Mister Wim

Wim stayed the night at our place in Kaapse Draai. Turns out that he packed his Lankawi T-shirt and so I donned mine too. We had a lamb roast with some good wine (including a Buitenverwachting Christine 2000) and finished the night with a few glasses of Glenmorangie(the Glen of Tranquillity). But what was most important was the talk (about flying, religion, the meaning of life, poetry, the previous political dispensation and how we will conquer the world etc. etc.).

Dentist Appointment

I was at the dentist this morning for almost two hours. It was the firs time that I had an implant made with the new scanning technology. As a technologist this was an amazing experience for me - to see how technology is applied in everyday life and the immense benefits that it brings. The tooth-implant was manufactured on site in fifteen minutes and was an absolute perfect fit, it was less expensive than if the tooth was to have been made in a laboratory and had less impact in my schedule. So on all counts it won outright on the manual product.

The thing that interested me most, was the impact that this kind of technology would have on the "tooth-manufacturing" industry. My dentist told me that he cut his business with tooth-technicians with 85%. In total this must have a massive disruptive effect on the industry. Just another example of technology having a major impact on the world as we know it.

Devon Valley

We had lunch today at the Devon Valley Hotel near Stellenbosch with Izak and Mariet. This is quite a special place for me and Annelie as it was the first place that we stayed over more than fifteen years ago when we came to the Cape. The views are magnificent and today we could see all the way to Hangklip. We had a wonderful buffet and one of the local Cabernet Rose's (the 2004) for which the Hotel is famous for.

Verbier

Early morning after my meeting in the Alps. Today is a beautiful day.

My friend Falk

I met with Falk in Barcelona during the 3GSM congress. We had a coffee at one of the hotels across from the convention center. This was the last meeting at the end of a very busy four days.

Len in Barcelona

Len is one of the keenest minds in mobile banking globally. I met with him at the congress and as always had a good chat about the future of mobile banking. His insights into the impact of mobile banking on business and the appropriate business models is always refreshing.

At the new house

Annelie picked me up at the airport when I returned from Sao Paulo and we had a look at the progress with our new house before returning home. Great to be home, great to see how the house-building is progressing, great to spend time with my love.

First meeting on Wednesday

First meeting on Wednesday with local attorneys to assess the implications of launching banking solutions in Brazil. This is a picture from their meeting room of the city skyline. Skyscrapers for as far as the eye can see. This is a massive city - bigger than anything that I have seen...

Leaving for Sao Paulo

Flight SA 304 early on tuesday on my way from Cape Town to Johannesburg to catch a direct flight to Sao Paulo in Brazil. How many hours do I spend in the confines of SAA Airbusses?

Izak's Res

After lunch we dropped Izak off at his Residence. He is a senior in one of the older ones on the campus, called Dagbreek. This is a picture of him standing at the front door.

Oom Salie's Rooster

We had lunch with Izak in Stellenbosch. Because the weather was so great we sat down in the garden of Oom Salie's (one of the oldest shops in Stellenbosch). We had simple food and a bottle of wine. We really enjoyed it soo much, as did a Rooster that walked between the tables.

Annelie and Christelle

Christelle is a little baby that has recently been adopted by loving, caring parents. She is one of the little babies directed and managed by Magdalena Huis. She will be staying with us tonight to give her "new" parents a little break.

Our friends the Kotze's

Annelie have known Hendrik as long as she can remember and we have been friends with them for a very long time - since before we were married. Now our kid's generation is getting married. Through the years, our priorities have changed and we have helped each other through difficult times and rejoiced when we could celebrate. Tonight we had dinner at a Thai restaurant with the most beautiful setting in Cape Town. We spoke about our lifes, about how much time we spent working and what we wish for our kids. We left the restuarant at about midnight, grateful to be alive and to have friends like them.

Sales Department

Look at the dedication of the Fundamo sales team sitting shoulder to shoulder winning important customers to the award-winning solutions. Aletha (further away), then reg and then Craig. Rosemarie is in South America at the moment.

Sunday Lunch

I just love Sunday lunch, especially after I braai'ed some steak and wors. Today Izak was with us and I opened a good Cabernet (2000). We just had a good meal and afterwards, we watched South Africa beat Pakistan in the last cricket match of the series. It is simple things that actually make life worthwhile... why is it that we chase after all kinds of nothings?

Saturday night at JP

We were supposed to play bridge, but we just had an extended dinner and talked till late. We opened a 1999 Jonkheer blend to have with the lamb and home-made bread. We finished the meal with a variety of cheeses and a naturally sweet wine from Avondale.

My lady

Annelie caught on camera watching TV.

Paul at the Office

This is one of my associates at Fundamo offices while we were deep in discussion on some important issues

Discussing the meaning of life

This is my friend Willem at Origin Roasting (www.originroasting.co.za) - one of the best places to drink coffee in Cape Town (... the world). I enjoy getting together with Willem, because our interactions usually leads to such great conclusions. I honestly believe that it is discussions like these that ultimately lead to the world being changed for the better.

Office in Sandton

This is the News Cafe off Fredman Drive in Sandton. When I am in Johannesburg and need to meet some-one, I often use this as a convenient venue. I have meetings here regularly so that it is almost my "office" in Sandton.

Bethlehem Lunch

I had lunch at a cool Italian restuarant in Bethlehem with my parents. I did not even know that Bethlehem would have Italian places, but they even produced a Montepulciano at quite an affordable price. This is my dad with a glass. I will be travelling back to Cape Town via Johannesburg tomorrow.

Four at OR Tambo

After arriving back from Cape Town with my parents, we met Ado (my brother) at the airport for coffee. This was a special get-together, as it has been some time since we were together as a family. We chatted about the way forward for my parents and my dad thanked us for making the effort with them. I will remember this hour for a long time.

en Route London

We said goodbye to Ernst and Catherine today at Cape Town International. They left via OR Tambo for London. This is hopefullythe last time that we have to say goodbye to them for a year. It is their intention to return at the end of 2007 for good. We really look forward to having them close in Cape Town, but also wish them luck with the next stint. It is our prayers that they will prospur in experience in their careers, but also in compassion for each other.

Signal Hill

Drove up Signal Hill on New Years day. It was blistering hot and busy with every-one out on the streets and the beaches. See Robben Island in the background.

On the eve of 2007

We spent the last part of 2006 with my parents, visiting from Bethlehem. The kids went out to say goodbye to the old year with friends at Clifton. SO we could stay home and remissence about the good old days. This time of year is full of memories, but also promises of a new year. This time it was great to be able towork on the memory part.

Three sisters at MeerenBosch

My daughter (actually daughter in law) is on the left on this photo with her two younger sisters at the family holiday house on the Botriver lagoon.

Bloemfontein

Picture taken of oupa Izak and ouma Andre on the stoep of their house in Bloemfontein during our visit. They are so much better than the beginning of the year. The confidence of oupa to actually started walking again after the fracture in his one leg was great.

Bloemfontein

Right now I am sitting on the stoep at my parents-in-law's place in Bloemfontein. We are three generations sitting next to each other. My father-in-law (close to his eighties and suffering from emphasema), my son (in his twenties) reading the bible and me (close to fifty) writing this blog entry on my laptop, connected via Vodacom's 3G card. Life's time perspective is so clear to me right now. I can see the difference in where each one of us is at the moment. What is important and what we are busy with, yet we are connected in a special way. We understand each other (with limited insight), but with the perspective of time. We are all different (because of where we are on our journey in time), but all the same because of our connection through family.

Stef Bos in Concert

Today we attended the Stef Bos concert at the Paul Cluver Amphitheatre. The Amphitheatre is situated in a forest (called Bos in Afrikaans), so it was quite amazing. Stef Bos is a Dutch singer that have been coming to South Africa for the past fifteen years. His music has been influenced tremendously by Africa. As an African this concert was such a special experience for me. Amongst others, quite by chance one of his songs talking about Africa and the birds and the animals were accompanied by wild birds in the forest joining in in perfect harmony. He (Stef) also spoke about the things that he picked up in Afrikaans (my language). For instance, he spoke about a term that we use ('mens-word') literally translated meaning 'to become human'. In Afrikaans this means when you get to grip with who you are and make peace with the fact. I never realised how important this meaning was for me. Stef also sang a song called 'Maputo' about the capital city of Mozambique, partly in Dutch, partly Afrikaans, but also interspersed with Portuguese - 'an ancient language for a young continent'. Having been to Maputo a few times and also knowing what a special city this is, I really enjoyed this song tremendously

Liza and Nina

We had a brief visit to the Adlems today. I took this photograph of our god-grandchild with her mother.

Stomp at Artscape

We attended Stomp at Artscape with our friends the Heines. This photo was taken prior to the show in the foyer of the Artscape Theatre. Annelie and Realle is flanked by their two daughters.

Our Friends Maritha and JP

We had a fantastic Braai at JP's house on Tuesday. The food and wine was good, but what we really enjoyed was the discussion. We talk specifically about religion. I believe that all of us received a lot of blessing through the interaction.

Thabiso

Thabiso is the MD of telecoms company Hipster. We met in Midrand to discuss some exciting joint ventures.

Altyd Jonker

Me and Annelie attended a stunning theartre show in the Oude Libertas Amphiteathre today. The show called: "Altyd Jonker" is a stunning dramaterisation (with music and dance) of controversial South African poet: Ingrid Jonker.

Gretel's birthday

We attended Gretel's birthday party today. We celebrated with friends. Amongst others some stunning wines were opened too.

Sippers Wineclub yearend

We had a great year-end function at Avondale. After tasting the wonderful wines (especially the reds.. and the Chenin) we had a stunning dinner supplied by Anita. This is a picture of Fred and Martie taken just after the function.

Izak left for Witbank

We dropped off our youngest at cape Town International this morning to fly to Johannesburg. He will be working as a trainee engineer on the Kriel coal mine (near Witbank).

Strand Apartment

We visited the apartment in the Strand today to just check if everything is still Okay after we had a number of people renting the property. This picture from the living-room towards Gordon Bay shows how beautiful it could be on a clear day like today.

Garage reptile

A snake died on the floor of our new home in de Wijlanden. We think that this is a good sign :-) On this picture Liza shows the impression that the dead snake left in the wet cement.

Izak and Mariet

My youngest son and his girlfriend having lunch with us on Sunday. We drove out to our house in the winelands that we are building to show to Mariet (she is studying to be an Architect) an dthen ended up at a Indonesian restaurant close-by.

MTN Banking at the Airport

I arrived back at Cape Town International Airport on Friday after the prize-giving ceremony. One of the shuttle-buses were advertising MTN banking. This is a product running on our software. I had to take a photograph.

My beautiful wife

2006 Wineclub end-of-year Function

We had a great time with our winefriends this year, that culminated with a dinner at Hillcrest Winefarm. This is a picture of Nico and Willem in front of the restaurant.

Looking for new Office Space

This is me and Craig and Adriaan on the building site of a possible new office block for our growing company. The current office space is getting to small and we will have to re-locate next year. Today we investigated alternative space.

de Wijnlanden

The house we are building in de Wijnlanden is progressing well. The cellar has been completed and the foundations are now being lain. See the beauty of the mountains and vineyards in the background.

Staffmeeting

We have staff meeting every first Monday of the month. Afterwards we have a few beers and/or glasses of wine. This is a pic taken of a few of the brilliant engineers working at Fundamo after the staff meeting.

Craig at the Office

Craig arrived back from leave in the Eastern Cape today, but had to leave immediately for France where we will be announcing a collaboration agreement with S1 Corporation in Paris.

Saturday

Our special friends Quintes and Rielle visited on Saturday for Dinner. We had "skilpadjies" and Karoo "Kreef". The evening was good fun with talking and sharing jokes till late at night. even though Izak and Mariet is studying for their final year exams, they took some time off to also spend time with us. One of my new Nigerian friends told me that a Nigerian proverb says that my friends are my clothes. I felt it tonight.

Izak rus

Izak is my youngest son. He is currently writing his final exams as a third year Engineering student. He usually lives in a Res on campus but decided to spend a few days with us while studying. It is interesting to experience your own life again in a way by seeing how your kids tackle theirs. I also was a student once and had to prepare for exams. I had a certain view of life, of my parents of my lecturers etc. It is interesting to see how my son sees life.

Wim and Ant

Just got this new mobile and wanted to see how I can take photos and post it directly on the web. The Sony W800 came pre-loaded with Blogger - how cool! So I took a picture of two business associated and friends in our offices after we spoke about how we will conquer the world.