Book review - Tinus de Jongh - His life and works

This book has been such a breath of fresh air in between all the business books. I had one of  those 'stop and smell the roses' moments;  taking in and enjoying the beautiful colours and landscapes. It was wonderful to learn more about this wonderful Dutch artist, who made South Africa his home.  The story is written so poignantly; the history and life of the artist is incredibly interesting, I realised that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed art history (something that I had studied many many moons ago).

Thanks to Tinus de Jongh (Tinus de Jongh's grandson), who let me know about this book - 

www.tinusdejongh.co.za

Book review: Our Iceberg Is Melting - John Kotter | Holger Rathgeber

This is a fun little book describing the principles of change management within an organisation. It was an incredibly easy read; I read it within an hour or two this morning. The book takes the format of a fable, which is quite refreshing from other business books that can get quite laborious and long.  Recommendable: 7/10

Book Review Little Voice Mastery - Blair Singer

This book ties in quite closely to the other book I was reading at the same time - Think Big and Kick Ass by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker. Why is it that we sell ourselves short? This book makes sense of the little voice in our head that is the biggest culprit when it comes to doubting ourselves and our actions. We are our own worst enemy standing in the way of our success and owning it. 

While reading this book I have found that I have started 'calling out' my little voice several times. It is now about changing a pattern of thinking and getting different voices to 'stream' in different scenarios. It's time to accept compliments, realise successes, to be confident and to reprogram the self-defeating thoughts. Watch out little voice - I'm on to you!

Recommendable - 8/10

Book review: Think Big and Kick Ass - Donald Trump and Bill Zanker

If you are going to think or do something, you may as well do it big - the same energy goes into both! I love this way of thinking. 

In "Think Big and Kick Ass" by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker, they touch on a number of ways to 'think big', nothing is really groundbreaking or new, but it re-affirms many of the things that the world's most successful business people have said and do. 

It's about a mind shift change, and getting over the fear of thinking big, sounds silly (and easy) - but people are afraid of success for some or other reason. 

What this book has reiterated for me, is the importance of investing in value - first class all the way!

The people you hang out with is important; many 'friends' don't want to see you succeed - this relates very much to a previous blog I wrote about 'Is friendship a farce?'.

I also really liked what the authors said about keeping the momentum going and not losing focus; so be careful not to become complacent - keep developing, moving and growing. 

Recommendation - 8/10

Caffeine Cafe - Cape Town, Hout Bay

On my mission to try new places and to break from a normal lazy-day-on-the-couch-Saturday-morning, we decided to have breakfast at Mainstream Mall in Hout Bay. Generally, I rarely go to the Mall, but when we do go there for a meal, we pretty much always end up at either Gabriele's or the Cafe inside Woolies. Today we tried Caffeine Cafe.

FOOD - Was very happy that they had eggs Benedict on the menu, and it was delicious! 

Mark opted for the full-house, which isn't really my cup of tea, but looked quite big. He described it as very average - mushrooms were not sauteed (only warmed) and the baked beans and sausages had no real flavour; he was not offered an option for white or brown bread toast, only received four pieces of cold white bread toast, which was served only with marmalade -  he would have preferred a selection of jams. He did however say the saving grace for his meal were the eggs that weren't runny. He rated his breakfast 6/10.

The only problem that I had was that I battled to use the cutlery (!) - it is very thin knives and forks that they give you, and because the English muffin was quite chewy, it was a bit of a challenge to cut through it with the given cutlery.

DRINKS - Mug of coffee and Mark had a large Cappaccino (came with a heart) and a piece of chocolate cake - nice touch. I have realised that my favourite coffee is still my morning cup of Nescafe at home. Nothing wrong with this coffee, I just don't have a taste for filter coffee.

SERVICE - very sweet and friendly server.

VALUE FOR MONEY - very reasonable. Full English Breakfast was R54 and the Eggs Benedict R45

RECOMMENDABLE - It is OK, whether I will be back, I'm not too sure - at the moment there are quite  a lot of other places in Hout Bay that need exploring.

6/10

San - Sandton Sun, Johannesburg, Sandton

FJune 2015 - Sadly my recent experience to the establishment was a big let down compred to my visit there a year ago. Their potion sizes have been dramatically reduced. The wonderful large Caesar I had last time is now served in a side dish bowl and still charged at R75. When queried I was informed that they had changed their dishes/sizes. They attempted to redo it but basically put the contents of the small salad on a large plate. The place is fine to sit and work at between meetings (although they are busy with refurbishments, so it is noisy) but I doubt they will see me there for a meal. 

~~~~~

June 2014 - This is not the typical place that I would generally go to, but it was surprisingly nice. It's linked to Sandton City and I needed a place to sit and work in between meetings and there was a great quiet area where I could sit at a proper table and work while having lunch.

  

FOOD - Their menu seemed quite limited, but I prefer that than having to trawl through thick menus. Am I right in thinking the thicker the menu the more average the food?

Had the Caesar salad - it was a huge portion and very tasty. Delicious bits and pieces in it that complemented each other wonderfully.

I have also had a wrap there - the chips were amazing, but the wrap nothing really spectacular to write home about - the salad would be my recommendation - especially on a hot day, sitting on the balcony over looking Sandton with a glass of white wine -

DRINKS - this time I only had a white Grapetiser.

SERVICE - Quite good, friendly servers.

VALUE FOR MONEY - Look, it's Sandton so it is bound to be more pricey, but the food was good and the portions decent.

RECOMMENDABLE - Yes. (can get a bit noisy later in the afternoon / early evening)

7/10

Manna Epicure - Gardens, Cape Town

This is a lovely spot that I often use to have meetings. I love the all white decor, very tastefully decorated. The only snag is - because it is very popular and can get quite noisy.

FOOD - I have had lunch here several times. Their Nicoise salad with quail is delicious. The most recent lunch that I had there was French onion soup - it was a cold , grey day and the soup hit the spot. It was deliciously flavoured, served with baguette.

DRINKS - they have delicious fruit juice options, you mix your own. I recently mixed pear, beetroot and ginger - very refreshing and tasty.

SERVICE - the waiters are always very friendly.

RECOMMENDABLE - Definitely - 8/10

Restaurant - Mariner's Wharf, Hout Bay Cape Town

I so want to love all the places in Hout Bay. Both Mariner's Wharf and Dune's have such an amazing setting, but sadly they both disappoint, a lot.

My focus here though is Mariner's Wharf. Every time I leave the establishment, I think to myself that I am not going to go back there, and then every couple of years I think - let's give them a try and it is again a disappointment.

A couple of weeks back we got a flyer through the post for their winter specials - really good value options, so we decided on a grey, wet Sunday to go for lunch - just before we left I did spot the small print saying that the specials were only for during the week - I was  bit annoyed, but only at myself and we decided that we would still go.

As mentioned before, the setting is really great, right at the harbour with an amazing view of the mountains where they used to mine manganese many many years ago.

FOOD - My sidekick had the Kingklip with veggies. He really enjoyed the fish, said it was a very big healthy portion cooked to perfection and very tasty with the spices and lemon butter sauce. The sides were chips, rice or veggies. He opted for veggies which he was sadly not as lyrical about - he said that it is frozen veggies from Spar, which were served, cold and soggy. He rated his Kingklip 8.5 to 9 of 10, and no score for the veggies.

With it being a cold, miserable grey day I was in the mood for seafood curry. The portion was HUGE, with a variety of fish | prawns | muscles etc. The flavour was however, unfortunately not WOW - it was very spicy, I quite like spicy food as long as it doesn't burn me to such an extent that I can't taste anything. It was just a bit too burny for me, and lacked something. But it was a lot of food, and waste great when I had it a bit later at home.

DRINKS - Mark had a draft, Seadog or something, which does not really have a distinctive taste, 'very bitter foamy beer' is how he describes it.

I had a glass or red wine, nothing really special (can't actually honestly remember what it was, so could not have been that spectacular).

SERVICE - friendly and efficient

VALUE FOR MONEY - Let's face it, it's a tourist trap, so prices are higher.

Kingklip R167

Mariner's Curry - R137

RECOMMENDABLE - The view is wonderful, but it is touristy,  so very noisy, so for me it is only OK - 

5.5 / 10