SA Rocks

With great thanks @akianastasiou I have managed to get my hands on to the incredibly interesting debate that took place on Kieno Kammies show on 702.

Credit for the show goes to 702, Kieno and ofcourse Aki who provided the podcast. Listen and be astounded.

So without delaying any longer, here is the show – Click on the link to listen. Right click and save the link to your harddrive to download.

SA Rocks vs zasucks on 702

If you want to download and skip right to the SA Rocks/zasucks debate, it’s around the 25-30 minute mark that it starts. But don’t be fooled, the rest is just as riveting and occasionally soap-opera-esque.

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I am not sure what the origin of the below passage is, however it is interesting to consider. This is not the reality for many, many South Africans, I know. And I am also quite sure I am going to be blasted for posting this but I think it’s an interesting way to look at things:

We have spoken on many an occasion of the fact that violent crime in South Africa (or certainly a very high percentage of it), occurs between people who know each other. Rowing spouses, drunken siblings, jilted lovers, angry teenagers, disgruntled staff, unhappy colleagues. Murders between people who know each other account for 82% of all our countries murders. 18% of our nation’s murders happen as a result of hijacking, or broadly speaking, ‘robbery’.

So, here’s the good news. If we live in peace, good-will, charity, fairness, generosity and in a way that resolves conflict speedily and satisfactorily with our staff, family and those we know, we have roughly a 0.007% chance of being murdered in a ‘random’ attack by a stranger.

Let’s put this in context so we can appreciate comparatively how small our chances are of being murdered:

– You are 300 times more likely to die in a car accident
– You are 15000 times more likely to die of smoking related disorders (if you smoke)

But get this….you are over twice as likely to commit suicide.

So much rather stop smoking than emigrate – we are safer living here than puffing in Perth – if we live right.

If you do know where this came from, please let me know so I can add in the correct references.

PS: I’m a smoker.

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Yes, WE won the award (Best Group Blog) because there are a fair amount of contributors to this site. Many of whom are once-off, some who stayed for a very long time and some who helped me in the very beginning to build SA Rocks over a period of time.

As Dave (best business blog) posted on his blog: “Over 4000 blogs were nominated in this year’s awards, and over 25 000 people voted”.

I’ve been blogging for ±4 years now and it’s great to win a blog award no matter how “Shrouded” in controversy they are, seem to be or really aren’t.

I personally want to thank Chris Rawlinson and Huddlemind for putting together an absolutely sterling event that was well attended, fully stoked with Corona, Carlsberg, Stormhoek, Butlers Pizza and many more goodies. Chris – you did a fantastic job mate. Also massive thanks go out to Miguel dos Santos for all of the crazy and tough work that he did this year. Good things.

I loved the venue too, Chevelle was phenomenal and a club that I will most definitely be heading back to when I’m in CT. That’s located at 84 Harrington Rd in CT. Get there. Wicked.

Thanks to everyone for all the congratulatory responses, sms’s, emails, tweets and phonecalls. It’s great to receive recognition in any form for something that you are passionate about and contribute much time to.

And finally to everyone and anyone who took the time to support SA Rocks in this years SABA’s by nominating and voting for this blog, thank you. The growth of the supporters of this blog keep me motivated.

Oh – And to Seth Rotherham, spot on mate, you deserve every award you won. I am on my to your side of the world, live the holiday.

All images in this post are courtesy of Brandon Golding!

And Finally a video from the very hard-working Glen Verran:

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That’s right, it is that time of year again. time for the SA Blog Awards.

Nominations are open so all you need to do is head over to the SA Blog Awards website and submit some nominations. I say “some” because you can’t simply nominate SA Rocks for “Best blog of the year”. You’ll need to put at least three other nominations in three other categories. So click the below blogawards keychain and vote for SA Rocks and as many other blogs as you can think of.

I have some suggestions for you if you are a bit stuck:

Matthew Buckland – Best Business Blog
Blacknotes – Most Humorous South African Blog
Cooksister – Best Overeas Blog
ThoughtLeader – Best Group Blog
Mark Forrester – Best Design Blog

There are some tips. But do yourself a favour, head over to Afrigator and search through the South African blogs and see what’s out there.

Please send out your vote for SA Rocks and spread the word about the awards. There are many deserving blogs out there that need your nominations.

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Tonight at 19:30 I will be on SA FM talking about SA Rocks. I’m not too sure of the details surrounding the interview but I was contacted by SA FM yesterday to be on the show with Eric Miyeni.

I have been on Classic FM to talk about SA Rocks which went well as far as radio interviews go but yielded very little response on the blog. Let’s hope that this will be different!

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It’s tough to imagine anyone coming to South Africa and having nothing to do on holiday. In fact it’s almost impossible. We have everything you can imagine from the big five, to mountain ranges, historical sites and astounding beaches.

Here’s a great advert about just this topic but told from a very interesting (and old) perspective. Hilarious stuff.

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This post is a collection of my favourite stories and the ones that have performed the best over the past 12 months.

My Favourites

Theme – Cape Town on the Monopoly board

My confession

Hypocrisy and the “K” word

Knott-Craig

The million man march

I am South African

5 Reasons

I am not embarrassed

Top Posts

Pay Traffic Fines

Peppermint Tarts

Cape Town on the Monopoly Board

Interesting facts about South Africa

Ashley Callie Dies

Payfine goes down

Google Earth SA layer launches

Alan Knott Craig

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Keeping with the blogging of the world posts for the next week I sincerely believe that Lanzerac Hotel needed it’s very own blog post.

Situated in the heart of the Cape Winelands this hotel boasts a five star rating and with very good reason. The service staff is always smiling, seem to really love their job and are absolutely helpful in the true sense of the word absolute. You want something, they deliver.

The first and most astounding thing about the hotel is the vastness of the setting. I can’t tell you how many acres of land it occupies but it appears o be absolutely massive.

The very next thing that you’ll notice is the very old looking victorian-styled design of the hotel. Don’t mistake me, it’s not like the architect thought that the victorian era was a winner. It’s that the hotel is over 300 years old. Yes, that’s right. 300 years. I saw one of the logos on a menu and it had a date printed on it, 1692. I can’t verify if that is the date of building, hotel establishment date or what, but it’s a very old date.

Nevertheless, onwards. The rooms were really something to behold. Massive hotel rooms make for very comfortable living let me tell you. A desk for those who want to work with multiplugs for almost any nations power points to plug in to, a coffee table and two chairs, immaculate bedding tucked, folded and neat just the way I like and ofcourse a television for those of us who were too tired to do anything else.

I was fortunate in a strange way. I had planned to stay up and work at my night at Lanzerac. This took me to about 2am the next morning which meant that I really got to enjoy the magnificent room and setting.

Breakfast the following morning was incredibly laid out and once again supported by smiling and caring staff. The hot breakfast was design, but of course, and the esspresso was one of the best I’ve had in a long time.

Unfortunately that was it. We were literally only in the hotel for 12 hours sadly and had to depart.

I will be returning to this Cape Winelands gem, not for the wine although there is plenty of that.

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This post is a few days late but nonetheless deserves to be written as the Rosebank Hotel really is worth visiting if you get the chance.

Working in Rosebank I have, over the past months, driven past men and woman working at a steady rate at rebuilding and developing the renowned Rosebank Hotel. I was pretty excited to see that it was the very first stop on the bloggers tour.

My excitement was not misplaced and the hotel absolutely blew me away. Not cheap I am more than certain but if you have the time, inclination and money this hotel is well worth the night.

If you don’t have a night or the money for a night then I would definitely suggest going for coffee or a drink, sunrise or sunset (jokes).

The rooms are funky and different, the highlight of which is the massive glass shower that looks on to the room or over the view of Johannesburg depending on what side of the hotel you are situated. I love double showers with massive heads that pour water down, I also love it when a hotel recognises that I don’t want to bath at a hotel unless the bath is jacuzzi size. If it isn’t that big, leave it out as the Rosebank Hotel did. Nice moves.

The reception, bar area, conference rooms, entrance and every crevice down to the toilet signage are all decorated to perfection to create a new age African fusion feel to the entire hotel.

In other words do yourself a favour and take the misses for a toot.

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I think it’s time I tell you about my online shop, Babazeka. If you’ve been a fan of SA Rocks for a while now, you would have read about us here exactly a year ago when we first launched. We’ve come a long way since then, in fact, have recently re-launched a new shop interface and changed the way our system works too.

In a nutshell, Babazeka is a channel through which social upliftment projects, who produce handmade things, can reach a wider market. We display photo’s and descriptions of their products, show you pictures of the people who’ve put their time and energy into making them, and tell you the story behind the project that you’re supporting. It’s all about creating as much exposure as we can for the people in South Africa who have such amazing skills but who battle with getting their products out there.

Previously we were buying their stock up front, but this just meant that we couldn’t grow the business fast enough. The way we’re working now means that customers have to a wait a little longer for their products to be made, but it also means that we can support many more projects, especially more of the smaller guys.

Our range has grown a lot. We’ve got things like bags, cushion covers, jewellery, fun home decor pieces and only for a few weeks longer, christmas decorations.

More recently, I’ve been working on a range known as Babazeka Designs, whereby I’ve worked with crafters to design unique products for the site. This first range has a retro 70′s feel, where I’ve used bold patterns and designs, and a number of techniques and materials which were popular in this era, such as patchwork, leather and crochet.

You can read more about our experiences of growing the business on our blog, and can have a browse around our online shop here. I really hope you like what you see!

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