What about cooperate responsibility?

Wherever I drive, collecting, dropping off and supporting facilities in South Africa, I come across these at nearly every place.

I'm usually in Mamelodi or Olievenhoutbosch, 2 townships in Pretoria, in informal settlements, the ones where people's homes are shacks, made of corrugated steel, with no electricity or water. In some cases I visit remote, rural places such as Hammanskral and Soshanguve. In Kildare last month, men, women and children were walking 4kms every day to fetch fresh water, on their route they were able to buy (if funds available) Coke, Castle Beer and don't forget if they had cell phones they had 3G and phone coverage.

There's no money to be made from corporate organisations by providing water, electricity or education, but there is from providing fridges, pumps, signs and cell phone masts.

I'd love to hear from Coca Cola, South African Breweries and Vodacom as to what they invest in these communities as the places I visit I don't see any obvious signs of how their presence benefits the community. And if they're not already investing and are looking to earn some more BBBEE points, then I can help them out.

My trip to BritMums Live

‘Why are you going to BritMums?’ was the cry from many of the people I tweet with and know in real life.
‘You’ll not survive 5 minutes’
‘Bet you get kicked out, you know you can’t keep your mouth shut’



Well I’m not sure why I wanted to go, other than it was the weekend I was due to return to South Africa, I was going to visit friends in London, there were a few tweeters and bloggers that I’d connected with and wanted to meet and I thought it won’t do any harm to learn a few more tips in blogging.

I booked a hotel and requested a roommate to help share some of the costs. I arrived at The Brewery at 1.30pm, nice and early and immediately connected with an established tweeter and blogger and met a new one, we continued to bump into one another all weekend.



There were a couple of people I’d never engaged with before who approached me and said they loved my blog and had followed me on twitter for a long time. There were other people I’d followed for a long time also who had never interacted with me before…..guess the message is, if you read someone's blog or follow them on twitter, it does no harm to let them know you’re there with a quick Hi or a comment on their blog.

And then there were the ones who looked nothing like their profile picture, the ones who were taller/shorter/fatter/thinner than I had imagined, the ones who come across as so confident on twitter who were shrinking violets in real life. There was an obvious clique in the room, commented on by many, there were the yummy mummies with the ‘darhlings’ and air kisses and then there were the odd few who were damn right rude.



Any idea why I had this photo taken?

 

I wasn’t the only one there I discovered after tweeting about it……I was snubbed, three times, by women. One actually said hello, looked at my name badge and walked off, another said ‘oh right, you’re chickenruby’ and turned her back to me to talk to the person I was with and the third swept right in, mid conversation and high jacked the person I was with who muttered ‘sorry, I’ll be back’ (and she was). I must confess there were a few I met or saw from afar that I discretely un followed on twitter.

I entered many competitions, had photos taken, played games, picked up freebies and had the most amazing goody bag.

At Reading station a woman approached me and asked if I was a BritMum? she then told me she'd read about the BritDads in the paper and just walked off.......

 

I gave most of the stuff away to friends if it wasn’t appropriate to  me or my family.

But did I learn anything? Would I go again? Would I recommend it for next year?

Yes I learnt a lot of things. I’m writing a book; well I have a few on the go which will probably all end up merging. From Chick Lit to real life. For one book I have 30,000 words. I need 3 chapters and a synopsis to submit to an agent. I can publish an e book, but I’m not a technical person (any offers). I linked up with Save the Children whose local branch in South Africa is in Pretoria, just up the road from me.

I got ideas, I got contact names, I got advice on how to pitch ideas to organisations, I learnt about media Kits (well I have the links) But I won’t be going next year, unless I happen to be back in the UK and Yes I would recommend you buying a ticket for next year. You can spend the time on your own quite comfortably, decide which seminars you want to attend, sit quietly or ask questions, you can come and go through the 2 days, don’t worry about arriving at a session late. If it’s not what you were looking for just tuck in on the end of another one. Sit in the Fox’s lounge drinking coffee, enjoy the food, smile and at the very least make some new friends.

 

 

 

 

Any ideas how much The Home Sense furniture was worth and who won it?

 

And if I can recommend one tip…it would be to NOT worry about what you’re wearing, pitch up in something comfortable, flat shoes. If you feel comfortable you’ll be more confident.

the power of a tweet

'Dear @picknpay why are you no longer selling Hellmans mayonnaise? Tis a sad day for us #expats'

What followed was a series of tweets from others with suggestions of where I could purchase Hellmans Mayonnaise and even a tweeter contacting her local store to ask if they had any in.

And then this morning the phone rang.

It was head office in Cape Town to explain that the Hellmans Mayonnaise had not been available to order in since March due to an issue with labelling. Hellmans is imported into South Africa, lots of other global brands are manufactured under licence here. Coca Cola, Lays (aka Walkers in the UK) and due to it being a global brand it needs to comply with the food regulation agency and therefore needs to be labelled 'contains egg' and 'produced in a factory that handels nuts'

Now all very well and good, but......I need my Hellmans Mayonnaise, so I added it to Hubbies shopping list for next month.

Then this pm I get a call from the manager at the local branch who has gone above and beyond in her mission to fulfill my needs, including calling local branches to see if they have any left in stock, sent out staff to rival stores to see if she could obtain any for me and then said she'll check out her local shops during the week and rest assured she will call me as soon as it comes back into stock.

So I feel a little foolish now, all that effort for me? one lowly customer, but it's the difference between writing a blog post and tweeting how fab @picknpay are and shopping elsewhere.

In the past when I've tweeted them about raw meat, poor hygiene or lack of education on storing products, they have always responded in this manner, with an explanation and what they are going to do to rectify the issue.

This is not service I've ever had from a UK supermarket.