Category Archives: Cape Town

Quick Update

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The weekly dose of me, me me…

  • Monday, dropped Mia off at school, tea with her mom, since I always drive by the place and wonder what’s inside I stopped and visited Lady Chatterley’s Chamber on Kloofnek ..most interesting, burger with Georg and Christo at Da Vinci’s.. try the Milan burger, watched Saints and Soldiers and The OC.. end of season one, finally.
  • 300th crackbook friend, 300th blog post
  • Figured I need a detox week, this lasted 4 days.
  • Tuesday, Long Street Baths swim with Andy, CLUG talk at UCT, CLUG dinner at Adesso.. to arrange Nov GeekDinner logistics, watched some James Randi youtube about spoon bending.
  • Wednesday, Cape Town’s finest taxi service, installed new x350 Extreme switch for The Hub project (new website due soon), Teraco CPT site visit, brunch at Cocoa Wah Wah in Rondebosch, 1km swim, bumped into Lyle at the pool, Amobia Exco meeting at Da Vinci’s (again), jacSharp Electro at FTV.
  • Thursday, gym, WAPA committee meeting at my place, drinks at the Radisson for The Training Room Online launch, full moon Lion’s Head walk… on my own. I think I need to write a (nasty) blog post about people that say they are going to show up but don’t.
  • Friday, killer abs class, made an uber-healthy-juice with my new juicer, emergency party gift shopping at Tinka Tonka Toys in Gardens, they were very helpful, chaired the WAPA AGM at Eikendal and I was elected to the WAPA management committee again. Mia and I attended Belle’s 6th birthday party.. island girl theme. Had home made burger’s at Will’s house.. some Springfield Wild Yeast Chardonnay (must be my fav wine at the moment) and authentic Mexican Mezcal with a worm in the bottle, Mia passed out on the couch and we slept over.
  • Do you ever get the feeling (fear) that you could be missing out on a revolution.. a cool hobby with an interesting evolving history?.. one of those windows in time that people look back on and say.. those were the days. New oceans to navigate.
  • Some days I wonder if maybe I’m just trying to progress (regress?) to a student lifestyle.. maybe I just miss the mountain biking and the crayfish diving.
  • Saturday, Will smoothies, gym, swim.. Mia now goes under the water and doggy paddles, had to drag her away from the pool, Clifton 4th with Mia and Will, perfect night for a braai at our place, this time Will ended up sleeping over.
  • Sunday, early’ish Clifton 2nd session, watched The Big Lebouski again, jacSharp at Karma – Camps Bay.. try Tanqueray and cranberry juice.

Idea of the week: Don’t try too hard, often it will come to you.. just need to find the right channel.

Have a fun week.

The Training Room Online

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The kind people at The Training Room Online invited me to the Radisson Hotel for cocktails and canepes this week to celebrate the launch of their new venture. Good thing that Cape Town storm ended on Thursday. A nice day for cocktails.

I’m always supportive of new and innovative Cape Town technology businesses. This is such a cool idea. Beauty in simplicity.

They basically create online training videos and offer a web based testing platform, mostly for the corporate market it seems. You end up with a simple, intuitive (familiar) training system which you can access from pretty much anywhere at any time. It’s a standardised (uniform) environment for all the learners and keeps a nice history of courses completed and scores achieved.

I recently completed two online training courses on Extreme Networks switching. Their system worked really well… the challenge is in the content and the freshness of the material. Makes me think training course material is something you should think about outsourcing.. if only to motivate somebody to keep it all up to date.

Get in touch with Training Room Online if you have training needs.

Quick Update

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Week 43. Cape Town in the Summertime. Wish you were here.. (to all the London friends)

  • Monday, Jamaica Me Crazy R29 burger, babies don’t sleep this good.. yeah, Sunday was a bit rowdy.
  • Tuesday, gym, swim, bumped into Rob and Sarah, watched Choke at the Labia.. it was OK.
  • Wednesday, Cape Town’s finest taxi service, Wakami with Cath and Parri, Andy cooked a nice dinner.
  • Thursday, Clifton 4th at 4pm, Camps Bay walk, trail run at the foot of Signal Hill, drinks at Asoka.. try the Porn Star Martini, attempted to finish watching Seven, but fell asleep again.
  • Friday, 9 (Mickey Mouse) holes at the River Club with Parri, lunch with Jono, fetched Meebs, a bit of shopping with Cath, nice drive to Betty’s, home made gourmet burgers for supper.
  • Saturday, a relaxed windy day in Betty’s, nice dinner with a big group of cool people, Cath made an awesome Pavlova.
  • Sunday, early morning beach walk with Mia, day with my mom, Stellenbosch botanical garden, Beads, walk (and a swim for Meebs) at the Eerste Rivier bridge, seared tuna and Hartenberg Chardonnay ’06 at Fishmonger.
  • “Everyone knows, anything goes” — RHCP

  • Interesting how you can instinctively tell that some people will make good parents.
  • Been thinking about Cape Town after reading a Cape Times article, it basically said Cape Town has become a global city with lots of lots of inequality.. because of a number of trends and many capetonians pushing and engineering it to be a first world city. I guess it can be a city of wild mood swings.. with a lot of pressure to get with the program and keep up the social calendar. The price you pay for being able to stroll down to Clifton on a random afternoon.
  • Feel like I’m living a bit of an inverse Jerry Maguire story in the time of shake and bake families.

Idea of the week:

“Nothing worth having comes without a risk” — Choke, Anjelica Huston

Quick Update

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For those who are new to this blog, this is my weekly list of diary entries, random ideas and general self absorbed rants.. because I can.

“Vanity is definitely my favorite sin.” — The Devil’s Advocate

  • Monday, a visit to Christo’s office to chat about our party invite design, burger at Da Vinci’s, try the Brussels burger with caramelised pear.
  • Tuesday, meeting at the Westin Grand hotel, drinks at Neigborhood bar with Parri and Cath.
  • Wednesday, Lions Head walk for a bit of a tan, took an R8 for a spin (finally).. insanely fun, tea with Tim at Melissa’s in Constantia, flight to Jozi, sushi with the infamous Thomas.
  • Thursday, Joburg, early morning run in Bryanston, ISPA media breakfast at Piccolo Mondo.. Nelson Mandela square, cruised around the Sandton malls a bit, killing time at the airport.. felt a bit like Roger Wilco in Space Quest 4. Met Thomas at Vida before my flight home.
  • Friday, got a new car.. it has four seats.. goodbye frog-mobile. Dinner at home with Mia and friends.
  • Saturday, Elgin organic market with the Web2 geeks, Georg and Mia, Grabouw Country Club visit, took Mia to see her grandma and play on the beach.
  • Sunday, Lions Head walk with Jules, Nikki and Ben, a braai at home.. yum, Glen Beach and the Camps Bay strip with Georg, Andy and Parri. Project Mayhem.

Music the great communicator.
Sweet talk but don’t intimidate her.
Can’t stop the gods from engineering.
This life is more than ordinary.
Can I get 2 maybe even 3 of these.
This life is more than just a read thru.
– RHCP, Can’t Stop

Frogspeed crazy kids.

Quick Update

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Ola, summer is here.. what an awesome week.. now is the winter of our discontent..

  • Monday, Caprice in Camps Bay, pizza and drinks on the deck at home with friends, bit of a rowdy evening.
  • Tuesday, Lion’s Head walk, car wash (first time in about 4 months), cable car run, wholesome veggie dinner, watched Fight Club.
  • There is something about that Moby Bourne Identity song that just makes we want to go running.
  • Wednesday, swim at the Long Street baths with Andy.. the place sure has character, Teraco Cape Town site visit, chaired the ISPA INX working group meeting, off to Stellenbosch to chair an Amobia meeting, burger at Cognito.
  • Thursday, gym, swim, took a day off.. bit of a metrosexual day, haircut and manicure at Mooi, scalp massage while listening to Abba.. *grin*, (sorry B), they have cupcakes and wine, then tea at Mango-OMC, took the ladies a box of Cassis Pastisserie creations, an Am I Collective visit, a quick Neotel meeting, facial at Elements, run in the foresty areas at the foot of Signal Hill, wholesome veggie dinner, Asoka, Extreme Hotel.. which could be a nice bar if you could get some service there.
  • Try Malibu and Peartizer. Try a few drops of Tabasco and Malibu in a shot glass.
  • Friday, gym, power plate (seems to tone facial muscles more than anything else, hehe), 1km swim, took a walk down to Daily Deli to have brunch with somebody really cool, test drove a GTI DSG, then an A4 cab, Mia time, had some fun with a voting system (for a good cause), popped on to IRC for the first time in about 3 years, a friend had a DUI incident so Georg had to go bail him out the next day.
  • Saturday, gym, swim with Mia, Sinn’s ice cream, braai with friends on the deck at home, took Mia to the Spring Tide (jail bait) festival on Camps Bay beach wearing her new rocker chick t-shirt. Watched JacSharp play. Cocktails with Jules, Nicola and Ben at Caprice. Mia says she wants to be rock star.
  • Sunday, Tamboerskloof park swings visit, braai at home, had a bit of a moment when Mia climbed up a cupboard and swallowed a whole Barocca Calmag, she later threw up on her mom, Rafiki’s to plan our housewarming, it’s going to be a big one, watched Seven again.
  • Somebody asked me on Friday if I’m changing or if I’m returning to my natural state.. interesting question, “I changed by not changing at all” — Pearl Jam, vs.

Idea of the week..

The making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many Dos and Don’ts. First of all you’re using some one else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.”

The making of a great compilation tape is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway… I’ve started to make a tape… in my head…
– High Fidelity

Have a fun week rock stars.

Rocking the Daisies 2008

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Mia, Georg and I did a Saturday road trip to Rocking the Daisies (RTD) in the Darling area.

I was given a VIP ticket, so I figure I’d give you the independent media review..

 

Queue

Ok, so everybody bitched about the queue. It sucked. Seems the organisers are offering a few ticket refunds and Cloof wine estate are giving away wine vouchers to make up for it. Nice move… hint, hint.

Music

The Saturday afternoon line-up was a bit rocking miss daisy (slow). Seems all the main acts were late at night.. which made us wonder if a day-trip was worth it.

I enjoyed the JacSharp set at 15:00. They rock. I’m a fan.. I now have the tshirt and the autographed album.

About two weeks ago I ran into Carl at Bambu. Carl is the JacSharp guitarist (jac == Jules and Carl). We met in the wireless industry.. running around on rooftops, his old day job.

They played an electronic set that night, Morcheeba/Groove Armada kinda stuff.. so I was a bit surprised with their rock style at RTD. Wide range of influences and styles it seems.

I met the band, Carl, Jules, Ben and Emelio. Cool people.

Bumped into a golfing buddy: Schalk. *grin*

Zoo

For some reason I was reminded of a zoo..

They were not kidding about the need for gumboots. Mud all over the place. Saw a few cool Burburry Wellies. I’ll have to work on my zoo-keeper look.

 

This is not a Woodstock kinda rock fest.. all the beautiful people were there, the Long Street kids, students, the punk rocker crew and the Hipsters (conformists!). The few (trancy) hippie stalls looked a bit out of place. All the groovy kids checking out the freaks.

“smoking is so 1990′s” — overheard a conversation

Offspring

The kiddies area was nice. There was a 2:1 ratio of friendly ladies to kids. Mia loves jumping castles.

“Oh. Intro- Jellyman, offspring. Offspring, Jellyman.” — Crush, Finding Nemo

Bumped into Miki and his offspring.

Only one suggestion.. they could get a bigger shade net, so I don’t need to lube Mia up with SPF so often.

Well Worth It

Ooh, I have an authentic RTD scar. Some tent peg took off the font of my leg. The very brief camping experience.

Fun event and I’m sure next year will be awesome.. just need to scale up the logistics a bit. Thanks for convincing me to go Cath.

ps. The RTD website could be better. In fact, it’s lame. Re-do it.. and add GPS details.

Quick Update

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Busy week, kinda lost track of what I as up to.. mostly because I was moving and it was school holidays so Mia was around Thursday-Sunday..

  • Monday, signed the new lease, gym, swim.
  • Tuesday, moving, figured out the electricity and water, moving, wine on the new deck, unpacking, pizza at Rafiki’s, entertaining story of how Miki started Rafiki’s.
  • Wednesday, gym, swim, plumbers, Amobia internet install at the house, Mia time.
  • Thursday, gym, swim, Stellenbosch visit to help Georg move.
  • Friday, had to keep Mia, three plumbers and two carpet cleaners entertained.
  • Saturday, Rocking the Daisies, jumping castles and JacSharp, thanks for the ticket Bev.
  • Sunday, Waterfront outing to see the USS Theodore Roosevelt, walked down to the Daily Deli for brunch with Andy, gym, swim, Chardonnay and pizza at Adesso with Vanessa and George, I think it could work for the November GeekDinner.

Idea of the week.. You can’t please all of the people all of the time.

..off to go walk up Lion’s Head. Have a fun summer kids.

September GeekDinner

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A few people asked me to upload my slides from the GeekDinner at Asoka.

A bit overdue, but I was moving house.. so I’m writing this in the new place sipping a glass of Chardonnay, looking out over the city and watching Scrubs. Home sweet home.

Here you go.. Joe’s version of Lifestyle Design.

It was a nice dinner.. cosy, reminded me of the original 2006 geekdinners.

Had some good feedback from my talk. Nice to know I’m not the only crazy one.

Nails at Carlisle’s

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I was introduced to the local game at Carlisle’s in Vredehoek last night. It’s called: Nails. Good fun.

You’ll find a big chunk of wood at the back (past the bar) with a few people standing around it. The object of the game is to drive your nail into the log before the other guys do. The catch is that you have to use the wrong side of the hammer.. the narrow/sharp side. The hammer must be at your side when you start your swing. The hammer gets passed around the log, one hit per player per turn..

The last guy to drive in his nail (flush) buys a round of drinks.

Simple.. yeah, but it’s not that easy. Go try it. I kicked butt (first to drive in my nail).

Ahh, the joys of bachelorhood and public holidays.

Quick Update

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Themes of past weeks’ updates.. running-geek, golf-geek.. trance-geek, well almost, but it was a bit rainy on Sunday..

  • Monday, good news: Frogfoot and Amobia to get IECNS licenses, drinks at Neighborhood bar.
  • Tuesday, lunch at Caveau at the Josephine Mill in Newlands, we kinda started a peering point (again), a wet and windy Mouille Point run with Lindi, drinks at La Vie for George’s birthday, met a tshirt designer.
  • Brilliant Zapiro cartoon about O.J. Zuma.. presumed guilty in the “pantoffel” justice system.
  • Wednesday, upgraded my (7) blog farm to WP 2.6.2, Amobia exco meeting/dinner at Jamaica me Crazy, mid week trance party at Roots in Obs.
  • Thursday, house shopping in Fernwood and De Waterkant, lunch at Waterkant Village Cafe, WineX, Asoka, met somebody from Zeeq.
  • I seem to be on a successful retox program – it’s safe to say I’ve had at least two drinks every night for the last 2 weeks.. then again I know somebody who can claim a 5 year retox program. “The price you pay for the life you choose” — used to be on the wall at Caprice, Camps Bay.
  • Friday, UCT GSB talk, milkshakes with Mia and the ~ex-wife in Somerset West.
  • Saturday, Biscuit Mill Market with Cath, Parri and Georg, watched My Blueberry Nights (Natalie Portman), one of those relaxed white wine afternoons, gym, swim.
  • I made up my mind: The Darjeeling Limited mostly sucked, but Hotel Chevalier was enthralling.
  • Sunday, pondering an early morning (rainy) Earth Dance mission, gym, swim, Vida, watched Finding Nemo, Waterfront.. maritime museum, toy store, frogurt, scratch patch. Dinner at the Mexican Kitchen in Long Street, fajitas and margaritas.
  • Try some pineapple and cinnamon with your next shot of Tequila.
  • 250th Crackbook friend.
  • This week is iWeek 2008.. I’ll be in Joburg from Tuesday to Friday.. representing WAPA, Amobia and Frogfoot. Will try to keep you up to date on interesting happenings. A good opportunity to use the GPS features of my new phone.

Have a fun week crazy kids.