Izak's 23rd

It was Izak's birthday today. We celebrated by having dinner at 69 Winery Road Restaurant. It was a great evening with good food and good wine. We are so fortunate and blessed to be able to experience special days like this with our kids.

My two boys

We had dinner at Ernst and Catherine's new place in Pinelands tonight. Catherine produced a wonderful meal (she has demonstrated this a few times). We enjoyed the chicken in red wine with a Nederberg Baronne. It was also great to have Izak and Mariet present. Afterwards the two sons compared the size of their Roodebergs with each other.

Fundamo commitment

This is Courtley (employee of the year for 2007), finishing some urgent work after five. He also had to look after his son, so he used the time to give his son some Java lessons. What was the most amazing about what I saw was how still Courtley junior was sitting while he watched his dad. He must find Java development as interesting as his dad finds it.

My morning ritual

Because today is Easter Monday and a public holiday, I could take some time with my morning ritual. I slept for two hours longer than usual before I got on the bike and did about 30km through the vineyard backroads. I then prepared my muesli and fruit with a mug of coffee. While I finished breakfast, I read a few chapters in the Bible before I took a shower. Today I did the last few chapters of Joshua.

Coenie and Johan

Coenie and Elna visited us today at MeerenBosch with their two sons. We made a fire and braai'ed sheep chops and pork sosaties. This was aptly accompanied by a bottle of Diemersdal Matys and a Backsberg Cap Classique. I enjoyed the company and the discussions that we had. Johan (Coenie's oldest son) is about sixteen years old and not that interested in school (but he has very specific ideas about life's priorities). It was special for me to listen to him (and his brother) and to just experience this special time in a boy's life.

DInner on the Verandah

I was sitting on the veranda at MeerenBosch with left-over braai-meat of yesterday, with a quaffable Simonsvlei Merlot, watching the sun set behind the Kogel mountains. I saw how the lights from Kleinmond were getting more visible and it was so beautiful for me. So I took a photo and blogged it... Now at my desk, I realise that I have taken this picture at different times and blogged it before. Must be something magic for me about this specific place. Check out the other blogs here, here and here.

Catherine and Baby

We had a great braai at MeerenBosch tonight. Ernst invited a friend of his from school (Simon) and his wife to join us for dinner. It was such wonderful weather and we sat next to the fire and just enjoyed the kid's company. Simon's first-born, Samuel, is a cute little baby and surprising not a lot of trouble. This is a picture of Catherine with little Samuel.

The Garden at Work

Our offices in Durbanville is surrounded by a magnificent garden, including a Koi pond. Sometimes it is an escape to just walk down to the garden and sit on one of the benches to finish a telephone call. We are indeed fortunate to work in such an environment.

Cape Town International Growing

I left for Johannesburg from Cape Town International today. As usual, the airport was totally congestion everywhere. Traffic through this airport have really grown the past few years. Luckily we will soon have more capacity.

Getting Richard to Blog

Richard looks after professional services for Fundamo. He has made such a difference in how we work and getting the guys motivated. In addition he is also a "big-picture" person. I love talking to him about what is possible and where the world is taking us. I showed him the magic of the Sony Ericsson K800i blogging capabilities and I think he is going to start blogging himself soon...

Dinner at Avontuur

We had dinner at Avontuur Restaurant tonight (very close to de Wijnlanden). Annelie ordered the Kingklip and I had the Duck with vander Hum. The local Avontuur Minelli Pinot Noir 2005 was a good supporting act. Read more about the estate here.

Kurktrekkers

We meet every month.. a group of friends that taste wine just because we love wine. We have been doing this for almost fifteen years. Tonight we met at Kobus' house and tasted some excellent wines produced by Durbanville Hills. We learned a lot, but also just enjoyed getting together again.

Confidence in ability

While traveling back from Europe some time ago, I read the article about a guest that ordered a £ 18 000 bottle of Ch Petrus and then after tasting it declared it a fake and sent it back. Read the full article here.

What was amazing about this article was the confidence of the person sending back this bottle. This person must have knew exactly what they were buying and how it should taste. Enough knowledge and confidence to declare such an expensive bottle a fake. (It seems according to the article that this evaluation was correct).

In the things that is important to me, I would like to grow my knowledge and expertise to the same degree that I would have this kind of confidence in my abilities.

My first Argus

This is a picture of me and Ernst (my oldest son) just before we entered the chute for our first Argus. It was a grueling 109km but we both managed to complete it in acceptable times. Ernst really had a tough race as he suffered bad cramps, but still managed to complete the race. It was an amazing experience for me. The stress on body and mind and what this does to you, but also to see others that are going through the same agony and how they are coping. For big parts of the race you can choose to just be busy with your own thoughts or to talk to God. I had a few great conversations with my Creator during the four and a half hours that I was on the road.

Absa Top 10

Absa is the official sponsor of the Pinotage Top 10 wine competition. They take the winners on a tour of major cities in order to introduce them to the public. We attended the event tonight and it was a stunning experience. The wine, food and entertainment were of an exceptional high quality. All the wines were very good, but I particularly loved the Fleur du Cap Pinotage 2005 (Coastal Region) because of the subtle complexities.

Cars in the car park

As I left the offices this afternoon to go and get something to eat and I saw all the cars of employees in the carpark, I realised how big Fundamo has grown to. I founded the company in 1999 with a lot of energy and a belief that this can be something big. Now we provide jobs to fifty plus professionals, have clients on four continents in close to twenty countries. It is quite amazing to see all of this. But at the same time, it humbles me because I realise that none of this would be possible without the grace of God and His love and dedication to all of us.

Small group at the church

We have started doing bible study and praising with a small group at the new congregation. We meet every Monday, read the Bible, discuss topics, share our ups and downs and pray together with each other and then we drink coffee and tea. Me and Annelie have felt the blessing of the Lord a number of times and are so thankful that we were led to this caring group. On the picture is two of the members: Sonia and Hester.

Sunday lunch at the Spur

Me and my son, Ernst finished a 75km race this morning. (It is one of the most awesome things for me to be able to cycle with my son - as we have been doing lately). Afterwards we were really tired and hungry and did not feel like a) making food, b) going to a fancy restaurant, c) buying take-ways - so we settled on driving down to the local shopping center to go to the Spur. It has been some time since I was in a Spur. We actually liked the experience: We enjoyed the food and the company while we remembered the times when we frequented Spurs (when the kids were young).

Dinner at Sunset

I braaied tonight. We had a well-matured Sirlion that I specifically bought at our favourite butcher. We watched the sun go down while we finished dinner. I opened a ten-year old Mukuya Merlot (It was surprisingly good. Mukuyu is the only winemaker in Zimbabwe and one felt that with such a hot climate, the wine would not have matured well).