On my first visit I stayed with Catherine (Cats) and Rex on Rex's Farm. That's Cats with me in the picture above, the farm is pictured in the snow below. The altitude means that the Drakensburg is a lot colder than Durban, but the snow was an unusal event. Cats and Rex got married the weekend after Grant and Angela (that's today!), but unfortunately I couldn't stay for that.
This first set of photos is from Durban where I was based for most of my time in South Africa. The picture above is of Grant and myself fooling around at the departure gate at Heathrow.
Readers of old will know of my un-natural love for my Mini Coop (well not that un-natural, you with the filthy mind) so a big shout out of thanks to op-pop for not one, but two, Mini links just for me. First a most excellent comic strip from pvp, which is even more excellent for the subtle Ferris Bueller (apologies if this qualifies me as a movie slut, but this still ranks as my favourite film ever) reference. Second up an on-line review of the upcoming Cooper and Cooper S convertibles which really tug at my purse strings but I really can't. I'm having trouble justifying why I even need my current car given that I get the train virtually everywhere, but it would be nice. Very nice.
I'm working out of the office tomorrow, down near the coast, which given the weather forecast should be lovely. What's really tickling my fancy though is that I'm going back to college, not to learn, but as an Intranet consultant (*yawn*), so I'm going to be in a building packed full of 18 year girls. I'm walking around the flat saying out loud, in my best 13th Duke of Wybourne voice, "Me? Consulting with 18 year old girls? With my reputation?".
Due to my lazy posting over the last month or so I missed mentioning the official opening of the Swiss Re Tower, aka The Erotic Gerkin, at the time, but this icon of The City is now open for business. My office is just south of the river, you get a great view of the Gerkin up the Borough High Street though, but most of the business I do is in The City directly around the Gerkin so I see it all the time. I love working in The City but this is one of my absolute favourite sights during the working day. It's not often a building can brighten up your day.
Chilling out in the courtyard of The George (it's owned by the National Trust so you can pretend it's a cultural thing, not a drinking thing) last Friday we were approached by a roving troupe of young masseurs/masseuses. Eh? Some keen questioning revealed they were from urban chill a rather cool new business venture that purveys 5 minute head & shoulder massages, either in your office if you give them a call, or in various nightspots around central London. Nice. The price? Whatever you think it's worth. An odd pricing scale, but cool none the less.
Several 5 minute massages later and my colleagues were even more relaxed than a few hours' worth of beer had already got them. For my part I got all shy claiming I thrived on stress (actually massages make me giggle). It's amazing what nonsense you come out with when you've had a bit to much to drink, not to mention the hidden truths that have a habit of slipping out. But therein lies a tale for another day...(or never).
I'm very happy to re-sniff the manly smell of a pipe who's death last year, it turns out, was greatly exaggerated. Welcome back fella! Pop over for some spot-on humour, normally involving breasts (no bad thing).
Thanks to the very lovely ritilan for some inwards links. Your traffic is much appreciated, but not as much as your classy content. Kind of like this site but with a much cleaner stylesheet. *Nice*.
I've been reading, and very much enjoying, the gadget-esque outpourings of red ferret and engadget. Joining gizmodo and el reg in my gadget bookmark folder they have provided me with a mechanism of gleaning new gadget news virtually anytime I choose to browse around during the day. Total gadgety bliss. Thank you chaps.
The popster gifted me an Easter link, knowing what a big Homestar fan I am. While all the fans out there might be searching for sbmail easter eggs you can't beat the real thing. Ta Tom. While I'm on the subject I was disappointed to see the sale of the homestarrunner domain on April Fools day, but glad to see it all worked out in the end when The Cheat got new boots.
Several games links have landed in my lap recently and I'll be writing about these soon, along with a round-up of games links that have proved to be popular, for everyone visiting here searching for games like the Cimson Room. In the meantime though some other suggested links:
That's it for the round-up. Some big news (for me) left to post, but I'll save it for the first post of tomorrow (for reasons that will become self explanatory).Anyway this is a lazy appeal to you all to provide me/us with some interesting/entertaining viewing material, and to promote yourself in the process, whilst giving me a bit of a break. Post your favourite web links in the comments to this post, or mail me using the link at the bottom of the page, and I'll do my best to include it on the site along with any link you choose to provide to a web project of your own. My own disgression is the only judging factor, and by now you'll have seen I prefer flash animation and game nonsense, but don't let that constrain you.
There's no time limit or rules, but I'm likely to be busy until at least Monday night (29/3 20:30GMT) so that's when I'll most likely start sorting through what, if anything, has been sent to me, late entries are most welcome though. Current/new web favourites and popular links are welcome, but all-time favourites are preferred. Some of my favorite web content goes back several years and I'd most like to see something classic I've missed.
Happy linking :o)
Other news with me is that I am now a dual OS household with my return from the North with my Mum & Dad's iMac in tow. More on this soon. Sunday is Mac familiarisation day in the lazylaces flat (although I have already got it attached to my router, and web access and mail configured) - sorry to go on and on about this but I'm finding the whole new operating system thing quite exciting.
Update: I'm also gettting incoming links from milk and cookies now. *joy*
