Visa has one of the most reassuringly recognisable logos in the world, reaching over 200 countries and territories. The company connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments around the globe to fast, secure and reliable digital currency.

Most women will be able to tell of the feeling that comes when on vacation, after spotting an astronomically expensive (in euros) garment in a shop window, realising you haven’t got enough cash and just as you are about to dash back to the hotel before someone else steals your new favourite thing, your eye glances across to the corner of the window display and you see that little blue and gold Visa flag that whispers “buy now, pay later!”. Out comes the ‘emergency’ credit card and genius explanations to hubby will be perfectly practiced by the time next month’s statement arrives.

Similar scenarios to these [I imagine] happen around the world every second. Visa has built one of the world’s most advanced processing networks, capable of handling 10 000 transactions per second. The brand began over 50 years ago in California with the inception of Bank of America’s first general purpose credit card, the BankAmericard – a paper card with a $300 limit. Soon the development went national and in 1973 National BankAmericard developed the first electronic authorisation system (“BASE I”), followed a year later by an electronic clearing and settlement system (“BASE I”) bringing the corporation one step closer to going global in 1974. Two years later the name was changed to Visa, a simple name that was pronounced the same in any language, with the recognisable flag logo. The establishment of traveller’s cheques and ATMs also assisted in pushing Visa forward as a global phenomenon.

In 1988 Visa sponsored its first Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea – a strategic move that would associate the brand with internationally recognised sports as a reliable financial ‘worldwide partner’ for many years to come. The recent FIFA World Cup was a good example of the force this iconic brand has become, with branding for its international ‘Go Fans’ campaign just about everywhere you looked. It would have been impossible not to know that Visa was an official sponsor. The benefits that Visa experienced from being a sponsor were certainly worthwhile. During the period leading up to the SWC and the first week of tournament matches (1-20 June), spending by international visitors in South Africa on Visa vbranded payment cards exceeded $128 million, up 54 percent from $83 million during the same period in 2009 (source: Visa).

Using its FIFA partnership for good, in May of this year, Visa announced the launch of a new FIFA World Cup ™ branded educational video game as part of their longstanding commitment to reach 20 million people worldwide with financial literacy information by 1 May, 2013. The video game, Financial Football, is an innovative way of helping children and adults learn about personal finance by challenging game players to answer fast paced, multiple-choice money management questions correctly in order to advance down the field for a chance to score a goal.

The game is available in South Africa and can also be played online at www.financialfootball.com.

I am expecting tomatoes hurled in my direction by locals. I anticipate foul words for my abandonment of Italian heritage. However, each tiny cobblestoned street which is subjected to the roar of the new Harley Forty-Eight sees the townsfolk smile and exchange stories of their own Harley adventures. Finally at ease with my means of transport, I plot the course for my week long journey around the northern lake districts.

Home for the first night is Sole di Ranco. Honoured by the sun and blessed by the cool water on the lake – everything seems to sparkle. The water; diamond infused, the sand; golden and warm, the food; fresh and abundant. The sun will only set at 21:00pm which leaves several hours of play time remaining. We cruise towards fortress Angera located atop a rocky hill, the bikes remain in the parking bays, and we travel on foot – uphill!

The fortress overlooks the lake and from its walls one can enjoy a breathtaking view of the surrounding landscape – covered in green and terracotta. I am informed that in the “old days” (a mere several centuries ago) thanks to its rather strategic position, one could control traffic and trade on the lake. The castle is now home to a curious collection of dolls. Surrounded by enchanting gardens, the castle also hosts entertaining school history tours – allowing students the chance to dress up as soldiers and toy with the tourists.

Next stop, a swift 14km ride away, is Santa Caterina del Sasso. While it features the most gorgeous views (now a must for every stop) be warned that it boasts another trademark – almost a thousand stairs down to the monastery (and then up again), ultimately making the experience breathtaking. It was founded by the merchant Alberto Besozzi after he escaped a shipwreck during a storm. He simply stayed where he found refuge, no doubt to avoid the stairs. I marvel at the attention to detail and almost €40-million that the town has spent renewing it.

Eager to cool down before heading straight back to the hotel, we stop off at a quaint lakeside restaurant where we indulge in Parma ham, olives and bread sticks. Some opt for local beer while I down a 7Up which Italians interpret as Sprite. Not only have we developed a taste for the fine foods in the several hours we have been in Italy, but so too have our new feathered friends which joined the table and devoured some of the Parma ham – the days of simple bread crumbs appears to have gone to the birds.

We travel back at 19:30pm with the sun still beaming down on us. My first task before dinner is opting for more casual footwear, riding boots seem inappropriate for dinner along the lake. I lose count after the fifth course and find myself in favour of rest and opposed to ricotta cheesecake.

Early morning rides are generally favoured in summer as the afternoon heat can often be tiresome. We depart for Stresa, which offers us the opportunity for some inner-city riding. The bikes in convoy create a stir, and soon three other Harley owners have joined our adventure. Cesar Gallo, the Director of the Legnano Chapter in Italy, leads the ride and knows every turn from memory. After a quick cappuccino break, I sense boutiques are in walking distance.

Disheartened (by my lack of purchases) I am keen to make a move for the next stop. The constant array of magnificent views in Italy is hardly a curse, nevertheless, the ride towards the Hotel Bristol is something exquisite. The roads are smooth and from left to right there is an abundance of castles which serve either as hotels or simply homes to the rich and famous of Italy and Europe. The homes, or rather mansions, are mammoth but pale in comparison to the pristine gardens which surround them.

Leaving the bikes behind we board a motorboat to Pescatori Island. Isola dei Pescatori, neighbour to Isola Bella and Isola Madre is one of the islands no longer owned by the Borromeo family. It is also the only island which is inhabited all year round by its population of just over 50. Passing narrow streets and tarnished walls you feel yourself walking through a millennium of history. One is instantly surrounded by an array of colours and scents. Vendors, restaurants, clothing stores seem to buzz all afternoon. But none is as popular as the gelateria – I resort to getting two scoops; tiramisu and rum and raisin, half of which ends up on my riding boots. Oddly enough while in the heart of the north of Italy we opt for the Buddha Bar as our lunch time spot. The food can only be described as pure perfection, and still very much Italian. The mozzarella di bufala, (Buffalo mozzarella) melts in your mouth, and our host notes its origin from the south – even the meals are a lesson in history and culture.

Finally we arrive at hotel Villa Crespi, perhaps the only Islamic inspired hotel in Italy. The elegant damask stuccos, horseshoe shaped arches and turquoise frescoed ceilings are indeed reminiscent of the domes of Eastern mosques. The pride and joy of the Hotel Villa Crespi is the chef patron’s modern Mediterranean cuisine which has been awarded two Michelin stars, three forks in the Gambero Rosso Guide and three hats and a score of 18/20 in the Espresso Guide – yet all I could stomach was a glass of water.

The town of Orta San Giulio while small, is enchanting, and filled with a mix of old and contemporary art. It is well known for the nearby Sacro Monte (listed on the World Heritage List), which is a site of pilgrimage and worship. I originally thought it was a shopping centre – blasphemous some might say.

Our last leg of the trip is a 75km ride to Senago, across the Suno hills. We arrived at the Arese Harley Davidson offices to drop off the bikes – a bittersweet end to the journey. With one last night to enjoy Milan we are treated to dinner at Just Cavalli café, owned by renowned designer Roberto Cavalli. With an abundance of animal prints, I fear there are some scantily clad leopard and cheetah out in the wild.

The irony seemed never-ending, as the final night was spent at a French inspired hotel –Hotel Petit Palais. While packing I was pleased to note I had still managed some shopping at the Harley dealership – a Harley branded rosary was my favourite, and most expensive purchase. The following morning I took one more look around Milan, ignoring the sale signs and heading straight to the Duomo di Milano. The walls seem to hold an array of secrets and the eyes on the priceless paintings seem to follow me. This feeling could be attributed to the hundreds of video cameras which dart from corner to corner of the cathedral aiming to capture every inch of the Dome.

An American family had gathered near the tomb of a cardinal and in unison scream “cheese” which echoes throughout the cathedral – I quickly distance myself. Time is running out before the flight back to Joburg and I anticipate having to run to the hotel. I manage to light several candles and say a quick prayer before I leave – and hope to be back soon.

For more information on the hotels visit; Sole di Ranco; www.ilsolediranco.it, Hotel Villa Crespi; www.hotelvillacrespi.it; Hotel Petit Palais; www.petitpalais.it. Or visit www.harleydavidson.co.za for more information on the new Forty-Eight or to contact the Italian dealership visit www.harleydavidson.it

Jo’burg Child Welfare, one of the oldest and largest children’s NGOs in the country, has come up with an inspired campaign to raise much needed funds for the deserving charity. They have approached 100 local role models such as artists, musicians, actors, authors, cartoonists, photographers and designers to each take an old door and turn it into a distinctive masterpiece.

From an expectedly bizarre creation by John Vlismas to the self-explanatory SHOUT door by Danny K, each door tells its own story. Respected names such as Ard Matthews, Evolver, Abigail Betz, Emmanuel Castis, Johnny and Jesse Clegg, Rasty (graffiti artist) and Nik Rabinowitz (comedian) all lent their names and their talent to the cause.

Many of the doors have already sparked interest among auction followers, art collectors and fans of the artists, which has created great hype for the auction that will take place in September.

For more information about Jo’burg Child Welfare visit www.jhbchildwelfare.org.za or to find out about the auction email Carly on communications@jhbchildwelfare.org.za

Dr Anton Rupert was one of South Africa’s most distinguished industrialists. In classic rags-to-riches fashion, he started with a £10 investment which he eventually transformed into a multi-million pound international financial conglomerate that saw him listed in Forbes magazine among the 500 richest men in the world.

Anton Edward Rupert was born in the Karoo town of Graff-Reinet in 1916. He helped to pay his way through the University of Pretoria by starting a dry cleaning business, which soon went bankrupt. It was to be his worst and most constructive business failure. After completing his Masters degree in Chemistry he meddled with hand-rolling cigarettes in a garage at his home. He developed a cigarette-making company named Voorbrand, soon to be renamed Rembrandt Ltd, whose overseas tobacco interests were eventually consolidated in Rothmans.

Rupert soon acquired interests in an array of South African companies ranging from gold mining to banking and medical supplies, demonstrating his business savvy and ability to diversify. In his early years with Richemont, with South Africa still under apartheid and becoming increasingly isolated, Rupert opted to move his major interests, including Rothmans, offshore by establishing the Luxembourg-listed Compagnie Financière Richemont SA company. Perhaps with some foresight into the future he somewhat predicted a deviation from tobacco products and, through Richemont, expanded into luxury goods with Cartier, Montblanc and Dunhill.

Currently the business empire encompasses hundreds of companies located in 35 countries on six continents, with an employment standing of 19 570. Combined they mustered a net profit in the region of $599 million for the 2010 fiscal year (according to their own press release). Nevertheless the company was not left out of the economic downturn, as it managed an impressive $1.76 billion the year before.

It was in 1993 that the Richemont tobacco and luxury goods operation separated into Rothmans International NV/PLC and Vendome Luxury Group SA/PLC respectively. The business continued to soar and in 1996 the merger of Richemont’s tobacco interests with those in South Africa, held by Rembrandt Group Limited, saw Richemont owning 67 percent of the tobacco group. Vendome Luxury Group also managed to acquire watch maker Vacheron Constantin in the same year. In 1998 Richemont then bought out Vendome (owning 100 percent of the luxury goods interest).

The achievements within the luxury sector continued through the next decade, as Richemont acquired a controlling 60 percent in Van Cleef & Arpels in 1999 (before a further 20 percent in 2001), together with Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and A. Lange & Söhne. The interest in British American Tobacco (BAT) continued in 2007 with Richemont and Remgro reaching an agreement to combine their equity interest. In the same year Richemont and Polo Ralph Lauren announced the formation of a 50/50 joint venture. They also acquired an interest in Azzedine Alaia (the Parisian fashion house).

The next notable restructure came in 2008 in which Richemont separated the luxury goods business from its other interests, forming Reinet Investments S.C.A as a separately traded vehicle for holding the non-luxury goods businesses formerly held by Richemont.

Johann Rupert, the son of founder Anton Rupert (who handed over the reins in 1990), took over from Norbert Platt this year as CEO. This position shift came at the same time as the much publicised offer by Richemont to shareholders in NET-A-PORTER Limited to acquire all of the shares. The premier online luxury fashion retailer, established in 2000, features collections from over 300 of the world’s leading designers and offers unrivalled customer service. It ships to over 170 countries worldwide and recently celebrated its millionth order. The offer values the equity of NET-A-PORTER at £350 million. Richemont currently holds some 33 percent of the issued share capital of NET-A-PORTER Limited.

With partnerships as the cornerstone of its business philosophy, the iconic Richemont brand is sure to weather the economic storm and keep its pulse on the billions it aims to make in the future.

For more information on Richemont visit, www.richemont.com. Credit: Source: www.richemont.co.za

When a client walks through John Jacob Interiors, what can they expect and how would you describe your work?

My design range is very broad – think super and modern classics. However, the common thread in my work is glamorous whatever concept is employed. Projects differ with specific aesthetic languages informed by the buildings and the client’s desires. What I aspire to as a designer is a design language that transcends fashion and even decoration. A design language rooted in ancient values to express existing environments.

What is the most sought after architectural design many clients choose for their homes and why?

As an example, many clients in Europe tend to like old buildings with modern interiors while South African clients choose classic buildings and matching interiors and country style is also becoming popular. People want to express a nasty cliché, in the case of country living with Provençal inspiration. I think design should always be eclectic.

When you approach a new project what triggers your vision – your emotional heart or technical challenge?

It is a combination of the client’s personality and architecture of the building. This then allows me to draw inspiration from this environment to design what works for the client and the architecture of the building. My primary focus is to create a beautiful architectural space with proportioned doors and windows creating focal points for furniture arrangements. Most importantly the space should be exciting and move you without a stitch of furniture or decoration.

If somebody asked you today what you were, an artist or designer, what would you say?

I would say artist because I have to visualise the concept and idea, designer as I then translate that concept into reality, implementing that idea so it makes sense.

How should one go about a complete redecoration?

It is important to let the building speak otherwise you end up with something half-baked. People think they can call in a decorator tomask and upgrade the old without dealing with the fundamental essence of the building. This does not work. You have all been to show houses and seen how some old buildings have been modernised. Instinctively you can feel that something is not right because what has been done is going against the grain of the building and imposing a conflicting idea on it. Oscar Wilde once said that fashion is a form of ugliness so dreadful that we have to change it every six months. In design I am opposed to the concept of applying décor trends to the environment without addressing the underlying interior architectural form of the space, its integrity of the furniture arrangement, curtain treatment and how these are balanced in a room and the house.

Your interiors are described as having integrity and layers of meaning. Tell us what this means?

They are sympathetic to the architect of the building, subtly with reference to different time periods and worlds. I use furniture pieces from all over the world that create beautiful interiors. My interiors speak of style that transcends fashion and even interior decoration. It is about reinterpreting the old to make something new. The concept of everything and anything goes is filtered down to a kind of mass retail level of ordinariness – it is tiring and uninspiring. As a designer, it is essential that I have a clear and in-depth understanding of chosen style. My work results from a search for simplicity, restraint in what I do and a return to traditional values.

Which one of your works elevated you to another level?

It is not any one particular job but a combination of various projects. Each different in its architectural structure and so is the client. My work is the result of researched perspectives into the methodology of incredible designers working around the world. A designer needs to be open to learn it is the only way to grow.

You are famous for your attention to detail. How do you keep control over the minutia when you are involved in so much?

I work with a team of dedicated people and together we ensure work is carried out as it should.

John Jacob Interiors is located on 233 Bree Street in Cape Town.

Visit www.johnjacobinteriors.com or call (021) 422 0105.

The essential relationships were between the artists and contextual Africa – that they “share an interest in the dynamics of place and geography in reference to the African continent”. Work that appealed to me varied in both style and medium but had more obvious relationships with the In Context marker of the exhibition and stood out as exceptional.

Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh’s collaboration Lady in Pink alludes to the portrayal of women’s sexuality in popular culture. The countries of the women’s birth, Egypt and Iran respectively, lend more drama to their work. Lady in Pink forms part of a series of prints called Roses off Limits which was completed by Amer and Farkhondeh at Pace Prints in New York in 2008.

The intricately woven bottle-top sculptures of El Anatsui resonate with the work of our local artists and their found object medium. Ink Spill is one of his works that encompasses a kind of cosmic thinking with its basis as reference to political and cultural events in his native Ghana.

South African Kendal Geers, now resident in Belgium, was commissioned to do a work for a set of official FIFA 2010 World Cup posters and in the process completed the series Free Balling. His reference was urbandictionary.com and he says, “it’s a pun on something sacred and profane, high and low simultaneously”.

Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Labirinto e Grande Pozzo is a massive installation of cardboard, instantly recognisable as the material of packaging and universal industrial making. Pistoletto describes the labyrinth and well of glass as, “a winding and unforeseeable road that leads us to the place of the revelation of the knowledge.”

Robin Rode is another South African working abroad, this time in Berlin. His canvas is a wall and his art is of “impermanence which exists one day then disappears another”. Paper Planes is described as a moment of flimsiness yet with a start, middle and an end. The medium is a two minute 40 second HD digital animation transferred to Blu-ray disc.

Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse have created a mesmerising and voyeuristic look into the lives of the largely immigrant population of Ponte City. There three tapestries: The doors to the apartments, the view from the windows and thetelevision sets. This work is Windows, Ponte City and captures the magnificent views from the building, largely ignored by the residents who, according to the artists, spend most of their time watching television.

Minette Vári’s single channel video installation, Alien, is a morphing of old South African television footage with her own body into a surreal self portrait within a futuristic and almost disturbing alien political landscape. Kendal Geers says this of Vári, “Using the self as both subject and object is certainly not neutral, for within the white African female body, lurks the history of her country and her race”.

In Context has been taking place in the city of Johannesburg from early May and runs until 17 July. It is an initiative of the Goodman Gallery, the Goethe-Institut, the French Institute of South Africa, Culturesfrance, the British Council, the Kirsh Foundation, the Nirox Foundation, Johannesburg City, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Galleria Continua and the Apartheid Museum. The venue for the above installations is Arts on Main but other venues include Goodman Gallery Project Space at Arts on Main, Nirox Foundation Space at Arts on Main, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Apartheid Museum, the Johannesburg CBD and Melrose Arch.

Source: The In Context Catalogue

Rapelang and her two colleagues Wilter du Toit and Lungisa Matshoba, then 23 years old, founded Yeigo Communications shortly after completing their studies at the University of Cape Town. She graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor in Business Science majoring in finance and an Honours in Computer Science.

Yeigo specialises in the development, implementation, deployment and marketing of software-based communications solutions that take full advantage of convergence trends within the mobile arena.

TelFree takes the four most popular means of communication and combines them into a single application where one can access everything at once. The four have a unified single platform referred to as Calls where TelFree provides a single global call rate to anywhere in the world for the same price, she explains.

When Yeigo launched in 2007, it was among the first companies worldwide to offer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services for cellphones. Asked about the relationship between Yeigo and TelFree Group, she says “This partnership brought the latest unified communication solutions for mobile phones, pioneering carrier-grade telecoms infrastructure on par with the incumbent operators, locally and internationally”.

Rapelang is very passionate about Yeigo and what it has achieved and says that her role remains to continue with the delivery of cutting-edge mobile technology. At TelFree, she assists in utilising Yeigo’s technology within the broader telecoms environment for the benefit of the group.

Always busy and on the run, she says, given her two important jobs, she has yet to attain a complete work-life balance. However, this is a decision she made consciously to relinquish for a few years in order to establish the success of what TelFree is doing.

Like many young companies, she says life does not follow a typical day, telecoms and technology move fast making it hard to tell what will grab her attention on that day. Rapelang is yet to find balance between her work and life and has received acknowledgement from the industry thanks to Yeigo’s innovative technology. In 2007, she was selected as an Endeavour Entrepreneur and was a finalist in the BBQ Young Business Achiever Award.

She attended Roedean School in Johannesburg and passed Matric with seven distinctions and went on to study at the University of Cape Town. She assumed leadership roles in the Commerce Students Council and Young Women in Finance.

Her strong leadership abilities led to her selection to attend a number of leadership conferences with companies such as Accenture, Unilever and Edcon. She also completed internships and vacation programmes with Deloitte, JPMorgan and Business Beat before graduating in 2005.

Although she has achieved so much since her graduation, she says there is always room to improve and challenges to deal with, especially in her industry.

South Africa still has slow telecoms deregulation processes when compared to its African counterparts such as Uganda. We have finally seen the regulator remedy, the absurd reality where new operators such as TelFree had to pay a wholesale rate of R1.25 to terminate calls to the incumbent operators while the incumbent operators pay a retail rate to business customer for less than R1. This makes it difficult for new entrants to compete because of the high costs of telecoms in this country, she says.

Another major limitation has been access to quality international bandwidth from South Africa and this is still being addressed with the new undersea cable, Seacom. “We are in a position to change how people, particularly in developing countries communicate such as MzansiSMS project.”

Through her work, she wants disadvantaged communities to be touched by the benefits of communication and mobile technology. She believes that the mobile phone will be the key to the advancement of many people in the continent and one such initiative is the mobile learning platform called EduMandla.

“By making information and learning available on the mobile phone, many lives would be improved through education.” She lives in an apartment right in the centre of the Cape Town, which is easily accessible to all places. When not working, she visits the amazing wine routes in Cape Town and reads a lot of business and inspirational books. She cannot live without internet access of some sort, mobile phone and TelFree on her phone.

Asked if there is anything she could change about her life, she says she would decide to live with less fear, as this takes something away from us.

Curtis – Setchell has had the privilege of interviewing the top names in sport in the build up to previous World Cups, being the first woman in South Africa to have her own rugby and cricket “Player’s Kingdom” show and the first to introduce a free DVD giveaway sport series in a national newspaper. Inspired by this year’s sporting deluge, she has tracked down legends beyond the field, in their own countries, pursuing their favourite leisure activity. The following are among those featured in her forthcoming DVD series.

GIANLUCA VIALLI: ITALIAN STRIKER

– PLAYED FOR JUVENTUS AND CHELSEA, MANAGED CHELSEA AND PLAYED IN 2 WORLD CUPS.

The name “Luca Vialli” may not resonate quite as loudly as the vuvuzela in South Africa, yet it rings Big Ben bells in England where the Chelsea cognoscenti vie to shake his hand and in Italy, where the Milanese revere every square inch of his shaven head and shiny Armani suit. Not only is Vialli a trendsetter, he is the man who broke the soccer mould for “Calcio” – the colloquial term for Italian football. Whereas most Italian soccer players hail from the back streets of the industrial north, Vialli emerged from a 15th Century, 50 room chateau in Lombardy. He self deprecatingly dismisses this distinction: “I was just a regular middle class kid, who mucked in with everyone else and played football from the minute I could walk.”

Yet there is nothing ordinary about this Italian blue blood. In a country, where the first rule of football is “do not concede a goal”, the most capped player is a goalkeeper, Zoff and the Italians traditionally play more defensive soccer on the world stage. Vialli was the first real Italian striker to burst from obscurity in the early 1980s and to powerfully attack the goal from any position on the field, off both feet, hitting masterful overhead kicks and spectacular headers.

Shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Gianfranco Zola and Del Piero, he won every domestic trophy for Sampdoria and Juventus, played in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, then in 1996 led the first player’s strike, before heading to England to garner more gold for Chelsea.

I meet Luca early on an overcast May morning at the West London Aero Club in Berkshire, where he is learning to fly. Both the club and Calcio, boast a strong military history.

I mention to Luca, that the only other sports star I have interviewed in a plane pursuing his pilot’s licence was South African rugby star Joel Stransky, and that perhaps team players resort to solo quests to escape the maddening crowds? He laughs: “ No Deborah, I thrive on pressure and believe me learning to fly is maybe more pressure than managing a top flight Premier League team, but actually it is more for practical reasons. I travel extensively” (he commutes every week between Milan and London commentating for Sky Sports) “and on holiday in Namibia, cramped into a friend’s light aircraft, I decided I wanted to be able to fly independently with my wife, Catherine and our two daughters.” Perhaps illustrated by the fact that he caught chicken pox from his youngest daughter skiing in St Moritz this year and had to charter a plane to fly the two of them home under quarantine.

Again it was Vialli who bravely led the Italian charge of talent across the Channel first to play for Chelsea and then to manage the team. Fabio Capello famously commented it was tantamount to putting a learner driver in a Formula One car. If his learner antics in the cockpit are anything to go by, Vialli was a soaring success and the Androttis and Capellos followed in their droves.

JONNY WILKINSON: ENGLISH FLY HALF

– CLUBS TOULON AND NEWCASTLE – PLAYED IN TWO WORLD CUPS

Telling a redhead “You cannot!” – is tantamount to dangling a piece of meat in front of a Piranha. When every British rugby authority told me it would be impossible to interview Johnny Wilkinson, I drove the length and breadth of Britain, through the night and through ferocious rainstorms to hunt down rugby’s most elusive hero.

I found him at an early morning practice session with ball in hand. Newcastle may lurk in the tough grey industrial north, proverbial soccer country, however its greatest exports have been World Cup rugby stars Rob Andrews and Jonny Wilkinson.

And Jonny, like Rob, is the consummate professional. As much as he hates talking to the press: “I resent any distraction which takes me away from the field, such is my desire to kick a ball around, I’ll often pull complete strangers off the bleachers just to throw a ball to me if my brother or mates are unavailable” – once his green eyes glare into the lens, his desire “to be perfect at whatever I am doing” takes over.

Few would know, he also loves playing the guitar and my request for Queen’s “We Are The Champions” raises a rare smile. Although he points out his guitar playing was a spin off from being injured and needing something to keep his mind off the urge to prematurely race back onto the field. He appreciates my comparison between himself and Welsh great, Gareth Edwards, the only other player obsessed with kicking a ball around from dawn till dusk for the sheer unadulterated joy of it.

The flip side of this fanatical coin is that you do not allow mother nature or serious injuries slow you down, on the contrary Wilkinson tells me: “As the professional game becomes more brutal and the injuries more numerous, modern science must keep up and find better and faster ways to fix these injuries.”

“What about simply making the game safer?” I ask on behalf of hundreds of anxious mothers, whose beloved sons rush to school every day to emulate Jonny Wilkinson’s fearless tackling and distinctive kicking stance. Their only hope is that Jonny agrees with my long term observation that Rugby Union is marching steadily in the direction of American Football, with more separation of defence and attack and, the introduction of impact players, etc, which suggests junior Jonnies may not have to linger on the field for as long as 80 minutes…

ABE SEGAL

– FORMER NO 1 DAVIS CUP PLAYER AND TWICE FRENCH OPEN DOUBLES FINALIST.

It is a blistering day in the Californian desert and among the cactus and the cowboy hats, one expects Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to gallop through the gates of the Indian Wells Masters, but instead contemporary characters reign supreme. Former South African hippy and Davis Cup player is welcoming his legendary doubles mentor, former South African No1, Abe Segal, onto the outdoor arena stage to appear live on the Bud Collins show.

Sitting in the front row, among 50 000 straw sucking Americans, are former champs Rod Laver, Roy Emmerson, Tommy Tucker (Clint Eastwood’s tennis coach) and Charlie Pasarel, co-owner of Indian Wells and famous for his marathon Wimbledon match against Pancho Gonzales. This is as heavyweight a tennis line up, as one can get and they are all hanging on Segal’s every hilarious word, given that Segal has a reputation for mixing up his words.

Moore reminds the audience that Segal, in addition to making it to two French Open doubles finals, beat World No1 Monola Santana in straight sets singles at Wimbledon and then shocked the world beating not only Arthur Ashe, but Alex Olmeda, who had just won Wimbledon and the Davis Cup for America, ruining Olmeda’s contract to turn pro with the famous Jack Kramer circus. Segal laconically takes the microphone from Moore.

“Well I can see your hair has calmed down a bit now that you’ve got some money in your back pocket! It was looking a lot more nervous the day I took you to tea with the Chicago mobsters!” ( Segal is referring firstly to Moore and Pasarel’s recent deal selling the hugely successful Indian Wells Tournament to an American entrepreneur for about 100 million dollars and secondly to how he showed his rookie afro haired doubles partner the ropes on Moore’s first tour to America.)

I am here, dog tired, dodging stinging nettles the size of my head, rain drenched and bedraggled; And I love every minute of it. By Lana Jacobson

The tracker’s feet know the steep mountains. They have made this journey thousands of times. By starlight alone they can run down rocks, crawling through impenetrable canopies of leaves and muddy rivers.

The steep slopes of Virunga’s mountain range of Rwanda are one of only three places on the planet where humans will ever have the opportunity to view the remaining 700 gorillas on earth. I will climb through thicket and marshy terrain as far and high as it takes in this 13 000km² jungle, fuelled ever onward by the writing of famed primatologist Dian Fossey, who lived, died and is buried in this jungle.

We set out early from Lake Kivu Hotel, for the hour drive to the Mountain Gorilla research station at Volcano Park HQ, where we are allocated a gorilla tracking group of 52 fellow adventurers all of different nationalities.

Tourists were an anomaly during Rwanda’s dark times; in 1962 when the country gained independence from Belgium and later after the horrific 1994 Tutsi genocide, but nowadays, the spectacular beauty of Rwanda, ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’, is rendering it an increasingly popular destination.

Preconceptions aside, Rwanda must be one of the safest countries on the African continent, and certainly one of its rare success stories.

We arrived in Kigali, and were transferred to the refurbished Kigali Serena Hotel which has more than earned its five star rating. Travel writers are expected to carp but I struggle to find anything negative here to convince of my impartiality. That the food, service, and accommodation are impeccable is obviously an open secret if the number of guests, local and international, is anything to go by.

The best, probably the only, place to start exploring Rwanda is Kigali’s Memorial Centre. Only after considering how, in one month, a million Tutsi men, women and children were hunted down, butchered, tortured and burnt to death, can one appreciate the wonder that is Rwanda today. It is a poor but very proud country and I marvelled at its rebirth. High rise modern buildings, upmarket residential suburbs, schools, universities and hotels have sprung up like proverbial mushrooms. The city and streets are spotless, the roads faultless and the people enchanting.

We were fortunate to have chosen a guide with a wealth of experience. ‘Simba’ (Gilles Gisemba) was indispensable. Thirty members of his family including parents, brothers and sisters were massacred, leaving him alone in the world. Yet he remains passionate and optimistic about Rwanda. During one excursion he suggested a pit stop at Bourbon Coffee Shop in a suburban mall. As a caffeine addict, whose first impression rests in the quality of the coffee served, I can categorically state this is the finest cup I have enjoyed anywhere. Small wonder it is now being exported globally. Rwanda’s chain of Bourbon Coffee shops have spread as far as Washington DC.

We left Kigali early on our third morning for the dusty town of Gisenyi because we wanted time to enjoy the beauty of the countryside and sights of tiers of homes clinging to the steep mountainous sidewall. We drove high, past mountain after mountain, looking down on verdant tea growing and farmland regions beneath us.

Lake Kivu Serena Hotel is virtually on the Congolese border. The hotel overlooks the huge panoramic lake on one side and the volcanoes behind it. From the beach we watched the setting sun turn the sky bruised grey and ochre. It was a magical hour and although we were warned bathing is at our own risk, I couldn’t resist plunging into the deep cool water before we heaved ourselves away for cocktails and dinner on the terrace.

The following morning after a brief introduction at Volcano Park HQ, the 52 of us are divided into groups of six to eight people – the maximum number allowed to view each gorilla family; we are not to approach nearer than seven metres from a gorilla, nor to cough or sneeze anywhere near them – gorillas are extremely susceptible to our diseases thanks to the genes they share with us.

“Don’t make eye contact, and if a silverback charges, crouch over and show submission,” warns the guide. And, finally, it takes anything from two to six hours and there is no guarantee we will locate our prize, the trek could be in vain. But the odds today are in our favour.

We are six adventurers. A couple of determined Americans are back again today. Yesterday they endured an endless steep climb until gasping for breath, they reached a steep ravine from where they clung, staring deep down into an abyss like participants of a Survivor show. Finally at 18:00pm they lumbered back to base – cold, exhausted and disappointed with not a gorilla to be seen.

Our tracker leads, carving a path through the terrain, hacking the jungle overgrowth with his machete. He has a way of signalling the guard if he finds gorilla tracks.

We are profoundly connected to nature, walking, weaving through overhanging vines, moss-covered trees and giant lobelias. The first gorilla is almost unexpected. The guide stops suddenly, gesturing and pointing at a tree, where, slightly obscured through dense foliage, a giant silverback reaches for a leafy branch.

More than 200kg of pure muscle suddenly slides to the ground, with feet interlocking and arms spread eagled he brings half a tree of branches with him. He turns his enormous back dismissively and starts chomping on a thick piece of bamboo.

Gorillas move in families of five to 40 animals typically comprising a silverback, three or four wives and several young. The next sight beggars my belief – from a little higher in the mountain, one then two and three of the silverback’s family appear. We are awestruck and instead of heading for home base, our guide keeps forcing us further backwards. The mother of the family sits down and takes to lounging sideways on the forest floor while her round eyed baby stares intently at us with dark coco brown eyes, all innocence and vulnerability. He jumps into his three-year-old sister’s arms where he is warmly hugged and debugged. Leaving his sister he prances about for a few moments doing baby things and is upon his mother playing, irritating, until finally she grimaces and with eyes still shut, allows him to feed from her. A little further behind another female saunters down toward her fellow tribe, picking and eating leaves en route.

It’s unbelievable that these social creatures, so similar to humans were unknown to Western science until 1902. Now with only 700 left alive on the planet here we are standing and learning what gorilla culture is all about. An animal-like guttural groaning sound is emitted from our guide. It’s gorilla language, telling the habituated gorillas that they can relax: Everything is fine, we mean no harm. After an hour, the maximum allotted time ever allowed in mountain gorillas’ presence, we are forced to leave. We are all caked with mud, drenched, and unrecognisable as the same six people who began the ascent at 7:00am. But who cares. This is undoubtedly the most profound wildlife spectacle of all. And to think it was just ours.

• Lana Jacobson and Debbie Yazbek were guests of Rwanda Tourism, One Thousand Hills Tourism, Serena Luxury Hotels.

Flights were graciously provided by RwandAir. www.thousandhills.rw www.serenahotels.com

Prominent women from the business and public sector were expected to attend a day of joy, jewels and the opportunity to bid on specially commissioned photographic portraits of women and children as well as one of a kind jewellery. These were some of the highlights of an event hosted by the Eskom Foundation in association with Live Out Loud magazine at the exclusive Summer Place in Hyde Park, Johannesburg on Wednesday, 11 August.

In celebration of Women’s Day, all proceeds from the sale of tickets to the elegant tea and the Joy & Jewels charity auction went to iKhaya Lethemba, The Teddy Bear Clinic and Family Justice Support Services.

Places of safety was chosen as the theme and beneficiaries for the 2010 Joy & Jewels by The Eskom Foundation, who is responsible for the execution of Eskom’s corporate social investment (CSI) programmes.

Says Haylene Liberty, CEO of the Eskom Development Foundation: “Although the FIFA World Cup has brought many benefits to our shores, there has also been a greater risk of human trafficking in South Africa and the Foundation has chosen to counter this by focusing on the prevention of abuse against women and children.”

In 2002, Eskom donated the building to iKhaya Lethemba and one of the mothers has inscribed the following words on a mural, decorated by the residents: “Once upon a time there was an ugly duckling. All the ducks in the river thought he was the ugliest duck. He cried all the time and wished he was beautiful. Winter came and he fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up he saw that he had become a beautiful swan.”

According to Ms Mokonyane, Premier of the Gauteng Province and patron of iKhaya Lethemba, this sums up what iKhaya Lethemba, The Teddy Bear Clinic and Family Justice Support Services are all about.

“Taking these broken women and children, with crushed self confidence and turning them into self sufficient human beings, active in the economy.” The charity auction conducted by Saville Row Auctions, included twelve portraits of women and children by social documentary photographer Hannelie Coetzee and eight specially designed pieces of jewellery by students from the Tshwane University of Technology.

In addition to financial assistance, as part of its i-Volunteer employee programme, the Eskom Foundation will be encouraging staff around the country to give of their time to similar NGOs that create places of safety for women and children.

Says Ms Liberty: “This is not just about training for victim support, but Eskom i-Volunteers can address whatever needs these centres have, whether it is reading to children or teaching women life skills or crafts. “These are portable skills which the recipients will be able to turn into a means to an income, something many of these women are unable to do, since they are usually financially dependent on their husbands or partners.”

Last year’s Joy & Jewels beneficiary was the Breast Health Foundation, a section 21 company, which was established in April 2002 to educate the public on breast health and breast cancer and increase awareness and empowerment of women.