This is one of the problems I’m having with HumanWrit.es. We need a little traffic. (No, HumanWrit.es isn’t going anywhere, I’m just sharing some of our challenges!)

We recently attended the Design Indaba at the CTICC as an exhibitor. It’s a 3 day event for creatives to showcase and sell their wares. This was our first expo where we got to tell the story of HumanWrit.es and ultimately sell Writables. And boy did we sell. Not only did we manage to generate a 300% return on our costs, we also made a number of connections with people that have come back to us after the event to purchase notebooks. The concept of exhibitions works really well. We pay to be at the Design Indaba and we setup our shop. The crowds arrive, a percentage of them stop at our stall and a percentage of those people buy Writables.

HumanWrit.es would do over R2 million a year worth of sales if we could continually run at Design Indaba levels of foot traffic. And we know that foot traffic is not scalable. Only people that have heard of Design Indaba, are interested, have a few hours to spare, can afford to pay the entrance fee and who are in Cape Town, attend. However, even with these low numbers, they translate into sales for us and actually make the time, effort and money you spend to be at Indaba, worth it.

On the web, it’s another story all together. You need a lot of time, a wide range of skills and money. And even then, you can’t guarantee traffic or sales.

6 months to wait for your on-going SEO work to kick-in. Skills to implement it along with PPC, UX enhancements, A/B split testing, copywriting, content generation and social media which all cost money. You then also need to focus on running a real world business that has to deal with suppliers, manufacturers, staff and balance sheets.

Running a business that solely relies on web traffic takes balls. You can’t just put up a web shop that guarantees foot traffic from day 1 like putting up a real world shop on Long street does.

I don’t expect the business of selling on the web to be free or easy, I just want the ability to generate targeted traffic to online businesses to be more accessible.

This was our basic itinerary:

• Fly to London, stayed 1 night and then flew to Italy.
• 6 days in Italy which comprised of 2 nights in Rome and 3 nights in Florence.
• 2 nights in Nice, France and then back to London for 6 nights before heading home

Booking flights and trains

I used Hipmunk.com  to find the cheapest tickets / airline. I then go and book the flight directly on that airlines website. In this case, Qatar Air had by far the cheapest flights as well as the shortest layover getting to London. Don’t just blindly book the cheapest flight you can find. Try and minimize flying time and time spent waiting at airports for connecting flights. All that time waiting is time you could spend on holiday which is worth money to you.

The other flights I booked were to London to Rome and back from Nice to London. We booked these flights with Easyjet, once again using Hipmunk to find the most cost effective flights paying close attention to when we would arrive in Rome. The cheapest flight arrived in Rome at 11pm, a complete waste of a night in Rome. We caught a flight that landed in Rome around lunch time that was more expensive, but it felt like we had a whole extra day in Rome because of this.

We used trains to get from Rome to Florence and then again from Florence to Nice. Book these tickets once you arrive in your destination country at the train station you will depart from. You’ll get the best prices and quickest routes. I struggled for hours online trying to find a train from Florence to Nice in France because you are switching trains and train companies. At the station though, the ticket sales counter booked everything in 2 minutes!

Booking accommodation

Finding a place to stay in a foreign country is can be really tricky. I used a combination of Tripadvisor for reviews, ratings and photos and then Hotels.com for booking all my accommodation.

Picking a place to stay started with first choosing the main attractions we wanted to visit. We wanted to be within 2/3 minutes walking distance of the Trevi fountain in Rome, so I used this landmark on Hotels.com as the place to find hotels nearby (Hotels.com is more accurate with pricing and availability than TripAdvisor). So after picking a few hotels, I read their reviews, ratings and photos on TripAdvisor. Take all the reviews with a pinch of salt though. The most important thing is to pick up on trends in the reviews – from things like “breakfast is actually served at a bistro down the road” or “the host Francesca is amazing”. The user photos also easily show you how clean and neat a place is as well as gives you a better sense of the size of your room and bathroom that the professionally shot hotel photos don’t. For me the order of importance for a room is: cleanliness of bathroom, cleanliness of bedroom and lastly size. Once I found the hotels I wanted to stay at, I booked them on Hotels.com. Pricing across all these travel booking sites is pretty much identical, but on the odd occasion, I always found hotels.com to offer the cheapest rates. Online booking sites are also without fail cheaper than going directly to the hotel’s website itself.

What to do and where to eat

Top 10 lists of things to do in “this city” are all over the web, so research those and make a note to visit those spots. For transport around Rome and Florence, we used those hop-on hop off city busses. They might sound too touristy, but they are a great way to see a city and get you from A to B without being ripped off by taxis and the likes. You also learn a thing or 2 about the city while driving around!

Tripadvisor also has lists of day trips and excursions. We did the “#1 thing to do in Florence on Tripadvisor” which is take a day tour of Tuscany and it was one of the highlights of our holiday in Italy.

Finding a place to eat is easy. Finding a memorable place to eat is not. I often used Foursquare and Yelp on my phone to find places. Another tip is to ask local people working in retail shops when shopping for advice on places to eat. Your hotel might send you to places that are affiliated to the hotel and therefore get kickbacks or commission for sending you there, where as shop assistants really just want to help!

What to pack

No matter what, you will always pack too much clothing. I can tell you not to, but you will still do it. Buy clothes and dry clean stuff if you do run out when you are on holiday. It’s really that easy.

Different holidays and countries require different types of planning and research, so ask your friends and family for advice. Everyone’s experiences and memories are different, so go out there and find it out for your self.

Looking for my photos?

To see all the photos of our trip, visit my brand new photo blog, Snapped.

You get to make 2 first impressions on a new client. During your meeting when you sell your services and the first bit of work you need to do for the client – putting together their quote. It’s the latter that can make that lasting impression.

You expect a place that consistently ranks in the top 50 restaurants in the world year after year to be really posh with people lifting their noses with every dish being served, but it is quite the opposite. It’s a smart casual setting with the waiters really making you feel at home, cracking jokes and making sure you have a great time. They share their food and wine knowledge of every dish and you eventually wish they would join you for dinner so they could talk you through every bite. They definitely add that extra touch to make the evening even more amazing.

I managed to take a pic of all our courses except the Dalewood lanquedoc custard with vinegar flings and leeks.

We chose the 8 course surprise dinner, with the wine pairing. The surprise dinner is just that with each course only being revealed to you on arrival at your table. The wines that accompany each dish were some of the best wines I’ve tasted and I’m glad they gave us a menu to take home otherwise I would never remember the names of any of the dishes or wines!

The starters

The 2 starters seen below aren’t part of the 8 courses. Surprise!

The first starter consisted out of a black rice cracker, chakalaka & pap cigars, fois gras biscuits wrapped in edible silver and squid ink meringues. The second starter is a classic sweet corn bread baked in a tin with brown butter.

Onto the main meal

The first 3 courses and the last surprise extra course were the same for both Karina and I, but the rest were different. That just added to the excitement as you got to taste more than the 8 courses you were expecting.

Beetroot, buttermilk labne, dill and cucumber granita. I heard some people in the restaurant start freaking out when they saw this dish and mention Masterchef SA. Any idea why?

A winter walk through Franschhoek. The farmer at Leopards leap presents his freshly picked salad ingredients which are used. The most amazingly fresh and crisp salad.

Sting nettle, jerusalem artichoke and granadilla soup. Yes, it’s amazing.

Curry dusted silver cob, yellow dahl, kale, braised spices and confit tomato

Jumbo big bay oyster, sour fig, vichyssoise and roasted cos lettuce leaves

Paradyskloof quail, amasi, sweetcorn and savoury granola

Swartland guineafowl, fennel, waterblommetjies and liquorrice root

Farmer angus lamb cheek and tongue, aurbergine, black garlic and amaranth

Klein karoo springbok loin, kamut, sorghum, rainbow carrots and celeriac

Klein rivier gruyere, pressed rusk, mebos custard. currants and pickled onion

Baobab, coconut, honeybush and caramel. The caramel was poured over this coconut dome when it arrived which melted it and revealed everything underneath it!

Madagascan chocolate, cape lemon and holy basil

A little cake. I can’t remember what type. :(

Candyfloss and sweets in a tin

The meal takes at least 3 1/2 hours to enjoy and is truly one of the most amazing food experiences of my life. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Franschhoek, The Tasting Room is a must. It is expensive, but it’s one of those food experiences you’ll never forget!

Tips for taking fish-eye pictures with the Olloclip

It’s pretty easy to take a pic with the Olloclip, but getting a fish-eye pic to look great isn’t that easy. Try and frame your subject in the middle of the pic, as that is where the lens will be at it’s sharpest focus – the outer part of the image will appear slightly out of focus and the edges, blurry.

Crop the image to square, as that removes the outer-most blurry part of the image, unless you want to add the really dramatic fish-eye effect. Sharpen the pic in your app of choice (Snapseed does a great job of that) and off you go!

Taking great fish-eye pics takes a little practise, but once you have the hang of it, you’ll be the marvel of your non-iPhone friends!

Macro shot tips

Macro shots are those really really close up pics you see – eyeballs, blades of grass, water droplets etc. The macro olloclip feature really does take ordinary objects and turns them into the weird and awesome. #20likes on Instagram guaranteed! :)

The only tip I have for this is you’ll be surprised how close you need to get the lens to the object to get the image sharp. You’ll need to take at least 5 pics of the subject to find the one pic that is the sharpest. Look at the ordinary things around you and try take macro shots of them – you’ll be surprised what looks rad through a macro lens!

The wide-angle lens

Apps like Pano and DMD do a great job of stitching panoramic pics together, so for me the wide-angle lens is the least used Olloclip feature for me. It does add quite a number of pixels to the left and right of your image, so to a certain extent its cool, but not as cool as stitching together 2 or 3 pics like Pano does.

Where to buy the Olloclip

You can purchase the Olloclip from ORMS Direct in South Africa for R895.95 or buy it online from Olloclip.com for $69.95. I bought mine overseas and took less than 2 weeks to arrive.

Here are some of the pics I’ve taken with my Olloclip lens.

Launching my second business to the world on the 1st of June 2012 has been one major accomplishment for me personally. We actually took an idea, built and launched it. The idea was the easy part. Making a tangible, real world product from the idea? That is what I’m most proud of.

What is HumanWrit.es?

HumanWrit.es sells the Writable, a 192 page, square, hard cover notebook, that for every Writable we sell, a classroom of 10 kids receive an exercise book.

The inside cover of the Writable

It is a high quality notebook that I want people to buy and use irrespective of the story of giving, because if you love using the book, you’ll continue to buy Writables, which means HumanWrit.es will be able to continue to help children in need!

The story of how Adrian, Rich and myself came up with HumanWrit.es is another blog post on its own, but for now, being able to sit here, with a brand new business 9 months after dreaming up the idea is one of pure excitement.

For now, I’m focused on both Whitespace and HumanWrit.es, however the latter takes way more of my time and effort. It’s an entirely new industry and I’m learning so much each and every day.

I can’t wait to see where HumanWrit.es will be in 3, 6 and 12 months time and here is to that journey!

Struggling to stay in the top 4 in the league and 3-1 down after the first leg of our Champions League round of 16 tie with Napoli, we looked dead and buried. A trophyless season awaited, with no hope of European football next season either.

Step up Roberto “Robbie” Di Matteo, our assistant manager while AVB was in charge and a previous cup winning midfielder at Chelsea in the late 1990s.

His first 3 games in charge saw us beat Birmingham City in the FA Cup, a win against Stoke in the league and a thrilling 4-1 win in extra time against Napoli to take us through to the Quarter Finals of the Champions League.

Personally, that 4-1 win at Stamford Bridge was a massive turning point in our season. It showed us that the “old guard” still had what it took to win against all odds and that our never say die attitude was still strong. One thing I’ll remember after that game was Karina telling me “We going to win this cup, I just know it.” Oh how I wished I believed her back then.

Winning the FA Cup

FA Cup Winners in 2012. Beating Liverpool 2-1.

A few replays had to be played as our form in this competition was nothing short of boring. However, the further we progressed, the better we played. We thoroughly deserved the FA Cup after smashing Spurs 5-1 at Wembley in the semis and outplaying Liverpool for 2/3rds of the final to win 2-1.

Chelsea have now won the FA Cup 4 times out of the last 6 seasons and something we don’t seem to do is choke in finals. We love playing at Wembley and have an amazing win record at the ground. It’s definitely our home away from home.

2 records I have to mention with our FA Cup win is Terry is the first player to captain 1 side to 4 FA Cup wins and Drogba is the first player to score in 4 FA Cup finals.

Chelsea are starting to write their own history it seems.

Let’s not talk about the league…

Our league form left us ending the season in 6th place, our worst league position since Abramovich bought the club in 2003. We struggled to compete with the Manchester clubs, Arsenal, Newcastle and Spurs. The league is becoming so competitive that the “top 4″ we all used to talk about is a thing of the past.

We needed to end in the top 4 this season to automatically qualify for the Champions League for next season and even though we had qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup, it’s not something the top clubs aim to qualify for. It’s Champions League competition or nothing.

Ending the season 25 points from eventual winners Manchester City is a bitter pill to swallow. Our league form over the past 2 seasons has not been great and this needs to change.

The road to Munich ending in glory

Allianz Arena, Munich

I still don’t understand how we managed to win the Champions League. No one gave us a chance after being 3-1 down to Napoli. Then no one gave us even a sniff of a chance in the semis when we came up against the mighty Barcelona. To top it off, we were definitely the underdogs in the final having to play Bayern Munich at their home ground!

I am so damn proud of every single Chelsea player that did their part to get the team to the final and win it. Everyone focuses on John Terry being sent off in the semi and his haters talk about him not deserving to lift the trophy. I’ll ask you, what about his goal against Napoli to help us turn around a 3-1 deficit or his defensive performance at home against Barca to keep them from scoring that all important away goal? Winning the Champions League isn’t just about winning the final – you have to get there first!

Summing up our first Champions League win

I’m going to do the summary in point form. I’ll never do this win justice in this blog post, but I’ll give it my best shot.

• The Chelsea old guard comprising of players such as Terry, Lampard, Cole and Drogba have been unbelievable in the last few months and in helping us win the Champions League.
• Cech was outstanding in helping us beat Barcelona and Bayern. He also guessed the right way to dive in all 6 penalties in the final, saving 3 of them. 10/10 for his homework!
• Cole defended like a demon in the final. He has been and still is the best left back in football.
• Think about Cahill for a second. 6 months ago he was playing for Bolton and they have been relegated. Here he is winning the Champions League.
• Everyone had written off Mikel in the beginning of this season, but he was outstanding during the semis and final of the Champions League. Unsung hero. I bet his pass completion rate was well above 90%.
• Torres still isn’t back at his best, but his performances of the past few games in the build up to the final were great. Who won our only corner in the final in which Drogba scored? Torres.
• Lampard? Super Frankie Lampard. Enough said.
• Ryan Bertrand made his Champions League debut in the final and had a tough time up against Philipp Lahm, Bayerns star defender and captain. He did really well and hats off to Robbie for picking him. That decision took balls.
• We had 2 penalties against us which would of ended our dream. Messi and Robben both couldn’t convert. I can’t explain that.
• Beating Barcalona at home  1-0 and drawing 2-2 at the Camp Nou. We took parking the bus to new levels, but it worked.
• Roberto Di Matteo. Will forever be written into Chelsea’s history as the first manager to win the Champions League for us. Deserves all the praise for turning Chelsea around in 3 months to win 2 trophies and make it the most successful season in our history.

My answer to people who ask me how we managed to win the Champions League in 2012 will always be, it was written in the stars!

Chelsea 2012/2013 kit

Nothing ground breaking here with the new Chelsea kit, but I really love the gold and simplicity of the design. I wasn’t that impressed by the 2011/2012 kit, but I’m definitely buying one of these shirts.

The new 2012/2013 Chelsea kit. Love the gold.

Arsenal 2012/2013 kit

Similar to the 2011/2012 kit with a change in the sleeve design.

Note RVP in the new kit. Will he still be at Arsenal come the start of the new season?

Manchester United 2012/2013 kit

A patchwork design for their new kit, which some love and others hate. It will grow on all fans eventually. Once you win a few games in a kit, it sticks.

Liverpool 2012/2013 kit

Liverpool only change their kit every 2 seasons, so this is the 2012/2013/2014 kit. Adidas makes way for American kit manufacturer Warrior. The other change to their kit is in the badge.

Newcastle 2012/2013 away kit

Bonus video!

Check out the 2012/2013 Arsenal kit launch video. These players have some insane football and table tennis skills!

Click here to view the embedded video.

You’ll need the following:

• 2 x Nespresso pods
• dash of milk
• vanilla syrup
• ice blocks
• blender

Make a double espresso and add a dash of milk. The key here is don’t skimp on the double espresso by making a single lungo. There is a reason why iced coffees cost well over R20 in coffee shops. They are all using double espressos!

Add to the double espresso around 20 – 25 ice blocks, 2 or 3 big tablespoons of the vanilla syrup and BLEND!

Pour into a glass, grab 2 straws and enjoy.

Some important tips

The key to the iced coffee is making a double espresso and using a syrup to sweeten. It doesn’t have to be vanilla flavoured syrup, but that does add a really great flavour. You can easily make sugar syrup at home too. Here is a simple sugar syrup recipe. You can store the exces sugar syrup in the fridge for use later.

He woke up Windows XP from sleep mode and deftly defeated twelve notifications to update Norton AntiVirus. With a resounding click he opened Internet Explorer 6 and gazed deep into its depths, past the Yahoo toolbar, the MSN toolbar, the Ask.com toolbar, and the AOL toolbar. And then did he see, at long last, that The Google did load.