Luggage lost and found

I arrived back on Thursday in South Africa, without my luggage. Luckily, I was re-united with the luggage on Saturday. Judging from all the labels on the suitcase, it did a lot of traveling before arriving in Cape Town.

Bible in Afrikaans

I read the Gideon's Bible in my hotel room this morning and was surprised to see that they had one of the verses in Afrikaans. The intention was to show that the Bible has been translated into so many languages so they started off with: Afrikaans, Arabic and then Chinese.

Just arrived in Albuqueque

I just arrived at Albuquerque International after a 34 hour journey. I will be attending a Payments Summit in Sante Fe. I found out that I left my drivers license at home (so I could not rent a car) . I also forgot my toiletries, so had to buy toothbrush, razor etc. Not a good start. I found New Mexico very interesting - does remind me of the Karoo back home. It would have been nice to have Annelie with me, but maybe next time.

The guru of Pinotage

We had a most amazing tasting tonight on the farm of Beyers Truter. (Amongst others he was the Mondavi International Winemaker of the year in 1991). We listened to an extremely entertaining presentation, while tasting ten of South Africa's best wines. Afterwards we sat down for a snack-dinner and an informal chat.

My birthday

I celebrated my birthday yesterday with friends and Champagne at home. At work, I was surprised with an announcement at reception and found that two of the new employees share a birthday date with me. I brought four chocolate cakes for the staff and Sanna organised every-one to sing to me. It is so special to work in an environment where you are not treated as a "boss". I was humbled and honoured to work with such great people.

Vineyards Cycle

I went for a cycle through the vineyards close to our home this morning. I left at the break of dawn and cycled for about 90 minutes. The air was crisp and fresh and I had the most beautiful views of the clouds on the Helderberg and the sun turning it red before breaking through the clouds. Almost everywhere the grapes have been harvested and the leafs started turning yellow and red. It was such a special experience. I took this photo with the timer functionality on the K800i.

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.