London in the summertime…

- Monday, last minute backups, Georg dropped me off at the airport, flight to Joburg with Werner, Gautrain to Sandton, fetched our passports… which now contain UK prospective entrepreneur visas – all kinds of happy, a late breakfast with Anton in Sandton City, evening flight to London.
- Catching a flight to go live in another country is a bit like getting out of a shower on a winter’s day – as soon as you turn off the tap you just have to get on with the day.
- Looks like Georg will be going to Ireland (for 4 years) after all.
- ERnst has quit his weekly blogging. I’m not sure how I feel about this.
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“Formidable, charismatic, relentless.” — Three words you need to understand for the tech startup game.
- Tuesday, woke up somewhere over north Africa, managed to make it through UK border control with only a 10min Q&A – this time they apologised for the previous experience and deleted the entry refusal flag from my profile, first day at Techstars, walked right into our first mentoring session at the Barclays Accelerator offices, warm welcome, good fun, we took a bus to Jacques’s house (Islington area), traditional fish and chips for dinner.
- Wednesday, bus ride to the office, stayed until 21:00ish, Overland train to Shoreditch, a few drinks at the Softlayer party (to launch their new DC in London), Jacques showed me Grand Theft Auto 5.
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“That’s why you’re in a startup, you do what needs to get done.” — Werner
- Thursday, Overland train to the office (much quicker than the bus), another mentor day, investigated UHF RFID tags, we started building a new website for Gust Pay, took a walk towards the East of London and had a kebab, watched some True Detective… Anton recommended it, pretty good.
- Friday, a very good day of Techstars mentoring, lunch at Dirtyburger down the road, picked up new SIM cards, out and about with Jacques and some Guinness at two local pubs.
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“Do you have a British passport?” — Jacques’ pickup line for the evening… he’s on a mission to find me a wife it seems.
- After a night out Werner is now known as Will – makes introductions a bit easier.
- Saturday, used Airdrop between two iPhones for the first time, a walk along Regents Canal, a Mexican breakfast and a Bloody Mary with Jacques, got a new 4GEE SIM and Jacques ordered 40Mbps fibre (for 28 GBP/m) in Oxford Street, lunch at Wasabi, walked around the Camden Town market… the Cyberdog shop is pretty crazy, The Worlds End pub, a drink at After Midnight in Angel, watched Dallas Buyers Club… good movie.
- Good to catch up with Jacques.
- Jacques thinks my blog should be more Gonzo. “Less detail more Gonzo.” I’ll work on that.
- Don’t phone me on my SA mobile number, I now have a UK (EE) number.
- First world problem: not being able to finish watching a morning movie on the plane and having to forward though it for about 10 minutes on the next flight.
- Sunday, Jacques made us breakfast, watched some House of Cards, I took a walk through Shoreditch Park and Rosemary Garden, Vespa ride to Old Street for a Doner Kebab and a (plain) yoghurt drink with Jacques, photo processing, watched more True Detective.
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“I revised the parameters of my promise.” — House of Cards
Have a fun week, crazy kids.