Good morning friends If you’re coming to the Cape this December, here are a few options to consider. For wine bars – Leo’s for edgy wines and a creative crowd, Culture for variety and some blockbusters, Furny’s for the joy…
Good morning good people Yesterday, after months of rain (for which we are grateful) and weeks of wind, summer arrived on the Cape Peninsula. Gaudy neon ribbons of runners and cyclists wove their way around the coastal road. Happy swimmers…
Dear Friends First, an announcement. From Thursday, my parents are visiting what is a currently a windy Southern Peninsula (the whales seem to be hiding out or have left) and so I am taking a break from writing to spend time…
Good morning good people I hope you’re well. The last few weeks haven’t had a lot of space for segues into art, wine and food, and today is not that different. I’ll be brief. You may remember a year ago…
Dear friends During the pandemic, I received an email from one of my favourite independent bookstores, Cape Town’s The Book Lounge, with an unusual proposition – ‘send us an email telling us what books you’ve enjoyed, and we’ll make a…
Dear friends Bibliophiles should diarise 4 August and oenophiles 22 August. I first encountered Anna de Koningh, in Phakamisa Ndzamela’s masterfully researched The Native Merchants, which I wrote about here. She started life enslaved and ended it as one of…
Dear friends Ten days ago, whilst working in the pre-dawn – that sounds hard-working, but in truth, winter sunrise is only at 08h00 – I heard a familiar yet always thrilling sound. A sound somewhat like a water-logged digeridoo being…
Good morning friends Today is more essay than letter. It’s a bit long. I apologise, but is about your self-care, about self-care for leaders. It needed the words. I’d love to know what you think. You can find me on LinkedIn…
Dear friends Apologies to those of you who missed my announcement that I wasn’t writing last weekend, I was flattered to know that you missed our letter. I was speaking at Interconnect Systems Strategy Conference and Standard Bank Group’s Software…
Dear Friends After last week’s letter, I received several emails sharing memories of other grandfathers who’d served in WW2 and other conflicts. Each email reflected on the pain that lived on decades past the war. William Bird alerted me…
Dear All My holiday break, of course, included wine, I live in Cape Town after all. There was a lazy Winemaker’s lunch beneath Rust en Vrede’s oaks. Despite summer’s heat, the sirloins demanded their Estate Syrah, it wasn’t a mistake.…
I apologise. I know that all effective conversations have four components – establishing relationship, deepening understanding, exploring possibilities, and agreeing action. Last week, I ignored this. It was a month since I’d written to you, and I felt pressured (my…