Quick catch-up

I have been seriously busy recently, hence the lack of blog posts. Now that I've managed 5min during my lunch break I thought I'd fire 3 posts in!

Life is pretty simple, yet chaotic at the moment. Work, work, work... toss in a couple gym sessions for good measure, and the occassional night out.

The real reason for the post is really just so I can show off my up coming social schedule and make people jealous. I'm a bastard I know.... but that's just how I roll. (p.s. that's a new ghetto speak saying I've added to my vocab to compliment 'fo shizzle'.)

This Saturday: Watching the rugby then off to Wembley Stadium for Live Earth. I was lucky enough to win the chance to buy tickets (yip you read that right, you had to enter a competition just for the chance to buy tickets). Line-up is:

Madonna
Genesis
Metallica
Kasabian
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Corinne Bailey Rae
Bloc Party
Foo fighters
James blunt
Duran Duran
Damien Rice
Razor Light
Beastie Boys
Snow Patrol
Paulo Nutini
David Gray
John Legend
Black Eyed Peas
Keane

(Should be....above average!!!!)

Then in August: V fest- here are a few of the headliners

The Killers
Kasabian
James
The Fratellis
KT Tunstall
James Morrison
The Goo Goo Dolls
Foo Fighters
Snow Patrol
Pink
Kanye West
Paolo Nutini
The Kooks
Manic Street Preachers
Lily Allen
Basement Jaxx
Amy Winehouse
Jet
The Fray<
Damien Rice
Corinne Bailey Rae
Sophie Ellis Bexter

(Also....not bad!!!)

Then the week after I'm off to Edinburgh to watch SA play Scotland at Murrayfield, and go to the Edinburgh festival.

Being me sucks so much! :P

The end and the beginning.

I am now back in London, but first let me recount my last days in SA.

Easter Monday: Spend the day chilling with my folks, and attempt to organise on final drinking session. I thought it would be appropriate that I go to the Colony Arms for farewell drinks and so after dinner I head off with my sister as my designated driver. Get to The Colony expecting to be greeted by the waft of John Deere's, only to find that it was closed...wtf! So not to be deterred my mates moved onto plan B without so much as a hiccup- the Jolly Roger- you just can't fault it for consistency. It really is a fine establishment, and on my last night it was perfect! (You know it's good when even when it's shite Swimsuit Models go there.) The evening was a quiet affair as I suspect my mates were a little tired and had work the next day, so many couldn't come. No matter, my 2 greatest mates were there and the Castle Draft flowed nicely. My sister was a super star and didn't grumble once for having to stick around.

Tuesday: Last day in SA. Made sure the washing was done, returned my gran's car and took her for lunch. Then picked up my sister's car from the garage and took her to get the speakers, I had got her for her Birthday, installed. Then chilled at home watching cricket and passing the time before going to the airport. After my Dad dropped me off I found the pub showing the cricket and sat and had a drink and a couple cigs. Oh the dread of having to get onto he plane! On the plane I was seated amongst a german family and of course the youngest was next to me. The whole flight all I could think was, Oh My God... surely one kid does not need to piss this much. Every half an hour!!! Then he fell asleep and I felt the tension drain from my body and I got my PSP out. As I switched it on he woke up... it's as if he could smell the disc warming up and for the next couple hours proceeded to watch me play over my shoulder. He would lean closer and I would move it away so I cold see what I was doing, closer- move it away, closer- move it away... until I was eventually holding the console in the aisle and his neck was craning to see what was going on! The little pig dog! (swein hond).

Wednesday: Plane lands in Madrid, and thanks to my Schengen Visa still having 4 days left on it I didn't have to be sent to a different terminal with the rest of my TB/Aids/terrorist/asylum seeking countrymen. They really have funny regulations for anyone displaying the little green passport. This most recent example really highlighted this as I was able to bullshit my way through the entire airport all because I had a piece of paper glued into my passport saying that the french trusted me once... what a joke! Anyway, I got to Heathrow and called a cab as the thought of tubing it home was right up there with Chinese Water Torture. On arriving home I met my new housemate from New Zealand and after a ten minute discussion duly passed out on the couch from exhaustion!

Thursday: Woke up very confused as I wasn't sure where I was, and then spent the rest of the day catching up on the series I had missed while in SA.

So now it's back to the norm of the UK. Fortunately I have some exciting things to look forward to and the weather is playing nice so far. Got a TASS Group meeting this weekend and I expect some exciting news will be announced soon regarding this.

Wanted: New Liver, Kidneys, and Lungs

The party will not stop... I love it!

Right so to continue the diary:

Tuesday: Off to Jolly Roger again! You really can't fault it for consistency!

Wednesday: Admin day, spent taking my gran from place to place and then met with a developer about our second website. Looks like they'll be able to do everything we want and it just may come in on budget!

Thursday: Shopping with mom! Got spoiled... I'll never get too old to be spoiled by my folks! Then off to Saints rugby fest very late, to meet up with mates before heading off to Melville. Old Melville hasn't really changed, and we started the evening off with a bit of sushi before managing a semi-pub crawl whilst being stalked by some rather 'large' women whom my mate thought was a good idea to talk to. Got stuck into the Jager-bombs in a big way before shaking some ass on the dance floor (I still can't do drum 'n bass properly). Another mate then dropped me off at home after passing out in his car on the way and realizing I didn't know where I was.

Friday: MUST CHILL OUT... but noooooooooo, off to lunch with my godparents and some hair-of-the-dog. Lunch turned into afternoon drinks before calling it a day and attempting to catch an early night.

Saturday: Up early for rugby on tv, and last minute admin at the bank. Sharks have a beauty of a game, that's more like it boys! Then off to Saints rugby fest. Had a good time talking shit with my makes and having a couple beers all whilst overlooking the games below. Saints got a thorough trouncing at the hands of Paarl Gym, but that was kinda expected. Then off to a mates house to meet up before catching a cab to Night Fever. Ahhh the Fever... I cannot believe it still exists. As per normal at Fever drank far too many shooters and Jager-bombs, and then demonstrated to the adoring crowd how to completely make an ass of yourself whilst dancing like it was your last night on the planet! I loved every second of it. Minor regret in not paying the young girl I had being buying drinks more attention at this stage...however... bygones!

Sunday: Happy Easter- woke up at a mates house feeling less than fresh and caught the start of the Grand Prix... McLaren 1/2- sweet...my ex would not have enjoyed that result! I then hear the news about the cricket and my mood does not improve... poo. WTF! (I'm lost for words)

So as you can see the party has not let up, however the venues have gone back to basics. Less pretentious and more just about having fun with mates! Only a couple days left in SA, and as sad as I will be to leave... my body will be a lot happier once I do!

Jo'burg- The Good and the Bad

Hectic!

Let me just start off by saying that I am loving being in Joburg. Since my last post I have had a crazy couple of days. It's during these couple days that I have been reminded about one of the things that I don't enjoy about this city, but I'll get to that... first the play by play summary:

Wednesday: After recovering from the 27 Dinner I was off to Q Bar for a coke or two. I eventually managed to put a beer down but it wasn't great. This really is a testament to the previous evening. Q Bar was pretty good, but the point of the evening was to meet up with some mates whom I hadn't seen since being back in SA. I then came home to watch SA almost choke to Sri Lanka.

Thursday: Chilled during the day and then went out for dinner for my sister's birthday at Harrison's in Rivonia. What a quality spot! And really good value. It was really cool to spent time just with my family.

Friday: The beginning of the weekend. I joined a mate for lunch at News Cafe in Sandton, and sacrificed watching my beloved Sharks for the pleasure of my mates company. Another joined me before catching a lift with another mate to go off to Kai Tai in Randburg. I can definitely recommend Kai Tai for a good relaxing drink with mates. From there I went off to Su Da Da in Sandton and then off to Jolly Roger in Parkhurst. I didn't have a lift home from here so spent the night at a mates house.

Saturday: Woke up at my mates house and helped him move before dashing back home to pick up a change of clothes. Then off to a mates flat for a couple gin & tonics then met up with a group of mates before going to Ellis Park to watch the Lions lose to the Brumbies. We then went back and had a bit of a street party before going to Jolly Roger for pizza. Then off to My Bar My Grill, and from there we went to Taboo in Sandton where we hung out with the Brumbies players before being dropped off at home.

Sunday: Got up feeling understandably fragile before my entire family came round for lunch. Had a great day eating oysters and sushi, and drinking Castle Lager. I love Castle it really is one of the best beers I've tasted.

Monday: Met my mate while he was playing touch rugby, and then off to the Dros in Randburg for a drink.

So as you can see I've been partying hard, and racking up the miles. Joburg is a strange place, but I don't think it's changed as much as I have since I left 3 years ago. Whenever you walk into a place in Joburg everyone looks at you and gives you the up-and-down...what's up with that? I am not an interesting person to look at...
Then all these terribly wanky and pretentious places I've been to really take it out of you. I'm not sure if it's the places or the complete tossers that seem to swarm there, but I really don't have the energy for it. Hence why I'm off to Jolly Roger again tonight... to hang around good people, drinking good, well priced beer, and just chilling and talking rubbish.

That being said, I will more than likely find myself in more of the tosser spots, because on some level I'm still a Joburg boy!

In SA... the beginning

With great anticipation I jumped into the cab at 3pm on Friday to catch my flight to SA.

Upon arriving at Heathrow I was told that I couldn't check-in for another 40min... what a pain, having to hang around lugging my bags around and then queuing.
Once I was checked-in I made my way to security where I was confronted by a monster queue, and then had a good giggle for about 20min as I watched people trying to jump the queue. Airports really are the most stressful places, and I'm sure the arseholes in the airport are really good people in a different environment.
Once through the security and feeling like I had only narrowly managing to escape a rectal search, I made my way to the bar and started throwing back the lagers. In between trips to the smoking section there was a security scare and the cops arrived and closed down part of the terminal. During the moment of heightened stress all I could think about was this is going to make a great blog post if something happens...nothing did.

Got onto the packed plane en route to Madrid (delayed by 90mins) full of school kids making a noise. Iberia's planes are straight out of the 70's with a single tv over the centre seating section, and not interested in watching the in-flight safety video I got my PSP out for a couple hands of poker. Instead of blocking the noise of rowdy kids it only served to arouse their interest in me as now they wanted to know what I was playing and if I wanted to link a game with them. The thought of losing a game of poker to a bunch of 9yr-olds didn't appeal to me so I put it away and jammed the ipod at pretty much full volume- to the disgust of the women sitting next to me.

Arrived in Madrid and rushed to my departure gate as the delay meant I didn't have time to mess around. To my delight this is where I ditched the kids, however the next flight was just as full and uncomfortable. The movie on this flight was Dreamgirls and the thought of spending 2hrs bending my neck to get a good look at the screen didn't appeal so I attempted to catch a nap. I would doze off and then wake up thinking I'd managed a good hour of rest only to find the movie was still on. I repeated this about 5 times, and even had to call the hostess over to make sure that they weren't just repeating the film. So all in all I managed just over an hour's kip and about 2000 hands of poker.

Was greeted by my family at the airport and made my way to their new home. Really weird arriving home and then going to a new house. The shower was a welcome relief and I followed this up with quite a few ice cold Castles. Then watched my Sharks play some awful rugby, and the Aussies rack up a huge total. A mate came over a piked me up to go off to a 'Proudly South African' themed party which I thought was really appropriate for my first night. Many beers were had watching us unfortunately lose the cricket. From here my mate and I suddenly got the feeling that we needed to keep up the party momentum before our 07h07 tee off at Royal, so we ended up at Manhattans in Rivonia. I had been there before when I came over last year- and no, it hasn't improved. I did manage to inhale plenty of vodka's and redbull to keep me going and during one 'best dancer ever' moment tried a John Travolta like slide on the knees. I didn't quite manage to pull it off instead I only managed to end up on my stomach in the middle of the dance floor- not what I would call graceful. At the time I didn't realise it, but I have grazed both my knees and it is rather painful.

After the 'club' my mate and I had about an hour to kill before tee off so went to another mates house where of course we fell asleep and were late to golf- much to the disgust of the rest of the 4-ball. I have no recollection of the 1st 9 holes, but looking at the score card afterwards I now know it was not worth remembering. The 2nd 9 saw a noticeable improvement.

So after 48hrs I had managed just over 2 hours sleep, probably too much booze, but a lot of fun.

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away!

Oooh, the excitement is bubbling up within me.

I fly out tomorrow. A real bugger of a trip- Heathrow to Madrid (then wait 2 hrs) then an 11 hour flight to Jo'burg. It'll all be worth it though when I'm chilling in the sun throughing back a Castle Lager, watching SA thump the Aussies and the Sharks continue their unbeaten run.

Planning on getting to bed early this evening that way the time will go by quicker.

I fly in a week.

Finally! My new internet connection is up an running.

This past week has been a royal pain in the arse and I know I have missed out on plenty of things. This morning I have trying to get through my feed reader but with over 400 posts to get through it is proving to be a little tiresome and many posts aren't getting my full attention.

I've been trying to get my head around why the SA Blog awards have proven to be such a hoohaa. WTF- calm done folks.
Caught up on two episodes of Amplitude, and I continue to enjoy their content.
Haven't been able to submit to muti, and now it'll take at least a week to familiarise myself with whats topical at the moment especially since the KuduRace has been started- I want that T-shirt!

No internet connection has meant that I haven't been able to look after my start-up properly and it has been a real stumbling block as we are soooo close to alpha launch and I haven't been able to play around. >:(

On a personal note I've felt like a real arsehole recently. Not exactly sure why I think that, (serious self-loathing going on), but I think I'm over it and slowly I'm regaining my god-complex. LOL. Just in time for my trip home, yeah boy! I think I've been feeling like a prick because I've been suffering from withdrawal due to lack of internet access. - problem solved!

Now I'm counting the days to SA, I fly in a week. Not looking forward to the flight, London-Madrid-Jo'burg (15hrs) on Iberia- should be...'interesting'. Might have to invest in a new game for my PSP to keep me occupied.

10 days!

Arrrgh! I hate not having inernet access at home. I'm now rationing myself to 1hr at the internet cafe everyday, otherwise I'll end up putting a serious dent into my SA spending fund! What makes things worse is the fact that the new modem has arrived, but our line has not been cleared yet. So I have the hardware for my new 16mb, uncapped, wireless internet, all for the beautiful sum of £10/month... but the fecking thing can't work until the line has been activated. Flick the damn switch already!

I've got a great idea for a post brewing in my head but can't actualise it sitting in an overheated internet cafe. However I can tell you it involves my experience in networking at events, and some funny thoughts on meeting people at the 27 dinner later this month.

So in 10 days time I will landing in SA- sweet! Until then my time is probably going to be spent between the gym, and chilling on the couch. The weather over here is finally starting to improve, the sun is out but it's still a little chilly. Spent an hour or two the other day chilling outside reading a book in between watching rugby games, what a pleasure. Fortunately the cricket will allow me to spend hours in front of the tv with a good excuse.

TopOf.co.uk update, 27 Dinner- Help.

Happy Friday everyone...

I'll start out by letting you all know that I am in the final stages before being able to unleash my first site in the world wide wilderness. TopOf.co.uk is busy having the final changes made by the developers as we speak, and if they can follow our instructions properly (things get a little lost in translation in India) I'm hoping it will be all done by middle to late next week!

That being said we have also started work on our next two sites:

Tazoo.co.za will be a shopping site for the Saffa market, and we have finished the business plan and are shopping around for quotes from developers.

Yuni.co.uk, is probably our most complex and ambitious project, and is aimed at the UK student segment. Yuni, is still in the planning stages, as we know it's going to cost a fortune to get it done the way we want it. We are considering a staged development process, slowly adding on the new features which will eventually come together to form the final site.

In other news, as you're probably aware I'm looking forward to my trip home (just a tad), and today I realised that my trip will coincide with the 3rd 27 Dinner in Jo'burg. Chuffed! So I'm all 'registered' to go. I do get the feeling though it will be the same vibe as when I go the monthly MiniBar meetings- me on my own desperately looking for people to talk to, and trying my hardest not to look like a loser. I find this rather humourous as a big part of my day job entails networking and I'm pretty damn good at it. In fact anything that revolves around drinking I'm good at.

So I can see it now- I'll arrive early (as always, can't bring myself to be 'fashionably' late), and hit the bar with a vengeance. Once sufficiently lubricated, I'll probably try and hit on a girl which will break the ice and I'll end up having a great evening. So in order to save some poor girl getting the 'Squirrel' treatment I am launching the 'Adopt Grant and save a poor girl from having to get rid of me' campaign. All that is needed is for someone to acknowledge my existence prior to arriving at 27. In other words I'm looking for someone to say, "Hey Grant, I look forward to meeting you at 27."- No Mom, you don't count, and no I don't think it will be cool if you come along to hold my hand while I try make friends!

Man, it's like the first day at school all over again!

59 days! Clear your schedules, dust off your dancing shoes...

....the Squirrel is coming to Jo'burg!!!

That's right, I have just booked my trip home to SA. I arrive on Sat 24th in the morning and will be there for just over 2 weeks! Be afraid, be very afraid!

So for those of you who work! (Having a dig at my sister here ;)) You need to make sure that you don't have too much important planned, because I have every intention of coaxing you out most evenings! Mwoohaha.

I can taste the Castle already. Feel the heat beating down on my shoulders, as I strike an enormous drive down the middle of the fairway. Sitting on the couch debating life with my mother. Telling my father his football team is kak, and his tv is average. Watching the Sharks! The pepper steak pies, biltong by the kg not the the mg. Tap water that actually tastes good. Laughing at pretentious people in Sandton as they order expensive whiskey without knowing the difference. Talking shit with my mates and the subject of salaries not coming up. Speaking to people about my business ventures, without getting that glazed look over their eyes as I try to explain e-commerce. Yes- I am looking forward to it!

Two double zero seven- The return of Squirrel

A new year, new beginnings, blah blah blah... Aren't you sick of reading blog entries like this!

I'm back in the office after an excellent break in Dublin for the past week. Having dragged my laptop around with me for the past week and not connecting to the internet once (can you believe not a single unsecured wireless connection!) So all intentions of blogging on my trip had to be put on hold, and energies diverted to drinking many pints of the black stuff- ag shame I hear you say!

So myself of two mates flew to Dublin on the 28th, an uneventful trip all of 50mins in the air. Arrived on the other end (obviously), only to realize we had no idea where we were staying except for the name. We had rented an apartment for our stay so not as easy as just asking a cabby to take us to the Hilton. Fortunately the tourist information desk in town pointed us in the right direction and a gut feel got us there eventually. Only whilst enjoying my first pint of Guinness did I remember I had printed out a map showing the location- silly fool!

The apartment was simple and excellently located and 'big up' to my mates for organizing it. Spent the first night in the pub (this statement pretty much tells the story of every evening so just take it as a given) watching a guy belt out Irish music as well as mainstream stuff- he was excellent. There is no smoking in any indoor place in Ireland meaning I had to go out into the cold whenever I had a smoke- this proved to be really easy and made me realize just how often I really needed to smoke (not often). The funny effect of this law is that you realist just how much other people smell in pubs! If it's not the the body odour, it's the farting! Obviously the smoke usually masks the smell because that is all we smelt the whole trip. Either that or Guinness makes people fart more.

We did the obligatory city sightseeing bus tour the next day which gave us our bearings and the bit of background info we needed to appreciate the surroundings. Went to the Guinness Storehouse (aka the most expensive pint of Guinness I'll ever buy), and realized that SAB Miller have copied every aspect of the tour for their tour in Johannesburg. This didn't detract from an all-round interesting experience. That evening - see night 1, and add more beer and dancing (only second best dancer in the club, was pipped by a wannabe white ghetto superstar busting a move every time anything resembling R&B came on) Unfortunately my advances towards the opposite sex yielded no success, and I'm having serious doubts about the whole 'if you dance it - they will come' philosophy. LOL- I love being a dork sometimes.

Serious hangover the next day and so went for a walk around Phoenix Park (not the whole thing-it's quite big) and on the way back walk past the the Dublin Zoo. As we walked past my mate suggested we walk up to the fence as we might get a bit of freebie viewing of lion or something. With a chortle (haha I said chortle), we swaggered up to the fence to see what was going on to be confronted by what looked like an overgrown enclosure. For a couple seconds we pressed our faces against the fence to see if anything appeared. At that instant both my mate and I had a moment of sheer terror, as through the bush came the head of a tiger. Screams of 'Jesus Christ' where simultaneously shouted as we both managed to run about ten feet backwards in half a second, whilst trying not to look completely petrified (which we obviously were!) Once the initial shock wore off the two of us broke out into hysterical laughter as we realized how silly and un-manly we must seem. Two grown men from Africa fleeing from a tiger which had two 14foot fences between it and us.

The next day we went back to the zoo and paid the entrance fee. It was an excellent way to spend the last afternoon of the new year, and despite my initial hesitation of paying money to see animals which would be hiding because of the weather- it ended up being very good and the zoo is designed around the fact that Dublin is plagued by very average weather conditions with most of the enclosures having viewing areas of the heated rooms where the animals retire when it's kak outside.

We began our evening preparations at home with a good meal and I got stuck into half a bottle of Jack Daniels. My one mate and I stayed at home doing the male bonding thing while our other mate went to scout out a spot to ring in the new year. We ended up in an excellent pub just off the main drag which had an Irishman providing the live entertainment, a reasonably priced bar, and a 'club' downstairs for the after countdown disco dancing. Once again my advances towards anything female were unsuccessful, and my conclusion is that it must have been that I was completely out of their league, and it had nothing to do that I must have looked like a complete drunken gimp. LOL!

As expected, new years day was very uneventful and I bonded with the couch and tv.

The day of our departure we headed off into the countryside to a little village called Enniskerry for a bite to eat before rushing back to catch the flight home.

All in all a good break away, and a good party was had. So now I'm back in London looking forward to a rest!

Merry Christmas

It's a bit late, but hey!

I am currently the only person in the office, what a laugh. I'm sucking back the lemsip trying to shake the cold I've picked up from too much booze, smoking and late nights, before heading off to Dublin first thing tomorrow morning.

Christmas was good. I had a fondue party at my house on Christmas eve which was hilarious. It was originally planned for a mates house, but was moved to my house when more people decided to join in and we needed more space. I've got a bit of video footage of the evening but I'm struggling to get the sound right so will have to post it at a later stage. The highlights being watching a mate eating 5 pieces of fruit covered in chocolate in one go, and me sightly pissed recording myself opening presents all by myself- ag shame!

Christmas day I went to a mates house for an excellent meal, but even at that stage my poor body was taking strain.

Went for a walk around town last night to catch the Christmas lights which were pretty cool, but otherwise it has been a relaxed period. It's these times of year that really make living away from home tough.

Apart from that you can expect much hilarity when i return from Dublin where I'm sure i'll manage to get myself into some tricky situations!

Happy New Year everyone.

The trip to Munich

Well I'm sitting writing this in Munich airport. The pesky powers that be won't let me log on unless I pay for it. This is giving me serious reason to consider getting a t-mobile hot spot subscription when I get back to the UK because I spend my life encountering this very problem.
I have a full blown hangover after a very enjoyable Christmas party, but before I get to that I'll fill you in on my trip.

I had initially blogged on the first day I was here, and I spent that day in workshops with various parts of the company. These proved to be extremely useful, and much of what I learnt really should have been made clear to me when i first started.

Firstly let me say that Germans are wonderful people, and many have no problem with speaking English. On my first evening I was joined by one of the German team who took me to a local Christmas market. This was a local market and so was not packed with tourists as you would find in the main markets in Marienplatz. It was here that I I had my first take of Gluhwein 'mit shus' which translates to 'with rum'. Why all gluhwein is not made with rum I just cannot understand as it is heavenly stuff in the cold German air. We then walked around and looked at the local produce, none of which I found to be too interesting. We then wandered into the beer tent where I tasted what I was told to be the second best beer in Munich- Lowenbrau. We stood talking rubbish for a couple hours and had many more beers. My tour guide left me at the central station as I was confident that I could find my way back to the hotel. Oops...




Day 2 began painfully as the self inflicted wounds took their toll. Fortunately the workshops were very interesting and all I had to do was sit and listen. The various other countries had joined us so it was cool to meet the people behind the email addresses. Our German hosts had organised a traditional German evening for us, and the different countries all went off for a bite to eat. Knowing that the company was going to fit the bill for the food I ordered the Bavarian Platter which consisted of various bits of meet, a dumpling and sauerkraut. It was delicious and was perfectly complimented by Augustiner- the best beer in Munich- a statement I can only agree with and the 1 litre servings are a real novelty. I chose to sit away from my boss and rather chat to the guys from the french office, who, the more they drank, the funnier and more outgoing they got. The evening ended back in the hotel bar with me challenging one of the Frenchman to a drinking competition the next night. Getting to sleep was not an issue!

Day 3 and another screamer of a hangover wakes me up. Fortunately the hotel buffet breakfast is a welcome start to the day. There are no workshops planned for the morning so I spend most of the time reading news and going to get coffees. The bus for the Christmas party arrives at 12:30 sharp- German efficiency. By 1pm we are on our way to Ulm, a small town about 2hrs from Munich and the birth place of Einstein as well as having the honour of the highest church tower in the world.


My company has recently completed the purchase of another German company and they joined us in Ulm where as a team building challenge we were grouped at random so that each group consisted of different people from different companies. The challenge for each team was to walk around Ulm getting answers to questions on a challenge sheet. ie how many benches are there in the Cathedral? This was the only time that English was an issue because as there was a time limit the team struggled to make the translations for the only English speaker in the team- me.

We managed to complete the task and rendezvoused at the location of the party. The party was everything you would expect from a Christmas party , speeches, good food, and lots of drinks. I ended up falling asleep on the bus on the way home which was good to get a head start on a bit of sleep.

Day 4 and the head is pounding again. Nothing to do in the office so I decide to head off early. I say my thank yous and goodbyes and head off luggage in tow. I decide to head off to the tourist centre of town- Marienplatz where I battle through the Christmas market crowds with my bags and have a look at the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. I don't have enough time to really take the scenery in, and my energy levels are really being sapped by the crowds and my bags. So adopting the better safe than sorry approach I head off to the train station to get on my way to the airport. Which I where I sit now.
I will only be able to post this tomorrow, and add the video, but it's a good way to pass the time after a fantastic trip. Next time I hope to stay over a weekend so i can do some sightseeing.

So... Munich...

After the expected pain of traveling to Stansted Airport, the easyJet flight was actually quite nice. Thankfully the 1.5 hr flight passed very quickly thanks to my psp and Fifa street 2. I discovered that the Munich train system is a little tricky to negotiate but the metro is (like everywhere else) made for dummies.

I'm staying a hotel 5 min from the office which is a real pleasure as I don't have to worry about commuting first thing in the morning. The hotel itself is really cool, but not extravagant. The room is huge, but lacking 2 very important things for me. 1.) The only english tv channel is CNN, never thought I would miss BBC news-ever. 2.) An iron, or at least a trouser press. Thinking that every hotel room in the world has this as standard I didn't bother ironing any of my shirts or pants (trousers), and merely chucked them in my bag. Fortunately it's very chilly in Munich and I can cover the creased shirts with a jersey.

I've realised that the one cable I forgot to bring with me is my data cable for my phone, so any and all photo's I take will have to wait till i get back to the UK. Hopefully this will encourage me to use my video camera more.

No funny stories thus far, but I'm sure once I meet a few people here and the beer starts flowing there will be something to write about. Although my feeble attempt at ordering a beer from the hotel bar last night must have been amusing for any spectator.

I managed to order the beer just fine using the only german I know "Ein bier bitte". The response from the bar lady being a questioning "Pils?" to which I promptly replied with an affirmative Ja! (Loving my shoddy afrikaans vocab and praising my pronunciation.) The trouble came when asking for the bill. Everything would have been fine except that (from I gather) she asked me whether I wanted to sign it to my room or pay cash. The blank look on my face must have been priceless, and I could only sheepishly smile and thrust some euro's at her. There is still lots to learn for this traveler.

Facsinating Friday, My start-up, Munich

Regular visitors to my blog will notice that I have added a cool little widget to the sidebar. The map shows my current location and is linked to my mobile phone. This cool little do-hicky was discovered on Friday night when I went to a MiniBar meetup. MiniBar is a social gathering of web 2.0 'geeks' who get together to talk about new thoughts, standards, widgets, services etc. My interest in this stems from my new startup which is now officially in production and slated for a soft launch mid to late Jan 2007.

Anyway, I arrived all by myself feeling a little uncomfortable as I knew that I was about to engage with a whole bunch of strangers who would undoubtedly know a whole lot more than me. Fortunately I arrived about 5 min early so a crowd had not built up, doing what came most naturally in these situations I headed straight for the (free) bar. There I somehow started talking to two guys, the first of which being a venture capitalist and the second being the founder of a service called BuddyPing.

Having made the initial contact I sat down with them and started making idle conversation which eventually lead to me explaining the basic outlines of my startup. The VC was very positive and interested in what I had to say, and it was only when I started talking to the guy from BuddyPing did I realise why.

BuddyPing allows users to take a picture with their phone and MMS it to a gallery online. The photo is tagged with all the location information which BuddyPing picks up from your mobile. If you click on the little camera icon below the map ---------->
You will be able to see some photo's I've taken to test this out. This would integrate perfectly into my startup and as such I will be giving these guys regular input as to how we are getting on with development with a view to working together hopefully.

In travel news I hope to blog about my trip to Munich this week, and have brought along my camcorder so hopefully I'll able to upload some videos.

Travel Update

Quick update. I'm now going to Munich on Monday and getting back on Friday night. If anyone needs to get hold of me I will have my phone on, but try keep it brief, otherwise I'll get another monster phone bill.

Paolo Nutini, The Days, Munich

Word honeys!

Writing with a minor headache today after seeing Paolo Nutini last night. Excellent concert, and the kid is only 19. An added bonus was the number of exquisite women at the concert- groupies, every one of them I tell you!

More interestingly was his support act, a young group called 'The Days'. They were outstanding, kinda Razorlight with Madness influences. They've just been signed by Atlantic records and are releasing their album early next year. I'm sooo gonna get it. So when these guys are the next big thing, just remember where you heard it first! Have a listen to a couple of their songs on their myspace page, they rock.

There's no letting up with the partying for me I'm afraid. Got a corporate 'hobnobbing' event this evening so no doubt the beer will be flowing. Then a web 2.0 get together on Friday so I can rub shoulders with some people who should be able to teach me things which will be useful for my startup. Then next week I'm off to Munich! It's our company Christmas party so I am flying over from Tuesday to Saturday- cool! The following week is the Lycos Christmas party in London, and I'm going to see Snowpatrol.
Then Christmas and New Year- Dublin baby.

Yip, I'm enjoying being me!

Ice-skating,Bok treble, and a Sky disaster.

Happy Monday everyone! 3 weeks to Christmas, and almost more importantly three and half weeks to Dublin!

I had quite a relaxing weekend, which started with some very subdued drinks after work on Friday. I discovered that a mate of mine from my Rhodes days is in London, and so I'm really chuffed that I'll get to see him again after 3 years. (Zimbo's are tough to track down.)

Saturday was really good as Rob had got tickets to go ice-skating at the natural history museum. I distinctly remember being a lot better on the ice than I was on saturday. I spent most of the hour long session slowly negotiating corners and avoiding little kids' fingers. Remembering the advice dished out to us as children, "when you fall make a fist so your fingers don't get cut off!". Now honestly, I've been ice-skating a few times over the years and I have never seen anyone come close to having there fingers cut off! Better advise is probably to put your hands out when you fall, as failing to do so results in you hitting your head on the ice. This was demonstrated by some poor guy on Saturday who while obviously trying not to let his fingers get hacked off, dropped his shoulder into the ice and managed to cut his eye open- ouch!

I watched the ashes until about 3:30am Sunday, before catching a kip, and when I got up to switch the cricket on I was confronted by a horrible site. "No satellite signal being received"
The night before we had some serious gale force winds and they had obviously knocked the dish out of place. A 45min call to Sky confirmed this and because we are 20 days out of warranty (Murphy's), it'll cost us £65 to get an engineer out on Thursday!!! So off to the Walkabout I went to catch the Proteas dish out some punishment to the Indians. Followed by a solid Bok win over a very average World XV. Note: If Francois Steyn can learn to keep those massive punts infield, he'll scare a lot of opposition in whatever position he plays.

Oh, and the bok 7's won the opening event in Dubai. Coming from behind against the Kiwi's, good work chaps!

So I start another week, counting the days to New Year.

P.S. My web start-up is starting to get built on Wednesday, expect to hear lots more on this topic in the future.

Home 2 Rome updated

I have added the video clips to parts of Nic's story, scroll down to find them!

Nic's tells the tale

I know I have been promising a post about Home2Rome but owing to the fact that I have not had a chance to edit the video footage yet, it's not here. However Nic's sent an email out today of her memories of the trip. I will adding video to this post as and when I can, but for now it will give everyone an idea of the shenanigans that occurred. Thanks Nic's-

"A quick recap - I recently went on an organized rally (road trip) through France and Italy with Grant (Squirrel), Rich (zgerman), Sylvia (Dancing Queen) and yours truly (Pitstop). With not a mechanical bone btw the lot of us, we were fortunate to find ourselves a fabulous Volvo station wagon which just kept on going. We were one of about 130 teams who took part.


DAY 0 London to Calais

Equipped with 4 liters of oil in the boot (our motto being 'oil will save the day and 'all you need is oil'), apart from one minor argument as to the benefits of taking the car manual with you on a road trip (glad to say the girls were victorious in this argument and the manual was collected en route), and discovering in a rather heavy downpour that we had one dodgy windscreen wiper (never thought to check)




, the drive down to Dover went relatively smoothly... that is if you don’t count Richard, after a frantic scurry at his feet, calmly requesting that I pull over the car as he seems to have 'misplaced' his lit cigarette and feels that the smoke filling the backseat is not a good sign...
So, Dover was reached, urgent pee stops were taken, vital supplies were bought (reflector jackets, a large bucket of cardboard sherbet sweets, handcuffs and a porno magazine), ferry was boarded and the journey began. Majority of journey was spent on the deck trying not to regurgitate the sherbet sweets and practicing our titanic poses. Good thing big knotted hair is in because we were looking HOT by the time we made it off the boat.
Hotel was located with ease, the first of many bangers were spotted (realized that more is better when it comes to decorating a banger), underwear (reusable and once off) was purchased for the smelly german and some classy cartoon drinking vessels were bought for some sneaky G&T's.
By midnight our team - Mama Who Who (sp?) (Chinese for 'so so' - decided any name with the word 'banger' (aka our original name 'complete banger') was not appropriate especially when the majority of other teams were made up of men) were registered and rearing to go. Early night for some, no sleep for others... grantie snores!
Classic sayings of the day:
'Oh my... the roof seems to be leaking' - said by grantie after he felt a few raindrops coming through the open sunroof... which he had opened a short while before.
'Death is not an option' and 'death is not the end' - team motto - nothing like a spot of positive thinking!

DAY ONE - Calais to MonteLimar




First day of the race, everyone is excited, we have our super trendy helmets (thank you Richard and thank you china) and a Strong cup of coffee (who knew people could snore that loudly...). We met at the starting point and got to see some great looking cars (Ghostbusters vehicle, Safari boys in skimpy little safari shorts, a hearse, a leopard, a car covered in bullets... too many good ones to mention here).
Today was a very long day with over 600 miles being covered. This was made more challenging with a certain team mate’s obsession with buying the smelliest food he could find to eat in the car :) Our challenge was to 'I Spy' as many things beginning with the letter... (Ours was H)... creative juices were pushed to the limit (swimming pool = hot tub, glass building = hot house, random man on street = hobo).



Rich, after a moment of creativity, a Chinese sewing set, and a smelly sock, introduced us to our new teammate 'Roger the sock puppet' who entertained us with his traumatic stories and adventures (yes we were very bored)...
A couple of personality clashes down and feeling far from 'fresh', we were so glad to finally reach our hotel. Alas the hotel was 7 days by horse from the meeting point for that night, situated under a rather large buzzing power line, with showers and toilets located in the entrance hall. Classy!
That night went down in a blur with Sylvia and I hitting the cheap white wine (vinegar). we both have no recollection of the journey home (apparently I was belting out Red Hot Chili Peppers.. could not have been easy on the ears... and rich was doing some late night ditch dodging??). The night ended with us in hysterics rolling in the corridor outside our rooms due to the smell of 'cheese'... needless to say the French woman in the other room was not impressed!
Classic statements for the day:
'Don't mess with me... I'm BEEEG mother f**ker' - Rich using the car's size to intimidate the other cars on the road.

DAY TWO Montelimar to Menton

This was a good day, short and sweet with a stop off in Monte Carlo where even the ducks are posh. We had a look at the super enormous yachts, sipped cocktails and tried to spy ourselves a billionaire who might be interested in marrying us (alas no luck - might have been due to the fact that all the girls there look like supermodels and I don’t think us sporting our chinese helmets as we drove in gave quite the right impression).


Continued on our journey to Menton (only a minor hysteria moment with rich and his sudden desperate need for 'COINS... I need COINS') where we had to make some last minute hotel reservations (we discovered our hotel was in Nice not in Menton... oops) before indulging in the delights of a very bland dinner with a complimentary hour long wait for the bill. The boys hit the casino for some late night gambling and the girls went to collect a stranded team back in nice (tip for the day: when in a foreign country looking for the train station FOLLOW THE BUS... you get your own lane and are led directly to the station... technically illegal but when you are two girls in a monster Volvo no one seems to mind if they do push them off the road). Back in Menton we all met up for a few sneaky beverages and some interesting conversation about Megalomaniac sharks with mouths the size of 7 giant, 2 foot high, pygmy midgets???? After losing the room key and leaving poor grantie to wake up the receptionist, I went on an adventure with Duncs and Bryan 'seeing Menton by night' in an attempt to find an open bar in the wee hours of the morning - instead ended up getting miserably lost, thirsty (thanks again rich for the gin), and playing football with an oversized lemon (as you do)...

DAY THREE Menton to Sottomarina

Picked up a new team mate (rob smith aka Gupta from Bangladesh). 3 in the back - not so fresh - but good fun as Gupta attempted to get cows to dance. Off to Venice so spirits were high (although hangovers were mighty painful - loads of pizza, tea, energade (don’t go for gold) and a mid afternoon beer saved the day). our challenge was to take our spare wheel with us into Venice and have a photo taken with it in one of the famous squares (odd we agree)... all I have to say is Big Volvo = Big spare tyre... my serp (scarf) was sacrificed for the greater good and used as a sling. Congrats to the boys who lugged it around the whole evening.
What to say about Venice other then WOW. We all loved it and was good to have some time to walk around, spend time with other teams, and have a laugh. Night involved water taxis, food and more wine, 'peach' viewing, ice cream eating, window shopping, and Tyre racing. Sylvia and I decided that we were quite taken by Venice, the whole of Italy to be exact, so decided we should buy it... Italy that is... what a life - Venice on a Monday, Florence on a Wednesday, Rome for the weekend...
Night ended with an eventful journey into sottomarina - Rich’s rear end had a rather intimate moment with the car walkie talkie radio aerial (sorry rich), Sylvia had a moment of hysteria in the train home but was soon smiling after some serious discussions about the lesser spotted striped syberian tiger sniffer rat (deadly creatures), and a somewhat near death experience was had by all as grantie and the infamous italian drivers battled for space on the road.

DAY FOUR Sottomarina to Lido Di Ostia

Beautiful drive through Tuscany (think I might have impressed (read: terrified) my team mates with some rather tight overtaking of some rather large trucks...). We had a good stop off in Florence which was beautiful. Walked along the cobbled streets, ooed and aahed over the detailed architecture and incredible church, had a fairly mild ice cream fight (too good to waste) and an afternoon drinkie to help prepare the driver for the terrifying experience that is Roman drivers.
Made it into Lido di Ostia in one piece for the final meet up with the home 2 rome team. After a rather uninspired meal and a less exciting presentation we were sent on our way. First stop was in a bar where we met a whole lot of teams we had never seen before, drank watered down vodka and orange, and discussed how to arrange a meet up with the pope for a spot of tea. The night wound down to an end at a rather dodgy late night off license diner with an interesting selection of stale nibbles. The entertainment at this fine establishment was provided by Duncan attempting to avoid the rather persistent flirtation from the rather dodgy male car guard!!



DAY FIVE Rome baby!

The race now over we headed into rome. As Sylvia was leaving at sparrows the next morning we literally had to do rome in half a day. thank goodness we had tiffany the tour guide (aka rich) who proficient in french/german/italian/chinese and english managed to whiz us around rome in a matter of moments - The Vatican and St Peter's (breathtaking), The spanish steps at sunset (highly recommended), wishes at the trevi fountain, the Coliseum, the pantheon, karaoke on the train...
We had our final dinner together at a sweet little restaurant in a side street. grantie, after an all nighter the previous evening headed home while rich, syl and I hit the red wine (post ice cream of course) and headed home just before 4. Still faced with the dilemma as to what we were going to do with the car after a failed attempt to sell it to a taxi driver while driving into rome, our fairy godmother came along to save us. Waiting at the bus stop feeling merry we started chatting to a hungarian girl and her american sounding dutch boyfriend. We offered them a car, they thought we were nuts, we persuaded them to at least look at it, which they did.... 20 minutes later (somehow we managed to get lost while driving them around) they left owning a stylish, rather interestingly decorated car and €20 for petrol (yes we paid them to take the car??)
In an attempt to keep awake, tea was drunk, biscuits eaten, and a few more laughs squeezed out. Lesson of the day - do not mention mango juice in front of Richard when he is overtired... to be on the safe side NEVER mention mango juice to Richard. Sad farewells were said to rich at half 4 and to syl at 6. Exhausted I rolled into bed... our home 2 rome adventure having finally come to an end.

I can only speak for myself when I say that it was a brilliant experience however exhausting, physically and emotionally (very little sleep had by all). It taught me a lot about myself, my friends and how traveling in a car for 5 days can bring out sides in yourself and others that you least expected. I can’t say that I would do it again right away (maybe next year) and I would do things very differently next time. Was far from impressed with the actual organizers of the event who made little effort to get involved, were rather unimaginative with their challenges, and who did very little to validate the money that we paid them.

Blogging from Rome

A quick post to say that we have finished Home2Rome, and as you can imagine there are plenty of stories, which i can't get into right now because i'm typing on a chinese keyboard-!!!!!
Nics and I are going to have a sightseeing day today and then catch and overnight train to Genoa for a couple days of relaxation before heading home Saturday afternoon.
The car was sold(given away), to a hungarian girl at 4am last, i'm too sure what the story is, but i'll get the lowdown from Nics later- the bonus is that one way or another that issue is solved.
Right- i'm off to go take a squizz at the Vatican- as you do!

We leave on Thursday

Houston we have a go!

Our team mates arrive tomorrow from China (Richard) and South Africa (Sylvia), the car is 99% complete, and everything is booked!
I have spent the past couple days findling with things on the car, and making movies. I have figured out how to convert the movie files so that I can view them using my PSP, so we can show people our video while we are racing- very chuffed with myself.
This is the last video I will probably have a chance to post before we leave so wish us luck- We'll need it!

The Story of the Schengen Visa

In order for me to go on Home2Rome I have had to get a Schengen Visa. As I have now learned this is anything from an easy experience, and I'm quite sure a cavity search in Abu Ghraib is more pleasant.
In true Grant form, I only really started sorting things out at the last minute- as I gathered the necessary documents needed to prove to the French authorities that I am in fact a nice, decent guy who doesn't intend on staying illegally in France. So after much tension and rushing around I finally get myself to my 10:00 appointment at the consulate at 09:30. The queue is already about 30 people long- poo.
Finally a rather menacing security guard announces to the anxious crowd' that has gathered in the 40min after I arrived, how the procedure worked and we started making our way in an orderly fashion to have names ticked off and join another queue to go through security. From there you are given a number and told to wait for your number to be called to pay for the visa. From here you join another queue so another guy can put little red ticks on your application form and you are given another number and told to take a seat and wait.
My magical number was 501, and the board was showing 460 when I took my seat. 41 people before me!- I praised myself for arriving early. This was short lived as I realized that the French are only able to serve about 5-6 people every 15min at top speed. So for 2 hours I sat reading over shoulder of the guy next me who has obviously done this before as he had brought a book, 2 newpapers and his Blackberry. After careful analysis I realized that the rate of people served had dropped to 1 every 15min, and this was because it was now 12:00, and most of the consultants go on lunch! Now serving number 496...
Eventually my number is called and I rush over to the counter, heart beating, hoping like hell I haven't messed anything up with my documents. While being served, the girl behind the 3inch glass starts complaining of a smell, which after hours of waiting could easily be me, and I try to discretely check my armpits and breathe- all of which pass the test, barely.
Despite the stench which I had now caught wind of, the girl smiles, gives me a little yellow ticket and tells me to enjoy my holiday! Score! I've done it- I've got the visa.
With that what I can only assume to be the manager of the consulate appears and announces to the crowd that the building is flooding, and that they are not going to process any more applications today! And everyone is going to have to leave and come back. Knowing that because of the beautiful yellow ticket that I now had in my possession, I had just made it. Ticket holder 502 stood midway between his seat and the service windows, with a look of complete horror on his face. I had got in the queue less than 30seconds before him at the start of the day, and he now stood with a pink number in his hand and me with my glorious yellow. I didn't stick around for the chaos as people started complaining as the water covered the floor 1-2cm deep, I got my passport and headed for the nearest exit, knowing that I had just escaped another day of torture.
So all systems are GO for Home2Rome, and we will be giving the car a homemade paintjob this weekend- video footage to follow.
Until then enjoy this little clip I found-

The New Car

After the untimely passing of Talula- we have a new car!

Home2Rome- The beginning

Many of you are aware that I am taking part in a rally called Home2Rome (www.home2rome.com)
The following video documents our first £100 car we bought off ebay affectionatly known as Talula. It's a biggish file so give it a few seconds to start loading.