Cars

80X in design mold

I like them, a lot. Now not in the typical male way of knowing the nitty gritty with spec's, performance and getting messy under the hood. I like the design of them, shape, styling and importantly what the interior has to offer. Now dont get me wrong, Im not saying I'd take a car with a 9 liter engine and performance that sucks ass but it looks good, theres a limit that my mind has to that sort of thing.

Peugeot Airstream Concept

Ever since I could use a pencil I was drawing cars, on walls, paper, or any surface that I could draw on. I had many die cast models which I for some reason broken into pieces which resulted in me not getting any more for a long long time. Anyway point is its the design of them that caught me. I started off by drawing cars that existed then moved onto cars I wished that were made, newer models for certain brands etc.

My Peugeot Revo concept

My life ambition was to be a car designer but sadly in our country none of the colleges offer such a course one could study. If I wanted to I  had to venture out to study. BMW school of design made an offer but a year and half would have been for learning the language as all classes are conducted in German, now after learning Afrikaans for almost 10 years and not fully mastered it, German wasnt going to be the bike to learn to ride or the long route would have been doing an engineering course here then moving abroad to learn various design codes and so on.

My Peugeot 80X concept

But none the less with the "supreme skills" I've learnt on Auto CAD 3D I've tried my luck on Peugeot's Design contests they hold every 2 years. Its open to anyone who wants to design. Given a strict set of design details and a time frame you have to come up with a design that suits their specifications and give a brief 500 word write up on your design and how it suits what they're looking for. The competition is stiff and each one gets more difficult. The winner gets some prize money, gifts from the sponsors but the real score is that Peugeot builds a full size model of your design and displays it at a motorshow which they fly you to of course!

My Peugeot 80X concept

The guys out there with fast internet and freeware to do such detailed designs sometimes have you in awe that they're just teenagers sitting at home doing this as a past time. There are some talented blokes out there and shows with some time and vision, nothing is impossible. Car design for me is really important, so its good to see the youngsters willing to be so bold in what they create, of course car companies are not going to put all into production and if they do chose the various designs, it will be chopped and changed to make them most cost effective. Jaguar have really stepped their game up with Ian Callum's bold designs put into the works.

2011 KIA Cadenza

The Koreans, KIA & Hyundai have on the other hand taken the design rule book and thrown it out the door. Not sticking to low key conservative type designs any more, they're going bold and cutting edge. I say why not? Akio Toyoda was questioned 4 years back after the Toyota Camry won the car of the year title for the 2nd time running in the US, as to whether he was worried about what the Germans would have up their sleeve, he responded by saying that its not the Germans he was worried about, it was the Koreans! And as we look at our market now with KIA and Hyundai becoming the low cost brand of choice he had good reason to worry about them! Toyota are falling behind badly, their entire design team needs a shake up!

Toyota Blade

The Auris was a total failure in terms to competing with the Honda Civic and to make matters worse, 3/4 of the world didnt receive the range topping Blade! How they ever expect to see results while being so picky is beyond me. As for Toyota SA, dont get me started, you're better of talking to a brick wall. I love their brand and what they stand for but its high time they work up and realised people arent always gonna chose them because of their "reliable past". They need to up the anti and give the public something they'll want, not force them to take what they make.

I see a bright future for most car designs, as they look at becoming more pleasing to the eye and the big factor being "green" more companies will look at other materiel to build their cars with thus allowing for more bold designs that normally are fit for concept only cars.So heres hoping to a future of cars that more pleasant to look at on the road and less Multipla's and Micra's.

Note: All designs shown are mine with exception to the Cadenza & Blade.

Looking back on 2010

2010: Its been a pretty insane year dont you think? Besides the for obvious reasons alot of things went down in this year, we found out who the Stig was, we re-created the big bang, and Robert Mugabe is still a douche.

As I sit here today thinking or trying to think what went down in 2010, only one word can come to mind to describe it. LEGENDARY. I know the word is over used after Barney Stinson basically made it part of normal conversation but truly this year for me was just that. Firstly thanks to the intwerbs and twitter! It has changed my life, changed the way I do things, see things, experience things and it forced me to create this very blog! I could bore you and give you the the details on why this year was so great but I'd spare you the annoyance and give a brief summary of my years happenings in pictures, because everyone likes pictures right?
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Kiaria Lodge - Golden Gate National Park

Jan started of with me in the Berg, awesome place to unwind, relax and breathe in the clean fresh air the mountains have to offer. Whether you go for hiking, fishing, mountain biking or like me, to kick back relax with a fire and meat burning on it with a beverage in hand. There is no better place to chill.
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Clarens

We stayed near a small town in the Free State called Clarens. This place has more restaurants than houses! theres 100's of them in a town as small as a block in Jhb!
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Katse Dam

Staying so close to the Lesotho border and me have fetish for big things that are made out of concrete we saw this as an ideal opportunity to see one of the Southern Hemisphere's marvouls. The Katse Dam located in the Lesotho highlands! Its the second largest dam in Africa... its huge! but getting there, yoh be prepared thats all Im going to say, its not easy!
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Reshma & Shyam

From the berg we made our way to the land of the big hole, aka Kimberley for my cousins wedding. Now Ive been to tons weddings before but this one was special, if one has to dig up Kimberleys Tourism figures, one would distinctly notice that the weekend of the 30th Jan will stand out. All the hotels in the city were fully booked and on the wedding day itself if you drove around town you were guaranteed to spot a woman in a sarie!
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Queen Mary 2

Keeping with the big things theme. In March the Queen came to visit! No not that old hag that waves like she has an electronic wrist joint. Cunards luxury cruise liner, the Queen Mary 2! The biggest trans-Atlantic cruise ship in the world! Jostling to get a good spot at the harbour entrance to see her leave was a mission, not to mention they delayed the exit by an hour! but it was all worth it.
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First Official flight from KSIA

May saw the opening of Durbans new King Shaka International Airport. The one that was being planned from the days of the dinosaurs which finally saw green light given 2 years back. I've followed this project since the first pile was put in with a bunch of mates on a construction forum so we had to go down there for the official opening and witness the first commercial flight taking off. Plus I came on national TV!
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Tiesto

May saw me being part of a chosen 1000 to witness something unexplainable. Smirnoff brought down DJ'ing great Tiesto for a one night show. I got the call on Friday morning to say I've got a ticket, the concert was the next night, I had to chose 3 other friends to join me and arrange flights. It was one chaotic day but ended up being a weekend for the record books. The man is a legend, he had us in a trance till 4 in the morning. To top things off I got to meet DJ Fresh, Euphonik and on the plane back home I met Wayne Brady who was touring SA.
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Moses Mabhida Stadium

June saw the biggest event in the world kick off right here on our shores. The World cup has been talked about since the time we won the bid to host it. It for me was the most anticipated event of my LIFE! Yes everything for me revolved around this event. I followed the bid process, the stadium constructions and everything else World Cup related, I even made it onto FIFA's website!
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Moses Mabhida -Semi Final

I have to add more to it, all in all I saw 7 matches including the semi final in Durban. Just to experience the event was something, I made sure I took as many people as I could. I even dragged my mum who hates sports to see a game! I braved the minus temps of Jhb and partied with the Algerians and drank with the English in Cape Town. Everytime I think back to June/ July I get goose bumps. Meeting so many different people from all over the world and more importantly seeing our nation unite as one to welcome the world was just spectacular.

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Gosais Supermarket

 July was also quite emotionally sad for my family and I as we bid fairwell to our business that we've had for 79 years. My whole life revolved around the "shop". I didnt know what it felt like to do shopping until this year. Normal bread and milk was a given and brought home from the supermarket, as well as so many other things. It was tough letting it go but Im sure even tougher for my dad and his brothers. In the long term I suppose it was the right thing to do but we still have fond memories of the place.

the 3rd generation

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Kavita doing the Champers justice

My sister turned 21... you know you're old when the baby in your family reaches this age. It was quite a party too. Smack bang middle in our fasting month, this one took a long time to plan and lets not get started on the cake but it turned out to be a blast and me quite enjoying the food as told in my blog post.
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Trevor Noah & Pixie Bennett

Thanks to Rabin Hurduth for organising VIP tickets to see the most famous CEO in South Africa. And I got to meet fellow twitter buddy and major SA singer Pixie Bennett.
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Kings Park - Currie Cup Final

October saw me attend my first ever Currie Cup final. The Sharks have made it to finals before and won, but lost many as well so I wasnt sure what to expect from this one knowing we carried the dreaded chokers tag. The match itself was quite the opposite with us running away with the victory. Definitely one for the record books.
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ATB

November saw me invited for yet another Smirnoff event, this time for the Nightlife Exchange project in Cape Town. Featuring one of my favourite DJ's ATB. I also was educated in trance by the great Markus Schulz. It was an event bigger than Tiesto but I cant compare the 2 since both were epic in their own way.

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Camps Bay

Being in Cape Town I pulled an extra few days after the concert, I lived it up, pimped it up,  met up with many of the twitter peeps, partied till the wee hours of the morning and made that mountain my bitch. Basically I did that Town justice and when I left I had it begging for more, be warned mountain... I'll be back.
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Theres still 2 weeks left in the year and more memories to be made, the main thing is to be safe in what ever it is that you're doing. If you're drinking, dont drive, if you're going to be messing with fireworks on New Years, be aware of those around you and the pets but all in all dont forget to have fun! You only live once.

This wont be my last blog post for the year but seems like a good time to do a review.

Lets hope 2011 out does 2010.

Make the change

Is it just me or have Liverpools last 2 managers have some sort of fear to make a substitution? Fare enough the starting 11 they chose for the game is their choice and after a week of preparation and training they feel those guys are the best to do the job on match day. Now everyone knows things dont always go the way you planned it out to be hence in football they have a bench with 7 players sitting there so if something does go wrong eg: injury or a player is tired, or an individual is playing like shit it gives the manager an opportunity to make a change. With Liverpool's recent results being more unpredictable that dancing blind folded in a mine field, we never know for certain if the team out on the field is capable of getting the 3 points.

Last Monday we played a fairly understrength side that tore Aston Villa to shreds. It could have ended well embarrassing for the visiting side as many chances were either squandered or brilliantly saved. This weekend  you would have thought with Torres back in front and the unrest in Tyne side with the sacking of their manager and appointment of a new one that didnt have any support from the fans that we'll have a good shot and collecting all 3 points again. Thats where you're wrong. Newcastle were out to get us and we looked well dumbfounded at times. Now not to divulge too much into the game and to focus on the topic of this blog, the world could see we were playing poorly, surely this is a sign to make a change? Fresh legs, different options, change of strategy, all of these come with making substitutions. Babel was brought early in the second half for Ngog which was only due to a nasty head injury suffered to the French striker, if it was not for that we'd have to wait till after the 65th minute to see a change. Many times Roy will wait till the 79/80th minute to make a change. You cant throw a player on in the last 10 minutes and expect him to do magic. You still got 10 other blokes out there that have been playing kak for the entire game so they're not going to click soon as some one else is thrown on. For me there is no shame in making a change early on, it shows that the manager knows his decision was wrong and his rectifying it before the problem gets worse. We've seen Jose famously making a tactical substitution in the 34 minute, it was a change as he said "to improve the game". He felt the player was not doing what he felt he would so he made the change. Chelsea ended up winning that game and thats all that mattered.

Now this isnt a post to attack Roy again, Rafa Benitez was just the same. He should wait till late on to make changes which often grated my nuts, especially last season which we try not to remember. I dont know why they make changes so late, other managers bring on players in the 55th-75th minutes for tactical reasons, from 80th + minutes the changes are either to manage the game or to kill time time. We on the other had make tactical changes in the 80th minute. I guess we're good like that. I just hope in games to come we aren't left frustrated like we were on Saturday.

Give me Wings

Chicken Licken Hotwings with Soul Fire

AMG133: Even though life may fly past you with rapid speed, always take time to slow down and enjoy chicken wings. 

Just a random post, dedicated to the the wing that the chicken giveth. Is it just me or are chicken wings awesome? I mean really, I've eaten out many times, had many starters and in the meat variety this is by far the greatest. Yes you have to get your hands messy and there is the bone to deal with but thats just lame excuses to deny your taste buds of this great snack. Heck I think the preferred finger foods of the gods is chicken wings! Think about it, why do chickens have wings? They dont fly? Surely the soul purpose of it is to be cut off, defeathered, cleaned, dipped in batter and fried to be eaten with hot sauce?

sticky wings

 Which brings me to my next point, theres a variety of them, crispy fried served with hot sauce, grilled honey mustard and sticky bbq are favourites, but sticking to my theme of the blog, I prefer the fried variety. Why? I dont like the gooeyness (if there is such a word) of the others. Plus most of the bbq marinades vary big time between places and some if not most dont hit the nail on the head all the time. At least with the batter, its just a question of whether they're gonna burn it as the hot sauce will cover the minor taste bud speed bumps such as "less salt" etc.

My hot wings Top 5:

5. Checkers fried chicken wings - I kid you not, I was hungry, I was forced to go to this vile supermarket and in the mixture of various pieces of chicken I saw some wings, so I asked only for them. Went home and ate them with some hot sauce and bly me they were good to kill the cravings!

 

4. KFC Zinger wings- My favourite take out of all time but it doesnt make my number one spot. They tried and failed many a time with this item on their menu, often burning it or getting the recipe really wrong but it seems they have settled on one that is selling and quite frankly isnt that bad. My only gripe is that they dont have any hot sauce for it! Wings and tomato sauce is a no no!

3. Hooters- Now the American franchise has been in SA for a year or so now and the menu isnt one you'll be flipping through over and over again, being a sports bar you cant blame it. Their chicken wings are good but truth be told I expected better. They're too "generic" if I could use that term. The hot sauce on the other hand is quite good. Please note I refer to the proper wings on bone and not that boneless crap.

2. Chicken Licken- Their actual chicken maybe not such a great hit with me but thankfully these guys changed the recipe for the wings. In fact they are so popular most branches I frequent have more wings in the warmer than the actual chicken! The Soul Fire sauce is available to purchase in sachets or the bottle if you're feeling thirsty

 1. Spur- yes they average family restaurant they might be but they got something on those bad boys, fried to perfection drenched in that southern style hot sauce with extra garlic served with their "dirky sauce" (blue cheese dressing). It really does make me contemplate ordering mains from them.

Partying in the land of the Mountain

So as my previous post stated, I was off to Kingdom Zille, believe it or not, even though I have lived my entire life in South Africa, this was just my 4th visit to "the mother city". Its not a question of whether I liked it enough to visit again, but the location of the city. It finds itself nestled in a corner of the country thats over a 1000km's away from any major city. Given its nature as the be all and end all of cities in SA one cant say that its position doesnt suit it as it probably doesnt want to be connected in any way to the rest of South Africa. Sharing the same bodily mass as the other cities is as far as it goes with Cape Town. It is though a truly remarkable city, well governed and manged to the point that you almost feel at home after spending a day or 2 in it. Some say after visiting that they dont feel like they were in South African, thats just bollocks, either they've been smoking tik or just want to make them selves feel better for not affording a holiday out of the country because Cape Town is in every essence a South African city, just with a big rock in the middle of it.

Can you smell...

Back to my trip, main reason was indeed the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange project as previously stated it was hosted by DJ Fresh & euphonik  of South Africa but featured Berlins DJ'ing greats, Monika Cruz, ATB & Markus Schulz but more about them later as I start at the very beginning. Durban airport aka King Shaka International, I knew my holiday was going to be a good one as I managed to get a window seat in the emergency exit row! These tickets are as hard to get as hens teeth! Why you ask? well duh window seat for staters! and if you dont already know the emergency exit row has an extra 500mm of legroom in order for hysterical passengers to make their way off the burning plane to safety, now me being larger than the average Joe enjoys this luxury, I call it the "middle first class of low cost airlines". Now it just gets better from there after as I enter the gate terminal I spot a Sunglasses hut kiosk, could they have the pair of Oakley Polarised Inmate I've been hunting for all over? of course they do! and the guy gives me a R600 discount with out me even asking him anything!

Cape Town Festival of beer

►►Fast forward to Cape Town ignoring the fact that the plane took 30 minutes extra in the skies or the the fact CTIA opted to put us in the bush and make us climb down stairs instead of the air bridge and lets not get started with the wait for the luggage. I was planned to meet with fellow tweeter @JuicyJemma at the Cape Town Festival of Beer but with the hassle of the car rental place not giving me my license back and me having to drive back to the airport to collect it, I just missed her. But never the less I still went to the festival of beer to share a pint with legendary Cape Town blogger LifeisSavage who might I add isnt very easy to find in a crowd! Mr popular as he is, I found him being hounded by Cape beauties Jeannie D & Lyndall Jarvis, good thing too I met him as I had my directions in a knot and he pointed out to me that the Smirnoff party was in Bellville and not the CBD as I previously thought for some odd reason.

Smirnoff Night Exchange- ATB

►►Fast forward again, this time to the party. It started at 8pm so a good time to get in was 10pm right? Venue the Bellville Velodrome, much bigger than the Skyraiders hanger that hosted Tiesto in May and was a brilliant venue for such an event. Walking down the ramp into the drome, with the sounds of Monika Cruz hitting you in your face was an awesome feeling. VIP bars at every corner with plenty of couches to rest the asses of the masses, I could tell that this was going to be a good night. Monika not well known to many as her two partners for the night did a great job albeit I saw the last hour of her set. With the bars being a free for all all night I was pleasantly surprised that many didnt take this opportunity to get sloshed out of their mind. The last thing I wanted was my night ruined by bunch of people that couldnt handle their liquor. Andre came on for his set and was seriously amazing, he played a mixture of his songs, mainly the new stuff but threw in some classics like "Till I come" & finished off his set with the massive "Let You Go" which got the crowd right in the mood for what was coming next.

Markus Schulz

Step up Markus Schulz, as I said I havent heard much of his stuff apart from the odd mix but this night it was no remixes from the trance master, hardcore from the word go! His set from 1am till 3am felt like a few minutes as his music was so good, suffice to say the only time I stopped dancing was to get me another redbull as I could feel my legs letting go a bit and I had a long drive back to the CBD. After his set we begged him for more but all he could offer was one more song. After which he came down to meet whom ever was left at the end. It was rather a tiny crowd of a 1000 or less. Its sad that events like this which is invite only get those who come for the sake of it being that and not to enjoy what was on offer in terms of entertainment and not the free booze. The true fans of this type of music were left to sit at home that night twiddling thumbs wondering what must have been going down.

Urban Hip Hotels - The Icon

Now stumbling home at 4am may not be the most pleasant thing to do but I couldnt help but feel happy walking into this place. A 1 bedroom 5* apartment in the heart of Cape Town, what more could a guy ask for? fully fitted kitchen, dinning room, lounge with full DSTV bouquet, big screen LCD & a home theatre system. Now I know what you must be thinking, it must cost a pretty penny, but no. Compared to all the other hotels around, this place was by far more cheaper! heck even some places that I could get discounts at were atleast R400 more than this place, fine the others offered breakfast in the morning as appose to this place but you tell me what breakfast is worth R400?

2011 Mercedes Benz CLS63 AMG

The next day I woke up at 7am... dont ask, drinking red bull keeps you awake for longer than you can imagine. Fighting the caffeine I thought I'd go have a look outside, good thing I did as I caught Mercedes Benz shooting their commercial for the newest CLS model, at first I thought it was just the 500 or lower model but on closer inspection it turned out to be the CLS63 AMG! They had a guy constantly shining it as you dont want any smudges on it for TV. Plus with the EU plates you could see it wasnt for the local market. I would have gone for a better colour as AMG's are meant to be bit more scary.

tweetup/ drink up

 The days that followed in the Cape were filled of awesomeness, sunsets at camps bay to car sound competitions at the Goodhope center (hey Im Indian, we like our sound okay). On the Monday I got an opportunity to meet some fellow tweeters who we frequently tweet each other... if that makes sense. Was good to finally put a face to the tweets, but we kinda already knew what each other looked like with profile pics and facebook etc.. but meeting them in person was good. A big thanks to @KimGreyling, @MishtotheD, @staceywest24 & the Patron Princess @KirstyBisset for arranging a great night.

View from Signal Hill

No visit to Cape Town is complete with out some scenic shots and from a vast variety to chose from the favourites have to be going up the Mountain and Signal hill, fighting for time I had no time to wait to go up the cable way so Signal hill had to do. Surprisingly it wasnt that busy, so to get parking and walk around the hill with ease was a first time occurrence for me, and to make things better the weather was perfect for pictures!

Fish on the rocks- Hout Bay

When in the Cape another must do is fish and chips, dont waste your time having it at the Waterfront, a drive along the M6 is much more worth it, passing Camps Bay and the 12 apostles making your way into the small fishing village of Hout Bay. There are a few takeout/ restaurants to chose from and all are more or less priced the same so the choice is yours really. Dont stick to just the cooked seafood as there are fish mongers around for you to buy the fresh stuff as I was given strict orders to bring the famous Snoek back to Durban. I probably wouldnt have been allowed back into the house if I didnt bring some.

Camps Bay

Back onto the heavy schedule of meeting people, I had the pleasure of meeting yet more twitter people! (who needs family hey?) Tuesday night was spent having dinner with @PsychoButterFly who you'll find online at most strange hours of the night, hence I dubbed her "Night Warrior Princess". It was pointed out during dinner that I havent properly "done" Long street so after dinner I had a mandatory stop then I decided to explore this mystic street. Well thats as far as I can remember the night, the next morning I found myself with a moerse hang over, receipts for R1000's on the kitchen counter and to top it off my jeans some how got torn... dont worry nothing else was "torn".

The Icon

Its quite a mission to get your butt together to make an 11am checkout time but the gods were kind to me that day and I did but something had to give as finding parking infront of the hotel to hand back the parking garage disc with room key proved to be impossible with traffic, driving a BMW didnt exactly help the cause as well since people dont really take kindly to BMW drivers (no wonder the rental place had them on special). With the hours running out I had the privilege of ending of my time in the Cape on a sweet note by meeting @LeeAnn_Roberts for coffee, as I tweeted shortly afterwards, pictures do her little justice as she is much more stunning in real life. Now I can scratch off "having coffee with a supermodel" off my bucket list. As I sat there at the airport eating my last bit of seafood the Cape had to offer at the Ocean Basket, I wished that the weekend could rewind itself right to the beginning, as there were things I wished I did, things I wished I remembered, and a first for me, wished I took more pictures! But I suppose the good thing is I dont regret doing what I did, I could do this annually from now on!