darwinshome

News: I'm happily married :)

Other news: Keeping LJ, Tech blog, personal website, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Jaiku, building websites (for buddies, and money outside of working hours), wife, and job all going is NUTS.

So some change is needed.

OUT: LJ, Twitter, Flickr
IN: Consolidation: using maybe some new tools, but changing my Tech Blog to a general personal / tech / random thoughts blog.

I wont delete accounts - but I will go permanently dormant.

In a few weeks (depending on the time it takes to develop and deploy) http://darwinshome.za.net will continue my online lifestream... in one form or another.

See ya all around.

For those of you that either view my Flickr page or RSS its feed, you would have already seen the state of my poor car. For those of you that haven't here are the details of the incident, as well as a link to the images. (On a side note - the car is now fixed)

A few weeks back (I think 4 weeks now) myself and my fianceé Karén were on our way out of Clearwater Shopping Mall in Roodeport - The mall only has pay parking available, So we are waiting in my car in the queue to exit through one of the exit booms;

A blue Opel joins the queue behind me.
A white bakkie (pickup)with the Shopping malls private Security company tags screeches to a stop behind the blue Opel.
One of the security guards jumps out of the Bakkie and with a rubber mallet starts breaking the rear windows of the Blue Opel - This scares the hell out of most of the shoppers in the area as it appears to be a vehicle hijacking.
The blue Opel, in an attempt to escape the security - pulls forward - I in-turn move forward and to the right to avoid the blue Opel from rear-ending my car.
The Security guard continues to chase the blue Opel on foot.
The Driver of the Blue Opel (in apparent panic) accelerates and impacts my car on the passenger door.
The blue Opel continues past my car, and escapes the Mall security by ramming the exit boom and an additional security Gate.

Turns out the people in the blue Opel had stolen merchandise from various stores within the mall, and the mall security had been chasing them for 5 minutes within the complex parking lot before the guys finally escaped out the gate - the Metro Police Department apprehendedthe thieve 10min later down one of the freeways.

The results of the impact to my door are available for view here

I am now officially a painter, plumber, electrician and tiler (or whatever you call the person that installs ceramic tiles) and a cabinet maker.

So far these two weeks I have painted all the walls in my new place, painted the ceiling, re-tiled the shower floor, installed a new kitchen sink and counter top, fixed various plug points and light fittings, installed a new shower door, and moved in most of my boxes.

Now all that is left is to install curtain rails, paint the newly sealed bathroom ceiling, get the new carpets installed and unpack boxes and move furniture out of the corner it’s stacked in.

I will take more pictures tonight, but I have added a couple more on my flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinshome

Got the keys to my new home on Monday night and went to take a look (first time view for me) - And I am very very happy with the place.

Needs a bit of work; Paint, cleaning, carpets, fittings and a personal touch, but it is home and I am happy.

Will be taking pictures of the painting and fixing process, and the garden, when I get a chance.

New office policy - Breakfast and lunch will be served daily.


Nice :)

A year of weddings it seems...

So far my life has had very few weddings, I have attended my parents church wedding (they were married by court originally), an uncles and a best friends.

Now within 30 days I will be attending 3. Last night was the first, a good friend and co-workers. (all the best Briggsie :) ) The next will be my fiance's uncles, and then in two weeks time will be another good friends big day. When it rains, it pours.

And to think it's less than 5 months until my wedding.

Watching Carte Blanch last night on TV, and seeing the interview they had with the group reminded me that I wanted to post about the their concert I attended a couple of weeks ago with Karén.

Great performance, excellent voices, and for the Coca-Cola Sundome, the sound was great.

One of the few performances I wouldn't mind seeing again.

Hey girl you know you drive me crazy
one look puts the rhythm in my hand.
Still I'll never understand why you hang around
I see what's going down.

Cover up with make up in the mirror
tell yourself it's never gonna happen again
you cry alone and then he swears he loves you.

Do you feel like a man
when you push her around?
Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end
as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.

A pebble in the water makes a ripple effect
every action in this world will bear a consequence
If you wade around forever you will surely drown
I see what's going down.

I see the way you go and say your right again,
say your right again
heed my lecture

Do you feel like a man
when you push her around?
Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end
as your lies crumble down a new life she has.

One day she will tell you that she has had enough
its coming round again.
(repeat)

Do you feel like a man, when you push her around?
Do you feel better now as she falls to the grown?
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end
as your lies crumble down, a new life she has.

Face down in the dirt she says, this doesn't hurt she says I finally had enough..
(repeat)

Get your own spectral analysis from Area 23®

Nicked link from bonnie_rocks, Thank you.

One of the only reasons I think to get Firefox.
Super Mario Bros 3 Theme for Firefox


Image, thanks to Earlysound

Warcraft in Summer?


An Orc ready for a swim?

Went to my fiancee's year end function the other day: The Floating Restaurant at Hartebeespoort Dam. Nice food, and great company.


Just waiting for the photo's from my companies year end bash at Kyalami (go-carting) That was fun :)

Can't post any pics... but the new Calendar is out.

Available for view here

Beautiful =)

The best coffee in the world - for take away - is available from two places.

In Sunny South Africa:


And everywhere else:


A Grandé Honey Nut Latté just saved me from certain work/boredom/death

Honey why you calling me so late?
It's kinda hard to talk right now.
Honey why are you crying? Is everything okay?
I gotta whisper 'cause I can't be too loud

Well, my girl's in the next room
Sometimes I wish she was you
I guess we never really moved on
It's really good to hear your voice say my name
It sounds so sweet
Coming from the lips of an angel
Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye
But girl you make it hard to be faithful
With the lips of an angel

It's funny that you're calling me tonight
And, yes, I've dreamt of you too
And does he know you're talking to me
Will it start a fight
No I don't think she has a clue

Well my girl's in the next room
Sometimes I wish she was you
I guess we never really moved on
It's really good to hear your voice say my name
It sounds so sweet
Coming from the lips of an angel
Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye
But girl you make it hard to be faithful
With the lips of an angel

It's really good to hear your voice say my name
It sounds so sweet
Coming from the lips of an angel
Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye
But girl you make it hard to be faithful
With the lips of an angel

And I never wanna say goodbye
But girl you make it hard to be faithful
With the lips of an angel

Honey why you calling me so late?

Got this in the inbox this morning.


"Two of the world's most renowned shy and timid creatures have found each other in safe companionship.....through the lens of Tanja Askani - Alberta Canada"

Great pics.

The company I work for has a huge interest in Motorbike racing, and this has lead to the company purchasing 4 motorbikes for racing and general enjoyment.

So every other weekend the big boss takes his bikes to a local raceway (Kyalami, Phakisa and Swartkops being the regulars) and goes racing. This Sunday past I went along, and grabbed one of the Ducati bikes to have a little spin.



For someone that hasn't touched a bike in 10 years, it is quite a thrill getting onto a 600cc Monster, and I think if I can make it again soon, I will. Just need to get more pics.

I have a friend; Tom, during his University days.. as the story goes.. he survived on partying and fun, and Toast!, yip good old toasted bread.

Because of this, he developed a 'fetish' for Toasters; I thought he would like this one.


A Salton Elite, Neo premium Toaster - Only takes two slices, but with no live in partner, this is perfect for me, and the occasional visitor; but this isn't the reason this toaster is so great, the wonderful thing about this gorgeous piece of equipment is the Turn dial... with variable times that can be set to the second! so I can brown my toast EXACTLY like I want... to the smallest time span.. no funny 5 and 6 setting with one burning the toast and the other giving me warm bread. 

I love it.. but Tom... you would absolutely kill for this sort of precision in your toast... hope you like :)

With a fiance that works in Soweto, it would be surprising if I didn't go on a tour of the township.

The tour started at VUKA where we picked up one of her colleges (a Social worker and a Local) who was going to act as a tour guide.

Our first stop of the da was at the Hector Pietersen Museum

"Hector, 12, was one of the first casualties of the Soweto uprising of 16 June, 1976, when over 500 people were killed as they protested over the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in township schools. A news photograph of the dying Hector being carried by a fellow student, was published around the world."

The museum is a very graphical reminder of how bad some of South Africa's past was - especially for someone like me that was only born towards the end of apartheid. The museum is a grand memorial to the sacrifices of a few for their freedom.


Our next stop was Nelson Mandela's old home - simple, and packed with tourists


Our tour then travelled around the rest of Soweto to view some interesting homes, and the Regina Mundy Catholic Church.
We finished off the trip with a great lunch at "The Rock" pub/diner/club - a very popular venue for the young and trendy.

Overall, it was an interesting, informative and fun.

Now all I need to do is visit the apartheid museum.