Africa – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

The Rains!

When it rains in Livingstone it tends to really rain! It also seems incapable of raining without the accompaniment of massive rolls and claps of thunder, and all kinds of lightning – fork, sheet, etc! All very scary! Check the picture of the Chanters Lodge garden during really heavy rain as we experienced a huge storm yesterday mid-morning.

Normally our back yard gets flooded in heavy rain as we’ve never really sorted out the storm drainage, but yesterday the trenches for the foundations of the new office block took all the water! I’m sure our builder will be delighted when he turns up for work tomorrow!

Looks like we might have more rain today too!

6
DEC

Africa, Chanters, livingstone, radioshow, weather

New Rooms Are Open!

“Is that your first Guest?” someone on Facebook asked me, after I’d posted this picture of our newly completed Room 12 at Chanters Lodge in Livingstone! It’s not. It’s Susan Timwindila, currently Acting Assistant Manager while Annastasia Katele, holder of that post, is away in South Africa enjoying (we hope) her well earned annual leave. I was just using Susie as a model, but she’s a good one isn’t she?

We’re delighted to have finished our two roomed extension after some 4/5 months of hard work and a great deal more expenditure than we’d anticipated (as usual). The rooms have one double bed each, private bathrooms with seperate shower and overlook the swimming pool at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone. They have a small veranda – the comfortable veranda furniture is still being made. The bedroom and bathroom floors are finished with ceramic tiles and the rooms are cool and comfortable – they are air-conditioned and have fridges and televisions.

All rooms at Chanters Lodge have wi-fi access for Guests with their own laptops or internet inabled cell phones and there’s a laptop available for hire at the lodge for those who don’t. We give guests one hour free internet time and have internet coupons available for purchase in various units thereafter.

The new rooms will rent for US$95 per room per night, and this price includes full english breakfast, and free transfers from/to Livingstone Airport or the city centre on arrival/departure if required. We think this represents great value for money! Don’t you?

29
NOV

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, extension, staff, Zambia

Shakespeare Court, Lusaka

Hunting for medium/long term apartment/hotel accommodation in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital? You could do a whole lot worse than Shakespeare Court. It’s on Leopard’s Hill Road in Kabulonga, Lusaka – a place I know well seeing I lived on that street between 1986 and 1992! It’s a lovely leafy suburb of Lusaka but handy too.

There’s a (small) picture of Anthony Harwood and the Shakespeare Court management team up there! Anthony hails from Ottery St Mary in Devon, UK, my home county and is busy here in Zambia and overseas with various projects. We have the pleasure of Anthony’s company at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone this weekend. This is about Shakespeare Court.

“Shakespeare Court provides a large selection of Lusaka apartments within a secure and relaxed community. You are welcome to stay in our Lusaka hotel accommodation from two weeks to two years, or longer.

Each Lusaka apartment is designed for easy living for business visitors & people who are new to Lusaka. Every apartment includes satellite TV and internet connection. You will also find a fully fitted kitchen, so you can prepare your own meals, and nearby you will find Crossroads Shopping Mall with several places to eat, and a modern supermarket.

All apartments include bed linen & towels. So, you can just bring your suitcase, move in & start living. For further information on the local area please read our Guide to Living in Lusaka or download our handy Map of Lusaka.

To book your stay with us please use our availability search, or contact us for assistance in making your booking. We look forward to welcoming you to Shakespeare Court.”

Go to their website for full details!

28
NOV

accommodation, Africa, Chanters, livingstone, Lusaka, uk, Zambia

Customers

Continuing some of Inc Magazines A-Z of Peter Drucker, C is for Customers.

Customers: Having trouble formulating a mission statement? Let Drucker boil it down for you: “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer,” he argued. And: “What does our customer find valuable?” is the most important question companies can ask themselves. This focus helped reorient marketing away from advertising and onto a higher plane.

Anything wrong with this? No, except when I write I always use a capital letter for the word Customer or Guest or Client. It just helps to make the point even more strongly.

Just about every valuable idea, suggestion or complaint for that matter comes from a Customer and if you’re not close to yours, you won’t hear about it! I get close to mine by meeting them on arrival at the airport, or in town if they don’t have their own transport, and by close personal contact during their stay. It works!

The picture? The Wills family from Melbourne, Australia – two times Customers and now friends as well!

26
NOV

Africa, Chanters, Customers, guests, hotels, inc, management, Zambia

Shoprite Expansion

Shoprite are about to open a big new branch and complex in Livingstone – for those of you who know the city the site is adjacent to Ocean Basket which has been incorporated into the complex. So too have Mr Price, Hungry Lion and Pep. There are also other units for letting.

We hear that everything is due to open this week and it will be good for Spar and others to have some real competition.

Here’s a photo of the development taken yesterday from outside the shops at 217 where Melinda was buying Rice Krispies. I guess they might soon be available at Shoprite more cheaply………or not?

24
NOV

Africa, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, innovation, livingstone, management, Zambia

Abandonment

I’ve always been a great admirer of the man who invented the term ‘management’ – Peter Drucker. This year would have been his 100th birthday.

Inc Magazine recently published an A-Z of Drucker’s management wisdom, and over the next few weeks I’ll reproduce this A-Z. Some management ‘revision’ never does any harm! So here’s ‘A’!

Abandonment:
Jack Welch gained fame for shedding businesses in which General Electric wasn’t first or second. But it was Drucker who first suggested that choosing what not to do was a decision as strategic as its opposite. Drucker’s theory of “purposeful abandonment” exhorted business leaders to quickly sever projects, policies and processes that had outlived their usefulness. “The first step in a growth policy is not to decide where and how to grow,” he told author Jeffrey Krames in 2003. “It is to decide what to abandon. In order to grow, a business must have a systematic policy to get rid of the outgrown, the obsolete, the unproductive.”

Chanters:
We recently abandoned our radio show on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm as probably outgrown and unproductive. Were we right or wrong? I’m not sure, we’re currently looking at getting back on radio in some way again in 2010.

We are about to abandon the idea of using a Guest room as an office and build two offices to increase our bedroom letting capacity!

The picture? The radio show!

23
NOV

Africa, Chanters, entertainment, entrepreneurship, livingstone, management, Zambia

Gorgeous Giraffe!

Yesterday I wrote about how easy it is to undervalue the beautiful area in which I’m lucky enough to work and live, and how, sometimes, problems of infrastructure – internet, electricity, roads, water, as well as supplies and services etc can blot out that beauty from one’s mind!

Strange then that early this morning this natural beauty should present itself so clearly when I was dropping off Guests, staying with us at Chanters Lodge, at the Royal Livingstone for them to take the early morning breezer to Livingstone Island so they could swim in Devil’s Pool.

Isn’t that just the most wonderful creature I met having it’s breakfast?!

22
NOV

accommodation, activities, Africa, Chanters, guests, hotels, wildlife, Zambia

Values

Surprisingly, my sister sent me this (she doesn’t usually forward stuff). She liked it, and so do I:

To realize
The value of a sister/brother
Ask someone
Who doesn’t have one.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member:

LOSE ONE.

The origin of this letter is unknown,
But it brings good luck to everyone who passes it on.

Remember….

Hold on tight to the ones you love!

The picture is a sunset on the Zambezi – we live in the most beautiful place but don’t always appreciate it!

21
NOV

Africa, family, victoriafalls, zambezi

OrkutHeroes.com

I came across @zazo on Twitter and am pleased to be able to point you to his blog, there’s his picture up there! He was kind enough to mention me on the blog the other day!

Started on 23rd March 2008 OrkutHeroes.com writes about exceptionally ultimate user created online communities and groups formed inside various social networking websites, OrkutHeroes.com reviews budding blogs, message boards and open social applications.

They also interview some interesting and passionate personalities who have been credited of making extra ordinary, useful and friendly online communities and blogs, which have changed the perspective of millions of online users, and helped them with useful and informative content, vast and detailed subjects and loads of entertainment. The aim of this blog is to promote affirmative and constructive use of social networking and internet.

Zaheer Abbas known as zazo is an online media entrepreneur a social networker and a writer who also writes on social networking and internet trends is based in beautiful city of Udaipur India. 27 year old zazo is an internet freak, a famished reader and a news junkie. Father of a son, zazo keeps his family above his work. Cooking and eating rich food is his passion. Besides exploring online groups and people zazo also do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and blog consultancy.

Many articles and interviews published on orkutheroes enjoyed media attention and covered by India’s respected print and online news, magazines and many blogs. OrkutHeroes.com is also recognized as a “pulse of orkut.com” by Orkut’s official blog.

20
NOV

Africa, blog, Tanzania, Twitter

The Livingstone Performing Arts Foundation

The Livingstone Performing Arts Foundation (LiPAF) is a not-for-profit NGO staging musical theatre shows to preserve and promote Zambian culture through excellence in the arts. They offer full time employment to 20 very talented performers from Livingstone and have implemented several community projects to support local schools, health organizations, and vulnerable families.

Currently, they are performing their latest show, “Dancing Around Zambia” at the Zambezi Sun Resort every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday evening at 20h00. Charges are $20 or just K25,000 for Zambian residents. Although they are given the use of the venue at the Sun, LiPAF is not hired by Sun and they are wholly dependent upon ticket sales for their revenue.

At Chanters Lodge we have just ‘linked’ their website with ours and they, in turn, will list our web site on theirs at www.lipaf.org. They also want you to know that they can travel with their show to other venues for group performances.

I haven’t yet seen one of their shows but hope to do so in the near future, but we’ve heard only excellent reports from Guests who have done so! We wish them the best of luck with their great project!

19
NOV

Africa, Chanters, charities, entertainment, livingstone, music, Zambia

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