Joe’s official SA Blog Awards 2011

And the winners are.. in no real order:

• Jonathan Endersby
• Dave Duarte
• Front To Back
• Geekrebel
• Hitting the wire
• Local Loop
• Many Possibilities
• Neverness
• The Story Tree
• Tyler Reed
• …and cpbotha.net – not grouped under ZA people, but of SA origin.

Ok, well.. this is really just the list of South African blogs I have in my feed reader and that’s all I really care about. See you all again next year.

ps. You can grab the OPML file if you like.

A week of diving in the Mediterranean and about 600 photos…

• I’m writing this on my last night in Istanbul. Awesome week. I read The Upgrade while getting a tan on a boat. Occasionally a sea turtle would pop up for air, we free dived, had Mediterranean food and drank Turkish tea.
• Monday, rainy day – good for traveling, taxi to Kas, found a hotel with wifi, walked to the harbour for some diving deal negotiations, yogurt kebabs, photo processing and underwater photography equipment check.
• Tuesday, 1st day of Scuba diving (photography), we dived two sites and had lunch on the boat: Neptune Reef and Pigeon Island, Jacques took a nap while I processed photos, Doner Kebabs for supper.
• Wednesday, diving day: Canyon and Oasis Reef, meze platter and Raki around town square, Skype chat with Mia, photo processing.
• I’m very happy to travel with only once lens: 16-35mm.
• Thursday, diving day: free dive at Heybeli Ada reef, free dive at the Dekota C47 followed by a scuba dive, Jacques went paragliding – I was the camera man – pretty sure the ride down by car was more scary than the flying, walked around Kas, meat balls and garlic yoghurt for supper, Skype chat with Mia, photo processing.
• Note to self: need to make (edit) a video of the free diving and paragliding.
• Seems I can still free dive to 20m fairly easily.
• I think I like Turkey more than Greece and Egypt.
• Two weeks away from home but in front of my laptop every day – wifi everywhere. Also doing well with keeping my photo processing up to date. With a bit of luck I’ll get back home with almost no backlog.
• Traveling with Jacques involves a lot of stories about global politics, financial markets and conspiracy theories. Some interesting theories.
• Friday, last day of diving, two free dives: Besmi Adasi and Pina Banko, sunset drinks with the Dutch girls we met on the boat, fish and chips by the harbour.
• Jacques (aka Jacques Cousteau) managed to get some form of sea urchin / hydroid / reef protein poison grass burn on his belly. He raided the (Istanbul) hotel medicine cabinet for some expired medicine. A few scary things under the sea.
• Saturday, slept till 9:00, 4 hour bus ride to Antalya, domestic flight to Istanbul (with Onur Air) – flew from Asia to Europe in 1 hour, crazy fast taxi ride, found a hotel with wifi – inexpensive and central, 20 Euro/n each, took a stroll around the Sultanahmet area for some night time photography.
• I realised I had been in Asia most of the week – my first time on the Asian continent.
• Internet access in Turkey sucks a bit. Maybe it’s just the two places we stayed at, but DNS seems to work only about 75% of the time – using opendns seems to fix this.
• Sunday, breakfast on the roof terrace, sight seeing day, Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, carpets and leather jacket window shopping, got some presents – scarfs etc, apple tea and baklava, had fish for supper at Balikci Sabahattin – interesting, they seem to not want to show you the menu, a beer down the road and some photo processing.
• Istanbul is BIG – ~20mil people big.
• You have to love the fresh pomegranate juice stands all over the place.
• Pretty much a month without any real exercise – other than free diving. Need to get back in shape when I’m home.
• Normally I don’t accept FB friend requests from people who have power balance bracelets.
• I added a whole lot of travel photos to Facebook.
• I think Paul Carr is my new hero.

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

A week in London town and a weekend in Oludeniz…

• Monday, woke up somewhere over North Africa, London Heathrow, navigated my way to Jacques work, Thai food with Adriana in Chelsea.
• Adriana figures the internet is our first taste of a post-scarcity world.
• Tuesday, Jacques made omelettes – he’s on a low carb diet, walked around Silicon Roundabout (Old Street circle), TechHub visit, Innovation Warehouse visit, a pint of Grolsch Blonde on the Tattershall Castle (on the Thames), a beer with Bje around Covent Garden, supper at the My Old Dutch Pancake House with a Fruli Strawberry beer.
• London photos 1st set
• Got my first USB 3.0 device – a little red USB hdd for backups.
• Not that impressed with London ADSL speeds this year. Pretty much the same in SA – from a few coffee shops and homes I visited. Used to be a big difference in the past.
• Wednesday, laundry and backups day, business Skype calls and working mostly, evening Skype chat with Mia, Chinese food with Jacques, installed OSX 10.7.2 and Aperture 3.2.
• Thursday, lunch at Innovation Warehouse, walked around Oxford Street and China Town, dinner with Jacques in Canary Wharf – Scottish Jazz restaurant.. Guinness, Haggis, Talisker and Scottish mineral water.
• New toys: New Kindle (for N), underwater housing for my Canon S95, extra camera battery and a 220 Lumen strobe light waterproof to 100m – mostly for scuba diving photography.
• London photos 2nd set
• Friday, taxi ride to Stansted with Jacques, EasyJet flight to Dalaman, taxi to Oludeniz (GMT+1 to GMT+3), Doner Kebab for supper.
• Started reading The Upgrade by Paul Carr – pretty much what I did, but only for a month and I did not sell all my stuff. A night in Turkey cost me R170 – with free wifi.
• Saturday, got up at 11:00, had breakfast and lunch on the same deck overlooking Oludeniz beach, sunset swim.
• Sunday, fish and chips, walked to Oludeniz beach / lagoon area, sunset boat ride and beach party – with food included for about R70.
• Jacques has this theory that sex drive is a good indicator of general health.
• I last charged my phone in SA – state of the art battery technology and an OS without multi-tasking.
• The next chapter should involve some scuba diving. Will try to keep publishing some travel photos.

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

Living out of a bag for a week..

• I’m writing this from London. Yes, yes, the weekly updates are a bit boring lately. Hopefully I can give you a few travel photos and some interesting news soon.
• Monday, Greyton and Caledon Spa.
• Tuesday, two meetings in Stellenbosch.
• Wednesday, meeting in Stellenbosch, gym, spin, supper at Sidewalk Cafe with Georg.. they are running a 4 course 2nd birthday special which is pretty good.
• Thursday, woke up in Tamboerskloof, red sofa, gym, massage, beer with Andrew at Beleza, a beer at The Power and the Glory, Promenade walk, went to buy new slops at the Waterfront.. I seem to consistently walk my way through one pair per year.
• Friday, gym, nurse visit and VitB shot, dropped my car off at the Audi garage, got a lift with Andrew to Somerset West via the Muizenberg beach road.. nice drive, drove to Betty’s with the family, sunset beach walk, bath routine.
• Drink enough water every day.
• Saturday, family day in Bettys, early beach session, fish and chips in Kleinmond, I got a bit sunburnt, sunset beach walk.
• Sunday, watched the rugby in Bettys, relaxing day around the beach house, overnight flight to London.. watched Pirates of the Caribbean 4.. not too bad, watched Page One: Inside The New York Times ..pretty good.
• I’m off to London to check out the startup scene and spend some time with my cousin.. then off to Kas (Turkey) for some scuba diving and Istanbul for a bit of culture and photography.
• I figure it’s a good idea to visit at least one good dive spot per year.. while we still have dive spots to visit and air travel pricing is reasonable.
• If you are interested in the London tech hubs have a look at: Tech City, Innovation Warehouse, Silicon Fen and Silicon Roundabout.
• ps. You may have noticed that Mia’s mom has asked not to be mentioned in this blog anymore.

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day..

• Monday, setup my new Nokia C3, gym – first personal trainer session, swim, red sofa, fetched some boxes for the move, Kauai, sunset walk to Clifton with Georg.
• Installed MXit on my C3.
• Tuesday, personal training session, red sofa, sunset walk to Clifton.
• Wednesday, a walk around Stellenbosch, dropped off some Mia toys, packing session, 2.5hour spinning session.

• “Nobody ever got fired for organising a braai.”

• Thursday, early packing session, put pretty much everything I have in storage, personal trainer session, UKTI meeting, last packing session, Thai Yellow Curry at Carlyle’s with Georg.
• Don’t do personal training and move a lot of boxes on the same day.
• Read about TrustFabric in the October Brainstorm mag.
• Friday, woke up at Cath’s house, gym, red sofa, watched the rugby at Van Hunks with Milton, some house admin, drove to Greyton with Mia and family.
• Saturday, family day in Greyton.
• Sunday, family day in Greyton.
• 4 days without twitter, facebook, email and phone calls.
• Adventure is good for us.

Have a fun week, dot com kids.