To Bryan and Katherine,

To Brattex and Badkat,

The future has always been yours share.

I hope its filled with tears of happiness and songs with laughter.

Only the best for the the two of you.

Miss you lots.

Congratulations on your engagement!!!!

Love you both.

-Tim

Photos are up...

Villa
Originally uploaded by Tim Twelves.

I've put some photos up on my blog. This entry is more of an excuse to see Flickr (yahoo) integrate with Blogger (google). It seems as though they've got some nice site integration and its great to see the end user benefiting from the cooperation.

Its been a while since I last posted to my blog but I've made up by posting alot of photos. Most of the photos are either taken by my cellphone or they are group photos from weekends away, etc that i've assembled in online.

A weekend or two ago, I spent rafting down the Orange River. A great weekend although it wasnt without its troubles. On the way there, about 5 hours out of JHB when we were having breakfast at Wimpy after which I realised that I had left my passport behind. This was a blunder of the biggest proportions as the base camp from which we would start was on the Namibian side of the border. I spent about 4 hours on the phone over about 7 hours. During this time, we had taken an accidental 300km detour and we fought with home affairs and they wouldnt get me an emergency passport (it was a public holiday). By the time we got to Pofadder I was slightly hysterical and had happily consigned myself to staying in Springbok for the next 5 days while everyone else went rafting.

Everything eventually sorted itself as I eventually had my passport flown to Capetown and couriered to Springbok (on a public holiday) and by 5am I had my passport. Good times. I'd spent the night in springbok in a bed and breakfast while everyone went ahead. This wasnt such a bad thing as the B&B was kitted out with this massive down duvet and huge bed with a hot shower. The 6 days that followed this were unbelievably awsome. 44 of us struggling down a river, alcohol in hand and sometimes being pursued. We had quite a few rafts topple. Sight of cooler boxes floating down river were some of the sad moments. Fortunately we managed to recover the beer. Great times.

Since then (its been about 2 to 3 weeks now) I've been grafting and spending some hectic time at work getting stuff finished. Tomorrow is the beginning of 23 days away from work. This is probably the first time I'm taking more than 2 consecutive days of leave in the last 6 years. I am not counting the leave I had that I was forced to take around christmas so maybe I shouldnt say 6 years - however - its not the same thing. You cannot move the Monaco F1 GP to christmas.

I'm off to the UK for a while and then i'm going to spend a week in Monaco. We've got a villa for a week and will be partying and watching the F1 GP which is going to be awsome. Definately going to head past a few french vineyards. I usually spend sundays watching the GP with a small braai on the side and a cheeky tomato relish for whatever is ooking. I've watched an A1 GP and I'm definately going to have a mad week. The other days, i'll be chilling and travelling. I hope it'll blow away all my expectations.

Im going to have lots of photos as I'm set on getting a camera while i'm in Dubai. I'm looking for a Canon IXUS 65 but I couldnt find any prices specific to Dubai so I dont know if the pricing is "outa this world" or "outa my league". Will see.

Anyway...

Good times.

Whats the worst steak you've ever had? Well, McGinty's sandton... the steak was horrible, the service worse.... the beer was good. Next time, just drink beer.

Johann + Sybrand: This is the telescope I'm getting - SkyQuest XT8. Its +- R3500, which is reasonable. I've been warned that it might not fit in my car.

Well... its been a busy 2 weeks. I've had very little sleep over the past 3 weeks and well... I'm tired. It may be the sushi I just had for lunch. The smacks of wasabi didnt manage to wake me up (its a shame how weak they're making wasabi these days).

In the last 3 weeks i've been quad biking, done a bit of paintball, watched some amazing cricket (I lost 10 cases of beer when RSA beat AUS @ 434 runs), went to watch Metallica at the Coca Cola Colab, went to a lion farm to check out a few cats, played in an MTG tourneyment, started playing GO again, pretty much been having a good time outside work. I've posted a few photos in my photo album (on the right) and I've got more to post.

The Colab was good, Metallica were great and the chap selling air guitars on the side of centurion cricket stadium - you're a life saver. (Managed to get him to run to the bottle store and buy about 6 bottles of vodka and 6 2L cokes.) Unplanned but typical - dave and I ended up bumping into Mike, Stu and Miles. This, chantelle and craig managed to get us to skip the entire queue (about a kilometer long). More photos on the way.



On a more computer related topic:
I also been thinking and i think i've come up with a "killer" app. Will have to see.

I've recently been annoyed at why people deviate from best practices. Why reinvent the wheel? For this reason I now understand the real meaning of history. Those who dont understand the history are doomed to repeat it. Learn from your forefathers.


Back to food:

You really have to try sushi with the hottest wasabi possible.

Its been a while since I last posted. Christmas and New Years Day has come and gone. So has the feeling of being exhausted (company year end). Since then, a few things have happened...

My sister's birthday on the 9th of Jan.
Finally recovered from the year end on the 25th of Jan.
A1GP on the 29th of Jan.
Lion park this last weekend.