Princess

I must confess that if anyone else tells me that someone is a ‘real princess’ I think I will bop them on the nose – the teller, not the ‘princess’. This is one title I can't stand.

And why I ask myself, do I get so antsy about the ‘princess’ comments? Well, after a lot of soul searching I think it is because it implies that I need to tread carefully in the presence of a princess - in case I upset the ‘princess’ or say something that might set her off on a little tantrum or something, treat her differently to the way I treat others.

Why should I pussy foot around someone because she has been labelled a ‘princess’? I find this unacceptable especially as she has, usually, acquired this label because she is self-centred, arrogant, obnoxious, expects people to run around her and is generally quite a precious little soul who behaves badly. By labeling people, we are actually condoning this behavior.

I thought though, that seeing that Princess Anne is in SA at the moment, I would mention a cool princess thing I saw her do. A few years ago I was in London at the time of the Trooping the Colour for the Queen’s birthday. It was pouring with rain that day, almost monsoon like rain coming down. The parade ground was at least ankle deep in water and every time the guards did a foot stomp they created mini fountains. The Queen was sitting on a little dais which had a canopy so she was ok. The rest of the family were in their regimental uniforms on horseback behind her. So there was Phillip, the 3 princes and Princess Anne getting well and truly soaked and they were solidly rained on for about 2 hours (I was watching on TV). None of them flinched – they kept

poker faced, there was no fidgeting or wiping nose and eyes…they just sucked it up – even the horses hardly moved. She may have told her Mum afterwards that that was the last time she did something like that; but during the long hours in the rain you would have thought she (and the rest) were having a nice jolly time. This picture of the Princess shows the hat she was wearing - part of the uniform. It certainly didn't provide much shelter!

Perhaps our little home grown princesses could take a leaf from her book!

Fabulous customer service and great products

Crocs:

A couple of years ago I bought a pair of Croc slip slops and I just love them. They are comfortable; I can walk to shops in them, slop through puddles with no fear of spoiling them and do some gardening and hose them down if they are covered in mud.

A month or so ago I was doing some gardening; it started to rain so I left the slops on the front step – they were filthy – and promptly forgot all about them till the next evening when I got back from work. I kicked off my work shoes and tried to slip into the Crocs but my feet wouldn't fit in them….NO WAYS! Either my feet had suddenly grown a lot or slops shrunk. Yip, they shrunk.

I felt a bit miffed so I went onto the Croc website to get the ‘complaint’ contact info and then thought I would check the technical spec for Crocs and, lo and behold, it said (to paraphrase) ‘if you leave your Crocs in extreme heat they will shrink’….Extreme heat – Johannesburg? But they did warn me, albeit on the website. So I wrote to them anyway to tell them how accurate their information was – how true it is and that now I have fairy sized slip slops.

Within 24 hours I had a reply from the manager saying it must have been a really hot day and how they would love to replace them for me – free of charge…. I am now the proud owner of a brand new pair of Croc sandals…lovely!

Fortune Cookies:

Lisa put on a Metrogaine event last week. She always likes to do something special for her events – so for this one she decided to hand out fortune cookies to the participants.

She tracked down a guy who makes fortune cookies for a local Japanese restaurant. Within minutes he h

ad emailed her the prices for plain and chocolate covered ones. He told her she could choose her own fortunes – gave her an Excel template to type up the fortunes and said as soon as she sent this through plus the money she would get her cookies.

On a Thursday morning she sent through the order for 300 chocolate dipped cookies, her list of fortunes and the proof of payment. That same afternoon there was a buzz at the gate and there was the driver with 2 large boxes of cookies! Isn’t that amazing.

Needless to say we ate a few just to check that Lisa’s fortunes were there…yes they were and at the Metrogaine last week everyone enjoyed them…and the fortunes!