The week in Toti

So far the week in Kwazulu-Natal has been uneventful. Been raining most of the time. Today is the first sunshine day since we've been here. I can imagine that the holiday-makers in Amanzimtoti are wanting to ask for their money back!! :)

Marisa and her mom had a fight earlier this morning about wedding admin. Thankfully we only have to be planning for another 2 months! YAY!! I only have the wedding night accomodation left. Got a lead from a woman in Stellenbosch about a place. I hope its as nice as the pictures suggest. Some of the places are horrendously expensive.

Marisa got herself a new phone 2 days ago. Its a long overdue replacement. Her previous phone (Samsung E600) was by far the crappiest phone that I have ever come across. Her new phone is really cool - 3G and all!! I present the New Sony Ericsson V630i. She is now happily surfing on the web!! A bit expensive without a data bundle, but anyhow.

There are a few gifts still outstanding - Marisa's mom, her brother and my sister. Thankfully we're buying gifts together. Better gifts at a lower cost! Everybody wins. :)

Lunchtime is looming and I'm starving...

Quarterly report!

I know I haven't been the most diligent blogger on the planet. Been busy with the other things in life that make me feel more important! :)

In the last few months we've had Marisa's mom come and go - she came to help out with the wedding planning. My mom has moved from the farm in the Eastern Cape (its about bloody time!!) to Ceres and is living with her parents...that's right!

We're spending the holidays in Amanzimtoti. That's where Marisa's folks come from. The humidity is killing me! We decided to make a road trip up to Toti (as it is affectionately referred to by the locals).

We stayed over in a place in Bloemfontein called the Bloemfontein Inn (or Bfn Inn). Very cheap! Can recommend it if you're strapped for cash and need a place to crash. I don't think they're the most popular place in the world, so you're safe in making a last minute booking when you arrive.

I've never seen so many trucks over turned on the national highways. We saw 2 beer trucks over turned with what looks to be their entire payload ruined - some nightclub was serving water for a few nights!! :) As I'm sure you've all experienced, the road between Laignsburg and Beaufort West is intensely boring. There are signs telling you to rest. Where??? I ask you. At times there's barely a shoulder on the side of the road.

Our wedding plans are almost complete. I'm still looking for a place to spend our wedding night. A lot of the places are asking ridiculous prices. I have a lead...she'll come back to me. And then there's the marriage contract and that's about all. Then its just enjoy the wedding and reception.

On Saturday (16 December) we attended the wedding of 2 of our friends. A really smart venue - Calderwood Hall. Its in the Natal Midlands. As typical summer weather in Natal, it started to shower soon after the newly weds emerged from the church. Nice! Its supposed to be lucky - although one can't help but feel offended when the weather is spitting on you! :) It was a lot of fun though. Only the dancing started very late in the evening. A word of advice...if you're not following the normal (traditional) format of a wedding reception (ie. starters...speeches...main course...opening of the dance floor...at some point the whole garter throughing thing...more dancing...etc) then inform your guests and have your MC keep the guests posted. We're not going to smell that you're doing a few different things!! Now that that's off my chest!! It was still a great evening, you just shouldn't have your guests wondering when the next thing is going to happen. They did have a program, but it just seemed as if too much time went between the items. And then there is the family friend who deems it fitting to make an inappropriately long speech (it was supposed to be him honouring the bride's parents). In the end he spoke for well over 10min. And he brought the bride's grandfather into the speech as well!?

Yesterday we went suit hunting for me. There are quite a number of factory shops in Durban. Some of them are the factory shops for Woolworths. However, after careful inspection, it was decided that none of the items we were looking for were of a high enough standard that I was willing to stand at the altar with a jacket that looked like I got it from the Salvation Army! We're going to Woolworths today to apply for a mortgage with which I might buy my suit! On the upside I will be able to wear this suit for quite a number of years to come.

Ladies and gents...I'm off to take my car in for a service. Will be back later to keep the masses posted. Ciao!

When your best just ain't good enough!

Its been a while...! The humdrum of daily life seems to create opportunities to avoid doing those little things that make life so interesting - such as enlightening the world of the happenings in my life! :) A few weeks ago, I had the experience where I had the mickey taken out of me (with Marisa and another friend). We went to Panarotti's in Tygervalley and made use of their Thursday night eat all the pizza you can special. What they do not however mention ANYWHERE on their menu's or sign boards (that we were aware of) was that they want to close their kitchen at about 22:00. We got there at 21:40. So after we got the first 4 slices of pizza between the three of us (the guy on the right was our waiter), we were told that the kitchen was prepared to make one more pizza - we could chose which one. We felt this rather unacceptable and informed them so. This led to the experience that followed...they proceeded to continue making pizzas. A lot of them! We were also told we could take our time - we just couldn't take a doggy bag! So we started to eat. There were 9 pizzas on the table at one point! We gave up!! And threw in the towel. We realised that they were having a bit of fun. I think the staff get to keep the last few pizzas of the evening. Which meant that they never expected us to finish those pizzas. So we all had a good laugh.

I've also received 2 more blessings! I made the swop with a friend and got the laptop that I wanted. For anyone who cares, its a Dell Latitude C600, PIII, 1GHz with 256MB RAM, 60GB HDD. Its made my life so much more convenient! The other blessing is my "new" car. I got a really good deal with the company that I work for to buy a 2004 Ford Focus 1.6. A really sweet car. It has all the cool stuff inside as well as under the hood. The other cool thing is that my company hasn't finished with their financial matters concerning the car yet. This means that I don't have to pay for the car yet. It could be at least one more month if not more that I don't have to pay! I thank God for these things!

I still need to sell my old car. Its an 2003 Opel Corsa Comfort 1.4. Very nice car! If anyone wants to buy it let me know. I might be able to sell it or work something out with a friend tomorrow. Let's hold thumbs.

Things have been picking up at work. Sort of anyway. We signed off the Spoornet project that I was talking about in an earlier blog entry. The project was hanging for nearly 4 years!! It was a relief to the entire company. We now have to continue with some more work for Spoornet. Good money as well as good experience. The boat project is also taking shape. I start working on the control system for the model boat. I'm trying to get the control to be done on a microcontroller platform. I'm more familiar with it and going this route will keep me interested and motivated enough to work on the project. Also, it is the cheaper option! I'm trying to sharpen up my embedded programming skills. Will need it anyway for the private projects.

The private project is going a bit slow at the moment due to lack of funding. Need to try and sort this out. We could perhaps try and source funds from venture capitalists or something in that area.

I'll be signing off now.

Can I have your attention please? Testing...

I'm busy test driving a new (2nd hand) laptop. I've been itching to get one but have not had the funds to go the whole hog and purchase one. The only way that I would be able to take on this challenge would be to get one at a really cheap price - or do a swop out with one of my friends. I have a spare computer that I haven't been using to its full potential. So a test drive on the laptop is now in order.

I have to make use of this opportunity...I live in a house with another guy. His dad owns the house - he is however not here very often. He works abroad in Angola. Anyhow...the hours that my housemate keeps leaves much to be desired. Don't get me wrong. I don't really mind or care that he comes in from town at 2 in the morning. Just don't bring the rest of town with you when you come home...during the week!!!! Some people!

Last week I spent 2 days testing our model boat on a dam near Mooreesberg. The dam is called Misverstanddam. The name is quite apt. One would easily mistake this dam for a short river. After our first day of testing we decided to see how long the dam really is. Its about 17km long. We travelled for about 15km and thought that we had pretty much reached the end. Also, we didn't trust the fuel gauge on the boat - it wasn't dropping at all during our entire day's worth of moving around! :) The testing was quite a lot of fun. We even had a bit of drama during the eveing when we discovered that one of the engine bays had pretty much filled up with water. We're working with electric motors here. And as most people will tell you: "Water and electricity don't mix!!" We had a small fire in the engine compartment. This smoked one of the motor controllers. There goes R2500. The aftermath left quite a bit of mess. We promptly sealed every single hole and crack or percieved crack with silicone the next morning.

Marisa has convinced me to start growing a beard. Not too sure what she sees in it, but while she encourages this little bit of laziness I'm not going to complain!! Its been going for just over 2 weeks now. Will have to see what it looks like closer to my birthday next month - next weekend!!

Sleep well all of you!! I'm off to dreamland.

And the month steps on!!

A lot has happened in the last month. Adriaan has come and gone. Job offers were made and rejected. Wedding plans are still busy being made and Marisa's mom is now in London. An international phone call came through enquiring whether we wanted cream serviettes with flowers on...from Harods!! :)

It would seem that a lot more dedication is required in keeping the masses updated on the events in my life! I was made a job offer for a company in Cape Town. Always good to know that you're sought after. Here I go blowing my own horn!! The fact that I was about to leave did seem to have some sort of positive effect at the place where I currently work. So perhaps it all happened for a good reason.

So far our wedding plans (those that have been completed/confirmed) include the venue, a dressmaker (Marisa's mom), the photographer and the pastor who's going to perform the ceremony. Although the pastor is semi-doubtful. He still has to let us know. Have to sort that out asap - reminder to self!! There may be some more items that I have forgotten and I'm sure I'll be reminded about them sure enough!! :) We started going to marriage preparation seminars about 3weeks ago. It been a lot of fun. You learn a lot and also quite about about the person you are marrying. Our church organises the seminars twice a year. I would definitively recommend it!

The potential project that I was going to work on seems to have gotten underway. I'm busy downloading some software to use for the programming of the devices. Its quite exciting to be doing something that I've wanted to do for quite sometime. I have the creative freedom to do almost what I please. As long as it stays within budget - which is small by the way!! :) Its quite a challenge. I have to do the concept design, physical design, PCB layout (I might outsource the actual building though - surface-mount stuff is too fiddly for me without the right tools!), as well as the firmware design!!

Marisa has been registering with quite a few of the bride/wedding sites. Its actually very cute to see how excited she is. I'd be worried if that wasn't the case. Although if your woman isn't into all the cute stuff then I'm sure you'd still have some way to gauge whether the enthusiasm was there or not.

I've been getting quite a workout at work over the last month. I've been working at Spoornet in Bellville.We've developed a locomotive engine testing system. Besides all the behind the scenes troubles we've had with the project, I must admit that I do enjoy the change of scenery. I would like to get it finished though. To qualify the workout statement made earlier, the device (not really a very acurate description when one normally associates a device with a handheld item) is housed in a modified shipping container. So I have to climb and crawl all over the place to debug the circuits and to repair things if they blow up!

Tonight we're going to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Should be very exciting!

Till later...

It seems worth the wait

I've had to learn to be very patient over the years. From having to wait weeks to go home when I was in hostel at school, or attempting to save for that special item and so the list can go on.

The latest test in patience extended itself into the realm of our wedding plans. The first major deadline that has to met is the venue and date. In that order! Both Marisa and I are steering for 24 February next year. We made a provisional booking 2 Fridays ago and tomorrow is the deadline for paying a deposit to secure the venue. Marisa's folks have taken on the task of paying for the major expenses that will be incurred. Reaction time is however a factor. But there's a silver lining...our deposit is to be paid tomorrow morning! :) Praise God!! Prayer does work.

The major items that need to be arranged for the wedding have not been looked at very seriously yet. Can't really book people and stuff if you don't have a time and place to put them all!!

The potential project that I spoke of promises to be very interesting. Won't go into too much detail lest the industrial spies grab my ideas!! We're looking into a call-center system. Hopefully we can develop the idea to the point where we totally undercut the existing sellers and also produce a very competitive and quality product. While still making a ton of money for ourselves!! No other reason why one would go into business I guess. Even charities aim to make money - if not for themselves then for the people that they are serving.

The other idea that we touched on was a pet idea of mine that the above project's initiator was also sharing. Home automation is a concept that I believe people would find very useful. The ideas in my head are swimming around as if in a whirl-pool. Need to organise my thoughts on this.

The old Masters study bug seems to have bitten me again. I've attempted to study a Masters twice now without much success in getting into the course. I believe the reason for the turn downs have something to do with the fact that I needed to write a Dean's exam for one of my subjects. This is the exam you get when you have passed everything except this ONE subject. Then you get to request this exam. My final year project wasn't too bad. And my other subjects were all passes. I really want to do the course. I know it'll bother me if I don't do it.

Time does teach one many lessons. The type of fields of research that I would consider going into now differ quite vastly from that which I would have done had I started my Masters course immediately after my undergrad years. So perhaps there are reasons for everything.

When my ship comes in...

This last week has been rather eventful. My sister arrived precisely four hours after she was supposed to. Thanks to the bus company! Won't go into that again...

Megan (my sister) is due to leave on Sunday evening. This is first time that she has spent any time exclusively with me (and Marisa and my brother's girlfriend). She's a hit among my friends and is by far the easiest guest that anybody would ever hope for.

This weekend will hopefully prove to be the start of what might be the beginning of something great. I go to the doctor tomorrow for a check-up on my rather smelly feet!! Marisa and my sister have complained enough that the decision was made to send me. It might do some good. But that's not the big and interesting news. :) There's potential for myself and a friend to work on a project together. It looks like it could turn into something big.

Last year I had the unfortunate experience of not having too much to do at work. Somewhere around November my actual work dried up and I had to find something to keep myself busy with. Not too pleasant. This carried on for about 4 months. Then I was assigned to a project that promised light at the end of my very long and dark tunnel. Its a boat design project where I'm responsible for the control system thereof.

When I tell people that is what I am doing and that we sometimes go out to dams to test the scaled-down model of the boat then you realise how cool this work actually is. Problem is this...the project sounds awesome, almost like science fiction. But on the ground level you have to deal with the issues that make up this project. I haven't had a team leader or supervisor for about 4 months. I don't need a babysitter, but a bit of structured guidance never hurt anyone.

Enough moaning! Well...just one more gripe!! I'm sort of finished with the current phase of development. Testing is busy taking place. But when we're not testing...I need to find something else to keep myself busy with. Wedding planning and catching up on correspondence comes to mind. As well as extensive "research"!! :)

Down with the bus

Bus companies have the annoying habit of never being on time (or rarely ever).

My sister is supposed to come visit us. She's going to stay with Marisa. The bus that she's travelling on is now 4hours late!!! If this were an airline there would be chaos. People would be asking for refunds and bitching at the ticket offices. With busses however, you're supposed to accept this as an inconvenient fact of life. Airlines go through stringent checks on their planes, servicing, maintenence, etc. Does this not happen with busses? They seem to frequently break down. Do they not know their routes by now? When the busses are late you have to sit and wait patiently like a good little sheep; not complaining, because then you would be causing a scene. And heaven forbid that you voice your distaste!

We're going to check out a wine farm this afternoon. We've been told that it is an excellent venue to hold a wedding ceremony as well as a reception. Will take some pics and post later. The place is called Morgenhof Wine Estate. The "Hof" ending to the name has produced a few chuckles! :)