The Palace...

K and I have just arrived home after a weekend away at the Palace of the Lost City.

The reason for the weekend away was twofold - firstly, the company that K works for took the management team away for their efforts over the past year, spouses included, and secondly, it was our 5th wedding anniversary, so a weekend out of town was on the cards anyway. It just worked out nicely that we got to spend the weekend at the Palace. Even more of a bonus was that K was pampered with spa treatments whilst I was given the opportunity of a round of 18 holes at the Lost City golf course (see picture below, taken from atop the Kings Tower).

The food was magnificent, the decor opulent and the service world class. Great weekend!

Battered Ballito and latest Books

K and I had the fortune of spending the weekend in Ballito this past week. Its the annual family getaway down to the coastal timeshare unit that the folks have had for some 18 years or so now. Not everyone could make it down, and I only went for the weekend, but it was a good break nevertheless.

One of the things that was really interesting to see this year, was just how much damage has been caused to the coastline, promenade and some property along the Ballito beach front. In fact, the damage was done the day after K and I were last in Ballito in March of this year - I blogged about the turn in weather as I was completing my second nine at Prince's Grant.
These places were lucky to escape the wrath of the tide - quite a few other places were not so lucky.

On Saturday morning we headed down to Salt Rock beach (mainly because the rest of the Ballito beaches are laden with rock, brick, pieces of wall and the odd window frame) and were lucky to stumble upon the start of the Dolphin Coast Sea Kayak challenge. The girls were quite impressed with the "Mens Health cover model" bodies on show - Grant and I tried to compete, but I think it was the lack of tight lycra pants and tops that did us in. Anyway, to say the surf conditions were rough would be the understatement of the month. We watched as the single man kayaks tried to make their way past the breakers and on towards the Durban finish, with one or two lucky guys making it, and the bulk of the teams being washed back onto the beach. Next up were the 2 man kayaks, who were just as entertaining in their quest to conquer the breakers. Some poor guys were out there, paddling their hearts out for 20-30 minutes, only to make it to the breakers and be side swiped by a monster wave, and washed back onto the beach. Ten points for perseverance though.

K has stayed on for a couple of days - she's working out of the Durban office. Me - bought myself some books at Durban International, and am thoroughly enjoying the first of the two - Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Daubner. Its about an economist who applies economic tools to life's daily riddles, and comes up with some bizarre truths. Very interesting read so far. You can follow their blog here

The other one, Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres follows a similiar line of thinking. Ayres takes a look at the world of data mining and how statistics and data are being used to highlight patterns all around us.

Last week also saw K's mom heading back to Perth after her surprise 3 week visit. She seemed to have had a fantastic time both here and in London, and it certainly was good seeing her in high spirits again. By the way, send our love to the rugby team down there mom :-)

This that and the other...

Been a while I know.
Here's the news:
- Bought a house with K. Its in Bedfordview - close to where we stay at the moment. Didn't intend to buy it - put in a stupid offer that was accepted, got a bit of buyers remorse and tried to back out of it, but in the end, we decided that it was a good step in the right direction. There goes that ski trip next year...
- K's mom dropped in for a surprise visit two weeks ago. Was good seeing her again. She's in London at the moment visiting with K's aunt before stopping back in SA for a couple of days on her way back to Aus. Speaking of Aus - shame, being a rugby fan must be kak at the moment :-)
- Went to Moyo Melrose Arch this evening with K, her boss and some potential clients. Reason for the trip is that they are negotiating an oil and gas contract in Tanzania at the moment. Sean and Aron seemed like nice guys - hopefully K gets the contract.
- Squash is going well - killed my opponent in the summer league match on Tuesday, 9-3; 9-7; 9-1. Have my club champs match tomorrow against Keith. From past experience, I should take it comfortably. Although, that's what the All Black's thought I guess.
- Played 2 rounds of golf this past weekend. It was tough. I mean, a round of golf on the weekend is a treat, but two rounds! Managed some half decent scores of 88 and 85. Be careful Sean Morgan - this weekend is going to be deadly for you.
- On the work front - all good. Has been a bit slow for my liking over the past few weeks, but some nice ideas floating around, and some killer projects on the horizon.
- Oh, went to the AV/Sony Expo last week. Lusting over the Sony HD DV Cam's. Some great equipment on show. Pity about the purchase procedure though - what a shambles. If you buy anything, including the HDMI cable that I got from the Ellies stand for like 80 bucks, you fill out a form, go to the exit, pay for your goods and then wait for them to be delivered to the till at the exit. You do that for every purchase. I understand the security concerns, but what a joke!
- Finally, will be wearing my Bok golf shirt with pride tomorrow. Ole, Ole Ole Ole.

Work, wine and wind...

Arrived back home a couple of hours ago from a little getaway weekend in Cape Town. I flew down on Friday morning for a meeting with the guys at 24.com, and another meeting with MXit. Both were pretty good meetings, and will result in some future interaction on a few of the projects that I am involved in.

Friday evening allowed me the opportunity of catching up with Lance and Cath. Haven't seen "The Hoff" in a long while, and although brief, it was good catching up with them. Although I did feel a tad guilty as they rushed down to the V&A for a drink, and on their way, some chump rear-ended them in the wet conditions.

Then rushed back to the airport to fetch K - she caught the early evening flight down for a weekend away. We booked ourselves into a nice little B&B in Camps Bay. Had dinner at my all time favourite sushi spot in Mouille Point - a place called Wakame. Awesome food.

Saturday was a fairly pleasant day - did a bit of driving around - Hout Bay, Chapman's Peak - which was closed halfway up (what's up with that anyway - its always closed), Constantia and Fish Hoek. Found ourselves in the Cape Quarter at a place called Fiesta for dinner and red wine.
Apart from the South Easter howling all night, and all of today, it was a pretty good weekend - and what would the weekend be without a sunset over the Atlantic?

Boklash...

I thought that some of my English family and friends would like to see the changes made to the English rugby jersey. Its been awfully quiet from that side of the world since the start of the RWC.

Johnny Be Good

So, we're sitting in a cosy little pub in Edinburgh one evening, sampling some of the excellent single malt on offer, when the topic of the Johnny Walker range of whisky's comes up (admittedly, more than a couple had been sampled by this stage):

Dad: I've decided, I'm not going to drink any more Bells when I get home. I'm splashing out on quality stuff.
Stuart: Well, I personally enjoy a little JW Black Label every now and then. The range isn't as expensive as you may think.
Dad: Oh, I'm not so sure about that. The Blue Label comes with a hefty price tag. I reckon you'll pay more than 4k for the range.
Stuart: Never dad.
Dad: Of course. The Blue is probably 2k on its own.
Stuart: Never dad.
Dad: I'm telling you.
Stuart: OK. Put your money where your mouth is dad. When we get home, you go and price the range. That's Red, Black, Green, Gold and Blue. If its more than 4k, I'll buy the range for your pub. If its less, you buy the range for my pub.
Dad: Deal. You'll cry when you see the price. I can't wait.

Listening to all of this, and spotting an opportunity as it gets presented:

G: Great deal guys. However, when the official handover takes place, in celebration of winning the range, the winner will open at least the Green Label for all present to sample.
Dad: Suits me. I've got nothing to lose - that range is coming my way.
Stuart: Fine by me too. I don't mind opening a free bottle of Green Label.
G: Lets all shake on it.

A few weeks after that great evening in Edinburgh, I attended the official "handover" ceremony. Needless to say, it was Stuart's pub that was stocked with the JW range of whisky. The Green label wasn't bad either :-)

London, Scotland and Spain

Well its been just over three weeks since my last post, and not without good readon. K and I have been on the road, doing what we love most - experiencing the sites, sounds and tastes of new destinations. Here's a quick summary of the August 2007 tour of London, Scotland and Spain:

- Alan and Samantha's wedding, set in a quaint little church just outside Milton Keynes, with reception at Whittlebury Park (next door to Silverstone).

- Middlesex Sevens at Twickers (where Newcastle pipped Worcester 20-19 in the final).

- Fringe Festival at Edinburgh castle and surrounds. Went to see a few stand up comedian acts in the Underbelly, or catacombs of Edinburgh. Great setting for these types of acts, as you walk through a series of interconnected rooms, and then all of a sudden find yourself underground in what can only be described as a humid, musky tunnel. Watched a comedian called Martha Mcbrie, in a show called "So you think you think you can heckle?". Wasn't overly impressed with her, but we were blown away by the talent of a stand up comedian/musician called Rob Deering in his show called "Charmageddon". Worth a watch if you ever come across him.

- Tour of the Edinburgh castle, and views from the top.

- Gardens around Edinburgh castle.

- Boat trip out to Loch Lomond.

- Scottish Highlands.

- Tour to Stirling Castle (with William Wallace monument in the distance).

- Seeing our good mates Neil and Mandy again.

- Windsor Castle and surrounds.

- Cabopino Beach just outside Calahonda, Malaga.

- The ancient city of Antequera.

- The El Torcal mountain range, and limestone rock formations.

- The beautiful village of Mijas.

- On our way to the Picasso Museum in Malaga. Incidentally, although Picasso painted most of his work in France, he was actually born in Malaga Spain. We were also treated to works on temporary display by artists such as Matisse, Balthus and Dubuffet.

All in all a great trip with lots of good memories.

My iTunes...Apple's answer to Facebook apps

Being an ardent follower of the social networking wave that is sweeping the globe at the moment, and having worked on some local social networking initiatives, I found it quite interesting to read about Apple's latest initiative - MyiTunes. They're hoping to get users to drive more traffic to the iTunes store by developing a couple of nifty widgets. From what I can make out, MyiTunes is a set of widgets that can be added to your blog, allowing you to display your latest iTunes purchases, reviews and favourite artists (in the form of an artists cloud) - based on your interaction with the iTunes website. I can see this as a big hit in countries that can actually make iTunes purchases - and a big competitor to such Facebook apps as the "iLike" app.

Speaking of iTunes - have just read that Google will be launching a competitive service called gBox. Non-DRM mp3's for 99c (US that is).

Shock Horror - The Internet Isn't Backed Up!

No more blogging...You Tube'ing, Facebook'ing, Flickr'ing :-)

One down, two to go...

Been a long weekend - launched the Big Brother Africa New Media platform last night, and got home at about 2am. So what exactly is "the New Media platform"? Well there's a website (www.mnetafrica.com/bigbrother), there's a social network (www.mnet.co.za/profiles/bba), there's a scrolling sms ticker across your screen (Channel 37 on DStv), there's a whole host of networks throughout Africa receiving and sending messages, an IVR line and of course the content management systems that make it all happen.
I didn't do this all myself of course, but behind every project, there's a wee bit of project management and planning needed to make it come together - that's where I fit in.

So yes, BBAII is down (or up, depending on how you see it), with Idols and Survivor to go. And then a holiday :-)

Whirlwind update

So its been a while since my last past - and I'm starting to feel the guilt. Thought now would be as good a time as any to post a whirlwind update.

The Tour:
Its over - and life has returned to normal again. No more dominance over the remote control - K is free to change channels if she wants to. So what was up with the Tour de Farce anyway? Things were looking so good at the start of the third week - I thought we were in for a cracking final couple of stages - and then it all fell apart, and continues to push out a daily sport headline revealing some new scandal. On a lighter note, there has been talk amongst one or two mates of putting a "Tour holiday" together for the 2009 season.

Graft:
On the work front, things have been pretty hectic. We're busy with the development of the web, mobile and other interactive elements for the three reality shows that are about to be launched. Interesting times - exciting projects to be involved in.

Golf:
Haven't put in as many rounds as I would have liked this month - although I did manage a round with Tweedie at Obs 2 weeks ago. Had a dogdy start, but came back strongly. Also managed a round at Irene, and shot a respectable (for me) 87.

Travel:
Had the pleasure of being able to spend a couple of days in Dullstroom this past weekend. K and I went down to a place called Millstream - its a trout farm about 4 km's before the town of Dullstroom. Old style stone cottages with fire places - was really nice. We ventured out on our mountain bikes on Friday morning for a ride down to Highland Gate estate. They are busy laying the fairways and greens at the moment, and its looks like its going to be a magnificent course (and housing estate) once complete. Riding the 22km back to Millstream into gale force winds proved a little too challenging for K and I though - we hitched a ride back through the farm roads on the back of a tractor after battling for about 12 of the 22km's back. In fact, the winds were so serious, that on Monday morning, we heard that fires (aided by the strong winds) were responsible for the deaths of two people in Lydenburg, and a number of runaway fires in Dullstroom. Luckily for us though, Millstream wasn't affected.
The fishing wasn't that great either - although I did manage to land a sizable brown trout. I blame the wind for the lack of success :-)

Social:
Off to dinner club tonight - its the "cheap and cheerful" round for the next four dinner clubs. No take out, no franchise restaurants - cheapest total bill out of the four couples wins this round. We're up tonight and will be going to a place in Emmarentia called Lapa Fo. Should be good.

Hunter takes first place in Stage 11

Robbie Hunter has become the first South African cyclist to win a stage on the TDF. Hunter has threatened several times in this year's tour, and today was his day.
The wild card Barloworld team are proving their worth in this years tour, with a 9th Stage win for Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez, and today's 11th stage victory for Hunter.
Tom Boonen, the leader in the green jersey classification crashed out on a sweeping right turn, with 600m to go - it would have been interesting to see the lunge for the line between Boonen and Hunter. Robbie admitted in the post race interview that Boonen is a stronger rider than himself, saying that he would try his best for as many sprint points as possible, but that chances are that Boonen would always be in front of him.
If you missed the race this afternoon, make sure you catch the delayed feed this evening - this is South African cycling history in the making...

TDF Crashes

Seeing as its that time of year, and in reference to my previous post, I thought I'd find some footage on TDF crashes. This clip isn't very comprehensive, but it has a couple of classics, like Ullrich's wipe out on wet roads during the 2005 individual time trial stage.

The Tweedie's...

Hooked up with Ronnie, Hazel and young Edward this past weekend - they're out from the UK for a couple of weeks visiting family and renovating their place at the coast. They arrived on Friday and stayed with us for the weekend, leaving on Monday morning for East London.
Was good seeing them again - also nice to spend a bit of time with Edward - he's a cute little guy going through some teething problems at the moment. When K and I got up on Monday morning to say cheers, we just looked at each other and smiled after our 8 hours of sleep whilst Ronnie relayed how they were up every hour during the night. Our day will come sooner or later...

Top 50 SA websites

If you haven't already posted your Top 50 SA websites on Arthur Preston's Facebook Group, or Online Trek blog, get over there and do it quick.
The point is try and compile a list of the top 50 SA websites by popularity and not necessarily page impressions.
Time recently released their list - which provided the inspiration to Arthur to get an SA list going. My contributions so far include:

• www.bizcommunity.com
• www.moneyweb.co.za
• www.keo.co.za
• www.amatomu.com

The rules for submission - the site must be South African in origin, and can be personal or commercial in nature.

Vive le Tour

Right, so the TDF is back, and my evenings are once again being planned around the delayed feed and highlights packages of the days racing.
Its weird - every time I mention to non-TDF junkies just how exciting a race it actually is to watch, I get this blank Icouldn'tthinkofanythingmoreboringthanwatchingcycling stare. I've given up trying to convince people now, and resorted to changing channels in the office at around 2:30pm each afternoon, with a gentle nudge on the volume control as the afternoon progresses and the peloton winds its way through some of the most magnificent fields, forests, hills and mountains, into the streets of the town that the race will finish in.

As for picking a winner this year - well its pretty wide open at this stage. Alexander Vinokourov has been labelled the favourite, and to be honest, if I had to back a rider this year, he would be the guy. He's the one who was so aggressive in the mountains during Armstrong's last three Tours, and was denied participation in last years tour due to his team pulling out at the last minute because half its riders (excluding Vino) were part of the doping scandal. After todays stage though, it'll be a tough task for him - he was involved in a nasty fall about 30km from the finish, and rode superbly to limit the damage but still ended up losing over 80 seconds. Will make things interesting in the days to come, as team mate Kloden now appears to be the best positioned rider in Vino's team (second place overall), and may take over leadership as a result. Watch Vino in the mountains though - he'll be deadly.

Yes folks, its mid-July, the evenings are long and cold, but one thing's for sure - the voices of Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett are a familiar comfort at this time of year and the sights and sounds out of France are an exciting end to each day. Vive le tour!

Wimax trial disappointment

I signed up for the MWEB wimax trials a couple of weeks ago, and the guys came around to install today. Seems like I'm not in the right area though, as they could only get a maximum of 2 bars out of ten in signal strength.
Was looking forward to some uncapped bandwidth as part of the trial, but I guess I'll have to make do with my adsl connection for the time being.

MK89 video blog now live

I blogged last night about the imminent launch of the MK89 video blogging network - well, I can tell you now that its live - check it out here.
Its important to stress that its still in Beta - there are some known issues that we're working on (like translations, and styling issues), but by and large its up and working. As of 5 minutes ago, there were 25 profiles loaded - mostly bands, artists and presenters, but you have to start somewhere I guess. The newsletter went out this afternoon, so we'll see what effect that has on spreading the word.
27 and counting...

iPhone Launch problems

Seems like there are a couple of glitches with activation on the new iPhone keyboards. From Adrian Kingsley-Hughes:

The iPhone keyboard issues seem to be a moot point compared to the activation hassles that early iPhone adopters are facing. A poll over at Engadget suggests that over 38% of the 9,000 respondents to the poll are suffering from activation problems and have an iBrick to show for their cash.

Eh eh - iBrick - gotta love it.

MK89 Video Blog Network Ready To Launch

Its been a slog over the past week getting the new MK89 video blog site ready for launch. Lots of late evenings and work this weekend, but its finally launch ready.

Its quite ironic actually, as the launch of this site was prompted by Uno de Waal in his post, MK89: A social network waiting to happen written on 6th June 2007. The M-Net New Media team felt the same way, and has been hard at work getting the platform together. At its basic level, it incorporates profile creation, with the ability to upload video (in mpeg, avi, 3gp, mov and mgp format) and images, create blog posts, request friendship, become fans of other users, as well as full forum functionality.

Not another Facebook, or MySpace, or Blogger site you're saying. Why create yet another profile? Well, the idea is that this network will allow its users the opportunity of getting their video and profiles on TV. There aren't many other blogging/social network platforms out there that will give its users that opportunity.

Its still early days, and the site is most definitely in Beta status still as we iron out some of the issues that we know exist, and as we get feedback over the next few weeks. Its due to launch this week when it gets a heavy punt in the M-Net newsletter, but here's a sneak preview of what the site looks like.