Snowboarding in Africa!

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Posted on 14 August 2011 Personal

Ive just returned from an amazing 7 day holiday to Afriski in Lesotho. I dont think many people would believe there is a great ski resort with real snow only a few hours drive from Johannesburg!

The resort has a number of wooden cabins, apartments and backpackers lodge to cater for pretty much any size family or group. There were 10 of us and rented one of the largest cabins for 5 nights.

There is also a restuarant and cafe / pub that comes to life after the sun goes down.

They have 1 beginner training slope for ski’ers, an intermediate slope for beginner snowboarders and then their main 1km slope. They also create snow most nights, so during the winter months, even when it hasn’t been snowing, you can almost be assured of being able to snowboard and ski.

It took me about 2 days to learn to snowboard whereby I’m now totally comfortable going down the big slope and had the confidence to try new things. After the first days lessons I was so bleak. I couldnt seem to get anything right, my body was aching and I was so upset that I had spent all this money to get to Afriski and that I’d be there for a couple more days and couldn’t stand up on the snowboard! A good nights sleep and me dreaming about snowboarding seemed to fix that. It’s amazing what the sub-conscious can do.

I highly recommend anyone that is planning an overseas snowboarding holiday to hit Afriski first to get your snow legs and then head off to Austria, Switzerland and the likes.

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C’mon McDonalds, tell the US Government to go make their own happy meal!

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Posted on 1 August 2011 Business

I just read “The ‘New’ McDonald’s Happy Meals: Apple Slices in the Trash?” and how McDonalds in the US is reducing the number of fries in its Happy Meals and replacing them with a couple of apple slices all because of pressure from government to get McDonalds to serve healthier food.

The US have a huge obesity problem, but since when is its McDonalds fault? Sure they sell the food, but who pays for that processed burger, deep fried chips and fizzy drink? Parents! Kids are taken to McDonalds by their folks who order and pay for the unhealthy food.

So explain to me why McDonalds bows down to the US government when they tell them to make their food healthier? They are a private company creating thousands of jobs. Imagine McDonalds turned around and told the US government they were replacing 90% of their staff force with an assembly line that now automatically makes all their meals?

Start educating parents on how to feed their kids better, get them to exercise more and generally look after their kids heath, rather than changing an ingredient or 2 at McDonalds. By attacking and getting McDonalds to make these tiny changes, they sending out the message that its ok to eat their Happy Meals.

It’s never ok to eat at McDonalds if you are obese!

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5-a-side football in Cape Town

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Posted on 29 July 2011 Cape Town

For the past few months I’ve been playing 5 a side football at Fives Futbol courts behind the Cape Town Stadium and more recently at the African Brothers Football Academy, just behind Gardens Centre. What started off as a once a week thing is now twice a week and has taken my love for football to a whole new level. I guess its the closest I’m ever going to get to playing for Chelsea!

The point of this post is how addictive it has become. Every now and then a spot opens up in a game and I invite someone new. They walk off that court almost begging me to invite them to the next game.

I can’t get enough of it!

Also really want a pair of these customised Nike boots. Pity you can only order them in the US. I’d be the mainest guy with custom designed boots like these.

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My long exposure shot of the Space Shuttle over Cape Town at night

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Posted on 18 July 2011 Cape Town

So some space shuttle zoomed over Cape Town at around 19:26 on the 17th of July 2011. I literally found out about it 5 minutes before it was going to happen via Twitter! Grabbed my camera and tripod and managed to snap 2 long exposure pics of it. This one below was the best.

Space Shuttle over Cape Town

That little skwigly bit at the bottom of the space shuttle orbit is called camera shake. I had to manually press the shutter button to start the 25 second exposure as I don’t have a remote release. (Ordering one today though!)

Looking for the full hi-res image? Download it here (2.9MB 4288 x 2848). It’s free to use, for whatever you wish. Time magazine or National Geographic, if you use my image, a link to my website would be rad.

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Using the Apple TV in South Africa

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Posted on 27 June 2011 Apple

The Apple TV is a great little device. It has a number of features I use weekly and has definitely changed the way I consume media in my house. No longer do I have to watch movies or series on my Macbook’s small screen or use messy cables to get my Macbook hooked up to my 42″ LCD TV to get the full experience.

Apple TV in South Africa

The Apple TV connects wirelessly to my home network and hooks up to my TV using a single HDMi cable. Once it’s hooked up to my home network this is where I get the most benefit from it. Using Airplay, whatever photos, movies, Youtube videos or music I would usually consume on my iPhone, iPad or on my Mac, I now tap the Airplay icon and it automatically shows up on my TV! I then use my iPhone or iPad as the remote to browse through the images, stop, start the video or select another song to play.

Apple TV menu

All your content has to be kept within iTunes in order to stream it to your Apple TV. Check out HandBrake for converting movies and series to MP4 which you can then easily import into iTunes.

Another killer feature is the ability to rent movies and series from the iTunes stores. You will need an US iTunes account to be able to rent movies and series. Movies cost $3.99 to rent (series episodes are $0.99) and you can keep a movie for 30 days. Once you click play though, you have 24 hours to complete watching it. In terms of speed, I have a 4MB ADSL line at home and most of the time I click download and can start watching a movie literally within a minute. Apple TV does check your line speed and only allows you to start watching when it knows you’ll be able to finish watching the movie without any buffering.

iTunes also has a massive amount of online radio stations which you can listen to via your Apple TV. Much better than DStv’s audio bouquet.

The biggest problem though is purchasing an Apple TV in South Africa. They are not officially available here and I highly doubt they ever will be. There are a few online stores that do import them. Check stock availability with the online shop before purchasing though.

Other than these stores, hopefully you have a friend in the UK or US that can purchase an Apple TV and send it to you as a gift. They retail for $99 in the US or £101 in the UK.

Apple TV hacks

I haven’t tried or see the need to jailbreak my Apple TV, but here is a simple guide to jailbreaking your Apple TV. Once jailbroken, you will be able to install XMBC which then turns your Apple TV into a media player without the need to be chained to iTunes.

Everyone consumes media differently in their house and the Apple TV isn’t for everyone. I however love the fact I can easily rent movies from my couch, download pictures from my camera to my iPad and with one tap can share the photos on my TV for everyone to see and when people are talking about those funny Youtube videos they saw at work, I quickly find them on my iPhone and use Airplay to stream the videos to my TV for everyone to laugh at.

Lastly, one of my most favourite past times is watching movie trailers on the Apple TV. iTunes has a lists most of the movies that are currently in cinemas and although you can’t rent them just yet, you can watch the trailers!

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