Business lounge early morning

Cape Town International and the sun rising over the airport in the early morning. This picture was taken from the business lounge with blinds in front of the windows not drawn.

Rain in the Cape

It rained today (as it will be doing tomorrow). It rained like it could only do in the Cape, a mixture of downpour and consistent drizzle. The Cape is not known as the Cape of Storms for no reason at all. Luckily we have to only experience this on land. The thing about this rain is that it is cold and it almost feel as if everything is miserable. The good thing is that when the sun shines again it is so clear, clean and green that all the rain was worth it.

Saturday lunch

Manie and Magda with two of their friends stopped at de Wijnlanden today. (They were on their way to Meerenbosch) We tried out the inside-braai for the first time. While finishing a bottle of Klein Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc and later a FormyFriends Shiraz, we reminiscence of the good old days in Brits, when we were still young. It is great to have friends.

Rhino and Lion Park

We had visitors from Indonesia yesterday and today. They traveled to South Africa to do reference visits on our clients. As a special treat, we took them to the rhino and lion park just outside of Johannesburg. We saw a number of animals and I think that they did enjoy the trip. This is Rosemarie (one of our sales execs) and Wim at the kiosk.

Dubai Hilton

Just before a very important meeting, Reg is reading his SMS's. This meeting with one of the major regional banks was quite critical. In the end it was a very productive meeting and we are looking forward working with this bank into the future. (We still have a lot of things to do, but all have a good feeling about our relationship). As an aside, Dubai is an amazing place. It is impossible to describe the absolute growth and investment that is happening in this place. I have never seen so much building in the process of being constructed all in one place. The implication of all of this activity (salary payments, water and other infrastructure, regulatory and just sheer skill requirements) is just mind-boggling. And nobosy pays tax!

Marseille's old Harbour

After last night's dinner meeting, I wanted to get a bit out this morning. So after I showered and dressed I walked down to the harbour. The sun was up, but a cool breeze pushed in from the Mediterranean. It was almost cold. I was just (once again) impacted by the God that created this amazing world. I sat down on the harbour wall and thanked Him for the blessings that He has bestowed on me and my family.

Garde de Lyon

Picture taken at Garde de Lyon in Paris, as I was catching the express train from Paris to Marseille for a dinner meeting with a business partner in Marseille. What intrigued me is the number of people that are in transit, going places all with their own objectives. It would be interesting to calculate how many people are in transit at any point in time on earth. That must be a massiive number of people, and it must be unique in the history of mankind.

Get the Photographer before he gets you

This afternoon some photos were being taken for a press release that we are making this week. I thought I should at least take one photo of the guy that was taking my photos. If you look at the quality of this picture, you know why I am on this side of the camera.