Riaan verjaar

On Friday we all celebrated Riaan’s birthday the old fashioned way, and I mean really old fashioned way! We all traveled back in time to the middle ages for a party at Greensleeves that will be remembered for some time to come. It was the good old days when women was still lower than the value of the rand, and eating like savages (no pun intended Zeurika) and banging on the table with sticks was still acceptable.

For those who bargained to see me in tights, sorry to disappoint, I went for a alternative peasant outfit. Congratulations to Lord Harry Fartalot who has become Earl Harry Fartalot on Friday night. Just don’t get any ideas, this doesn’t mean you call the shots at work now as well.

Here are a few memoirs captured on film:

The man of the hour

John & me (we didn't have dates therefore we had to feed each other)

me and Flavio.. or is it Tony? I don't know anymore but I'm sure I saw him in Mr Bean's Holiday

me and Zeurika (the Savage)

Dawie, me and Lord Fartalot

Mystic Boer

For a while now I was wondering why I’m the lucky consultant getting all the agricultural clients of Optimus! I think it might have to do with the fact that Afrikaans is my first language. Today I’m driving my brother’s bakkie, after an unfortunate occurrance involving my BMW, and I must say I feel right at home in it, I think later on I might just go visit Agrinet for the fun of it……..

Winter Wonderland

I want to start off by saying brrrrrrr! As you know part of our jobs consist of working on projects at various clients around the country. Some of my colleagues get to go to idyllic places like Cape Town, PE, Dubai, London, Chicago etc. I’m in the fortunate position to run a project in the East, with that I don’t mean the East as in Asia but the East as in East Rand.

I don’t know why that is, maybe because I have an Eastern passport and I’m streetwise, but it’s not as if I drive a swooped up car or have a mullet on my head. So what I’m actually trying to get at is, this morning on my journey from Pretoria to the far East Rand to a place called Wadeville (otherwise known as Hellhole), I drive via Bapsfontein, Petit, Benoni, Brakpan and Boksburg. My car informed me this morning that the temperature outside between Bapsfontein and Petit was a mere -5’C and I have the picture to prove it.

The office we reside in at the client is inside a warehouse with roll-up doors on both sides that gives the wind free-flow access through the building, so please appreciate the effort put into this blog as my fingers are completely rigid at the moment.

Blue Bulls = 2007 Super 14 Champs

Deepest sympathy to the rest of South Africa that shouted against the Bulls on Saturday, once again it was proven which team is the best.

Talladega Nights was at night…….this was day!!!

Team Firebird walked up to the challenge to face four other professional kart teams at Kyalami race way on Saturday 19 May 2007. After observing the competition’s trailers, matching race suits and personal helmets, we soon realised we were probably the underdogs of the event. Nevertheless we pretended not to be scared and took up the challenge like men, even though we had a female member in our team which I might add has got more guts than most male rugby players playing for Non-Blue Bull rugby teams.

Ricardo (Alonso) started off our race with courage and kept our name high, followed by Nadine (Orange Lightning) who occasionally decided to take some traffic cones home, then it was Gerhardus (Habana Schumacher) who managed to write off our first kart in a spectacular way, on a good lap I might add, fortunately no-one was hurt. Then it was me (the one who made Herbie go bananas) I managed to perfect the art of kicking up some dust by spinning off into the barrier of tyres without obtaining whip-lash! After me was John T (Mansell) who setup our best lap time of 52 seconds by consistently flying around the track.

It is amazing that 85km/h in a small vehicle like a kart can feel much-much faster when you are sitting a few millimetres from the tar I must say that Team Firebird did exceptionally well considering this is not our day jobs unlike our opposition, who was very serious about the event, we still managed to end the four hour race only 30 laps behind the winning team.

Meet the people behind Team Firebird:

John, Me, Ricky, Nadine & Gerhardus

The karts

The track

John trying to catch a ride

I think you should wear that to work Harry

THE HILLS STILL HAVE EYES

Me and Freaky went to see The Hills Have Eyes 2 on Saturday. Just like the first movie, the sequel was also filled with numerous disturbing and gruesome scenes. The story line, like most sequels, failed to carry over the suspense of the first movie. At this stage you know who the mutant population responsible for the brutal killings is. Furthermore the director try and make the viewer believe it is based on a true story which I very much doubt unless it was shot on a remote farm in the Delmas district.

The Hills have Eyes 2 scores a 4.

Team Firebird - fired-up!

While the rest of the country have rugby fever the BW Optimus adrenaline junkies will be taking on the race track this weekend as Team Firebird (Optimus go-kart team). We are aiming for a podium position if some team members, who knows exactly who they are, manage not to drive into anything, but the main idea is to have as much fun as the Kyalami racetrack offer. Full details will be available on Monday same place same time.