I've been in SA for a week already! It's crazy how quickly the time goes.
I'm loving being back 'home' and as you can imagine I haven't exactly struggled to find things to do. Braai's, bars, poker... great times. Oh, before I forget... Glory, glory, Man Utd!

I haven't had much time to blog, tweet, facebook, etc... and to be fair it's great to get some time away from the laptop.

Anyway... I'm looking forward to the weekend. I've arranged for some old friends to come watch the rugby at my place. (Come on Sharks!). My folks new house is awesome, and I can't wait to show it off.

I'm off to the bush next week Wednesday, well when I say 'bush' I mean Sun City and then Kwa Maritane, so not exactly full-on bundu bashing.

I'm really hoping that while I'm there I can find a handmade swazi tea-cozy. ;) Everyday I keep thinking... gotta get a swazi tea-cozy.
(No that isn't supposed to make sense unless you know about the swazi teapot)

Right- I'm off to get some admin sorted before a boozy Friday afternoon.

Much love.

On Monday I went to get my UK ancestry visa extended, and here is my story:

Well I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning and made my way to Croydon for my visa extension appointment. Wow the trams are slow! I’d forgotten how painful it was. I found the immigration building (wasn’t hard, it was the one with people queuing outside.) and made my way to the entrance. Going through security was quite an experience as I forgot to take my belt off which meant I was subjected to a rather extensive pat-down by a very large police officer. As he was feeling me up about 11 (might have been 12) jokes popped into my head but I thought he’d probably not take them too well. (“You won’t find any W.M.D’s up there mate!”)

As you stand in the first queue you can feel the energy being drained from your as you realize that if anything goes wrong in the next couple hours you have to be out of the country in a week. Add to that the worry of having £600 in small bills sitting in your pocket.

The first queue is just to confirm that you have an appointment, and they give you a letter which lets you upstairs where you go to queue and relieve yourself of the 600 hard earned british pounds, all the while looking at a sign which effectively means ‘no refunds’ (Nice… so you could deny the visa but you’ll happily keep the cash!)

You then get another form which lets up to the next floor and queue for your number to get called. Fortunately this didn’t take too long as I was early. I then had to endure while a gentleman went through my passport with a fine toothed comb ensuring I had spent too much time in any funny countries. (“yes, I was in Afghanistan for training, is that a problem?”)

They then tell me to go wait while they do something important (15min I was told) … 35min later he calls me over just to tell me that I must come back in 1 to 2hrs…arrgh! Now because you’re in Croydon there’s not much to do for a couple hours but fortunately I found a Pret. At this point I have now gone through almost a whole pack of gum because of the nerves and all the queuing and I know that when I go back to the building I will find out my fate that will affect probably the rest of my life. (No pressure.)

So I go and wait for my number to be called for the most nerve racking 20min of my life. When they call me over the lady at the counter looks at me and says…”Right! Mr Sidwell…” she has that tone in her voice like she is about to give me some bad news- my heart sinks.

“Okay… this is a simple one” she says, still in a tone which resembles the way doctors speak when speaking to family members of recently deceased people. “Could you confirm that these details are correct?” she reads out my date of birth and confirms the spelling of my surname. I’m just about ready to scream “Just tell me for heavens sake!” I’m so nervous. “This is your visa which expires in 2013”… Oh. My. Word.!!! The blood rushes to my head as I realize that everything is okay… the relief is beyond description.

I left the building cradling my passport as if it were the winning lottery ticket and with a serious degree of elation called my mother.

So I’m able to stay and work in the UK for another 5 yrs if I so wish… sweet!

Sheesh... I've been quiet - lately I know!

Here's a very brief update just so you know that I am still alive.

1. I'm helluva busy at work.
2. TASS Online is almost there!
3. I've started seeing a new girl. (Mojo levels back to normal)
4. I just got my visa to stay in the UK extended for a further 5 years, much to my relief. (Full blog post on this to follow)
5. I've moved into, and started to settle in my new house
6. I'm trying to finish God of War 2 on PS2 so I can give it to my cousin when I go back to SA next month
7. I find myself out 5 nights a week either entertaining clients (see point 1), catching up with TASS (see point 2) or entertaining the new lady (see point 3).

I'm hoping to be back in www action soon.

Much love.

Tinterweb bizniz stuff + Flight of the conchords

This morning I noticed a tweet from Eric Edelstein saying he was looking for judges for his SEO competition, so I gave him a shout and I'm in! It's sounds cool to say 'judge'- although, to be fair, I'm more of an international adjudicator. All I have to do is take a screenshot of Google for the search term 'springleap'.

The competition is to try and get to the top 3 places of google.com by noon (South African time) on the 1st of April. The cash prizes are pretty worthwhile for not a lot of effort.

1. R2,500.00
2. R1,000.00
3. R500.00

Springleap.com itself was started by Eric and Eran Eyal who are co-owners of eSquared fashion, and the concept is pretty cool.
Users submit t-shirt designs and the community vote for whose is the best. Each month the top 20 are put into production with the winner earning a R2 royalty for each shirt sold, and the runners up getting R1/shirt.
The shirts themselves apparently are going to go for R160 ex VAT and shipping.

(I wonder if I'm allowed to submit a Vernon Koekemoer design...probably not.)

Much Love!

There have been quite a few instances recently where a bit of a fuss has been kicked up. (WASA/OPA, Carte Blanche, SA Blog awards).

A common theme has been that commentators have dived in to put forward their arguments as to how they see things. Now while I accept that this is the nature of the social web, and I've been known to jump on a bandwagon myself in the past, I'm starting to think that surely there is a better way of trying to make things better.

So with all my worldly knowledge (Note the sarcasm) I'm proposing that everyone chill out, take a step back, and rather focus on what's right about a particular topic.

Why am I putting forward this hippie, tree-hugging idea. Well, simply put, it's just good business!
This way there is always forward momentum and good ideas are built upon; bridges aren't burnt in the process as individuals end up takings sides; and everyone gets along. :)

Building on good ideas

Anyone who has faced the reality of starting a new project will know that they are not going to get everything right the first time round. Often it can actually be counter productive to seek perfection and the focus should be on making what works the best it can be.
If you start to nit-pick every single flaw you're never going to get anywhere.

Maintaining relationships

The social web is fantastically opinionated, and the freedom to say what you want- when you want to, is an element which I feel should be nurtured.
That being said, individuals need to be conscience that the same rules apply online to offline. If you call someone in the community a twat, they aren't going to like you, and neither are their friends. So while picking on the biggest guy at school will get you noticed, you'll probably end up with a black eye.

The online community is small, and I'm not just talking about SA. If you start burning bridges it will inevitably come back to bite you in some way.

Getting along

During 'periods of peace', the South African online community is a fantastic place to operate in. Whilst personally I have had precious few face-to-face meetings with my online contacts, I have seen partnerships forged, friends made, and fantastic projects started.

If you don't have anything nice to say... (yip I'm gonna say it) don't say anything. I'm all for giving a critique/engaging in a debate/etc, but is there really a need to bring out the hatchet?

So in this spirit, here is 1 thing I think is good about:

WASA/OPA

A strong competitor is needed for the OPA, not because I think they're doing a bad job, but in order for them on their toes rather than resting on their laurels.

Carte Blanche 2.0

Isn't anyone else glad that the rest of the country is starting to take notice of what we do?

SA Blog Awards

No matter what, the guys come back every year to perform this thankless task. They know it's not perfect, but every year they get better and better. Imagine they spent less time worrying about appeasing everyone and more time growing the movement? Then you'd start getting some attention from bigger sponsors, which means bigger prizes and more development. More development means a better system. A better system means happy bloggers.

Much love!
I'm off to hug a tree