Whistle Stop trip to the Mother City

How's this for a great day.
Wake up at 5am on Wednesday (ok, 5am is early - and that's not the great part, but wait - it gets better), get ready and get dropped off at the airport at 6am. The mission - go down to CT for a 1 hour meeting with one of my biggest customers.
I check in with 2 minutes to spare...no queues. Go straight to the gate to board the plane - 5th last person to board. Again, no queues.
Proceed to the back of the plane - aisle seat, with nobody sitting in the middle seat, and Vanessa Carreira (ex Miss SA) sitting at the window seat.
Pleasant flight down - offered some gum by Ms Carreira after touching down. Politely refuse, but thank her anyway (I have my own gum in my top shirt pocket).
Proceed to car rental counter - get keys to car, and make my way (traffic free) to the offices of my meeting. The directions that I have been given are dead accurate.
Arrive 15 minutes early for the meeting - settle into the comfortable couch at reception, and enjoy a cup of coffee (my second of the day - which is unusual for me, as I don't normally drink coffee).
Ushered into the meeting room, and get on with the meeting. Its a big deal for me. Could potentially solve a whole lot of frustration if this customer accepts our proposal (its for a hardware upgrade - a big upgrade - which will lead to a new web application being developed - a big web application). Meeting goes better than expected. Decision is made that the upgrade will take place. Make some mental notes to update the proposal - have a 2 week deadline for this, as the IT Manager will be going on leave and will only be back to sign in 2 weeks.
Make my way to our office in CT. Pick up my CT based project manager and another colleague. Its my turn to treat them to lunch.
We head off to a place called "Wakame" in Mouille Point.
Order a bottle of Louisvale unwooded Sauvignon Blanc. Goes perfectly with our sushi platter. Get the bill, part ways with the project manager and colleague (they took their own car), and head back to the airport.
Arrive 20 minutes early - return the car, and proceed through the checkpoint (I checked in once, at Jhb - so no need to check in at CT - aisle seat again).
Head for Exclusive Books (my second favourite shop, after Musica, and before Cape Union Mart) and purchase a copy of this months Bicycling magazine. I get it becasue it has a Tour de France stage schedule, and preview of this years race. I'm a big fan.
Proceed to the British Airways lounge, help myself to a drink and watch 5 minutes of the football.
Finish my drink and start making my way to the boarding gate - again, no queue.
Make my way onto the plane and find my seat. This time, its Kobus (and not Ms Carreira) who I have the pleasure of sitting next to. I find my magazine very interesting.
Flight lands 5 minutes before schedule - all I have is my laptop, so step off the plane, walk through the terminal, and who should be waiting for me right outside the front door - my beautiful wife.

A better day I could not have asked for.

Back to nature

Our time in the bush was not only memorable, but pretty chilly too. We stayed at Kwafubesi tented camp, situated in the Mabula game reserve. Although the camp is pretty luxurious, the tents remain tents, and the nights get cold in June. Nevertheless, the days were warm and we had a pretty relaxing time.

Amongst the animals that we saw: Elephant, Lion, Rhino, Hippo, Giraffe, Impala, Kudu, Hartebeest, Blesbok, Springbok, Ostrich, Warthog, Zebra and a porcupine. Some of the birds worth mentioning - Lilac Breasted Roller; Yellow Billed Hornbill and Crimson Breasted Shrike (probably one of the most beautiful bush birds you can ever hope to see).

Below...some of the better pics.
Nice looking tree atop a hill overlooking the reserve.







The thatched lapa that we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at.







The main dam, and watering hole. Also home to the familt of eight Hippo that we saw.

Long Weekend...

Although June 16, was a dark day in our country's past some 30 years ago - its a welcome break and the start of a long weekend today.

K and I are taking time out of the city, and heading out into the bush. The location - Kwafubesi, Limpopo Province. The accomodation - tented camp. The duration - 3 days and two nights. The objective - relaxation, and big 5 spotting. The motivation - because we can.

Quick Update...

OK, so I've been pretty slack over the past three weeks. Not since the start of this blog, have I been this inactive in terms of posts. Apologies for that. Here's a quick update:

Part of the problem was that our ADSL connection decided to stop working this past week. Who knows what the cause of the problem actually was (I have my suspicions - and they involve Telkom), but yes - no broadband for a week. Actually, it was pretty pleasant - as it meant no work from home for a week :-) Anyway, after logging calls and reporting faults, it mysteriously started working again on Monday.

Saturday - watched the Bokke play the World XV. Not the greatest game so I won't go into any detail on it.

Went to a place called Zebra Lodge about 3 weeks ago for our annual sales conference. The weekend involved a bit of work for me in the form of presentations, and two late evenings, with early morning headaches. The Saturday team building event involved a rock concert - with the members in the team as the rockers, and the other teams the fans. Turned out to be fantastic - it was run by a company called "Elephants in Main Street" - they set up a real stage, with live microphones and musical equipment - give you the lyrics to a rock song (in our case, a Queen number), and then play the backing tracks all afternoon while the different bands get a chance to practice their gig. Then, each band gets up in the evening, and plays for the fans - amid strobes, smoke machines, big screen tv's and video cameras. Great fun - and I got to play drums - something I've wanted to try out for a while.

Oh, K and I started guitar lessons about a month ago. We decided to join a group of K's friends who wanted to learn to play guitar - so there are 8 of us in our Saturday morning lesson. I've done some lessons before, one-on-one, but the group lesson is quite good as you all kind of progress at the same pace. Watch this space.

On the sports front - haven't had much opportunity to do much cycling of late, although I did take the mongoose out the other day and put 10km of mileage on the machine. Have been playing quite a bit of squash - which is going rather well all things considered. Have won three of my last four games - not bad in my books. Play Modderfontein tomorrow.

Managed to get out to the Riviera on Sunday morning for a round of golf - which also turned out to be pretty decent. Carded a 90, which is not too shabby for me, but the real highlight, was the fact that I smoked my driver from hole 2 through to 18 (par 3's excluded of course), and achieved 3 birdies, two of which were on successive holes.

One of the other things that occurred the other day - a house burnt down in our suburb. We awoke to a column of smoke rising from the houses close to where K's folks used to live - complete with flashing lights from the fire department. Curiosity got the better of me, and I diverted from my usual path to work, to go via the burning house, and sure enough, the road had been blocked off and the place was being hosed down. Not sure what set it off, but needless to say, K and I now double check to make sure the electric blankets are turned off each morning.
So there it is - a quick update on things. Will try and be more diligent from now on.

Blue Monday

Do they get any bluer than this? What a day...! Every now and then, you get a really bad day thrown at you, and you think to yourself "Well, that's over now. Tomorrow will be better", and it generally is. But what happens when the bad days start outnumbering the good, and one bad week starts rolling into the next.

Yup, without sounding like I'm complaining, I'm really getting tired of the string of bad luck I seem to be having. If its not another developer resigning, and putting project delivery into jeopardy, its an underperforming sales person, or an irate customer, annoyed that his project is late. Today - a leased line that went down, affecting the biggest ecommerce website in the country for 5 hours, and me at the other end of the line. Whilst it was not my teams fault, we maintain and support the site, so any issues are directed at my team. We managed to get it sorted out in the end, but not before cancelling 4 meetings during the course of the morning, and effectively having to catch it all up again. Thats the thing with problems like this - they never occur in isolation - everything affects everything else, and all you end up doing, is running from one issue to the next. Its like I need a big pause button to hit, bringing everything to a halt whilst I catch up. The days are numbered I fear.

So there you have it - the crisis of the day. Who knows what tomorrow holds in store. In a way, maybe its a good thing that the really big issues hit the fan on a Monday, because the Tuesday thru Friday issues can only be smaller.

Off to beat the crap out of a "double yellow dot" squash ball.

Current favourite music...

So whilst we were in Perth, waiting to board the plane back to SA, I bought my first Jack Johnson album (In Between Dreams). I had noticed it in all the stores in Aus, and thought "what the hell - lets give it a go". I only managed to listen to it a day of two after landing back in SA, and I must say, I was impressed. So much so in fact, that I put it in my car that week, and its still in there at the moment.

For those of you that don't know, Jack is a Hawaii born singer/songwriter - and surfer. He's obviously been playing the guitar for a long time now - as the sounds are very acoustic, quite different in terms of style, and deeply relaxing.

That said, I thought I'd go and find another Jack Johnson album this past weekend, and sure enough, he's on the music shelves here too. I bought his debut album (Brushfire Fairytales) and have been listening to that in the car for the past couple of days - really chuffed with the purchase.

Touch Screen of the future

Have broadband...? Check this out. Holographic and 3D touch screens that are mind blowing. I want one :-)

Annual Golf Weekend Away

Its back at work today after a 5 day getaway to Cape Town for our annual Golfing weekend. We've been doing it for 5 years now, and the event has taken us to Swaziland (where we played at the Royal Swazi Sun), Zinkwazi (Princes Grant), The Drakensburg (Champagne Sports Resort) and Sun City (Gary Player Country Club). This year, we stayed in Mouille Point Cape Town, and were treated to rounds at Erinvale Estate and Clovelly Country Club.

Erinvale is a course situated just outside Stellenbosch, and is your typical housing/golf estate, with magnificent homes overlooking the course, the mountains and the ocean in the background. Its a tight course with plenty of lateral hazards (in the form of houses and water hazards), but it is in supreme condition. The greens were like nothing I've ever played on - with a velvety carpet feel to them. And the weather played its part too - slightly cloudy and cool, but no wind to speak of.

That's where Erinvale and Clovelly differed vastly. We played Erinvale on the Friday, and Clovelly on Sunday, after the most insane winds descended on the Cape on Saturday afternoon. They only lasted for a day and a half, but did some major damage to homes and trees throughout Cape Town and surrounds. On our visit to the Rust en Vrede Wine estate on Monday, they were still chopping through trees that had fallen down over the weekend. Anyway, back to the golf - Clovelly is situated in the valley just behind Fish Hoek, and although it is not a golf estate, it is a golf club with tremendous character and stunning views. However, we were challenged somewhat during our round with the added pressure of having to deal with 65km/h winds funneling through the valley. I've never before considered using a 6 iron for a 100m approach shot, and still left it short by 20 meters. By contrast, with the wind behind us, I think I drove within 10 meters of 3 par 4 greens, and could literally put onto the green for my second shot. I shot a consistent 94 for both rounds, which I was quite happy with I guess, given the added challenges.

As for the rest of the weekend - plenty of cocktails on the Camps Bay stretch, good food in and around the city bowl (with what can only be described as a "legendary" Bo Kaap Lamb Curry on one of the dinner outings), and some sunshine on Clifton's 3rd beach. We managed to sneak in a trip to a couple of wine farms (Alto, Rust en Vrede, Spier and Lanzerac), and invested in a couple of bottles along the way.

In summary, 5 days of good golf, company, food and wine, in a beautiful part of the country. You've got to love the abundance of public holidays in April.

Cruise, Scientology and South Park

With all the hype around Scientology, Tom Cruise and the birth of his child, I came across this South Park episode. Anyone who knows South Park, also knows that it is not the most PC show out. Well, in this episode they take Scientology (and Tom) apart. So much so in fact, that apparently Cruise had it pulled from the networks in the UK, by refusing to promote the new Mission Impossible film if they aired it.

So much for that idea - its all over the internet at the moment. If you have a broadband connection, check it out here: http://www.xenutv.com/cruise/sp-closet.htm

Robbie Williams Concert

So, what did we think of the Robbie Williams concert? Well, to be honest, I was a little dissapointed. Firstly, getting to the venue required us to park 3 km's from the stadium. After a 20 minute walk, we were confronted with the ticket queue, then the toilet queue and then the queue into the upper stands. Getting in was the easy part though - it must have taken a good hour to get out of the stadium. I thought that the control and organisation around 61,000 people getting in and out of a stadium left a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, we took our seats on the Eastern stand, and watched the stadium fill, to capacity. It really was something, seeing over sixty thousand people gathering in one spot, for one purpose - to relax and enjoy the evening with like minded Robbie Williams fans. Now don't get me wrong, I don't consider myself a true fan, but the boy can definitely entertain. Sure, he's full of himself, arrogant to the bone, and as vain as anyone you'll even come across, but he does have that "entertaining appeal" about him. As far as concerts go though, I would'nt exactly rate it in my top 3. It was more of a "show" than a concert. When I think of a concert, I think of musical talent extraordinaire, of band members trying to outplay each other on their instruments, and moments of solo glory. This concert was all Robbie. His jokes, his stories, his songs and his "sing-ging". The stage and lighting was pretty well done I thought, but again, nothing mind blowing. I remember being more impressed with the lights and stage setup of the U2 concert, and that was some 8 years ago. I guess I expected a little more.

All in all though, it was definitely entertaining, and I'm glad we went. K absolutely loved the show - but I think thats because Robbie probably appealed to her more than he did to me.
I'm still annoyed that we missed the U2 concert in Adelaide - it would have been great to compare the two in the space of 3 weeks.

My money is still on U2 for putting on a better "concert" though :-)

Top 3 to date:
- U2
- Phil Collins
- Cranberries
(then maybe Robbie)

Easter Weekend Update...

Its been a pretty good weekend so far. We didn't do much on Friday, other than take a drive out to Jackal Creek and take a look at the progress that is being made on the place that we bought with Stuart. Not much as far as I could tell - looks like they are still clearing land, and have a long way to go. Whether it will be finished by March 2007 or not is anybody's guess. I tend to think that its a bit optimistic.

Took a drive out to the botanical gardens on Saturday, and had a picnic under the trees with Stuart and Lauren, and some of their mates. Frank also joined us for the afternoon which was great.

K and I then geared up for what turned out to be quite a nice ride on Sunday. We ended up doing about 33km, which is not extreme, but still quite a task given our bike fitness levels.

Today, I managed to fit a round of golf in. There was a spot in a fourball that Mickey Meade had organised, and it had my name on it. Not that I played very well, but it was perfect practice for the corporate golf day that I'm playing in on Wednesday.

And tonight - Robbie Williams. Yup, off to Loftus stadium in Pretoria in about 45 minutes for the show that K has been waiting for, for a while now. We've heard fantastic reports about the Durban and Cape Town shows, so we should be in for a real treat this evening.

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

OK, so its been two weeks since K and I arrived back from our Aus holiday - and a pretty busy two weeks at that. Arriving back at work after a holiday is usually quite stressful, as everything needs to be picked up again, and sorted out - the biggest of which is usually the "Inbox". After 2 solid days of wading through mail (527 unread items), I felt like I was making a bit of progress. Only problem is that unread mail isn't simply just simply opened, read, and discarded - it usually involves some follow up or action. Yup - as much as I relish the digital age, I detest the ease with which people can shift email throughout an organisation - and expect things to be sorted out.

So besides work, we also managed to catch up with some mates last Friday night - The Hoff is back in town! Forgot to take the camera with, so didn't get any pics, but he is looking fit and healthy. We also got to meet Cath at long last, and had a chance to catch up with Rich, Simona, Jo and Frank. Great evening - it always amazes me how whipped Lance's folks are - he has them wrapped around his little finger - running around serving drinks, braaing the meat, preparing the pudding - so sorted. Full marks to them!

Its also been quite a busy week socially - squash practice on Monday night, Dinner Club on Tuesday night, squash league on Wednesday night, and then another squash practice last night. Good thing we now have four days to recover!

Currently reading: The Google Story.

Home again...

K and I arrived home about 2 hours ago...dreading the pace that we're going to have to get used to again from Monday. At least we have the whole of tomorrow to recover, and prepare mentally :-)

We met up with Ang, Greg and Ann on our last day in Perth. Went to a cafe called "Soda", which is on the coastal road, about 5 km's from where Ang and Greg are currently staying, and had a good breakfast there. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, before all going out for a final supper in Northbridge. I got to finally sample the chilli mussels that Perthians are so crazy about. You see them on every menu, in virtually every restaurant in town - and for good reason. They serve a whole plateful (I'm talking no less than 30) of shelled mussels in a chilli, garlic, tomato based sauce - delicious. It was a good evening out - and a nice finish to our last 2 weeks of absolute relaxation.

They say its good to get home, and I usually feel that way, but I have to be honest and say that I'll definitely miss the lazy days in Perth over the next few weeks, as we get back into the swing of things.

Currently reading : Down Under, by Bill Bryson. Bought the book in Adelaide, and have been getting the odd couple of pages in during the past week. Managed to make quite a dent in it during the flight back today. Its really interesting, as its not only a travel diary, but also contains quite a bit of history, and some facts on Australia (like, did you know that of the 10 dealiest animals/insects/reptiles in the world, Australia has 9 of them) - although it needs to pick up a bit of pace now.

To do tomorrow: Take the mongoose out, blow the dust off the handlebars, and put some mileage on it.

Rottnest Island

Today was spent on the very pretty, unspoilt island of Rottnest. K and I caught a ferry from Hillary's Boat harbour, to the island situated about 20km off the coast of Fremantle. The island is about 11km long, and 5 km wide at the widest point - and the best way of getting around, is by bicycle. So we hired two mountain bikes, and spent the whole day cycling around - stopping at the various bay's and coves, either to take in the scenery, or to explore a little. It really was a fantastic day out - lots of sunshine, white beaches, cool waters, and exercise. If you're every in Perth on a nice day, and have a day to spend, then this trip is worthwhile doing.

Adelaide in summary...

Well, we're back at the airport now, waiting to board our flight back to Perth. We gained two and a half hours on the way here, so even though we leave at 7:45pm, we land in Perth at 8:35pm. That's the beauty about travelling West...you feel like you're gaining time.

So what did we think of Adelaide? Well, for one thing, its very different to Perth. It has a much older feel about - the people as well as the buildings. I think that we've seen more pensioners in Adelaide than anywhere else. Having said that, there are parts that feel very young - the student town kind of vibe. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground though.

This is what we saw and did:
- Monday: after landing, we checked into our hotel, the Mercure Grosvenor on North Terrace. We then took a stroll down Rundle St Mall, and ended up at "The Stag", an old hotel at the bottom end of Rundle St where we had a couple of drinks, and listened to a couple of students playing in a live band. After that, it was off to "Daniel's" for dinner. Food was ok - nothing great.

- Tuesday: set off mid Tuesday morning on the Glenelg Tram, to the town of...yup, Glenelg. Glenelg is a small coastal town, with lots of history. It has been a port town for about 200 years, and is filled with old buildings, galleries and museums. We spent most of the day on Jetty Road, which is lined with shops, restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and bars. Stopped at "Good Food" and had a fantastic organic vegetable pizza, before heading back into the city. Whilst back in the city, we went to the Museum of South Australia, and took a walk through "The Bradman Collection" - definitely worthwhile. Next, we took a stroll through the botanical gardens, and finally made our way back to the hotel. We then freshened up, and went in search of some Indian food. We found a great spot, again on Rundle St, just opposite The Stag called "Taj Tandoori". Ordered a lamb dish, chicken tandoori dish, vegetable jalfrezi and some garlic naan bread. What a great meal!

- Wednesday: after packing our bags, we headed off to the tourism centre around the corner from the hotel, and booked ourselves on a half day tour. The tour took us up to Mount Lofty, which gave quite a good view of Adelaide. We then spent the afternoon in the German town of Hahndorf. We were a little late to sample the "Wurst", so ended up having tea and cake at the Hahndorf Inn. On our way back, we got to see some Koala bears in the wild, as the tour driver stopped in the side of the road after spotting them in the local gum trees. From there, we headed back to hotel and caught a taxi to the airport.

So, the verdict on Adelaide...well, like I said, its very different in feel and character to Perth. Much slower, and older - which can be a good thing I guess, but not my cup of tea at this stage in life. It would have been great to catch U2 at the Adelaide Oval, but that was not meant to be. Definitely worthwhile doing the trip though.

I picked up some local CD's - The Whitlams, and Pete Murray and transferred them onto my MP3 player last night, so looking forward to listening to them on the way back to Perth.

Off to Adelaide

Sitting at the Perth Domestic airport at the moment, waiting to board our 9:40 am flight to Adelaide. Thought it would be a good idea to reflect on the past few days.

- Friday: Well, the wedding turned out to be fantastic. The weather cleared at the last minute, and the gazebo up in Kings park provided the perfect setting, overlooking the city, and the Swan River. After the ceremony, and whilst the photos were being taken, Ang had organised a tram trip through King's Park for the guests, which was a really good idea as we got to see and learn about some of the history. The reception was then held at Fraser's restaurant - where some good food and wine were consumed during the remainder of the evenings celebrations. Well planned, and executed Ang and Greg.

- Saturday: We set off on Saturday to do the Swan Valley Wine tour. Departed at around 10am, on a ferry, and headed up the Swan river for about 2 hours. We then got off at Caversham Hotel, and boarded a bus, which took us to about 4 wine estates, an ice cream parlour, German brewery, and the Margaret River Chocolate Factory.



Needless to say, by the end of the day, we had drunk enough wine, and eaten enough cheese and other food to last us a while. Very pleasant though...no complaints here. Western Australia certainly does produce some fantastic wines.

- Sunday: K and I headed down to the beach on Sunday morning, and spend some time in the sun, before going into town and checking out some of the shops. We then went for a drink at the Windsor Hotel on Mill Road, went across to AppleCross to watch the sun set, and then spent the evening with K's granny, and Alva (K's mom's cousin). Alva took us to a restaurant called "Thai Corner" - the food was absolutely awesome. We had four or five dishes, ranging from garlic prawns, chicken green curry, sweet and sour noodles, to vegetables and checken and beef kebabs. Really enjoyed the food, and had a great evening.

Well, that about sums it up. Still enjoying the fact that we're on holiday, and that even though it is a Monday morning, we have nothing more to worry about, other than which seats we're going to fight for on the plane - we have the choice of a middle seat, and a window seat. Hmm...wonder who will win this one? Life is good!

Some of the wedding pics

Here are some of the pics from the wedding yesterday.

Wedding Morning

After a restless nights sleep, I'm sitting here, on the bed whilst the hair and make up production line kicks into full swing. Yup, this is wedding morning, and the primary reason that K and I came to Perth - Angela and Greg's wedding.
The weather isn't too great at the moment - had some showers about an hour ago, but the forecast is that things will clear up this afternoon. I hope so for Angie's sake, as the ceremony takes place at King's Park, which overlooks Perth and the Swan River. Its a great setting, but could get quite chilly if the weather doesn't clear. We're holding thumbs Ang.

Had a great day yesterday - Ann, K and I caught the train into Perth, and then jumped on another that took us to Fremantle, or "Freo" as the locals would say. Freo reminds me a bit of Melville in SA, with that arty, student feel about it. Its loaded with history, and we decided to take a tour of the Fremantle Prison, which was just fantastic. It was used from around 1855, through to 1991, was built by the convicts over a number of years, and although not at first, it eventually became the maximum security prison in Western Australia, and was the scene of some 44 executions. Really interesting to see the solitary confinement cells and gallows, and to think that up until 15 years ago, this was all very real.

And no, there is no subliminal intent in starting this post off talking about wedding days, and ending it with a description of a prison. Its just coincidence that it worked out that way :-)

My duties for the day:
a). Make sure that I get to Kings Park on time
b). Get ice for the drinks bag
c). Drop drinks bag off at Frasers, for tram trip
d). Get as much of the ceremony as possible on film

I think that's about it. Hope so.

Off with Annie now - the production line is slowly chugging away, and this is no place for a man to be. I'll rush in later, shower, change, shave - and make my way to Kings Park.

We're in for a great day.

Its good to be on holiday

Been in Perth for 5 days now, and really starting to relax and get into the slower paced life that is lived here. It helps to be on holiday of course. The one thing that I'm battling with, more so than K it seems, is the change in time zone. Its taken me almost four days to get used to getting up in the morning - I feel like I should still be sleeping. Mind you, the fact that I had a 24 hour day on Saturday (Greg's bachelors - or "bucks" as they call it here) didn't help the cause.

Anyway, some news of what we've been up to:
- Sunday was spent recouperating from the previous evening, where copious amounts of Bourbon and cola were consumed. Thanks for introducing me to that Gareth...Greg and I felt great on Sunday :-(
- Monday was pretty relaxed, didn't relly get up to much. Went down to the beach with K, and had a swim on the ocean. We then went to fetch K's aunt Annie, and spent a good hour on the highway due to a fire that had broken out further up. After having been diverted, we then fetched Annie from the Burswood hotel. Was good to see her again - we realised that this was the 3rd continent that we had met up on.
- Tuesday was also pretty relaxed - ended up going for a haircut, and getting some meat for a braai that Angie had planned for later that day. We all then met up at the place that Ang and Greg are currently renting - all of us being: Greg, Ang, Annie, Ross, Shelley, Danika, Gran, Alva, Greg's mom Ann, K's folks Roy and Sharen, and K and I - all in all a great evening.

- Today, we went through and met up with my cousin Michelle, baby Connor, Rose (my aunt) and her parents Bob and Shelia. It was the first time that K and I have met baby Connor - really happy child. They're out here for another couple of days, and it was quite fortunate that our schedules coincided, and we were able to meet up - as they stay in Milton Keynes in the UK. So yeah, its been a real family gathering for both K and I.

Tomorrow, we intend to go through to Rottnest Island, and have a walk/cycle around there if the weather holds up. Its been between 35 and 37 degrees celcius for the past few days, but had changed for the worse today. Quite cold and windy at the moment - but I'm sure it will clear up soon enough.

The bonus about being on holiday, is that we only have to worry about what we're doing tomorrow, tomorrow!

How to dismantle a perfectly good plan!

From www.u2.com

It is with great regret that tour promoter The Next Adventure announces the postponement of the final ten dates of U2's Vertigo '06 tour. This action is unavoidable due to the illness of an immediate family member of one of the band. The effected dates are listed below.

'Any fan of U2 will realise that this decision has not been taken lightly', said TNA President Arthur Fogel. 'We will announce further details as soon as we have them.'

The effected shows, which are all sold out, are: March 17th & 18th, Ericcson Stadium AUCKLAND; 21st, Queensland Sports & Athletics Centre BRISBANE; 24TH & 25TH, Telstra Dome, MELBOURNE; 28th, AAMI Stadium ADELAIDE; 31st & 1st April, Telstra Stadium, SYDNEY; 4th, Nissan Stadium YOKOHAMA; 8th Aloha Stadium, HONOLULU.