belonged to one of the countries biggest firms and they unstintingly spent so much time (pro bono) with us and shared their knowledge. It was a tremendous learning experience: contracts, patents, trust and foundation law and so on, even tax issues thrown in for good measure.

For me, I found contracts to be really interesting (I also enjoyed patents, but more of this another time). The biggest lesson was that a contract should be fair for both parties ie. If a contract is 100%, then each party should benefit by 50% each. So, if I rent a place for Rxy, being the standard rate for a 2 bedroom flat, then I expect to get a 2 bedroom flat, no more, no less. And you can apply this to employment, purchasing a motor vehicle etc.

Well now I am going to talk about personal relationships. And you may quite rightly ask what on earth this has to do with contracts.

In the last couple of week, I have heard a number of people (men and women) talk, albeit sheepishly, about “contracts” they have entered into with their so called significant other.

The contracts go something like this: Person A says to potential significant other at the beginning of relationship
· “I don’t ever see us walking off hand in hand into the sunset”,
· “the most important thing in my life is my mother/sister/children/father/wife/husband and they will always come first”,
· “I am incapable of loving so don’t expect that”,
· “this will just be a short term relationship – with no strings attached”,
· “you can get out of this relationship any time you like – I will not hold you back”

Do you see what is happening here? Are these people emotionally dead/deprived or what? What they are actually saying is that your needs just do not count, my needs do. This is a one sided relationship of note.

Even worse is to come. The people who told me these things are in a bit of a pickle because their emotions are involved, they want a bit more commitment now and when they tried to discuss this with the “advantaged other” they were told “but I stated the Terms and Conditions at the beginning – so what’s your problem - you knew what the story was – I have always been honest with you”. The problem is that no-one should get involved in relationships where T & C’s are so one sided. If you are going to have a fling, by all means have a fling. But a fling does not last 1, 3, 5, 7 years. Good grief – these relationships are entirely one sided. Why should they change their minds?

But my personal favourite with one of these relationships, is of a married man who began an affair with: “I will not hurt my wife, I am known as a man of honour and I will never break a promise, I gave my word to my wife (ie. Till death do us part), I cannot hurt the kids even if they are grown up, and so on and so on”. Do you also see something wrong with this? This man, in one breath states he is an honourable man, but is quite happy to lie to and deceive his nearest and dearest and mess up someone else’s life in the process – but he did warn her first… well one hopes so, cause that makes it all OK. And this is the classic one sided contract – definitely no win/win here.

And yes, you may ask why people (men and women) can be so stupid – well who knows, but the heart, a bit of lust and some true emotions do get in the way of rational thinking…….

And the final lesson here – remember, always remember how a contract should be structured.

The Turkey Graph

I so appreciated the hearty chuckle from my friend Jeanne when I told her about the book, The Black Swan, and how the author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, describes the Black Swan in his “turkey graph” (my term for the graph - Taleb calls the graph “one thousand and one days in history”).

So, what is this graph? Well, take one turkey and feed him every day for one thousand and one days to get him ready for Christmas. The amount of food the turkey gets every day is just about the same and he’s fed twice a day at almost the same time. The graph will be fairly flat with a few small, insignificant ups and down for the amount of food he gets… but it is just about a straight line for a thousand days. And then the surprise happens – he gets the chop and is plucked and dressed for the Christmas table.

Significantly, there is absolutely nothing in this view that would have prepared the turkey for this surprise (black swan). Every day he got fed and things progressed along really nicely. This view really begs the question of why we always/mostly base our predictions (share prices, oil prices, sales forecasts, interest rates, life events etc) on historical data?

(NB: I don’t mean to reduce the essence of this amazing book to this one graph – but it sure as hell describes the Black Swan and how blinkered we can be. I recommend this book to everyone – give yourself a little treat and buy it)

So, who wants a proper job?

At lunchtime today I am dropping my daughter Lisa, at the airport. She is off overseas; firstly to compete in the 24hr Rogaine World Champs taking place in Estonia, and secondly to spend a bit of time in the UK with friends. You can read about the Rogaine World Champs on her blog: http://adventurelisa.blogspot.com/2008/09/rogaining-world-champs-estonia.html

Lisa is an adventure sports journalist and I thought I would tot up the countries she has been to since 2000, either reporting on events or participating and then writing the articles afterwards.

So, in no particular order: North America – East and West Coast – a few times, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Patagonia a couple of times, Costa Rica, England, France Switzerland, Russia, Borneo, New Zealand, Hawaii, Singapore, Zambia, Mozambique, and Namibia. And now Estonia and at the end of the year she will be taking an invitation team to Abu Dhabi.

She is one person who has successfully turned something she loves (running and adventure racing) into a job that has taken her to some really exotic places. In between all the travel and sports events she has written for various magazines and managed to remain employed with a non-profit organisation.

My friend Chris often asks if Lisa has a “proper job” yet ie. 9 to 5 *grin*. But seriously, given all the exciting things she does and gets paid for – if this was you, would you opt for a proper job?

Super Heroes

Last year, our Springbok Rugby Team had just about every South African glued to the TV cheering them on at the World Cup final - which they won. The build up of our team prior to the World Cup was an amazing marketing exercise. The team was turned in super heroes. Even the non-rugby fans knew who they were. They were in the papers, and not just the sports section, there was a bit of drama about the coach, there was a bit of drama about the players….but at the end there was a team that would not do anything else but go to the World Cup and win. No one was going to mess with them. The Sasol advert on TV had the team morphing into super heroes with extraordinary powers. There was so much hype – I don’t think these guys even thought about losing!

So what happened with our Olympic Team? There certainly was not a lot of hype over them. Perhaps there was something on Super Sport, but there wasn’t a heck of lot on SABC - although there have been flashes of some of the athletes in a rather weak advert. And they sure haven’t been made out to be super heroes.

Oscar Pistorius managed to get a huge amount of publicity prior to the Olympics. He made world headlines with his plight. He spent a lot of time fighting various boards for admission to the able bodied Games. Thousands of people were saying “Ag Shame” he should be allowed. The people who wanted him excluded, because of the blade advantage, were seen as baddies, meanies and all sorts of things. Oscar has an amazing PR machine in place. Larger than life images of him on the side of multi story buildings, Powerade ads on TV, stories galore in popular magazines, even a modelling assignment in Cape Town – he is all over the place

But here’s a thing. Whilst this PR machine was on the go and boards were sitting to decide his fate, he wasn’t in training and he wasn’t anywhere near a qualifying time. And nor did he have a chance of achieving a qualifying time. Then there was a big public discussion that maybe he should be in the relay team, but he would have to run first in case he injured another runner and this debate went on for a while taking up media time.

But, he wasn’t close to qualifying for the team (it will probably take another 2 – 3 years of training) but he sure hogged a lot of pre-Olympic media time and attention.

Our actual Olympic athletes got just about zero.

And what about Natalie du Toit? She is disabled, qualified for the team and quietly got on with her training – and now she has performed more than admirably in her able bodied race. And prior to the race she has been the darling of the foreign press. They have love her in Beijing. She is our real super hero but we seem to have ignored her.

My computer shop

Yesterday I took my new funky red (albeit unusable) keyboard back to my local computer equipment shop. When I told the guy at the counter I wanted to return it, he said "no problem, would you like to exchange it or have a refund?". There was no hassle at all.

I mentioned that I really needed a new keyboard but this one that my daughter had got for me was OK for typing a small amount but I spend too much time as it is behind my keyboard without having to battle with pressing keys down hard! The keyboard was one of those rubber things that you can fold up - looks great but not so practical. He said he quite understood and led me off to the rack with keyboards.... we chose a really nice one, plain and simple and practical. He gave some good advice, was very pleasant, and I didn't feel rushed or pressured.

So, I walked out of the shop with a keyboard, a new mouse, a new USB hub and a really cool printer/scanner combo. Not bad for a returned keyboard!

An aside: I really did need all those things - I have put off getting a new mouse for ages and my daughter is moving out of my home office and taking her equipment with her. So, I do need my own printer etc. My idea of emailing documents for printing to Lisa met with not an awful lot of humour *grin* .

Best Soup

Because I have some hectic deadlines today, I thought I would heat up a cup of soup and shlurp it at my desk. In between spoonfuls I Googled "Best Soup". Firstly, there are 1.3 million results for Best Soup (amazing) and this little gem (the one in the middle) popped up on the second page:

SARS

I have always had a healthy respect for SARS and I have always submitted my returns on time, coughed up the dosh when asked and generally been a model citizen in this regard.

Last year when we could register for e-filing, I left it a bit late and try as might, I couldn't register because of my name. I tried every conceivable combination of "d'Oger de Speville" you can think of but still got the message - number does not match surname. So, due to the time constraints and my desire to be a goodie two shoes, I downloaded the form, filled it in, printed it off, attached all the documentation I could think of to substantiate the information I had supplied, got in my car and zipped off to my local SARS office.

SARS are in an exceptionally grim building in Germiston. Goodness knows which school that architect went to. The queue was out the front door and round the corner but moving at a reasonable pace. So I stood in it cursing myself for not registering and sorting out my electronic name. Once inside, it is not too bad. The staff has really tried to jolly the place up with posters showing exotic holiday locations and little waterfall things in the corners - even a couple of little fairies perched on artificial rocks. I handed in my form and got a stamp to prove it and went home.

In April this year, I received a query from them. They returned my completed form with ticks all over the place and one big cross - reminiscent of homework assignments. And they returned all my documentation with a big note that they didn't need and if I read the form properly I would see that they hadn't even asked for it. So, I figured out what I had done wrong filling out the form, got in my car and headed off to the SARS office again. I also took all my documentation so that I could show the assessor how I had just put something in the wrong place.

The SARS people in my local are really nice, friendly and helpful - and always have been. I met with a pleasant young woman who listened to my story, grabbed all my papers, went through them and then pushed all this supporting documentation back to me. She corrected my error online and re-submitted my return. And gave me a little lecture about only submitting supporting documentation if they needed it and I should read the form thoroughly before sending it in. I told her that "I got the message" - and clutching the wad of paper and a receipt, left the office.

So yesterday, I received this large letter from SARS - they only seem to ever use A4 size stationery. And guess what, they have asked me to submit all my supporting documentation.

Killer quote

Malema still keeps the great debate raging about what he meant...or what he thinks he meant. Enough already. Here is a fantastic quote - which should be adopted by our politicians.

There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

And by the way, I get daily quotes from Word-a-Day. Go to this website and register - get a new word every day and a great quote.

No More Soggy Food

I have been sitting on this particular idea for at least a decade and I think it is now time to put it into the public domain and I hope someone will use it.

Years ago, I had been doing quite a bit of business travel, staying in really super hotels in SA and neighbouring countries. At night I mostly ate in my room. I loved the beautifully set trolleys and silver domes and sitting back with my feet up, munching away and watching telly.

But the problem was, no matter how many stars the hotel had, once the condensation from the food hit the top of the dome, it dripped back onto the meal – making the food soggy and things that weren’t supposed to be runny runny.

My grand idea which I tested in my home kitchen went something like this: The stuff in babies’ disposable nappies absorbs liquid and doesn’t let it out. So why not use something like this to line the domes, pizza boxes etc.

The tests conducted in my kitchen were done using panty liners (don’t laugh). After food was given a quite warm up in the microwave I stuck a panty liner or 2 to the lid of the food container and voila…..it absorbed the moisture. I also stuck liners to Tupperware lids and put veggies, whole and chopped in the containers and stuck the Tupperware in the fridge. The veggies lasted for ages and stayed very crisp. Much longer than usual.

Needless to say this was hardly a scientific study – but it worked. I have no idea what effect heating the stuff in liners does, but I am still around!

So here’s the thing. No one has done this yet – you can’t buy a roll of liner stuff, like cling wrap, to stick on the lids of pizza boxes, silver domes, hamburger takeout containers or Tupperware.

I know that it might add to the cost but do you know what it will do for people who like non-soggy food – we would love it.

There are heaps of commercial applications – hot and cold stuff for homes and hotels, meals in hospitals, meals on the airlines (just a little strip on the container lid will do the trick) take away/out places (millions of these), and so on.

Please someone use this idea……………………………

In and out of Lectures

Well, I have completed the short course I attended at Pretoria University. The campus is great. Spotless, no litter, buildings in very good repair, safe parking with guards, lecture rooms well equiped and clean and staff really polite and helpful.

A lot of work goes into preparing for and delivering lectures. The lecturer I had was super. Very knowledgeable and one of those people who just knows how to get the message across. We were given comprehensive notes and lots of hand-outs. The experience was so nice I almost ran off to sign up for more courses!

But, and here is the little mystery - can anyone out there tell me why the younger students feel that they have to leave to lecture hall every 20 minutes or so, come back in, make people move or stand up to let them back to their seats, send sms's, write each other notes.....despite our prof giving us the break times in the morning! There was this steady little stream up people bobbing up all the time.

My daughter has just been to a CSI conference - and she says exactly the same thing happened there.

Is this just bad manners?

Back to School

Over the weekend I completed my editing assignment. I edited the DVDs and workbooks for the Matric Accountancy and Business Studies lessons, produced by the SABC Learning Channel. 60 lessons in total which have left me a bit squared eyed and suffering from cabin fever.

It was an enjoyable task and I was particularly impressed with Business Studies. This subject should be compulsory for all students and anyone below the age 60! Not joking – it should be a requirement for everyone to do this course before they set out into the big wide world. The course provides valuable life skill information.

And I am back to school next week – I am doing a course at Pretoria University and hope that hitting the pause button is not too entrenched in my psyche and I can sit in a lecture hall for a few hours at a stretch!

Lessons from the Kitchen

I love cooking and after receiving some fabulous compliments the other night I thought I would use this blog to blow my own trumpet a bit and pass on success tips.

Compliment 1. I will never ask you to my house for dinner – I will take you to a restaurant – your food is so good.
Compliment 2. One day I will come to you for cooking lessons.

Despite enjoying these compliments, I don’t consider myself to be that fantastic a chef. What I do very well though is to plan a dinner or lunch party exceptionally well – and this turns into a lesson.

So, what makes my parties a success? I spend a lot of time planning - and this is the process I follow:

· Invite the guests
· Decide on the budget
· Set the menu and wine/drinks requirements according to the budget
· Check the food and wine inventory and hit the shops for what is required
· Check the resources: flatware, cutlery etc
· Make changes to menu if appropriate (cant get certain ingredients)
· Do the meal project plan ie. Pre-cooking, timing, wine on ice, drinks in the fridge, the table, flowers etc
· Enlist aid of daughter where applicable (she is a great cook, by the way)
· Cook up a storm
· Greet guests and have a wonderful time.

Hmmmmm. Sound familiar? Just what all the business books tell us to do - plan, plan and plan, execute the plan, make changes where appropriate and deliver the goods.

And what do I get out of the parties? A great meal that I loved cooking, great conversation and great time with my friends – success – mission accomplished!

In case you want to know, I served the following:
· Foie Gras (for my French friends), smoked salmon mousse with Melba Toast
· A parfait of fresh tomato and sweet red pepper soup with vanilla cream
· De-boned chicken stuffed with yellow pepper, fresh herbs and sausage meat, cooked on a bed of carrots, celery and onions.
· Veggies: Sliced courgette with lemon olive oil, creamy polenta
· To finish: fresh pears poached in red wine, lavender and honey served with crème anglais.

Accountancy

I haven't blogged for while - Why? because I have been quite busy editing DVD's and workbooks for the Matric accountancy lessons, produced by the SABC Learning Channel. There are 30 lessons in total and these will be distributed (for a small fee) to schools and learners so they can study for their final exams.

Now, the idea of studying accountancy crops up quite often during the lessons - it appears that learners complain that they cannot "study" accountancy. The presenters get quite excited when they have a formula or ratio for the learners to "study". Does this mean they can memorise this part - yes, I think it does. Surely, study also implies learning and understanding and not just memorising? And how do you do this? By going over the exercises, practising the exercises and understanding them and understanding how to apply the concepts. You can study accountancy!

And on this note - I will even go as far as saying that accountancy is like riding a bicycle - once you know it you can always do it.........

Trying things and Learning

Just about everyone who knows me, knows that my daughter Lisa is an adventure racer and does extreme marathons. Some people think she is quite daft and dont understand what drives someone to happily run a 250 km race. Having been part of the preparations and support crew on occasion, I know how much courage it takes to enter these events and how much courage it takes to finish. And it takes a true understanding of "self" that finishing the race is achievable.

Lisa recently wrote a bit on her blog about this (http://adventurelisa.blogspot.com/) and quoted the following from Tim Jarvis who has done 3 unsupported polar expeditions.

"... growing up, we find out about ourselves and the world around us by trying things and learning through our experiences. Somewhere along the line, though, the responsibilities that represent adulthood seem to suppress this 'give it a go' spirit, replacing it with an increased reliance on second-hand sources, and the opinions of others.
That spirit often lies dormant for years, until one day we wake up and look back with regret and no real answer as to why we didn't find time to realise at least one or two dreams. In many cases it's because we're too often told that things are not possible for us, or not as simple as they appear to be. In some cases this is true, but it's dangerous to lump everything together in the same basket. If you do you'll find yourself not trying anything new or challenging at all."

Good food for thought.

And on the subject of customer service

I picked up this quote the other day - by a guy called Rob Armano - http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/

“We live in a world where the little things really do matter. Each encounter no matter how brief is a micro interaction which makes a deposit or withdrawal from our rational and emotional subconscious. The sum of these interactions and encounters adds up to how we feel about a particular product, brand or service. Little things. Feelings. They influence our everyday behaviors more than we realize.”

The Abundant Inn

Carl’s B and B is just about always full. I know this because I was there and saw the occupancy schedules and the lady whose company does the laundry told me so. She also makes special arrangements, especially over long weekends, to do the B and B’s laundry – Carl is a good customer for her and she makes a plan to keep him happy.

And why is it full? Certainly the room rates are competitive and possibly a bit more than other B and B’s so it is not cut rate prices. I think it is because Carl offers, and genuinely believes in, really good service that makes people want to be there and come back for return visits.

The rooms are great, well furnished (a guest said “very tasteful”), well decorated, they are inspected everyday to make sure the clocks are set to the correct time, all plugs are plugged in, the soap is facing the correct way, no dust bunnies under the beds, brochures lined up, bar fridge full and so on. The linen and towels are top quality and you can have fresh towels every day if you want. There is almost every TV channel available. The garden is spotless, the outside entertainment area is comfy and a nice place to sit, the TV is turned on, seats and tables dusted and lined up, pool glistening and deck chairs by the pool. The breakfast tables are laid out on time and everything you need is there.

There are large containers of cereals – 4 types, 3 flavours of yoghurt, fresh fruit salad, and large jugs of milk, tea (many different types and flavours) and coffee, 3 large jugs of juice and then the large English breakfast, toast and marmalade. There are waiters for the tables and if you ate everything you would have to push yourself away from the table. The bowls and jugs are continuously filled so you never feel that you are taking the last glass of OJ or scoop of yoghurt.

There is always an air of plenty. And the guests are well looked after and made to feel special – pampered even!

I guess this is why Carl has such a successful business – nothing like a good old fashioned bit of customer service.

Risque moments at the B and B

I had a couple of naive and risque moments at the B and B.

The first was when a guy pitched up late afternoon looking for a room for a few hours while waiting for his friends. There was a young lady in the car with her nose buried in a magazine. He wasn't too keen to pay the full price for a room and I directed him to some other places down the road. I muttered to my friend Barbara that I thought his request was a bit odd and only brothels hired out rooms by the hour......Yip - I missed this completely!

The second moment happened the next day. There is an Italian gentleman staying at the B and B - he has been there for a month or so doing business around Harties. He trotted into breakfast and asked me to "do a full monty" for him. It took about 30 seconds for me to understand what he meant. He must have seen the look on my face - and then asked for white toast!

Open letter to Carl

Dear Carl

Well, I must say looking after your B and B for the past 10 days has been an amazing experience. I am publishing this letter on my blog so that the many people I know who have found my stay here hilarious and are just waiting to rat on me, know that I am keeping my promise to come clean.

If all I have achieved is to keep the local populous amused and entertained then I feel really good.

So here goes:

• I couldn't find a corkscrew on my first day and in desperation I tried to dig a cork out of a bottle of red wine. Anyway, whilst digging away at the cork it went rocketing into the bottle and a fountain of red wine came out. It was quite amazing - but you now have very clean walls in this part of the kitchen, a very clean fridge and I repainted this bit of the ceiling yesterday - the red seems to be covered and it took 4 coats of paint.
• I told you about the fire in the kitchen because at the time I was not sure if anything would work again and it was one the go when you phoned. I am pleased to say that the griller still works despite all the water that was thrown on and in it. There was a lot of smoke and ash - but the walls cleaned up pretty well and you wouldn't know that there were some really large flames.
• I thought I would dust the really splendid Ikea moulded wall hangings. When I touched one they all fell off the wall. Nothing was broken but it was damn hard to get them back up. It took about 5 days of them tumbling off at odd hours during the night and day (the dogs and I were a bit alarmed especially at night). But they are now up and haven't fallen down for 4 days.
• One morning we completely forgot to make the coffee so I quickly made some Woollies instant and dished that out till the coffee machine did its thing.
• For whatever reason, I must have turned the generator key one notch and when I leapt out to fire it up for the normal daily load shedding (damn nuisance this), the battery for the generator was flat. Well, everyone at the computer shop who shares the generator went home and I frantically found out that Ian had a charger and he said he would come later that day - which was quite all right because we had no power to charge the battery anyway. The generator is fine now.
• When I went to the petrol station to get more diesel for the generator, I filled up the jerry can only to discover that I couldn't pick it up and certainly not high enough to fill the generator. So we filled up another guys can I then I refilled my one to 2/3s. I could manage this. I was looked at strangely at the petrol station.
• The other morning, one of the new people who came here for "breakfast only" couldn't open the garden door - even though there is quite a big sign at eye level that says SLIDE. Instead of sliding the door he pulled it off the rollers and it took 3 of us to prop it up against the wall. The man who came to fix it said it weighed 366kg, which figures for a door made of railway sleeps. I had to block the doorway with chairs so the dogs wouldn't escape and we then had guests clambering over these to get in and out until I got it fixed.
• The Kreepy Krawly in the pool packed up and CJ from the computer shop fixed it for me. The pool now looks great.
• I slipped in the kitchen and somehow managed to drop a little foil wrapped butter down the toaster - which was madly toasting away. The foil caused a few sparks and the butter melted somewhat and made a very small fire. I couldn't have done this in a million years had I tried!
• I unblocked a drain and fixed the electricity every time it tripped. One of the guys from KPMG said he thought we had a special switchbox because power was restored so fast. I had this little operation down pat and moved like lightening.
• I am pleased to say that the dogs and garden are fine - nothing has died.
• I have processed invoices and credit card payments and no-one left without paying. Although, Number 4 did run off with the key this morning but I will email her tonight - hopefully she will post it to you.

There have been other little incidences, but I cant remember now - I am sure your staff, family and friends will tell you about them. And on this subject, you have super family and friends - I am not sure what I would have done without them. Ian was such a star and today Janet brought over Sushi and a bottle of wine for lunch – I could have cried. What stars - I do so appreciate them.

It has been a great deal of fun and I have enjoyed this little sojourn immensely. I did bring paints and canvases here, thinking that I would have time to knock up a couple of paintings - no such luck. I have been busy and a bit sleep deprived but I have had time to picture in my mind what these canvases will look like. I will get stuck into them when I return to Johannesburg tomorrow. I will miss walking the dogs every day and I will miss them. They have been super companions, kept me amused and I just might get myself a dog some day.

Thanks for this wonderful opportunity.

Liz

Lessons for learning

1. A short while ago I read an interesting snippet on how the people at the Bolshoi Ballet go about selecting young students for their school - and who will hopefully turn into the future stars. The main selectors said that they don’t necessarily always choose the best dancers; they will sometimes choose the ones who are willing to learn and be trained.

2. In addition to my regular Tai Chi class, I attend the beginners class as well. And I am not the only one – I think more than half the beginners class is made up of oldies. We have been taught to enter the class with an empty cup and fill it during the lesson. I am constantly amazed at how much I learn in the beginners class, things I thought I knew that I so obviously didn’t!

Perfect Poached Egg

I am about to head off to Haartbeespoort Dam to look after Carl Weldhagen's Bed and Breakfast - Khayamanzi [bookings@khayamanzi.co.za] - whilst he is taking a break from the hustle and bustle of this busy establishment. It is a beautiful BandB, each room delightfully decorated, super gardens and pool, fab outdoor area, big screens tvs, wireless connections and best of all, Carl serves up a breakfast feast to write home about - and he has 2 very charming huskies.

I also know that it is usually the simple things that trip you up - so I thought I would hone my egg cooking skills and look what I found on my google search: (dont get nervous now Carl)

Search Best Fried Eggs: 344,000 Sites - lots hey?


Search Best Scrambled Eggs: 3,250,000 Sites - can you believe it!!!

Search Best Poached Eggs: 1,600,000 Sites (haven't we got enough to do...)


At least I am not the only one who battles with Poached eggs (The scrambled egg results suprised me though).

With poached eggs I usually end up with eggy soup and it seems that so does everyone else despite claiming to have the perfect method for cooking them. But I did find a method on one of the sites that really, really works. I tested it yesterday afternoon and had my first perfect poached egg (some might argue it was actually coddled - but what the heck). With this method you also dont have to scrub a pan for half an hour getting rid of all the sticky gunky egg stuff - so this is what you do:

Line a tea cup with a largish piece of cling wrap. Break an egg into the cup and twist the cling wrap closed. Drop egg parcel into boiling water - time: depends on how you like your egg. Remove parcel with slotted spoon, open it up and hey presto - one cooked egg and clean pan. You can also use this method to precook eggs - put the parcel in the fridge and then just throw it back into boiling water for a minute or 2 the next day (eggs keep for 2 days like this in the fridge).

Enjoy

Well worth the 10 minutes

I came across this posting the other day on a blog from Presentation Zen. This is a lecture given by Dr Randy Pausch - actually a short version that he did on Oprah's show - entitled "Last Lecture". The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgyuYHXqlO4 and is just over 10 minutes long. It is truly an amazing lecture and very humbling. In August 2007 Dr Pausch was told that he had 3 - 6 months of healthy living left. This lecture was presented in September 2007.
Do yourself a favour and listen to this.

I was so right

Prior to the Zimbabwe elections, when asked who I thought would win, I said Mugabe of course! But this last week I really thought democracy was at last working and the situation was changing. I would have to eat humble pie and swallow my cynicism about the whole process. But I was right.....why on earth did anyone think that Mugabe would hand over the reins?

Zimbabwe Elections

Today is the 7th day after elections. The presidential election results have not been released and last night a couple of MDC supporters and international journalists were arrested. Had Mugabe played the election game this time a little bit better and used this as a PR exercise he could have salvaged a bit of his reputation - both at home and abroad.

More Bang for my Bucks

With all the gloom and doom at present about global financial crises, high food prices, local financial crises, high inflation, high interest rates, load shedding, potential water crisis, Zimbabwe elections and high petrol prices I have found myself getting a bit miffed at spending good money on mediocre or bad service and receiving sometimes downright bad attitude from cashiers at the local supermarket.

And whilst we have the whole litany of doom and gloom items (see above and add your own), isn’t this the time to work on service and create a customer experience that delights.

People still have money to spend and it is not the restaurant or clothing store down the road that is the competition – it is actually the doom and gloom items like high interest and inflation rates that is the competition. Our restaurants and stores need to understand this and keep me coming back by making me feel that my money is well spent. I want to feel that I am a valued customer, I am getting value for money and I am getting good service.

I want more bang for my bucks.

Epiphany

Epiphany :[e·piph·a·ny - n. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.]

I stole this “epiphany heading” from my daughter’s blog – thank you Lisa! (http://www.adventurelisa.blogspot.com/)

One of the books I took the other week from my book club stash was “The monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin S Sharma.

Years ago, I briefly saw Robin on a talk show, and was impressed by how nice he looked and how he almost glowed with good health and well being. I have also heard the monk book mentioned on various talk radio shows and seem to remember it hitting some best seller lists.

When I saw it I took it. And around about page 67 I was wondering if I would ever finish it. I was a tad irritated with the story he wove to demonstrate his message and I was a bit disappointed with the message – I mean this guy is a guru and going by his track record he is hugely successful and has an enormous following. All I could think of was “yeah, yeah, yeah – heard all this before, I know this stuff, what’s new” and so on and so on…….

And a few days later, determined to finish the book, I had the epiphany – I did know all this stuff but why the heck wasn’t I doing it? Good question? Because like it or not, this stuff really works and we all know people who constantly apply it and do exceptionally well!

So, what I would like to recommend, is that you read this book – it is a great refresher course on how to live your personal and business life and the lessons are woven into a charming story. My friend Chris told me he doesn’t do that “touchy feely stuff” and if you don’t either – put the story to one side and re-study the lessons contained in the book.

We all know it, we just have to practise it.