Today is an important day in the history of Mininova. From now on, we are limiting Mininova.org to our Content Distribution service. By doing so, we comply with the ruling of the Court of Utrecht of last August. [link]

The law seems to have finally won out. Mininova was the largest (by traffic – I checked) torrent distribution site & tracker on the Web, and they’ve since been forced to close down. Not entirely, though – they’re now using their existing technology to offer a strict Content Distribution service to musicians, filmmakers, content owners, etc.

This should prove interesting. BitTorrent is a fantastic distribution platform, even if the majority use worldwide has been overwhelmingly piracy. Now we’ll get to see BT perform in its true capacity – as a medium for cost-effective content distribution.

It might also give movie distribution companies a nudge. Digital is quite simply the cheapest way of distributing stuff, since your main cost is bandwidth – and BitTorrent near eliminates that. If an account-based secured tracker actually functions, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see some major movie house release a Steam-like client for media, with the actual downloading taking place over a P2P network.

As it happens, ISP Axxess (YAY for my ISP!) has launched a beta service – movies on demand, offering paid-for movie downloads over local bandwidth. Pricing, etc still needs to be worked out, and it’s curious that they’d try it in a market like SA. Link: http://axxess.co.za/mod.php.

I’ll still have to give that MoD thingy a go…

It is 28 November  2009, a day before the opening match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. I’m at the Kingspark Swimming pool across the street busy with the Westville sprints gala. Just finished taken photos for the day at 6:30 pm and went out to get some fresh air.

See the light outside, rush back inside, grab my D3, 24-70mm, 20mm and 10.4mm lenses. Ran to the outside pavilion to the top and took around thirty images with the three lenses for about 10 minutes. Normally stadium lights and ambient light balances out for only 10 minutes or so. So to get the right balance one must be quick and be at the right time at the right place.

Tomorrow at 3:30pm is the opening match between Amazulu and Maritzburg united. All the tickets are sold out which mean there will be more than  70 000  people in the stadium. I’m going to cover the game and looking forward to see the stadium from the inside for the first time. One of the 2010 World Cup Semi Finals will be hosted at the stadium. Hope i will have the priviledge to attend that match as well.

Here one of the images i took with the Nikon 20mm F2.8 lens.

Gerhard

www.supermedia.co.za

With less than seven months until the World Cup is set to take place in South Africa, organizers are starting to feel the pressure of hosting a major sporting event.

Sports Illustrated reports that all10 World Cup stadiums are expected to be completed in time for June, ‘but there remain transportation problems and accommodation shortfalls, with 2010 World Cup organizing boss Danny Jordaan admitting those issues won’t be settled until after the draw is made and teams and fans know where they will be going.’

Still, South Africa will be largely benefiting from the soccer tournament.  Sindh Today writes that according to the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafhasi,  the World Cup is expected to inject $7.46 billion into the South African economy and an estimated 415,000 new jobs.

Meanwhile, Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper disagrees, stating, “Unfortunately, the economic story is wrong. Barely any academic economist believes that countries get richer from hosting sports tournaments. South Africa has been told this: when its finance ministry flew in three eminent foreign sports economists for a workshop, they argued that, at best, the World Cup would not reduce South Africa’s economic growth. The country expects 500,000 foreign visitors for the tournament, or fewer than it receives in an average month. Much of the money to be made from them will not be made by South Africans.”

But, Gillian Saunders, head of specialist advisory services at Grant Thornton has a different take on the games. In IOL he said, “We will be on TV screens for weeks, and this is incomparable free media exposure – it would cost billions if we had to do it as advertising.”

Jordaan said he is working to improve South Africa’s global image and “convince skeptical fans from around the world that his crime-ridden country is safe.”

Official government statistics of 50 murders a day don’t help his case. Nonetheless, the government has poured more than $93 million into the South African police department and equipment according to SI.com

Republic of SOUTH AFRICA

stamp: 8 cents

year: 1982

prehystoric animals:  Bradysaurus

The Pom-Poms will play a concert at St Clements again, on Saturday, 12 December, at 7:30 pm. This is an evening gig, so you can have dinner (which I recommend, since the food is outstanding). The restaurant, run by Steven Clements, is in 191 Musgrave Road, a colonial-style house with a beautiful garden in the back. Booking is recommended: 031-202 2511. 

When Jochen Zeller of the band, South Jersey Pom Poms was asked to describe his music, he said “I call our style of music “European Cafe House”. I have no idea if that counts as a proper music genre, but I think it works: “European”, because that’s my musical influence, and because we don’t sing only in English, but also in German and French. “Cafe House”, well, I hope that creates the right associations. People in worn-out suits and with dark-rimmed glasses, sitting and reading and smoking and drinking expresso and listening to cool music.”

Band members: Eva Jackson (vocals), Jochen Zeller (guitar, vocals), Sean Stewart (bass), Grant Emmerich (drums)www.myspace.com/southjerseypompoms

Again… my apologies for my long absence. Just didn’t feel like writing about the usual garbage that is being discussed in the media everyday under the tag of ‘news’.

Either way, Copenhagen. The place where the world leaders hope to jointly agree to carbon emissions cut deal in order to bring emissions down in their respective countries by up to 40%.

Now, even though most of the world leaders have marked their attendance to the Copenhagen summit (even Obama), the summit will be of almost no use if the NDEs or the New Developing Economies are not present at the summit in full force. This basically means the heads of state for India, China, Brazil and South Africa.

Although Brazil and SA have confirmed their participation both India and China have not confirmed that there heads of state will attend the summit (although it looks likely the Indian Prime Minister will eventually attend).

I had posted in a  previous blog of mine on why I support the current Indian stand on the issue. Just few hours back India, China, South Africa and Brazil have agreed to walk out of the summit talks if the developed world tries to legally bind the developing world with emission cuts.

I have maintained the thought that developing world should not bow down to the pressures of the west in this issue. Neither India or China can afford at the moment to have a unprecedented slowdown on their economic growth. Both countries fight from wide spread poverty, poor health care and education systems and other social issues which can only be solved with economic growth and economic stability.

The western countries should lead from the front in a non-legally binding MoU on emission cuts and I am sure even the developing world will do their part, specially now when both China and India have proposed their action plan on the environment for the next 20 years.

I don’t see Copenhagen being a big success, but at least the idea is in the right direction. It should not go down the way Kyoto did, a climate deal is a need of the hour but the world leaders need to be realistic on what they want from the developing world, no developing country will target unrealistic cuts which will hamper its economic growth.

Let us see what Copenhagen has in store for us.

After an amazing season Ireland end 2009 unbeaten!!

Finishing 15 – 10 after an amazing tackle from O’Driscoll brought the game to a close.

Roll on the 6 Nations!! This day 10 weeks our first match will kick off in Croke Park at 14:30!!

Congratulations to Declan Kidney for receiving the IRB Coach of the Year!!

Thanks to lads for a brilliant and entertaining year of top class rugby!!

I would like to write an entry for today. I would like to write something about South Africa that sums up my experience here, my feelings for the place, the reason why I am ready to leave, and the reason why I feel at some point that I must return.

I don’t usually get involved with my holiday plans. I mean, I usually leave it to The Pretty One to organise everything. It is lazy of me, and I don’t excuse it. I also feel that I should be more proactive about where I go. I fly in and out of places and I am a stranger. I perhaps read a guide book, but my history is sadly lacking. My history and my geography. It is ignorance on my part, that I need to address. I excuse it by hiding behind the vale of business travel, but it is shameful.

In South Africa I have visited places which I heard about as a child. Places that perhaps I never thought I would visit. It was a country that wasn’t on my radar, and probably would have remained off it, were it not for my best friend being here. But South Africa is a wonderful country, with wonderful people. It is a contradiction. It is Africa, but not Africa. Soft Africa for me. I intend to return both here, and to the continent.

Leaving, I will take some new friendships with me. People who I hope to be able to stimulate and hope will be stimulated by me in the future. People with a different perspective, but one I now truly value. A South African friend who has experiences and an intellect that astounds me, and has perhaps seen more of the real world growing up here and in her time in the UK, having to swallow at times any sort of national pride, as well as her language to prevent her being a target of bigots putting everyone in the same boat. It is more real than I can ever hope to learn from my well meaning visits to historical tourist traps. I will write about these at a later date, because I am sure of their value, but I know, in my heart of hearts that a lot of it is appeasing the feeling of ‘needing’ to have a ‘real’ experience in the country. It is about ticking that box and moving on. In Cape Town, you have to go to the top of Table Mountain. In Cape Town you must go to Robben Island. I suppose a holiday is a holiday, but as intelligent people, perhaps we should challenge ourselves more than we do. Small bite-sized chunks of history, zoo type tours of less privileged areas is a disservice to yourself, those involved and history itself.

Just a thought.

“Abraxas to Jesus”, took me 30 years to write,  primarily because what happened to me was so hard to explain; that I kept on scrunching up my attempts and throwing them away. Then one day it happened and this is it. It has not been scrutinized by an editor, or had the grammar corrected, and that is the way I wanted to keep it.

The soundtrack is the title track from my second album, “Away From This War” which came about one afternoon when a fellow guitarist-artist, challenged me to compose a song in the Pink Floyd style.  I took up the challenge and ended up performing it a year or so before ‘Apart-hate’ came tumbling down.  Actually I played it with my band ‘Shoshone’ , the same year that Nelson Mandela became president.

The musical arrangement was put together by Bruce Taylor of Robin Lane Studios, in Bergvliet and the street noise is actually from Wynberg Main Road on a Saturday. If you have ever been there you will know what I mean. 

Photographs

1. The view from Apostle’s Battery, Llundudno, South Africa.

2. The view from Woodlands, Simonstown, where I used to sit with my dog and pray. Below is False Bay, in the distance is Muizenberg.

Iris just found out that her credit card has been cloned!  She’s the second person that has had her card cloned in the five weeks that I have been here.  As Iris said, “South Africa is a shitty place [in terms of crime].  This is worse than in Brazil, man.”

Iris had to go to Nelspruit in South Africa on Thursday to get her visa renewed.  She needed cash for the transaction and stopped by an Absa Bank ATM to get rands, using her credit/debit card to withdraw funds.  She had remembered feeling slightly suspicious because a man behind her was being extremely helpful, trying to walk her through the process.  She was also wary because the ATM allowed her to withdraw money against her credit card even though she had entered the wrong pin.  This morning, Iris checked her accounts and found her funds wiped out!

We had heard that South Africa is not the place to use ATMs.  Tricia, my project manager, had gone to South Africa about two weeks ago and also found false transactions placed on her card within days of using it. She had gone to a legitimate bank, Standard Bank, to withdraw funds and didn’t even use a pin.  It is apparently common knowledge around here that one should not use credit cards or ATMs in South Africa.  Based on the speed of theft and the details used, we think that there is an organized crime network accessing the bank records.

I have been extremely lucky here in Mozambique thus far.  In my first week here, I needed to withdraw funds from the ATM at the JAT building and accidentally left my card in the ATM machine. The nice mcel guys called out to me and returned my card.  I’m glad that I was based in a friendly and relatively safe country as Mozambique; I would not have lasted a day in South Africa.

On another note, we somehow started getting internet access in the last few days at the Hotel Monte Carlo.  It’s ironic how it’s working now that I am leaving.

I am slowly getting the idea why my husband was so keen on the move to South Africa – he is looking for kudos in the husband and father stakes.  Every time I talk to people (usually women) – particularly locals about his contribution at home, they all say to me – Oh a South African man would never do that. I can’t tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing – but I am going with good. 

He often says that I spend all my time trashing him to my friends and they all think badly of him because of my influence but I can assure him this is just not the case – and I will say so publicly here and now. See – here!! (Of course any right to future trashing is a given so not saying its never going to happen)

Moving countries along with everything else also actually stress tests your relationship with your ‘life partner’ (as we say in our house).  Firstly because you don’t have any friends – so no-one to talk to except each other, and when you are the stay at home one and the only other conversation is with smalls and deals with what they will and won’t eat, what they will and won’t do, if a song is actually called ‘Fishing for Cheeses’ (I suspect the title has something to do with Jesus but Miss 3 won’t have a bar of that) and extensive discussions of who is your favourite Mario Party character (Princess Peach for me) – its nice to talk to another adult.  So when they are around the conversation really does flow, or you chase your ‘just got home and a bit tired from a long day at work’ husband around the house with tidbits from your day and seeking information about his.

In his case he is also trying to deal with a new job and all the issues that go with that –but try not to rub that in too much, as he knows that’s what I would prefer to be doing too.  I on the other hand am attempting to master the immediate area, hardware stores, dry cleaners, telephone connections, pool maintenance, which supermarkets stock what items (beginning to think there are no countries left where everything can be purchased in one spot), school runs, playdates, my golf swing and planning an exciting new destination for our Sunday family ‘day trips’.   I can tell you – if I were the one coming home from work I would probably not wanting to be discussing too many of those items – but every day even when he is traveling we have a mini ‘how was your day’ section where he empathises with my frustrations I’m sure in a way that isn’t that different to all other couples in the world.  Only for the first couple of months – we were the only people we had to talk to about anything and everything – usually in other places you would have let off some steam by covering some items during the day with other friends and maybe at work –anyway it can be all a bit full on and isn’t always calm and entirely friendly but we get there in the end.

So that’s just the same as everyone else – right? So there must be other things he does to make him a bit of a stand out – have I mentioned that school starts at 7.30am?  That means that lunch boxes either have to be done the night before or mighty early in the morning.  Every morning at 5.30 he gets up and makes the kids lunches – and bless him, every day he calls to see what they have eaten and what they have left and talks to them about why they didn’t eat something and adjusts accordingly. He cares about their lunches! Me, not so much – but I am more than happy for him to do so.  Although when he is away it’s a bit of a nightmare that I have to do them myself – OK there are only two but my kids don’t like the same food and its nearly as hard as deciding what is for dinner every day – I prefer only one meal decision a day.

After he makes their lunch, he gets them up and dressed, feeds them breakfast and generally gives them their vitamins (depends on how we are going for time) then I am required to get up – about 6.30am so he can shower and get out the door, but all I generally need to do is get dressed myself, put their bags in the car, shoes on (that can take up to 15 minutes of running around and I can’t imagine how much more when we get into winter and tying shoelaces) and get them in the car by 7.10am.

What a morning champion he is… I agree, he even offered to do a few school runs for me after he did one and found that I wasn’t lying about all the yummy mummies in their gym gear and perky breasts (he wants to run a survey to find the best surgeon just in case I change my mind) at the school drop off, but yet to follow through on that one.

If there is one thing I can’t stand more than doing the same puzzle 65 times or having to force feed my son pineapple (the only fruit he will knowingly eat) after the most wonderful and calm (NOT) homework session before he can do ‘anything at all fun’ after school its dinner (don’t mind cooking it – can’t stand the ‘not eating’ it process) and bath / shower time (enjoy it finishing as it means bed time is very close).   Unfortunately my wonderful morning husband is not too often home for this part of the day – likely the reason for his morning participation.  However when he is home – he does take the bath and shower time on (we have alternating days as one prefers bath and one shower – of course!). What a legend!  The screams and squeals are all carried on upstairs and if I go into the study and shut the door I can’t hear them at all – its totally blissful!!! 

So overall – he is pretty well housetrained for an Australian husband, and I gather slightly over trained for the South African version – remembering that neither of us has actually really had to do any of this for the last six years as the wonderful Gina was lunch maker and bather extraordinaire – so it may be that it’s a novelty for him at the moment, but I don’t think so – well I’m not going to start doing it anytime soon anyway so he’s going to have to stick with it.

Don’t get me wrong – he doesn’t love washing up, tidying up – still leaves his tie every night on a dining room chair when he takes it off, calls me and my friends ‘the slappers’ and can shut the door of the playroom and ignore the kids if there is essential sport on the television BUT he does deserve plenty of recognition for what he does do – so here it is! In fact right now he is at the gym and took the kids with him  – their first experience of the playroom there – long may it last. Good work Swart.  Of course he never reads this so he will never know – but I know !

discount Mbt shoes  Mbt Chapa   Mbt Lami   Mbt walking shoes   Mbt Sport

After all the secrecy over whether he intended to call heads or tails, Andrew Strauss will know that his side were beaten not so much by the result of the toss as the bat of A. B. de Villiers.

On a roasting afternoon, England could do little to stem the flow from De Villiers, whose 75-ball hundred was supported by three half-centuries as South Africa posted their highest one-day score against England, 354 for six, and the best by any Full Member country at Newlands.

As many as 109 of those runs came in the closing ten overs, by which time the ground that has been a fortress for the home team was almost full and an ecstatically partisan crowd waved their flags with so much gusto that the energy could have powered the floodlights.

Batting under those lights has been the problem in the past, and Graeme Smith could not contain his joy when Strauss incorrectly shouted “heads” some 30 minutes before the start. “It’s tails, it’s tails,” Smith whooped even before Javagal Srinath, the match referee, could confirm as much with his own eyes.

Strauss attempted to remain phlegmatic, but must have felt increasingly resigned as Smith, Hashim Amla and Alviro Petersen complemented the outstanding strokeplay and organisation of De Villiers. Despite a brave reply of 86 from 82 balls by Paul Collingwood, the five-match series will resume at 1-1 in Port Elizabeth tomorrow.

A flat pitch made batting a pleasure and bowling a toil. England did not exert enough pressure in the field and when De Villiers stepped down the pitch to force the first ball of the 41st over, from James Anderson, through extra cover, his stroke represented a clarion call.

Collingwood missed an opportunity to run out De Villiers next ball with one stump to aim at but from short range, and from that point on, the batsman was dominant until trying to hit over extra cover during the batting powerplay, when Strauss posted his three boundary fielders on the leg side.

Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, was granted his wish to see more singles, and any number of balls pushed into the deep realised two sprinted runs. Smith’s opening stand with Amla progressed so comfortably that Strauss delayed the bowling powerplay, but the fall of Smith to Luke Wright’s third ball had little effect. Amla remained composed and De Villiers found his timing immediately. Petersen and Mark Boucher hit forcefully at the end.

Graeme Swann was the most economical bowler and his recovery has allowed England to relegate Adil Rashid from the one-day squad. James Tredwell will stay with the seniors while Rashid, along with Liam Plunkett, will play for the Performance team in a four-day game against Highveld Lions in Pretoria, starting on Monday.

England responded positively to what looked like mission impossible by sending out Wright with Strauss to capitalise against the hard ball. The aggressive approach carried huge risks against a bowling attack fired by the return of Wayne Parnell and Morne Morkel. The top three fell chasing boundaries inside the initial ten overs and Kevin Pietersen gloved on to his leg stump going too far across to J-P Duminy.

Collingwood was unshaken after being hit on a heel by a throw from Parnell and between the legs by Ryan McLaren. Pulling McLaren for successive sixes may have removed some of the pain, but merely chipped a splinter from the target that exceeded ten per over even after those blows.

Scoreboard

South Africa
H M Amla c Prior b Broad 86
*G C Smith b Wright 54
A B de Villiers c Trott b Broad 121
J Duminy c Morgan b Wright 6
A N Petersen not out 51
†M V Boucher c Wright b Broad 22
R McLaren b Broad 0
Extras (b 2, lb 4, w 14
Total (6 wkts, 50 overs) 354

R E van der Merwe, W D Parnell, M Morkel and D W Steyn did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-107, 2-201, 3-217, 4-312, 5-349, 6-354.

Bowling: Anderson 7-0-55-0; Broad 10-0-71-4; Bresnan 10-0-61-0; Swann 9-0-49-0; Collingwood 5-0-38-0; Wright 8-0-66-2; Trott 1-0-8-0.

England
*A J Strauss c Boucher b Morkel 24
L J Wright c McLaren b Parnell 24
I J L Trott c Smith b Parnell 9
K P Pietersen b Duminy 45
P D Collingwood c Amla b Parnell 86
E J G Morgan c sub b Duminy 0
†M J Prior c Smith b Morkel 16
T T Bresnan c Smith b Morkel 7
S C J Broad b Parnell 10
G P Swann not out 6
J M Anderson lbw b Parnell 1
Extras (lb 4, w 10) 14
Total (41.3 overs) 242

Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-58, 3-58, 4-146, 5-150, 6-214, 7-223, 8-227, 9-236.

Bowling: Steyn 6-0-42-0; Parnell 9.3-1-48-5; Morkel 9-1-39-3; McLaren 5-0-34-0; Van der Merwe 6-0-50-0; Duminy 6-0-25-2.

Umpires: M Erasmus and R J Tucker (Australia).

Dubai Debt Leads Bloomberg Week in Review

via Dubai Debt Leads Bloomberg Week in Review – Bloomberg.com.

Wall Street réagit à son tour aux craintes sur Dubaï

via Wall Street réagit à son tour aux craintes sur Dubaï.

So I have been doing research on teaching English in the east since last year and what I could gather Korea and Taiwan was the two best options.  I had difficulty locating information specific to South Africans as the English teaching market is flooded by Americans and Canadians.  And we Saffa’s are just different from those from the northern hemisphere.  Our culture and approach to life is just different.  Blog after blog after blog it dawned on me that Korea would be my best option.  Nicola and I even conducted a little experiment on facebook to help us decide between Korea and Taiwan.  We assigned both Korea and Taiwan a different color and made our statements that people had to choose one of these colors.  Although we only received about 20 responses before one of my friends spoiled the experiment by stating that she thought Korea was the best option the outcome of the experiment was KOREA!!!  So now in the final months before our departure I can truly say that I am well prepared for what lays ahead in 2010.  It’s a pity that we are going to miss the World Cup (well not really, I mean have you been to Jo’burg lately – its roadworks everywhere and building bridges and stadiums and and and (which is not a bad thing as its good for SA) its chaos), it’s not every day such a big events comes to South Africa.

In preparing for Korea I really searched for some South Africans in Korea and read up on their experiences.  Thanks to Facebook I stumbled upon the South Africans in Korea group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2309967428&ref=ts) which has assisted me in so many ways.  The members of this group were always very eager to answer all of my question and I truly feel that the South Africans in Korea is truly a close knit community.   Hey maybe one of these days we could have a little Cape Town or Jo’burg town in the heart of Seoul.  That would be weird though.  Can you imagine a shebeen, corner café with fish and chips and a king pie, or even better a chicken licken.  Maybe someday!  Anyway back to the preparation, I came across a blog called SafKorea (http://safkorea.wordpress.com/) which has truly been an excellent resource.  The blogger (who since left Korea) has truly been amazing in posting all relevant information on his blog like how we Saffa’s are exempt from paying pension and tax to how to obtain the tax clearance certificate from the oh so greedy SARS!!!  My endless strolls through the digital passage ways of the internet led me to some other blogs that really gave me an idea of how certain Saffa’s experience the Korean culture! (oh and since I’m not in Korea yet I have no idea if South Africans refer to themselves as Saffas, but while I was living in the UK Saffa’s was our nickname).  Reading through these blogs really helped me in getting my mindset right for this endeavor because culture shock here I come!  Since I had to pack my bags for a whole year’s worth of stuff, I know that it is almost impossible to fit everything you need in just 20 kilos.  I learned this the hard way since I lived somewhat as a hobo those first three months in England! Luckily Emirates has a 30kg capacity, although University was too good for me so my clothes are all a size bigger now since then!  My recruiter advised me to let my parents ship most of my summer clothes to Korea once I get a confirmed address, as this will make the packing just such as easier task.  Apparently, and I will still confirm this, but you can ship a 20 kg package to Korea for about R500.  And that’s not too bad as buying new clothes and shoes of 20kg’s will be way more that just 500 bokke!  So I think I’ll ship my summer clothes, and by the time it reaches Korea it will be Spring and a nice way to say okay you may go to the beach now!

I think it is very important to embark on something like Korea consciously and fully prepared.  There is nothing that will truly prepare me for that moment I set foot on Korean soil but having a great knowledge on what lies ahead can only be beneficial!  Google is our friend and it should be used to learn as much as possible.  I mean I am very picky when it comes to food, and I am brutally honest when I say that the Korean dishes frighten me a wee bit, but hey try everything at least once, and then you spit! Ha ha! Anyway from my research I learned that Co-op has a lot of more familiar foods so at least I won’t go hungry, although a rice diet might do me some good!

Anyway the moral of the story is to be prepared.  As everything that I have learned over the past year from Korea might be completely irrelevant once I finally get there, but at least I can embark on this journey knowingly on what lays ahead and calm my s(e)oul!

Christo

Dubai Crisis May End in ‘Major’ Default, BofA Says (Update3)

via Dubai Crisis May End in ‘Major’ Default, BofA Says (Update3) – Bloomberg.com.

Meteoro en Sudafrica

Meteoro registrado en Sudafrica solo unos dias antes del Thanksgiving.

GOOD EVENING ZIMBABWE!

I just thought I would say a big hello to our friends and business associates in Zimbabwe – looking forward to doing business with you…

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_zimbabwe.html

It has been a very long, intense week, with flurries of activity followed by frustrating lulls. But now, it’s the weekend, and what a way to kick back – securing a deal we have been working on for some time.

So we are ready for some R & R before next week’s onslaught, where several more projects in the pipeline will need the patience of Job and the hand of Eli to coax them to fruition!

And that reminds me – the hand of Henry, the World Cup in Africa, and some amazing branded products coming up just for this event. Just heard Henry is sailing to South Africa for the World Cup looks like it’ll be all hands on deck…

Details of these products to follow – but get your names down quick – limited availability.

THE PMB GUIDE TO MARKETING:

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You went up to her and say “I am very rich. Marry me”.
That’s DIRECT MARKETING

You are at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, “He is very rich. Marry him”.
That’s ADVERTISING.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you called her and say, “Hi, I am very rich. Marry me”.
That’s TELEMARKETING.

You are at a party and see a beautiful girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, ‘By the way, I’m very rich. Will you marry me?’.
That’s PUBLIC RELATIONS.

You are at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, “You are very rich”.
That’s BRAND RECOGNITION.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, “I am very rich. Marry me”.
She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.
That’s CUSTOMER FEEDBACK.

NOW YOU KNOW WHY I’M NOT IN CHARGE OF MARKETING…

Since this month’s RPG Blog Carnival topic happens to be about community, it seems appropriate that I report back on the most recent developments in the Durban, South Africa, gaming scene.

In June, I wrote a post entitled “The Worst Gamer City in the World“. In the post, I discussed the dismal state of the Durban gaming community, my intention to do something about it and a list of potential problems and barriers. Today, I aim to discuss what’s happened since that post and what’s in the pipeline for early 2010.

• Firstly, I’ve managed to organise and run several small-scale game days at Destiny Bookstore, Windermere Centre. These game days have proven more successful than I originally anticipated, averaging about 10 players per event. Recently, however, we’ve been having trouble with numbers (too many people!) and an emergent group of Yu-Gi-Oh players taking up space in the store. So, we’ve resorted to low-effort, low-committment games like the shorter board/card games to compensate for the lack of space. However, I think we may be losing the RPG crowd because of this. First challenge for 2010 – managing space and the growing number of attendees:
  • Destiny doesn’t charge us anything for using their venue (good, because I don’t want to charge anything), but the gamers I’ve been attracting tend not to spend as much cash as the Yu-Gi-Oh players do. So, if the venue is double-booked, the YGO group gets preference. Second challenge for 2010 – Growing support for our local retailer so that they offer more support to us.
• Secondly, PB and I have managed to join a small private group. Though the group tends to be very kick-in-the-door-and-smite-everything, it’s good to have a regular group again.
• Thirdly, I tend to give out a few business cards at every game day (especially to the curious walk-in traffic), with my non-work contact details hastily scrawled on the card. Perhaps I should take the jump away from wordpress.com to .com and make little 10letter business cards. At the very least, I need to clean up this site (like add all the promised links, proper navigation and so on). One person at an event complained that they thoroughly trawled the net looking for some sort of gaming activity in Durban and came up empty. Third challenge for 2010 – fortifying net presence.
• Fourthly, don’t ask about a con yet. I know you were thinking about asking.

- jatori

Today we visited the Giba Gorge Mountain Bike Park for the first time. Nestled in Giba Gorge valley it is a place for those who enjoy an active and outdoor lifestyle. Giba caters for everyone from the adrenaline junkies, the beginner who enjoys a gentle ride, children of all ages to non-riders who love to relax and enjoy the tranquil setting. Giba Gorge boasts a world class BMX track, a restaurant and coffee shop, exciting birthday party packages for children, conference facilities and 30km of single track mountain bike trails. For the R10 entrance fee, we really enjoyed our day!

Giba Gorge Mountain Bike Park is now a recycling drop off site.  They have a Mondi paper bank & cardboard cage, plastics container from the Plastic Federation SA, Collect A Can drums and a glass igloo from The Glass Recycling Company. Durban Solid Waste has also provided them with four sets of bins for plastics, cans, paper and glass placed in various positions around the hub of the park. This recycling site is for the entire Giba Gorge and surrounding areas to make use of!

Website: www.gibagorge.co.za