Lately August 2015

It's been such a crazy last few weeks that I've hardly had time to think about where my next meal is coming from, let alone plan more blog posts. But things are finally starting to wind down and it's just hit me that in less than 1 week (5 sleeps, to be exact) I am going to be heading off to Germany!

Ok, granted it's mainly for work, but still! I've managed to organise to spend the weekend before I start in Germany and I'm going to be meeting up with a friend who moved there recently and is going to come and spend some time exploring Cologne with me. And then, the weekend after I'm going to go and see where my friend lives in Regensburg. I've been doing a little bit of research into the places I'm going to be visiting and I'm really looking forward to it! In between the weekends I'm going to be training and then testing the software we've spent the better part of 6 months customising to suit our client. It's a tough life when you work on a project that sends you to cool places like Italy (see here) and Germany!

Since most of this month has been taken up with work, it feels like I haven't really done much, especially around the first half of the month. Although, that being said, we did manage to spend a wonderful afternoon at Spice Route the other weekend with some friends. And one Saturday I went to a morning Nikon Camera Course for my D3100 and Nathan Bezuidenhout taught us some awesome tips for using our cameras (after having it for a few years, there was still extra stuff that I could learn, which was great!) and then in the evening we went to a friends birthday party. And we made good use of our Table Mountain Cards and used them to catch a lift down after hiking to the top of the mountain one morning. And this last Sunday I went to a great market out near Darling on Groote Post Wine Farm with a friend. We may have come back with a boot full of wine and delicious toffee from Darling Sweet (think red wine and chocolate flavours, or honey and salt)...So scratch the idea of not managing to do all that much this month, considering we worked two weekends this month, we definitely made full use of the other two weekends! 

In the Nikon Camera training, we learnt how to take those cool pictures where the subject is in focus and the
background is blurred, this was the best one I got of my hand while I was playing around.

Me and Frosty at our friends awesome 80's themed birthday!

How incredible is this cake? I wish I could claim I made
it, but unfortunately I cant :(

Beautiful view from the front lawn of Spice Route.

We were so lucky with the weather on that day - probably one of the best day's we had in August!

I can't get enough of the Orange Breasted Sunbirds on top of Table
Mountain. This little guy was extremely interested when we started playing
his call using the Roberts App!

Looking regal on top of a red hot poker aloe

Quote # 5: Our Ultimate Freedom...

Isn't it interesting how, so often, we let situations beyond our control affect us in horribly negative ways without actually realising it? 

I love that this quote reminds us that we have the power to choose how to react to situations and that we can choose to feel frustrated or annoyed or disappointed at certain things, but we equally have the power to choose to process these situations, learn from them and then try to let them trickle away, like water off a ducks back.

What is a MOOC?

Recently, Frosty signed up two programming courses via Coursera. Online learning has been around for a while, but there is a new wave of online learning and online courses. They're called MOOCs - which stand for Massive Open Online Course's and often these types of courses are free. Yes, you heard me right, FREE! Coursera offers courses from Arts to Engineering to Business to Law to Languages. Most of these courses are free, although from the looks of it, there are a few courses (in which you get a "Verified Certificate") that you would need to pay for. If you're looking to expand your knowledge on something, I would suggest you give them a try!

I thought I would keep Frosty company in a python programming course, which is aimed at beginners who are interested in learning how to program (of course, with a focus on Python). So far it's been a relatively simple intro to programming concepts, but I've been really impressed with the way in which the lecturer (Dr Chuck, as he refers to himself on twitter) has presented the information. He's one of the first online lecturers that I've felt a rapport with and he's simplified things down to the basics... Well, the basics from my point of view. Then again, I started learning to code in Grade 10 which was 10 years ago now!

The second course that Frosty and I are taking is a course that is, hopefully, going to teach us the basics of programming Android Apps. I have a feeling that this is going to be a lot more challenging, but I'm really looking forward to getting started and broadening my programming skills and knowledge, so watch this space, maybe you'll see a Practical Cookie app hit the Google Play Store in the not too distant future!

Why Using Someone's Name Is Important

When I was small, I was very shy and my mum always used to struggle to get me to use peoples names when I said hello or goodbye. Saying "hello" was a push to little-me-at-5-years-old, so saying "hello Eugene" was often unfathomable. Every time I greeted someone, if I just said a quiet "hello", my mum would say "Hello who?" and I would then reply (if she was lucky) "hello Dolores" while clinging onto her leg or hand, looking down to the ground or hiding my face away.

Fast forward 17 years and I found myself sitting in a training session at the Four Seasons in Vail, being taught about the importance of greeting our guests by name and using their name in our interactions with them. I was no longer a 5 year old and I had become much better at greeting people by name (and remembering people's names), but this training session re-emphasised how important it was to use someone's name. It was so engrained in the company culture that not greeting guests by name felt incredibly wrong. Luckily, more often than not, we would at some stage either find out their name when they checked in to their spa appointment or restaurant reservation and you only had to remember someone's name for the duration of their appointment or meal. As a last resort you could get their name off their card at the end of their stay and then say something like "I hope you enjoyed your treatment Mr. So-And-So, I hope we see you again soon".

The idea behind addressing someone by name is very simple. It makes people feel important and valued and that they're a "someone", not a "no-one". If you make people feel important and valued and like a "someone" they're likely to think favourably of you (or your company) and therefore be more likely to want to interact with you (or your company) in the future. It's an easy way to make someone you just met feel important. And everyone wants to feel important. 

Cape Town Fire Pictures

Last night was the second night in a row that Frosty joined the VWS (Volunteer Wildfire Services) team to go and battle the fire that is making it's way through the south peninsula in Cape Town. 

Twice, he's gone from work to the VWS Newlands base ready to be deployed to fight this incredible fire, popping in at home only to get supplies and for a quick nap yesterday afternoon - he got back at 4.30 yesterday morning and at 6.30 this morning. I know that many of the other volunteers do exactly the same - working a full day and then at night giving up their time and efforts to help fight fires.

What Can You Do To Help The Fire Fighters?

Donations of food are coming in fast, but I know that food isn't the only thing that the VWS team are in need of. 

Instead of spending money buying ingredients to make sarmies for these brave fire fighters, why don't you donate that cash to them instead. EFT it or drop off the cash at one of their bases. If you take a browse through their website and Facebook page, you will see that they're requesting:

• donations of money
• gift vouchers for food that they can use in the future
• services (such as people who know how to fix land rovers)

in order to help them buy or fix other necessities that are required for fighting the fire. Yes, the teams get hungry when they're fighting fires (and the people who bring food are the favourites with hungry fire fighters), but if they don't have any money they won't have any equipment (think vehicles, Personal Protective Equipment {PPE}, petrol, fire fighting tools, pen and paper, radio equipment etc) to fight the fire to begin with! 

Also, please remember that the fire fighting crews have gone through special training in order to enable them to fight these fires. So as much as you may want to go and join the teams on the fire, don't. You will endanger yourself and the teams that are already on the mountain. Instead, join up with VWS, go through their training program and then be one of the trained guys fighting a fire next time it happens. There are certain protocols and procedures that need to be followed in order to ensure everyone's safety that you won't know about unless you've been trained.

The night before last I drove through to have dinner with my mum who has been running a course in the same area and I decided that I may as well take my camera with me to snap a few shots on my way to and from dinner. Here they are:

A weather update for March 4th: At about 11:30 this morning, there was a bit of a pitter-patter of rain (and even some thunder!) outside my office in Kenilworth, so hopefully this makes it's way down south to give those fighting the fire a bit of help!

2015 Cape Town Bucket List

This year, Frosty and I have started noting down things for a 2015 Cape Town bucket list. There are so many lesser known things to do, we thought that whenever we are brainstorming ideas on things to do, we'll first refer to our bucket list before we think too hard.

It's a work in progress, but here's what we have so far. 

• Rondevlei Nature Reserve
• Slangkoppunt Lighthouse (guided tour)
• Tobogganing at Cool Runnings
• Picnicking at Company Gardens
• Historical Walk at V&A Waterfront
• Honest Chocolate
• Muizenberg Moonlight Meander
• Greenpoint Urban Park
• Promenade Run
• Helderberg Nature Reserve
• Spirit of Just Nuisance Harbour Cruise
• Coffee at Bean There
• Dinner at I Love My Laundry
• World of Birds
• Rietvlei Nature Reserve
• Labia Theatre Movies
• Iziko Museums
• Mostert's Mill
• Hout Bay Market

We did our first two bucket list ativities on Sunday - the Hout Bay Market and World of Birds - the market was pretty much like every other market. Cool, quirky things, delicious food and lots of people. The only thing that was different about this market was that every second person had a foreign accent. But otherwise nothing that you couldn't get in markets closer to Cape Town. 

World of Birds was definitely worth the visit! When you walk in, you think it'll take you about an hour and you'll be done, but don't be fooled. This place is massive and offers an amazing variety of birds to interact with, as well as other animals - think monkeys, reptiles, squirrels, tortoises, alpacas and bushbuck. 

Any suggestions on things to add? Leave a comment below!

Baby, When The Lights Go Out

I read an article the other day on things to do during loadshedding, which I thought was a grand idea!

For those who aren't in South Africa, you may not be aware that we are going through some pretty hectic loadshedding. Some places have it worse than others*, but recently we've been having routine power cuts to certain areas all over the country on a regular basis so that our power distributor can perform maintenance. 

We could get into a whole political argument, point fingers and play the blame game, but the point of the matter is that loadshedding is here for a while, so we may as well suck it up and find something productive to do while we have no power.

Here's my list of things to do when the lights go out.

1. Make fire your friend. Light some candles. Light a fire for a braai. In winter, light a fire in your fireplace. There's something so cozy about a fire that allows you to enjoy your home an a slightly different ambiance.
2. Read a book once you've lit up some candles. Or don't light up candles and use a reading device with a backlight, such as a kindle fire or ipad.
3. Tell a story. Make one up or tell one that everyone is familiar with. To make it even more fun, break out your torches and tell stories next to a fire.
4. In summer, it may still be light enough to enjoy some time outside. So take your drinks, sit on your lawn and enjoy watching the transition from light to dark without the distraction of electric lights.
5. Go for a drive. Just because your lights are out, it doesn't mean lights are out everywhere. So go for a drive and explore your city.
6. Do some sort of exercise. Go for a run, play that game of tennis or squash you've been meaning to play. Even just take a walk around the block.
7. Have a nap. When there's nothing else for you to do, and it's cold and dark outside, you may as well use this as an excuse to catch up on your beauty sleep.
8. Take up a hobby that you don't need electricity for. Knitting or fly-tying anyone?
9. Get a pen and paper out and write or draw. It can be fantasy or true life, abstract or life-like. There's something calming about getting words or pictures on to a piece of paper with pen and ink.
10. Just sit and chat. Use loadshedding as an excuse to chill out with your friends or family and catch up on life, dreams, things to get excited about or your next holiday.
11. Break out the old musical instrument you haven't played in years and make some music. You can go with the old classics, or the more contemporary pieces, but either way, jamming with some people is a great way to spend an evening. And if you can't play anything, why not use it as an opportunity to learn!
12. Take a blanket and go stargazing. When was the last time you took a good long look at the skies and tried your best to find that elusive shooting star?

So, that's my list - what are your suggestions for activities to do when you've got no power?

* I haven't had too many power cuts in my part of the world, but I know that in my folks area they sometimes go for days without power (and sometimes water, but that's another story!)

Art Of The Brick Cape Town

 A few weekends ago Frosty and I went on a date to go and see Art Of The Brick at the Watershed (V&A Waterfront) in Cape Town. I had a vague idea of what to expect, as I had done some research into this exhibit by a guy called Nathan Sawaya. 

After pursuing a career in law, one day Nathan decided that he'd had enough and instead he started to focus on something that he had been doing since a kid: building Lego sculptures. We got to see a great selection of his sculptures in Cape Town and the exhibit was much bigger than I had originally thought it would be. With sections for general sculptures, classic sculptures, art throughout history and more personal explorations, I was amazed by what he was able to reproduce using Lego blocks.

I really thought that he used his platform to expose people not only to Lego Art, but to art throughout the ages was great. It was an awesome way for me to remember all my matric art concepts that I haven't thought about for ages and to give those without much of an interest in art (aka my date) a bit of a taste for art. 

If you still aren't convinced, here is a taster of what you will see as you walk through the exhibition (there are a LOT more than what I've featured here and I would recommend with all my heart that you go and check it out yourselves!). 

Some more details:
Cape Town exhibit: 12 December 2014 - 28 February 2015
Joburg exhibit: 13 May 2015 - 12 August 2015
Ticket Prices: R85 to R140 (depending on the type of booking you make)
Ticket Sales: Computicket (the Archive Building in Joburg and Watershed Building in Cape Town)

Edit: For more information on Nathan Sawaya, you can visit the artsy.net website.

Africa Geographic Competition

Facebook is pretty amazing. Through one of my contacts, I found out about the Africa Geographic Photographer Of The Year competition and the prizes look pretty amazing, so I thought I would enter with a few of my own pictures.

There are 3 categories:
Travel
Wildlife/Scenic
People/Culture

I entered the below pictures for either the Travel or Wildlife category. Hopefully my pictures will soon be up on the Travel and Wildlife albums - if you see any of my pics, please like them so I can stand a chance to win the "most popular entry" category!

Travel - Rolling hills in Baberton

Wildlife - Amur Falcons

Travel - Baberton Sunset

Wildlife - Trio of Rhinos taken at Mabula Game Lodge

Travel - Sunset at Mabula Game Lodge

If this sound of this competition appeals to you, why don't you scour your pictures and see if you have anything that will fit into one of the categories? Let me know if you've entered by commenting below!

What is the point of a #Hashtag?

The hashtag has been around for a while now and lots of people use it in their statuses and photo captions - facebook, instagram and twitter posts often contain these little '#'s. But how many of you really know what the point of a #hashtag is?

• To make up cool phrases such as #bestfriendsforever, #I'mDoingSomethingCool, #bestideaintheworld?
  No.
• Used to add some #oomph to your picture captions/statuses/twitter feed?
  Not really.
• To annoy people who prefer to read sentences that aren't littered with strange symbols?
  Surprisingly - nope, not that either. 

The point of a hashtag, my dear readers (and yes, there really is a point), is to allow you to add keywords, known as "tags" to whatever the hashtag is associated with, such as a facebook post, photograph, blog post etc. These tags are used by search engines when they crunch out their algorithms in order to bring you the most relevant information. When you then publish this thing and let it loose into the www, there are a few things that happen. 

In facebook/instagram/twitter, if you use hashtags, you will notice that they're click-able or searchable, or both. Click on a hashtag to see what others have been posting about that topic. If you can't find anything, it means no one has used that hashtag. 

You can create your "own" hashtag in order to keep track of things. I'm thinking of using these to keep track of my Practical Cookie blog posts.

Lastly, if you search for something on a search engine, and it has an associated hashtag, it will probably show up at some stage. It might not show up on the first page, but it will eventually!

So - use the hashtag to get found, discovered and find out what other people are associating to particular words!

The Art of the Brick - Cape Town

A while ago, I found out that an exhibition called The Art Of The Brick is going to be coming to South Africa. I'm so so excited for this because by using Lego to create sculptures, the artist Nathan Sawaya has made art into something tangible and exciting for people of all ages (because, let's be serious, everyone loves Lego!). I really think that this is an activity that everyone would enjoy and be excited about - who knows, maybe you'll find yourselves inspired to make your own creations.

The Art of the Brick is going to be exhibited in both Cape Town and Joburg, so if you find yourself close to either of those cities over the following periods, do yourself a favour and take a peek.

---------------------------------
Here's a bit more information:
Cape Town:           12 Dec 2014 - 28 Feb 2015          
Joburg:                 13 May 2015 - 12 Aug 2015         
Opening Hours:      9am* - 7pm
Prices:                  R99 - R145 pp

You can buy tickets at Computicket - they are sold for specific hours every day in order to limit congestion. 

*9am - 2pm from Monday to Thursday are reserved for school tours.

Instagram Challenge Week 3

I've got a bit distracted last week, but here is my indieBerries Instagram challenge round up from week 3 (the last week of the challenge). It was great to see what people came up with from a simple prompt! I had such fun doing this challenge and now have a bunch of new apps and techniques for making stuff myself and being more creative - thanks indieBerries!

Day 11 - Shadow Play using Studio Design app 

Day 12 - Fake Calligraphy

Day 13 - An arrangement of things I had
with me at work