Category: Personal

  • My Gadgets & Gizmos article in “The Ballito” magazine

    A couple of months ago, I met Justin Scott who is the editor of a local magazine in Ballito, aptly called, “The Ballito“. The magazine is a published every two months and covers life on the beautiful North Coast of KZN. The magazine also forms part of a  stable of magazines including “The Centurion” as well as various residential estates around South Africa.

    Justin asked me to contribute to the magazine by writing a “Gadgets & Gizmos” column. Being the gadget freak I am, I jumped at the opportunity, and and I am stoked to say, that my first column was published in the months magazine. The spread is a 2 page article where I look at 3 different gadgets and one of my favorite sites on the net, PopURLs.com.

    Of the 3 gadgets, The iPad, the MiFi & ShoX speakers, I covered in the article, I only owned 1 at the time of writing the article(the speakers), and through fate, and being very blessed, I am now the proud owner of all 3. I need to start planning ahead on my next article. If my run of luck continues, I will skip the gadgets and go straight for the Ferrari :) (Jus kiddin)

    If you would like to see the article, feel free to download a PDF copy from here ->

  • A weekend at Honeywood Lodge – Bliss

    A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from the owners of a place called Honeywood Lodge, Ian and Sharon, inviting me and the famdamily down to their self-catering accommodation for the weekend.

    Honeywood is situated just a bit north of Port Shepstone, on the KZN South Coast, in a suburb called Sea Park. We arrived on the Friday evening at about 6ish, and were met by Ian at the gate as we drove in. He showed us to our cottage, which was gorgeous. The apartment consists of an upstairs and downstairs section, and can sleep 4 people comfortably. The kids slept upstairs, which was huge excitement for them.

    Once we had settled down, we popped up to the exclusive boutique restaurant they have on the premises, called “The Cellar”. The restaurant is headed up by exec chef, Dylan Smith, who used to be the head chef at Harveys & Society in Durban. Both these restaurants have great names for the best food in Durban, and The Cellar matched that tenfold.

    Everyone was so accommodating at the restaurant, and went out of their way to make us feel comfortable. Dylan made the kids a delicious spaghetti pasta dish, while Les & myself shared a Chicken Livers starter and each had the most divine fillet steak. Really one of my top 10 steaks I have had in my life. We even got our own special table outside, so the kids could run amok.

    Once we had settled the kids down, we managed to catch some of the soccer, before flaking out for the night. The next day we took the kids to see Toy Story 3, which is such a brilliant movie. We eventually got back to Honeywood in the afternoon, and spent it relaxing and the kids exploring the property, which is set in a gorgeous green forest. They had a ball running all over the place, and really enjoyed themselves, with the all the secret pathways. I also managed to chat to Ian, who told me that the whole setup at Honeywood was only completed in September last year. He also explained how all the rain water collects and drains off into a tank where it is filtered and reused, saving loads on water bills. They also use solar-powered geysers which help with the electricity consumption.All very eco-friendly

    Eventually we had to bid our farewells to Honeywood Lodge on Sunday morning, in the pouring rain no less. Overall we had a great weekend away, and it is something we as a family need to do more often. We both came back feeling revitalised and just a whole lot more relaxed. I would highly recommend a weekend away at Honeywood Lodge, even if you are traveling from up north. The venue has also hosted a couple of weddings, and can be used as a conference venue for team building events as well.

    Honeywood Lodge has a couple of really great specials running at the moment (till Nov). During the week(Monday to Friday morning), they have the self-catering units available for R500 a night. The restaurant is also open from Wednesday to Saturday. If you would like to go down over the weekend, you get Dinner(any 3 courses on the menu) & Breakfast at The Cellar, as well as accommodation for R400 per person per night if you are 4 people. If you are 2 or 3 people, then you pay R500 per person. These deals are well worth it, because you are getting your meals included as well. Be sure to mention you saw them on MarcForrest.com :) 

    If you would like to visit Honeywood Lodge, check out their website at http://honeywoodsa.co.za/ or you can drop Ian & Sharon an email at [email protected]

    A big thanks to Ian & Sharon and the team at Honeywood for hosting us for the weekend. We will see you soon :)

  • Jack Parow CD

    You may have heard of Jack Parow. You know that guy that sings “Cooler As Ekke“. That afrikaans rap tune, that every time you listen to it, cracks you up. It’s brilliant. And finally, he has bought out his own CD.

    If you haven’t heard it check out this video to get an idea about what we talking about:

    The CD features 12 tracks:

    1.  Ek Wens Jy Was Myne
    2.  Hier’s Hy Nou
    3.  Cooler As Ekke
    4.  Dans Dans Dans
    5.  Feite
    6.  I Miss
    7.  Ricky Louw
    8.  Farmhouse Brekvis
    9.  Die Vraagstuk
    10.  Byellville
    11.  Word Wakker
    12.  Tussen Stasies

    Kalahari.Net has the CD in stock and ready to ship to you for ONLY R119.65. If you want get hold of a copy of this CD, I suggest you do it soon, as I don’t think they going to be around for to long. Click here to order the new Jack Parow CD

  • Please help me go to #Tech4Africa

    You may have noticed this banner that I have on the right hand side of my page. The banner is for an upcoming conference in Jozi, in August, called Tech4Africa.

    The conference is run over 3 days, and includes some of the most prolific speakers in the tech industry, from South Africa as well as abroad. Some of the big names include WordPress founder Matt Mullenberg, as well as online legend Clay Shirky. Some of the South African internet hero’s include Mr Stopforth, as well as the newly engaged Justin Spratt (congrats :)

    The conference is aimed at everyone and anyone in the tech. Here is a lowdown on what the conference is all about, from the site:

    • Emerging tech and trends for Africa
    • Applications for Web 2.0 in Africa
    • Mobile & wireless innovation and trends for the next 3 years
    • Cloud computing and it’s relevance for business in Africa
    • Startups & business opportunities in Africa
    • African success stories
    • The funding landscape in Africa

    Now, as you can see, it looks like a phenomenal couple of days just browsing through the full schedule which can be found over here on the Tech4Africa site.

    And this is where I ask a favour :) I would really really (really) love to attend this conference. The thing is, the tickets cost R3,500 for an early bird ticket, which I assume are probably already flying off the shelves. But for me, that’s quite a bit of cash at the moment, so that’s where you, my loyal readers, come in.

    I would love if everyone who reads my blog, could sponser me a little something to get to Tech4Africa. I am open to suggestions on how to “reimburse” you using my site. We could do an advert on the site or write a product review. I’m open to suggestions. So, if you have something you would like to me write about on this blog, drop me an email, and we can have a chat.

    I have also added a PayPal donation button on the right hand side of my page, under the Tech4Africa logo, as well at the bottom of this post, and if you would like to donate a little something using PayPal, that would be awesome. One of my loyal supporters of this site, Steph, has already said his company will sponsor me R500 :) So we on the road already.

    If you have any other suggestions or ideas on how I can get to Tech4Africa, please feel free to drop me a mail at [email protected]




  • Revolutionary House – Julias Malema Song

    You may have heard the new parody song on 5FM called Revolutionary House. The song is a remix by David Law, and mixes in some of the out of line phrases Julias Malema used at a recent press conference.

    It really is a catchy tune, and is gaining loads of attention.Her is the video of the song from Youtube, and you can also download it here

    Check out the News24 article and the post of Zane Dickens website for more info