We own timeshare at the Drakensberg sun. We are not going to be using it this year (and still have lots of points from 2 yrs ago) so we thought that maybe someone would else would like to go on holiday. Please also pass on to your friends if you think any of them will be interested. Thanks

The rental/levy for the week is R5500 – if you want the week its yours for that price.

The week is from the Saturday 23 July to Saturday 30 July 2011

The Chalet is self-catering – has all the basics in place – and it is cleaned daily so you don’t even have to wash the dishes!

It has a TV, a fireplace as well as an outside braai.

Main bedroom – king-size bed for 2.

Second bedroom -  2 single beds.

2 people can also sleep on the couch in the lounge, should it be needed.

The unit is adjacent to the Drakensberg Sun Resort and you can use the amenities and facilities – while on holiday its also nice not to have to cook all the time and the restaurant has a great buffet, as well as an a ‘la carte menu.

There are lovely walks – some strenuous and some not so.

There is plenty to do and see in the area – some of the things are

Drakensberg Canopy tours
Drakensberg Boys choir (they performs to the public weekly)
Thokozisa Lifestyle Centre – curio type shops
Visit Dragon Peaks and Monks Cowl for extra walks
Champagne Sports Resort Golf Course
Kwazulu Weavers & candles
Scrumpy Jacks (honey products & educational Bee tours)
Falcon Ridge – Bird of Prey Centre
Valley Bakery, Tea Garden & Art Gallery
Ardmore Ceramic Art Studio

I’m struggling to find a link to the Chalet section and but here are a few of the hotel itself so you can look at some pictures and see what facilities the hotel has to offer.

http://www.intervalworld.com/web/cs?a=1503&parentResortCode=DKH&resortCode=DKH

http://www.countryroads.co.za/view.php?cid=2197

http://www.drakensberg-tourist-map.com/C2197.html

You can comment to contact if you are interested !

The Eat Out Top 10 was announced last night,  and some surprises in the awards.

Here they are:  (full write-up  on www.eatout.co.za)

1. Rust en Vrede Restaurant

2. The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français

3. Jordan Restaurant

4. Bosman’s

5. DW Eleven-13

6. Terroir

7. Aubergine

8. Roots

9. Overture

10. Hartford House

Ok… here is the list for this year…

Read the full write up at http://www.eatout.co.za/Features/122/2010-Eat-Out-Restaurant-Awards-20-nominees

Aubergine

Bosman’s

Restaurant Cristophe

DW Eleven-13

George Jardine at Jordan Restaurant

The Greenhouse

Hartford House

Jardine

La Colombe

Linger Longer

Mosaic Restaurant

Overture

The Restaurant at Waterkloof

Reuben’s in Franschhoek

Roots

The Roundhouse

Rust en Vrede

Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français

Terroir

Zachary’s

I have ony managed to have eaten at 4 of them.

Think there are some notable omissions honestly.

So… I haven’t been blogging a lot or at all..  so a good way to start the years blogging is listing some goals for the year.

1. Technology Wise
1. Write 2 SQL Server exams
1. Implementation and Maintenance
2. Database Development
2. Write 2 NAV 2009 exams
1. Financial Management
2. Development
2. Other work Wise
1. Find another business focused course / training thing to do.
3. Musically
1. Start playing turntables regularly – Cd and Vinyl
2. Put out 1 mix per month on Face book /Twitter
4. Financially
1. Pay back personal loans
5. Healthily
1. Stop smoking.
2. Start running.
3. Run a sub 40 min 10k by year end.
6. Cooking wise
1. Pick something I have never cooked and cook it every week.
7. Eating wise
1. Eat at all of Cape Town’s Top 10 before the end of the year.
8. Golfing Wise
1. End the year on a single figure handicap.

That’s about it…   now it’s out there…    time to do it… will update with due dates in a while.

I decided today that since I am subscribed to a small section of other peoples blogs, it would be nice to see how many people ever subscribed to mine…

I searched around and found that a lot of the people are using FeedBurner to do this, as Feedburner provides a lot of detailed stats etc.

So I searched around and found this site on how to set it up.

http://enlightenedwebmastery.com/use-feedburner-with-wordpress

I am following the setup procedure and will post any more findings.

Easy as pie to setup…

Feed Burner is now powered by Google… it could have always been as far as i know, but using it is very intuitive and works like charm…  added my Subscribe page,  with reader count and viola,  all done. 

Simple as pie.

Eat Out has just announced the nominees for the Restaurant of the year.. 

Here they are.. in no particular order of course..

1. 9th Avenue Bistro, Durban
2. Aubergine, Cape Town
3. Bizerca Bistro, Cape Town
4. Bread and Wine, Franschhoek
5. Carne SA, Cape Town
6. The Foodbarn, Cape Town
7. The Greenhouse at The Cellars-Hohenort, Cape Town
8. Hartford House, Mooi River, KZN
9. Jardine, Cape Town
10. La Colombe, Cape Town
11. Mosaic Restaurant, Pretoria
12. Overture, Stellenbosch
13. The Restaurant at Grande Provence, Franschhoek
14. Reuben’s Restaurant & Bar, Franschhoek
15. Roots, Johannesburg
16. The Roundhouse, Cape Town
17. Rust en Vrede, Stellenbosch
18. Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français, Franschhoek
19. Terroir, Stellenbosch
20. Zachary’s, Knysna

I have eaten at  numbers  4, 6, 9 10, 13, 19  -  which is a bit disappointing since 15 of the 20 are within my area…

Mission for the next few months…  fill in the gaps… 

I get asked all the time about open source software. 

A few years back i would have answered mainly that open source would ultimately cost you more as you would struggle to find support etc. 

And I would have thought that it was all slanted towards Linux.

I think it is a great step forward that so many people are releasing their software as open source.

I am currently installing NOPCommerce via the Web Platform Installer.

What a great set of functionality – all for free.  I think it’s a good move in the right direction for software in general.

Sourceforge and Codeplex all have awesome apps that we can download and learn from,  ultimately making us better developers and technology implementers.

So.. I bought a new laptop

HP  6730b Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.40 GHz, 3 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB), 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM 1DIMM,160GB HDD 7200 rpm SATA,  DVD-/RW Light Scribe, 15.4-inch diagonal WXGA,Intel 802.11 a/b/g,BLUETOOTH,FPR,56K Windows Vista® Business, Office Ready 07

and I added 2 GB RAM

Formatted it,    installed Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and loving it.

Now for all my apps:

I used Scot Hanselmans Tools List  to get some ideas….

Based on his list…  i am now running:

• Query Express
• Foxit REader
• Timesnapper
• SpaceSniffer
• KeePass
• mRemote

I used Web Platform Installer 2.0 to get SQL Express,  Visual Web Developer.

I am synching my 2 laptops as I write this with Live Mesh

Then Visual Studio 2005 – Visual Studio 2008 , Office 2007 Ultimate, and now I am almost there….

So I have been planning to do a blog for ages now… and it seems like the right time…  I think.

I will try and keep the content relevant and interesting, and keep trying to post as often as I can…