On the origin of diamonds, deals and dermatological advancement

This morning's brekkie run saw the second inaugural [second overall but the first one I attended] reunion of the old Sunninghill team at Doppio Zero, a generally agreed "central" location [other than for those coming from Rustenburg, Australia and Pretoria...]. The breakfast was quite good, thanks Doppio. We'll come again.

Sadly, all hopes of a monthly Friday morning breakfast club were dashed yesterday by Jamie, who pulled out due to petty matters such as work commitments [!] - Jamie, where are your priorities? Now we'll have to settle for one of the other less-interesting days of the week.


It was great to see friendly faces again, even if it was only four this time around [G, Siya, Sjoerd and myself] and interesting to hear how things are moving. It's always fun trying to balance casual chat and banter with professional confidentiality requirements and we had much of that as we tried to fill in the blanks in our own minds and unravel the vagaries of each others' war stories. I could easily believe we all left there with completely different corporate scandals in mind.


So, to borrow the lingo from yesteryear, it was largely on the origin of diamonds, deals and dermatological advancement that we applied our minds this morning.

• Diamonds - well, opportunities abound and even in the dark recesses of big holes in our country, large fortunes are made seemingly overnight by people just like you and me. Eye opening, to say the least.
• Deals - how the plethora of deals has been affected by the sudden knee-jerk reaction by markets to emerging market fears. Hmmm, who would've thought that raising R8 billion could be so difficult.
• Dermatological advancement - without going in to detail, suffice it to say that Vereeniging will never be the same as it has just received a [much needed?] boost to its citizens' aesthetic development potential. Sjoerd has more details for anyone interested...

We also had a quick rundown on the virtues of technological development in South Africa [by yours truly] which I'm trusting we can all explore together as this grows. Thankfully, not only were there no pink shirts present, but the pink-graphed report that Siya requested never showed its face either. Phew.

We missed those who couldn't make it and hope to see you all for the next one.

Looking forward to next time guys, when we delve into more possibilities and opportunities available all around us. Perhaps for the next theme we could also borrow from Mr Adam Smith and ruminate on the wealth of nations.

[And please, if I have missed something major here, leave your comment]

Later.