That's what mama told me

Its a rainy Saturday in the City of Gold. And the storm clouds are predicted to hang around for the rest of the weekend ... 

Tomorrow we heading to the Food, Wine and Design show in Hyde Park - I don't know if you have to be interested in "design" but I'm sure we'll be able to busy ourselves with the first 2.

My favorite song at the moment ... is "That's what Mama told me" - Big Boi (feat Kelly Rowland)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRUVMg6yvCs

Give it a listen. 

Keep Hanging On

Music has such a massive impact on creating associations. Certain songs remind you of good times, other might remind you of a sad time in your life ...

This song is by Ellie Goulding "Hanging On" is amazing, she really has an incredible voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLbRpObZFGQ

Her other song which got some radio play all over the world and is also an amazing song - its called "lights"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NKUpo_xKyQ

Have a cracker Monday.

Why are the bulls supporters so quiet?

This music video was played on repeat on the bachelor party bus 2 weekends ago - no wonder everyone's wheel's came off ... good tune! - Bring on the weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRE6ssTulcI

Well done also to the Sharks on becoming Curry Cup Champs for 2012

WTF is "Flyboarding" ??

With so much content available online, and ideas shared so quickly is not often that I see something that I really find amazing.

Just released in the USA, is a new product called Flyboard. It links directly to the jet of a personal water craft - and gives you the chance to fly, swim like a dolphin, and show off like a proper "windgat" - what more could you want!!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Cd6C1vIyQ3w

At almost $7, 000 its not cheap ... but it looks like a supreme amount of fun, and something I'm adding to my "one day maybe" list.

Some Skill on a road bike

Anyone that's ever ridden a road bike will know how tricky it is to manoeuvre even on a straight flat road ... this boy has some serious skills 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZmJtYaUTa0&feature=player_embedded

Off on bachelors tomorrow - and then with 18 lads on a trip to the bush (till Wed) ... To say I'm a little "apprehensive" would be an understatement. 

Unused toys

About the time I started writing this blog ... I was speaking about learning to kite surf. 

In December last year some mates and I went to Durban to learn but there was only enough wind for 2 half days of lessons - not really enough to get the confidence to handle a piece of material that can lift a grown man over a building with relative ease ...

In typical style though I have all the gear. 

But I'm not the type that buys stuff and then never uses it. Except for now - all this kite "stuff".

But that's going to change. I'm going to make sure that I get it right and then I'm going to travel the world (while earning a passive income) and kite surf and work on my tan tan until I look like the lads in this video.

https://vimeo.com/49613070

The Things That Connect Us

Technology, companies and our world advances so quickly. Certain things become such a large and integral part of our lives and how we connect with one another - we sometimes forget to stop and think about what things were like before they were around.

How Google has changed the way we find information, how Apple has changed the way we listen to music, and how Facebook has changed the way we connect with one another.

Facebook recently celebrated 1 billion people (all connected to other important people in their lives). To celebrate this they released (their first) promotional video .... check it out here ...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=3802752155040 

Happy Phuza Thursday!

If you're not living on the edge - you're taking up too much space

Google are by far one of the most innovative businesses on the planet. They are big thinkers, have a great product set, and as a result they make huge, on going and sustainable profits. As a result of their success they then get hundreds of thousands of job applications per year for people wanting to work in this dynamic environment.

So they recruit the best people, who then design and create more of the greatest products, which then growns their business and their profitability .... it becomes a self-fulfilling model.

Take a look at the clip of their latest product which has just been "approved" by the state of California for use on the road - cool stuff. 

If you want to do something that delivers huge results you're going to have to push the limits and think big - preferably outside the box.

Tune of the moment is by Morgan Page and it's called "In the Air" 

(*Music notes*) "I'm feelin it, I'm feelin a change I'm feelin it .... in the air .... " (*Music notes*)

.

One of my favorite bands

They're bit goth, and a little underground .... but they have so many great songs .... 

They're Placebo.

This is a cover of the Kate Bush original ... seldom is the cover better than the original ... but this one is.

Here is another cracker song of theirs - from the movie "Cruel Intentions"

Happy Wednesday.

Searching for silver linnings

I hate people that whinge. They need to HTFU and get on with things.  

Thing is though, sometimes I feel like I need to have a whinge - then its acceptable. 

The week I had last week was one of those "all time kak weeks" - everything that could go wrong went wrong, and everything that was perfectly fine, and on track - also went wrong.

One of those weeks that really makes you feel like a winner. With tough times like that, it makes you re-evaluate why everything went wrong and how to fix it ... So change is inevitable and the only thing that stays constant. Retune, re-look, refine and refocus.

Monday's tune is by a local cuzzie Daniel Baron ... "See Thru"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fVkvhdM2QE

That's my whinging - done.

My favourite song at the moment

David Guetta represents how powerful a brand can be ... every time he does a collaboration with someone its a massive success. The man made over 8 million pounds last year (almost all through mixing with other artists) - wicked business
I know his latest song "She Wolf" is going to be killed over the next few months, all David Guetta songs are,  but while its still fresh ... take a listen ....

All the (morning) glory of winning an Olympic gold

Henrik Rummel ... one of the American gold medal rowing team, shows just how much winning gold meant to him ...

Olympics - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly ....

The 2012 London Olympics has been a great source of entertainment since it begun just over a week ago. There have been the usual "spills and thrills" .... as well as the   

Good:

The Bad:

and the .... UGLY.

Despite some amazing individual performances by certain athletes,  the "Gold Medal" performance for me though goes to an Australian Hurdler - called Michelle Jenneke, an amazing feat as she's not even taking part in the 2012 Olympics.

Below is a clip of her warming up at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona earlier this year. 

A truly outstanding performance in many aspects ...  

A Heavenly Place ....... near the Transkei

In April this year I was invited to join a boys club which has been running for 35 years called the "Mpande Buffalos".

Setup by a founding 6 members from the Eastern Cape the club has gone (at around the same time each year) to a very secluded spot about 30km from Port St. Johns in the Transkei. The club has 2 rules

1. No Girls
2. No vegetables

The beach cottage is 1 of only 4 houses on this section of the coast and has almost 1 km of private beach front - below you can see access down the lawn directly onto the beach

The club has many traditions which take place over the duration of the week. The first of which is the waking up and morning ritual. Every morning Grahame (one of the longest standing and founder members), plays (at full blast) The Hollies classic "He aint heavy ... he's my brother" while ringing an old school bell to get the lads up. This is normally quite a heavy task based on the state of the boys that early in the morning after what has inevitably been a large evening the night before.

 After everyone is up we meet on the balcony for a quick coffee and take in the beautiful view again ...

This is followed every morning by an early morning swim ....

The swim is usually followed by breakfast which almost always has an option for Crayfish on toast as well as some fresh home made bread made by the locals working at the house.

After this its onto the beach for the day for snorkeling and fishing ... 

As the day passes you return for lunch and buy some seafood and some of the other locally "cultivated vegetation". Most of which will be consumed later that evening.

Sundowners happen each day either on the deck or on the rocks.

Dinner is usually a braai with some crayfish or fish caught that day ... 

The evening ends off with one or two drink too many and perhaps some of the locally grown "goodness" either inhaled or in a muffin of sorts.

This is followed by one of the final traditions which is the fines meeting, here called "Boo boos". Its a completely unfair process where the older click gang up on the younger new members often out voting them democratic process of voting for someone to drink the Boo Boo.

The Boo Boo is consumed from a ceramic mug shaped like a boob and you drink from the "nipple". The fine usually involves 4 different shots of spirits ... the only one I can remember the name of is Stroh Rum - The rest are equally tasty.

Before.

After

I could write for ages on the beauty of this place and strange yet surreal images of cows on the beach, and the tradition, and the new friends I've made ... all I will say is that its a blessing to have been invited to this place and to have experienced such an amazing and untouched part of our beautiful country.

I'm now off for dinner at my brother's place to celebrate my amazing mother's birthday which is today ... Happy Birthday Mams - I love you.

Song for a Monday

Awesome weekend - ride on Saturday morning, birthday party Saturday afternoon and made lunch for 12 yesterday afternoon.

A musical mate of mine put me in touch with this band they're very cool.
Marlon Roudette, the song is called New Age and the album "Matter Fixed"

Sick track!

A crazy mad song I heard for the first time today .... very hot!! *

*Not suitable for people who are offended by "square words"

Cycling our beloved country

A few weeks ago I mentioned that my laptop was stolen. I lost a few files, some data and some photos ... 


I then made a note to spend sometime finding a way to back my photos up. I had heard of it but never used Picasa (by Google). You have a local version on you MAC or PC and then also have the option to Sync to web. (Your photos are then always available and always backed up)

Its easy to use and has some very clever features ... If you have a lot of old photos things like the face recognition is very cool - but will take some time to go through the backlog - if you want to.

It also has a function called movie maker - which even for someone like me is very easy to do. I've alway had a problem with other people's photos. They normally get back from a week long holiday with 1000 photos and then painstakingly talk you through each one - and it turns into 4 hour long "try-to-stay-awake-and-look-interested-quest"

I put the movie maker to the test and in 10 mins created a "movie" of the photos from the Joberg2C mountain bike race that I did in April last year. 

Its one of the most memorable and amazing experiences I've had - these are my 250 photos into 4 mins ... you can view it here

(Clearly its not that easy to use ... coz there is a video that I added in among the photos which plays ok on the laptop but  I uploaded it onto here doesn't play (so theres 20 seconds of "blackout" at about 3 mins - part of the learning)

Song for a Sunday ...

Well done to the Boks on a superb game yesterday ... also an amazing vibe with Ellis Park filled to capacity.

Tune for a Sunday .... Tim McGraw and "Train number 10"

The funniest comedian I've heard

We're off to watch the Boks give the Poms a hiding this afternoon at Ellis Park - looking forward to that. First we're having a little lunch in the South with the mates ... should be a good afternoon.

James was around the other evening and we ended up watching Michael McIntyre - I havent laughed like that in ages .... one of his best gigs he compares how "mainstream" salt and pepper are to the other spices in the kitchen ... 


Take a look.

 

First World Supper

I have been meaning to write on my Blog about my boys trip to the Transkei coast. I've got the ideas and the pics but need to spend the time writing it. - stay tuned.

The reason I tell you this now is that we bought some amazing crayfish while down there ... and tonight I had a crack at cooking them. 

The recipe below is thanks to "Old man Grahame" a distinguished old bugger that I met on the Transkei trip - and man that knows how to cook.

Before you start make sure you have the recipe and the most important ingredient 

Ingredients:

• 10 Crayfish tails
• 10 tsp Butter
• 10 tsp Flour
• 250 ml Cream
• 500 ml Chicken stock
• Medium Cream Sherry
• 1 ½ cups fresh white bread crumbs

Boil crayfish for no more than 10 minutes (from frozen).  

Strip the meat and keep the

shells. Melt 1 tsp of butter per tail, add equal quantity of flour.

Add 250 ml cream and

500 ml chicken stock. Stir to make a smooth sauce and add crayfish meat. Simmer gently

for 10 minutes, season with salt, pepper etc. and add medium cream sherry to taste. Mix

in 1 cup of fresh white bread crumbs. 

Spoon the meat & sauce into the shells, sprinkle

with fresh bread crumbs and knobs of butter and place under a hot grill until golden

brown

Serve with Salad and wine (if you think that's a good idea).

With 2 more days till the big race I'm both excited and nervous.

There are some moments in my day though, where the 89km race hits me and I'm filled with fear, unfounded stomach cramps and what some people refer to as a "sphincter tightening moment"

I'll see you all next week ... most likely, walking like I've spent the weekend behind bars.

Brilliant song recommendation is "Heart on Fire" a bands called "Scars on 45" ... the whole album is excellent ... check them out.

Don't be lazy

Quite a few people irritated me today.

These are just 2 of them.

Fought with the lady at SARS who does VAT applications, who despite not having the highest level of intelligence, does understand the VAT act. (its what she does all day)

She assumes that I should know if my application is a "voluntary" or "compulsory" application.

GP "what's the difference?"
Horrible lady with bad hair "you should know you're the owner"
GP "just explain the difference"

....

Lots of time passes and we settled on "compulsory" - I'm still not sure why or if it's right. (and I still don't know the difference between the 2)

Then on the way home I decide on some sushi. Nicely laid out in the box (mayo and those seed thingies perfectly decorated).

They then put the price on top of the box. Super idea. That way the client can easily see the price.

When paying for my groceries the second muppet lady in my day today, turns the whole box on its side to scan the price on the top.

This is the result.

The Good Ol' Days

One of the things about getting older, is that you start to say things that your parents used to say. 

"Gee-wizz, how your kids have grown". 

"Remember we used to be able to buy a movie ticket chocolate and a coke for R20.00"

The thing is that everything progresses, and our kids are going to access to technology that for us seems well beyond our understanding. My grandparent could not understand the idea of an ATM - "so you put the money in the bank in Cape Town, how does it get to Jo'burg so quickly?"

Look at the following 2 ideas of how things may be for us in the not to distant future.

The first is a project by Google integrating your real world and the online world ... its called "Google Glasses"

The next is a prediction of what future iphones may be like ... 

Quite some progress from my radical and cutting edge first Nokia.

Now you're just somebody that I used to know ...

An awesome version of Gotye's "Somebody that I used to know ... " which uses the classic - Baa Baa Black Sheep riff. 

A song for a Friday

I've got some good ideas which I want to put into my blog .... I'll try get around to it this weekend ... 


In the meantime a song that reminds me of the amazing skiing trip we had to Livigno Italy in Feb this year ... 


Have a good weekend!

Proper storm clouds

Last week was undoubtedly the toughest week of my life. There was 1 storm cloud after another, and just as 1 problem was solved - another hammered me. 


Shame.


What did we learn: 

• In business, market research is very important - ask your customers before you decide something for them. (this would have saved us quite a bit of money last week)
• Make 100% sure that your car is locked when you walk away from it (even if you're sure you've pressed the lock button on your key)
• If your car gets "lock jammed" by criminals who then help themselves to your stuff - lie to insurance company and make sure that your car has forced entry - otherwise they dont pay your claim.
• Alway make sure that your IT company has set up that back up you asked them to - otherwise, the stuff you thought was being backed up may not actually be.

If you dont already use this free application to store your files and back up your data, click on the link below and sign up. 

This "cloud-storage" system is an awesome way to keep, store and back up important files. It also makes them accessible across all your devices like your phone tablet PC etc. (I've known about it for ages - but never actually backed up my important info on the software - so I've lost 6 months of important info. 

Shame.

I learnt a much more important lesson last week.

A good friend found out that her young daughter has an auto immune disease - which will change the way she lives for the rest of her life and may require a kidney transplant. 

And I was having sleepless nights about 6 months of files I lost ... It put things into perspective for me.

This time tomorrow I'm going to be on my way to the Transkei for 4 days of chilling on the beach, miles from anywhere with 2 rules (No girls, and no vegetables).

Kenny Chesney's new song: "Somewhere with you", is my featured song for this post!

Have a good Freedom Day long weekend.

Having a bad day?

If anyone is having a bad day, remember that today in 1976 Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake in Apple for $800.

Its now worth $58,065,210,000”


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The dirty little secret of overnight success

In sticking with the Storm Clouds and Silver Linings theme - I read the following article which I found fitting.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1826976/the-dirty-little-secret-of-overnight-successes 

They say that the road to success is littered with failures. Great ideas that came up short on implementation, or stumbling blocks that were to challenging to overcome. The truth is that success is often the result of numerous failures and many "one more tries".

If you believe in what you set out to do, the only time you fail, is when you stop trying.

I'm off to Cape Town to run the 56km 2 Oceans race, I think walking next week might be optional. Have an awesome long weekend.

(PS if you haven't check out our new site yet, do so at www.cyclex.biz )

A movie recommendation

If you're South African - I recommend that you you  watch the movie "Spud". Set at the Michael House School in the KZN Midlands and starring the excellent John Cleese, its a very well scripted and written film. Lots of South African culture, and just a feel good flick. 

It also featured a very cool song I'd forgotten about ... Evoid - "Shadows"

Off to the Vaal River tomorrow hope the rain goes away.

Is it that bad?

How often we do look at our problems and spend time worrying about them and the huge effect they have on our daily lives.

Today my Storm cloud was creating a PDF file from a Power point presentation. The presentation was 2mb but when I made it into a PDF it became a 12mb file!!

Turn to Google.

As I start to type my problem into Google "why when I PDF a presentation does it create such a large file .... " Google then starts to suggest what it thinks my problem might be.

Below is a screen shot of what was suggested. 

My silver lining is that my "12mb PDF file" is really not that much of a problem when I look at what some other people are asking Google to help them with.

PS: if you haven't already please "like" our new project on Facebook.

No one's holding you down ...

So much happening at work ... and not enough time to write on the blog .... so a quick song for today ... 

"You are free to go - no ones holding you down .. "

 

Have a great Monday evening.

Spontaneous decisions ...

Having been for a few lessons in December this year and still not having got up on the board, I can hardly call myself a kite-surfer. I will get it right though. Despite the steep learning curve, once you've got it right it looks amazing.

Teahupo is an iconic surf spot and renowned as having the world's "heaviest wave". A coral reef gives the glassy water a perfect break but makes it extremely dangerous to surf -  the name 'Teahupo'o' loosely translates in English to “to sever the head” or "place of skulls"  and has 5 recorded deaths.

Take a quick look at this video, and the "awesomeness" of making a "spur of the moment" decision to do something that you love!

http://vimeo.com/29260198

Song for a Sunday is a goodie that I just heard in my car on the way back from the office (ON A SUNDAY!!) - 'Lil Wayne - Runnin

Coffee is for closers

I read and interesting quote recently:
"In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing."

Some of life's biggest failures are inaction - grab each opportunity and give it try, it may not always work - but at least you'll know.

Take a quick look at the monologue below which was written for Alec Baldwin's character by David Mamet, it was going to be included in the film "Glengarry Glen Ross" - its powerful.

Have a good weekend

A Monday on the beach

Monday's storm cloud: my Telkom ADSL line at home is still so slow, it makes a tree-sloth look like Usain Bolt.

" ... to log a new fault press 1, to check on the status of an existing fault press 2 ..." 

LOTS of time passes .....

GP: "Please can you see what the problem is on this line ... (although I have a very good idea that I know what the answer is going to be)
Telkom call center "special needs person: "Its a general area fault 'se'." 

GP: "There's a surprise - that's what the call centre always says. Can you check on this ref number ... when does it say this problem started?"

TCCSNC: "Since Jan last year .... I'll log the fault again"

GP: That's a wonderful idea, can you see how many times the fault has been escalated"?

TCCSNC: "Yes this is the 8th time its been reported"

GP:  F.M.L.!!!

... to be continued.

Monday's Silver Lining:I know this is about 5 days late ... but was a big piece of good news for me and for our country last week - and this is too good not to share.  (so I'm counting it today)

Very clever picture of a day on the beach ... (be careful opening that umbrella)

A change of name and fresh new start

This week has been full of challenges and changes.

Lots has happened with our new project. I mentioned it a few weeks ago, and we're now finally ready to launch. There is still a lot to be done.... and certain things, like our website are not yet up.

We can however tell you that we've secured the venue that we've wanted and will be using the Coca-Cola dome in Johannesburg to host the our project "CycleX - Africa's bicycle, triathlon and multi-sport Expo".

We're still getting the design and look and feel for our project off the ground, so the Facebook page may look different from time to time.

Please click www.facebook.com/CycleX.Africa and "like" our page ... also share it with anyone else that you think might be keen to visit, exhibit or corporate that may want to sponsor.

PS. As there (by default) seems to be a changing theme of my Blog, I changed the rather imaginative name from "My Life in a Blog" to "Storm Clouds and silver linings".

Off for a run.

Rugby Widows

Goals and plans for 2012 - 
(sub-section "Personal" - Write something in my blog at least once a week"), 22nd of Feb "Review goal about writing in my blog every week"
I've not been that good at adding to this extremely informative source of information, but I'd like to think that when I do, "It's 'QWALITY'"

In one of my first posts ("Julius, my dilemma") I spoke about the fact that life throws bad news followed by good, closely followed by bad again. How you deal with both the good and the bad news determines your outcomes and achievements. 

There was a silver lining item in the post about a new idea that our business had started to work on. Today that idea came one step closer to fruition. I'll be able to fully reveal what that is, hopefully in the next 2 weeks and have a link for you to follow and a Facebook page to "like" (apparently they don't have a "love" button)

In other news, this Friday starts 20 weeks of heaven for a lot of South African, Australian and New Zealand men. And close to half a year of shopping alone on Saturday mornings for the respective wives / girlfriends that don't follow the "Super 15".

I'll be kicking off the super rugby season by going to Loftus to watch the Sharks teach the bulls a lesson in humility. Good luck to the boys that now plays their away games in PINK.

Valentines Day is Cancelled

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news .... 

.

Woman plunges into Zambezi as bungee cord snaps

If you think you're having a bad day - because you have to go back to work today ... think about this poor woman!

Getting it done in 2012

2011 is over.

Many people are happy to see the back of 2011 for some reason ... either way, the only thing that we all have is the present.

I'm left brained.

No "if's", no "maybe's" - Left brained:

• Make lists
• With time lines
• "Action items"
• By When?
• Use bullets

If you have anything that you want to achieve this year ... its always best to make a list and write down your goals.

Song of the day is a old Genesis tune - "land of confusion". 

Good luck making your list, and getting everything that you want out of 2012!