Every day is a good day

Our favourite morning button, Snooze

The alarm goes off, you smack the snooze button, 5 minutes later the one sound in the morning which you detest the most goes off again, reality sets in, your weekend is over. It's time to feel your way around, find your fluffy slippers, brave the cold, stormy weather, get out of your cozy bed and make your way to the office. As you drive to the office, car heater on full blast, your wipers speedily trying to get rid of the rain drops so that you can clearly see the car in front of you braking, one can admit not many positive thoughts are going through your mind as you realise you have another super busy week ahead. The truth is once you get to the office and your week starts, you get into the routine and realise why you enjoy your job so much, even though it has its stresses, challenges, late nights and sacrifices. At times we forget how lucky we are to have a job, roof over our heads, luxuries in life, the opportunity to further our education, spend time with family & friends, travel and not have many limitations in our lifes. With that said, every day is a good day, even though at times all you want to do is hide in the office bathroom or under your desk.

Every day is a good day if

• You are travelling, experiencing a new culture and city
• You are making a difference in the lives of others whether it be volunteering at your local NGO
• You are being challenged, mentally, emotionally and physically
• You are positive even if you did not get your dream job or did not get the response you wanted from your colleagues
• You have people in your life, who allow you to be you, embrace your individualism.
• You allow yourself to be you, embrace your strengths and weaknesses
• You are able to admit when you have made a mistake or misjudged a situation
• You are able to focus on following our passion in life even if it means having to sacrifice a few pleasures in life.

Every day is a good day, if you are able to focus on the positives in life, realise that life is not as smooth as a smoothy and things do not always go according to plan even if you did all the pre- planning.

A refreshing morning in Woodstock

Morning buzz

Waking up on Saturday morning at 8am is not a favourite activity of mine I must admit,  however arriving at the Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, smelling the freshness of the organic foods being cooked, seeing the array of brightly coloured smoothies, feeling the morning atmosphere of the young & old strolling through the market is definitely worth the early wake up call.

Its a rather overwhelming experience if you are a virgin to the morning market, yes I am not proud of the fact that it was my first saturday morning visit, as the market has been on the go for a while however the morning market bug of freshness had bitten me so I will make up for all the time missed. There is a variety of stalls selling anything from iced tea, fresh pomegranate smoothies (definitely a must-have), chocolate tarts,fresh fish, vegetables, cheese, crepes, pizza, mojito's yes fresh mojito's at 9am.

Early morning Mojito's, cocktails & bubbly

It is definitely an overwhelming experience as there is so much variety that you actually do not know where to begin. My advise would be to just follow the smells, you may need to walk around in circles at first but one does not leave the biscuit mill empty handed or unhappy. I had the most delicious breakfast, I don't remember what it was called, but it was made up of a thin potato rosti, with bacon, a poached egg, cheese and hollandaise sauce and wow it was worth standing in a queue for 20 minutes as I enjoyed each bite and savoured the flavours. I left the morning market, happy, with a tummy filled with amazing freshness, a bag of treats even for my puppy Bella and the thought of when I will be back.

Crepes with Nutella

Our greatest strengths are our greatest weaknesses

The thought of our strengths being weaknesses does not make sense or does it. Sipping a cup of tea and thinking about this, made me realise how true this statement really is. We all have great strengths and weaknesses which we prefer most of the time not to discuss the latter as who really wants to run around, waving their arms in the air in a lumo dress stating your biggest weakness, well I certainly dont.

What is your greatest strength and if you really took time to think about it, could your ultimate strength be seen as a weakness? According to Wordnet web a perfectionist is a person who is displeased by anything that does not meet very high standards. How can this be seen as a weakness, shouldn't everyone strive to be a perfectionist? Not everyone is a perfectionist, some individuals are happy with just completing a task, not putting 100% into the task whereas a perfectionist will spend hours ensuring the task is completed even if it means pulling an all nighter and having a moment of being a coffaholic. Being a perfectionist could be seen as a weakness, because one may not have time to enjoy the small treasures of happiness in life because you are so engrossed in ensuring that things are perfect all the time, which in reality can be very exhausting, trust me. There is nothing wrong with being a perfectionist but one needs to know when to take a step back, realise that you have tried your best and give yourself the credit that you deserve.

Working in an environment which involves interacting with a number of very different people on a daily basis requires you to be empathetic as individuals have their own needs, worries and trying times. Listening to individuals share their worries, concerns about work, family and life can be trying at times as you want to be a good listener and hopefully give crediable advise. Being empathetic,being in touch with people their emotions, you may consider this to be a strength as not many people have this natural ability however this strength may be seen as a weakness. Being too empathetic may allow people to take advantage of the situation, so one needs to be aware of your strengths and realise that strengths can indeed be seen as weaknesses.

http://wsr.byu.edu/content/images/stories/wsr/images/perfectionism%20web.jpg

The art of using a cliche

The Sun will eventually peak out after a stormy day

The term cliche gets thrown around alot, people making excuses for using cliches, using a cliche and not realising it but the big question is,  do we understand what a cliche really is. According to Answers. com a cliche is an "overused expression or idea" or  "a person or character whose behavior is predictable or superficial"

The well known cliche Good things come to those who wait, is a phrase which I must admit I use very often. When friends are feeling down, unmotivated or can't see the sunshine at the end of a stormy day at the office or when things are not going according to plan, I always remind friends that something good will happen. It's important to just keep trying and in the end, the right outcome will be achieved whether you believe it's right or not. The expression Everything happens for a reason is another phrase which gets used on a regular basis probably more times a day than your average coffee addict. The truth is, does everything happen for a reason or is it just an overused expression. I guess I would like to believe that everything does happen for a reason, am I just living in a bubble by thinking this, or is it actually true. I dobelieve that all the hardwork, sacrifices, challenges, bumps in the road and tears are all part of a learning experience, contributing to my independence and life lessons.

So the next time you are questionning whether you have made the right decision and a colleague or friend uses the infamous cliche, believe it, even if you feel that you are living your fairy tale or in a pink bubble, the truth is, everything does happen for a reason whether we like it ot not.

Do we really take customer service seriously enough?

SAA Aircarfts

Welcome aboard SAA Express from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, please fasten your seat belts, relax and enjoy the flight. The cabin crew are here to assist, please let us know how we can make your flight more comfortable

These were the words expressed over the rather unclear announcer on my recent flight to PE, a very early flight, the sun had barely woken up. After we had departed, 1 air hostess handed out juice to the passengers, this was followed by a morning snack which is not one to write about, all I remember was the thick layer of sandwich spread which did not go down very well that early. For the rest of the just over an hour flight the air hostesses proceeded to hide at the front of the plane, behind their curtain and occasionally, peek out and go back to their conversation. This conversation involved an additional air hostess who was actually a passenger on the plane, all 3 air hostesses, decided to forget about their job at hand which is looking after their passengers, making their trip as comfortable as possible but rather they enjoy a good skinner and catch up session. This for me is not customer service, with the world cup literally around the corner our airline services should be on the ball.

The icing on the cake for me, was the fact that the air hostesses were not aware of the fact they were actaully being paid to take care of their customers and not stand and chat about their weekends and passengers on the plane.

I do hope that we are ready for the world cup with regard to customer service. I think we sometimes forget that great customer service is key to ensuring that our customers stick by our brand in the good and bad times. The reality of it is, that there are so many service providers out there, that we should be going out of our ways to ensure that our customers are happy. Whether you feel that your job isnt important enough or that it doesnt impact customers at all, the truth is in every job you have customers, whethe internal or external so take the responsibility and take care of your customers no matter big or small you feel your contribution may be.

Bafunny Bafunny, a sure way to laugh away any stress

SA's talented comedic team

After what has been a rather busy, stressful and challenging 5 months of 2010, a night celebrating South Africa’s top comedic talent is a sure way to let go of any stress and seriously get down & dirty with an array of SA talent. Bafunny Bafunny is made up of SA’s star-studded Comedy Team which features eight of the funniest stand-up comedians in South Africa. The team recently arrived home from London where they performed at the impressive Royal Albert Hall. Comedians included veterans and up and coming talent with Barry Hilton, Mark Banks, Marc Lottering, Nic Rabinowtiz, Trevor Noah, Loyiso Gola, John Vlismas and Kagiso Lediga getting a standing ovation from the crowd.

It was hosted at the Grand Arena, Grand West on the 28 & 29 May and I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the venue. It was my first time at the Grand Arena, I was very impressed with the assistance of the staff however the only downsider is the fact that there are literally only two ways to leave the venue. Thousands of individuals, pushing, shoving, trying to make their way to the exit is not a pleasant experience. Management definitely needs to look at alternative ways to get people to the exits, avoiding the mashpit of cranky human beings, the best thing to do would be to find a restaurant for a night cap however several restaurants were either closed or had restrictions such as you had to eat in order to be seated which I think is a bit ridiculous.

My favourite comedians of the night were my usual funny men who without fail make me laugh so much that my tummy hurts for days after, Marc Lottering and Nic Rabinowitz. Loyiso Gola, who hails from Gugs , is definitely one to watch out for, he had the crowd cracking up after literally each sentence. I was disappointed by Trevor Noah, his charasmatic charm usually adds to his humour however he was not a front runner for me. Barry Hilton showed signs of exhaustion, must be all the travelling and I felt that he does not really understand the Cape Town audience, his research or rather his homework on the crowd was lacking.

The evening of laughter definitely added to my list of what makes me a proudly South African. Celebrating South African talent, with thousands of happy and laughing fellow South African’s is a sure way to feel the energy of our talented comedians. Upcoming comedy festival, the Vodacom Funny Festival at the Baxter Theatre starts on 7 June which is always fun, except for the fact that the array of comedians does not really change each year, if you have not been I would suggest that you make an effort. A good laugh is always good for the soul.