Quiet cool to see the living room iTunes technology slowly but surly moving into cars

Had a fantastic time – and good results on Saturday, but Sunday definitely a hard time, including a flat tyre 1km before the finish which made me carrying the bike on my back and running through the line instead of pumping up a new tyre!

Thanks to Jason for sorting out the Dirty Dog Sunglasses mountain bike shirts and for us being the official race team!

Just found out my results from Saturday (Sunday was not so great!) – 41 overall from almost 1,000 participants

We went to the Muizenberg beach on Sunday and had an awesome day by the beach – sunny and despite ice cold water Robs and Cammie made it into the waves for 2 hours – freezing cold!

Here are some pics:

Which way is the bus below traveling?

To the left or to the right?

Can’t make up your mind?

Look carefully at the picture again.

Still don’t know?

Pre-schoolers all over the  SOUTH AFRICA were shown this picture asked the same question.

90% of the pre-schooler’s gave this answer.

“The bus is traveling to the right.”

When asked,

“Why do you think the bus is traveling to the right?”

They answered:

“Because you can’t see the door to get on the bus.”

How do you feel now???

I know, me too.

1. The geyser is in most houses completely over-speced e.g. we have 2x 200 liter geysers and 1×150 liter for our guest house.
2. Unless you have kids, you would typically shower or bath in the mornings or evenings, and don’t really require hot (as in 50C) water during the day. Most people are too lazy to switch the geyser off while they are out of the house, or don’t have a timer switch built into their geysers.
3. In places like Cape Town, you have so much sun available that could heat up the water or provide electricity using solar energy that the use of electricity from the grid is a complete of waste.

In an attempt to make our home more environmentally friendly, we started looking at how to save energy and how to become completely independent from the grid one day. Apart from minimizing waste by recycling and using a compost, and running all electrical power and light circuits in our house via a Clipsal computer optimized system, we now have 3 solar panels that provide heated water.

Depending on the light intensity provided by the sun, water gets pumped through into the roof where solar collectors heat up water and then pump back into the Geyser. The whole system is controlled by a Geyser Wise Thermostat where I can set minimum temperature of water required over 4 different zones, that can be programmed on a timer. The thermostat automatically cools down water in the very hot summer if usage is little, in order to avoid overheating of the panels (that can get up to 80-90 Celsius easily). In case that the solar energy is not sufficient, the geyser will switch automatically to normal mode using electricity from the grid.

The only drawback that I have found at the moment is that 2×200 liter geysers take quiet some time to re-heat, once cooled down e.g. over night and I am not sure if the every morning re-heating process during winter is energy efficient compared to a ‘constant on’ mode. I will soon find out from my kW consumption bill .

The system with 3 panels, 2 controllers was procured from Germany through South African provider Solar Zone and setup by One Solar who did a great job during the 3 day installation.

Elections and Erections is a personal journey through the minefield of fear and fun on the eve of South Africa’s most crucial general election. Pieter-Dirk Uys ala Evita Se Perron celebrates the two issues that were illegal for most of his life in South Africa: democracy and sex. He uses humour, his weapon of mass distraction, and compares today’s freedom of speech to those years of no freedom.

I had met Evita already (together with Desmond Tutu) at one of Cape Town’s fund raising dinners of the HIV Aids Foundation, but this show has definitely made me laugh a lot. Amazing how Pieter-Dirk Uys changes his character, and how openly he takes the p*** out of SA’s infamous politicians. Wonder if this would ever be possible in Dubai

The highlight was the appearance of Helen Zille’s predecessor of the Democratic Alliance, Tony Leon, who’s party almost took 50% of the votes in the Western Cape, which is definitely a tough test against the ANC, yeah!

On a separate note – the Baxter theater is an architectural masterpiece of the 60th – see those pictures below:

Run was super slow (took 30 minutes for first 4 kilometers) but from Southern Cross upwards had a fantastic time.

Spent afternoon @ my favorite wine fram in Constancia.

Awesome family day!