Weekend in the lowveld

Just got back from a weekend away in the lowveld. We stayed at Sudwala Lodge - the site of the prehistoric caves just outside Nelspruit. K and I headed down on Friday evening, along with Frank, Gail and Trevor, Patrick, Joanna and Richard.
We took a walk up to the caves on Saturday morning - really impressive. I didn't realise how big the cavity was - there is a 6 hour cave walk that you can do, that includes walking, climbing, crawling and swimming...that should give you an idea of how big they actually are. This is an image of the oldest column inside the cave - it has been formed over the past 200 million years, and is still growing.

The place that we stayed in was more than adequate. Played some volleyball with the guys on Saturday afternoon - did a bit of swimming, and just generally chilled out as much as possible.

Oh, did I mention that we were surrounded by peacocks? As Patrick said, what nature gave them in terms of beauty, they were definitely short changed on their vocal ability. These things are noisy and loud...and just don't give up.

Leaping into uncertainty...

Its been a big week it has. For a while now, I have been contemplating a change in job. I've been with my current employer for the past 4 years, and its been an amazing ride for me. I've been part of some of the biggest web projects in the country, and have worked my way up from being part of one of the teams, to taking overall responsibility for all the web development teams. I've learnt to deal with a vast array of characters, and have gained some great management experience. I've been part of something that has given me hours of joy and a great sense of achievement.

But, I've reached the point now where there is not enough joy and sense of achievement. There is less passion for what I do than before. And that just doesn't sit well with me.

So, I took the leap (some would say 'brave'...others 'irresponsible' - it all depends on your outlook I guess) into the world of uncertainty this week. But that's the weird thing - I'm certain that I'm not wild about my job at the moment. I'm certain that I can find that passion again. I'm certain that I am mature and responsible enough to make good in whatever I do. I'm certain that between K and I, we're smart enough to put some changes in place that will result in us moving forward, and not backwards.

In terms of plans - I've been in discussions with my employer for the past 2 months about my move. I'll have things wrapped up by end October. After that - I start work on putting the plan together. It'll involve lots of thinking, and lots of golf for a couple of months at least.

Room 8: Acoustic

Its been an interesting evening it has. K's cousin Neil invited us to watch him string a few tunes together with his band. Having an appreciation for the guitar, we jumped at the opportunity. Took us a while to find the place, as it was not the type of place that we were expecting, but it was actually really well done. We thought we'd be looking for a place with a bit of a stage, couple of couches and a pub. What we found, was a room, two floors up from the Mugg and Bean in Melville. Its an "expression" room - pretty small and snug - nicely decorated in an arty/student kind of way. Essentially, the guy who runs the place has got a bit of funding together and he runs different theme evenings - so for example, Monday nights are 'Philosophy' evenings, Wednesdays are 'Poetry/Story' evenings, Thursday is 'Open Mic', Friday is 'Acoustic', Sat is 'Discussion' and Sunday afternoon is 'Film'. There's no charge - although you can donate if you find the content/evening inspiring - the idea is to get a group of people together to enjoy the arts. And what a great evening it was. Neil, and his mate Graeme are really talented, and we felt quite priviledged to have watched them playing. It was also refreshing to see a group of people getting together and having a great time, whilst appreciating art and talent.
So yeah, if you're interested, pop in a check it out: Room 8, The Court, 4th Ave Melville.

Summer League...

Hard to believe that it was almost a year ago that I was leaving Pirates squash club, and joining Chamber Exiles. Anyway, we started the Summer League this week. Basically, its a club tournament - there are 11 teams of six players, and each Tuesday evening for the next 10 weeks, we play each team in various formats (including doubles) to determine which team reigns. Had my first game last night, and am happy to report that I won 3-0. In fact, our team is leading the log at the moment. Lets hope we can keep it that way.

Golfing history is made...

Well, for me anyway. Yup its been a good day - shot my best round ever, and whilst the score is not that fantastic in golfing terms, its my best score in the 17 odd years that I have been playing the game. I can remember heading down to the Klipriver golf club on a Sunday afternoon with my dad and brothers, when I was about 13 years old, and hacking around for 9 holes, trying my best to break 50. The 9 holes quickly became 18 holes and the skill got progressively better. In fact, I recall scoring my first birdie on that course - something that Neil reminded me about the other day (he was there to witness it, which is hugely important when you are 16 years old - as nobody would have believed it otherwise). Anyway, today I shot a decent 86 - with 2 birdies (both on the par 3's - pitched within a metre of the cup) and four pars. Needless to say Neil and I cleaned up...and all Stuart and Dave could do, was ask "So, how much do we owe you guys".

30th Birthday memories...

So here we sit...its Sunday evening and K and I are sitting on our balcony, enjoying the sights and sounds of the early evening. Its been a pretty relaxing day - and to be honest, we're both very grateful for the public holiday tomorrow.
As for "the gathering" - turned out to be a fantastic evening. We decided about 5 weeks ago, that if we were going to have a 30th birthday bash at our place, there was no way we would be able to cater for 30 people without losing our sense of humour somewhere along the way. Enter "By Word of Mouth" catering. These people were fantastic - they send all the food with two very competant chef's - setup their production line in your kitchen, and then serve delicious snacks all night long. Along with the chef's come two waiters and a barman - so its pretty much a case of sit back, relax, mingle with your friends and family whilst all the food and drinks are taken care of...in the comfort of you own home. Money well spent.
I think that people had a good time - our fears of where everyone would fit were unfounded, as everyone managed to space themselves out quite nicely on the balcony. Ok, it probably was a little cramped at times - we like to think that it had a warm, intimate atmosphere about it.
Anyway - what follows are a couple of pics that were taken during the course of the evening...

Kitchen that looks like a bomb has hit it.

Rich, Frank and Grant

Friends: Jo, Trevor, Gail, Mandy, Neil, Richard and Simona

Gillian, K, Chris and G

Leigh, Dave, Brett and Grant

Battle of the baldies

The oldies...

And their wives...

Brett, Neil, Stuart, Mr A, Pat, G.

G and K

The Gathering...

Have spent the past couple of weeks trying to plan and put together a "post 30th birthday" gathering for close friends - yes I left it too late, and that's the reason why its a month after my birthday. Happy to announce that things appear to be on track (note how I only said "appear to be"). That's because there is a lot that still needs to be done. I mean, those of you who have seen our place will know that it isn't exactly blessed with tons of square meterage. Estate agents would call it "neat and cosy" - and so K and I are both holding our breath about how well our neat and cosy little apartment will host some 30 guests. Apart from space, we have a lot of tidying up to do, and perhaps a bit of furniture rearrangement to create more space (or at least the illusion thereof).
Either way, it should be fun. Well...maybe not so much fun if you're the apartment below us, or next to us :-)
The great news is that we have a couple of mates from the UK who will be back in time for the "gathering" (some more permanently than others - welcome home Pat).

An open letter...

The allegations against Floyd Landis continue - although his legal team have put together quite a strong case that the tests could have been compromised, and cannot be called accurate. I came across this letter (its an open letter from Floyd to the Phonak team) on Floyd's blog...and I have to admit that I am still more for, than against him.

Dear Andy, John, my teammates and staff:

When I joined the Phonak Cycling team, it was our ultimate goal to win the Tour de France. On Sunday, July 23rd, 2006, we achieved that goal.

With the dedication and support of the entire team and staff, we overcame impossible odds to make the 2006 Tour de France one of the most exciting races in its history. When the race arrived in Paris on the final day, we had the Yellow Jersey.

Winning the tour with Phonak makes me very proud. Andy, you have assembled an excellent organization, staff and team. You never wavered in your commitment to the team and your athletes despite the struggles you’ve faced in the past. It makes me happy to have won the Tour with and for Phonak. You deserved to be on the podium with me.

While the recent allegations against me hurt us all, I respect the fact that the Phonak team must follow its own rules and charter under these circumstances. I just wish that all the parties involved would do the same. Despite this, I will not relent on my pursuit of the truth. I will not shy away from this fight.

Most of all, I understand that this situation impacts families and friends other than my own. It affects the businesses and sponsors that support cycling as well as the sport itself. It is for this reason that I am determined to show that I followed the rules and won fairly and cleanly. There is a greater integrity at stake here than just my own.

I thank you all for your support and courage as I embark on this journey to restore my name, the team’s name and the image of cycling.

Thanks,

Floyd Landis
2006 Tour de France Champion

You make up your own mind.

The Sunset Collection

Having returned from the Kruger, and feeling all inspired with the beauty of nature, I thought I'd put together a collection of sunset photos that I've taken over the past few years. They're a little bigger than the other images on this blog...should be able to open in a new window to get the full size of the uploaded pic.

The Napi Trail

Returned back from a great couple of days in the Kruger this afternoon. Had a great time, with some great friends - saw lots, laughed lots, and walked lots.

Set off on Wednesday morning - without too much hassle with luggage. Arrived at around lunchtime and did a bit of a drive around before heading into Pretoriuskop Camp. Dave and Leigh, Andy and Julia, K and I then met up with Brad and Mandy. We were collected from Pretoriuskop, and driven to the Napi Wilderness Area. Set in the heart of the bush, along the Biyamiti and Napi rivers was our tented camp.
Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and getting used to the sounds of the bush.

Thursday morning started bright and early, as we set out on our morning walk. The morning walks started at about 6am, and we walked for about 4-5 hours, before returning back for brunch. First walk saw us spot a couple of steenbok, a giraffe, and a sleeping elephant bull, which was quite exciting, as we happened to only spot it on the bank of the river, behind a tree as we walked through the riverbed, about 15 meters from where it was sleeping. Needless to say, the rangers had us scramble up the opposite bank, whilst we watched him wake up after making a bit of noise.

Came across this young bull on our way to our afternoon walk. Got nice a close.

And a white rhino...

Afternoon walk saw us finding 5 white rhino. Watched them for a while whilst the storm clouds gathered overhead, before opening up and soaking us all. Was a bit uncomfortable being soaked wet, but an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. We decided to call it quits for the rest of the afternoon, found a nice lookout point on top of a rock, and settled in for a great sunset after the rains with a couple of ice cold, and well deserved drinks.

The wet ground after a 15 minute downpour...

Perfect lighting after the rains...

The magnificence of the sunset, after the storm.

The following day we were treated to a rare sighting of wild dog. There are only an estimated 300 wild dog in the park, and with these animals being on the endangered list, we counted ourselves very lucky to have stumbled upon a pack of 15.

Another magnificent sky...

Family of warthog grazing as we pass by.

Another day down, another sunset atop a rocky outcrop.

The view from our tent - sunrise Saturday morning. The Biyamiti river pictured here - with the Napi joining it from the right of our tent.

We happened to see plenty of Kudu on the trip - something that I also consider quite a treat, as these have to be one of the most beautiful looking antelope in the bush.

Lone giraffe...

This was also quite a nice sighting, as I believe that the ground hornbill is also quite a rare spot. This guy was just walking along the side of the road with his mate.

Wildebeest, taking a breather under the shade of an acacia tree.

Aaah. The Bush...

All packed and ready to go tomorrow morning. Not quite sure how Dave is going to react when he sees all the luggage that we have :-)
To be honest, I don't think we're taking that much. It just looks like a helluva lot. We're sharing a clothes bag, sharing a shoes and towels bag. Have a backpack with books camera and jerseys, and a cooler box with drinks. I don't think we'd get away with much less, but it'll be interesting to see everyone piling into the car tomorrow morning. We're all going up in a Microbus, so I'm sure it'll be fine.
Essential items: good pair of walking shoes and a hat
Necessary items: sandals (for after the walks each day) and maglite torch (with new batteries)
Luxury items: Ouma rusks (for morning coffee) and 2 bottles of Meerlust Red wine.

Going to really enjoy being in the bush for the next few days. No cellphone reception. No work. No email. Oh hang on...that means no blogging for the next few days either - oh well - will be sure to take some pics and have an update by Sunday evening.

Kruger awaits...

Sunday evening - movie on tv has just finished. Sitting in the lounge, tweaking the Vaio, and contemplating the week ahead.
Work tomorrow - not really looking forward to that. On the upside though, is that K and I are going to the Kruger National Park on Wednesday morning. We're joining Dave and Leigh Fisher, and some other mates of their's - all doing a walking safari for a couple of days.
As far as I am able to make out, its the Napi trail, which starts just outside Pretoriuskop. Dave did it last year, and said it was fantastic, so we decided to join them this year.
Bought some drinks and snacks today, batteries for the torch, and some mozzie lotion. Really looking forward to a couple of days in the bush. It would be great if we could take the bikes - cycling up in that part of the country would be a real treat, but I guess that there are safety considerations to bear in mind.
So, we leave on Wednesday morning - arrive by lunchtime. There is a walk on Wed afternoon - sunset walk I'm told - and then another walk early on Thursday morning. So it goes, morning and afternoon until Saturday, where we leave Napi, and will then be staying at another camp for Saturday night, before returning on Sunday.
I suppose it makes the week a little more bearable when you only have two days of work, and then five days off.
Also decided this evening, that because we can't take the bikes up with us, we'll have to scope out the surrounding areas on the way back, and then book a weekend trip up to do some cycling. There are some wickedly good trails in the Nelspruit / White River area.

The Vaio

Oh, forgot to mention...bought me a Sony Vaio today :-)
Yup...VGN FE28GP - Duo Core, 2 Ghz Centrino, 120GB HDD and 1024MB RAM - this puppy just purrs.
In the words of the Foo Fighters - Its times like these....

Week in Summary

Been a relatively easy going week for me. Monday and Tuesday were their usual challenging selves, but was then on training from Wed to Friday. Also managed to sneak in a teambuilding session on Thursday afternoon - which was fantastic. It involved cooking zucchini as part of a 3 course meal. The idea is that everyone takes a bottle of wine, and an apron, and then gets stuck into making a 3 course meal during the afternoon - in the most amazing old style kitchen. One group made the pasta (yes, made it, let it dry, and then cooked it), another made the pasta sauce - we made the zucchini, tomato, herb and mozzarella side dish. There was also roast fillet of beef, covered in layers of parma ham, and a nut filled phyllo pastry pudding.
Going to try and get the dinner club to do a 3 week course with K and I - should be a blast.

Site worthy of a visit...

Every once in a while, you come across a website that blows your mind away. If you haven't ever visited Pandora, you've been seriously missing out.

It really is one of the cleverest uses of technology and music (my two big passions) that I have ever seen. Basically, the guys at Pandora have been working on something called the "Music Genome Project" for the past few years. They've taken thousands of songs, and stripped them down into what they sound like - not who they are sung by or what genre they belong to - but the actual sound of the song. They've then tagged these songs with the categories that they have defined, and provided a tool that allows you to listen to a song, say whether you like it or not, and then based on your decision, they will recommend another song, and another, and another...

The whole point of the project, is to allow the user to build up a "station" of the type of music they like, and then go out and buy the albums (or buy them online if you want). Pure genius.

This site...as a graph!

This image represents the structure of the blog that you are reading (well, technically it has changed since uploading this image, and this blog entry). Confused...? Let me explain. Some guy has written an algorithm that reads the source code of your website, and translates it into an image (check out the site here). The image depicted (click image to enlarge), represents the source code of our blog. In terms of a key, this is what the colours mean:

blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

Lightning Crashes...

Came across this photograph, taken by some guy whilst on holiday in Moscow, and thought it quite appropriate seeing as we're having a bit of an electrical storm at the moment. Woke up this morning and it was windy and rainy, and here we sit this evening whilst the rain lashes down in intermittent waves, and the sky is alive with currents of lightning.

From one rainy, cloudy city to another!

Went to CT yesterday for another round of meetings. Got up at 4:30am to make sure that I made the flight at 6:00am.
Trip wasn't too bad actually - bit of turbulence out of Jhb, and some more into CT.
Didn't get to see the mountain this time, as it was covered in clouds.
Three quick meetings, an even quicker lunch, and then back to the airport to make the 4pm flight back to Jhb.

Apart from the early rise (after an evening out celebrating my 30th birthday), it was a pretty good day.

Over that hill...

Yup - hit the magical Three O this week.
As far as birthdays go, it was a pretty average day to be honest - although I was treated to a cooked breakfast by K, and showered in gifts, which was really special. There is so much hype around reaching 30, and you see it coming for months, with big expectations. Next thing you know, you've been so busy and wrapped up in other things that it springs upon you and you're not quite prepared. At least thats how I felt.
Went to work, had a 4 hour meeting...took some cakes and ordered pizza for the office, another set of meetings in the afternoon...rush home for dinner with the family...and next thing you know, its all over.

Having said that, I was spoilt, and we did have a great dinner. Went to a place called Jungle Sushi and Tepanyaki. Sat around the Tepanyaki bar with the family...and had some great food. I had some Salmon Nigiri, a salmon hand roll, and a beef fillet tepanyaki - delicious.

Still intending on having a bit of a celebration - but because of other commitments, friends away, other friends only arriving - it'll only take place in September sometime.

How does it feel? Not too shabby...I'm at the beginning of my next decade in life, with another 10 years of thirties to look forward too. I'm told that this is the decade in which things 'really' happen in life. I guess one can justify anything really.

The Epic Cycle...

Managed to get out on Sunday afternoon, for what turned out to be quite an epic cycle as far as K and I are concerned. We headed off towards the Klipriviersburg Nature Reserve, with Brett (the neighbour), to meet up with Frank. Getting there was tough, but not too bad in the end. Anyway, we met up with Frank, and cycled through the reserve, and back in about 90 minutes. Frank had the luxury of getting back into his beetle, and not having to tackle what must be classified as a Category 1 climb (I know there are no Cat.1 climbs in SA, but whoever made that claim has clearly never cycled back up Columbine road in Winchester Hills). It was a pretty intense climb at that point (which marked about 3 hours in the saddle), but nothing that an Mp3 player belting out the consistent beat of the Foo Fighters could'nt sort out. K and I made it to the top of Columbine, and back onto the long downhill of Klipriver - whilst Brett had to be rescued by Frank, and driven home.

43km round trip, 4 hours in the saddle, and a whole lot of energy burnt up. My idea of a great Sunday afternoon.