Sole Food

Well it looks like I’ve disproved the “Mind, Over, Matter” saying! I had all the will-power and mindset to carry out the strenuous workouts, heavy grafting, late night studying and blogging…but have found that the lack of sleep and the constant beating of my body has taken its toll and has completely depleted my immune systems reserves; and for the second time in a month I’ve caught the flu! You win this time, stupid flu!

The worst thing about getting the flu for me, worse than the nausea and feeling-like-I’m-going-to-die sensation is losing my sense of taste. Perhaps you might have noticed from my previous posts, but man, do I love eating…

I suffered in particular today at Beluga, where a few of us, Joe, myself, Karisa and Anna (my doctor friend), decided to make use of the 2pm-7pm weekend half-price sushi special. Normally one likes to savour the taste of the fresh fish, but today I might as well have been eating a bowl of rice, because my taste buds were not functioning! In fact I had to dunk the sushi in a copious amount of wasabi and soy sauce to have my taste buds fire off messages to the sense receptors in my brain…Anna please don’t criticize my lack of accuracy or medical terminology in that previous statement…remember I’m a techno geek not a med student!

So while I could not enjoy the taste of my meal to it’s full extent, I had more focus on the social aspects of lunching. Sure, sure…there is always conversation when you have a meal with friends, but I find that concentrating on someone talking while I’m trying to stuff my face with tasty foods is more difficult…. I’m male and apparently lack the chromosome to multi task. So to compensate for the lack of taste receptors, I was able to focus more on what was being said around the table.

One thing that struck me as amusing and came up as a brief topic of conversation is: how going to the cinema is a very social event, even though the experience itself isn’t a very social one. I mean you can’t really have a full blown conversation in the middle of a movie can you? I know I would be irritated as hell if someone next to me was having a fat chat. Yet not many people attend movies by themselves…

Snacky Poof Time

I usually try to keep the week pretty tidy when it comes to snacking, opting to eat healthy and try not to eat high GI carbohydrates and fatty foods.

I’ve relaxed a bit since leaving Reflex, but when I was with them I was ridiculously strict, for example I wouldn’t even have an after-meal mint because it was too high on the GI scale. I’d continue with this for 6 days straight…but come the 7th day, things would get messy …really messy and I’d consume more than my weight in junk food on a single day. The theory was that ones body can only absorb so much in a single day and I would allow myself just one cheat day just for my sanity if not anything else.

I lived for that 7th day and would stock up on all sorts of snacks, chocolate, ice-cream chips, sweets. I’d roam the streets looking for the nastiest fattiest, food imaginable, like McDonalds and gorge myself to a point that I wouldn’t want to look at junk food for the next week.

Tonight is reminiscent of those 7th days and I’ve stockpiled some really good stuff; I’ve bought myself some Ghost Pops, BBQ Spare Rib Pringles and Arnott’s Tim Tams (the most awesome chocolate biscuits ever, introduced to me by Bryan) and guaranteed before the night is done, they will all be finished!

Livin' La Vida Loca

Another morning and another Vida ! I’m a crazy fan of the Vida brand, and love how it has flourished and grown organically, as the marketing fundis might say. Since the very first Vida cappuccino I had, from the Kloof Street branch, a few years back; I haven’t been able to get enough of them. I think I’m addicted to their baked confectioneries, sandwiches and in particular their coffees. Perhaps someone can prove me wrong but I think their stuff is laced with crack!

A lot of Vida’s success amounts to the passion the people, associated with the brand exude. The staff are highly effective, happily friendly and well trained, and because of this: top notch products and service are produced each and every time. I always feel more, lively when an energetic staff member greets me with a “Howzit Bubba! What can I get you?” And perhaps it’s the combination of the energy from the staff and caffeine fix that gets me buzzing for the rest of the day.

Martin Luther King might have had a dream, but I have a loyalty card…so maybe he’s dream may trump my loyalty card but I think the deal you get is still pretty damn dreamy: Basically the deal with the card is you get 10% off of whatever you spend, straight back to the card every time you swipe it…In the beginning I had no clue how the thing worked, but I signed up and swiped it, each time anyways. I figured I went so often that, at some stage, it was bound to pay off. Eventually one day one of the guys cracked, and asked me why I hadn’t used my loyalty card yet, since I must have accumulated a heck of a lot of Vida credits!

Life for a while, after that fateful day was sweet! And I had a free Vida coffee everyday for close to a month. I’ve been swiping my card without using my credits for a while again so as soon as I build up enough credits! I’ll be Livin’ La Vida Loca! Baby!

Wild, Bearded Man of Borneo

Temporary, blindness and migraines gone; I made sure that I set my alarm today. Both of them, the clock on my bedside pedestal and my cell phone as a back up...I was not going to be late like I was yesterday. So with both alarms blaring, giving me the fright of my life, I might add, I was up and off to the gym. The one thing I love about going to the Virgin Active in Wembley Square is that afterwards, if you're feeling sorry for yourself for sadistically, inflicting pain upon your body; you can still reward it with a good ol’ Vida coffee… It makes all the pain worth it. Well, almost.

The bright side (not that the sun is up at 5am) of getting up really early is that you have a lot more time to get ready for work. I figured after 2 weeks of neglect, it was time to haul out my trusty Philishave, electric razor and get rid of my beard. To my dismay the shaver was nowhere to be found, and I guess from the absence of its use, I seem to have misplaced it. I guess fate had decided for me…the bearded look was going to be in.

Now I’ve never grown a beard before, so sporting my new look I reckoned the facial hair would get a lot of attention…but no-one even noticed! I had supper with my good friend Natalie at Rick’s Café, for a catch up session, since I had not seen her in a while. And yet there was no mention of my beard, none at all, although she does also think she’s a squirrel so perhaps her opinion doesn’t count!

Okay, okay so I can’t really grow a proper beard, in fact if I leave it for too long all that happens is that I get a pretty mangy looking, patch-work of whiskers. I remember a few weeks before the filming of Tunnel Rats, they asked me to try grow a beard. But when I arrived on set the make up ladies took one look at me, saw how erratically my facial hair had grown and made me shave it off immediately.

I’m still not sure when Tunnel Rats is going to be released, unfortunately there seems to be some controversy with regards to the director, Uwe Boll's other recent releases and this has caused distributors to keep their distance away from it. However I do know it was shown at the film market section of Cannes Film Festivals, and I have heard that it has gotten some rave reviews. Fingers crossed, I really hope that the film gets a major release; the actors were brilliant and with their raw emotion, really portrayed the Vietnam War and the characters involved realistically, methinks.

Paul and I have decided that no matter what happens with the distributor debacle, we're somehow going to get a hold of it, and hold our very own South African, red carpet premiere at the Labia Theatre! Lets hope by then I would have found my shaver and will be looking neat, cleanly shaven and sharp.

Splitting Headaches

Holy Heck! My body is definitely starting to feel the effects of going to bed late and waking up early! I thought I had beaten my alarm when I woke up this morning. Turns out I forgot to set it in the first place! I was supposed to be up at 5am like I usually am, and even if it doesn’t go off, I’m usually up by 6:30am latest in any case!

8:32am it read on my clock…2 minutes later than the usual for getting into work! That was freak out number one of the day! I somehow managed to pack my lunch, get dressed and be at work at 8:57am just in time to be in before being considered late…

The second freak out came late in the afternoon when, after hours of staring at the computer monitor - cheap stupid CRT, low 60 MHZ refresh rate. I started to develop a blind spot in my main line of vision! Freak out number two! I could barely read let alone type, and figured that if I called it a day; and closed my eyes for a bit, the temporary blindness would go away.

After an interesting drive home, I closed my bedroom door, to test my theory. After 30 minutes, I was right the blindness had gone…instead I was faced with the worst migraine ever! It felt like someone had decided to repeatedly slam my head in the car door…Looks like it’ll be an early night for me, boys and girls; so quite a short blog post...the day cannot finish quick enough in my opinion! Bah Humbug!

Stupid, Tasty Dim Sum...

Since Mondays suck (I still have some unfinished work that I have to tend to after today’s blog entry), I’m going to carry on about yesterday. The best thing about Sunday’s besides not having to work is the lunches. I’m a big Sunday Lunch man myself, and believe when it comes to Sunday Lunch, one should eat hearty.

Il Leone is one of those gems that has a great relaxed, homely atmosphere; amazing food (freshly made pastas and other mouth-watering Italian fare); professional and efficient service; and best of all has a reasonably priced menu. Perfect for lazy Sunday’s, and thus the destination for our feasting.

It may be a relatively new comer to the Cape Town restaurant scene; but Il Leone is part of a restaurant chain called Mastrantonio, and its winning formula has been tried and tested in Jozi. The original Mastrantonio can be found in the heart of Illovo and is well worth the visit if you are ever in the area.

The one thing I did do a lot while I lived in Johannesburg, was check out Restaurants. My good friend Stef, perhaps the only other person I know who loves restaurants more than me, compiled a list of spots that I needed to try out. And so systematically, one by one, A to Z, I began a full blown assault to tick off all the restaurants on the list.

Amongst those restaurants, is one which I have grown to respect and fear more than any other restaurant on earth, The Orient. The Orient is an up-market, East-meets-West type establishment, found at the heart of Melrose Arch, and in my opinion, is one of the best restaurants in the City of Gold. But underneath the façade of decadence, lies an evil, so cleverly disguised that you would be forgiven; to mistakenly pass it over as just a delicious and delicate morsel.

The Dim Sum, little Chinese dumplings, there are literally to die for…and literally die, I almost did! One evening while sampling the delicious variations, a bogey (a Pork Sau Mai) slipped under my radar and somehow lodged itself at the back of my throat! My first reaction when it happened was to try swallow harder, but the more I tried, the more it got stuck. I couldn’t breath. I was panicking. I was blacking out. I didn’t know what to do.

All I could do was get up and signal like an idiot and hope that someone would pick up that I was choking. Thankfully with the help of my, then digs mate, Nkosinathi Watson and good old Mister Heimlich, coming to the rescue; impeding doom was averted. If my friend hadn’t been there to help me, a minute or more and things could have ended up like a tragically dark, comedy; me killed, by a stupid little pork dumpling! Man, would my face have been red…or in this case dead.

It’s weird how a near death experience can psychologically affect you. For a while after that experience, it was always at the back of mind. And for some time after the muscles in my throat would tense up every time I swallowed, causing me to almost choke again…

To prevent future disasters; I read up a trick, so that next time, should I ever be caught in a similar situation I’ll know what to do. I’ll share it here just in case one day someone needs to use it. Supposedly if you’re choking with no one else around; you should try to find a hard object, like the edge of a table or the back of a chair and fall hard onto it. You have to land on the part of your abdomen just below where your sternum connects to your chest plate; and the impact of the fall should dislodge whatever you’re choking on. Be warned though, this maneuver could cause severe bruising, winding and perhaps even some broken ribs…but at least you'll be alive.

Swan Song

Last night, turned out to be an awesome evening! It started at my old varsity mate and ex-colleague Simon’s place. He was holding a small, shindig to celebrate his birthday. It was cool because I got to meet up with a lot of old mates and ex-work colleagues whom I have not seen since my return to the Cape.

The evening started off slowly. Since I’m a complete light-weight when it comes to consuming alcohol and don’t really drink, Simon was kind enough to whip me up a cappuccino with his cool, Breville espresso machine. I must say that he has gotten it down to a fine art. Using the Origin, Ethiopian, Yirgacheffe blend I gave him, he made a cappuccino that was on par with many of the leading coffee spots in Cape Town.

Buzzing with caffeine, I needed an outlet for the excess energy and with the Play Station 3 hooked up, some Sing Star and hard liquor going around, you could sense that some down right, craziness was about to get on. Sing Star can be described as Karaoke on steroids, where the Play Station console actually measures your tone, timing etc. It even has a party mode option where you can “battle” out songs with your friends.

The first time I grabbed the mic, my competitor turned out to be none other than the house champ himself, Simon. Now, I’ve never been into Karaoke and have actually never, really had any desire to try it out. Strange, seeing that my brothers and sisters in the East have built a billion dollar industry around people publicly humiliating themselves…Surprisingly I didn’t do too badly, we chose to do a song we both knew by The Killers; and I think in the end I only lost by a mere 100 points. Rabbi made the comment that it’s in my heritage to do well…which is probably true, judging by my relatively good performance.

With my confidence on the up, I became a lot more open to the idea and actually had a heck of a lot of fun! I found the only problem was that the girls had the upper hand during the evening. Because in the original Song Star title, it seemed that most songs had such high notes that the only way that the men could compete, was if they were trained to sing falsetto, or lop their testicles off! Luckily, there were some other variations of the title, with some huskier voices, available on hand to even out the playing field.

After leaving Simon’s party, I quickly got cleaned up to meet up with some friends at Karma for what I thought would be a one drink affair. I could not have been more wrong. A large contingent of my friends: Ernst, Lauren, JP, Action Dan, Paul, Xav, Mitch and Kristi had all showed up. Whether independently or together it did not matter, the night was going to be big. Remember how I said I was a complete light weight in the beginning? Well, I was pretty much on my way after only having two shooters, which were dispensed to us by one of Louisa’s very proficient, promotion girls. In my state, I was quick to be on the dance floor throwing some pretty mesmerizing and skillful moves…

This morning; I could definitely feel the effects of the long week, sleep deprivation and the horrendous amount of Jager - two whole shots - had taken it’s toll on me... I was supposed to get up fairly early and meet up with Natalie for morning tea, and at 9:30 am as I enquired to when we were going to meet, it turned out that our times would clash. With that, I thought I’d lie down just a little bit longer…only to wake up again at 1pm…just in time for some Sunday lunch…

Parle Vous Anglais?

I'm having a very French day; as I was back at the French School, this time to support the schools bazaar. With all of the little children zooming around I was quite cautious not to try knock anyone over. Being really short I'm not used to having people below my line of sight! It amazed me how little some of these kids were, which made me wonder how small I was, when I was younger. Back in Grade 1, it was a fact I was the dinkiest person in my school. I remember it distinctly, because the teachers seemed to have a sense of humour and thought it would be cool to have the smallest person, plant a tree for Arbour Day. They conducted a school-wide manhunt. Guess who was picked? Yip. Me.

At R30, it was a sweet deal; you got a salad, a hot dog (I loved how Xav explained it "A baguette, with sausages and some sauce...very French"), cake and wine... and you knew the food was going to be great...cos you know? They're French. All for a good cause too; half of the money would go back into developing the school and the other half would go to helping some of the refugees who had become victims of the tragic, xenophobic attacks which have recently been taking place in our townships. This morning the coffee club collected a few items of clothing, old blankets amongst other things, just to help out with this worthy cause too.

I found it really amusing how all the teachers and young parents, asked me if I had children at the school. It was amusing because firstly, not speaking a word of French, I would have no business sending my children to a French Speaking school; and secondly I still consider myself a kid and am doubtful that I'm ready for such a big responsibility, well at least not at this point in my life.

Since Xavier was going to be busy the whole day with the hot dog stand and cleaning up after the bazaar; he asked us to do him a favour, to pick up some flowers and a bottle of wine (another very French thing to do) for the schools secretary's birthday later that evening. Joe and I missioned to the Woolies and with our limited knowledge, picked up the order. Armed with a bottle of wine and a big bunch of flowers, Joe got a lot of smiles from some over romantic females, so I guess the favour for Xav paid itself off...Thanks Xav, you've taught us a new French trick which I hope to use more often.

Dreams from My GrandFathers

As I began to unwind for the weekend; I picked up my copy of a kickass, new periodical, called Monocle , which JP kindly, gave to me to check out (Monocle is now available at the Loading Bay). “A briefing on Global Affairs, Business, Culture and designs” is the magazines tag line and as it suggests; it is filled with some very interesting, thought provoking articles, and has a real sense of global coverage; not just the usual Eurocentric and Americana BS that gets propagated by the media. Not that I have anything against Europe or the US, but there is certainly a lot more to the world!

One article in particular, really stood out for me. Entitled “My Last Meal”, this piece is the narrative of a well known, successful Art Director/Designer from Tokyo by the name of Kenya Hara. Hara San describes his perfect last meal, the meal that he would have before he dies, to be rice with karashi mentaiko spicy cod roe. It may sound exotic, but if you’ve ever been to Japan it’s a simple traditional Japanese dish prepared at home.

I really like the fact that in his success he is still very modest, which is very contrasting to the “I’ll-over-indulge-till-I’m-sick-from-the-most-opulent-cuisine-known-on-earth” mentality, that is experienced today. It’s the typical “good-enough-for-me” mindset of the old-guard Japanese and reminds me of two great men, in their own right: my grandfathers. Since I was young I have always been told by other people of what amazing people they were. Both of them grew up in a war ravaged time, and back in those days Taiwan was under Japanese rule and they grew up on the very Japanese based principles of modesty, dedication, dedication and more dedication.

Sadly my one grandfather passed away about two years ago. He was the deputy -headmaster of a prominent school in Taiwan, and turned down the cushy positions of headmaster and regional super independent on many occasions. Because he felt those positions, were too administrative and would have taken him away from his true passion, teaching and shaping the potential of young minds.

During his last days he had a severe lung infection and was critically, ill in hospital. But it was only in these last days that I realized how influential the man had been. One of his old students happened to be the head of medicine in Taiwan and had a prominent role in heeding the spread of the deadly SARS pandemic. Even after 40 years, my grandfather’s mentoring was not forgotten. And such was the respect shown for the teacher –student bond; that he did whatever he could to assist in making sure that my grandfather received the best medical attention that was available.

My other grandfather, lead an equally passionate life and from humble beginnings dedicated his life to build a career in the agricultural development of Taiwan. He worked his way up, tirelessly, as a young intern to become the 2IC (second in command) of Agriculture in Taiwan; and developed a process to consolidate the efforts of farm workers, to the mass packaging and branding of agricultural resources, for export as finished products to overseas markets in Japan, Europe, and the Americas.

He later retired to a less stressful position as CEO of one of the major dairies in Taiwan (Haha whenever I visited when I was young...there was an endless supply of Chocolate milk...every kids dream). To this day whenever he takes on a task, no matter what it is he dedicates his all to accomplishing it.

Many economists believe that the agricultural revolution is what led to the industrialization of Taiwan and thus the eventual, economic prosperity of the country; Taiwan became known as one of the Asian Tigers. It is quite amazing to think that my grandfather was one of the individuals to be at the forefront of this.

However with all his achievement he is by far one of the most humble and modest individuals I have ever come across, to the point where he is borderline eccentric.
It had never occurred to me how successful he actually was, as he still lives in the same small, old house, where my mom grew up. And based on that; for a long time I thought the stories told of his accomplishments, were a ploy, fabricated to get me and my brother to work harder. Until one day he asked me if I were so kind to accompany an old man to water some plants at his other homes.

Walking with him, the man doesn’t drive by the way and has no intention of ever owning a car, I was astounded to find the first house was a ridiculous 4 storey, 10 bedroom mansion. One of many might I add, as the next few houses we visited to water the plants, were equally big and impressive. When I enquired why he hadn’t decided to live in these other homes; he simply replied that there was no need and that the house that he lived in “was good enough”.

With the same old-guard mentality apparent in the article from Monocle, even my writing of my grandfathers in this fashion would probably perturb them and be too boastful. It is strange how we tend to measure success through material success and the above example just goes to show that I am certainly not exempt from this either. Looking back I believe I have some big shoes to fill, but looking forward, I believe I have a lesson to learn in modesty and I have yet, a lot to accomplish!

TKO

The Bas Rutten System is the real deal! What is this system you may ask? It’s a workout which is specifically designed, by some crazy mixed martial artist, named Bas Rutten, to keep one fit in confined spaces. Simply explained it is 7 rounds of pure, calorie smashing goodness.

Each round lasts 3 minutes and consists of the recording of some guy (apparently Bas himself, but I’m convinced it’s some lazy voice over guy, sitting on a comfy sofa) shouting at you to kick, punch, do push ups, jumps etc. And in between these rounds there is a 1 minute break for you to try to catch your breath.

I’ve actually heard about it for a while and some of my mates: Junior, Action Dan and Paul; have raved about it and have been hooked since making Generation Kill, a hectic HBO, mini-series about the Gulf War (If any of you are lucky enough, to be in the US at the time, the mini-series starts in July).

I’ve been dying to check the workout out but haven’t had the opportunity, until today. At the little gym in my complex, where I was letting out some steam on the boxing bags after a long day at work, my neighbour, Oliver caught me and asked if I wanted to try a cool workout with him. I agreed and so it began.

Just a word of caution it’s not as easy as it first appears. The first round seemed pretty leisurely but come round 4 or 5; you really start working up a sweat! Reminded me of some of the drills I used to do with my boxing mentor Sandile…minus the body shots and bruises. I’m hooked…and will definitely try, find the workout on the internet and continue it as part of my training regime.

I was in serious need of a recharge after the workout and what better way to get the energy levels back up than with a bit of low GI, rice pasta, courtesy of Bini. A get together with good food and good company still remains my favourite way to spend the evening, but while the rest have gone to have some fun at the Jade Bar. I’m about to retire on account of a TKO.

If You're Not a Manc, You're a Wank

So I just finished catching the UEFA Champions league final, whilst having pizza at JP and Lauren's folks place in Clifton. I thought the title “If You’re Not a Manc, You’re a Wank” to be fitting for this post, as Manchester United have just been crowned champions.

Now to be honest I'm not really a Manchester United supporter and was actually routing for the under dogs Chelsea, with that said, I do carry a Nike, Manchester United duffel bag around; but this was bought due to my complete ignorance. It wasn’t until someone had asked me whether I was a Man U supporter that I realized the purchase that I had made. It shows just how little I actually follow soccer.

Strange though, since I did attend one of the best soccer playing, junior schools in the country. Clarendon Park Primary produced at least 3 South African schools soccer players every year. I played defender; the defenders job is to stop the attacking team’s players from getting pass and to prevent them from scoring goals. I don’t want to brag but during my tenure at Clarendon no one ever got pass me.

Again, this record was held because of my complete ignorance of the sport. Before Clarendon I had gone to two schools (yes, I have been around) both of them predominantly rugby playing and one of them having a proud rugby heritage, named Dale. There was no speak of soccer at Dale and you were forced to play rugby from Grade 1!

When I arrived at Clarendon, soccer, like rugby at Dale, was compulsory, however I was clueless…Funnily the coach, a substitute teacher was an ex- Daley and sympathized, so he taught me very simply, to be a good defender, all I needed to do was to stop the player from getting pass, by going for the ball or “tackling” the player. Figuring that the player was bigger, therefore an easier target and taking “tackle” far too literally, I developed a deadly sliding, studs up, tackle!

From that day forth I was dubbed the “Kamikaze Kid”; and there were many, many penalties and injured players; but it didn’t matter that I got sent off so much, I figured I did my job because no one passed me!

I bet if I played professionally today, the record of players passing me would still remain intact. But given how poncy and dramatic soccer players can be, diving and falling all over the show I’d probably get red carded to heck…I guess I can forget about earning a 7 million euro per month salary. Damn.

My Engrish is Leary Good!

We’ve all had those days - you know - the ones where nothing seems to go right? Well, I think I just had one…well at least the latter part of my day turned into a tragedy. I thought I’d be really diligent and get my lunch ready for tomorrow, so I made a chicken stir fry thing (I’m trying to eat healthily again), and put it into my neat lil lunch box, but for some odd reason I decided to place it on a hot plate. There is now, a pile of plastic-infused chicken and rice, where my deliciously, prepared lunch used to be. “Smart move, Benny.” Man! My kitchen smells like a massacre!

To make things worse, while that was happening, I was at the gym. When I finished, I had to trudge back home in the pouring rain. Ending the spell of bad luck, as I hopped in the shower…there was no hot water, because someone, I won’t mention who, *cough* Joe *cough*, used it all before me…

Thankfully, not everything that happened to me today was quite so tragic; while at work two amusing things crossed my path.

The first of which was that I was reminded that the 25th May, this Sunday is towel day (towelday.org). Towel day commemorates the life of Douglas Adams, the brains behind Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, in which he stated the importance and the usefulness of towels. Ironically I have a towel over my head as I type, to keep me warm after the damn, cold shower.

I remember Ernst and I gave Katy that book, which by the way is a lot better than the movie, for her birthday and told her that she couldn’t be our friend until she had read it…technically she wasn’t our friend for months, but being the kind of people we are, complacent and desperate for friends, we let her off the hook…you’re lucky we’re computer geeks and don’t know too many people Katy!

The second was an email that was forwarded to me, titled “Is Beijing Ready for the Olympics?” courtesy of Karisa. There were a bunch of pictures from a site called www.Engrish.com attached to it; to illustrate just how far the East’s aptitude and handle on the English language had grown in provision for the influx of tourists. My sides were splitting, and I think I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. One thing I’ve learnt today is not to drink coffee while looking at this particular site, because most of my coffee ended up on my keyboard and monitor and not in me, ideally where it should have landed up!

To give you a taste of what I’m talking about, here’s a link for your viewing pleasure: www.Engrish.com. If you think the Engrish site is really far fetched, those who have been to China or Japan will tell you a different story, hey Pleee- siii-rraa (Priscilla in broken Japanese english)?

But if I were you, I wouldn’t be too quick to laugh. The next time you think you’re rocking, with that super, sweet, tattoo of yours. The one in, Chinese calligraphy that’s supposed to translate to something deep like “Love, Honour and Trust” I’d think again…

No Pain No Gain

I can’t even begin to explain how much my body hurts right now, from this mornings gym session; not to mention, also, how much my head hurts from all the stuff I learnt at work. Not only am I trying to learn five different business domains on the projects I’m working on but I also have to learn five different technologies.

As the saying goes “Pain is weakness leaving the body”…If that statement holds true, then by the end of all of this; I should, not only be the strongest man alive but also the smartest! Oddly enough, all this pain feels kinda good…it feels as if I’ve actually achieved something…

Waking up at 5am reminded me of the first day that the Garden’s Virgin Active opened. Back then, I was far more disciplined and waking up early was really easy…as I recall the grand opening of the gym was supposed to have happened at 4am that morning, I was determined to be the first person there!

I set my alarm for 3:45am, which would have given me 15 minutes to get there…more than enough time. The alarm went off; but on that fateful day I had to hit the snooze button! “Curses” I lost seven minutes. As I got ready, I thought maybe, just maybe I’d get there in time for the opening of the doors. 4:03am I got there I was too late; the doors were open bur two other freaks had beat me!

Darn, I was mad with myself! “How could I hit the snooze…stupid, stupid, stupid” I thought to myself. My hopes and dreams, dashed; just because I hit the snooze, I was devastated.

For all that hard effort you’d think that one would be handsomely rewarded, but all I received for getting there so early (third place), was a lousy water bottle, which I managed to lose on the same day in any case. I also got half a smoothie from Kauai Smoothie bar -at least the smoothie was good!

Business Time!

After ending an earlier session at Caprice, that's where all the cool kids hang out on a Sunday by the way. It’s business time!

Another weekend of fun and debaucheries has blitzed by, and tomorrow, well tomorrow my friends its back to business. I always feel relieved when the weekend is over, and can’t wait to get up early in the morning and become a productive member of society again….

Seriously though, it’s going to be the first week of starting a normal routine again, (after a few months of slacking off); and I’m not looking forward to it. Since January, I’ve somehow managed to settle into the comfort zone of apathy, sleeping late eating junk and pretty much lazing around without much focus and motivation.

My work day routine is pretty hectic (or at least I think it is) and goes something like this: I wake up at 5am for the gym, train for an hour; have breakfast and get lunch prepared by 7:30, clean up, get ready for work and be out the door by 8am, graft till 6pm, back in the gym for another hour session, have supper by 8, write my daily blog and then do a bit of studying/programming or meet up with some mates, and hopefully be in bed by 11-11:30pm.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve become so fond and clinically dependent on coffee these days, because without it, the day seems nearly impossible. However painful the weekly routine may seem, I think it is necessary. One day I plan to be successful in all areas in my life, and to achieve this I believe I’ll need to get up early, work hard at it and be pushed.

Rambo says "When a man is pushed cramming a bucket load of stuff in one day becomes as easy as breathing!" Rambo actually used "killing" instead of "cramming bucket loads of stuff in one day" in his version; but for my particular illustration I don't think "killing" is quite appropriate...

There’s also another old saying that goes something like this: "The morning belongs to those who wake early" = that’s it, that’s the saying…think about it…

He ain't Heavy, He's my Brother

Captain's blog - May 17th, 2008...

It appears after much anguish, the device known as the Vodafone 3G, modem; seems to be showing signs of life and is cooperating..

After being disappointed with losing yesterdays blog post, I welcomed going to Asoka and "chillaxing" in the company of my friends. Asoka is one of my favourite night spots and is always filled with Cape Town's trendy, beautiful people. The barmen there are well trained and the famous cocktails and lesser-known food are always of the highest quality. What makes the place really special, however is the tree that is found rooted in the middle of the establishment; according to my brother, Joe, is one of the oldest Olive trees in Cape Town.

As mentioned, in yesterdays backup entry; my brother and I were there for yet another farewell. This time for our Belgium friend, Natalie, who is on her way to Crete in Greece. It seems that two things become evident when winter crawls in on little cat feet: One is the rain, which it's been doing consistently, for close to two weeks (although today it is a particularly unusual, sunny winter day) and two, the mass exodus of foreign and local folk. It always amazes me how many cool people you meet in Cape Town, during the Summer months, but come Winter, they are off again to warmer, and more temperate climates. I spoke to one such cool person this morning, Josephine (not to be confused with Joseph, my brother) whom I met last summer and miss very much.

Anyways back to Asoka last night, it surprises me how many people still confuse me and my brother. Even last night, the guests at Natalie's farewell, were shocked when they finally realized that all this time, there wasn't one, but two of us! We kept getting questions about whether or not we are twins, because apparently, we look really similar...just for the record we're not twins...he's the older, at close to 3 years my senior. When I first moved to Cape Town, the twin thing annoyed us to no end; so much so, that one day out of frustration we decided to play along. But, we tried to confuse them in the process.

We came up with this story: that we were in actual fact twins, but because we were conceived on a leap year; Joe's birthday was on the 28th and mine on the 29th of February, he was actually 28 and me 7...I had no idea that people could be so gullible. However with the addition of some attention from the fairer sex, owing to our similarities - we're starting to come to terms with it.

Has anyone else noticed those tiny, shiny rotating pyramids on top of buildings? Particularly predominant in the Claremont, Newlands business district. A few of my old colleagues and I have always wondered what they were...but I've never been able to find out because it seemed that no one knew the answer...Until this morning that is, while driving home from the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill, I spotted one and my curiosity resurfaced; so I asked my brother what it was and he told me that they were designed by some guy in Cape Town, to scare off pigeons.

The olive tree at Asoka, the pigeon pyramid... you might be noticing an emerging pattern. While Joe, may not be great at remembering names or faces, and has asked me to use my blog as a public medium for apology. He does tend to have the uncanny ability to remember and dispense some, really useless facts...

Friday at Long Freak-in' Last

Thank goodness it's Friday! And just in time too, any longer and I think my eyes would have burnt out of my head. As it stands I've clocked over 60 hours in front of a computer monitor this week and my retinas are seriously taking strain! It's been a while since I've actually sat and coded in a pure development role...

I wrote up an awesome blog earlier, no seriously, I did; about how busy I was going to be this weekend after such a long and hard week, and how that's how I roll and "I'll sleep when I'm dead" but just as I hit the "Publish" button to send my blog off, my stupid 3G Connection died on me...MAN! COMPUTERS CAN FRUSTRATE ME, ARGGGGG!
Good thing I chose a career in IT.

Anyways since I've spent way too much time in front of the PC already, I'll try remember exactly what I blogged about, in said, lost post; and add it to my rantings tomorrow. But for now, I'm off to Asoka for yet another farewell.

Lets Get Naked...

Now that I have your attention... re the title of my blog.

Some good news! For those of you who have been following, I got my phone back. Turns out I left it at Xavier's after all, and as soon as I posted yesterday's blog, my brother got a message from him; to say that I should meet him at the French school, where he teaches, to fetch it. All I can say is that I felt very awkward to have so many little people around me, being 5 foot nothing myself it was odd indeed. And it was even more awkward with all the parents, dropping off their kids, staring at me. They were probably wondering who on earth this suspicious looking character was (being oriental and at an all French school you kinda stick out like a sore thumb), and whether he might perhaps be a pedophile...preying on their children.

Rest assured, while being young at heart; a pedophile I am certainly not! However there could be some danger of me stealing some of the goodies from out of their lunch boxes. Speaking of which, after preparing my lunch and packing it neatly into my lunch box for work today. I somehow managed to leave it behind on the kitchen counter...rather irritating, but not completely horrible, since it gives me an excuse to try out all the cool places around my new work (Kloof Street).

When lunch time came; my new work colleague, Deon, also without lunch plans suggested: now wait for it "Let's Get Naked...". I'm not one to try further my career by performing, indecent acts, but had the proposal come from an attractive member of the opposite sex I might not have been so hasty to turn the offer down...

Luckily, it turned out that Naked is the name of a place that does cool wraps. The inside is pretty funky with the drawings and messages of satisfied customers written all over the walls. The wraps themselves are filling, tasty and quite affordable with me opting for a Mad Cow Wrap (Cheese, Avo and Steak) and Deon opting for The Proudly South African (Mrs Balls chutney, boerewors and egg). At under R35, I was quite impressed.

I wonder if the owner purposefully named the place, Naked, and how many other people have been confused by odd lunchtime proposals. Whatever the case or reason, I'll be sure to remember it and keep it in my repository for casual first dates...

Technology Wins Again!

Thought I'd try something a little bit different today, and blog first before I go to work.
As I blog I'm sitting without my mobile phone! I feel naked! And I feel sick...my whole life is on that phone. It's my window to the outside world, all my contacts...I even depend on it to get up in the mornings. How I'm up right now even typing this blog is a wonder.

Mobile phones have to be one of the most widely used and depended on inventions of the last 15 years. I can't remember what life was like without it. Casual hook ups had to be arranged in advance, with a particular meeting place in mind. These days, one can just whip out their handy phones and call or text the person. "How on earth did we used to get by without it?!"

Katrina is my new hero, I have no idea how she survived her last week, in a foreign country without a means of communication, having her phone stolen off her in Long Street, and done with a "cool as a cucumber" poise. Mucho respect! And here I am freaking out and it's only been a one evening.

Anyways I'm hoping that I left it at Xavier's...soon, I hope to come up with an invention so awesome, that someone else will blog about it; and wonder "How on earth did we used to get by without it?!" Mark my words it's going to happen, I'm not exactly sure what it is yet but watch this space...

By the way it's Gourmet Restaurant Week here in Cape Town. Basically a host of restaurants participate in a week long gourmet extravaganza, of gastronomic proportion. Each restaurant puts on a set menu to show case their establishment, for a fraction of the price. Now, that's my kind of festival, although I'm a little disappointed with the line up this year. Last year they had 3 of my top 5 restaurants participating and this year, none. However the line up is still pretty good, so if anyone is interested in going to any of the restaurants give me a call...Oh snap! you can't I don't have a phone...

Great Gatsby!

When one, thinks of the book the Great Gatsby one makes an association to good living and opulence. Well I say old chap, the Gatsby I ate for lunch today certainly does not conjure images of fine dining.

For those of you who don't know what a Gatsby is. It is fare unique to Cape Town, although most places have some similar variation, for example Durban have what they call the "Bunny Chow". Anyways a Gatsby is literally a meter long sandwich stuffed with some type of curried meat, oily chips, gravy, lettuce, tomato and cucumber and can only be described as a "cardiac arrest" personified. It doesn't sound very appetizing but when you sink your teeth into one of these bad boys you'll be laughing.

Five of my new colleagues and I decided that we were going get two of these and share the bounty. Although there were six of us, some of my colleagues still could not finish off their portions. Back at the peak of my appetite I could finish one of these myself...my brother and I are small but, man, can we eat!

If I were an employer, I'd ban Gatsbys. Not only are they hazardous to the health of the employees consuming them, they are also productivity stoppers...I spent the rest of the day in a food induced coma...or as my friend Katy so aptly calls a "Food Coma". After the Gatsby, I was seriously lethargic, with all the blood rushing from my head to my stomach to digest the mass of greasy food that I had ingested. Not even a good cuppa could save me.

Gatsbys are an institution in Cape Town and part at the under belly of Cape Town's food scene, can be found at most local corner cafes. However I have it on good authority that the best Gatsbys are found in the Heart of the CBD at a place called Miriams Kitchen.

Monday Morning Blues

Whoever invented Monday mornings should be shot!? It's a bold statement but I stand by it!
Man alive! it's getting more and more difficult to get out of bed these days with the ghastly winter, fast approaching the tip of Africa.

If I were president, I'd definitely institute some sort of law to ban Mondays. Back in university we had the sweetest deal imaginable, I was elected as the class president for our honours year and somehow arranged all of our lectures to fit snugly between Tuesdays and Thursdays, thereby giving us a three day week and a whopping four day weekend! MWAHAHA! Life was sweet with me in charge...there was however that one incident where I conducted a witch hunt and tried to have one my of best friends executed (Sorry Ryan...bullet wounds will heal... promise) for posting up a notice that said "Benny is a Poo Poo Head"...as they say "absolute power corrupts absolutely" and I was riding a crest of immense power! Vote for me...president...four day weekend...that's it, that's my entire campaign.

Anyways enough of that, last night; I went to watch Iron Man, and I'd have to say that it's one of the better comic book adaptations I've seen recently! With plenty of entertaining action (even satisfying the toughest of critics - Action Dan), gadgets ,comedy and some good ol' cheesiness (thankfully I'm a big fan of cheese... Mozzarella, Camembert and even good ol'American Cheese...it's all good).

In case the title of the movie wasn't apparent enough; the movie is about a man running around in a metal suit. But, Robert Downey Jr plays, man running around in metal suit, really well. Seems like RDJ is the flavour of the week, with his upcoming movie Tropic Thunder also on my to watch list . As Mugatu from Zoolander, would say "He's so hot right now!"...and as it so happens the quote is quite appropriate as Ben Stiller (the brain behind Zoolander) also stars in Tropic Thunder.

After a good movie at the Nu Metro in the V and A, it is mandatory to grab some Sushi at Willoughby and Co, with arguably the best sushi in the country. (Just so you know the Willoughby's in Jozi, although good, doesn't have anything on the one here in Cape Town...with the one here in Cape Town boasting a much more extensive menu and fresher fish...strange how that is with Jozi being inland and all huh? ) For me, however slight, it seems different after the departure of my good mate, Tristan, who as Kitchen Manager ran the tightest ship and cleanest kitchens, so clean that I would have eaten the food right off the floor!

After a great Sunday evening of dinner and movie, my Monday seemed pretty lack luster...the only great thing to mention was the coffee which I made at work using the cool espresso machine...which wasn't so great in any case as the machine was set to burn the crap out of the person drinking it...

PS you might have noticed that I finally have my blog up on my blogspot ...when I first created the blog it was called "The Ramblings of an Unsound Mind" no one had used the name yet, but because of all my procrastination there's at least a dozen called the same now...I've thus decided to call mine something unique: "Made in Taiwan? No! South Africa!" At least until I think of something more suitable.

Lazy Sundays

It's official, I'm contagious...or at least whatever virus I'm carrying is. With Mitch and Ernst getting ill after me. (Sorry guys!)

Another Sunday morning in my quiet mountain town, with not much to do and still feeling a bit ill; I ventured to Carlucci's, a delicatessen situated conveniently down the road, to find some grub.

The Thai Plumb Chicken Sandwich on Pumpkin Seed is the only thing really worth getting there, unfortunately to say, their coffees are not really up to scratch; so I usually grab the sandwich and make my own cup at home. Luckily I still have some Washed-Sidamo (which is my favourite coffee co-op in Ethiopia by the by) beans, from The Origin to make my own brew.

Anyways, Sundays are always particularly lazy, and the only two exciting things that happened today is firstly, me receiving a phone call from my mom, saying that she received my Mothers Day present and card in the post (Although I despise commercialized holidays, moms don't... so I hope everyone remembered).

And secondly, watching a poor pigeon fly into the glass window while picking up my sandwich, it was walking around the shop floor when it must have been startled by one of the other patrons and as it picked up momentum to get away, it flew straight into the shop window. Luckily it's alright, just a bit dazed and confused and if it were me, probably suffering from a little bit of a bruised ego.

The rest of the my Sunday is going to involve, relaxing, lazing around and jammin' a bit on my guitar.

Restaurant Hopping is the New Pub Crawling

Normally, one tends to sleep in or nurse a serious hangover, as is accustomed facing the aftermath of a crazy, Friday night. But not me. My mate Ernst and I became tired of wasting away Saturday mornings and began a ritualistic Saturday morning coffee at a new coffee spot each week to get the weekend started, from there, a few more people joined and a few more, and yet a few more...it has grown to such an extent that it is now its own entity and is called the Saturday Morning Cape Town Coffee Club. Saturday morning coffee has become so important to me that I often even forfeit a night out on the town just so I can be fresh and ready for the morning.

This morning I had a particularly early start to the day, as I was assigned the task of picking up some stunt pads for Paul and Action Dan from the Linex Yamaha in Roeland Street...and here I thought they only sold motorcycles.

Paul and Action Dan, by the way have every, boys dream job. Being involved in the production of stunts for motion pictures, they get to travel, blow stuff up, throw themselves off of high buildings, and generally do crazy things that every person wishes they could do...for a living. The first time I met Dan he approached me randomly in the gym and asked if I wanted to be in a movie, he said the name of the movie was Tunnel Rats...I dunno about you? But at first, it sounded like it could have been a dodgy porn film. If there was a strange, blonde, good-looking, British dude asking if you wanted to be in a movie involving "Tunnels", what would you think?

He said he was desperately looking for Vietnamese looking characters for a movie based on the Vietnam War. And being oriental, I guess I fit the bill. As he explained, what it was all about; I thought I'd take a chance, take down his number and give him a call. I mean what did I have to lose?...Actually don't answer that! I sussed Tunnel Rats out on IMDB and the rest as they say is history. Action Dan and Paul, whom I also met on set, have since become good mates.

After picking up the pads, I had a hectic day of running around and catching up with people. It started at Saturday coffee, where two of my best friends Tracy and Natalie, whom I've not seen since my move back to Cape Town decided to join coffee club for the first time.

Tracy and Natalie, are both from Port Elizabeth (PE), a place I called home for 10 years. Tracy was a few years ahead of me in high school, and Natalie I met randomly on a plane ride from Cape Town to PE, I helped her with her bags as we boarded, and turned out she was a year ahead of me at the Junior school I went to, but I had just missed her as I started there the year she left. Small world huh? And so, on the plane ride home, we just clicked.

Next, I was off to Gourmet Burger, or the GB as I'd like to call it, to meet an old mate and ex-colleague from Korbitec, Afzal. GB has some of the best burgers in town, served any way you like, with some inventive combinations to choose from, it's also Halaal in case you ever need to entertain some Muslim mates. As far as I know there are now three GBs, the original one is situated on the side street next to Cavendish Square, one on Long Street and a new one which has just opened in Cavendish Square. Since there was no chance of me sitting in a mall after spending a year of running around servicing every Clicks store, in every mall across the country, we opted for the side street original.

We reminisced the glory days at Korbitec, and as we finished up our burgers realized there were no desserts on the menu. I guess when they say they focus on burgers, they weren't kidding. It's odd not to have dessert on the menu but focus is good and we couldn't complain since they do, do their burgers well! It also gave us a chance to cruise around for a dessert spot. We ended up at the Milky Lane, I've not been to a Milky Lane in years! And ordered a Chocolate Brownie Sundae, man it's sweet!...quite literally and figuratively!

Coming down from my sugar high, and getting ready for two birthday parties this evening I doubt my day could get any better...good food...good friends...who could ask for more?

Video Didn't Kill the Radio Star...Radio Killed the Radio Star

About a month ago, my friend Xavier decided to instill a little bit of culture into us heathens, thats my brother and I; and proposed a French DVD evening at his place. In hopes of learning some French and impressing the ladies, it was a welcome proposal.

Since then we've watched a few French movies, yet the only phrase that I have really learnt, which aren't dirty and unrepeatable, is "apre vous" which means "after you". I guess if chivalry were still alive and kicking this would be a real gem of a phrase, but as every one knows "nice guys finish last".

Anyways I digress, last night we, well mostly I, decided instead of a French film, we would see a movie called Across the Universe, which was recommended to us by Katrina. My brother and Xav were weary at first, as the movie is a musical. But it quite literally rocked, from start to finish and they thoroughly enjoyed it - Bini who only joined us half way also enjoyed it .

The movie is very artistic and very cleverly put together, it arranges songs from The Beatles to unfold a love story, with themes of Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll resonating through.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney are arguably the most prolific song writers of all time, and the imagery and in particular the music (since I am a massive Beatles fan) had me captivated from beginning to end.

I was most particularly intrigued with a character named JoJo, who was a spin off of Jimi Hendrix and his guitar mastery inspired me so much that I was practicing scales late into the evening, a feat which I had not accomplished since high school.

The movie was a real throw back to the 60's and 70's and while I was watching, what plagued me most, I believe, is that the level of song writing and particularly guitar work that is churned out by the music industry these days is not nearly as good as what it used to be. I blame this on the format of radio.

I personally believe the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" (so it happens I've hung out with Dave Birch one of the original guys behind the genius of writing that song, a true demi-god amongst men and who helped to produce my mate, Bryan's albums) is not entirely true. I think that radio killed the radio star, with the all too short, 3 minute format restricting and killing the creativity of guitar geniuses and song-writers the world over. When was the last time you heard a guitar solo that lasted 10 minutes that melted your face off? Not since the 80's early 90's probably.

Anyways I could hop on this particular topic for ages, and while I still love listening to the radio, I believe something has definitely been lost. I really hope that at some point, in the near future, a radio star will emerge with the talent to bring me to awe like the Beatles and good ol' Jimi.

Murphy's Law

Oh man I woke up this morning feeling like a truck had hit me...seems like there is a bit of a cold/flu type thing, going around - For the record I cannot for the life of me distinguish between a cold and a flu anymore with purists putting me down and telling me that I have a cold every time that I mention that I might have the flu - whatever it was, I felt like death.

Since it was the first week at my new job and I was set to try impress; Murphy's Law stated that something was bound to happen to counter my intentions, hence my getting sick. I figured that taking leave so early on, at the beginnings of a new career, would reflect badly; thus the contemplation to stay at home lasted for mere fractions of a second.

Instead, against conventional wisdom, I decided to load up on some Vitamin C and downed some Theophen - a "compound elixir" which supposedly helps to relieve tight chests, act as a bronchio-dilator and makes the operating of heavy machinery much more exciting; to help block out the symptoms. As I trudged through the rain, in my already sickly state I wondered whether perhaps fate would not also strike a dastardly blow and end me...no such luck it seemed.

When I finally arrived at the office, I sat down at my desk and looked around for my new boss hoping that perhaps my diligence would, at least, not go unnoticed. As luck would have it and again according to Murphy's Law, like the Law of Gravity, absolute and never faulting; my boss was nowhere to be seen and had himself called the day off sick.

Since I had made the effort to haul myself out of bed I decided that I should stay and make the best of a bad situation. Thankfully this did not go unrewarded as during my lunch I bumped into Claire and Graham, my old neighbours from Sutton Place, whom I had not seen in a long time. I also discovered that Nando's Peri-Peri hot sauce is a great way to clear up ones sinuses, all in all a relatively productive day.

Am I Too Corporate?

I had a great start to the day; celebrating an early morning, birthday coffee with Lauren at the Loading Bay; which is fast becoming one of my favourite coffee hang outs. And from the seems of things also one of my coffee clubs (started by myself, Ernst and Ducassa Nova a.k.a The Bevanator), having our third Loading Bay visit in the space of 5 weeks.

The cappuccinos and the Lebanese style breakfast's such as the Manouche, flat bread filled with some delectable filling are awesome and keep me coming. Although I'm beginning to wonder if the same reasons could be said for the ladies in our club...In fact, I would not be a surprised should a "JP Bolus Fan Club" group appear on Facebook, with a large contingency of members making up the "Sat Morning CT Coffee" group too.

One thing I've certainly noticed at my new job is how relaxed things are on Kloof Street compared to in Jozi. Today I wore some suit pants, a neat open collared shirt and my cool preppy, sleeveless, sweater vest; hardly anything out of the ordinary or over the top. If I had been working in the business hub of Sandton though, I would have been well under-dressed, with most people kitted out in power suits and double-cuff shirts!

But as I was walking down to get my after lunch espresso at the Vida near my offices; I noticed that there were some serious stares coming my way. At first I chalked it up to my sheer animal magnetism, but after some time I noticed that they weren't the good kind of stares..."Was my fly down?" I checked. "Nope", it wasn't. I then started to notice that most people were in jeans, flip-flops and at most formal, a t-shirt. More than appropriate business attire it seems in Cape Town. I quickly realized the reason I was getting evil-eyed was because of being completely over-dressed.

"Sweet"! After this week of impressing (you guessed right Victoria) the bosses with my snappy, conservative, and very corporate wear, I'm going to start rocking it out in something more casual.

Down but Not Out

Procrastinating for over a year and a half, after setting up my Blogspot; I finally decided it was a good time to be proactive, start my blog and freshen up on my literrr...littry...ahhh screw it, writing skills. With such a long time passing, I've since forgotten my "User Name" and "Password", as one does when one procrastinates; and with my new found Carpe Diem attitude, I decided to seize the day and figured that the Facebook Notes application would be a good a place as any to write my first entry and be the temporary home for my needless rantings.

I started my first day of work at a software development company called DVT yesterday. It was a rather strange experience after having worked for Reflex Nutrition South Africa. It was strange because at Reflex, being one of the directors, I was my own boss and never really had to report to anyone. Even stranger was the fact that the two industries are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. Sports Nutrition has no significant similarities to software. One industry is saturated with binary cowboys while the other protein, obsessed he-men.

So different, sudden and unexpected - perhaps due to the distraction of showing a pretty, cool Canadian, named Katrina around Cape Town - this change came, that I had a mild panic attack on the eve of starting my new job. It suddenly dawned on me that I was 25 years old, single, and not nearly as financially set as I was hoping to be. My ambition to beat the rat race seemed to distance itself further from actualization (is that even a word?).

Luckily, I have a background in IT otherwise I think I would have fallen to pieces, as computers, I have found, instills fear in the hearts of even the most hardened veterans. I've seen top business persons cry, because of work lost due to not knowing how to work their software correctly.

In such times of tribulation I look up to my hero, John Rambo for inspiration. My friend Bryan and I are such big fans, that he especially flew up from Port Elizabeth last week so we could witness the greatest theatrical experience of all time ever, together...okay so he was up for a family do, but none-the-less the timing was perfect.

Pigeonholed with all the odds against him, being 60 years old, sun beaten and weathered, Rambo single handedly disbanded the Burmese opposition. And as I watched one quote in particular stood out amongst the gore and death "Live for nothing, or die for something!"

So as I sit and contemplate on the way forward with my cup of Starbucks Pike Place Special Reserve coffee - A blend that can only be found at the Original Starbucks in Seattle's Pike Place market, courtesy of Ernesto; and with manna from old Sly, I feel a supernatural assurance about my future.