Alas - no luck for the romantic

Ok - So, I couldn't resist and wound up dropping the guy an email to find out if she had responded.. it turns out we met at a writer's conference quite a few years ago - talk about a small world! In any case, sadly she had not responded so he was pretty disappointed but who knows right? I still think it is probably one of the cutest things I've seen anybody do for a random stranger they've never spoken to... her loss for sure!!

On brighter news, I'm going for a leadership conference in Canada over the month of July this year - it's going to be great. It has been ages since I have photographed in Whistler, Banff, the Rockies.... sigh - I cannot wait to get going! I've just recently completed the first volume of a photo book... you know someday I will get all these formally published for more than just my friends! ;)

Romance does exist!

Ok, so today by chance I stumbled onto something on the net that really made me smile. I hesitate to publish the link here as it's obviously a somewhat private message but if it made an old cynic like me gleam it... hey, here it is: Smiley-eyed Botswana girl.

This has to be the sweeeetest way for someone to get in touch with a random stranger on the net... let's hope she reciprocates and accepts the invitation - I'm half tempted to write him myself and ask! :)

What we need are a few more guys like these in the world and it would definitely be a more fun place to be.

On photo galleries and disaster photography

No, I haven't forgotten to post photos on the blog just yet! I've been working on setting up a proper image gallery online with my full portfolio together with a fellow photographer and Czech journalist, Petr Venzl.. coming soon (probably even more likely to happen considering I'm not putting it together!)

It would have been great if I could have included a gallery feature directly on blogspot but I can't seem to find a way to post photos here without having to put them up individually with a blog post. That makes it quite difficult to search and sort.

I have just seen some of Petr's photos from Haiti on his recent trip there - they are amazing. He will be submitting some of them to a European photo contest and I'm certain there's a prize in there somewhere waiting for him. I'm not a huge fan of the 'disaster photo' genre but Petr's were certainly more hopeful than the likes of the winners of prizes following the tsunami in Asia a few years back.

I'll post the link to the new site as soon as it's up!

March has arrived

Interest rates are still low in the UK and thankfully for most in sunny South Africa as well - it's unlikely that rates will rise in the near future given the pressure Cosatu will apply after the recent increases in the South African electricity prices and the increased fuel surchage that will kick in from the first Wednesday of April 2010.

I'm finally looking at buying a flat in Cape Town soon - all this travel has been great but I think I need a place to truly call home for a while. I've been so busy with my journalist duties I've not paid any attention at all to my blogging - let alone anything to do with my photo blog (I know, I know - I've been threatening to be consistent since 2008 and I've only just barely come around to start posting stuff on facebook!

This last weekend, I attended a 60th wedding anniversary party of one of my friends - it was awesome.. so romantic! I'll post some photos later this week... I actually went a bit old school and decided to use traditional black and white 35mm film on my old canon. Hopefully I can still recall how to develop these in a dark room!

Onward and upward!

Firstly, all the very best for the New Year to all my regular readers. once again it has been awhile since I've written a place where there's a good reason for this. Our what the hey, you've heard it all before so I should not bother making excuses again! Seriously though, I hope that the new year ahead is full of optimism love and happiness for you all.

A lot has happened since I last wrote. South Africa has not collapsed into a heap as many had predicted after Jacob Zuma took power in South Africa in April last year. From what I've heard from my friends and colleagues is that the crime rate has improved significantly though. Clearly this could not be attributed directly to the new presidency however the efforts to curb crime that were promised by the state before the elections have certainly not been delivered. This year alone I had one friend that was hijacked and her house is broken into. She lost everything. Stories like these are a dime a dozen: from ATM bombings to jewellery heists committed in broad daylight in public malls across the country to hijackings petty theft and household robberies -- nothing has changed, in fact things have gotten much worse.

On the work front my photography has stalled somewhat and taken a backseat to some freelance journalist work that I was doing across the southern Africa region. The work has been quite interesting and the articles have been published in a number of European journals and newspapers over the last six months.

I am currently working on a number of websites including one with a psychiatrist friend of mine working in the UK. I have also undertaken to write for guest articles for the Wonkie cartoon blog website as well as Ira Vaidya's new site when it launched called PeachyAnna

A number of my photographs have been recently published in two journals in Slovakia. I will be publishing these photos on this website shortly too.

Again, all the best for the New Year and I hope to be much more regular in the year to come. 2010 will surely be an exciting year to be in Africa not least of which because of the 2010 FIFA World Cup that is going to be held for the first time in Africa.

A new president for South Africa

Ever since the election, the mood amongst South African white people has been quite sombre. It seems there is a vloud hanging over them. Coming from Europe I guess I can appreciate the sentiment however this is not Europe now, is it? Mr Zuma certainly has had quite a battle on a number of fronts to get to where he is. His tenacity has served him well and I only hope he applies the same tenacity to his new role.

Mr Zuma will be inaugurated on Saturday - I have been covering some of the parliamentary swearing in ceremonies at the Union Buildings earlier today and security is high. Not least of which because of the attendance of Robert Mugabe on Saturday - posters are already flying around Pretoria in protest.

While Mr Zuma's appointment was pretty much a given even prior to the election, what remains to be seen is his choice of cabinet. Whether or not he appoints people based on merit will be the first indication of the medium-long term future of South Africa. Wonkie cartoons had some interesting suggestions on the Zuma cabinet - South Africa 2009. If Mr Zuma wants to start with a bang, he has an opportunity now to get rid of the dead wood in a number of departments - I hope he takes it.

Back to the blog

The last couple of months have been great from a personal development point of view - I met and interacted with many interesting people in my travels across South East Asia - in particular some buddhist monks and a Rinpoche left quite an impression.. more about this later though - I've also been invited to write as part of a group blog on spirituality in the West.

It seems somewhat peculiar to return to South Africa after a long stint of this sort - with all the violence, crime and corruption (although I cannot say I am surprised that the NPA dropped charges against Jacob Zuma) - after all it was predicted last year already that this would happen. I'm glad to see that Wonkie cartoons was runner up in 2 categories in the South African blog awards .. well deserved and sorry I couldn't add my vote from the Himalayas! LOL

Anyway, I shall be posting some of my photos up over the next couple of weeks - need to acclimatise to Pretoria once more before I do anything else!