Golf and other things

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

After not playing golf for more that 2 years, I was back on the course yesterday morning.  What a painful experience — could not even break 100.  When last I played I shot in the mid to lower 80′s so this was an experience by itself.  This morning my legs and back are sore with blisters on my heels.  But I also know after a couple of rounds everything will be getting back to normal again.

Talking about golf.  Saw this post from Mr BusinessGolf today on Ernie’s prediction that he, Ernie, will catch Tiger in 3 years time and be #1 again.  Mr BusinessGolf is predicting that it will be a lot sooner.  I am a patriotic supported of Ernie, and know him personally, but do not agree with Mr BusinessGolf.  Ernie must first gets his mental side in order before he will catch Tiger on anybody else for that matter.

Oh and lastly,  my spanking new Ford Focus 1.6 SI Sport was delivered to me yesterday afternoon.  Luckily I am on holiday so will take it for a leisurely drive to the beach today.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Back at being a official golf club member again

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

After a bit more than 2 years, I again today joined my old golf club.  Luckily they still had all my detail and even got my old membership number back which meant that I did not even need a new membership card.

The bad side is that they also had all my old scores which meant I will start with the handicap I had when I left the club.  That was a 15 and I am nowhere near a 15 handicap golfer at the moment.  Well we will see tomorrow when I will venture out on the green grass again.

Technorati Tags: ,

Dreamhost — what a disaster!!

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

As mentioned before, I am looking for a new hosting company.  I came across  Dreamhost and using their $97 coupon meant that I could get a year’s hosting for around $22 which is a very good deal.  It looked liked they offered everything I needed so I went ahead to signup for a Dreamhost account.

Everything seemed to go fine until I received a note from them that I should print out some form.  Hand filled it in with an image of my credit card on it, and fax this form back to them.  Being on holiday and not near a fax machine (who still uses fax machines in any case), I decided to take a digital photo of the form and email it to Dreamhost.  The digital image was actually very good, probably a lot better than what the fax would have been.

What a surprise when I received a automated message from Dreamhost that they do not accept attachments in email and that I must upload the attachment somewhere and send them the URL.  After doing that and sending them the URL, got another response saying that they will only accept a fax. If I cannot do that then they will just cancel my sign-up which they then did.  I am sure they did not even bother looking at the digital image of the signed form.

Well, I would never recommend them to anybody ever.  And here I though we are living in a digital world. 

Off to search for another host that want my business .. any recommendations?

Technorati Tags: , ,

Bought a new car today

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

As mentioned before, I am currently looking to buy a new car.  Went to test drive a Ford Focus 1.6 SI Sport today and a hour later I have bought it.  So if everything goes as it should with registration, finance ect I should have a brand spanking new Oyster Silver Ford Focus by the end of the week. 

Hmmm, was about time I give myself a big Christmas present :) .

On another note — I am catching up on some reading.  Eragon the movie is opening here in South Africa on Friday and when I browsed through a bookshop yesterday, I came accross the Box Set of Eragon and Eldest books.  I was always disappointed reading books after seeing the movie, so this time around I have decided to read the book first before watching the movie.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Hooray!!! … I’am on leave

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

Yesterday was my last day before a long break from work.  How nice it will be to wake up in the morning and not think about meetings, customers and things work related.  Sorry IBM, I am going to try to give you as little as possible of my time.

So what is on my agenda:  (no not plans, since I am sure some of these I will not get too)

  • Play a lot of golf — officially join a club again (looks like it will be Bellville Golf Club)
  • Find a new car — either a Honda Civic Hatch or Ford Focus 2.0 ST Hatch
  • Visit some family
  • Go to the beach
  • Work on a pet project of mine: (visit http://www.tee-time.za.net/ and you will see — if there is any golf clubs that is interested in it then just contact me and I will point you in the right direction)
  • and anything I feel like doing when I get up in the mornings.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

So much to do, so little time

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Friday is my last day at work before going on leave for about 4 weeks.  My first proper leave in about 18 months and boy, how do I look forward to the break.

However, before going on leave there is so much still to do in making sure that everything is in order for the team to keep on delivering on the outsource deal to Safmarine.  Luckily for me, there is some very capable people that can look after some of the things that have to be done.

Technorati Tags: , ,

This is so cool!!

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

At last I can use my Sametime (that is if you run version 7.5) and connect to other IM clients.  And I quote:

The world’s largest instant messaging community is now available for IBM Lotus Sametime customers via the Lotus Sametime Gateway. Lotus Sametime users can now instant message users of Google Talk, AOL AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger. This capability bridges a big gap in communications between the enterprise and consumer communities.

 
How cool would it be if it also connect to MSN and Skype eventually ..

Update:  Here is a link to an eWeek article.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

First couple of days at IBM

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

On Friday, 1 Dec 2006, we all got given a goody bag from IBM .. we had no idea what was in it.  In it was:

  • Our IBM badges — yes now we can proudly show we are IBMers
  • A blue IBM fleeze jacket so that we can show even more we are IBMers
  • IBM folder and pen — even more showoff stuff.
  • For those that joined the IBM medical aid — all our medical stuff.
  • and lastly but not least — an IBM watch which my son promptly made his own.
  • and let us not forget the donuts and juice :)

This week all of us are going through induction and medicals.  I had my induction on Monday and we told all about Security, BCG, ILC, WWER, CHRIS and a lot of other acronyms and systems.

Yesterday evening we were officially welcomed at a party at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens here in Cape Town.  We listened to a great speech by Greame Codringtom from TomorrowToday on why people from different age groups does not understand one another. Met Mark Harris, Debbie Graham and a bunch of other great existing IBMers.

And inbetween all of this I had to do my day job also — making sure the customer is happy and we deliver what we suppose to deliver.

The next milestone on my journey into IBM is getting my first payslip around the 15th of December.

Overall I must say things went fairly smoothly with a few bumps here and there.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

And the day arrived — I am an IBMer !!

Posted on by — 3 Comments ↓

I am officially an IBMer and the first thing I did was to put some form of disclosure on this site — thanks Andy and Kelly, I just plagiarist yours.

Actually I got connected to the IBM network a day or so ago allready and are trying to find my feet in the IBM systems.  Got to read up about all the people I have met and what they say about themselves in the Bluepages.

I have not been into work yet so will have to see whether all my access keys still work and they allow me into my own building :)

Technorati Tags: , ,