Race: Cape Town Marathon 10kms

21 September 2014 - We could not have asked for a more perfect day to have a race in Cape Town.  I know that I have mentioned this before, but it is wonderful to belong to a club. The support and morale and actually knowing people at the race is really amazing.  What was also really special about this race, was that the Rotary Club of Newlands were involved and fellow Rotarians were marshals along the way, and it was so wonderful to see the familiar faces along the way. 

It's a beautiful route in and around the Waterfront, promenade back to the Cape Town stadium. 

Unfortunately I missed my hour goal for the 10kms by 02:10 minutes, but it was still a personal best at 01:02:15! 

Book review: McDonald's behind the arches, John F. Love

Mmm...I'm lovin' it! I am not shy to admit to absolutely loving McDonald's. I fell in love with McDonald's on my first ever overseas trip to London in 1996, and had a Big Mac meal.

I found this book at a second hand book store and was enthralled from the first chapter. It's one of those books that I wanted to get through as quickly as possible to see what happens next, but not wanting to get through it too quickly as you really get to know the characters, which you'll miss when the book is finished.

At some point in the future, possibly, maybe, I would like to look at franchising options for Reputation Matters and if anyone got franchising right, then McDonald's are the blue print of doing this, and doing this well, and from whom I would like to learn as much as possible. The fact that they made their money from land ownership and not selling hamburgers is genius!

The crux of a well oiled machine, especially when it comes to franchising, or even different branches, is have proper systems in place. Even though McDonald's have very stringent systems and processes in place, they still allow their franchisees to be creative an innovative.

This book focuses on all the different possible aspects of running a business. Even Ray Kroc had his issues with partnerships (clearly happens to the best of us!). Interestingly at some point he had doubts about franchising because it comes with a host of different issues that come into play, which is definitely a good lessons to keep in mind. However, he later realised the importance of being partners towards the same goal

It also looks at the importance of communication, PR and marketing. What I really appreciated  was the value they saw in communication management, and aligning it to executive decisions and high level involvement.

They also realised the importance of engaging with the media, to be proactive and not ignoring it, especially during a crisis.

Definitely a book that I would recommend and read again - there are a lot of great lessons to be learnt.

9/10

Restaurant - Koi, Lynnwood Pretoria

My mom loves fish and we always tend to end up at the same place, so this time we tried Koi. I quite like the décor but am not too sure whether this place cut the mustard. 

FOOD - we both opted for the grilled calamari.  I had rice and Mom the chips. It was OK. Not bad, but nothing really spectacular and at those prices you would expect 'wow'. The rice was quite tasty, sweet & spicey and that was luckily fairly filling. Not too sure I can say the same about my Mom's chips. 

DRINKS - sparkling water

SERVICE - not as on the ball as one would expect and waited some time for everything. 

PARKING - ample 

VALUE FOR MONEY - it's pricey. I don't mind pricey as long as it is value for money and I don't believe it was at R120 for the plate of food we received (see pic) and still being a bit hungry afterwards.  

RECOMMENDABLE - doubt I will go back 3/10

Book Review - Awaken the Giant Within, Anthony Robbins

Sadly I did not connect with this book; had I not already been exposed to Eckhardt Tolle's New Earth, or Robin Sharma's Monk who Sold his Ferrari, I may have taken a lot more from this book. There are ideas and concepts that I liked, but it did feel a bit dated (rightly so as it was published in 1992), but at times a bit 'preachy' too - especially towards the end.

I am also not too convinced about his credibility, in one chapter he says how down in the dumps he was and in the next how he had been helping people from an early age. There are also a couple of examples that seem questionable, e.g. telling someone to get over their chocolate addiction to eat chocolate solidly for 9 days with only 4 glasses of water - yes I understand the principle behind it of causing pain associated with the addiction, but surely you can't give such advice without medical considerations?

So, as much as I did not really enjoy this book, there were good parts to it, I really enjoyed the different stories and examples shared, it made the rest of the book less laborious. The use of language and metaphors was also great, as this directly impacts on how we think and feel. Understanding how people have different rules that they live by, which is not wrong, but just to help understand how some people tick, was also interesting.

Would I recommend this book? Probably not, I think there are some other great, more up to date books out there.