Category Archives: Cape Town

The week that was.

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A while back I posted about Kimi that won the F1 championship or NOT.  McLaren appealed against the result of the Brazilian GP and the hearing was yesterday and McLaren’s appeal was rejected.  Kimi was then confirmed as F1 World Champion.  Congrats to Kimi and Ferrari for winning both the drivers and constructors titles.

On a personal front .. what a hectic week.  As mentioned earlier, I started a new job and what a hectic week.  I still had some stuff to handover from my previous engagement to  the person that is taking over from me so had to commute between Cape Town and Bellville a couple of times. Coming week will be more of the same and then things should start to get back to normal.  Good luck Margie with all the new stuff.  The new job is going as well as can be expected.  Attending lots of meetings and get to know a lot of new faces, names and roles.  A big plus is that it takes me now only about 10 minutes from my house to the office.

This all did not leave much time for social life.  I will try to get some relaxing time in over this weekend by going to brunch this morning to catch up with a friend.

My son is off to Stellenbosch varsity next year and he did not make it into residence so we are now frantically looking for accommodation in Stellenbosch.  If anybody know of something decent and not to expensive then please either leave a comment or contact me via my contact page.

Here is a photo I took earlier this morning from my balcony.  What an amazing place I live in.
Sunrise 2
Image:  Marius Bock taken with Nokia N80

RSS Feed update – 4 November 2007

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It is Sunday evening and it is raining cats and dogs here in Cape Town. Not that I complain about the rain but I had enough.  Summer where are you?

Some things a busy changing on the work front.  More about it later when things are finalized.  Suffice to say that I am currently doing 2 jobs.

Onto tidbits from my RSS reader:

What the new Greenpoint stadium will look like:
Sky View of the Stadium

Chaos at Cape Town airport.

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I went to drop off somebody at Cape Town airport yesterday afternoon.  She was suppose to fly at 3pm but eventually was allowed into the secure area around 7pm.  Luckily we got into the Spur early to get a table and there we spend the afternoon drinking some wine and met a lot of strangers :).

Here is more on it and here also.

It is amazing what chaos one plane can do when it gets stuck on the runway.  Although one could barely move, the people was very well behaved.

R (the person I went to drop off)  eventually arrived at her destination in Johannesburg  just before midnight – about 6 hours after her planned arrival.

CT from Signal Hill

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Bokke in Cape Town

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The Bokke just passed through the streets of Cape Town and they are on their way to Newlands where the cup will find it resting place.  They passed right passed our building and I watched from the 13th floor.  Here is a photographic view of it.

Boks 1
Band playing in front of our building.

Boks 7
People gathering in the street .. cars has nowhere to go.

Boks 9
Bus approaching.

Boks 11
Top of bus with all the Boks.

Boks 13
and some spectator busses.

All photos were taken by myself with my Nokia N80.

Kimi F1 champion or NOT & RSS feed update – 22 October 2007

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What a last Formula 1 GP held in Brazil yesterday.  Kimi won the race with Alonso 4th and Hamilton 7th.  This gave Kimi enough points to win the World Championship by 1 point.  But did he win?  There is some dispute about the fuel temperature of BMW Sauber and Williams.  These teams were cleared but I am sure that McLaren will appeal this.  If the appeal is successful then Hamilton will move up to forth and have enough points to take the championship.  Waiting with abated breath to see how this will pan out.

Onto my RSS feed tidbits:

The V&A waterfront in Cape Town with the bay and Blouberg in the distance:
V&A

RWC DDay and Site upgraded to WordPress 2.3

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I eventually got around to upgrade this site to WordPress 2.3.  It was reasonable painless exercise by following the instructions found here. If you do found any quirks or things wrong, please let me know.

Today is RWC DDay .. less than 7 hours to go.  This morning I spend some time in the shops and people from all ages were wearing green and rugby jerseys in particular.  I popped into a liquor store quickly and by looking at the queue, a lot of beers and other booze will be consumed tonight.  I just hope it is not to be used to drown our sorrows after the game.

Today is a day like this here in Cape Town … it is 31 degrees Celsius outside with hardly and wind.
Tafile

RWC DDay-1 and Ubuntu 7.10

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One day to go to the Rugby World Cup final between South Africa and England.  What can I say that has not been said before?  I, just like each and every South African out there, say that we will win the cup.  However what worries me is this over optimism. Is this a good thing?  It is good to be optimistic and patriotic, but we need to be realistic also.  This is not just another test match.  There is much more riding on this game.  For the next 4 years the team that win this will be known as the World Champions, does not matter how bad they are or how many games they loose after this one.  We also know what happened in the previous World Cup.  Emotions and big match temperament play such a big role in this.

Yesterday Ubuntu 7.10 was let loose on the public.  It is a great release and if you have not tried Linux then give this a spin.  It is worthwhile and at the same time you can say you moving away from the buggy Microsoft software.  Read here and here all about the features and some about the community that build it.  Congrats to the whole Ubuntu team and community that got a great release out the door again.

Something about this great city I live and work in.  Here is an aerial photo of Cape Town when the building of the new Greenpoint stadium was started.
Wow!!!

I hate this .. walking and living in fear – South Africa and crime.

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Yesterday after attending an IBM Rational Software developers conference (more on this later), I went back to my office and did some work.  I left the office around 6:30 and walked to my car which is parked in a building just across the street.

I normally cross at the robot crossing but on the one corner 3 young guys were standing and watching people.  As I started crossing the street they started moving in my direction. I started moving up the street and so did they.  I just thought that today is the day that I get mugged — had my laptop over my shoulder and cellphone in my hand.  A colleague of mine was already mugged like this 3 times.

Luckily for me a car came up the road and I had to wait for the car.  Another 2 people joined me in crossing the street and the 3 guys must have seen this and suddenly turned around and walked away.

I have just read what happened to Louisa’s brother in Jhb yesterday.  I was not mugged yet but thinking about the fear and mistrust I experienced yesterday, I can fully understand your feelings.  What is happening to this lovely country of hours when we cannot walk freely on our streets and we mistrust every second person?

I love this country and Cape Town in particular, so all you misfits, I will stay and not run like so many people before.

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Geekdinner – Cape Town – 27 September & Wikimania

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Tonight is the  Cape Town Geekdinner which I cannot attend for a second time in a row due to other commitments.  It is a pity that I will be missing this one since it is also Neil’s birthday — congrats Neil.

Also, Cape Town has put in a bit for hosting the 2008 Wikimania Conference.  It is now down to 4 cities and the decision date is 6 October.  There is still a lot to do before then so if you can help at all then please contact Ian (wikimania2008@greenman.co.za).

IOL Technology has an article on it to give you some more background.

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Wikimania, Rugby World Cup 2007, Twenty20 and RSS update

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Currently there is a bid on the go to host Wikimania 2008 in Cape Town and it is driven by Ian.  Ian needs all the support he can get so please contact him if you can help in any way.  Ian, please contact me should you need any assistance.

How good was it to see the Boks kick the Poms ass on Friday evening.  I am sure that today the same will happen in the Twenty20.

A while ago I commented about the spy saga in F1.  This past week McLaren was found guilty and stripped of all their constructors points and fined $100 million dollars.  Why Alonso was not punished, I do not know since I believe he had a hand in all this?

Onto my RSS feed update:

Today, instead of a picture I am including the famous Youtube video shot in Kruger Park of the Buffalos, Lions and crocodile.