I had the privilege of attending the Berg river Table grape Producers Association’s “block” competition this weekend. This is a competition to evaluation the standard of a block of vineyard that has been identified by the farmer or the farm manager and entered into the competition.

I was amazed at the amount of planning and work that goes into the farming of the various species of table grapes.

You have to know what to feed the soil with, when to plant, when to cut, when to harvest and still watch the bottom line.

The is an event where all the farmers in the district come together and share information regarding their farming. Here you can find out about new species had how they react to the environment they are in. What kind of treatment you must use.

I thought this was a great idea. As part of the event they had a price giving and lunch prepared where all the farmers and farm managers would sit down and have lunch together and this way stay in touch. This also ensures the standard that the industry carries forward and ensures the industries survival.

I thoroughly enjoyed the event and met some great people and had some great food as well as great red wine.

I was really amazed at what the community was prepared to share. Hope this will carry on for years to come.

You always hear that someone knows someone that this happened to. Credit card fraud has become a major problem in our lives. And now with the festive season upon us it is even more relevant.

This happened to me today (19/12/2008). I received an incontact message this morning at about 10am that stated that funds were transferred from my credit card. I did not recognise the reference used. I phoned my wife and asked if she was using the card upon which I was informed that she was not.

Another incontact message arrived straight after, and the amounts were not small. I immediately phoned Discovery and was told I had to fill in a dispute form and that the issue would take 3 weeks to be addressed. I enquired whether they could stop my card but was told that was not an option. I was informed by the consultant that the balance in the account has been cleared with the transactions and I was assured that no other transactions will be able to be passed through this account.

About 4 hours later another amount was transferred overdrawing my account. I immediately went into the discovery contact centre in Canal Walk to cancel all cards. The walk in centre was very helpful and we contacted the credit card division in Johannesburg.

I was put through to the fraud department which I thought the first consultant should have advice me to do. The consultant at the fraud division stopped my account and cancelled the effected card immediately.

The problem is that the third amount could have been prevented if the first consultant advice me to contact the fraud department and assisted me in stopping my account and cancel the affected card.

Please be very careful with all cards. Do not let anybody take the card out of your sight. This happens so quickly. If this happens to you please contact the fraud department first. DO NOT SPEAK TO THE CALL CENTRE.

The reserve bank manager TT Mboweni has just announced the interest rate cut of 0.5%.

This is based on the reduction of inflation over the past quarter. CPIX inflation has declined from 13.6% in August 2008 to 12.4% in October 2008.

The producer price inflation has decreased from 19.1% in August 2008 to 14.5% in October 2008.

The Monetary Policy Committee is of the opinion that inflation will average at about 6.2% in 2009 and 5.6% in 2010. This is all based on a very large degree of uncertainty as the global markets are still very volatile. Then there is still the reweighting of the CPI basket that is taking place in January 2009 that is adding to the uncertainty.

But all in all some good news the repo rate has been cut by 0.5%.

I went Christmas shopping over the past couple of days and found this brilliant product.

I bought it from Game in Canal Walk. This is like play dough but it does not make your hands smell nor does it make it oily.

BUT the best of all is that if you roll it in a ball IT WILL BOUNCE!!

For me this has been the best gift over the past couple of days.

Try it yourself. It is selling for R19.95 at Game stores. Kids will love it.

This is software that I found to assist me with my blogs. WIth this software you do not need to be connected to the internet do be able to work on your blogs.

Try it out. It is FREE. http://www.blogdesk.org/en/index.htm