We had our quarterly get-together, aka ‘BD breakfast’ on Saturday 02 April 2011. What fun! We met at Caffé Villagio near Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Cape Town, and had a wonderful time catching up with the ‘old’ branch owners as well as meeting a few ‘new’ ones. To these ladies we say – welcome aboard! May we have lots of fun together, teaching the girls the finer things in life!
As usual, Mandy Ross - our operations manager, inspiration, voice of reason, leader... um, you get my drift – spoilt us rotten with goodie bags and, contrary to what we teach in etiquette class, we were squealing like teenagers at all the nice things we got. Mandy explained new additions to our training manual and gave advice and tips, as well as handy tools for each of us. Nice to be so well looked after, huh?
I was honestly mesmerized, being lucky enough to sit next to branch owner Cleo, to hear how she’s been doing with her classes, the ideas she’s come up with to make her classes interesting and the support she’s been getting from her family. Cleo really lights up when she chats about ‘her girls’, making it her mission to get to know them personally.
Melanie, a newbie, sat on the other side of Cleo and was bristling with energy to get started. She was asking questions and getting very exited 
listening to all of us tell our stories. The other newbie, Gaynor, was a quiet lady of dignity, with a smile ready whenever someone called her name to get her attention.
Karishma looked fabulous with her hair all sleek and chic. She did those high-heels she wore justice! (Mandy had on a mean pair too!) Marilet, branch owner and Mandy’s right-hand lady, did a wonderful PowerPoint presentation which will be used for introduction to companies and schools in the future. We are very proud of your hard work, Marilet! She also taught me a thing or two about my laptop (which I’ve had for more than a year) as she has the same one. Mmmm, wonder how I missed that?!
I was very fortunate to recently acquire the marketing skills of Lana Smit, an image consultant and marketer. She has taken all the planning and phoning and talking off my shoulders, which leaves me to concentrate on the classes. Lana came along to meet the ladies and many were keen to make use of her as marketer for their branches as well, as Lana’s bubbly personality is catching!
After a lot of talking and a lovely breakfast, we said our goodbyes... only to stand outside the caffé and chat some more. It seems we have so much to share that a morning together simply isn’t enough. So here they are – the first official photo: The Cape Town Bella Donna Girls!
Front: Cleo, Melanie, Marilet & Gaynor. Back: Mandy, Karishma, Corné & Lana
Keep on polishing!
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