Saturday, January 31, 2009

Riverside Caffe & Bistro in Sandton

This is Saturday before going to the airport.

The second  time I've come to this place. Nice, good food and cheap. What were you expecting? Biltong, a litre of water and lions?

It's at the Village Walk which is a small mall across the street from the Hilton Sandton.
I had the salmon salad and it was fab (I couldn't wait to start eating it so that's why it looks a little 'used'.)
Note the Coke can -- it's not to scale, it's actual size -- smaller than a Red Bull can.
As a rule, I don't eat anything that's not been boiled or burnt when I'm east of Romania/Czech Republic or south of Italy: Montezuma may not be in this part of the world, but his finger has a mighty long reach -- if ya know what I mean. The locals and touristas are eating salads and other uncooked produce, so I guess it's safe.

It's kinda like monkeys eating the red berries.

One monkey will eat a red berry and the others will watch him to see if he gets sick or dies.

But this is just to show that SA is very civilized and modern. Although I was troubled to read that there is an ongoing problem with an affluent neighborhood near hear who's mothers have been getting robbed -- by the same group for months now -- when picking up children from school. If the police can't curtail this... well, it does say something about the state of law enforcement. SA and JoBurg (as the locals call it) is a nice place and like many other stops in Europe for me I wouldn't mind staying and working for an extended period, but, crime is still something to be concerned with.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Shaken, not stirred...









Vodka martinis even Bond would approve, I would dare say.

So I've spent a whopping five days in Johannesburg and where have I been? The Hilton Sandton and the office. Yeah.

I need to get out more.

I did walk (in the rain) to the Village Walk mall which is right across the street.

I got the martini after coming back to the hotel.

I really need to get out more.


-- Posted From My iPhone.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

JNB - Johannesburg - Day 1

The international arrivals hall is modern, well organized and nothing like the chaotic arrival hall of Riyadh.


International Arrivals hall at JNB looking down from the upper level.

If you are coming from the US, NEDBANK works with debit cards sporting the Visa and Plus logos while Standard Bank did not.

Internet acces is available at the airport. I was able to use the company-provided iPass service to get access. I haven't tested VoIP here at the airport yet.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Friday, January 16, 2009

MJ's Party

Yeeeoow! Look at those boots!
I married the hot one!

Aeryn and Marilyn at MJ's party

??, Rosina (MJ's mom) and MJ

Some Trinity Irish Dancers and Aeryn. Rosina and Mike pull out all the stops as usual. 

Michael Junior's  (MJ) birthday party. He's a lucky kid to have Rosina as a mom and his father's money. Mike's a good guy. He just has bad politics (read: Joe doesn't agree with him.)
Party was big, with lots of friends and family of MJ. He seemed to really like the Carousel.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Aeryn's Snow Day

Aeryn wins at Monopoly Junior!


-- Post From My iPhone

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Subprime Primer

This has been floating around for a while, but I was never really very happy with the low-res graphics and I jazzed it up a bit.