SAFBC PART 2

Contrary to what Douglas (a cheeky reader on my Kitchen Diary blog) thinks I am not resting or relaxing :o) No, no, I've actually been very busy in fact - cleaning up after the conference. People to see, people to thank (sponsors and guests), I have almost 1,300 emails to wade through......places to go! My grandson had his fungym show at school on Tuesday evening, on Wednesday I had to babysit (twice - 2 hours in the afternoon and then again in the evening for parent teacher meetings) Thursday it was Taste of Cape Town seeing as we had received 2 entry tickets each in each goodie bag - WOW! Amazing....that will be a post on its own! Suffice to say it was a wonderful experience and I really enjoyed it. Ran into a lot of new friends made at the food bloggers conference so had quite a social scene going as well.

 Friday night it was cocktails in Mouille Point with Jeanne from Cooksister and a few other bloggers, Nina from My Easy Cooking, Rosemary from Homemade Heaven, Nicola from Wotsforlunch, Doula Mel from Bosom Buddies & myself. We had the added excitement of watching the Queen Mary 2 sail out of Table Bay Harbour and into the sunset.

The social life has to end soon.But not quite yet. Tomorrow evening I am donning my apron and heading off to Silwood Kitchen to cook with Le Creuset - those wonderful casserole people who also sponsored the conference. What a privilege, I am hugely thrilled by it.

 I was also invited to participate in a day with Simonsberg Cheese tomorrow out at a wine farm in Durbanville Hills but unfortunately it is Easter holidays so it means that this week I am the grandmother of two little rascals who are needing taking care of while Mommy is at work!! Aaaarrrgh. I hope everyone entered the competition they are running over on 24.com as those Simonsberg events are just fabulous. I went to one last year and it was fantastic. We were treated to a delicious luncheon with chef and author Marlene van der Westhuizen at her cooking school in Green Point. We had a fab cheese tasting with the cheesemaker from Simonsberg and it was interesting.  Their cheeses are absolutely wonderful!! And they sponsored the Food Bloggers Conference too so it would've been grand to get there and thank the right people in person.

I have finally completed editing the photographs from the first SA Food Bloggers Conference and have put them onto my personal facebook profile if anyone would like to take a look. If you are not on facebook (or not a friend) let me know and I can try and send you a link so that you can see them. But a lesson learned at the SAFBC was that you should link your blog to facebook and twitter if you want to get readership :o)

Registration and getting to meet the faces behind the bloggers

Jeanne (Cooksister) the keynote speaker, sporting a funky new short cut for Spring in the UK

A happy group of bloggers

Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris with the Kara's Original Greek Spice Gift

I will, over the next little while, be blogging a bit about the conference and give little tips of what was learned that day so look out for those and for some more photos. If there was anyone who attended who does NOT want their photos to appear on blogs please kindly let me know as soon as possible. I am putting up a list of bloggers who attended simply because so many have asked me for links to everyone's blogs so here they all are....no wait, let me go and get a cup of chai tea and something to nibble on because the linking process is going to take the rest of the night HAHA!!

Jeanne - Cooksister


Nina - My Easy Cooking

browniegirl (oops that be me hehe) - Kitchen Diary

Jenny Morris - Giggling Gourmet

Just Griet - Griet's World

Ikey200306 - Pretty Little Thing Waiting for the King Down in the Jungle

Brightside - A Spoonful of Sugar

inspiration - Lavender & Lime

Wotsforlunch - Wots For Lunch

Janice - Janice Tripepi

Juno - Scrumptious SA

Marisa - The Creative Pot

Sigrid - Cooking And Eating With Polkadotcupcake

Sam Wilson - Editor-in-Chief food24.com Parent24.com & Women24.com

Cath - Cheque Please

Florentine - Treehouse Diary & DIY Gourmet (DIY launching mid April)

baglady - Touch of Gold

Sophia Lindop - Sophia Lindop

Michael Olivier - Michael Olivier

Sam Linsell - Drizzle & Dip

Andy - Jamie Who Blog

Pia - Mother City Living

Rose & Thorn - Homemade Heaven

Robyn Gartrell - Chocswirl

Potjie - What's Cooking

Carey - Bits of Carey

Just Me - Just Me

Kit - Food & Family

Lana - Whipping It Up

Lana - Lanalou Style

Jan Braai - Braai 4 Heritage

Chris - Whale Cottage Portfolio

Roy - Ardy53

Irma - Kapruka Oils

Cheryl - Beadz2Pleaz



Some of our fabulous sponsors attending were:

Nadia & Malu from Eat Out Magazine

Laura Swanepoel from Taste Magazine Online

Gill Macgregor from Le Creuset

Neil & Adrienne Verlaque Napper from Verlaque Fine Foods

Datje from Soulicious Chocolate

Cathy Archer from The Nut Vendor Cell: 0827880306 -
oh my word those WASABI NUTS!!! Divinely delicious!! Thank you so much for the sponsorship Cathy!

Shane Dryden - Yuppiechef

If anyone else has a website that I have omitted to put on the list please let me know the url and I will do so immediately as it will be great for everyone there to keep in touch in some way.

The rest of the guests were partners/spouses and private citizens interested in blogging or social networking. If you met anyone there that you would like to remain in contact with please let me know and I will set up email contact for you - with the other persons permission of course :o)



I told you the linking would take me a long time. I have been doing this blog post now since 9pm and look at the time now - 1.15am and way past pumpkin time.

Have a blessed and wonderful Easter everyone. Keep safe on the roads please if you are travelling this long weekend.

Hugs,
Colleen

MORE EXCITING SPONSORS

Good morning world,  it's a bright sunny day in Cape Town but the south easter is blowing and there is a decided Autumnal nip in the air. It is quite delicious to feel the first hair raising prickles on your skin after the mind-blowing heat of the past couple of weeks that we have experienced. Well, the holiday and wedding are behind us and we are back home with shoulders to the wheel. Had a wonderful time with family and friends and even managed to get a bit of work done via my mobile phone and the wonders of technology. My son connected me up via remote control to my pc at home and I could work on it wherever I was. I wish I had a high speed connection though. It was really SLOOOOW and frustrating!!

Today is the last day for bookings people so if you are still pondering on whether to attend the conference or not please don't wait any longer because you will be too late. There are still some seats available but by the end of business today Jenny needs to have final figures for catering and hiring purposes. So please do contact me and I will send you banking details.

If your surname is MUIR and you have already paid for a ticket please do contact me urgently with your name and contact details at the above email address so that I can add you to the list of delegates!!

Some more exciting news is that some more really great sponsors have come on board so without further ado here are the one's who have sent through their logo's.....

Hmmmm, I cannot wait to sample these goodies. I already know the Nougat intimately!! A big thank you to Paul from Wedgwood Handmade Confectionery  for the delicious sponsorship and for making me laugh while I am so stressed!! And thank you to Jane-Anne for linking us up!!

http://www.tastemag.co.za/
Woolworths TASTE magazine recently launched their online magazine. What a fabulous site. I visit it regularly and would highly recommend that you do too. It is going to be big!! Thank you Woolworths Taste for the 3 copies of your magazine for each goodie bag. An added bonus is this.......

Jamie at Home DVD's - a series of 3 DVD's that are included in the bagged magazines!!

Thank you so much Woolworths Taste and New Media Publishing 

The new Taste mag is in store now. Go get your copy.......

Another mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......I recently tasted some amazing chocolate and was so impressed that I contacted them. The delightful Datje has come on board with two giveaway hampers of some of her delicious sucrose and dairy free soulful chocolate fusions. Thank you so much Soulicious!!  

Tandy Sinclair (known to food24 bloggers as inspiration) from Lavender & Lime blog has donated her very first book, hot off the press, as a giveaway to one fortunate blogger on the day. Congratulations Tandy on the launch of your book. May it be a huge success. Thank you for your sponsorship

Need one say anything more about Tru-Cape than mention their name I wonder??? Who doesn't know their wonderful fruit?  

Thank you Tru-Cape South Africa for your sponsorship!! Chomp chomp!!

To Justine Drake and the friendly folk at John Brown Publishing a huge thank you for the Fresh Living Magazines.

Verlaque Foods have been very generous in their sponsorship and I am very grateful to Neil and Adrienne for their support. Their products are wonderful and those who have not discovered them yet are about to :o)

Congratulations to Verlaque Foods for being approved and getting a spot at FHA 2010 the Singapore Food Show. WOW!!! Wishing you guys all the best for a very successful show!!

And that's all for now folk. I have to find my way into town to collect sponsorship products so wish me luck. Living on the south side I don't go into Cape Town that often and am not all that well aquainted with her streets and with all the building and road changes going on it changes almost daily!

Please don't forget that booking CLOSES TODAY!! And to those who have booked but have not yet paid.......PLEASE do so today!! If you have not paid you will not get in to attend the conference.

Now, with a name like mine it would be very remiss of me not to say the following...........

Happy St Patty's day to all those with green blood coursing through their veins.

“May the enemies of Ireland never eat bread nor drink whiskey, but be afflicted with itching without the benefit of scratching.”

Don't overdo the Guinness :o)

Colleen xxx