Category: Personal

  • 27Dinner back on in Durban

    It’s been a while since we had our last 27Dinner in Sept last year at Plum restaurant. I have been battling to find a venue and more importantly time to get the next one off the ground. So finally, we will have the next 27Dinner this month, 27 March, at the awesome Hai.Bo restaurant in Morningside.

    The details are up on the 27Dinner website, where you can sign up and register for the evening We have limited places to 50 people this round, so get in there QUICK !

    Details of the evening:

    Date: 27 March 2012
    Venue: Hai.Bo – 18 Lilian Ngoyi Road (Windermere), Morningside
    Time: 18:30 for 19:00
    Cost: R100 payable at the door (Cash if possible please) Includes Snacks & a main course. Drinks for your own account

    Food:  Please make your meal selection from your confirmation email.

    Main Course: 
    • North African marinated chicken kebabs – Grilled Chicken Breast kebabs on chickpea coriander potatoes smothered in a harrisa cream served with caramelised root vegetables
    • hai.bo grilled rump – Grilled rump steak topped with garlic, basil and anchovy butter and served with roast potatoes
    • Hai.time stuffed Butternut – Slow roasted butternut filled with spiced vegetables in a harissa cream cheese and scattered with toasted sunflower seeds. Served with sheba tossed penne pasta
    Speakers(More speakers to be confirmed shortly)

    If you got any questions please feel free to give me a shout, or drop me an email. Going to be an awesome evening !

     

  • Time to become a #SleekGeek

    So, I know I have been awfully bad at blogging over the last couple of weeks, so I have to pick up the pace and get blogging. My reason for my hiatus ? I’m becoming a #SleekGeek.

    If you on Facebook/Twitter & follow me, you may have heard about the #SleekGeek challenge on Facebook, originally inspired by Elan Lohmann, where everyone puts R500 into a kitty, and the person who becomes the most “sleek” wins. This is not necessarily just weight, but also a full body measurements from Virgin Active at the start of the comp, and then again at the end.  The challenge officially started on 1 Feb, but I have been living my changed lifestyle since 1 Jan. I have decided to cut out Carbs (all the bad stuff, you still need some good carbs), Dairy & Alcohol. Amazing what a difference these 3 things make in your life.

    So, I have a lot of work to do still, and have been putting in double time with both the eating & fitness. I have taken up boxing at the AWESOME new Ringside Boxing Gym in Ballito, as well as keeping up and doing Kettlebells at Flux Motion every day. I try go to Boxing 3-4 times a week, and then Kettlebells every weekday at lunchtime.

    I also visited a dietitian at the begining of the year, and they have a really cool machine which measures the fat/muscle breakdown in your body, which really helps with seeing where you are in the quest. Using this method, I have seen that I have already lost 14.1kg’s of FAT, while my lean Muscle has increased by 7.4kg. This is since the 11th Jan.

    So, I am going to do something I have never done before. Taken a WHOLE whack of confidence. During my “journey” to become leaner, I have been taking weekly pictures to show my progress. This way, I can keep progress of where I am, and how I am doing. It also helps with seeing my body change, and actually helps with the confidence. So I have decided to share my pictures on Dropbox, grouping them weekly to show where I am. No laughing please :P

    Update: I have put together all the pics and will try and update it every week. You can see the week by week progress here

    I have also been logging all my workouts using the AWESOME new Wahoo Fitness Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor, that works with the iPhone 4s,  that I bought a while back. I will be doing a FULL review on this gadget soon. This has been an amazing addition to my training, as I can now see where I am, and what my heart rate is. Being the “ultimate SleekGeek”, I have logged all my workouts in to a Google Doc, so I can keep track. You can see the doc here.

    So, so far, so good. I am really excited about this, and already I can feel a difference. I am feeling more motivated about the whole thing, and having a whole bunch of other people in the same boat and on the same mission, really makes it a whole bunch easier ! I will also be posting updates here every now and then to keep up with what I started.

    Any advice, comments & critisims welcome in the comments below :)

  • A wrap-up of an amazing 2011

    Well 2011 has been an interesting year for me, a couple of things have changed, and all mostly in a good way. From a personal perspective, my biggest lesson was that, you should always do what you love. Follow your passion,and sometimes, taking a leap of faith, won’t hurt :) I decided to do wrap-up of my year. Be warned, it’s a pretty long read (1400 words) :)

    The site has done pretty well this year, with some fantastic exposure I received through various channels. So many new avenues have opened up, and I am really grateful for everything. This site, for me, is still purely a hobby, and even though there have been opportunities to take it full time, I prefer to keep it a hobby & a passion and try and keep people informed & entertained where I can.

    The 5 most popular posts this year are pretty interesting, and again, shows me what I need to keep blogging about :

    So, I decided to put together a quick roundup of the year (same as I did in 2010)

    January
    At the beginning of the year, I decided to set myself a couple of goals, called #Project2011 and with that I got sponsored a bike from the guys at Cannondale. The bike is amazing, and although I haven’t used it (properly) in a couple of months, I am hoping that in 2012 things are a’changing and I’ll be back in the Saddle. The actual project itself wasn’t a fail, and even though I slacked a bit over the last couple of months, I still managed to lose a couple of KG’s and feeling a lot better. So here’s to next year. 2012 -> Big Plans for my body !

    The good guys at Apple also launched the Mac App Store, which has proven to be a great success ! Locally, we got to see the launch of the iPad 1 in South Africa on the 27th of Jan, which although not as successful as the iPad 2, it still made waves around the country.

    February saw me do my first ever mini Triathlon, called the Mudman. A HUGE personal achievement for me. I also started doing Kettlebells with the team from Flux Motion, which I can honestly say, has changed my life. This is by far the MOST complete workout you can give your body, and showed the results throughout the year. If you haven’t tried it, you HAVE to. I also got to attend the U2 concert in Jozi, compliments of Highveld Stereo. AMAZING !

    One of the lowlights of my year, was being asked to remove a post that I did on Smokoo from my blog. At the time, I didn’t have much of a choice, but to remove it. In hindsight, I could have left it up, but, well, all over now :)

    In March myself and a friend started a little side business doing iPhone Repairs. FiXi is still booming, and we getting loads of requests to fix iPhones & iPad’s on a daily basis. 2012 holds some exciting opportunities for FiXi, so hold thumbs. I also got an amazing opportunity to learn how to trade some stocks on the stock exchange, thanks to the guys at Global Trader. Really great platform if you looking at learning all about that

    April saw my site getting a little infected by the Pharma Hack, which saw my traffic plummet, but I managed to fix that. We also got to see the awesome iPad2 launch in South Africa. By far one of my favorite “gadgets” for the year.

    May saw the introduction of the iPhoneography Showcase series on my site, which lead to amazing things later in the year. iPhoneography is growing at a rapid rate, and I am excited to see how it pans out in 2012. I also teamed up with the guys from Flux & Apple Tree Live for the next step in #Project2011, which saw some amazing results both physically & mentally !

    June saw Apple announce a whole whack of exciting new things at WWDC this year, with the launch of iOS5, Lion OS X & iCloud, our lives have changed quite a bit with everything now in sync in the cloud. Going to be very interesting to see where this goes !

    On a personal front, a HUGE change took place for me when I was offered the position of Mobile Product Manager at the Durban based company Private Property. For me, this was like a dream come true, and I could follow my passion of what I loved doing. And 6 months down the line, I can honestly say, I don’t regret 1 second of my decision. An amazing company. Seriously !!

    And to top it all off, I also launched the first ever South African iPhoneography exhibition. More on that in Sept’s round up :)

    July saw, THE most innovative South African company of 2011, FNB,  launch their iPhone/Android/Blackberry app. This app proved to be a pinnacle of app’s in South Africa, and has really gone from strength to strength.

    August saw the launch of our new version of the Private Property iPhone app. A nice facelift from the previous version, and some really cool things to come in 2012. Stay Tuned !!

    September saw the first ever South African iPhoneography exhibition, in partnership with Core, take place at the iStore in Sandton. This was probably my biggest personal achievement of 2011, and was an amazing success. I really hope to try and do another one in 2012, and given the amount of interest already shown, this is looking VERY likely.

    On the South African tech front, we say Alan Knott Craig from World of Avatar buy out MXit. An interesting move, and I for one, will be watching how this pans out. Every single time I have sat down at a table with anyone who is in the social/mobile/web/tech space in South Africa, this topic has been brought up. Interesting indeed

    I also managed to get my hands on what is probably my gadget of the year. The Olloclip. Really. If you have an iPhone, and take photos with it. Just get an Olloclip. An amazing accessory.

    October saw the worldwide launch of the iPhone 4S, which recently hit our shores. We also saw FNB launching a campaign bringing high end smartphone & tablet devices, like the iPad 2 at discounted rates, as well as an opportunity to buy them over a 24 month period. This has changed the tablet landscape in South Africa, and we now seeing more & more of these devices around. Awesome

    I also got to speak at my first ever public speaking gig. I was as nervous as all hell, but it was an amazing experience. I really really enjoyed it, and hopefully 2012 will see another 1 or 2 public speaking gigs. I also managed to attend to great conferences, Tech-Ed in Durbs & Tech4Africa in Joburg. Both really enlightening conferences, and I walked away with some insight into where we going in South African Tech

    One of my most commented posts of the year was my Blackberry vs. iPhone post, where I summed up a couple of the misconceptions people have about these 2 devices, specifically in South Africa. Some great debate around this !

    November saw me attending the Gary Player Invitational at Zimabli, compliments of Johnnie Walker. A fantastic weekend all around, and met some great people. I also launched the South African Mobile Apps Directory, which has shown some interesting insight into Mobile Apps in our country, and what is being developed where. I am constantly updating this list, so keep checking back.

    All in all 2011 has been an amazing year for me. I am really happy with where I am going with this, and honestly can’t wait to share my 2012 experiences with you. I wish you a blessed festive season, and want to thank every single person that has taken the time to visit my site, and be a part of it. I really appreciate the support !

    Catch you on the flipside :)

     

     

  • Nando’s “Last Dictator Standing” ad goes viral

    I told you about Uncle Bob coming to visit me on Thursday, which is all part of the Nando’s Meal For 6 campaign that they started last week.

    Well the video, which is the core of the campaign, went HUGE massive over the weekend, with even Time Magazine picking up on it. The video has already had close on a total of 600,000 combined views, and featured on a whole lot of news sites.
    If you haven’t seen the video yet, check it out here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1EX–vdxh4)

    The video has also received great press from a couple of international publications:

    Once again, well done to Mike, Mel, Marc & the rest of of the team. Great, Great Job !!
  • Nando’s Meal for 6 campaign

    Earlier today I got a surprise visit from Uncle Bob, in the flesh. He gave me a top secret envelope containg a flashdrive and a voucher for a meal for 6 at Nandos.

    It all forms part of the latest Nando’s festive campaign, called Meal for 6,  where they asking, who would invite for your Meal for 6 ? From today till the 2nd of December, you can win daily prizes as well as a fully catered meal for you and 5 friends, with a personal chef.

    All you need to do is tweet the names of 5 people, living or dead, who you would want to have dinner with and include the hashtag #Mealfor6. These people don’t have to be on twitter, you can include anyone, just remember to include the hashtag.

    Also check out the video for the campaign which will be aired on TV over the next couple of weeks on the official website -> www.mealfor6.co.za. Brilliant !!