End of my parents' visit

I travelled with my parents back to Johannesburg. They are too frail to do this on their own. After handing them over to my brother, I flew back again. It was a trying visit (difficult to manage with two old people that are not really able to look after themselves, yet too proud to admit it). But in many ways it was very special: they had the privilege to experience Arden (my first grandchild), to celebrate Xmas with us, see both my sons and Cath. I managed to make arrangements to control my dad's finances and just shared memories with them. I am not sure when (if ever) we will see them in the Cape again. In the meantime the memories will suffice.
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Xmas night dinner in the sunlight

Annelie, Catherine and ouma Andrie prepared a scrumptious dinner for us. It was a very special Xmas eve with everyone present. After giving each other gifts we sat down for an amazing meal of gammon and leg of lamb. We opened a bottle of Saronsberg Chardonnay and an Ataraxia Serenity. All the blessings reminded us that the Son of God came to earth to live amongst human beings as the biggest gift for all.

Received a fruit basket after my op

I had a minor operation this week. The procedure went very well and I was discharged after only one night in hospital. My collegues at work sent me a basket with fruit. I really appreciated this.
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At Meerenbosch with the previous generation

It was a special occasion for me and Annelie to entertain my parents and Annelie's mother at Meerenbosch for two days. As we helped the old people up the steps and the stairs with their walking sticks, stiff joints and shuffling gait, we realised that this might be the last time. I cooked a chicken and we watched the sun set over the lake as we listened to the birds going to sleep. It triggered many memories when we were much younger and life was different (and less complex).

Meeting rooms with a competitive advantage

It is a beautiful day in the Cape. We decided to have our meeting on the veranda in stead of the meeting rooms inside. As I breathed the fresh air, listened to the water and birds, while deliberating the intricacies of mobile banking, I realised that this is a competitive advantage.
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My kids and my parents: all of them at home.

We had a feast at home today. We celebrated life with four generations sitting down for Sunday lunch. My parents and Annelie's mom was here, while both of my sons and my daughter-in-law was also present. Arden (my grandchild) represented the fourth generation. My heart filled with pride and joy to have everyone at our home and I thanked the Lord for all His blessings.

My son, Ernst's twenty-seventh birthday

Ernst is my oldest son. He celebrated his birthday with us at deWijnlanden. We had a leg of lamb and potatoes. I decided that the evening was special enough to open a Kanonkop Cab 2004. What made the evening so special, was the fact that this was his first birthday as a father and that one of his grandmothers could be present too.
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I found my first Geo-Cache

I found my first Cache today. (Read more here). It was a small container quite close to the office and after some searching, I managed to locate it. I added my name to the log and now I am officially part of the Geo-Caching community. GeoCaching is a sort-of game where people hide things, take the GPS coordinates and then publish it on the Internet for others to find. As a tech-junkie, I find this particularly interesting, as it combines the physical world, the Internet, hand-held computers with GPS receivers and the curiosity of mankind in one package. I will now go and look for my next cache.

Early morning Table Mountain from the airport

This is part of the job, I suppose. I am catching the early flight to Johannesburg this morning. As I got onto the plane on this perfect morning, I noticed Table Mountain in the distance with the early morning sun shining on it. God created a beautiful planet!

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The vineyard is growing well

The vineyard that I planted last year is growing well. Some of the vines produced their first (small) bunches. It gives me great joy to walk amongst the vines after work and to see how happy they are. I planted Pinotage and four Semillon vines, because I would like to (one day) make a truely South African wine.
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Bonding with my grandson

Ernst and Catherine spent the weekend with us at Meerenbosch. The tranquility, good food and company was ointment to my soul. But what was really special was the time that I could spend with Arden (my grandson). This was so amazing and special to me.

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Dinner at Zuma's in Hong Kong

While attending Mobile Congress Asia in Hong Kong, I had an excellent meal at Zuma's with Scott, his girlfriend, Tashy and Debra. The food was very good, but the Rhine Riesling and the Australian Pinot Noir was particularly impressive.

Almost missing the flight in Bangkok

Me and Aaron were working to a tight schedule to travel from Dhaka to Hong Kong via Bangkok. Sitting in the business lounge at the Bangkok airport, we were working so hard on a number of tasks that we did not keep track of the time. We had to rush to the gate and almost missed our flight.

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The new Cape Town International

I have booked on my Emirates flight to Dubai at the brand new Cape Town terminal. Security and Passport control were smoothly executed. I do live in Africa, but this airport is as good as any, anywhere in the world.
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Great blind winetasting experience

Me and my wife had a great winetasting event last night. Members of our wineclub were confronted with eight unknown wines (four white and four red). We had to identify the cultivar and the vintage. My wife Annelie got 100% and I could do seven. We felt pretty proud of our achievement.
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Spectacular sunrise over the Helderberg

As I left the estate this morning to join my prayer group, God greeted me with this spectacular sunrise. It was as if He was saying that while I was sleeping, He was awake looking after us and that we have nothing to fear.

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Soup and homemade bread with my kids

Ernst and Catherine dropped in and had supper with us. Annelie made her trademark pumpkin soup and we had cinnamon home-made bread with it. A bottle of Weltevrede Ovation complimented everything perfectly. It was wonderful to have the kids here.

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Meeting someone for breakfast at the Vineyard Hotel

The Vineyard Hotel is one of the best kept secrets of Cape Town. Built on the property that Lady Ann Barnard initialy lived on, the hotel boasts beautiful gardens and all facilities that one would expect from a top hotel. While waiting for breakfast, the guinea-fowls ware walking on the patio adding to the tranquil atmosphere.
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Visiting our new offices

Fundamo is now doing projects on four continents and growing fast. Our headcount is also much more than it was in the beginning of the year. We had to occupy additional offices close to the main offices. Today I had meetings at the new offices. I like the crisp and stylish branding.
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Lunch at a farmstall in the Karoo

Me and Annelie drove down from Bloemfontein by car. The Karoo was dressed in beautiful desert flowers and one could see that this arid region was blessed with a lot of rains. We had a lot of time to talk during the ten hour trip, but also stopped frequently. We had lunch at a farm stall close to Leeu Gamka.


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Final days in Gazania

I flew to Bloemfontein yesterday to help Annelie finalise everything regarding Oupa Izak's estate. We plan to travel back to Cape Town by road tomorrow. It is great to see my wife again. I suppose it is through seperation that one realise how much one needs someone
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Preparing to present to a client

One of our clients is having a workshop at the Chapmans Peak hotel in Houtbay and we are preparing to make a presentation to them shortly. I look at the surroundings and realise how beautiful the Cape is. It almost does not feel as if one is working.

Early morning at de Wijnlanden

I took a short mountain bike ride this morning. (I was not on the bike for some time because of the hectic travel schedule). The morning was not too hot with a light breeze and thin mist in the air. The vines was working hard at producing the grapes for the 2010 season and bright green leaves covered the trellises. As I cycled through the vineyards, I looked back at the house and felt so blessed to be able to live in this beautiful area.

Frustration at Schiphol

I arrived this morning early at Schiphol to get my boarding pass for the flight back to Cape Town. When I was given a boarding pass without a seat allocation, I knew: overbooked and I have not been loaded yet. After a number of telephone calls to my travel agent and the KLM representatives, I was given a seat - albeit at a window.

The business lounge was not great either and the restrooms was dirty. Not the best of impressions of an airport that I used to love.

What a hectic day of travelling...

I left the hotel at 04:00 this morning to catch a train to Schiphol, then book on the flight, business lounge, board, short hop to Heathrow, pass through Immigrations, Heathrow Express to Paddington, short walk to my meeting (arriving litteraly 5 minutes before the scheduled time).

Then after the meeting, walk to Paddington, Heathrow Express, pass security (belt, jacket, shoes, watch etc. etc. in the tray), business lounge, board the short flight, arrive in Schiphol, pass Immigration, on the train to Utrecht, walk to the hotel, arrive back at the hotel at 15:00. Exactly eleven hours since I left in the morning.

I should do something about my life.

Attending Mobey Forum in Utrecht

I spend two days in Utrecht attending the Mobey Forum. I presented a paper on mobile banking in Africa, but was surprised with the quality of the rest of the presentations. I enjoyed the city of Utrecht and the dinner that we had as part of the procedings of the Forum.

I made good friends and learned a lot about the industry that I am so involved with.

Ode to my late father in law

My father in law passed away on the 13th October 2009 after a long suffering (ten years). His hospital bed is now empty, but he is in a much better place now. I travelled to Bloemfontein with my wife to support the family and help with the arrangements.

It is at times like this, that one cannot help to re-evaluate ones relationship with your loved ones. I have learned so much from my father in law. Through my interaction with him, I was moulded into a better person. He was a meticulously accurate person with a sharp brain. We could sit for hours and talk about economics and finance, and this inadvertently influence me in how I arranged my life.

This time also made me think of life (and death). The relationships that I have with my wife and my children and how prepared I am if I have to die. In all of this I once again realised that an Almighty God is in charge. Even though we suffer, He has a good plan for all of us.

Beautiful rainbow over Stellenbosch

This is the rainbow that was visible from the balcony up-stairs at de Wijnlanden late this afternoon. With the vineyards green with new leaves and a light rain that made the air crisp and fresh, the rainbow affirmed how great it is to be alive. I know that the world has many beautiful places, but the Cape always seems to have something special up her sleeve.

Lunch with one of my awesome sons

We had lunch with Ernst (my oldest son) at de Wijnlanden today. The food was a simple salad with Springbok fillet pieces, accompanied by Zondernaam Sauvignon Blanc. I just enjoyed spending time with him and once again realised how blessed I am to have children like I do and that we get along well. How empty would my life have been if I did not have kids?

Just landed at Lanseria. What a nice airport.

Flying into Johannesburg one usually lands at O.R.Tambo. This is the biggest airport in Africa. As such it is also the busiest. To the north of the city is a small international airport called Lanseria. Few scheduled flights use this airport, but one (Kulula) operates a scheduled flight from Cape Town. I decided to check it out and landed here this morning. The airport is very quiet with good infrastructure. It is recommended to land here if you have a meeting in the northern suburbs, providing you can bear the traffic to and from the airport on roads that are under construction.

On my way to Bloem early morning

I am on my way to Bloemfontein by car early morning on Friday. My father-in-law is terminally ill and has been moved to a facility for frailty care this week. I am planning to assist my wife and family during this difficult time. It is situations like this that one re-assess the importance of family and one's relatioinship with God. As I approached Liansburg, the cloud covered the sky in the most beautiful patterns. It was special for me to experience creation and to realise that I worship a God that is so much bigger than any of the problems that we experience here on earth.

Mobile money hits the big time with Economist headline

Since I stopped reading newspapers (because they generally only sensationalise gossip), I started reading the Economist. This is the one magazine that really publish quality articles - well-researched and objective. When the latest edition placed mobile money on the front cover, I realised that this industry tha I helped to create is now mainstream without any doubt. It was with a lot of satisfaction that I read this edition.

Received good service at MTN in N1 city

I walked into MTN at N1 city with a set-up on my mobile that did not allow me to get access to the MTN data services. This frustrated me because I like using the Sony Ericsson camera to submit photo's direct to the blog. The lady at the counter fixed the problem quickly and I could take a picture of the shop and blogged it immediately.

Attending Cultivaria in the Paarl with my wife

I attended a performance by some of Afrikaans' most talented artists (Amanda Strydom and Lize Beukmann) in the Paarl with Annelie today. I again realised how important artists are in how we experience life. In singing about the things we all experience (love, longing, sadness and joy), they help us connect with our emotions. Without music and poetry, life would be so much less brilliant.

Dinner with my brother at home

My brother's daughters participated in the South African open fencing championships in Cape Town today. They did particularly well, winning a few medals. Afterwards they had dinner at de Wijnlanden. It was great to spend time with my only brother and his family. We talked about a previous time when we were still kids and philosophised about what the future will hold.

We launch a new generation product

Richard and the team from product development launched a new generation product today. This was an internal launch prior to the product's beta deployment at a client. We had a preview of the advanced features, before we had drinks and something to eat. I am so privileged to work with the talented people at Fundamo.

In the beautiful city of Stockholm

I am in the beautiful city of Stockholm at the moment. We are preparing for a meeting tomorrow and walked to a restaurant close to the hotel. The sun was just setting and the old city embraced us with her charm. The water had a deep blue color and I made a mental note to return at some stage to see and experience this again.

Finishing the tough Karoo to Coast mountain bike race

I participated in the tough Karoo to Coast bike race. This race is known as one of the most picturesque mountain bike races in South Africa and has grown in popularity in the past years. The 100km route follows tracks through the mountains from from Uniondale to Knysna. While I did finish the race, it was very difficult as I was not properly prepared. I have learned a lesson to never attempt something as onerous as this without proper preparation. Nevertheless it was a wonderful experience, especially because I was blessed to experience the event with my wife and good friends present.

Attending conference in Lusaka

I attending a great conference in Lusaka where I also had an opportunity to deliver a paper entitled: Mobile banking in emerging economies. I always enjoy coming to Lusaka for many reasons. This time was no different. I also had the opportunity to make new friends and to meet old ones again.

Back from a great holiday in Australia

We have now returned from a great holiday spent mostly in and around Adelaide. The primary purpose of the visit was to be with Annelie's sister who have now made Australia home and to taste the great wines of South Australia. Both those objectives have been met, we rested well and enjoyed the food and wine of the region.

We returned after a 24 hour marathon trip back in the Cape on Sunday. I am still battling with jetlag and the time-difference, but it is great to be back home and to get stuck into the job again.

The best Shiraz wines in the world can be found in Australia

I have now come to the final conclusion that nobody can make as good Shiraz' as the Aussies can. While it is true that some of the overtly powerful and confusing wines that one find here are just trying to hard, one still find amazingly calm, yet single-mindedly powerful wines. We tasted some of the best Shiraz' in the Penfold stable today (we were only allowed to look at the Grange). Yet, we were able to taste the following icon wines: RWT Shiraz, the St Henri (which we both liked a lot), and some special BIN's too. We also tasted brilliant Shiraz' like those from Tim Adams for instance and finished the day with an understanding that Australia is Shiraz country and nobody can make this cultivar is good as they can.

An amazing degustation dinner at Appellations

Both me and Annelie agree that the dinner that we enjoyed at this well-known restaurant in Berossa was probably the best ever. The ten-course menu was such a well-designed experience with each meal connected to the next in a continuous performance from the roasted prawns to the salted ice cream and hand made petit fours. The approach of building the dinner around the brilliant wines is what we think made this so special. The food was put together in such a way to absolutely compliment the wines and the six wines that we had were also absolute masterpieces. The Torbeck Viognier (2008) and the John Duval Entity Shiraz (2007) were the wine highlights for me. The price tag in access of R3000 was actually worth it.

Lunch at the prizewinning Kitchen Door on Penny's Hill

We had a great lunch at the prizewinning restaurant, Kitchen Door on the winefarm Penny's Hill close to McLarenvale in South Australia today. We enjoyed their famous five course food and wine-pairing and learned more about the wine and the food of Australia. The food and wine were well-balanced in honest, bold and forthright dishes. Our visit to this country is turning out to be most memorable.

Helping on Willem's farm near Goolwa

I helped with some of the farm work on Willem's farm near Goolwa today. We burned some of the prunings from the vineyard and then cut the grass amongst the vineyards. I really enjoyed the work, the fresh air and the different challenges (like guiding the tractor through the trellises). Willem makes good Cabernet Wines on Umuthi and we are having a good time on the farm.

Winetasting in Adelaide Hills

We are now in South Australia and spent the day exploring Adelaide Hills. This must be one of the most picturesque places in the world where wine is produced. The winding roads and the huge trees next to the brooks are very pretty. We found some great wines at some of the wineries that we visited. The Crosser Sparkling wines at Petaluma and some of the delicate Chardonnays that we tasted in the region will be a pleasant memory for us. We did find that the range of each winery was so big that it was difficult to find a common theme and character of the region. We stopped for a light lunch at a small Cafe in Woodside and returned with a lot of satisfaction for a day well-spent.

Meeting Annelie's family in Adelaide for the first time

Esthea and Willem have settled well into their new country. They purchased a farm close to Goolwa where Willem is a General Practicioner and named it Umuthi. Esthea and Willem Jnr. fetched us at the Adelaide airport after a flight on Virgin Blue from Perth and we shared a hearty meal ably supported by the wines made from the grapes of Umuthi. The tranquil environment and the closeness of family was very pleasant to me and Annelie and we thanked the Lord for such blessings.

Tasting wines in the Swan River Region

After the win on Saturday, we rented a car and drove to Swan River Valley to explore some of the vineyards close to Perth. Some of the bigger producers were very predictable, but we managed to find some good, smaller producers that we enjoyed visiting. With the exception of a few brilliant cabs, we felt that the sweet wines produced in the valley were the best trademark of the region. We had an excellent lunch at Sitella, one of the prize-winning restaurants in the valley.

Me and Annelie enjoying the Springbok win at Subioca Oval

We joined a minority "Bok-supporter crowd at Perth's Subioca Oval to witness a clinical demolishment of the Wallabies. With this win the Springboks are now almost assured of adding the Tri-Nations trophy to World Champions and beating the Lions. It is great to be a Springbok supporter during this time. I also enjoyed spending time with my wife away from home and to explore this amazing island continent.

Wonderful lunch with friends at Harbour Rock

Harbour Rock is a new restaurant on the sea at the new Harbour in Hermanus. We had a very nice lunch with wine-tasting friends. We talked about our hobbies and our shared interest in wine, we enjoyed the fresh fish and finished a number of great examples of the art of Sauvignon Blanc in South Africa.

Inspirational winetasting at Luddites in Botriver

We had a very special tasting with Niels Verburg (owner and winemaker at Luddite). This tasting was just one of those tastings where I know why I like wine. This amazing art form symbolizes life. Niels live his passion to the ultimate: he wants to make the best Shiraz possible and he focus all his talents into achieving this objective. I loved listening to his eccentricities, his dedication and love for what he does. Our dreams and our passions may be different, but all of us should demonstrate the same dedication.