UCT Graduate School of Business MBA, South Africa – Jan & Feb 2014
Family photo from my little sister Michelle’s Disney-themed 21st birthday celebration in Franschhoek
After bringing in the New Year with family at Angala Boutique Hotel (www.angala.co.za) in Franschhoek, we returned to Cape Town and started to gear up for a BIG 2014. After much deliberation, I decided to take the plunge and accepted my offer to study a full-time MBA at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (www.gsb.uct.ac.za). With UCT’s MBA programme moving up the Financial Times international rankings to an impressive 59th place, there is no denying the prestige attached to Africa’s premier MBA qualification. My interest is specifically in the sustainability stream that the Graduate School of Business offers as part of its MBA course electives bouquet.
Maria and Charlie
The demands of this intensive year-long masters programme will no doubt necessitate big changes to my photojournalism assignments schedule as well as on the home front. After four months of maternity leave, Katherine has gone back to working half-days and is bravely keeping the family ship afloat, while Maria – Charlie’s devoted nanny – has quickly become part of the furniture and an indispensible member of the family. There is absolutely no way I could make this busy year work without the support of my fantastic wife as well as Maria’s help with caring for Charlie and keeping the apartment ship-shape.
It’s also been great to have my sister, Carolyn, brother-in-law, Jean-Marc, and nephew, Dom, back from the UK and staying in Cape Town for the summer. Their timely return to the fairest Cape has given Charlie an opportunity to get to know his older cousin during some fun-filled beach days and lazy picnics for the boys at Kirstenbosch.
Charlie – being the chilled-out little kid that he is – seems to adapt surprisingly easily to new situations, fitting in effortlessly with our adventurous lifestyle. Whether he’s dancing to Freshly Ground at a Kirstenbosch sunset concert or climbing Table Mountain with us, the little guy seems to really enjoy himself. Not bad for someone who is just six months old!
Charlie with his cousin Dom on Clifton beach
On the photojournalism side of things, I’ve had to scale back my magazine assignments quite dramatically to free up my schedule to accommodate a fairly hectic and heavy MBA workload. However, despite a mountain of school work, I’ve managed to squeeze in a couple of exciting short assignments…
The first is a three-day escape during mid-March to take part in and write about the African X trail run (www.africanx.co.za) that takes place in the mountains above Houw Hoek Inn just outside of Cape Town. This adventure sports assignment will be followed by a five-day family excursion to check out the Karoo National Park (www.sanparks.org.za/parks/karoo/) during late-April. At this stage my final assignment is lined up for the first week in May and it’s a Passage to Africa privately guided safari (www.passagetoafrica.com/privately_guided_safaris) to sample the top Singita lodges in South Africa’s Lowveld and across the border into Zimbabwe. This will be my first foray into privately guided safaris since joining the Passage team as a partner guide (www.passagetoafrica.com/team/stephen-cunliffe) late last year and I look forward to working more closely with them on both African and Asian safari itineraries in the future.
So with plenty to look forward to during a busy start to the year, watch this space for further updates on how things pan out over the course of an action-packed 2014…
Cunliffe family photo taken at the Freshly Ground sunset concert on a summery Sunday evening