Prestige Issue 38

PRESTIGE i n

t h e

l a p

o f

l u x u r y

THE $250,000 PHONE

Lagerfeld & Döttling

MAGICAL OMAN Wally: Dare to Design

MERCEDES SLS AMG

South Africa’s Premier Luxury Lifestyle Magazine

ISSUE NO. 38

R49.95

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contents

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34 20

special features 14 Playing it Safe Karl Lagerfeld & Döttling

34 52 68 78 84

An Intimate and Animalistic Future Li Edelkoort’s Predictions

Calling on Cape Town Africa’s First City of Design

Preserving the Past The National Antiques Faire

Viva La Romanticism The Poetry of Blake & Keats

Love Letters to Paris The Cambridge Five

business & csi The Value of a Liberal Arts 50 Education Ivy League Schools

74

72

Knowledge of Offshore Investments

86

The Me-Too Professional

ABSA Thought Leadership Mythmanagement

haute horlogerie 20 The World's Priciest Phone 38 Collective Soul 58 Thin is In 74 Snakebite Bares its Teeth Celsius LeDix

Talking Time with Peter Machlup Ultra-Slim Watches

Urwerk’s Latest Assault on Watch Design

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contents

30

24

lifestyle & travel 28 Investing in Your Appearance 30 A Hidden Treasure 42 Autumn Sale 2010 46 Do Business Better 62 From Country to Coast Success is in the Detail Inside Oman

Grahams Fine Art Auctioneers The Reef Hotel

Hacklewood & The Sands

motoring & aviation 16 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG 40 Flying the Flag for Planet Earth 64 Small Car Revolution Takes to Mexico

The Airbus A380 Super Jumbo The Mini Under Attack

boating & yachting 24 Dare to Design 56 Grand Dame of the Blue 80 Elegance at Sea Wally Yachts

Fairline Squadron

Azimut Leonardo 100

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regulars 8 Letter from the Chairman 10 Letter from the Editor 12 Live the Life 55 Premier Travel Portfolio 88 Making Waves

The love of my life, seen here with my wife

AIRCRAFT SALES Keith Garritt, passionate owner.

BEECHCRAFT BONANZA G36

BEECHCRAFT BARON G58

S A L E S l M A I N T E N A N C E l PA RT S l AV I O N I C S l C H A RT E R l T R A I N I N G l VA L U E A D D E D P R O D U C T S l F I N A N C E l I N S U R A N C E

“NAC really understands my passion for aircraft. With their versatile product range, you’ll always find the best of breed in what you are looking for. In my opinion, there is nothing finer than the Beechcraft Bonanza or Baron, and NAC hooked me up with the love of my life.”

609Baron_Prestige_23.04

“Speak to NAC about your aviation requirements today and they’ll be able to find the right aircraft to satisfy your passion too!” – Keith Garritt

For more information contact: Lanseria +27 11 267 5000 • Rand +27 11 345 2500 • Cape Town +27 21 425 3868 Pretoria +27 12 567 5161 • Durban +27 31 571 8316 • Gaborone +267 397 5257 Australia +6189 429 8881 • USA +27 001 316 685 8660 • ISO 9001:2008 Quality Assured • www.nac.co.za

letter from the

chairman

Design Renaissance is a special theme for me – it energises, revitalises and empowers change. It is a time for challenging old paradigms, of seeking new ways of doing things, of understanding the implications in all that we do as we are more mindful of the implications of the planet so that future generations have something of their heritage to appreciate. After this period of world turmoil, that time has come!

This exciting edition of Prestige is packed with innovation on design, about people who are daring enough to challenge the status quo, of people willing to step off the abyss into the unknown. So, from fashion and photography to great mechanical works synergised with art, we have sought to bring in a myriad of interesting insights from recognised experts worldwide. Also new onboard are several writers who serve as thought leaders in their specialist areas, greatly enhancing the read quality of Prestige.

Those of you who have been following the evolution of our magazine over recent months would have noted that we are going through a renaissance of our own – a proactive one, recognising the ever-changing needs of our discerning readers and clients. It has always been our philosophy that the true client of Prestige should never have purchased a copy of the magazine. We have, however, taken the quality and content of the magazine to such new heights that people eagerly await each issue and we are inundated each month with requests for further copies.

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Through our renaissance, we are expanding our objective of providing readers with experiences to which they can aspire. And we see our role to enthuse and provide glimpses of a future world free of boundaries, of bias, full of understanding and of every human being’s mindfulness of his or her actions and the consequences of those actions.

I have read several pieces around personal ownership, accountability and leadership of late and one of the most inspiring quotes by one of my favourite authors comes to mind, particularly for this edition: “You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen” – Paulo Coelho. The entire Prestige team is geared for this new realm.

Thought leadership around “lifestyle” and what it means is our game.

As part of our renaissance at Prestige, we would love to receive your inputs on experiences you would like to share as well as your thoughts on the changing world.

We intend implementing a regular feature with content from our readers. Kindly email these to escuchar@neoafrica.com and we will publish a selection of these stories or letters that reflect these values. We look forward to moving forward with you.

PRESTIGE

letter from

i n

t h e

l a p

o f

l u x u r y

www.prestigemag.co.za

PUBLISHER – Neo Publishing (Pty) Ltd Tel: +27 11 484 2833 Fax: +27 86 699 2266

the editor

CHAIRMAN – Vivien Natasen vivien@neoafrica.com © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

Nowadays, as mass-consumer culture and much mindless babble abound, there seems to be very little original thought out there in the world. Some prefer to follow, rather than lead. Some prefer to wait for others to do it first, and then try to do it better. The team at Prestige is proud of the fact that we are something of a benchmark by which other publications in the lifestyle In Our Next Edition: genre measure themselves.

What South Africa has Given the World It’s great to be the leader of the pack, the one others look to for inspiration, for ideas, for direction. And South Africa is this place, this leader on many fronts. Take the World Design Capital competition, for example. The world is looking to our very own Mother City as a contender for this most auspicious of titles. And the benefits will be plentiful, including securing visibility as a hub of creative and original thought, attracting investors, strengthening economic development, and positioning the city as a world leader in design.

“Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It's a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda and philosophy.” – Erik Adigard, Designer And then there are our efforts in the fight against climate change and the devastation of the planet’s natural resources, and our ever-expanding carbon footprint. And this we are doing one collectible coffee table at a time. South Africa’s involvement in the international “Antiques Are Green” campaign is part of a global quest to sustain, re-use and re-sell in a bid to “recycle the past.”

This is but a little taste of the feast we have in store for you this month, and which we present to you with great relish. Herein you’ll discover Karl Lagerfeld’s latest creation, which is a rather far cry from his fashion antics of the past but which is nonetheless just as remarkable. You’ll slide into the realm of the slightly bizarre through our feature on what is possibly the most expensive cell phone ever made, and something of a mechanical masterpiece too, before reading what trend forecaster Li Edelkoort has predicted for our collective future. We’ll take you on a journey from the distant shores of magical Oman to the United States, where the promise of a liberal arts education beckons local hopefuls. You’ll come to understand how the aviation industry is working hard at reducing its carbon emissions, how the Mini Cooper is slowly but surely being usurped by mightier, more mini competitors, how the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG handled a long and hard test drive along the great Panamerican Highway, and why the daringly designed Wally range of yachts are so highly admired.

Change doesn’t happen overnight and indeed each person needs to give a little something, just a little something, to set into effect a series of events that can change the course of the future. Prestige will continue to do this each month; to fight the good fight. And what are we doing for the planet? Printing with a company that proudly wears its “printing responsibly” badge, that’s what.

This edition is smooth, sleek and chic. Devour without guilt and please, do enjoy.

Toni Liked what you read but not sure where to find us each month? Prestige is available on-shelf in select CNA, Exclusive Books and Woolworths stores.

MANAGING EDITOR – Charl du Plessis charl@prestigemag.co.za EDITOR – Toni Muir toni@prestigemag.co.za ADMIN & CIRCULATION – Lodene Grobler lodene@prestigemag.co.za ADVERTISING Jean Ramsay (Cape Town) Cell: +27 79 508 0428 jean@prestigemag.co.za Rui Barbosa (Sales Manager) Tel: +27 84 290 2070 rui@prestigemag.co.za Adie Ceruti (Gauteng) Tel: +27 83 601 2291 / +27 11 465 1572 adie@prestigemag.co.za Katy Essa (Gauteng) Tel: +27 82 633 2962 katy@prestigemag.co.za Namibian BUREAU Mynard Slabbert (Commercial Manager) Tel: +264 81 227 2380 mynard@prestigemag.co.za DESIGN & LAYOUT VDS Design Studio Liesel van der Schyf Tel: +27 82 336 7537 liesel@vdsdesign.co.za Proof-reading Clive Moses Print Paarl Web, Gauteng SUBSCRIPTIONS R499 for 12 issues; R949 for 24 issues SMS the words SUBSCRIBE PRESTIGE, followed by your name and email address, to +27 79 876 4130.

Alternatively, email your name, cell number and delivery address to mail@prestigemag.co.za.

DISTRIBUTION Prestige is available on newsstands and through subscription. Free public space distribution includes over 50 charter fleets operating in the Southern African region. Top five-star hotels and all major business class airport lounges nationally receive free monthly copies.

Also look for Prestige in up-scale coffee shops, spas and private banking waiting areas.

Cover Images Karl Lagerfeld/Döttling; Wally Yachts; iStockphoto.com; Daimler AG; Celsius

All rights reserved. Prestige is published by Neo Publishing.

Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher or any of its clients. Information has been included in good faith by the publisher and is believed to be correct at the time of going to print. No responsibility can be accepted for errors and omissions. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information and reports in this magazine, the publisher does not accept any responsibility, whatsoever, for any errors or omissions, or for any effects resulting therefrom. No part of this publication may be used, or reproduced in any form, without the written permission of the publisher. Copyright 2010. All copyright for material appearing in this magazine belongs to Neo Publishing and/or the individual contributors. All rights reserved.

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HOLiLi Outdoor Emotions German company HOLiLi Outdoor Emotions has been bringing premium outdoor furniture to customers since 2006. Mixing the convenience and durability of all-weather furniture with outstanding German research and development, as well as ferociousness for quality that endures, this relative newcomer’s latest trend in outdoor furniture has set a standard to which others will aspire. With over four years experience in both manufacturing and retail, HOLiLi has come up trumps with inimitable designs, funky, out-of-thebox ideas – how does a chill box at the foot of your sunbed sound? – and the highest quality finishes. HOLiLi South Africa will celebrate their first anniversary this August and use the opportunity to launch the new collections La Fleur, Sundance and Di Mare. Be ready for a new functional style that will make your patio look even better than your living room. Visit www.holili.com or contact +27 11 023 8098 or email southafrica@holili.com.

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Safe& Playing it

Karl Lagerfeld

Dรถttling

SECRETIVE

In the most daring collaboration of extreme style and craftsmanship, German safe manufacturer Döttling and fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld have created the world’s most elegant coffre-fort safe, "Narcissus."

T

he fabled fashion kingpin needs no introduction.

Some call him the Kaiser of fashion. As creative director of the Chanel empire, the inspiration behind Fendi and owner of his own line, Lagerfeld has been at the vanguard of the very industry that considers itself the vanguard of where taste and style will move in the future.

Known to be almost obsessive about devouring cultural products such as books and film, and then turning his creative talents towards infusing not only the world of couture, but various other areas with his bold visions, it has taken Lagerfeld just a little bit more than the requisite seven days to shape our world in his vision.

Decidedly anti-bourgeois, almost anti-materialistic, yet adorned with all that materialists would die for, he taunts our sense of self and the way we engage and re-engage with the artefacts by which we define ourselves. In this collaboration with Döttling, it is no different.

The Döttling family has been in the safe-making business for four generations and pioneered the concept of bespoke coffre-fort safes.

Escaping the potential limitations of the durable materials from which these items are constructed, Döttling safes follow a design concept that evokes the romanticism of an era where steam boats and trains had travelling trunks piled high on the platform. Calf or pig leather exteriors, personalised compartments and layout in the interior, together with the availability of technicians to service your state-of-the-art safe wherever you (or your superyacht) may be in the world, are some of the

Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS; DÖTTLING Images: DÖTTLING; KARL LAGERFELD

elements that have catapulted Döttling to the very pinnacle of luxury.

Their craftsmen have salvaged safes that date back to the medieval De Medici family and turned them into usable pieces for modern-day owners.

When the very instrument with which you protect your spoils from your success has become a thing of beauty and value in itself, you know you have arrived.

In an exciting collaboration, Döttling and Lagerfeld recently gave the world of ultra-luxury a glimpse into their shared vision, when Lagerfeld designed the world’s most expensive safe, for himself. First done in two dimensions by Lagerfeld, on paper, he set Döttling the task of turning his ideas into reality. Or so it appears, because the end product is almost dream-like. The result is “Narcissus,” a high-security safe of exceptional character and with a pricetag of just €250,000. Only 30 more of these models will be produced for ardent Lagerfeld followers among the super-wealthy.

A minimalistic room installation at first glance, the safe reveals its capabilities only once it has identified its owner and has been activated by him. Two handcrafted interior cabinets containing watch winders and jewellery drawers then emerge from its steel body, each weighing 800 kilograms and sheathed in high-gloss, chrome-plated aluminium.

This happens automatically, as if controlled by an invisible hand. At 1.8 metres high and 1.0 metres wide, but just 30 cm deep, Narcissus breaks through previous aesthetic and technical limits.

The world has never before seen such a slim, high-security safe.

This highly innovative safe is also a

very personal statement by a public figure that has made, and continues to make, history in the worlds of fashion and photography. Naturally, the first model is reserved for its creator, Lagerfeld, who also photographed it himself. Referring to his masterpiece, Lagerfeld said: “I am not interested in what people want. I’ve designed a safe that I would like to own and which will stand in my home. Markus Döttling built it for me.” 

The Legend of Narcissus Greek and Roman mythology tell different versions of the same story, of a boy so beautiful that everyone fell in love with him, including Echo, who fell for his charms and shyly followed him through the forest.

Narcissus would call out “Who's there?” several times, with Echo too reserved to show herself. When she finally appeared to him, he rejected her advances and she fell into misery and sorrow, painfully pining away till nothing but her voice remained.

Scorned in love, Echo turned her fury against Narcissus and prayed to the goddess Nemesis to help her avenge the rejection. So, when hunting in the forest one day, Nemesis decided to teach Narcissus a lesson, and allowed him to catch a glimpse of himself when he glanced at a reflection of his own youthful face in a pool of water. Like all other mortals, he instantly fell in love with the handsome face, and pined to be with the beautiful person he saw. As he eventually realised it was his own reflection, he tore at his clothes and beat his body as life drained from him.

All that was left was the flower that still grows at the spot where he died.

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Mercedes-Benz

SLS AMG

Takes to Mexico

In the 1950s, when men were men and airbags and ABS were a distant dream, there was a great and famous road race called the Carrera Panamericana. In the vein of Italyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mille Miglia, it was a brutally challenging race along the newly built Mexican section of the great Panamerican Highway, a road running from northern Alaska all the way to Buenos Aires.

Words: Alexander Parker Images: Š Daimler AG

T

he Mexican road still exists — indeed it is in superb condition — and you can see why the government of the time immediately thought that a road race would be the best way to publicise it.

It is not so much a road as a seemingly endless race track, a tortured squiggle through the heights of the Sierra Madre, the spectacular canyons of Oaxaca and down to the steamy Pacific coast. It looks tough today, and one can only imagine it 60 years ago, with skinny tyres and a distinct lack of ESP. Mercedes-Benz won the race in 1952 in a 300SL, the legendary “gullwing.” Now, in 2010, there’s a new gullwing, called the SLS AMG. It was in one of these new monsters that I turned off the toll motorway heading from Puebla to Oaxaca, and hit the old road, Mex 190, the original route of the Carrera Panamericana.

The SLS doesn’t introduce itself

boy living a dream. What I needed to do was calm down, slow down, take a breath and do the SLS the honour of remembering the basics of driving a very fast car on a treacherous and challenging road.

And then, over two glorious days, I drove the SLS hard and fast along that demonically twisted, impossibly difficult road. The stretch between Puebla and Oaxaca was characterised by mountain passes and steep inclines. We burst through the 3,000-metre altitude high in the white dust of the Sierra Madre, and it was on this stretch that the SLS AMG announced itself as a savage and blisteringly competent sportscar.

The SLS is a 63, meaning it comes equipped with AMG’s legendary 6.2-litre V8. In SLS guise, the motor has been given free reign to be all it can be. It’s tweaked to produce 420kW, nearly 600BHP in old money, and comes mated to a superb sevenspeed automatic with tiptronic

driver is brave. It’s quite the sensation.

Still, there’s little time to savour such sentiments because, coming at you like the prow of the USS Enterprise, is a corner. So, you snatch a couple of gears with your left paddle. The big V8 barks, automatically blipping the throttle for each downchange. On over-run the exhausts pop and crackle and snarl. You’re on the brakes, and hard. It’s like driving into a wall, the brakes are so solid, you turn in and load up the car as you accelerate through the corner. The grip is simply epic, but then, right there on the apex, you give it the full welly. The back starts to drift but it’s all so controllable, and you burst out of the corner in a world of noise, fury and joy — and all at speeds that you just wouldn’t think possible. The SLS corners in defiance of physics.

The SLS is unusual in that it’s an AMG-led project. Mercedes just did the exterior design. It’ll only ever be available in AMG guise. There

politely. This isn’t a welcoming SL or a cossetting CL. No, this is unlike any Mercedes since the SLR. I was driving on the wrong side of the road for the first time in years and the SLS is big.

It’s wide, and that bonnet vanishes out of sight. Initially I felt like my fists were made of ham and my feet of jelly.

But like all good cars, in time matters are brought together. As in racing, so much of getting things right is related to issues of the mind.

The problem was that I was too overeager, too much the nine-year-old

paddles, and, crucially, an exhaust note that takes what was already brutal in the C63 or the E63, and makes it something biblical.

On the straights the SLS is mindblowingly fast. It’s like riding an explosion. The power is instant and shocking, and then, even better, it feels limitless. On a public road, even driving flat out with police escorts as we were, there was never a sense of getting to the limit of what the car could do. There was always this feeling that the car is faster than the

will never be an SLS 500 or, God forbid, an SLS 320 CDi. This feels right, because when Mercedes-Benz went to recreate the gullwing, they took on the real possibility of sullying a very precious piece of motoring heritage.

Well, they didn’t. What we have here is a car that sits on the thin line between supercar and sports GT, a car that lives up to the legend and, indeed, grows it. The SLS is just about the best thing on wheels right now. 

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LIFE PASSION ADVENTURE

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LIFE PASSION ADVENTURE

STREAMLINE

CELSIUS

LeDIX

PHONE

STREAMLINE

Blame Roland Iten, if you feel the need to explain how a mobile phone can command the price of a Ferrari. It was Iten who launched a belt buckle – yes, a belt buckle – back in 2006 with a price tag equal to that of a wellequipped, mid-level Mercedes-Benz. Or you might blame Bugatti, who pushed cars well beyond the $1 million mark. And there’s always Vertu, the first company to elevate phones from mundane to opulent. All have raised the bar for luxury goods to new and stratospheric levels.

Words: KEN KESSLER Images: © CELSIUS

Y

ou have the perfect recipe for the 21st Century’s era-defining accessory: upscale phones follow a long line of gilded lilies, including solid-gold hipflasks, gem-encrusted fountain pens and platinum keyrings. Vertu’s phones justify their cost with rarity value, a mix of precious metals and other materials, and a concierge service more in keeping with an upper level Amex card. Vertu has been joined in 2010 by LeDIX, which is to the Vertu what the aforementioned

Bugatti is to a VW Passat.

LeDIX’s role model is the mechanical wristwatch – currently the hottest portable indicator of one’s taste and liquidity, and resolutely classified as jewellery despite the timekeeping functionality. As a marriage of two disciplines, LeDIX is billed as the world’s first “mechanical” mobile phone, the company’s slogan telling all: “A Grand Complication for timeless communications.”

They’re not kidding. Created by a new company named Celsius X VI II, founded by a quartet of

thirtysomethings, LeDIX immediately signals its position in the mobile communications firmament by possessing the sort of heft once associated with yuppie-era “cell phones” the size of house bricks. And this phone isn’t merely “mechanical,” it contains nothing less than a fully working tourbillon timekeeper.

Do not let its 245g weight suggest a throwback to the dawn of cell phones. This objet – and you do tend to lapse into a French accent when you discuss it – suffers bulk no greater than any current, pocketable, clamshell-style phone. Instead of seeming unwieldy, like a phone circa 1988, it feels weighty in a rewarding and satisfying way, almost a substitute for worry beads. Approach it as you would a favourite Dupont lighter, or a Tibaldi pen: you’ll want to handle it, roll it around in your palm, even when you’re not using it.

Separating the instant mythology from the intrinsic worth is easier than you might think. When it was announced, LeDIX elicited the same scepticism as Iten’s complex belt buckle. Once you see it and handle it, and listen to its designers as they explain its raison d’être, it almost makes sense.

Just as Akio Morita of Sony was inspired to devise the original Walkman due to boredom in-flight, so was LeDIX’s inventor, Thomas Pruvot, driven by a seemingly minor need. He found that the loss of the clock function on his mobile phone, when switched off during flights, was an inconvenience too far. Without

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wondering why he didn’t simply look at his wristwatch, we know that he thought laterally about the dilemma: why not combine a mechanical timepiece with a mobile phone?

His mad vision has resulted in the coolest executive toy ever.

Fashioned from superior materials, including a basic shell of CNC-cut titanium, the top surface of LeDIX contains a skeletal tourbillon with analogue dial and fully-exposed movement. It is, by any horological measure, a thing of beauty, and one is hard-pressed to take one’s eyes off it.

Its look will be familiar to those aware of Richard Mille’s creations, for Mille’s participation – and reputation – allowed the pieces to fall into place: the French watch manufacturer has a seat on the Celsius X VI II board.

To integrate its presence into the phone, rather than have it sit there as a mere add-on, the watch is wound every time the user opens LeDIX. A single opening provides it with three hours winding, out of a 100-hourplus power reserve. Even the battery housing is mechanical, the power cell smoothly ejected from its nest when the owner needs to change it for a fresh one.

But it still has to work as a phone.

Along with partners Edouard Meylan, Alejandro Ricart and Romaric André, Pruvot has studied potential clients carefully, identifying a personality profile of the individuals who are prepared to spend upwards of a quarter million Dollars or more on a mobile phone: a LeDIX owner is an achiever of the sort who is cash-rich and timepoor, with a busy life that demands a phone for its essentials rather than frills. They will be offered two versions: LeDIX Origine, limited to 18 examples in grade 5 titanium with ebony inserts, and LeDIX Sport, of which 28 will be produced in black PVDtreated titanium with carbon-fibre inserts.

Inside LeDIX is a top-level SAGEM phone, its menu reduced to five key

functions for immediate access: calling, messaging, calendar, address book and camera. Less-used functions – email, Internet, etc – reside in submenus. One member of the team also admitted that the sort of client interested enough even to enquire about LeDIX would probably own, as well, a Blackberry and an iPhone for other functions. LeDIX is therefore best described as one’s “dress phone.”

From the sapphire glass screen to the dedicated docking/charging station to the hand-sewn leather carry case, each LeDIX comes with an array of lavish accessories that separate it from normal phones. The experience, though, needs little assistance in informing the user of LeDIX’s rarefied being: the owner can hear the gentle ticking of the tourbillon timepiece as he or she places it against an ear. The precise action of the moving parts, the feel of the smooth case and its attendant weight are constant reminders that this is not a phone that came off an assembly line of 500,000 or so identical models.

Celsius X VI II has plans to increase the mechanical element of LeDIX in the future. A hand-wound battery recharger, like that used on radios sold in underdeveloped territories, with its handle recessed into the caseback, would be a nice addition.

The company has already addressed reliability and security matters, even creating a special “loaner” phone without the tourbillon (and not for sale separately), should any LeDIX be returned to the factory for service or an upgrade.

Celsius X VI II also addressed one other matter, probably not consciously, but simply as a by-product of the design itself. In LeDIX, we just may have the first ever mobile phone that no owner will accidentally leave in a restaurant.

Visit www.Celsius-X-VI-II.com for more info. 

GRANCABRIO, BY MASERATI.

Experience more.

EXPERIENCE No24: Touch excellence

PERSONALISED INTERIOR, EXCLUSIVE AND TAILOR-MADE MATERIALS. Think beyond mere excellence of materials. Imagine interiors finished to reflect your personality. Caress the 11 colours of the Poltrona Frau® leather interiors, the exquisite wood and lacquered finishes, the 6 external hood fabric colours and the 3 matt shades available for its interior. The combinations are virtually infinite, and are just some of the personalised features the Maserati GranCabrio has in store for you and your senses.

Combined fuel consumption: 12,3 L/100 km - CO2 Emissions: 354 g/km (data subject to homologation)

VIGLIETTI MOTORS (PTY) LTD. - Official Maserati Importer, South Africa Head office: 0860 106 244 l www.maserati.co.za l email: maserati@viglietti.co.za Cape Town Dealership: Bryanston Dealership:

78 Roeland Street, Cape Town 8001, Western Cape telephone: +27 (21) 464 3560 l facsimile: +27 (21) 464 3565 80 Hobart Street, Bryanston, Gauteng, 2196 telephone: +27 (11) 706 6900 l facsimile: +27 (11) 706 7227 l 0860 MASERATI

Wally

Yachts

Yachting is the ultimate luxury lifestyle. And in the tight universe of luxury yacht aficionados, traversing the world from yacht shows in Abu Dhabi, Russia, Genoa and Asia, to Cannes, Monaco, London or Miami, no other yacht series attracts the same kind of attention at each show, or through devotees on the web, as does Wally.

Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS Images: Š WALLY YACHTS; GILLES MARTIN-RAGET; TONI MENEGUZZO; CARLO BORLENGHI; FLY PICTURES

Dare TO DESIGN

T

he Wally Boatyard manufactures a range of sailing and power yachts, impressive not only for their futuristic design but also for their daring size.

The largest Wallypower is an 85-metre (278 foot) yacht, which aptly classifies it as a gigayacht. The Wallypower Tradition has two VIP cabins and six staterooms for guests, 1,632 square metres of interior space and another 987 square metres of deck space – you can swing more than one cat within these kinds of dimensions.

With a fuel capacity of 234,000 litres (accept gracefully if your guests offer to pick up the refill tab!), the Tradition has a range of 7,000 nautical miles if cruising comfortably at 14 knots, although it can reach speeds of

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I recently had the pleasure of up to 18 knots. But let’s face it – this stepping aboard a Wally for a better is an outrageous yacht to which look. The first impression is absolute perhaps only a Bill Gates, Roman minimalism; it felt like the yacht was Abramovich, Paul Allen, or some oil rigged to shoot to outer space. Then, sheikh might aspire. some of the warmth of the woodwork Wallypower manufactures seven starts softening the initial technodifferent size yachts in the Wallypower shock, and it becomes a Soho loft series, ranging from 47 foot up to 125 foot (this is still a first impression is absolute rather massive yacht The compared to what we minimalism; it felt like the yacht was have on South African rigged to shoot to outer space. waters). These yachts apartment where you could imagine all follow the distinctive Wally design chic supermodels and trendy artists that appears to be somewhere lazing around close to the floor. The between stealth bomber and Formula host for my onboard tour pointed out One racing car: slim and very distinct how there were no protruding hull lines, lightweight construction sections breaking the aerodynamics for roaring speeds, light-coloured of the hull line. This yacht was about wood decks, and then those ominous power and speed. And, I suspect, and stark dark windows.

plenty of attention. The helm looked like that of a fighter jet, and with an upper deck like this, I am afraid that I remember very little of the interior below deck. But rest assured, it was the best money can buy.

And then, just when the purists of the ocean sports thought they could comfortably dismiss the Wally crowd as a bunch of petro-head showboaters with a thing for water, Wally entered the domain of the masters of the deep and started manufacturing sailing boats just as spectacular. With almost 30 custom sailing yachts of anything between 30 foot to a few 105 foot and 107 foot megasailers, the Wallysail series has attracted as much attention as their power cousins.

Following many of the same clean, open and light design features that have become the Wally hallmark, the sailing design team partnered with Dynamic Stability Systems (DSS) in 2008 to become the first company to adopt DSSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hydrodynamic foils that slide through the hull to increase performance and stability, improving comfort, reducing displacement and draft. Wally R&D and DSS have been working closely over two years to develop a new 45-metre or 150-foot vessel and a new 30-metre or 100-foot yacht, as well as completing the retrofit of an existing Wally 94. This technological collaboration has produced breakthrough projects perfectly reflecting the Wally concept of having simple, fast, stylish, safe and comfortable superyachts.

Unlike the Wallypowers, which are closely held by their private owners, one can charter several of the larger Wallysail yachts in the western Mediterranean. For more info visit www.wally.com or join one of the many Wally-spotting web groups from around the world who share their passion and surveillance of these celebrities of luxury yachting. ď ?

Investing in Your

Appearance Success is in the Detail

The verb “groom” or “to groom,” declares the Concise Oxford with uncharacteristic inadequacy, means “to give a neat and tidy appearance.”

If there’s one single, inalienable tenet of good grooming – if indeed there can be any generalisation in such a deeply subjective area that’s about good taste and not how loud your aftershave can shout – it’s that in successful circles, whatever your age, understatement is the key. Less is always more.

Words: GAVIN BARFIELD Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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SVELTE

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oday's well-groomed man, unobtrusively proclaiming authority, elegance and assurance, merely smells clean, and that’s the most alluring smell of all. Gone are the days when no gentleman, perfumed and pomaded fit to choke a goat, would dream of venturing out of his lair if not “correctly” dressed in starched shirt and dickey-bow, tail coat, gloves, waxed moustache and cane. Even if all he planned to do was take the “other half” (who always carried a parasol and a wicker picnic basket of ever-so-thin cucumber sandwiches) to the river for the day on a penny-farthing bicycle, where they would sit and nibble the goodies with the points of their teeth as they listened to Max Bygraves, who hadn’t even been invented yet.

Today’s new breed of metrosexual man is very aware of presentation – and that means deportment, style and manner as well as the outer trappings.

Eau-de-credit-card, however much it costs, is by definition vulgar and brands the wearer as such, attracting attention to itself like a naked Mother Superior running through town at midnight ringing a fire-bell.

That’s not to say, of course, that today’s man is averse to a little unobtrusive help from science – moisturiser, a touch of wrinkle cream here and there, facials and manicures.

The prejudices that bedevilled these products and processes even in quite recent times have rightly been consigned to outer darkness, replaced by the knowledge that quiet elegance and the projection of confidence and success are more important and will open far more of the right doors than macho swagger.

The way you wear a smart suit or a jacket, how you stand, the way you move in it, is ultimately far more important than the brand thereof. If you don’t know how to make the most of the natural drape and “hang” of good clothes, you’re no different from the meanest derelict who ever lent style to a cast-off blazer just because of the way he wore it. If you feel good

good taste and trendsetters, rather about yourself, and the clothes are than docile, obedient sheep? Since well fitted, you’ll quietly proclaim style the advent of the idiot tube in 1976, and panache without even knowing that flickering conversation-killer in you’re doing it. It’s an inside thing, the corner with its endless dreary heady and magnetic. The knowledge menu of repeats and sub-mediocre that you look good makes you feel transatlantic fare, South Africans good, and the one feeds off the other. seem to have made it their life’s work A well modulated and measured to make fools of themselves by tone beats a barrage of buzzwords imitating in clothing and behaviour any day. And so, across the coming the unlovely habits and gaudy few months we’ll take a look at those affectations of people who work in aspects of grooming that add value, the entertainment industry. What has not detract from it. The topic is at become of our identities, our once broader and more subtle than individuality? Three-day stubble is for the boringly stereotypical light sheen American film stars. None of us is an of sweat on rock-hard, iron-pumped American film star. abs; ruthlessly efficient and vitaminChewing gum at all, let alone engorged organs; veins standing out chewing it in the same way that knotted and throbbing on perfectlycamels have, mouth agape, is enough honed necks and the improbable feats to send any woman worth her salt of strength and endurance in the area bolting for the distant hills, even if of bedroom athletics that are the you have a face and body of such breathless staple of the popular men’s incomparable magnificence that they franchises. might stop a striking clock. If you Spritzing oneself with fancifullypackaged chemicals with all the subtlety Today’s new breed of metrosexual man of a grand piano is very aware of presentation – and that falling through a means deportment, style and manner greenhouse roof from a great height as well as the outer trappings. were George Clooney, or that pushy serves only to brand the wearer little Scientologist bloke, perhaps she forevermore as a barbarian with might be prepared to overlook your the style and taste of a poxdeplorable manners. But not doctor’s clerk. otherwise.

Spiky, gelled-up hair looks good – Indulge yourself with the on a porcupine. Likewise, two colognes, the emollients, the millimetres of angry macho bristle massages, the pumice stones and instead of well-kept, suitably shaped secret paraphernalia of the bathroom and styled hair simply makes you look and the salon. Pamper yourself with like a cross between a diseased billiard accessories; the wafer-thin, elegant ball and a wannabe Kray brother. wristwatch with crocodile-leather Tattoos that show, of course – and strap. By all means swathe yourself in don’t let that importuning limb of beautiful clothes and drive a Satan at the tattoo parlour convince magnificent metal beastie that you otherwise – instantly blow out of proclaims who you are. the proverbial window the indefinable There are as many definitions of air of respectability and success that success as there are of – well, love, for you want to project as a man of taste example. Success, just as love does, and influence, and proclaim you as a exists in as many infinite and varied football hooligan who’s somehow forms as there are individuals to arrived early and lost his way to the express it. And never more than now stadium. has there been such a preponderance Why do we have to ape Americans of clever, subtle ways to proclaim in almost everything we do? Why you’ve arrived. can’t we be individuals? Arbiters of

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SMILE

SMILE

man O Inside

A Hidden Treasure

Contrasting landscapes typify Oman: arid desert, secret oases, overwhelming mountains and a bountiful shoreline. Coral reefs churn the turquoise sea onto white sandy beaches where turtles nest in numbers matched by no other country. Whales and dolphins are a common sight and the sea teems with

tropical fish. Alongside this natural wealth is the Omani culture – one as rich as all the region’s natural resources combined.

Words: TANYA GOODMAN/OMAN SAIL Images: © MARK LLOYD, LLOYD IMAGES/OMAN SAIL

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man is located on the south-east coast of Arabia, bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the north-west, Saudi Arabia on the west and Yemen on the south-west.

Muscat is the capital, with over a million inhabitants and a metropolitan area of 1,500 square kilometres. It has retained much of its old-world charm and has some magnificent buildings and public areas.

The Grand Mosque is grand indeed.

The structure covers 40,000 square metres on a landscaped site equivalent to 40 football pitches. The interior is panelled with white and grey marble, while ceramic floral patterns adorn its arches in a variety of classic Persian designs. The colossal dome comprises a series of ornate, engraved stained-glass triangles within a framework of marble columns. An

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impressive gold-plated crystal chandelier made of Swarovski crystals hangs down a full 14 metres. The main prayer hall is decorated with a handmade Persian carpet consisting of 1.7 million knots, weighing 21 tonnes and made in a single piece, measuring 70 x 60 metres – it took a phenomenal four years and 600 weavers to complete.

The ancient part of the city – Old Muscat – is located on the waterfront, and the Muttrah Corniche, a place to meander along the natural harbour, is where many Omanis take an evening stroll with family and friends. A short way from here, the Al Alam Royal Palace is guarded by the twin forts of Mirani and Jelali. The shoreline is defined by steep cliffs and there is a myriad of secluded bays that can only be reached by sea.

Sur, located on the Indian Ocean about 220 kilometres south-east of

Muscat, has been a fishing port for centuries. It has a vibrant fish market and has had a reputation as a major dhow building centre since the 6th Century.

The Sur fish market is a hub of activity. Fishermen bring their catch to the souk at sunrise and sell it to the traders at wholesale prices, who in turn sell it to the people of Sur and the surrounding villages. A young Omani explains: “The fish market is where we meet and talk about life. We share information with each other and it is often customary for fishermen who have a good catch to share with friends. This is the way of the Omani; we look after each other.”

Boat builders from Sur have passed their skills from generation to generation. Along the banks of the entrance to the harbour, lumber yards are full of African teak logs and

machinery from days gone by, used to shape the wood. The craftsmen’s only guide is a sketch drawn in the sand.

Age-old methods are commonly employed, such as the use of fish oil for waterproofing the hulls.

Visiting the turtle sanctuary at Ras al Jinz, a protected area nearly 73 kilometres long, one can observe some 30,000 adult turtles laying their eggs on the same beach where they were born many years before. Sadly, just one in a thousand of these hatchlings will survive to adulthood.

There were once millions of green turtles here, but hunting and destruction of their habitat has decimated their numbers. Watching the turtles struggle for existence on a warm moonlit night is a moving experience.

The Oasis City of Nizwa is located in the heart of Oman about 165 kilometres from Muscat. This was the

capital of Oman in the 6th Century and still retains some fascinating historical buildings, such as the ancient old town and the imposing fort, which was built in the mid-17th Century by Imam Sultan Bin Saif Al Ya'ribi. At its bustling souk, exquisite copper and silver jewellery and other craft items are available for sale. Just outside the town centre an immense palm oasis stretches for eight kilometres along the course of two wadis.

On the road from Nizwa to Muscat lies the town of Ibra. The gateway to the East, this was situated along the route of caravans taking trade from Africa. Ibra is famous for its fine horses, a wonderful marketplace and 5,000-year-old beehive tombs. But without doubt, the most magical within this area is the Jabal Al Akhdar range, literally meaning “Green Mountain.” The highest point, Jabal

Shams, “Mountain of the Sun,” is around 3,000 metres high. It is the highest point in the whole of eastern Arabia and is aptly named, for the sun’s rays dance high on its craggy slopes. Huge escarpments dominate a skyline often shrouded in mist; sometimes in snow.

The people of Oman have a proud heritage dating back thousands of years yet they remain incredibly tolerant; valuing family life and the welfare of their friends very highly.

The Omani way is to welcome visitors; it is a fundamental part of their traditional way of life.  Sponsored by Oman Sail, the recent visit to South Africa of a giant A100 Tri-Maran, Majan, was to track a route for the new Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race, which is part of an effort to promote the Sultanate of Oman as a destination. For more information, visit www.indianocean5capesrace.com.

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S O O T H S AY

Li Edelkoort Identifies an

Intimate

and Animalistic

Future

Birds. Change. Grey. Mushrooms. The fashion worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s darling soothsayer Li Edelkoort utters the magical words and the cave of possibilities opens up. With confidence and certain bareness she projects her truth, her insight and her vision for the future.

Words: Daniel Scheffler Images: Š DESIGN INDABA

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S O O T H S AY

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rend forecaster and market analyst Li Edelkoort started her career as a buyer at the Dutch department store De Bijenkorf before setting up Trend Union, a trend forecasting service based in Paris and which provides the creative community with colour and lifestyle information published biannually.

Also the President of Edelkoort, an American consulting corporation with offices in Paris, New York and Tokyo, Li has helped to shape products for international brands, advising on product identity and development strategy for clients such as CocaCola, Nissan, Lancôme, Camper and

Moooi. And then there is her think tank, established in the early 90s, Studio Edelkoort, which acts as a creative, artistic and international operational factory of ideas. It’s little wonder she has her trend-identifying finger on the pulse of the world.

According to Li, trending is not a science but rather an art that arises from necessity. Trend forecasting, unlike trend spotting, is indispensable in every branch of industry, in spite of the need for it to not yet be revered. Li carefully admits that she does not discover anything new but observes and interprets moods and behaviour.

Her magic formula is intuition, fused with perceptive awareness of societal

movements, political developments and social changes. She consistently uses the same methodology in her work’s future-oriented projections; searching for answers to questions such as what will our lives be like in the future? What will people want?

What desires and needs will they have? How does a product appeal to people's senses? How do you inspire people to want to buy things?

Li’s latest trend forecast, locally presented at the Design Indaba earlier this year, anticipates that our relationships with nature and animals will amplify and grow into a movement extending from fashion to architecture.

From a socio-cultural perspective:

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fore. Li suggests a strong focus on blurred edges and visual texture, indicative of soft chicks, while urban birds will inspire bleak colours, and echoing concrete patterns will be abstract. A conversion to honest clothes in warm, deep colours According to Li, trending is not a and vintage prints will science but rather an art that happen. Inspired by weaver birds’ nests, fabrics will be arises from necessity. hand-spun yarns. Colourful feathers of the singing birds will culture, related to the way we speak, influence us to wear sophisticated the way we live and even the way we brights, while birds of prey will push interact with fellow humans. towards powerful neutrals, casual The biggest trend of all, Li predicts, clothes and folk details. will be the collaboration of nature In terms of luxury, Li speaks of and man-made structures to future consumer behaviour seeing synthesise as one living organism. Her potential for market growth in luxury forecasts around “my home is my articles. She termed this development nest” include building nests at home the “democratisation of luxury,” using natural materials from our

Well-being will be furiously apparent in how people spend their leisure time. Going on an annual holiday will be less of a focus and a “daily break” or “holiday every day” will become more popular. People will create their own “wellness world” at home where they can pamper themselves and surround themselves with their most significant items to create a sense of stability and promote relaxation. These items will include top-quality foods, luxurious lifestyle enhancers and lavish products for body and hair care. Li expects that emphasis will be placed on how we eat. Drink and cosmetics will play a decisive part in people's search for new tastes and sensory impressions, which will activate a veritable flood of new products in the consumer

involving the foggy lines between exclusive brands and discount items.

In her opinion, this will lead to a cul de sac: consumers will want Zara or Prada, H&M or Hermès, and nothing in between.

The concept of luxury, too, has dramatically transformed, now promoting healthy eating and taking care of body and mind in unison with high-quality, durable products with which one has a long-standing relationship. With the wellness industry about to boom, Li’s theory is that in this period of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and economic crisis, consumers have a greater longing than ever not only for more safety, but for a feeling of comfort, calm and balance too.

goods market. Japan will inspire many trends, from fashion, eating habits and cosmetics to various relaxation practices. Fragrances and scents will be an expository factor in future products including foods and clothes.

With the world moving towards dreams of a better place, the taking care of ourselves, who we are emotionally, physically and spiritually, the next revolution will come from within, where marketing and materialism will take on a new silhouette – one that is customised, bespoke and belongs only to you but which is shared freely and generously with the universe and all living creatures. The desire and its farreaching effect for well-being will reverberate throughout our lives. 

birds transmit their songs through social interactions as humans do for dance, cooking and language. Thus, although birds and humans have different evolutionary routes, birdsong culture can inform theories of human

immediate surroundings. The focus is on creating the home as a hideout, a space for breathing; conjuring up images of cocoons, shells, marsupial pouches, beaver nests and hives; encouraging the animal instinct inside us to make a home, to nest, to beautify the home space as a masterpiece. Earthenware, exclusive woods and different shells have already started infiltrating the designs of homes internally and externally.

But it doesn’t stop there. Li predicts that distinctive birds like swans will have quite an influence on the advent of more tulle, lace and fluttering knits, while water birds will impact our choice of colour with blues, greys and greens coming to the

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Collective

Soul Talking Time with Peter Machlup

Peter Machlup has an instinctive feel for the worth of a wristwatch.

It is a passion he has nursed since childhood and which led to him beginning to amass fine watches from adolescence already.

Peter was one of the first South Africans, and in fact worldwide pioneers, who set about collecting timepieces as objets d’art.

Words: TONI MUIR; www.petermachlup.com Images: © MARTIZ VERWEY

A

very young Peter used to make trips to town with his mother, who always donned her hat and gloves for the occasion. Coming from a family of jewellers, the two would stop out front each jewellery store they passed, but while his mother would gaze at the diamonds, Peter would gape, open-mouthed, at the wristwatches. This was an ardour that would long outlast the elegance of downtown Johannesburg and Peter’s training as a goldsmith, eventually to become the way he made his living.

After training as a goldsmith, in the tradition of four generations of his family, Peter relented to the great

STRIKE

love of his life in the late 1980s, enthusiastically buying old watches, selling them and feeling out the market. In 1984 he established Peter Machlup Watches and admits he felt somewhat out of his depth in what was a new area of collecting. “When I started buying old watches in the late 1980s, I felt in the dark. When I went to the UK to try to sell watches, one person would offer me £10, another £1000,” he remembers. “Although I had a sense of what was good quality, there was no general knowledge of value or rarity.”

As the business of collecting watches was a new trend, Peter learnt the ins and outs along with the rest of the world’s watch enthusiasts, absorbing all the quirks and foibles of the trade as he gathered and shared understanding thereof. It was a time of wonder and of “the blind leading the blind.” Peter quickly realised, however, that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. “However little I knew, in South Africa I was an expert. Collecting watches is like collecting any luxury items, like art, oriental rugs, pens or vintage cars.

Part of the thrill is the speculation – proceeding on the basis of knowledge, but also instinct and feeling.”

Like most serious collectors, Peter only deals in mechanical watches. “I think we have become so bored with our high-tech lives,” he says, “that we need to take refuge in craftsmanship.

It makes these watches live and reminds us that they were created by human hands, not churned out on an anonymous production line.”

In an age of mass production, purists cherish individuality and the big brands allow for that. Craftsmanship and heritage are prized, which is what makes it such an interesting field. “We don’t collect watches,” Peter points out. “We are buying the entire, colourful history of the mainly Swiss watchmaking tradition. Like buying art or antiques, where the provenance adds to the value, watches have to have something behind them. I am not selling timekeeping; I am telling stories.”

Peter boasts something of an

encyclopaedic knowledge of the value of the most important brands. He can offer shrewd advice about the collectibility and value of a range of watches, particularly among those he stocks and trades, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier, Breitling, IWC, A. Lange & Söhne, and Officine Panerai. “The advantage is that if I am prepared to sell it, I am usually prepared to buy it back,” he quips. Indeed, this is the strength of Peter’s service. One customer has bought 40 watches from

on my recommendation. This trust is often put to the test when they want a new toy in six months’ time – what is the value now? So by virtue of this buy back, which we do, I’d say, in 80 percent of cases, it is very exciting for those who are not going to buy a beautiful piece and throw it in the back of the cupboard. The worst scenario is that they will trade it back to me and buy a new one.”

Peter is evangelistic about the enjoyment of collecting watches and their value as an investment. “They

Peter over time, but has only kept one – the rest he sold back to Peter, upgrading or simply changing as his tastes shifted. Another client has bought as many as 60 fine watches from Peter and still owns them all.

Peter prides himself on the role he has played in building some of the most impressive collections in the country.

The experience of buying a watch from Peter is a pleasantly refreshing one – something you will likely never experience in a retail shop in Sandton, New York, Tokyo or Paris. Peter evidently loves the cut and thrust of negotiation as much as he loves the watches themselves.

Building relationships is a key aspect of his business. “A client is going to write out a cheque, thereby parting with a lot of his or her hard-earned money, based

are an excellent Rand hedge as they have a hard, asset-based value which is basically the same all over the world, making them transportable.”

When asked what one should look for when buying a timepiece for this purpose, Peter replies, “Buy it with your gut. The real value in the investment is the fun you have with it. If you are looking for a pure investment, rather buy unit trusts. A watch is tradable anywhere in the world, but there are no investment guarantees. With a watch of distinction, it all comes down to something you love.”  Contact Peter Machlup: • Tel: +27 11 684 1222 • Email: watches@mweb.co.za • Visit: www.petermachlup.com

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S AV E

Flying the Flag for

Planet Earth

Today, claiming the title of largest passenger jet manufacturer could result in certain environmentalist types banging down your door because of the imagined carbon emissions produced by these airborne behemoths. Airbus has led from the front with its lean and green processes and products that take to heart the protection of planet Earth, and in doing so, flies the flag, literally, on the side of its largest passenger aircraft, the A380, for the UNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s International Year of Biodiversity 2010.

Words and Images: Š KEVIN BARKER

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esponsible for only two percent of the planet’s entire manmade carbon dioxide emissions, aviation has recently faced a wave of international demonisation, unfortunately because it manifests itself as one of the most visible and attention-grabbing forms of transport – particularly in the corporate arena.

In realisation of this, and well aware of its ranking in terms of aircraft manufacturing greats, European giant, Airbus, has come to the fore in an increased effort to produce machines that make the most impact on passengers and buyers but the least impact on the environment.

In addition to pioneering greener flight, to which the flagship A380 pays testament, Airbus is using its global outreach to back the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Green Wave initiative, designed to educate young people about the importance of biodiversity, its role in their future and the steps they can take to nurture the nature around them.

Rainer Ohler, SVP Public Affairs & Communications said: “The aviation sector remains committed to tackling the two percent it contributes to manmade carbon dioxide emissions, having already reduced aircraft emissions by 70 percent and noise by 75 percent in the last 40 years.

However, as a global company, Airbus is also committed to using its global outreach to support those tackling the other 98 percent of emissions. Both commitments are key to a more sustainable world, where growth in air travel need not be inconsistent with preserving the environment.” The A380 will carry the logo throughout 2010 during its scheduled activities.

Developed as the most efficient airliner ever conceived, the A380 symbolises the aviation industry’s determination to balance growth in air travel with a commitment to minimise its carbon footprint. The A380 has set a new benchmark for

fuel consumption at less than three litres per 100 seat kilometres, corresponding to less than 75g of CO2 per passenger per kilometre. An impressive feat.

Airbus has further committed itself to devising a working procedure at all airports serviced by the A380, to minimise the amount of fuel burnt on departure by the massive machine, thus reducing its carbon footprint GIFT CARD BAA even further. Airport operator Heathrow has been working on this with Airbus, Singapore Airlines and UK air navigation service provider NATS for a year already. The procedure includes better manoeuvring and taxiing co-ordination and theCARuse of D GIFT fixed electrical supplies at the docking points rather than aircraft auxiliary power units or ground power units, among various other steps that will still be put into place.

This new procedure is designed to save 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of fuel per flight, (on a flight to Singapore, for example), equating to one metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions, as well as reducing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and also meeting noise parameters at Heathrow. The new procedure is already in use by SIA and BAA says it is being outlined to Heathrow's other A380 operators, namely Emirates and Qantas. This A380 programme fits into a broader strategy (to reduce emissions and noise produced during ground operations and departures) involving the operators of London's major airports, the UK Civil Aviation Authority, and principal UK airlines.

Jane Dawes, Heathrow's operational noise and air quality manager, says that by 2020, one in 10 flights at Heathrow could be A380s.

While pointing out that the A380 was already Heathrow's quietest large aircraft with the lowest per-seat emissions, Jane said: “It is important that we work constantly with our airlines to improve operating processes.

The introduction of these new departure procedures demonstrates our commitment to reducing emissions.” 

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mobile phone linked activated using the ard VALID IN SOUTH AFRICA ONLY will not work unless Ltd. pursuant to licence by MasterC their Africa ed by ExactSwitch and of ONLY ELECTRONIC USE d Bank nor any This card is protect is issued by Standard Bank of South Neo Africa, Standar of any nature. to the card. This card the card be lost or stolen, neither sement or compensation International. Shouldagents will be liable for any form of reimbur ted at date of issue. distribu and/or as ries ns subsidia to the terms and conditio This card is subject

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CONCIERGE SERVICE PANIC BUTTON

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SHOWPIECE

Graham's Fine Art Auctioneers:

Sale 2010 Autumn

On 18 and 19 May 2010, Graham’s Auctioneers will hold their autumn sale. This auction brings together a collection of artwork that is as diverse, compelling

and provocative as the artists themselves, and the country with which they are associated. The sale will showcase artists from the early 19th Century to present day and is a great survey of South African art. It is also particularly exciting as the sale also offers collectable South African art books, an Impressionist/Modern sale and a Post-War and Contemporary sale.

Images: © GRAHAM’S FINE ART GALLERY

Impressionists/Modern Maggie Laubser, "Paw Paw Tree" Words: Liz Delmont

On her return to South Africa from Europe in 1924, Maggie Laubser developed an easily recognisable visual language which relied increasingly on the inclusion of various stock motifs in varying combinations. Laubser includes many of these motifs in "Paw Paw Tree", a work that dates back to the 1950s. The women carrying water and the nursing mother under a tree were familiar iconography dating to Laubser’s time on her parents’ farm in the Boland. The images of the mountains and rondawel homesteads first appeared in her work when she visited the eastern Free State in the mid 1930s, while the paw paw tree was a motif that typified sub-tropical Natal and became a common motif in the 1950s.

Laubser, Maria Magdalena (Maggie) (1886 - 1973); "Paw Paw Tree"; Oil on Board; 46 x 35.5cm; Signed: "M Laubser" (Lower/Right); Lot no: 045; Estimate: R600,000 to R850,000

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SHOWPIECE

Boonzaaier, "Landscape with Cottage and Shacks" Words: Liz Delmont

Boonzaier, Gregoire Johannes (1909 - 2005); "Landscape with Cottage and Shacks"; Oil on Canvas; 50.7 x 66cm; Signed: "Gregoire" (Lower/ Right); Dated: 1940; Lot no: 046; Estimate: R280,000 to R380,000

Boonzaaier was a prime organiser of the New Group, which had its first exhibition in Cape Town in 1938. Their aims were to foster art of quality, but yet to work outside the confines of the Academy. Boonzaaier’s "Landscape with Cottage and Shacks" typifies this ethos. Cape Dutch homesteads were a favourite subject matter of the more traditional academic painters, whose depictions of large houses with their iconic gables and stately gardens functioned as markers of status, culture and European heritage. In complete contrast, Boonzaaier depicts, in the foreground, a small flat-roofed dwelling with rough shacks made of individual sheets of corrugated iron and behind them a humble thatched cottage.

Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, "View of a Mountainous Landscape" Words: Sarah Sinisi

Pierneef, Jacob Hendrik (1886 - 1957); "View of a Mountainous Landscape"; Oil on Canvas; 45.9 x 61cm; Signed: "Pierneef" (Lower/Left); Lot no: 064; Estimate: R900,000 to R1,200,000

According to NJ Coetzee (2010), "View of a Mountainous Landscape" is most likely a scene from Namibia, the blue mountains in the background more than likely the Erongo Mountains, a range of low hills that Pierneef painted many times. The muted browns and ochre of the coarse, short grass in the foreground together with the isolated tree and the hill rising to the left is offset by the subtle blues and soft pinks of the mountains in the background and the vast and empty sky above. Although Pierneef’s friend and mentor, Irish artist George Smithard, had encouraged Pierneef to lighten his palette, it was when he [Pierneef] first visited South-West Africa in 1924 that the paleness and enormity of the African landscape first became visible to him. He was confronted with a “landscape unadorned of detail, of foliage and the like, but showing the bare bones of the landscape structure.”

Hugo Naudé, "Seascape with Boulders in the Foreground" Words: Helene Smuts

Naudé, Pieter Hugo (1869 - 1941); "Seascape with Boulders in the Foreground"; Oil on Board; 19.9 x 29cm; Signed: "Naudé" (Lower/Right); Lot no: 013; Estimate: R120,000 to R160,000

Like the Barbizon painters he encountered in 1895 during his formal training in Europe, Naudé tried to capture fleeting moments in nature. Though reminiscent of the French Impressionists’ experimentation with light and complementary colour, in the foreground of this oil painting Naudé’s intuitive entanglement with the energy of nature plays itself out in robust, gestural brush strokes. Waves crash onto rocks, which seem equally alive; and which display a fragmentation of form as “perceptual truth,” perhaps not unlike that of Cezanne.

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Post-War & Contemporary Ezrom Legae, "Dying Beast" Words: Lize van Robbroeck

In the repressive atmosphere of the late 1970s, at a time when most black artists declined to produce overtly political art, Legae became known for his sharp social and political commentary. "Dying Beast" was produced in 1993, during the transition from Apartheid to democracy. Considering Legae’s penchant for veiled political commentary, it is not unlikely that this powerful sculpture metaphorically refers to the death throes of Apartheid.

Legae, Ezrom (Kgobokanyo) (1938 1999); "Dying Beast"; Bronze 45 x 38 x 30cm (excl. base); Signed: "Legae"; Dated: 1993; Lot no: 114; Estimate: R160,000 to R240,000

Douglas Portway, "White Circle" Words: Sean O’Toole

An influential figure in the history of non-figurative, abstract art in this country, Portway’s interest in abstraction can be said to be more spiritual than existential. The circle, a dominant motif in his oeuvre, offers a key to the painter’s transcendental approach to image making. One of a number of archetypal “opposites” – male and female, life and death, intuition and reason – the circle, for Portway, embodied intuition.

Portway, Douglas Owen (1922 - 1993); "White Circle"; Oil on Canvas; 127 x 127cm; Signed: "Portway" (Lower/Left); Dated: 1974; Lot no: 098; Estimate: R180,000 to R250,000

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Hodgins, Robert Griffith, "Yesterday’s Ancestors" Words: Sean O’Toole

Hodgins, Robert Griffiths (1920 - 2010); "Yesterday's Ancestors"; Oil on Canvas; 91 x 122cm; Signed: "R Hodgins" (verso); Dated: 1999; Lot no: 095; Estimate: R200,000 to R300,000

A spry, energetic painter, Hodgins was centrally preoccupied with the human form throughout his career.

The outcome is a vast, if tightly defined, cast of characters that include stifled executives and old molls, tight-lipped generals and sundrenched rakes. It is reasonable to speculate that the “ancestors” referred to in the title of this work are drawn from another sub-category of figures: the vast grouping of artists, writers, poets, dramatists and actors who informed his acutely literary and literate sensibility as a painter.

Battiss, Walter Whall (F.R.S.A F.I.A.L) (1906 - 1982); "African Figures"; Oil on Canvas; 15.5 x 30.5cm; Signed: "Battiss" (Lower/Right); Lot no: 088; Estimate: R120,000 to R160,000

Walter Battiss, "African Figures" Words: Helene Smuts

This small painting of “African figures” is iconic of Walter Battiss’s search, during the 1950s and 1960s, for a distinctly African visual language. Battiss was convinced that South African art had to “start its art all over again and not imitate what’s happening in Europe… South Africa has to start right from the beginning and go through a whole primitive thing, finding its roots here.”

For further information, contact Graham’s Fine Art Auctioneers on +27 11 465 9192 or Sarah Sinisi (Cape Town) on +27 84 568 5639 or Graham Britz (Johannesburg) on +27 83 605 5000. Alternatively visit www.grahamsgallery.co.za. 

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Better Business with Reef Hotels

For the past few years the Johannesburg CBD has been working its way towards triumphant resurgence, in so doing reclaiming its position as the commercial hub of Africa. With such a boom in business comes a demand for quality accommodation for the business traveller â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a demand that Reef Hotels intends to meet.

Words: INGRID KEMUIR Images: Š REEF HOTELS

S T R AY

Left: The splendid view from Reef Hotel Gold's "Gold Bar" Above, clockwise from top left: Peace Floor - Ghandi Square; Transport Floor - Jozi Trains; The Art Floor - Fashion Sculptures; The Bridges Floor - Mandela Bridge

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saac Chalumbira, entrepreneur and CEO of Lionshare Holdings, the company behind Reef Hotels, together with Gustav Krampe, Managing Director of the African Sky Hotel group and Isaac’s business partner, has devised a remarkable concept to revive business hotels in the heart of the city. “The Joburg CBD is where it’s at for commerce in South Africa right

now,” says Isaac. “The mines and banks have returned to the inner city, security has been tightened and transport has improved. People are now working, eating and meeting in the CBD. The city is in desperate need of an integrated service offering that gives them all of this and at the highest level.” Gustav, a hotel entrepreneur with over 30 years in the industry and 12 hotels with 1,300

rooms in the African Sky Hotel group he leads, could not agree more that the Joburg CBD is ripe for a hotel of this magnitude.

The Reef Hotel concept was conceived just 14 months ago, when Isaac noticed a glaring need for hotel accommodation concurrent with Joburg’s rejuvenation. Lionshare Holdings is responsible for the property conversions of over 21

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Left: @ Ike's Restaurant

for superior business and leisure traveller accommodation in the CBD. Leisure travellers will enjoy the numerous security measures that have been put in place in the last couple of years and therefore will enjoy the atmosphere in the CBD as they would any Guests can download movies and video other big city. But on demand, watch satellite stations and for the business Reef channels from around the globe, access traveller, Hotels offers not the concierge system, order room service, only a place to eat make bookings and arrange meetings and sleep, but most importantly, all the online through the television. tools required to conduct business in a smooth, centre of Gauteng. Johannesburg has seamless and professional manner. In it all – business, arts, architecture, fact, this is one of their prime history. And let’s face it; it’s the heart concerns. of our economy too.”

The maxim of Reef Hotels is “Do It then makes sense that the hotel, Business Better,” a philosophy clearly opening in mid-2010, is only the first exemplified by the property’s of several properties planned for the offerings, for it is in this aspect of heart of the city. The new hotel group their business amenities that Reef will boast a series of hotels, each Gold really stands out. The hotel’s designated as a Silver, Gold or Platinum Internet boasts the fastest connection offering, representing the three, four speed of any accommodation in South and five-star grading respectively.

Africa. Guests can download movies Time and convenience are the two and video on demand, watch satellite essential concerns of today’s business stations and channels from around traveller; needs not met by hotels the globe, access the concierge outside the CBD when clients are system to order room service, make working in the centre of Joburg. bookings, arrange meetings and so “Travelling to and from hotels in other forth, online through the television – locations further afield to the city no need to pick up the telephone and centre does not make sense when have someone else do it for you. They time is money,” Isaac points out. Reef can also use Skype, VOIP and video Hotels will thus fill an obvious need buildings in the inner city, and the subsequent management thereof.

Isaac’s passion and belief in Johannesburg is reflected in these projects, all of which add to the restoration of the City of Gold. “The CBD has great character and is at the

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calling online through the television.

Reef Gold also features a large boardroom and three well-equipped meeting rooms; a wellness centre, which includes a steam room, sauna and gym; and a fine-dining restaurant, @ Ike’s. The hotel’s 120 rooms provide quality fittings and elegant finishes.

There are 80 business suites and 40 executive deluxe suites from which to choose. The hotel will also cater to the broader CBD, with its Food Lover’s Market providing a wide variety of top quality food. This will be ready later this year. The pièce de résistance is the Gold Bar, where guests and the city’s business people can get an exclusive 360-degree view of the city while sipping on their drinks.

One particular element of the hotel that will surely increase its profile is its artistic component, which comes in the form of photographic artwork themed “Celebrating the City of Gold.” It is a collection featuring the city’s architecture, historical gold production mines, equipment and other elements of its past and present that have made Johannesburg what it is today. This was carried through the hotel in the theming of each floor under a banner of key sites and monuments of the city, such as The Bridges (after Mandela Bridge), Peace (after Ghandi Square), Power (after Turbine Hall) and so on. The rooms on each floor have a full wall mural following the respective theme.

The Reef Hotel Gold will host its first guests in early June, when the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ brings the world to South African shores. Reef Hotel Gold is already fully booked, actually, for the duration of the tournament and seems set to stay that way thanks to its impressive integrated service offering.

For more information, visit www.reefhotels.co.za. 

STUDY

Chasing an

IvyEducation League Historically, most South African students who wanted to earn a foreign degree did so in the United Kingdom. But by 2007, a third of them crossed the Atlantic for an American education instead. Another third left for the United Kingdom and the rest to countries across the world. Many factors contributed to this shift towards the US, and evidence suggests that the flood will not only continue, but likely accelerate once the current recession passes.

Words: ANDREA VAN NIEKERK Images: Š ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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rowing local interest in studying abroad has been fuelled by concerns about the future of South African universities, but it also reflects the appeal of American institutions, many of which command resources far beyond their counterparts in other nations.

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Of the top 20 research universities in the world today, two thirds are located in the US. While these are renowned for the quality of their graduate programmes, esteemed American institutions also invest heavily in undergraduate education.

Stanford, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, spends almost $5 million each year on undergraduate research

STUDY

projects alone. Rice University, a private institution in Houston, Texas, has a ratio of one faculty member for every five students. At Pomona College, a premier liberal arts college in Southern California, 1,500 students choose between 45 majors and more than 600 courses. (Keep in mind that Americans use the terms “university,” “college” and “school” interchangeably for undergraduate institutions.)

American universities and colleges are distinguished not only by their resources but also by their approach, which emphasises “liberal arts” rather than the narrow pre-professionalism familiar to South African students. A liberal arts education has nothing to do with either political liberalism or creative arts. Instead, it is based on a classical idea of what it means to be educated. In addition to an in-depth exploration of a chosen field, students are exposed to the broad range of

human knowledge and modes of inquiry. Students receive a rigorous training in their major, but will ideally learn how to think creatively, question critically and communicate effectively.

South African students’ ability to embark on this liberating intellectual journey has been limited by several factors. Most South Africans know very little about American tertiary education beyond a handful of brandname Ivy League institutions with acceptance rates in single digits. In fact, the US today boasts more than 2,000 four-year liberal arts institutions – ensuring opportunities for all. Many South Africans are also put off by the sheer complexity of the American application process, which unfolds almost an entire year before students actually enter university and which requires completing a battery of forms as well as some mandatory

About the author Andrea van Niekerk Originally from Johannesburg, Andrea has lived in the US for more than two decades. She was the Associate Director of Admission at Brown University, one of the Ivy League institutions that do in fact get a whole number of applicants from Southern Africa each year. Andrea now lives in California and acts as independent college admission consultant for families across the world, whose children want to pursue their tertiary education in the US. Contact her on andrea_van_niekerk@collegegoals.com or visit www.collegegoals.com.

achievement tests (called SATs). Those who successfully navigate this process then face sticker shock at the cost which, at premier private institutions, can run as high as $50,000 per year.

In reality, however, none of these obstacles are as daunting as many young South Africans believe. With some research and foresight, the process remains manageable. A very large number of applicants receive financial aid packages that substantially reduce their actual cost.

While some financial aid programmes are restricted to American citizens, many universities, including some of the most selective schools, offer generous aid to worthy international applicants as well. In recent years, South African students have competed very successfully for such merit-based aid.

The application process is indeed very bureaucratic and “foreign,” but there is an array of resources available to help guide students through it, including the helpful staff of Education USA (an agency of the US State Department), private college admissions consultants, and various online resources offered by the colleges themselves as well as agencies like the College Board (the non-governmental organisation that oversees the SAT tests). By taking advantage of such resources, and by casting their net beyond the tiny number of “brandname” schools like Princeton and Yale, South African applicants can dramatically improve their chances of gaining admission to an excellent and supportive American college.

Howard Swearer, past President of Brown University, said the “liberal arts were preparation for appointments not yet made.” That preparation is increasingly within the reach of South Africa’s students. 

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Calling on Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s First

Cityof

Design

To come up with a solution or even a hypothesis for design, we need to develop a new way of looking at the world. The world has changed, the barriers have shifted, and so have the rules and the regulations. Whether we exhibit fashion as an obvious leader of thought or the transport industry as a misunderstood giant of support for the masses, without creative thinking the vulnerability of existence cannot be explored or engaged. Creative mindsets and creative living give life to this existence, for design should be real and functional.

Words: Daniel Scheffler Images: Š DESIGN INDABA; ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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Concierge Division Our concierge division was born of the need in the market for an exclusive and personalised service to manage high-profile VIP clients with a seamless turnkey solution, surpassing industry standards.

T

o alter the minds, the mindsets and the mindfulness of the crowds of people who swim apoplectically in the lukewarm splashes of ideas, a new identity is to be created for design. But design needs a critical mass to support it. Some of the most interesting social factors influence critical mass, like interrelatedness, levels of communication and the size of a culture or subculture.

It is meaningful to view design as belonging to this dynamic environment

We have the ability to meet unique requirements by operating as a

where it has no real boundaries and only adventure to grow it. With an ample amount of momentum in a social system it will, and can, become self-sustaining and promote an accelerated quantity of growth; which is what it aims to advocate, after all.

Making this argument tangible is the advent of The World Design Capital competition and Cape Town’s bid for 2014. With a future-oriented perspective, this project is to elevate and encourage the use of design, all design, to further the social, economic and cultural development of the

luxury facilitation mechanism with the following premium service capabilities: › Aviation company to manage charters › Event planning and support › Access to major events as a VIP We also have a private chauffeur service operating as a point-to-point service in luxury and exotic vehicles.

These vehicles can be branded to clients’ specifications.

Tel: +27 11 484 2833 Fax: +27 11 484 2899 www.neoafrica.com

world's cities. In the efforts to secure this designation, the preliminaries to create Cape Town’s stature as a pivotal point for current and future design and innovation is spearheaded

by Mayor Dan Plato. Mayor Plato attended the World Design Cities Summit in Seoul, which forms part of Seoul’s festival of its year of designation as World Design Capital 2010. Together with a senior delegation, Mayor Plato will introduce Cape Town to a matrix of design cities from this summit and promote our own Mother City’s bid.

The World Design Capital title is specialised and focused, aiming to build on the broader essence of design's impact on urban spaces, economies and citizens. As a contender, Cape Town has the opportunity to evince its achievements in design and urban policy to a global congregation; to revel in its feats in sourcing, nursing and promoting creative industries, as well as corroborate how government and industry work in unison with educational institutions, designers and inhabitants to pioneer the urban habitat.

The ocean of benefits for Cape Town if it becomes a World Design Capital include procuring visibility as a hub of creativity and innovation; attracting investors and creative people; strengthening economic development; positioning as a leading city of design on the international arena; and building a global image. But how does this benefit Cape Town in particular and South Africa as a whole?

In viewing design in a South African context, with Cape Town the

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beacon, we have a comparative advantage: space to work collaboratively with free thinking and amazingly talented design-oriented professionals. We can easily tap into the already-existing commercial centre that exists both culturally and physically. Our gold nugget, our competitive edge, is that we are now able to vie with a globally expansive marketplace; one which waits for no one and one where we can now lay our concepts and ideas as they have local relevance and naturally local ownership. Thus giving the feisty designer, loud artist, melancholy musician, dancing architect, beatnik copywriter, valiant troubadour, governmental policy writer and everyone else a space in which they can compete. With the allowance of a global scheme and a focus on Cape Town, finances will be taken care of, which will promote the financial viability of projects, so allowing for the creation of more fluid work.

Cape Town is orienting itself as the innovation hub of Africa. It is already renowned for early medical successes like Chris Barnard’s first heart transplant, completed some 50 years ago, and the latest, revolutionary soon-to-be-headlining-the-highways, all-electric car, the Joule, developed by Woodstock-based Company, Optimal Energy. So what is next on the southern city’s itinerary?

A new identity is shaping and forming as the city moves and curls. A widely spread resolution to Cape Town’s maturation challenges lies in the design of the metropolis as well as of its affairs. Projects like the IRT

transport project; the Oude Molen Eco Village, Sinking the Cape Town Station and Caron Von Zeil’s Reclaim Camissa initiative hearten the loyal Capetonian to foster the undertaking of drafting a new city; a city with effervescent creative magnitude. The Grand Parade, for instance, situated in a convergence of commuter transportations, is a fan zone for the World Cup, and sections have been converted to markets, while the old Drill Hall on its periphery is now the Central Library. Church Square, next to the Company Gardens, has been pedestrianised and 300-year-old Greenmarket Square has had a facelift in preparation of festivals and concerts. Ingenuity is coming to the fore with activators such as East City Design Initiative, Cape Town Activa, Bandwidth Barn, Creative Cape Town and Silicon Cape.

With brazen initiatives and forward-thinking ideas, the Mother City centre is shaping up to be a bonfire of design, taking into account the historical and economic needs of the residents. Opening up the city with public spaces that live and breathe so that residents can experience every day means not isolating spaces, not living towards car parks and dead clearance but to allow cafés and friendly spaces to seep over sidewalks and spread into city skylines. Like any form of art or design, the city has to have its own elements, own vision, own identity.

And Cape Town has birthed just that.

Not just for the city, but for the country as a political influence, a social impactor and the design centre of the continent. 

premier TRAVEL

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NKOMAZI GAME LODGE BADPLAAS

This family-run hideaway in the Natal Midlands, with its pristine country air and rolling hills, offers luxurious accommodation and some of the most advanced, award-winning spa facilities.

Highly personalised service includes the very best in traditional African treatments. Fordoun is the perfect place to escape and refresh mind, body and spirit. www.fordoun.com Reservations: +27 33 266 6217

Known as the “place of water,” Nkomazi represents the true symbol of Africa – with its vivid scenic beauty, dramatic landscapes and wildlife. Accommodation is offered in the form of “African Campaign” styled tents where nature-loving guests can enjoy various exciting activities or be pampered and rejuvenated in African style. www.nkomazireserve.com Reservations: +27 41 407 1000

HOTEL LE VENDÔME CAPE TOWN

MICHELANGELO HOTEL JOHANNESBURG

Ideally located within walking distance of the vibrant Seapoint promenade, and boasting picturesque views of the Atlantic coast, Hotel Le Vendôme is a luxury boutique hotel with impeccable attention to detail. This timeless, elegant hotel is a benchmark in South African hospitality and five-star service excellence. www.le-vendome.co.za Reservations: +27 21 430 1200

FRÉGATE ISLAND PRIVATE SEYCHELLES

Away from the frenetic pace of modern living, Frégate is a different world. Not solely a means of escapism, Frégate strives to set new standards by integrating luxury tourism with a focus on the environment. Private butlers are also assigned to each villa.

Combining the most elusive qualities – space, seclusion, security – makes it distinctive among its competitors. www.fregate.com Reservations: +27 21 556 9984

A member of the Leading Hotels of the World, The Michelangelo’s Renaissance architecture in the heart of Sandton's business and leisure district, service excellence and world-class facilities set it apart from others. Built around a central atrium, guests enjoy the decadent use of space and a feeling of grandeur. www.michelangelo.co.za Reservations: +27 11 282 7000

ONE&ONLY CAPE TOWN

In the finest tradition of this very select international group, the One&Only is located in the V&A Waterfront, walking distance (or water taxi) to the convention centre, conference venues and the best tourist attractions and restaurants. Enjoy spectacular views of Table Mountain and the city’s yachting life, with the world-famous Nobu restaurant ready to treat you. www.oneandonlycapetown.com Reservations: +27 21 431 5800

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Fairline

Squadron Grand Dame of the Blue Sir Francis Drake established British supremacy on the waters when he definitively defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. With a long history of leading international seamanship, it comes as no surprise that the British yacht series produced by Fairline has established a modern day reputation akin to that of the famous “Francis the Dragon” during his reign of the same waters.

Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS Images: © FAIRLINE

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t started all of 43 years ago, when Jack Newington built his first Fairline and established the high standards of workmanship that would become the hallmark of one of the world’s most respected yachting brands. When his son, Sam, a former fighter pilot and Columbia MBA took over from him in the early 1970s, Fairline spread its international wings and expanded its range to cater to the very particular needs of its international customers.

Today, the popular Fairline Targa and Fairline Squadron ranges grace marinas

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around the globe, and Fairline continues its march of success in the mid-range yacht segment with the Fairline Squadron 65 recently being presented with a “Boat of the Year” Award.

The Fairline name has consistently attracted the attention of the Southern African boating community, and has been well represented locally by the Boating World franchise of Derrick Levy and Suzanne Glock, operating out of our foremost yachting cities, Durban and Cape Town. Local conditions tend to favour

either the niftier and powerful racers such the Fairline Targa, or the midsize range that makes for ideal day cruising as well as for overnight trips, with the economics of this size supporting both applications. The Fairline Squadron range, between 41 and 78 foot, and in particular the Squadron 41 (which replaces the now discontinued Phantom 40 in the Fairline stable), and the brand new Squadron 50, meets the demand perfectly, and at a time when the Rand has again gained some clout.

SPLASH

With the Squadron 41, Fairline has retained its signature compact hull and fit a striking set of elegant lines and style above the water line. I have always personally favoured any Flybridge option, as nothing compares to sitting a few feet higher at sunset and taking in the breathtaking beauty of our coastline. It just feels like a great party space – being high up under the blue African skies, and being able to look back down on the champagne wake that the powerful engines of a yacht of this calibre spill into the ocean. So, with the 41 offering an ultimately luxurious and spacious Flybridge, this model is evidently my best suggestion for the interested buyer. The L-shape lounge area is set back deeply, allowing good floor space between the captain’s double-seat and the guest area to the back. The usual accoutrements for a fun day are easily accessible – coolers, grills, a fold-down table, the works.

The main deck of the Squadron 41 is described as a “big boat feel,” with the saloon folded to the side behind the helm, thereby creating a completely open flow from the deck right through to the front sun areas visible through the yacht’s massive panoramic windows. Walk-around side-decks link these areas comfortably. As befits a “proper” cruising boat, the galley is large, light-filled and equipped with up to two fridges and a host of storage options.

Below decks is utter indulgence, where plush furnishings include a fold-out bed with six-inch mattress in the sofa. The master cabin features skylights and a fabulous en suite, whereas the guest cabin has beds that quickly convert from two singles to a double and which was designed with double doors to its own en suite. With doors open, the useable size of the guest cabin is increased twofold and has a great feeling of spaciousness.

Another exciting first on the Squadron 41 is the option of a concealed, cantilevered tender

launching system. It can hold a larger RIB tender and incorporates a lowered boarding area. All these advantages add up to a level of convenience in stern layout and facilities unprecedented on a boat of this size.

The global economic recession has forced international yacht builders to sharpen their game considerably. As such, Fairline has streamlined its operations and directed its focus to the development of new Targa and Squadron models, of which the Squadron 50, expected to be launched in the middle of 2011, has the most tongues wagging. That will follow the much anticipated launch of a Targa 50 in January 2011. As one of the designers of the new series of boats under development explains: “There is a fresh

feel about the new designs. They are all unmistakably Fairline, yet with a new perspective on the use of lines and space.”

It has been suggested that the recession was good for one reason at least, and that is to purge industries so that only the best remain standing.

If that holds true, Fairline has succeeded in proving its mettle as a respectable brand and innovative designer of luxury yachts, and truly deserves your attention as a lifestyle option.  Boating World has offices in Durban and Cape Town, contact: • Tel: 0861 324 754 • Email: info@boatingworld.co.za • Visit: www.boatingworld.co.za

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Thin is In Backlash always yields unpredictable results. In dealing with the economic downturn, after 15 years of explosive growth, the watch industry has undergone a reality check. As was evident at the two major shows in Switzerland – Geneva’s SIHH and Baselworld – the catalogues have become less cluttered, with most manufacturers rationalising their lines. The bling-bling factor was slightly subdued, if not quite accompanied by its own sunglasses.

But another trend has been slipping through the cracks – almost literally.

Words: KEN KESSLER Images: © PIAGET; VACHERON CONSTANTIN; RALPH LAUREN; JAEGER-LECOULTRE

SLIM

Mechanical Watches are Down-Sizing – But Not as You Expected

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here’s no reason to suspect that watch manufacturers, despite being friendly rivals, collaborate on forthcoming releases.

Coincidences do occur, but the latest was too much in evidence to be anything other than a communal epiphany: thin watches are back, and back with a vengeance.

of thin were Piaget and Vacheron Constantin, while Zenith, GirardPerregaux, Jaeger-LeCoultre and most others offered sleek, slim dress watches that seem to have been designed for Cary Grant or David Niven. Their return en masse in 2010, a flood of models harking back a halfcentury, can be attributed to a number of causes. The most pressing of these

celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2008 with a collection including the Master Control 1833 Ultra Thin.

Setting the tone for current, updated thinnies, the Master Control 1833 featured a 38mm diameter case – 30mm to 35mm was considered “man sized” 40 years ago – with the 123-component Calibre 849 movement itself bearing a thickness

It’s not just another taste of retro and Mad Men is too recent a televised phenomenon to have inspired the move. Yet ultra-thin timepieces, very much a part of the fifties and sixties, are now made suitable for the noughties with newer movements and larger diameter cases. While a head-on view of the dial might not give away the game, a side view proves to be an eye-opener. You don’t have to be a watchmaker to know that cases only a couple millimetres thick are hardly conducive to filling with wheels and springs and cogs. We are not talking ultra-flat with a circuit board and batteries: these watches tick.

Historically speaking, the masters

is probably the need for discreet behaviour at a time when anyone connected with the world of finance is regarded with the same contempt traditionally reserved for drug dealers.

Another might be a reaction against the vulgarity of reality television, the aforementioned bling and the general dumbing-down of society: we need elegance, and the watch companies have just the ammunition. The revived skinny watches are so subtle that they garner respect without demanding it, the way a monster watch would.

Among the first to revive the wristwatch equivalent of the equallyfashionable-in-2010 skinny necktie is Jaeger-LeCoultre, which presciently

of a minuscule 1.85mm.

But then this was par for the course for Jaeger-LeCoultre; after all, they made the world’s smallest-ever mechanical movement, the Calibre 101, which measures only 14mm long by 4.8mm wide and only 3.4mm thick – Queen Elizabeth apparently adores hers. With this level of expertise, it’s no surprise that the 1833 is only 6.5mm thick despite including a super-rugged case that passes their Master Control testing. But you can get it down even further.

Vacheron Constantin has had a run of wonderful pieces inspired by the past, not least being the 1921 American. Joining the company’s historiques are the round Ultra-Fine

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1955 and square Ultra-Thin 1968, the model numbers denoting their years of birth. The update of the ’55 is a dead ringer for the original, only waterproof. Inside is a manual-wound movement only 1.64mm thick, fashioned in 18k gold. Vacheron believes it to be the thinnest manualwound movement in existence today.

Its square sibling from ’68 bears a movement that is only slightly thicker at 2.45mm, but then this is a selfwinding model that has to house a rotor to wind the watch. The movements, though, aren’t what determines the qualification as a super-thin model: it’s the new models’ overall thickness is simply astonishing: the Ultra-Fine 1955, in

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its rose gold case, stands only 4.1mm off the wrist, the 1968 in yellow gold, a scant 5mm.

Piaget is the direct challenger to Vacheron Constantin when it comes to weight watching. The Altiplano ultra-thin watch with in-house Calibre 1208P automatic movement has an oh-so-current diameter of 43mm, its side view revealing a case height of 5.25mm. Piaget also supplies one of its ultra-thin movements to Ralph Lauren Watches for the brand new 38mm Slim Classique.

Zenith, now under the command of Jean-Frederic Dufour, has rediscovered its old values, not least with a subtle dress watch called the Elite 681 Ultra Thin, again with a modern case diameter of 40mm.

Girard-Perregaux, too, looked to its past for the 1966 Full Calendar finished in palladium, and available in two versions: the “Full Calendar” and the “Small Second.”

There are, however, limits to how thin a watch can be, if one wants it to be mechanical. For those who drink skinny lattes and find Kate Moss a tad plump, try to find a vintage Concord Delirium, from the early days of quartz. Back in the 1970s, the quartz watchmakers, too, had a battle of the bulge, and Swiss maker Concord beat the Japanese at their own game: their creation measured a remarkable 1.98mm from glass to back – the same as a couple of credit cards. And still thinner than a mobile phone. 

S T AY

From the

Countryside to the Beachfront

Hacklewood Hill and The Sands

From rolling green gardens and cosy fireplaces to rolling golden sands and beachfront bliss, a holiday that starts in the quiet countryside of the Eastern Cape and moves on to the sun-kissed beaches of St Francis Bay is deserving of anyone’s attention.

Words & Images: © THE PORT ELIZABETH HOTEL GROUP

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magine a bygone era of colonial charm, good conversation and fine dining, and then let us take you there.

Hacklewood Hill Country House, a luxurious five-star hotel located in Walmer, Port Elizabeth, is an indulgent getaway where visitors can look forward to individually decorated bedrooms, large Victorian bathrooms, cosy fireplaces and private verandas overlooking magnificent gardens. If that isn't enough, the hotel’s cordon bleu chef will thrill the palate with exquisite meals too.

Built in 1898 and tucked away in a lush country garden setting, this private retreat offers an intimate experience where a guest’s every wish is met with impeccable efficiency. Furnished with fascinating period pieces and sumptuous fabrics reminiscent of Victorian sophistication, the house exudes comfort and style.

Old-fashioned ambience has never been captured as perfectly as in the Drawing Room, with its

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magnificent fireplace and grand French doors leading out onto a patio with sparkling pool and lush gardens.

The Gallery leading off the stately yellow wood staircase on the first floor is filled with a fine collection of original paintings and features a beautiful skylight in stained glass.

With distinctive décor and careful attention to detail, the comfort of the eight en suite bedrooms is enhanced by air conditioning and heating, should either be required. Each room features fine antique furniture and decorative items, plush carpets and a grand Victorian bath, which unquestionably adds to the distinction of this home. Guests can enjoy pretty garden views and cheerful birdsong from their private Juliet-style balconies.

The Hacklewood Hill Restaurant offers cordon bleu dining in an elegant silver and crystal setting. The beautifully appointed Restaurant is where exceptional English breakfasts, delectable light lunches and exquisite evening meals are served. In true turn-of-the-century tradition, silver

service is the order of the day. The Hacklewood Hill chef is passionate about creating sumptuous dishes in generous portions to satisfy the most discerning of diners, while the wine cellar is an underground treasure trove inviting guests to browse its impressive collection of wines.

A range of facilities and activities add to the overall appeal of Hacklewood Hill. Guests can enjoy a bracing game of tennis or croquet before lazing by the pool. The fragrant, leafy garden beckons just beyond, begging to be enjoyed for its fresh floral scents, bright colours and plentiful bird life.

From the country we travel to The Sands, where nothing comes between you and the ocean but the beach. This splendid five-star African beach house is situated in the picturesque seaside village of St Francis Bay. It has just five spacious en suite bedrooms, guaranteeing a most private stay, all of which boast uninterrupted views of the majestic Indian Ocean and endless stretches of pristine coastline. The infinity pool overlooking the ocean,

F E AT U R E

the secluded pool deck at the back and the adjacent steam room ensure complete relaxation and revitalisation for the duration of one’s visit.

This white-walled, thatch-roofed haven welcomes guests through its impressive glass entranceway and through the well-appointed lounge and bar, which has an air of unhurried respite about it. The glass-fronted Octagon Restaurant with central fireplace and surrounding timber deck affords a remarkable 300-degree panoramic view of the bay and beach below. Here, delicious meals are served to wide-eyed diners; the restaurant’s forte being seafood. The Director’s Cellar stocks an impressive selection of the finest South African vintage wines to complement the fare.

The beach-style décor reflects an informal feeling throughout the spacious, air-conditioned bedrooms, each of which has a private deck.

Creature comforts include terry towel robes, heated towelling rails, separate showers, underfloor heating, Jacuzzi bath tubs, bidets and the usual minibar and fridge, tea and coffee-making facilities, hairdryer, TV and safe. The Sands’ generous honeymoon suite offers an extra outdoor shower and Jacuzzi on its timber deck, where lovebirds can share a bottle of bubbly and watch the sun sink over the horizon beyond.

Only one hour’s drive from Port Elizabeth, St Francis Bay is considered the gateway to the Garden Route. This charming seaside village is something

of an oasis of peace and quiet. Here, the Kromme River meanders down to an extensive canal system where marvellous marina lifestyle has been created to provide the perfect destination for the ultimate getaway experience.

Whether it is quiet country respite or the thrum and crash of the waves you seek, Hacklewood Hills and The Sands will surely sate your desires.  Contact Hacklewood Hill: • Tel: +27 41 581 1300 • Email: hacklewood@pehotels.co.za • Visit: www.hacklewood.co.za Contact the Sands: • Tel: +27 42 294 1888 • Email: thesands@pehotels.co.za • Visit: www.thesands.co.za

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The MINI Under Attack It all started in 1998, when VW launched the new Beetle, essentially a beetle-like body lowered onto a VW Golf IV chassis. Fact is, you can still buy one today. And from that VW, and everybody else, inferred the obvious: retro is so very now.

Words: ALEXANDER PARKER Images: Š QUICKPIC.CO.ZA; MOTORPICS.CO.ZA

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B

MW were next, and their offering was a hammer blow. The BMW Mini was launched in 2001 and has proved to be colossally successful.

Instead of taking the VW route, BMW were careful not only to borrow heavily from the looks of Sir Alec Issigonis’s 1959 classic but also from its drive. That meant it was low, had tough suspension and was simply

hilarious fun to drive. Nothing corners like a Mini.

BMW got it absolutely spot on, and the Mini went on to become a born-again fashion icon as well as a car bought by those who love to drive.

And since then BMW pretty much had it their own way. But recently other manufacturers have been waking up to the idea of producing small, fuelefficient and yet premium-quality cars. Small no longer means

“economy.” Small is cool, and the Mini is under attack from all quarters.

“Boutique” hatchbacks are in.

One of the most significant efforts is the Alfa Romeo MiTo. Alfas are traditionally heavy on cool and light on reliability, but this appears to be changing. Equipped with a punchy1.4litre, turbo-blown motor, the little MiTo is fun, fast and sounds great. It’s almost got a Subaru-syle flat-four rumble. Crucially, of course, the MiTo

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the A1 in South Africa, a great looking little hatch with an interior you could mistake for that of a TT. So, it’s typical Audi. It’s sombre and dark, but the materials are of simply brilliant quality and the build, well, nothing is built quite like the inside of an Audi.

Engine options for the A1 haven’t been announced yet, but expect the top-of-the-range to be the 90kW, 1.4-litre TFSi with quattro. And it won’t be cheap, judging from UK prices. This, however, won’t worry those in the market for something that’s got the zeitgeist as well as the zing. BMW need to worry about this one.

The French, too, are having a go.

Citroen recently released the DS3, a very modern, very French assault on the market. They’re calling it “anti-

it’s fantastically attractive, with excellent dials that are the perfect blend of analogue and digital. Even the steering wheel, with steel inlay, is a work of art.

It’s good to drive, too. The DS3 is not only quick in a straight line but also corners with the enthusiasm of a puppy at dinnertime. It’s blessed with perfectly weighted steering that offers all the feedback the enthusiastic driver could ever want, as well as lots and lots of grip. It has also got a superb gearbox that begs to be worked in order to keep that turbo spooling happily along. Truly, the DS3 is something of a revelation, and offers those in the market for the small, fun, fast and classy something completely different. The DS3 is a statement of otherness which, for

retro” and there’s no denying the modernity of the design. The only thing about the car that harks backwards is the The MiTo’s greatest attribute, of course, is name, conjuring of its badge. When you get asked the memories brilliant and question, “What do you drive?” there’s wallowy Citroens nothing quite like being able to reply, “an from the fifties.

The DS3 is a Alfa, actually.” striking looking car, with its twin vertical lines of LED that are giving BMW a hell of a fight running lights, that brilliant shark-fin across Europe. In South Africa the B-Pillar and the Citroen “floating brand has mirrored this trend, with roof.” The 1.6 THP turbo-powered Audi now wanting another piece of model certainly zips along, cracking BMW’s pie.

100km/h in just 7.5 seconds. Inside, Early next year Audi will release

many people will be enough – along with keen pricing that undercuts the Mini – to tempt some souls away from the BMW legend.

One last car is the Fiat 500. The 500 is much, much cheaper than the others, but as a retro funmobile it’s a real contender, with cute looks and a beautiful, classy interior. It’s also a small Fiat, and that means that while it’s pretty slow, it’s a whole heap of trye-squealing fun to drive. Available from R135 000, for some it’s the ideal varsity runaround or first car.

BMW have led the pack for years with the Mini, but it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. 

is great to look at. From every angle it’s classically Alfa Romeo. Inside, a well-made and classy interior and a superb driving position all combine to mean a genuinely pleasant car with which to live. To drive is quick, shouty and fun. The steering is excellent, light and direct, and the cornering superb. It’s not a Mini, of course, but that’s okay. It’s not trying to be a Mini. It’s offering an alternative.

The MiTo’s greatest attribute, of course, is its badge. When you get asked the question, “What do you drive?” there’s nothing quite like being able to reply, “an Alfa, actually.”

Alfa aren’t alone in bringing the fight to Mini. Audi has come on in leaps and bounds in the past 10 or so years, moving from being the

manufacturer of mundane saloons to what they are doing now, creating great looking and great drving cars

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Go Green at the

National Antiques

Faire

S A LVA G E

As the world recovers from the recessionary jolt that made us all rethink the way we live, how we spend our money and our core values, more and more people are turning to antiques and collectibles in pursuit of protecting our past; preserving a legacy for our children and grandchildren to appreciate.

Although thousands of committed antique lovers have always known the environmental value of investing in treasures of the past, the world of collecting is seeing a resurgence of interest in the preservation of the past and the future by “going green.”

Words: GIULI OSSO Images: © NATIONAL ANTIQUES FAIRE

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he National Antiques & Decorative Arts Faire has joined the international "Antiques Are Green" campaign in a global, quest to “sustain, re-use and re-sell” while “investing in the future and recycling the past.” Started in the UK in September 2009 by Nigel Worboys as a global non-profit initiative, the campaign recognises antiques for their genuine green hallmark – sustainability, re-usability and re-saleability.

Antiques and collectibles are probably the best way to take the green movement into our homes. This sector is still the one area where the appreciation of fine and valuable things remains constant and where there is continual recycling of items.

Clyde Terry, respected antiques dealer and the organiser of some of the top antique fairs in the country, recently started the National Antiques Association with a view to mobilising antique dealers under the green umbrella and educating the consumer on the benefits of investing in antiques and preserving our environment. “Whether you choose a magnificent mahogany table seating 24 or opt for an elegant 70s chrome and leather chair, you can be sure that that piece of furniture’s carbon footprint has long been eradicated,” says Clyde. “By preserving it for generations to come you will be doing your part in perpetuating its

‘green’ cycle. What many people don’t realise is that, relatively speaking, a beautiful mahogany chest-on-chest from 1720 is not that much more expensive than a modern piece made today and its value, both as an investment and in environmental terms, is priceless.”

According to Clyde, the antiques trade is currently seeing more and more people recognising the environmental contribution they can make by investing in antiques that have stood the test of time. “Whether it’s investing in a solid piece of furniture that is hundreds of years old, collecting art or books, collectible glassware or costume jewellery, you are doing your part in helping curb the use of precious resources. As a

result, antiques and works of art have, in the first quarter of this year, proven to be the finest investments in the world with dealers and auction houses noting record sales worldwide.”

Buying the best you can afford is the one piece of advice on which most dealers will agree. That and the fact that there are antique pieces and collectibles that are not affected by market fluctuations and which will always hold their value. The secret to successful collecting is to identify your collecting interest, researching as much as you can and developing good relationships with dealers who can help you achieve your goal of enjoying the fruits of your search while helping you to build an investment of note.

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Celebrating the Past, the Present and the Future of Antiques

In our highly disposable world – where one changes cell phones faster than one can properly learn to use them – there is a move to slow down enough to really appreciate the good things in life. Living with antiques, a new trend in collectibles and décor, allows us to do just that because it is about combining the past, present and future, so filling our lives with items that have meaning.

The past – surrounding ourselves with special antique pieces that feature as centrepieces in a modern comfortable setting. The present – enjoying your antiques and making them work in today’s world. The future – by appreciating antiques of the past and living with them today, you are ensuring their future survival.

Gone are the days when antiques made you think of an old grandmother’s house stuffed with boring brown furniture and cabinets filled with antiquated and dusty relics. Today’s trendsetters are looking at antiques in a new light and finding innovative ways to incorporate beautiful old pieces into today’s lifestyle and décor fads. Combining a Georgian table with modern high-back chairs, letting a valuable, one-of-a-kind sideboard act as the centrepiece of a modern dining room, making a Moorcroft vase or a piece of Lalique glassware the focal point on a table is what living with antiques is all about.

At this year’s Faire, top decorator Stephen Falcke will once again set up a living area that combines antiques with modern furniture to create an eclectic mix that is elegant and contemporary. Understanding scale and being able to use this to balance the pieces, bringing them in line with more modern pieces, is Stephen’s forte. His entrance feature is always spectacular.

The National Antiques & Decorative Arts Faire, which takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre from 23 to 25 July, will be putting antiques under a new spotlight, celebrating the return to beautiful things and showing visitors how to appreciate living with them. This broad platform showcases everything from traditional antiques to collectible antiques; from decorative arts to modern collectibles – all in settings that will surely take your breath away.

The highlight of the Antiques Faire is the prestigious opening night, held on Thursday 22 July, where the who’s who of the collecting world are afforded the first opportunity to admire, covet and collect those unique antiques and collectibles. Tickets cost R180 per person and bookings can be made through +27 11 482 4259. Visit www.naada.co.za for more information. 

A Daimler Brand

Making room for beauty.

Introducing the vastly appealing New E-Class Estate. www.mercedes-benz.co.za

Vehicle specifications may vary for the South African Market.

Acquiring Knowledge on Offshore Investments

The start of the financial crisis saw the dramatic onset of risk aversion. The Rand weakened sharply as investors internationally sought the safe haven of cash, particularly US Dollars. But within this financial climate it is reassuring to know that there are people who see light at the end of the tunnel.

Absa’s Phillip Bradford, head of Investment and Product Office, is one of these people.

Words: DIANE NAIDOO-NGCESE Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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SAGACIOUS

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e asked Phillip, given his extensive investment experience and management perspective, how he believes the recession impacted offshore investment decisions and if there have been significant changes over the past 12 months. He said: “The words ‘credit’ and ‘risk’ are once again being used in the same sentence. All of a sudden people had lost their faith in banks and felt safer with their money under their proverbial mattresses. But as Will Rogers eloquently put it, ‘return of your money became more important than return on your money’.”

On the “safer” option of hedge funds, Phillip said that international hedge funds, which would normally protect one’s capital in down times while still giving you good returns in the good times, showed that they can only protect one’s capital in isolation.

“People began realising that when the whole world falls, hedge funds fall too. Many international investors in hedge funds were very disappointed by this fact as they believed hedge funds would protect their financial investment.”

A close option to hedge funds was liquidity, which Phillip says also underperformed.

“Liquidity is never there when you need it most. The doorway is only ever too small when the building is on fire.

Many investors were very unsettled holding illiquid investments like hedge funds when the world was in financial panic.”

In times of extreme crisis all risky assets tend to fall in value at the same time, albeit temporarily. “The recent crisis is a good example of this; that many have used this as ‘proof’ that diversification via asset allocation does not work,” Phillip said.

“However, the subsequent bull run has in fact shown that asset allocation is more relevant than ever. For example, SA bonds were the best performing asset class in 2008 but the worst performer in 2009. Investors

that stuck to their diversified asset allocation strategy have been rewarded for their patience.”

We asked Phillip what are, in his opinion, the safer, less risky offshore investment options for those in the private banking sector, and if local investment is a better option given the status of international markets.

He replied that South Africans have typically invested as much money offshore as possible because it is “safer” in a developed market currency than in local currency. “Most people see this as their insurance in case South Africa falls off an economic or political cliff,” he said. “Even though the risk of this happening may be highly unlikely, nobody can prove them wrong today.” Phillip believes the mistake these investors make is that they fail to put their “safe money” to work because they often invest in developed market cash or government bonds. In Rand terms, these investments are likely to give very low returns with the significant added risk that comes with our volatile exchange rate.

Phillip’s thoughts on investing in offshore currency are that, on cash, you can earn over seven percent in Rand or zero percent in US Dollars – that is hoping the Rand will fall by more than seven percent over the next 12 months. “This is the investment equivalent of the proverb ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’. Measured in Rand; a portfolio invested totally in US Dollars cash will experience a similar volatility as a local portfolio with a majority weighting to the SA stock market.

This added risk is all due to volatile and uncertain currency movements.”

Phillip’s advice when it comes to investing offshore is to be proactive.

“Investing your money offshore in a ‘lazy’ way makes for expensive insurance premiums against SA ‘breaking down’. South Africans investing offshore are better off investing in assets with a higher potential return like equities or corporate bonds.”

But with all these downturns and financial uncertainty, what will the future hold for South African investors? What does Phillip predict will be the offshore investment trends in 2010 as we enter our recovery period in South Africa? “The developed markets (US, Europe, Japan, UK) have been slowly losing ground to emerging markets,” he replied, “in particular the Asian economies. This is a classic story of demand versus supply. Developed market consumers have been getting poorer for many years. Their central bankers have been trying to keep them spending by making it easy and cheap to borrow money – and borrow they did. The developing markets on the other side have been getting richer. Their solution has been to lend their money to the developed markets which, in turn use that money to buy goods produced in the developing markets.

This initially seemed like the perfect deal until they realised that the developed markets may not be able to pay them back. What happens if you lend money to a client to buy your own goods if they can’t pay you back? It will eventually end in tears for both parties. The only way to get out of debt without going bankrupt is to pay it back slowly. Until this happens, the developed markets will continue to be caught by the emerging markets.”

According to Phillip, in the past the poorer emerging markets were reliant on the old developed economies to buy their goods.

Fortunately they used this opportunity to invest in their own economies and have therefore enriched their people.

“This has stimulated internal demand for their goods and services, which has made them more (but not entirely) self-sufficient. This has allowed economies like China to rebound strongly and effectively despite the worst global recession in our lifetimes.

This trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, which is positive for a resource-rich country like South Africa.” 

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SLICK

Snakebite

Urwerkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Latest Assault on Watch Design

B ares its T eeth

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Modern haute horlogerie is following an iconoclastic path thanks to Urwerk’s Felix Baumgartner and Martin Frei.

According to Felix, Urwerk exists solely to create “modern complications.” With the fire of the young, the two argue that they do not wish to “re-invent the wheel.” Watchmaking and engineering course, respectively, through Felix’s and Martin’s veins, and both possess deep and impressive knowledge of the history of timekeeping.

Words: KEN KESSLER Images: © URWERK

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atchmaker Felix Baumgartner was born in Schaffhausen; Baumgartner Senior worked for IWC. But that’s as far as it goes: Felix adopts an almost militant stance in his need to eschew anything that could be regarded as conventional. He’s aided and abetted in this pursuit by Zurich-born Martin Frei, the industrial designer creating Urwerk’s look, and, coincidentally, the son of an engineer.

Martin resists looking at watchmaking in conventional terms and dips into the history of timekeeping – even methods pre-dating the mechanical – to find new ways of creating visual representations for hours, minutes and seconds.

Equally, Baumgartner actively seeks out new challenges. “All of the functions and complications of the past have been perfected,” he says.

“We want to make the complications of today.” And he doesn’t try to justify lateral thinking, when one points out how perfectly a round dial and two or three hands can so rapidly and unequivocally communicate the time.

For both Felix and Martin, manufacturing limited-production timepieces is almost an intellectual game. Their signature “satellite” watches have been around for more than 12 years, so their preferred watch layout no longer strikes enthusiasts as bizarre. As Felix points out, “Audemars Piguet also used intersecting wheels to show the time.”

Urwerk’s rotating discs connect to a

centrally pivoting trio or quartet of arms that line up their numbers with an arced scale along the bottom. The disc shows the hour, while the pointer below it indicates the minutes, corresponding to a chapter on the arc.

Simple, clever and almost intuitive, it is still a break from either easy-toread hands or plain digits.

And yet one cannot resist stating that too many new watches are almost impossible to decipher. Felix agrees. “You see a lot of the new brands, and sure enough, they are very tough to read. With the satellites, the system is actually a comfortable way of reading the time. With only one glance, you know immediately what time it is.” He says that the owner will get used to the layout after only two or three days.

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Martin explains Urwerk’s approach to the display philosophy – no dial, no hands – in terms rarely adopted by other houses. He can illustrate how different cultures, during different eras, wouldn’t even recognise our linear approach to the passage of our lives. “Playing with time, this is what I think is worth doing. If you asked the ancient Greeks

how they imagined time, their idea of the present is a much wider place, the past is where their ancestors live and the future doesn’t exist.”

Martin, speaking as one with a background in graphics and the visual arts, also offers a less metaphysical justification for Urwerk’s battle against convention. “By changing the way we display time, we can also change the shape of the case.”

Urwerk’s cases owe nothing to anyone else, with one accidental exception: the new CC1 King Cobra.

Felix recalls: “I had, with my brother, a Volvo with a linear speedometer,” and cites the speedometer in “an old Dodge in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds” as inspiration. Says Martin, “When I first made the design back in 1998 I was

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thinking of cars – I didn’t even know this watch existed.” He points to an image of the Cobra, a Louis Cottier/Gilbert Albert co-designed prototype from 1958, now housed in the Patek Philippe Museum. “Then we discovered five or six years ago this Patek Philippe prototype and it finalised the idea for Martin and me that we were going ahead with this project. When we started Urwerk, we had the idea for this car indication, speedometers, and so I made a very early design; this little sketch is 10 years old,” pointing to an old drawing. “I didn’t know about this Patek Philippe design; this drawing came from the cars. Later on, Felix saw the piece in the Patek Museum. He actually named it the Cobra – it’s like Cottier is an Urwerk guy!

And that somehow reassured us that we had to make it.”

Both Cottier and Gilbert Albert had impeccable track records for innovative timepieces, Cottier redefining watches with multiple time zones, Albert demonstrating that watches needn’t feature symmetrical cases.

Their 1958 concept, with a horizontal, linear readout, looked just like the speedometer format popular in the USA, and foreshadowed the earliest LED watches arriving two decades later. Now, through a series of mechanical developments unavailable to Cottier and Albert, Urwerk has produced a perfectly functioning concoction of gears, rollers, racks and cams that put a ‘61 Cadillac dashboard on your wrist. You read the time of day exactly as you would read the speed of a sixties American car.

Achieving this involved mechanical complexity that an

exploded drawing shows to be almost Heath Robinsonian in its intricacy.

Lateral thinking was needed to develop the module that could, according to Felix, “move two huge cylinders – minutes and hours – and create the rotation.” He points to a drawing. “This rack weighs 0.09g, made from photo-etched nickel. You can use silesium or nickel. Silesium can break. Nickel cannot. The complication here is this triple spiral and the rack, which gives its power to the cylinders.”

Felix grows animated, explaining how a watch this far from the norm almost justifies his very existence. “Urwerk – what do we do?

We don’t have tourbillons. We don’t have perpetual calendars. We don’t have any traditional complications.

For me” – he indicates the 103’s spider mechanism – “this is a complication. To make it function perfectly, properly … it weighs 200 times more than a standard hand, this is a complication. This for me, as a third generation watchmaker, is a reason for Urwerk.”

He continues, “With the CC1, we take a big risk. It’s very expensive for a small company. We don’t know if at the end the watch will function because we have no tourbillon ‘book’ where we can look to see how it’s done. So we have two big risks.

We have a technical risk, and the commercial risk – that the people come and they don’t accept it.

They say that, ‘This is stupid, hands are much better, and I don’t understand why I have to pay any more than for a Swatch.’ We have taken these risks for 12 years, so we are quite used to this. A lot of people say that the CC1 is completely different from the revolving satellite watches we did before. But for me it’s the same: it’s creating the watchmaking of today.”

The Urwerk CC1 King Cobra will be produced in 25 examples each in black gold and white gold. Prices will start at around €200,000.

Visit www.urwerk.com for more information. 

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SWOON

Viva la Romanticism The Poetry of Blake and Keats

If, upon reading the title of this article, your mind’s eye is cast to an 18th Century version of a garish Valentine’s Day, then perhaps it is true that ignorance is bliss.

Romanticism is one of the most misunderstood modern moments in literature today as most have reduced it to a series of velvety touches and sweet nothings when it is, in actual fact, a movement of rebellion and revolt.

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Words: CARMEN POOL Images: © MARIJA ANJA VENTER

omanticism is an intellectual endeavour rooted in the second half of the 18th Century. It started in Western Europe as a reaction against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific rationalisation of nature. Romantic poetry follows these cues, characterised by an emphasis on emotion, passion and the natural world as opposed to the empirical truths brought forth by The Enlightenment.

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Romanticism argued for a “natural” epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage. The poets of this time were actively engaged in trying to create a new kind of poetry, one that emphasised intuition over reason and the pastoral over the urban, often eschewing modern forms and language in an effort to use “new” language. The Romantic poets, William Blake in particular, believed that they were reviving the true spirit of English poetry by pursuing romance and the sublime that was lost during The Enlightenment.

There is a perceived personal nature to Romantic poetry that seems to have evoked a fascination with the lives of the Romantic poets. This view is often reinforced by the imagery conjured up in contemporary discourse as a number of them died before reaching 30 years of age – John Keats, deceased at age 25, being a case in point. This led to a conflation of the lives of the Romantic poets with the poetry itself.

The movement was, in a sense, formalised with the joint publication

by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge of Lyrical Ballads in 1798. The work highlighted what would become the key tenets of Romanticism: the reconciliation of man and nature, and an attempt to abandon the low language of 18th Century English poetry by conveying poetic ideas via a common vernacular.

Considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is held in high regard by critics today for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his art and poetry. He had a complex relationship with Enlightenment philosophy. Due to his visionary religious beliefs, Blake opposed the Newtonian view of the universe. This absolute rejection of the received ideas, systems, authorities and traditions of The Enlightenment seemed to ironically link him to the very movement by

which he was repulsed. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. On the work of Blake, William Wordsworth said: “There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott.”

Blake was a forerunner to the movement, teetering between the vague and undefined PostEnlightenment period and the start of Romanticism. But the latter half of the Romantic Movement (which was really the crux of the endeavour) was dominated by John Keats. Keats was the latest born of the great Romantic poets along with Byron and Shelley, and was one of the key figures in the second generation of the movement.

During his short life, Keats’s work was not well received by critics, though his posthumous influence was significant. His poetry was characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes, which remain among the most popular poems in English literature.

Keats, interestingly enough, was initially a medical student in training, though his heart lay with poetry. In 1816, shortly after he received his apothecary's licence, he announced that he had resolved to be a poet, not a surgeon. Though he continued his work and training in surgery, Keats devoted increasing time to the study of literature. In May 1816, Leigh Hunt, greatly admired by Keats, agreed to publish the sonnet O Solitude in his magazine The Examiner, a leading liberal magazine of the day. It was the first appearance of Keats's poems in print. Hunt (a close friend of Byron and Shelley) introduced Keats to many prominent men in his circle; a decisive turning point for Keats. He was established in the public eye as a figure in what Hunt termed “a new school of poetry.”

John Keats died on 23 February 1821 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome. By that stage he had

(only) been seriously writing poetry for barely six years (from 1814 until the summer of 1820) and publishing only for four. The compression of this poetic apprenticeship and maturity in so short a time is a remarkable aspect of Keats's work. His last request was to be buried under a tombstone, without his name, and bearing only the legend (in pentameter): “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”

The Romantic Poets tried to restore the balance between the physical and metaphysical worlds that was lost somewhere between the pages of Darwin’s Origin of Species, Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature and Newton’s gravitational laws.

These texts left the world

in a state of meaningless existential flux that was the nondescript Post-Enlightenment. There was no God, no mysticism and no life purpose.

It was this void that the Romantics tried to fill. Their prose reignited the metaphysical flame that brought with it the warm cinders of meaning and relevance into the mundane, quite a feat considering it was all accomplished with rhyming couplets. 

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Elegance at Sea Italian by origin, Azimut is one of the most desired and awarded yacht ranges on the international yachting scene. Their beautiful yachts can be seen in every noteworthy marina the world over. Broderick Marine, local agents for Azimut, has delivered Azimut yachts to the Seychelles, Mauritius and to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and docks one of the most beautiful yachts in South Africa at their very own marina on the Vaal.

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he Azimut/Benetti Group celebrated its 40th birthday in 2009 by launching eight new yachts, breaking with some traditional style elements when launching the beautiful Magellano 74. The impressive Leonardo 100 is the largest yacht in this new range; a range that has taken the yachting world by storm.

This model has now been nominated in the class “Best SemiDisplacement or Planing Motor Yacht” in the 30-metre to 39-metre size, the

Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS Images: © AZIMUT

results of which will remain secret until the winners are announced at The World Superyacht Awards gala ceremony on 22 May, held in the spectacular surrounds of London’s historic Guildhall. The coveted Neptune trophies will be presented to the winners in recognition of the owners’ vision and creation of the most magnificent yachts. As in so many other industries, when it comes to design and style, the Italian touch rules also in the world of luxury yachting, and our money is on the Leonardo 100 to walk away with the honours.

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the crew, who can move outside, pilot the helm, and go down to the lower deck without guests even noticing that they are there.

Viewed from the inside, the Azimut Leonardo 100 is an exclusive loft with elegant furnishings, differentiated by As in so many other industries, when it others through its comes to design and style, the Italian sheer size. Admired touch rules also in the world of luxury from the outside, it has an extremely yachting. sophisticated design with lines of flight of unparalleled metres from bow to stern, it is style and dynamism.

The shrouded in elegance and dedicated superstructure goes slightly further to comfort and high living. Large back towards the stern than the surface areas have opened up and the more traditional 30 metres to divisions typically found in more highlight the dynamic and aggressive traditional yachts removed. An nature of lines that run endlessly immense terrace looking onto the sea towards the horizon. invites you to surround yourself with

concealing the window area. The master suite has scenic windows with portholes that can be opened. Natural light also floods into the VIP and guest cabins, which have horizontal windows and portholes respectively.

The mahogany-tinted zebrano wood furniture stands out on the teak flooring and contrasts with the panelling, which is covered in light beaded Alcantara fabric with bright, golden reflections. The contrast between the dark, noble wood and the cream, ivory and yellow of the surfaces gives a strong, effervescent look to the interior.

The Leonardo 100 represents sheer elegance at sea, and will reward the lucky few who aspire to owning this special yacht with many hours of the most comfortable yachting imaginable.

The lower deck is designed to offer more space to the master suite set in the centre of the yacht. With large rectangular windows on both sides, it covers an incredibly large surface area. The level of comfort is as high as possible with ample space in the wardrobes, vanity area and bathroom, which features blownglass double washstand and a large whirlpool shower.

The Leonardo’s interior furnishings are designed to let the light flood into the large lounge, not even partially

And just to remind you and your 15 overnight guests that Italian design and manufacture is not only about looks but also performance, the two 2216 mHP MTU horsepower engines will race you out to sea at speeds of up to 32 knots. So, do not get too comfortable too quickly – there is adrenalin in the air as well. 

Big, enormous, immense – this is the scale used to measure the Leonardo 100. This yacht is in a class of its own in the Flybridge world with its innovative, revolutionary invention of space. The main deck is an amazingly large refined area: 30

friends to share moments of great intensity.

The Flybridge, with dining area, sofas and whirlpool bath, offers a second lounge, which is on a slightly higher level over the sea and protected by an innovative hard top in fibreglass and crystal glass. In the bow area, between the lines traced by the never-ending handrails, a spacious third relaxation area has been designed and built to enhance a sense of hospitality. Privacy is guaranteed at all times with a dedicated route for

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For more info contact: • Tel: +27 82 801 7065 • Email: mike@broderickmarine.com • Visit: www.broderickmarine.com

Love Letters

to Paris Of Double Agents, Deceit & Defection Under Soviet instruction, Kim Philby joined the pro-fascist movement during the Spanish Civil War and General Franco bestowed upon him the Red Cross of Military Merit. Later, joining British Military Intelligence during World War II, he received the Order of the British Empire from the Queen. Posthumously, he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. Philby and his “Cambridge Five” spy network were undoubtedly the double agents of the century.

Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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t is the stuff of award-winning novels and blockbusting films.

Writers such as John Le Carré (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and A Perfect Spy), Frederick Forsyth (The Fourth Protocol) and Julian Mitchell (Another Country) have immortalised the dramatic reallife stories of men such as Philby and his friends, who lived in the limelight of diplomacy and intelligence, whilst

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in the shadows, they conspired with their Soviet spymasters to pass on the most sensitive of secrets.

It started out with a secret debating society at Cambridge called “The Apostles,” where these young British drakes reputedly came under the spell of famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. They developed proCommunist sentiments and gradually created a web of intrigue, deceit,

misinformation and double-spying that would echo in the spy-chambers of London, Washington and Moscow up to 40 years later. These dissident friends arguably helped shape different outcomes in the geo-political hotbeds in the aftermath of World War II and its resulting Cold War. Eventually, they were exposed one by one and ended up defecting to their Soviet utopia.

Philby (codename Stanley) and

CHANGE T H E WAY YOU S E E THE WOR L D Guy Burgess (codename Hicks) were the better-known figures in the spy saga. Donald Maclean (codename Homer) and Anthony Blunt (codename Johnson) were confirmed members.

The so-called “fifth man” remained a source of much speculation, rumoured to have been one John Cairncross (codename Liszt), who was later exposed as such by a defecting Soviet spy.

The young Philby had rebellion in his genes. His British father served in India, where he converted to Islam while feeding his young boy, named after Rudyard Kipling’s mixedorigin character in the novel Kim, the early seeds of dissent. As Philby became enamoured with Communism at Cambridge, he joined the Paris-based front, the “World Federation for the Relief of the Victims of German Fascism,” and so managed to establish contact with the Communist International organisation (Comintern), which recruited him as Soviet agent.

Smart as one would expect, Philby started his career in Spain as a freelance journalist under Soviet direction, and later also worked for The Economist, ironically one of the parties that would help expose him.

During World War II, he joined British Intelligence, serving stints in Turkey, Washington and eventually Beirut, where his game was finally up. During his career, he sailed through the ranks and gained progressive access to sensitive information.

Despite suspicions being raised on more than one occasion, he managed to convince his superiors time and again of his innocence. Foreign Secretary at the time, and later Prime Minister, Ian MacMillan stated publicly in the House of Commons that, after having been thoroughly investigated, there was no reason to suspect Philby.

These Cambridge gentlemen were linked to many an intrigue and had several close encounters through the course of their lives. Philby was supposedly contracted to kill Franco, but lacked the nerve. During this time, his coded messages were contained in love letters to a woman in Paris, at an

address that later infuriated him when he learned it was the same as that of the Soviet Embassy. A more tenuous accusation that never stuck was that Philby was responsible for the car bomb death in Spain of reporters Neill (Associated Press) and Sheepshanks (Reuters).

In 1945, when Russian double agent Volkov was planning a defection to the West and threatening to reveal the names of Western double agents, Philby rushed to Istanbul via Cairo, having been fortunate enough to be assigned to lead the defection. The KGB kidnapped Volkov after Philby tipped them off, and his secret remained safe. When in DC, it was the oversight of a Soviet encryption clerk, who used a so-called “one-time-pad” twice, which alerted authorities to the prospect that there was a high-ranking mole leaking nuclear secrets. Burgess, holed-up in Philby’s place, Maclean, and Philby himself were linked and declared personae non grata. By 1951, Burgess and Maclean defected, yet Philby miraculously managed to have his name cleared once again.

Back in Beirut in the early 1960s, Philby’s past caught up with him when news travelled fast that a woman at a cocktail party in Cairo mentioned that he had admitted to her that he was a spy, and that he tried to recruit her. An old friend Nicholas Elliot was dispatched to confront him, and he confessed to it all at their very first encounter. Before their next meeting, scheduled for 23 January 1963, however, Philby disappeared at the same time a Soviet freighter left Beirut in such a hurry that its cargo was left lying on the docks.

Philby spent his last 25 years in Moscow, first as an alcoholic seemingly bent on self-destruction in an affair with Maclean’s wife, which led to his own wife leaving him. After some rehabilitation, he met a young Russian woman, trained junior Russian agents, and found peace in his utopia until his death in 1988 at the age of 76. The Soviet Union finally awarded the most famous double agent of the century their highest award posthumously. 

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MythManagement

The Me-Too Professional We brandish the term “professional” left, right and centre. But do we know what it means to be truly professional in the way we work?

Words: CHARL DU PLESSIS Image: © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

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recently had one of those typical office spats with a senior manager because I felt that the way he handled one of our colleagues was not particularly professional. It was easy enough to point out what it was about his behaviour that bothered me in this incident, yet he begged to differ. What appeared rather difficult was to try and suggest how similar or different situations should be handled if the expectation is “professionalism.”

What is it that makes conduct in the workplace truly professional then?

And who is the true “professional?”

Conventional wisdom has settled on the idea that to qualify as a professional, a career group needs to come up good on at least two dimensions. Firstly, members of this group should have specialised, intangible knowledge or skills that

limit entry into the group. Secondly, there must be a real public interest served through the practice of these skills. Once a career group has qualified on both these dimensions, members may start calling themselves “professionals.”

It is easy to see, therefore, why doctors and engineers are called professionals. Their training is arduous and they possess knowledge that is hardly common among the broad public. Furthermore, the construction of large buildings, roads or bridges, just like emergency surgery, has a direct impact on public safety and well-being.

Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, one of the most vociferous advocates of the free market, had serious issues with the concept of professionalism. He was of the opinion that by limiting entry to certain careers, we create a quasimonopoly that allows for price-fixing at the cost of society. Hence, no surprise that doctors and engineers are some of the best-paid players in the market.

In response to Friedman, others have argued that yes, we do allow a monopoly and its resultant pricefixing, but the cost to society of allowing that monopoly is actually quite acceptable. Absent the licensing and the restriction of entry into those careers, members of the public would simply have to take their chances in a perfect free market looking for a good doctor. Or else just drive over public bridges in blind faith. The cost of failure in securing decent practitioners in these areas would be unacceptable to society, because it may result in death. And no amount of pecuniary compensation could ever make up for the loss of a loved one.

So go ahead, licence and restrict, and we will pay your prices, knowing at least that someone out there is making sure that you know what you are doing.

Clearly, by this account, the typical manager in a commercial organisation cannot be described as “professional.” Anyone can be a manager. Even Tant Sannie who runs her own Vetkoek Den out of her backyard is de facto a manager. There are no limits to market entry, and neither a published standard of acceptable common knowledge nor of behaviour. You and I must take our chances when engaging with another commercial organisation that their management is capable of delivering what was promised. Furthermore, managers are not tasked to specifically keep the public interest in mind in the same sense as a Hippocratic Oath or a Code of Conduct for Professional Construction Project Managers may require. That sense of altruism towards clients and colleagues is optional, itself subject to the market’s willingness to reward it when present or punish it when absent. Which brings me back to the office spat and the conduct of my colleague. Was I then wrong to call him “unprofessional” and should I send over a bottle of the best single malt as soon as possible to apologise?

No, I do believe that even when managers cannot licence as professionals, there still is a lot that we could learn from the licensed professionals’ codes of conduct and behavioural standards. The quest for unique knowledge, for ongoing learning and for benchmarking against global best practices; the performance of management functions with fairness, integrity, a sense of duty and with consideration of the consequences of our actions; and finally, the consideration of the well-being of the rest of society’s members, albeit the most immediate colleague or other stakeholder. In this manner, each manager may indeed strive to become a true professional in the way he or she works. 

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makingwaves

Sungai Bali

Awarded Top Honours

After placing second in 2009 ahead of several properties in Indonesia, the cream of New Zealand and South African lodges, and the best of Fiji’s islands, Sungai Bali topped the Luxury Travel’s Gold List as “Best Overseas Boutique Property in 2010.” On an island renowned for great hotels, luxury accommodation and uncompromising attention to detail, it is a joy to find the luxe villa Sungai Bali combining all of the above to make guests feel completely at home with all the services of a fine hotel but without the need to share. The three-room Sungai is for people searching for a more personal, bespoke experience with staff who offer flawless service, know your name, your favourite drink and who can arrange an in-house spa treatment, a restaurant reservation, or simply point you in the right direction within minutes of you deciding to do something. The epitome of privacy and outrageous pampering for couples, groups of friends and families, memories of this magical location, exquisite food and immaculately appointed rooms will remain with you for many years to come. This is a chic destination with a definite wow factor.

Visit www.bali-villasungai.com or www.baliluxuryvillacollection.com.

South African Handmade

Acoustic Guitars

Custom-made instruments are not sold through stores. Each guitar requiring between 200 and 400 hours of labour, you can image the craftsman doesn’t produce many in any given year. Yes, they are more expensive than their factory-made counterparts, but their intrinsic value is so much higher, as is their sound quality. They can even escalate in value over time. Murray Kuun makes acoustic guitars by hand. He says: “All of my instruments are individually custom-made for each client, who is invited to choose his or her own materials and finishes.” Selling for upwards of $5,000 depending on your specifications, you’ll sleep easy knowing this piece of musical mastery was made just for you. Murray is based in South Africa but does distribute abroad, mainly to the USA, via a New York-based dealer who specialises in handmade guitars. Visit www.murraykuun.com to find out more.

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African Light

at the Edge The Edge Glass Gallery proudly presents “African Light,” an exhibition of local and international art glass opening at the end of May and which explores the inherent reflective qualities of art glass as it mirrors a palette of African colours, shades and textures. South African-born talent, Bruce Marks, will be contributing a piece to this exhibition. Based in London, Bruce is one of the world's master glassblowers, working in the studio of renowned glass artist, Peter Layton. Using images and an artist's diary, the exhibition will track the journey of Bruce's piece from creative inception to display in Africa, telling the story of a creative homecoming for one of our finest export artists. The Edge Glass Gallery is one of the country’s only kilnformed art gallery and studio spaces.

Find it at 29 Vredenburg Lane, just off Long Street, Cape Town. Contact +27 21 423 3370 or visit www.capeglassstudio.com for more.