Holiday Club

Smudge

Last night our cell helped out at the Stirling Baptist Holiday club. A carnival was staged for the kids, and leaders were paired up to run various stalls.

Adam and I were tasked with selling Smudge. We weren't actually selling it, the kids got some tickets that they could redeem for games and food. But the principle of limited resources satisfying unlimited desires still applied.

In order to out perform the other volunteers we applied some fundamental marketing strategies.

Sales floor:
What matters most in any retail situation is not the quality of the product, rather the appearance of your store. Anyone who's eaten at Spur can verify this. Thus we pillaged some traffic cones and an umbrella to outfit our store in an intimate, yet edgy atmosphere.

Market competition:
Our product was good, but for some reason the kids insisted on investing in games which didn't guarantee return. We approached the market with various slogans, like "You won't always win at carpet bowls, but you always win with Smudge". and "Do you have an ailment?... Because we have the cure" - emphasizing the obvious psychological (if not dietry) benefits of Smudge.

Mobile advertising:
A must-have in any modern day marketing strategy. Unfortunately, due to the complete lack of infrastructure... from internet connections, e-commerce facilities and a critical lack of 'small children with cellphones'... we instead took our store mobile, and hawked our goods through the carnival grounds.

Unfortunately the only available auditors were actually running one of the other stalls, but I'm sure if an impartial judge were present, we would certainly have taken a sweet victory.

127 Hours

I generally avoid movies which are anything other than entertaining. Call me narrow minded but there are other opportunities to be challenged and stretched emotionally everyday, they needn't make themselves visible when I'm vegging on the couch.

One recently snuck by in the guise of a man-movie night. 127 Hours. Now that I think about it, I also watched Blood Diamond on the weekend, largely for educational purposes. Back to 127 Hours. I won't spoil it for you, but its enough to say my bum still clenches when I think about some of the scenes.

In aid of this triumph of human spirit, Ive decided to change my entry to the longer of the two runs this weekend, in the Katberg Eco Trail Run series.

Lunar Eclipse

Am I the only one who felt a bit let down by this week's Lunar Eclipse?

Albeit, I don't have much to compare it to, but aside from being unusual, it wasn't nearly as exciting as the prospect of our pizza cooking in the oven.



The guy in the video says, 'if... you saw the moon had gone an eery shade of red, you musnt be alarmed'. Which raises another point, if a red tinted moon would ordinarily alarm you, its likely you wouldn't have seen the moon at all... You would likely be incapacitated infront of the TV watching the BBC Newshour report on unrest in the Middle East, Iran's nuclear program, riots in Greece and an eColi breakout in Europe.

Our pizza was tasty, a gourmet creation.

(Check out the video here email subscribers.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFaYyhaaCPU )

Flood

We had some epic rain this weekend. There was no warm spell to introduce it, it just rained like crazy for 3 days.

Everything facing upright which resembled a bowl flooded. Including my car's foot well.  Emphasis on well. Turns out the drainage system has a crucial design flaw, but nothing that couple of hundred bucks and a big heater can't fix. And possibly some newspaper.

In chaotic times, news travels faster than it should. I received reports that the sluice gates at Nahoon dam had been opened, only to be told that the dam has no sluice gates. That particular question remains unanswered.

On a positive note, the flood did provide alternative entertainment for the weekend, and had it not availed itself Im not sure what we would have done to entertain friends visiting form the Cape. Flood-damage sight seeing has something going for it.

Check out a wicked video by @kyllcs here http://www.pixelperspective.co.za/4/

C.O.R.

Humans are generally poor estimators of cost.  My uncle recently advised us not to spend money fixing up the house before we sell, because buyers usually under-estimate how much it will cost to renovate, and so rather them than you.

Turns out car buyers find themselves in a similar state of denial, and if not financially, then definitely in terms of how much time it will take.

My gorgeous car, which I have already developed a deep attachment to, has continued to vex me.  Ive since missed the road worthy date and will be paying the South African government another few hundred bucks while I wait for mechanic-Graham to sort out the inside drivers' door handle.  It decided, with an air of indifference, to simply stop working on Saturday morning.

Do not be naive.  A car which arrives with a COR, especially one from the AA, is worth it.

Bus Ride

Big news in my my world right now is that I bought another car.  Yes, I have retired the Hyundai.  I have mixed emotions - the Hyundai has been an honest companion.

carrier of choice

In order to get my paws on the new wheels I had a gauntlet to run, or ride... a bus trip to Graaff Reinet.  I wonder what the saving rate would look like nationally if you had to do a 7 hour bus ride before you could spend more than 10 gorillas.

Surprisingly, we left on time.  More surprisingly, I was quite enjoying myself... until we hit Queenstown.  The chairs are pretty comfy, and the window is big.  In Qtown we filled the bus.  My travel partner became a Somalian dude, who, from what I could make out... didn't speak English, but had taken a 2 hour ride on the back of a bakkie to get to the bus.  Hectic.  We're blessed to have cars.

A lady attempted to sell me a mielie at one stop... hawkers are fair game on board it seems.  While tempted I decided against it, budget concerns cited.

In hindsight it was pretty uneventful.

Tundra

Its. been. so. long.

Fortunately, I took part in my first ever mountain bike race.  The Kenton Extreme Eco Challenge.  I had to do something positive with the experience.

courtesy of jannes.

I don't own a bike and the sourcing of one went something like, "Kyle, do you have a bike?... Uuuuh... yes, it has two wheels. Great, can I borrow it?'

The Tundra, as it became known, developed legendary status on the weekend.  We actually beat some people, which I loved.  All I had was pride and a mild determination to live up to Lance's opinion 'Its not about the bike'.  It remains to be seen what Lance could have achieved on the Tundra, but the principle holds.

No regrets though.  It was good to do something tough.

At one point I lost my mind slightly, I had 2kms left to go in soft sea sand and I got owned by a wave.  Yes, a wave.  I think I shouted something Truman'esque.