I was waiting for this, truly i was, because at some point he was going to come out of this dark shadow and start living his life and when one of the most famous, welthiest and most sought after sports stars in the world starts to live his life as a single man (a sex addict single man) its going to be EPIC!

SO when the pics of his new pad came out – i could help myself but share!

Here are a few of the stats;

- 60 million dollars

- 10 000 sq feet

- running track

- a few practice ones of these

- Boathouse

- Golf training studio

- Diving pool

- Lap lane

- Tennis court

- Oh and of course docks for his 155m yacht privacy!

We love local (well when local should be loved) and in this case when there are some talented dudes playing some seriously good music we tend to get behind it!

So if you havent seen them we thought we’d give you a lttle taste – including their new music video!

In February of 2009, four Cape Town boys of similar musical backgrounds formed the group Holiday Murray. With a shared interest in a variety of musical styles and a mutual passion for sound and expression, the group began writing their own material in the months to follow.

All studying at the same university, the four found plenty of time to ruminate on absurd topics and listen to music together. In November of the same year they played their first show in a small Cape Town bar. Their sound draws from a strong affinity for acoustic instruments and vocal work, an interest in folk melody and rhythm, and the inescapable aggregate of rock music. The four youths endeavor to create music that balances sound and silence, stillness and movement; in a project that they believe explains who they are at this time in their lives. Placing a great emphasis on their live performance, the band seeks to produce interesting but highly listenable material, whilst taking care in the writing of the lyrics.

Although approaching the scene with international ambitions, Holiday Murray as a collective is driven by a powerful sentimentality towards their hometown and country and intends to perform as far and wide in South Africa as possible. The naming process was simple, the name Holiday Murray belonging to a tall thin wooden man who aids the writing process, attends every band orientated event, and takes centre stage at every show.

Go check out their facebook page and then make sure you get yourself to their album launch – here for the details!

Today is a particularly good Thursday as for many of us it’s the start of a holiday. And to celebrate the start of the holidays we’ll give you a couple of bunnies. I’m sure given the context of Thursday’s threesome you probably think something along the lines of Playboy Bunnies. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t check some of them out, but I really don’t get the appeal. They’re just too fake! Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against tasteful augmentation, but everything about them seems to be fake. Their hair, bodies, personalities, relationship with Hef and I guess their lives in general just seem put on.

So instead, we’ll give you some Easter bunnies with some real beauty on the other side of the pic, because we’re classy like that.

We had a complaint that the last picture was too “clothed”. Hope this one’s a little better.

Please don’t get me wrong here – nothing makes me smile more than when one brand subtly attacks another brand and reacts so quickly to a new launch or product that they are able to ride the wave of another brands big campaign. In fact my favourite adverts were the Coke VS Pepsi wars on TV when we used to travel to the states  – and when I saw what Cell C had done I virtually applauded on the spot!

I’m sure you have all seen the ads with Trevor Noah talking about ‘Recently, a 17-year-old cell network changed their colours — nice, but what’s actually under the hood?”  and “it takes more than a lick of new paint to be South Africas leading cellular provider”

I see the ASA and Cell C have removed the advert from YouTube already!

I thought how quick and how brilliantly these guys had responded to a global network essentially in Vodacom and had used the momentum of the RED rebranding to their benefit rather than detriment . . . until I found out they cheated.

You see Draft  FCB who handled the rebranding had a creative director called Grant Jacobsen, now dear grant was part of the strategy, planning and just about implementation of this new campaign when he decided to leave FCB to join DDB SA. He then took his opportunity to go to Cell C with the idea of these ads (knowing intimate details of the Vodacom new launch) to win their account for his new company – seems pretty clever doesn’t it?

Few problems I have with Grant however – firstly I’m pretty sure in the agency world, like in the world I’m in, there are people smart enough to institute a restraint of trade on execs and generally these are a year to two years so I’m sure Grant is screwed there (I hope in this matter Vodacom, Vodafone and FCB really do screw him).

Secondly it just really doesn’t seem fair.

I mean its like a Steve Jobs heading to Samsung and taking the iPad a week before its global launch. Then showing them every spec inside and out of this long planned, world changing device just so they can pick it apart publically to better show off the galaxy.

Some may say this is healthy competition and that everyone should play the game however best they can, besides the fact that breaking restraint of trade is illegal you idiots, this just doesn’t seem right really.

We all try to get ahead, bend the rules and strive to outsmart the opposition but to break the rules so blatantly and cheat in the game reminds me a little of playing rugby in Potchefstroom when I was in school and one of the oppositions parents would ref the game and only blow the final whistle when they had scored the winning try.

Yes its a cut throat world and we do what we can to get ahead, some of us don’t care what or who we destroy in the process and believe me I don’t judge any of them but lets at least play without cheating so unashamedly, lets try have some honour amongst thieves.

I was recently sent this text written by Jonathen Jansen – I’m not entirely sure the context but I thought it an amazing note – have a read . . .

My South Africa is the working-class man who called from the airport to return my wallet without a cent missing. It is the white woman who put all three of her domestic worker’s children through the same school that her own child attended. It is the politician in one of our rural provinces, Mpumalanga, who returned his salary to the government as a statement that standing with the poor had to be more than just a few words. It is the teacher who worked after school hours every day during the public sector strike to ensure her children did not miss out on learning.

My South Africa is the first-year university student in Bloemfontein who took all the gifts she received for her birthday and donated them – with the permission of the givers – to a home for children in an Aids village. It is the people hurt by racist acts who find it in their hearts to publicly forgive the perpetrators. It is the group of farmers in Paarl who started a top school for the children of farm workers to ensure they got the best education possible while their parents toiled in the vineyards. It is the farmer’s wife in Viljoenskroon who created an education and training centre for the wives of farm labourers so that they could gain the advanced skills required to operate accredited early-learning centers for their own and other children.

My South Africa is that little white boy at a decent school in the Eastern Cape who decided to teach the black boys in the community to play cricket, and to fit them all out with the togs required to play the gentelman’s game. It is the two black street children in Durban, caught on camera, who put their spare change in the condensed milk tin of a white beggar. It is the Johannesburg pastor who opened up his church as a place of shelter for illegal immigrants. It is the Afrikaner woman from Boksburg who nailed the white guy who shot and killed one of South Africa’s greatest freedom fighters outside his home.

My South Africa is the man who went to prison for 27 years and came out embracing his captors, thereby releasing them from their impending misery. It is the activist priest who dived into a crowd of angry people to rescue a woman from a sure necklacing. It is the former police chief who fell to his knees to wash the feet of Mamelodi women whose sons disappeared on his watch; it is the women who forgave him in his act of contrition. It is the Cape Town university psychologist who interviewed the ‘Prime Evil’ in Pretoria Centre and came away with emotional attachment, even empathy, for the human being who did such terrible things under apartheid.

My South Africa is the quiet, dignified, determined township mother from Langa who straightened her back during the years of oppression and decided that her struggle was to raise decent children, insist that they learn, and ensure that they not succumb to bitterness or defeat in the face of overwhelming odds. It is the two young girls who walked 20kms to school everyday, even through their matric years, and passed well enough to be accepted into university studies. It is the student who takes on three jobs, during the evenings and on weekends, to find ways of paying for his university studies.

My South Africa is the teenager in a wheelchair who works in townships serving the poor. It is the pastor of a Kenilworth church whose parishioners were slaughtered, who visits the killers and asks them for forgiveness because he was a beneficiary of apartheid. It is the politician who resigns on conscientious grounds, giving up status and salary because of an objection in principle to a social policy of her political party. It is the young lawman who decides to dedicate his life to representing those who cannot afford to pay for legal services.

My South Africa is not the angry, corrupt, violent country those deeds fill the front pages of newspapers and the lead-in items on the seven-o’-clock news. It is the South Africa often unseen, yet powered by the remarkable lives of ordinary people. It is the citizens who keep the country together through millions of acts of daily kindness.

After I read it I sat for a while thinking about MY South Africa.

I started to realise quite quickly that I used to be this person – I used to have this exact same view of, no matter how much bad there was out there, there was enough light in places to keep out the dark.

The sad truth though, if I have to be honest with myself now, is I’m not that person anymore.

I try as hard as I can to see the good in this incredible place and I’m a massively proud ambassador whenever I have to give comment on this country because I believe we deserve as much good publicity as I can get.

Our family and our business have been responsible over the years for massive quantities of people coming to South Africa and experiencing the brilliance of its lands and its peoples because we always believed that we had it in us to become a great country we just needed to be seen and experienced, and I while I still believe that, I now feel a deep sense of doom more days than not.

I feel a concern that there is too much going wrong for the good to keep it at bay. There is too much corruption, crime and injustice for us to handle and at some point the system is going to break – or have to be broken!

The government is lazy, inefficient and riddled with cheats and liars stuffing their pockets and their family’s pockets as fast as they can before they get caught, of this there is no argument. Education and healthcare are crumbling and the police force is an embarrassment in its operation and its corruption.

The system does not work and my sadness is that by not acknowledging the bad and only seeing the good is like ignoring the symptoms of a disease until its too late.

THE SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK and this countries future is in jeopardy should it continue down this path. I hope, with all the might of a young boy who dreamed of being part of a nation that could contribute on a global scale, that I am wrong but something needs to be done! Someone needs to start fixing what we are breaking and put a stake in the ground to show we cannot slip anymore.

I fear we do not have someone like this and MY South Africa may only exist in my boyhood dreams!

I posted an article a while ago with the great apple advert on ‘here’s to the crazy ones’. It was a brilliant tribute to the thinkers, the creators and those who took chances in pursuit of human advancement regardless of society’s perception!

Now this person may not have created the most ground breaking experimental thing that will propel society forward BUT i would really love to see the world through their eyes!

I’m a big picture sort of thinker, it’s been tested, I’m a stock standard Myers Briggs ENTJ (which basically means I’m a loud bastard as per my PA) so unfortunately I do not see detail very often but when I see something like this I try to imagine how this person sees the world. I mean to take something so insignificant and be able to actually SEE IT (mostly I would walk past and not even notice a bike chain) and then to go on and design something so simple yet such a perfect solution to such an ugly problem at very little extra cost – if only the world had a million more people like the designer  Sono Mocci (you have to go check out some other designs! You have to see the Salt and Pepper ones!)

Via HERE!

It takes a certain kind of person to say, “you know what, I’m packing things in and am going kayaking”. And I’m not talking about paddling around Emmerentia Dam. I’m talking about Iceland! Riaan Munser (the guy who cycled around Africa and then kayaked around Madagascar) has teamed up with Dan Skinstad (yes, Bobby’s brother) and together, powered by Windhoek, they’re busy attempting the 5000km adventure to become the first South African’s to kayak around the island. I guess that means someone else has also had the crazy idea in the past.

The latest update we received goes like this:

Solo adventurer Riaan Manser and Dan Skinstad left our warm shores to take on circumnavigating the forbidding Iceland coastline by kayak on the 16th of March 2011.

21 days later, the duo has paddled through the northern point of the island triumphantly going through the Arctic Circle in the Greenland Sea. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. The pair has had some life and death situations thus far, grappling with strong head on winds, minus 5 degree temperatures and having to persevere with freezing hands. Although fatigued, they took the extra effort of paddling an extra kilometer out to sea to go through the Arctic Circle. “This was the one chance in my life (to do this), I don’t think I’ll ever paddle through that again,” exults Riaan.

If this kind of thing interests you, send us any questions you may for the guys and we’ll forward them on.

Strange that just in the last month we’ve posted about Madagascar and Iceland.

I’ve seen a lot of braai paraphernalia over the years.

It started quite simply with stupid blue bull aprons (which of course is the only time a blue bulls fan can wear an apron), then there were the tongs with laser cut logos ( because no steak is complete until you brand the sharks logo into it – of course)

But finally we have come full circle – finally we have reached the greatest heights of braai and rugby mash up!

I hope to see the streets of Pretoria lined with these in the months to come (because if you were to do it on the streets of Joburg, firstly you would be alone because its the dark days of Lions rugby and second youd be shot cause, well its Ellis Park)

UNFORTUNATELY THESE ARE NO LONGER BEING MADE – SO IF YOU THINK YOU WANT TO TY YOUR HAND AT BRAAI-MAKING – HERES THE IDEA!

I was going to make this week’s installment semi educational and show you three of a very strange animal that I came across recently. It’s called an Aye Aye and looks like Gollum mated with a Lemur, giving birth to a Tokalosh. As a result there’s a lot of superstition around them (fuck, I hate superstition!) and many of the the people of Madagascar either flee from them or kill and burn them. This, together with the fact that many of the people of Madagascar have decided to hack down the bulk of their forests means there aren’t many of these little guys around any more. I think it would be quite difficult to find one of them, let alone three.

So instead you can have some ass. On the other side of the pic are three of another type of strange creature. The difference is they’re very commonly found and these particular ones are a lot better looking!

I hadn’t heard of this company and probably would never have unless I was sent this advert. This type of thing really gets me excited, this is the future I want to live, this is how I want to experience my life. Just for a moment watch this video and tell me that to be able to do the things in this video wouldn’t make your life happier or more fun – at least a little bit so . . . .

Then, this week I got back onto the local travelling circuit, after my little break, and caught a plane home to JHB and was greeted by the Cape Times front page of Julius Malema with 6 guards carrying what we used to call uzzi’s as kids to protect him from crowds of people shouting ‘my president, my president’. Now from the highest imaginative high of how this world could be I realised where we are.

Not that I’m one of those doomsday people but I’m seriously starting to get concerned!

For the first time while I was away I actually considered a life abroad which scared the living hell out of me. My whole life I have maintained I would not leave until it became impossible to live here but how far off are we. Previously when I have been offered to go work abroad I didn’t give it a second thought because, well, I love my country, but when Shanghai came up recently and the possibility of a new chance in the first world, it settled a little differently this time!

Lets be fair – we live in a place where a man went to jail for corruption, got released due to terminal illness (two years ago) now he spends his days playing golf and waiting for a presidential pardon from the man who WAS HIS PARTNER IN THE CORRUPTION!

My issue is not only what happened and the corruption, injustice, crime blah blah blah because that shit was always there – MY ISSUE is that no one seems to give a fuck anymore! Its like we just accept the fact the the Joburg city council stuffs up our bills every month! We accept that our presidents kid cant spell yet is doing billion rand deals! We accept that every day one or ten of our ministers gets found out for some sort of corrupt scandal and the list literally goes on forever!

WE JUST SEEM TO TAKE IT and I don’t think I want to live in a place where its citizens are blatantly abused constitutionally and just don’t seem to care anymore.

Its gonna be an interesting few months to come, maybe the saying ‘if you cant beat em, join em’ should apply to me and I should get on the streets and shout ‘my president, my president’ in front of a court house when he is going in to hear a trial for him threatening to kill a certain creed of our country?

Its not time to leave – we’ve GOT TO have more fight in us I just cant see it anywhere!

I hit Joburg traffic this morning, after spending a two catchup on the local travel circuit, and was immediately back to swearing like a normal Joburger on his way back to work! So i thought it only fair to revisit the last few weeks of chilling to calm me down again . . .

There was the epic PONTA DOS GANCHOS and the Villa for a weeks chill . . .

Then the stellar seaside town of Buzios and the perfectly unique INSOLITO HOTEL . . .

Then enough chilling and into the city, little bit of Rio with Ozzy Osbourne and Dr 90210 (who is the biggest douche on the planet) overlooking the sensational Ipanema Beach in a suite at the FASANO!

So now that you all hate me i will go – it sux to be back at work and rejoining my beautiful British Airways SLOW lounges around the country but hey you cant be a rockstar all year round – well until i hit Spain in JUNE

Brain. Dead. Can’t. Write. Found. Pics. Look.