Tall Stories

Moving House

2008-07-31T22:58:00.001+10:00

Last week Nicky packed up the house in SA and I moved into the new place in Melbourne. All our stuff is currently in this box

so we are now both sitting in empty houses for a month. I've rented a townhouse that has just been built, so everything's shiny and new. It has that traditional Aussie style with the main bedroom at the front door, can someone explain that one to me?

Moving in only took a few minutes as you can see from the photo above. I've borrowed a few bits and pieces from the Cowies and bought a bed and a fridge so at least I can survive for now.

While I've been away...

2008-07-31T22:38:00.001+10:00

It would appear Cayley doesn't have any fear of heights.

(Photos stolen from Matt's album)

1 Month Roundup

2008-07-21T22:14:00.001+10:00

This post is just going to be a list of things that other people moving to Melbourne from South Africa (and other places) might find useful. Use at your own risk, some info might be out of date by time you are reading this. If I remember I may update it in the future.

Background

We applied for a permanent resident visa so I didn't have to get a job before arriving, it just happened to work out that way. We came here for a few weeks in March to get an idea of what we were getting into, so we tried to do a few everyday things like catching a train to the city or going to the local shops, rather than being complete tourists. Luckily we had Nicky's cousins to show us around a bit too. I think that was a useful exercise. I arrived last month and am staying with Nicky's cousins until I can get organized, Nicky and Cayley will follow in September. Obviously not everyone has the luxury of having somewhere to live immediately but here goes for what it's worth. Arriving separately has had it's advantages because there is only one person to put up on this end and Nicky can tie up the loose ends in South Africa.

Mobile

I got a prepaid mobile number in March from Optus, and the airtime I bought was valid for 6 months. It was useful to have the mobile working when I landed the second time in Sydney because the flight was a bit delayed.

Tax File Number (TFN)

I applied for my TFN online and it arrived in the post after about a week, you'll need that for your employer so do it before you get paid. Taxes are higher if you don't have one.

Starting Work

I arrived on a Thursday night and started working the following Monday, so I was barely over the jet-lag. It was probably a good thing because there's not much you can get done in the first week. Maybe you could do the tourist thing but by myself in the middle of winter it would have been a waste of a week.

Bank Account

We opened a bank account while we were in Melbourne in March and it has turned out to be a very good thing to have done. Not only from being able to put your money in it, but when you need to apply for various services, usually they will want a proof of address. The bank statement that was posted to me somewhere between March and June has seen some good mileage for that task. We went with Bendigo community bank because some of the profits go back to the community, it seemed like a good idea. We have fairly basic savings account with internet banking.

Medicare

You should apply for this as soon as possible, however you can do it in the first 10 days. They have to wait for your passport / visa information to be sent. You can at least get the forms though from one of their offices. Walk in the door, push the appropriate button on the monitor at the entrance for a ticket in the queue. You'll need your passport, visa and proof of address for this. Once applied they'll give you a temporary card immediately and the card will be posted within about a week.

Drivers License

Most of the info you need is on Vicroads and you can drive with your South African drivers license for 3 months. There is no automatic conversion for the South African license so you'll have to do a multiple-choice learner test, a hazard perception test and a driving test, and they have to be done in that order. The learners and hazard test can be done on the same day if you can get an appointment. See more on these two tests here. Book soon because there are no guarantees you'll get the appointment within 3 months. The first 2 tests cost AU$79.60 and drivers test AU$60.40. If you pass, a 10 year license will cost a further AU$154.00. (Note these numbers will probably have changed). You need to take your passport, something with your signature on it (e.g. an ATM card) and proof of address (remember the bank statement?).

Tolls

There are quite a few tollways around Melbourne so if you're going to be driving around either avoid them or get an e-tag from Citylink (you can apply for it online). It's a small plastic box to fix to your windscreen and it beeps every time you go under the toll. There are no actual pay points where you stop to pay like the primitive system in South Africa. If you don't have a tag and you go through a toll, they'll take a photo of your car and send you quite a hefty penalty toll.

GPS

The Garmin 260W GPS I bought has done quite well, and is ready to use out of the box. You can program it to avoid the tollways above if you need to.

Trains, Trams and Buses

Your one ticket will allow you to use any of the public transport around the city (except taxis obviously) an you can download the PDFs of the schedules from http://www.connexmelbourne.com.au/. It's probably a good idea to print out the pages that apply to you because it's entirely possible that the times may be a couple of minutes off or you'll need to change platforms and you'll miss a connecting tram or train, you'll need to do a bit of re-planning on the fly. "Flinders Street" and "Southern Cross" are 2 of the major train stations in the city and you can get a train almost anywhere from there. Usually the train will have a LED sign with the name of the last stop on the line. It's worthwhile buying a Melways (map book) because all the public transport is plotted in there with numbered stops for tram lines, so like the trains, the tram will have the number of the last stop on it's line (e.g. the 59 tram goes to stop #59 in Airport West). I haven't used a bus yet so I can't help there.

Renting

2 good starting points for looking for a place to rent are http://www.realestate.com.au/ and http://www.domain.com.au/. From those sites you can find the individual agents and look for further rentals on their websites. Both have good search facilities and will send you email alerts for your search criteria. The rental market is quite regulated so most of the information you'll need can be found here. The good rentals will go very quickly (<3 days after inspection) so the email alerts will give you an idea of what's good, and what hangs around for months. Typically you'll have about 15 minutes to decide at the inspection and should put your application in immediately, so have a clear idea of what you want.

Useful Shops

Some shops that I've found useful so far are (not that they are necessarily cheaper than the others, but a reasonable starting point if you don't have a lot of time for shopping around):

Harvey Norman - furniture, appliances, and computer stuff (Bought my GPS here)

The Good Guys - appliances, electical goods and computer stuff (Bought a fridge here)

Direct Factory Outlets - branded stuff for cheap, lots of shops. (Bought bedding here)

Bunnings - big hardware type of place, tools, paint, electrical etc

End of financial year is mid-July so it's a good time for stock clearance sales.

The sheep box

2008-07-06T00:07:00.001+10:00

Don't you hate it when you ask the shop assistant for help choosing something because you don't have much of a clue about the options available, they sense the weakness, and then sell you the one in the giant box with a sheep on it? Then you have to walk around the shopping centre, carrying a box so big that it could conceivably contain an actual sheep. Thankfully I don't know many people round here yet.

Behold the sheep box.

This week I also acquired my learner license, because the ZA drivers license doesn't count for much. The multiple choice test is kind of strange in that if you do the practice test on the web about 10 times, you are almost guaranteed to have seen every possible question. The "hazard perception test" is another matter entirely: You watch short video clip and click the mouse at the right time to "turn the corner safely" or "when you should slow down." Some are really easy like there is a big truck coming at you, slow down NOW! CLICK! The worst part of it is that if you click too early, you never see the end of the video clip so you'll never know if you did the right thing. Other situations are a bit more difficult like you are driving along a road, going straight at 50km/h, someone has thrown battery acid in your eyes so it looks like you're watching a pixellated youtube video at full screen size, you drive past a road sign that you can't see, and an empty side road, when should you slow down? I have no idea so I just clicked randomly through most of them and by some miracle managed to pass. That test must be a real money spinner for them because no matter how long you've been driving, on some of the most terrifying roads on earth (read: Corlett Drive @ 8am), you just have to click randomly through the test and hope.

GPS Test Drive

2008-06-29T01:04:00.001+10:00

I bought a Garmin Nuvi 260W car GPS navigator today. It's a fairly basic unit, with a nice big screen for my dodgy eyesight. The other similar unit is the Tom Tom One XL but it doesn't speak the road names, that was a good enough reason to choose the Garmin.

I decided to take a drive down to Sandringham to learn how to use it, practice driving around the Aussie roads and go visit a windsurfing shop at the beach. 4 birds with 1 stone, cool. There's a new freeway that opens tomorrow called the East Link that would cut the travel time quite considerably, and unfortunately the GPS decided that was the best route for me to take so kept directing me from one closed on-ramp to the next. Only after I got home did I realize that it's a toll road and I can set the Nuvi to avoid tolls, so the drive took a lot longer than expected. Other than that it's a very easy thing to use, only took a few minutes to get the hang of it.

As you can see it's overcast and not warm enough for actual beach-going but it was nice to go there anyway. I had quite a long chat with Ivan from SHQ about the local wind conditions, where to sail, what kit is suitable etc most of which I'll have forgotten by the time I actually get to do some sailing. From the boards available in the shop, it seems that not many people use boards bigger than 100 litres, so something else new to learn. It looks like my gear will arrive in September so that should be just in time for some summer sailing. It's going to be sweet!

Some more down under

2008-06-25T21:56:00.001+10:00

Trains. Those things that nobody in their right mind uses in South Africa, are not as easy to tame as it would appear. It took a while to find the station from the Docklands apartment where I'm spending my first few days of work because it's just off the edge of the map of Melbourne that I have. When you're in a bit of a hurry (read : mild panic) to catch a train, reading all the available signage is not an option. I managed to buy the right ticket, get on the right platform and get on the wrong train. After blissfully travelling for about 45 minutes I started to realize that all the stations I had passed were the wrong ones. Consult map, get back on train to join up with the other line, get off again and wait 30 minutes for the right train to come along and eventually arrive at the Ringwood East station. What should have taken about 45 minutes took over 2 hours. Thankfully I've managed to catch about 4 trains successfully since then.

Trolleys. Trolleys in Melbourne have 4 wheels that turn instead of 2. That makes for incredible cornering ability and manoeuvring. Going straight is not an option. At least you can take them on the escalators (dunno if that's what they're called here).

Australia - The first few days

2008-06-22T17:46:00.001+10:00

On Wednesday I got to the airport to get on a plane for Melbourne. The previous weeks had dragged by slowly with seemingly endless farewells and I was quite ready to get on a plane and go, however the last day was quite emotional as I said the last goodbyes. It had finally sunk into my thick skin that I was really going. After 4 hours of sitting around OR Tambo I was quite ready to go again. I had got there early to get a good choice of seat so that they didn't need to fold me in half to get in, and I'm glad I did. The emergency exit row is your friend as there's about 2 metres of space in front.

Without the usual delay of the stairs or the luggage door breaking etc, we actually took off on time. Soon after that they served dinner and I stretched out to have a kip when my stomach lurched into my elbow and then back down to my knees. Turbulence sucks. The guy sitting next to me looked like he was going to ralph everywhere. 8 or 9 hours of bouncing through the skies later we landed in Sydney and it felt quite strange to not be swaying from side to side. The flight from Sydney to Melbourne wasn't much better and landing with low clouds is no fun either: descend....descend...I still can't see anything...there must be ground coming soon. 16 hours after leaving South Africa, I've had enough flying for this year thank you very much. Slept for 12 hours until someone dragged me out of bed, probably would have slept longer. The joys of jet-lag sleep for 12 hours, next night sleep for 4.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of anything yet because I have forgotten the cable to copy them from the camera, along with a bunch of other "argh $#!%" moments of things I forgot to pack. I'll save the descriptions of all the new and strange things for when I can post some photos too. So far I've just done a little bit of window shopping for a fridge and a GPS. I'll have to make up my mind soon because this month is sale month because of the financial year end, plenty bargains to be had. Clothes are expensive, even on sale.

I've checked in with work and will be starting tomorrow. I've got a long list of applications ahead of me : drivers license, tax number, medicare, banking. It would seem that Yes, I was born yesterday.

Goodbye to an old windsurfing buddy

2008-06-01T00:53:00.001+10:00

I had to say goodbye to my windsurfing partner of 9 years today. *sniff*

From Moletedi to Hartebeespoort to Grootdraai to Bronkhorstspruit to Sterkfontein Dam, she's been carrying my windsurfing gear. I had to sell because I'm off to Melbourne soon. Hopefully the new owner will drive the open road with the wind in your roofracks. So long ol' buddy...

5sqm @ Bronkies

2008-04-21T03:00:00.000+10:00

Sunday was awesome, I've never seen wind like that at Bronkies before. Saturday night we were camping outside Gabi's cabin because we couldn't find the key. At 10:30am there wasn't a leaf moving, by 11:00am it was close on 20knots and at around 3pm we were getting our butts kicked in 30knots. There's definitely a pattern emerging there, the big days are usually quiet in the morning.

I put my new top speed on the GPS, taking me over the 30knots mark, 30.36knots (56.2km/h) and the first time I've sailed a 5.7sqm sail at Bronkies.

My pictures(below) came out quite badly, so I'm going to include a few of Malcolm's photos. There are a few more in the photo gallery at http://www.windsurfingafrica.org

Malcolm's pics:

Although most of us had at least one wipe-out like that, unfortunately for Jeremy he got caught on camera.

'Til the next windy day...

Soul Sailing 2007 - Mozambique

2007-10-23T09:11:00.001+10:00

It's that time of year again, and after last year's almost windless week, we went to Mozambique instead. Here's how it went down:

Thursday Afternoon - around tea time

9 people in all, we set off in 3 cars with Andre's large speed boat and headed for the border at the breakneck speed of 90kph getting 3km per litre of petrol. On the right is the 4.8L land cruiser that sounded very much like a WWII plane towing the boat. Gabi spent most of the drive fiddling with the dials and buttons on his new tourag while Malcolm played short samples of 80s music on his iPod before skipping to the next song. After visiting most of the petrol stations along the way, we arrived at the border just before 12 midnight. After employing a local to negotiate our way through the border, and making sure the right people got their back-handers, we made it into Mozambique. Just inside the border we stayed the night at Casa-de-something-or-other in what seemed to be an old farmhouse. The seemed quite happy to open the bar at 1am for us so we sampled some of the local beer before hitting the sack.

Friday morning we were on the road to Maputo, which has quite different scenery to the South African side of the border: grass and bushes as far as you can see, with the occasional small huts, at least the road is in good condition. More dial twiddling, ipod skipping, daft photos etc.

Arriving in Maputo, we launched the boat at the School-de-Nautica after some more back-handed negotiations with the authorities about the number of life-jackets on board and although there actually are 9 life jackets, only 6 were written down. There's always time to find the pub and for Malcolm to assault the local wildlife.

A 2 hour crawl across the bay because we packed enough food and drink for about 30 people and a full load of fuel which made the boat was too heavy to get on the plane. Inhaca island never seemed to get any closer.

Between the island and the mainland there are large tidal sand flats, and we luckily timed the tides just right to get in, otherwise we could have been stuck on the sand for a few hours more. It also took a bit of walking to find Ponta Torres Camp, so by then it was too shallow to get the boat close to the shore. All the gear had to be waded in knee-deep water, that's when we realized how much crap we had brought along.

Ponta Torres is a tented camp with wooden decking to walk around the main camp, electricity, hot running water, excellent cooking facilities. Malcolm, Gabi and I (the 3 windsurfers) chose a tent overlooking the beach so we wouldn't have to carry the windsurfing gear too far.

Saturday morning was raining so we sms'd Julian to let him know what a terrible time we were having (muchly exaggerated of course!). What we didn't tell him was that it cleared up in the afternoon and we had enough wind for a short sail. In addition to getting the timing right for the tides to arrive, it seems that we got lucky with the timing for the wind as well, because the high tide was in the afternoons while we were there, which made for good sailing. At low tide the entire area empties out so it looks like you could walk back to Maputo, and when the tide comes in there is a completely protected area with very little tidal current. It also means that you can sail about 4+ km and still waist deep water all the way. The gap between the mainland and Inhaca island is called Hell's Gate and has a current flowing at the change of the tides but as long as you stay clear of that it's very safe. For windsurfing there is approximately 4 hours of sailable time at high tide before it gets too shallow. Malcolm and Gabi managed to find some rocks to injure themselves on. That evening we dined on that crabs that Gabi bought from the locals and sashimi that Andre and his fishing crew had caught.

Sunday was a lot clearer than the other days and was the best day we had for sailing. The wind blew a constant 15 knots at high tide and we spent a couple of hours blasting up and down. Malcolm also brought his camera out (about 2km from the shore) and we took turns standing in the waist deep water while the other 2 sailed up and down posing for pictures. With the wind blowing NE we had very clean wind coming through Hell's Gate, we just had sail about 1km out to get clear of the land.

Eventually we ran out of water and after the first catapults on the sand-banks, we half-waded, half-sailed back to the beach.

Monday had plenty of wind but we had to wait for the tide to come in before we could sail. We spent the morning walking along the beach waiting for the tide to come in. Unfortunately with the wind blowing from the SE we chose a bad spot to sail and had very gusty wind coming over the hills, I suppose this is how we learn. If we had moved to the other side of the lagoon we would have had very clean wind again.

Tuesday morning we packed up the boat before high tide (moored about 1km down the beach) and headed back to Maputo. Without the grub and booze, the boat had no problem getting on the plane even though we had an extra person, so the trip back across the bay was much faster. The trip back to the border was fairly uneventful, although once through the border then the problems began. A puncture on the land cruiser towing the boat forced us to stop to change it. A little while later the spare suffered the same fate. By this time it was dark, so we put the 2 spare wheels from the boat on the land cruiser so that they were the same size. After hitching the boat onto Gabi's tourag we got another phone call, nobody tightened the wheel nuts on the one side, so the wheel came off and bounced a few 100m into a nearby field. Luckily nobody got hurt and the wheel could be put back on. Eventually at about 2:30am I got home after the boat was unhitched and people dropped off at homes. Up for work 4 hours later was not pleasant.

Travel Notes

In early October there were very few mosquitos around so I imagine malaria risk is very much reduced (although you should still take precautions)
Take a lot of small notes of currency because R100 notes are difficult to change once out of the city. R10 and R20 notes are needed for tips etc for the locals. It also means you don't have to get any of the local currency as change which feels like it's been in someone's sweaty armpit all day. Soggy paper that feels like it will come apart in your hands.
The water at Ponta Torres was perfectly drinkable, however I wouldn't trust the water in Maputo, drink bottled water there.

All in all, a very successful soul sailing tour and I'm sure it will be high on the list as a candidate for next year's soul sailing trip.

On board at 43 knots

2007-10-19T17:18:00.001+10:00

Via thomasr.org

Recent Windsurf Racing from Durban

2007-10-16T17:14:00.001+10:00

Hardcore!

Rain, Wind, Ice, Sun and Aliens

2007-05-05T21:54:00.001+10:00

Ever since they started making windsurfing equipment simple with plastic clips and easy pulley systems, our ability to tie things together has diminished.

At 4:30am on Friday, Malcolm picked me up from my house with all my windsurfing and camping gear, to go sailing at Sterkfontein Dam for the weekend. Being a long-weekend (Freedom Day) the roads were packed with cars, trailers, caravans and to make it worse, raining quite heavily. After the first omen we should have just turned around and gone home but being Bronkhorstspruit windsurfers, not much can deter us from the promise of wind(even 8 hours in the blazing sun without a leaf moving). A car zoomed up behind us and although we were travelling at the speed limit, flashed their headlights for us to get out the way. Malcolm grudgingly moved into the other lane, showing the other driver that they could pass with a one-fingered hand-signal. It turned out to be a police car, thankfully they drove on.

At the first toll gate the queue was about 3km long and we waited for about 30 minutes to get through but the second toll gate was much shorter. After the toll we got out to check the windsurfing gear only to find that my 6.6sqm Ezzy sail had, in the spirit of Freedom Day, liberated itself from the trailer and was somewhere at the side of the road in the last 200km. Malcolm took responsibility for the disaster, respect dude! After phoning a Pieter and Phillip on the road behind us to keep an eye out for it we continued, arriving at Sterkies at about 8:30am

After pitching tents and waiting for the other windsurfers to arrive, we headed down to the water. Donovan was already there and had sailed a little early in the morning, but now the wind was already at 30 knots with only the kiters and windsurfers with small gear on the water. By late in the afternoon it had calmed enough for us to have a go but it was still too much. Only Phillip had the right gear and we took turns on that for a short while. The wind peaked at about 36 knots on Friday but calmed down in the evening, good food and Jack Daniels aplenty.

It was quite chilly on Saturday morning but we got up early and were on the water by about 7:30am, as it turns out this was a smart move because the wind later in the day was 30+ knots again. Nice early morning blasting.

The rest of the day spent on the bank waiting for the wind to drop. Another Bronkies windsurfer, Johan joined us after being blown around on his big board. Donovan spent most of the day in his board bag to stay out of the chilly wind. Malcolm kindly replaced my lost Ezzy with a 6.7 Sabre that he bought from Joluka, what a sweet sail, even though it doesn't have cams :-P. Late afternoon got very gusty and it was concluded that I was the main cause of too much wind at Sterkies because every time I got on the water the wind would crank up another 5 knots. We had quite a lot of gybing practice in the small bay out of the big swell.

Saturday night was freezing and most of us slept in our board bags. We awoke in the morning to -2 degrees. It had rained a little in the night so there was ice everywhere and the zips on my tent were frozen solid. What we found next was very reminiscent of crop-circles and Gonzo finding messages in his breakfast cereal. Written spookily in the frost on Malcolm's board and Phillip's car was the following message:

We suspect it was a hoax because Julian didn't even come with us for the weekend.

After the 30+ knots of the preceding days, Sunday was almost completely windless in the morning, but we did get some sailing with 9sqm sails in the afternoon. So long Sterkies, 'til next time.

Quick! We're famous

2007-03-25T21:26:00.001+10:00

I was at Joluka the other day buying some new footstraps for my board, chatting about the weather (as usual), when I was shown the latest issue of Gust Magazine. Malcolm has got his article on the Soul Sailing tour to Langebaan published in the March/April issue. A day by day post-mortem of what happens when you get a bunch of windsurfers together without much wind. Although we complained about the lack of wind that week, it serves as a reminder that we did sail a few times and had a good time.

If you look very carefully with your magnifying glass you can see me sailing in the picture below.

Fame at last!

A Year of Cayley

2007-02-16T07:57:00.001+11:00

Oops, a whole year has gone by without posting any new pictures of Cayley, so to make up for it I'll have to find some pics for every month in between.

March 2006

April 2006

May 2006

June 2006

July 2006

Aug 2006

Sept 2006

Oct 2006

Nov 2006

Dec 2006

Jan 2007

No digital pics in January :-(

Feb 2007

No Speedos Or 9.0 sqm Sails for Louis

2006-12-28T22:21:00.000+11:00

Louis has posted some photographic evidence of himself windsurfing in New Zealand. Proof that there can be life after fishing.

We're glad to hear that you've ditched the speedo, and that you've decided to introduce the locals to that fine Bronkies tradition of slogging around in no wind. I'm sure they'll enjoy some of the other fun aspects of no-windsurfing like board balancing.

P.S. Good luck with the 145L board in 30knots. Send pictures.

Why aren't you coming on the Soul Sailing Trip to Langebaan?

2006-09-21T21:55:00.000+10:00

After a few ~~losers~~ sailors dropped out there are some spaces open if you want to join us.

There are a couple of places that have come available for our annual Soul Sailing trip to Langebaan.

The purpose of the trip is to sail and have as much fun as possible with no interruptions or limitations by family or friends.

The dates are from the 28th of October to the 5th of November.
There are 10 guys that have paid and there is place for another 4.
The sailing capability of the guys ranges from guys learning to waterstart to guys that want to loop and ride waves.
Accommodation is R1104 per person sharing for the week.

So get your sailing kit out and your party dress on and join us.

BTW.. at that time of year you may end up sailing with some of the worlds best. Matt Prichard, Josh Angulo etc...

Contact Jules fields@worldonline.co.za

Soul Sailing Trip to Langebaan

Weekend winds have arrived

2006-09-14T19:33:00.000+10:00

Looks like this weekend is going to deliver some great windsurfing winds in Gauteng. Saturday should be somewhere in the teens NW, while Sunday looks like 20's W in the afternoon. I'll be heading out to Bronkies on Sunday because if you know the westerly winds at Bronkies, you can add about 4 knots to whatever WindGuru predicts.

I also need to start getting my A into G for this year's Soul Sailing trip to Langebaan in Oct/Nov. Flights and car rental to book, and I still need to find some equipment rental too. Where does the time go? Plus there's those pesky exams to study for...mumblegrumblegrhmfg

My new top speed

2006-07-24T17:38:00.000+10:00

Windguru was spot on yesterday with the wind - down to the hour. The day started with no a leaf moving until 11am, then someone turned on the wind tap for some awesome 14-20 knots. Strangely although it was blowing at Bronkies, there was not much happening in Jo'burg or Pretoria.

Apparently Malcolm and Phillip broke some land speed records getting to the dam once the wind switched on. I got my top recorded speed on the GPS of 28 knots (52.7pm/h) which on my equipment is scary-fast. That was on a xantos 295, 34cm fin and my trusty arrows 7.1 grand slam sail (almost 10 years old).

Here's a few pics of the day.

I love a good NW wind at bronkies!

Last week at Sun City

2006-02-20T02:03:00.000+11:00

We took Cayley on her first holiday last week. It seems a good excuse to put up some more pics and vids.

[Download video - 1.8MB (right-click save as)]

We just got Skype enabled

2006-01-26T19:46:00.000+11:00

I bought one of these dualphones for Skype. So now we have no excuse for not talking to people we know overseas. I'm not putting the skype number up here, but you can drop me an email ([myname]@[thisdomain].org.za fill in the right values) and I'll send it to you.

I just had a skype conversation with Nicky and she thinks I sound clearer than I ever did over the phone. I like the internet :-)

Google searches

2006-01-24T22:18:00.000+11:00

After getting tipped off by Mark's Digital Farm I went to have a look at google zietgiest. It's really sad to see the top search terms in South Africa...bank names: "absa", "standard bank". There is no hope.

It actually gets worse. South Africa is apparently the only country in the world where one of the most popular searches is for a url : "www.fnb.co.za". What other result were you possibly trying to find?

I think I need to move to a country that doesn't keep searching for that snivelly little insomnia cure "harry potter". That list includes France, Japan, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam only.

Talking about the weather

2006-01-21T01:28:00.000+11:00

It's no secret that windsurfers are obsessed with the weather, so Nicky mailed me this picture to help plan the next windsurfing session (I have no idea of the source of the pic, so I can't credit the source)

For all those stubborn windsurfers who can't get to grips with this new-fangled technology, I have provided links to the weather maps I used to use on the home page:
Gauteng Weather Maps for windsurfers
Surface Winds 3hr intervals

WindsurfingAfrica.org launches

2006-01-17T00:18:00.000+11:00

A new community site for local windsurfers launched today. This one is wiki based, so all registered members can edit the pages and add new content. Check it out here

The Post-Christmas Blog Post

2005-12-27T06:32:00.000+11:00

Ho Ho Ho....Merry Christmas to everyone for yesterday!

(That's me in the santa suit - no jokes about elves please)

Hopefully you all got as many prezzies as Cayley, who only got one or two dozen:

So a big thanks to everyone who sent her gifts, especially those from overseas who we didn't get to thank yesterday, I'm sure she'll appreciate all of them in the coming year.

And just a couple of extra pics for good measure

I'll be on my bike then...