70's Party

Saturday evening we attended a 70's theme party. It was Talita’s 30 birthdays and she celebrated it in style. I was volunteered by my partner in crime as the official photographer.

The party was a bit untimely since, I’m in the process of buying/importing a proper flash for the camera (Canon EX580). Gert also bought toys and since the bulk of the order is his he have to pay for it. Unfortunately we are experiencing credit card and bank issues which lead to a delay in shipment and I had to make do with an old flash (EX540) that is not automatic. So some of the photos were a little bit overexposed, since I had to manually set the flash intensity according to distance from the subject.

Ursula hired big afro wigs for us and we tried to dress as 70’s as possible from what we have in the cupboard. The only problem is that it is winter here and it is cold so you can’t wear what you want you have to keep warm also. One side effect of the wig is that it keeps your head nice and warm so you don’t feel so cold. My hair is thinning year by year and it is as if each winter is colder than the previous.

If you judge by how late we got home, how we felt the next morning and how much photos were taken, we must have enjoyed the party a lot.

My favorite photos can be seen here

Helgard's Birthday

Yes, Once a year it happens. Friends were invited and we had a great day. Ursula and I prepared Oxtail in a slow cooker already the previous evening. It must have been a success because Eddie also bought a slow cooker! I have to mention that Ursula is an exellent cook and without her it woudn't have been such a success.

One good thing about my birthday is the agreement I have with my friends that we do not buy each other presents. This is very convienient because you can just visit the friend that is having his birthday without stressing about buying a present. Us guys don't like to shop.... Well I must say I got very nice presents form other people that I do not have the agreement in place.
More photos are in this set

Camping

Yes we went camping and the weather played along. Appart from the tent that Ursula bought in Taiwan we didn't have any other camping gear. We packed what we had, mostly food, blankets, and set off north. Ok we stopped for some supplies at Camping Warehouse but ended not buying everything from them, The sales assistant convinced us to go across the street and we found what we needed at Game (camping chairs) and at Builders Warehouse (shade netting). At Camping Warehouse an old guy starterd talking to us while we were trying out the camping chairs and it turned out that he knew the area that we wanted to visit, we followed his recommendation and camped at a place called "Temple" just outside Nylstroom.


The campsite was completely booked out and it took some "mooipraat" to get a camping spot. We ended up in a spot that the were that is guaranteed to be flooded when it rains....fortunately it didn't. It is winter here and the night was cold, we sat as close as possible to our small fire. We slept surprizingly warm, but without a mattress the ground is hard.
Next morning we set off to do more bird watching at Nylsvley nature reserve and at Vogelvontein a private farm next to the Nylsvley nature reserve. In our hurry to get out of Pretoria (That is a different story) I left my bird guide at home so we took pictures of everything with feathers to identify it later on the PC. Check out some of the better photos here

We were pleasantly surprised when we could hire binoculars at the nature reserve. The guard even let us leave the reserve to bring it back after we visited Vogelvontein. Ursula used the binoculars and I had my camera with the zoom lense so we were sorted. There were a lot of birds to see with quit a lot of water around. We spent the day in the veld and went back to Naboomspruit to grab something to eat. We ate a two different fast food restaurants, well I won't go into that, another different story. After the food we could think straight again went back to the campsite to pack everything for home. We stayed on the R101 and drove back slowly in Warmbaths we stopped for ice cream to end a great weekend out.

Rondebult

During the long weekend we got word that a Western Reef Heron was spotted at Rondebult Bird Sanctuary, photo's here. Ursula, Gert and I set off at 6:00 to see if we are able to get a glimps of the bird. The Freelander was packed with a coolerbox full of beer and cooldrinks and everything you need for a braai. We didn't get to see the the Heron at Rondebult although people we met claimed that it was spotted earlier the morning, someone actually took these photos.

We had the whole day still so we set off to Merrywale. It is a marshland and there are a lot of waders and all kinds of birds that has something to do with water. Took some pictures but my pictures were mostly dissapointing. A highlight of the day was a family of otters.

The first time I see them in the whild. We braai-ied and sat and chatted nearly the whole day. The best remark of the day was when Gert told Ursula if she does bird watching for two more days her whole life will be f...ed up, because that is all you would want todo in future, Guess what we did the next couple of days....

Peter Smit at Firkin

As usual on a Thursday night we were at Firken but Gert and Rudy were late. Pieter Smth's show started and after the second song Gert and Rudy joined us, with unusually big smiles. We asked what is going on because they were giggling like girls and wearing thick jerseys. After dragging it out of them ... Rudie bought a Porsche Boxster S and he was ecstatic, we rushed outside to have a look,and listen to the engine. Hope I get a test drive soon...

The show was good and loud! Pieter's show is recommended. Have a look at the nights photos here.
After he finished another band started and performed but they were too loud for us and we left promptly.

Serviette Rings

Ursula kept herself busy one night by making serviette rings for us. It is quite simple just a short piece of wire and a couple of glass beads.

It is amazing how good these look like with light shine through them.

Dozi at Firkin

Last week we were at Firkin again. Dozi was entertaining as ever and it was a blast, literally. From the moment he stepped on the stage he was pointing to his microphone, indicating that the gain needs to go up. See proof below...

Dozi joked that he wont go "affirmative" with his sound man, but I think he should consider it, the guy had no clue. He never decreased the gain on the rest of the band and we were bombarded very loud music.

I complain too much it was still a great experience. Dozi was performing not only in Afrikaans but in Zulu and in English as well. He told us that they had to stop just before 24h00 because they are leaving for the KKNK at 04h00 the next morning. The bus was already packed and standing outside ready for the trek down to Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape Karoo. (I estimate a little more than 1000km from Pretoria)

Work related

Everytime someone asks me what I do for a living, I have to think carefully how to explain it ...until now.
Recently a product that we conceptualized, designed, patented, prototyped, marketed, were introduced by one of the largest motion sensor manufactures. So now it easy "I worked on a digital dual sensor pyrodetector, that is used in alarm systems"

Statements that we are particularly proud of is "NEW - DigiPyro™, World's First Digital Pyrodetector" and "PerkinElmer’s new DigiPyro is truly setting the digital standard in motion detection." and "Tests indicate that the PSRR is improved by roughly 30 dB, a 32-fold improvement over the traditional analog pyrodetector technology."

If you stildon'tnt understand, I work for a company that designs integrated circuits that is used in motion sensor related products.

We do not produce the circuits in our office,...I do not work through a microscope, ...I sit in front of a PC and sometimes I work with a soldering iron and.... sometimes we have bright moments.

Quads at QueSera

Last Sunday Ursula and I went with a friends to their local quad playground. I also got the opportunity to ride and it is great! There are just a lot of things to do simultaneously on the quad, suppose with practice it comes naturally. There was a good opportunity to take nice photos of the guys flying through the air, at not such a great speed.

The photoset is a on our Flikr page.

Laptop

A week ago my laptop fell on its left front corner from my desk to the floor. I was struggling with a program on a PIC and a programmer was connected to a USB port on the left side of the laptop. I wheeled away at great speed not knowing that the USB cable got snared under my chair. See the result below!



The laptop fell on the corner where the HHD is mounted, HHD stopped working immediately and XP crashed with blue screen of death. On the bright side only the HDD and the case broke, the rest of the laptop is still functional. Was an expensive program!