I have been delaying writing this for a while now. I guess I’ve been trying to plan it in my head since the room silencing news that Old Trafford would lose its greatest driving force in the clubs history, but until now I’ve yet to find the words, which if you know me, seems barely possible on any subject.

I’ve followed football for more than two decades now, from a kid with a United-poster strewn bedroom to an adult living half way around the world and waking up at horrific hours of the morning to watch my team play - they are My Manchester United. I have seen United win, lose and everything in between. I have seen legends start their first game and end their last. I have seen opposition sides strengthen and weaken through decades. I have seen the game itself change along with every team in the leagues managers, kits and players. Suffice to say I have seen a lot happen in football over the last 22 years.

One thing I have never seen is a Manchester United sideline without Sir Alex Ferguson on it.

After the last home game against Swansea I battled to fight back the tears. It may sound stupid to those of you who aren’t emotionally invested in sports but to watch a man (or woman) lead a sporting team to greatness somehow resonates with me on a very deep level, but to watch someone have the hunger and passion to do it for 25 years plus is something that has been a privilege and an honor to be able to share in and something I doubt I will ever feel again.

At the start of the season I predicted glory but then again as a United supporter we have almost come to expect this. That’s the magic of Fergie. From his first interview at the club you can feel the humility, focus and the pride that drives the man. You can see in his eyes that he wasn’t in it for the glory or the money, which in todays game seems impossible, he was in it to build something great, to create and shape the future of club that would stand as a legacy never to be overshadowed.

He built this legacy day by day, year by year and not with lavish sums of money nor plain luck but with hard hard work, determination and a hunger to win that inspires me as a human being. He never took anything for granted and he never let the name and honor of Manchester United Football Club be tarnished not for a second, unlike some of our greatest historical rivals. He created and shaped the greatest players in the world, not ONE of which having left the club went on to be more successful.

Even in his final interview, on an occasion that so many people would have taken, rightly so, to bathe in their own glory he thanked everyone for helping him build the Manchester United legend that exists today and he heaped praise on players, coaching staff and fans, and with his final words he gave an instruction to the fans to support his successor. Its men like him that inspire me and moments like these that reduce me to tears.

I wont go through his countless achievements and his honor role of trophies and accolades but suffice to say he pretty much did it all and if, like we so often wish in life, time wasn’t catching up with him he probably would continue to scale even greater heights.

So Sir Alex, from an anonymous Manchester United supporter I want to thank you.

Thank you from the boy who got to admire the teams you created, whose images were stuck to his wall only to be replaced by wave after wave of players you built and created. Thank you for the moments of highs and of lows and for your unwavering commitment and dedication to the success of the club above all else. Thank you for being a leader I can ultimately be proud of in every respect and who just by sheer virtue of who you are inspires me to be better. Thank you for creating Fergie time and for allowing me to fundamentally believe nothing is ever done until it’s done. Thank you for never allowing anyone to be bigger than the club and what it represents and for never allowing any ego or actions to over shadow the honor of the club. Thank you for allowing us, the fans, to be part of something magical and historical for all these years. Thank you for it all Sir!

I hope by some slim miracle I have the honor of shaking your hand one day and looking you in the eye to deliver this thank you in person.

Goodbye Sir Alex, you will remain in our hearts and our stories always and we will forever be your Red Army!

As 2012 slipped away I was fairly ambivalent about what I had achieved last year and so I promised myself I would do more, travel more (for pleasure) and experience more, I mean lets be fair living in shanghai is an opportunity that needs to be grabbed by the proverbial balls. This seems to be gaining some good traction!

One of the greatest things about living in a big city is that there is constantly something happening in the city. That is besides the 500 restaurants and bars opening and closing every month, Shanghai fashion week, auto show etc.

April was a rather busy month all in all. I moved from a serviced apartment in Xintiandi which is basically like living in an apartment sized hotel room inside Melrose Arch, which is basically the upper East Side of Manhattan. This sounds like a great setup, and it is, in the beginning, but when you have seen the breakfast room and the hotel sized gym for the 300^th time it starts to get rather claustrophobic!

A traditional Chinese lane house is the new destination for a year. This is basically a small lane off a normal road in the old French concession with blocks of 6 story houses on either side of it, you can either take a floor, two floors or the whole thing! Ours has been renovated for the last 6 months so it is all Chinese (including the very loud, very communal neighbors) and all modern Laowai on the inside!

In between that there were a few surprise events. The first was the Shanghai GP. I’m not a massive F1 fan, I’m not sure why I guess I just never got into it really but from a day at the races I can clearly see what all the fuss is about.

From the parade of the drivers around the track to hearing those cars roar around the track at speeds that are barely comprehensible I have to say this does seem like something I could get used to. The only down side I would have to say was the spectacle!

The Chinese are generally pretty good putting on a fairly decent show but in this particular instance there was very little to show off. The stands outside were poor, the big screens were not existent and you had to rely on the ever present iPhone to work out who was even in the lead.

Lastly the crashes were terrible, meaning there were none but I suppose that’s uncontrollable

After that it was off to an orchid festival at the Shanghai botanical garden which is basically four monumental glass cocoon type structures filled with 30 000 orchid displays from countries around the world, apparently orchid displays are big in the competitive world, similar to competitive cup stacking or roshambo.

Every possible shape size and color of orchid in existence is housed in these massive human sculptures and needless to say was seriously impressive!

One main hall just had individual entries. Bouquets and single displays of orchids lead you through a room filled with personal creation from around the world until one solitary orchid stood alone in a room, the one orchid to rule them all, the winner!! I have no idea why it won and I have no idea why anyone cares but here it is!

Outside of this is a garden path that looks like something Willy Wonka created, with flowers of type and color I’ve never seen in my life, leading into a modern designed gargantuan stone quarry.

It’s nice to get a little out of the city and get a bit of fresh air especially when you see the greatest of Chinese innovation in toiletry. A public moveable toilet that counts the amount of time you spend in there (the electronic board above the sign) – as if there wasn’t enough pressure, apparently it’s called a ‘Emiction Compartment’

Lastly this month was the grandiose Shanghai auto show. It pretty much consists of 20 of the biggest halls I’ve ever seen in my life housing every car manufacturer I’ve seen, heard of and couldn’t make up.

From the glamorous Lambos, Ferraris, Bentlys, Porches, Astons and on and on, to the genius’s at SMART car who probably were the most fun.

Then of course there are the extras! Mercedes and BMW fly in their cleaning crews for the show cars from Germany to the Italian companies who more importantly fly in their models.

One stand out mention does have to go to the home grown Chinese supercar. It may have been ugly as hell from the front but the rest of it was seriously slick – they catch up quick over here!

For me though the winners were quite simple. The Koenigsegg in matte white, carbon fibre and baby blue was simply sensational, that car just is something to be marveled at. The new Range Rover sport is for me currently the best 4×4 vehicle alive out there and then finally the new Jag F type (not in this crap colour) which I think may need to be purchased along side the Range sport if I ever return home! 

All in all it is a massively sexy day of dream cars, fun cars and futuristic jetpacks from every corner on earth!

Five days, two 150 year old Ryokans, The height of Cherry Blossoms blooming, 9 tasting menus, The Ritz and a train or two.

Let me break the experience down into pieces . . .

Japan in general . . .

After being in Shanghai a year you start to ignore and forget the daily things that used to seriously piss me off when I first arrived. The pushing into elevators when people haven’t come out, the lack of courtesy walking down a street and the snort and spit on the pavement.

When you go to Japan though, in my limited experience, you quite quickly start to realize what a humble and polite people they are (this may get me kicked out of China but still). They are gentle, kind, helpful and endearing! They have a way about them that feels like you are consistently somewhere you are wanted, liked and appreciated!

The way they express things and the way they talk is calm and to the point but in a loving way. There expressions are charming yet ancient and their outlook on life is everlasting!

Ryokans and Hotels . . .

To stay in a Ryokan is something quite special. The two I chose were Seikoro and Sumiya as they are quintessential representations of the ancient culture and civilization of Japan. When you arrive and are greeted you immediately feel the humble nature of the people and the history and heritage in the institution that has been around for 150 years.

You sit, slowly take off your shows and slip on traditional Japanese in door slippers. You transition into a world long gone, instantly.

The room is simple, cozy and leads onto the most exquisite Japanese garden outside. The seats are on the floor and in the afternoon are quickly removed and replaced by your bed. Western luxuries exist but are hidden away for those who don’t want the distraction.

Wake up is early, if you want or rather is expected, with a traditional style bath (they prefer you to use the communal baths as this is customary – for R10 000 a night I really preferred my own bathroom, call me a snob but I’m just not a fan of the communal showers since my boarding house or prison days) which consists of sitting on a midget stool while washing and hand showering and then climbing into a hot deep wooden bath – this process can be repeated several times.

While you are getting ready your room is re-transformed into a seated breakfast room with and array of dishes in every shape color and form, freshly prepared, clean and healthy (more on this later) served by what us Westerners term a butler, a term that has been horribly bastardised from the noble profession it once was (thanks Downton Abbey). This was a quiet, humble, educated and traditional women (who did sound a little like Mogwai from Gremlins when she spoke)

You head out for the day to what I will explain a little later and return for evening green tea, authentically made in powder form and mixed into a sweet, bitter combination of intense flavor accompanied by a sweet biscuit. No extreme cookies or cupcakes of decadence, the main focus is the simplicity of elegance and natural beauty, I guess this could be a framework for Japan in general.

Dinner is then served in the same quantity and variety as breakfast . . .

Then you head out for the blossoms and temples by night!

After four days in Ryokans the change to the Ritz Carlton in Osaka was happily anticlimactic if that makes any sense. It was nice to get to the absolute decadence of a corner suite at the Ritz but it was completely over shadowed by the quiet peaceful elegance of these small 150 year old establishments.

Never the less a when you get out of the full sized standing shower and put on those massive Ritz white robes it’s hard not to appreciate it!

The Food.

I live to eat, I always have (except this week I’m currently on a liquid only detox for the first time in my life) but this trip was never planned around the eating and yet somehow it managed to be a massive highlight. Like I said every morning and night in the Ryokans was a feast of tasting menu perfection.

First though a surprising stumble around the neighborhood to see a nighttime feast of blossoms down one of the streets meant we stumbled across a quaint looking restaurant, being 10 at night and they were still open we stumbled in sat down (actually they only took cash so they made one of there 7 chefs walk us ten minutes to an ATM) and quickly realized this was something special. As soon as a restaurant tells you they have one menu for tasting, they have 10 seats and 7 chefs you know something magical is happening. We managed to get a table at one of the best restaurants in the country called Guilo Guilo off the street while the friendly Aussies next to us booked 2 months in advance and could only get a 10pm seating. Sometimes I feel I’m destined to eat!

Epicurean splendor ensued . . .

From there in to 8 Ryokan menus was absolutely hedonistic-ally fantastic. This is pretty much what every breakfast and dinner looked like from then for the next few days!

As a treat, as food markets always are, we hit the ‘kitchen of Kyoto’ or Niishiki market for a few hours. This single street that spans 8 blocks houses every fresh, dried, smoked and cooked thing possible to purchase (including a little delicious donut surprise!).  I decided to partake in the sweet teriyaki baby octopus on a stick complete with pickled quale’s egg stuffed in its head!

After escaping roughly 100 courses later we thought we could slow the consumption rate by getting to the Ritz and quietly sneaking off to a local sushi place. Needless to say the suggestion from the concierge was closed and turning to city guides for advice in a sudden rain storm proved to be fruitful as we were directed to XEX, again by coincidence and again one of the best in the city, for another tasting menu!

By this point I had been so full for so long I could barely take pics of the ice bar, fresh sashimi and another 10 courses. It was only lunchtime!

After passing out from lack of blood to the brain for a few hours it was on to what was supposed to be the ONLY pre planned culinary event. The Michelin starred IPPOH tempura restaurant. Complete with private room, private chef and a tasting menu through every kind of tempura possible, of course coupled with a few bottles of saki and once again served by a humble women in traditional dress.

The blossoms . . .

I can barely explain a cherry blossom tree if you haven’t seen a real one. I don’t mean a half arsed one that exists in most places in the world, I mean a tree so packed with blossoms it looks like it’s going to explode into a cloud of white and pink fluff!

These trees are mesmerizing in their pearl white and candy floss pink and as they blow in the wind they shed these beautiful flowers. I have seen few things in the world this surreal and beautiful.

There are a few highlights.

Philosophers walk is a canal that stretches about 3 kilometers and down almost all of it are these perfect blossoms lining the canal and falling slowly down into the water creating a white blanket over the water.

Maruyama Park is another magical place. Below the trees everyone sets up picnics or for drinking games or to relax with their family, mostly students drinking games, then the restaurants setup tables to lie down, drink your body weight in Asahi beer and stare up at the magical white blossoms with the sun shining perfectly through. Not a bad place to spend a day!

Lastly Kiyomidzu Temple at night is enthralling, it sits on a cliff overlooking the city and the scaffolding built hundreds of years ago supporting the entire structure is made without a single nail, did I mention the Japanese are genius designers in every respect. The Temples lit up at night are unbelievable to go along with the lit up blossoms all around the mountain.

As a final word on these amazing trees I have to say that the biggest surprise is how they look at night. The trees are all lit from below at night making every street look like an old black and white movie. There cannot be many more places on this earth better to be for 10 days during Cherry Blossom season!

There are some brands in the world who take their status for granted. Some brands that just suck on their past glories to fuel the current status just enough to maintain it without really giving a stuff about the people that matter – the consumers.

These companies are most guilty when it comes to advertising. They don’t engage, they don’t surprise, they don’t shock and they don’t excite. Hopefully they die out as new generations realize this lack of respect. Sometimes sadly they are so ingrained in our lives, or we have no viable alternative, the latter are the worst of the bunch!

There are some brands though that are the opposite of my little rant above, one of which undoubtedly is Heineken!

Sadly I don’t get paid in beer or money to write about them, if I did I would be rather wealthy at this point, but I cannot help but admire their approach to consumer engagement in all spheres. Whether it be a great song, the perfect advertising campaign (for men or women), sensational activation, phenomenal factory in Amsterdam (of course) or best of all the sponsorship of the Champions League, they somehow manage to come out top of the pile for me over and over.

Hence I drink their beer as my preferred choice. I admit it with no shame, I am a consumer and they have ensnared me in their net of marketing brilliance. I am a brand over substance guy, I admit it. Then again so is 99% of the world, they just pretend not to be

So after a massive preamble, here once again is Heineken knocking it out of the park!!

Thanks to @jamesdey for sharing!

Lets get a few things out of the way right up front because I know you are going to nag on them as you read the rest of this post.

First and most important I’m a massive Manchester United fan, I have been for a very long time. I entertain debate about players, teams, coaches and refs all the time, I love the game and I love great players, in fact some of the players I will mention below I believe are true greats of the modern game.

Second I believe in winning, not at all costs but close. I believe in playing to the rules but playing as close to them as possible but never to the point of cheating. Above all sport should be about honor and integrity and if you cannot win with both intact then you lose with them both but you never blur the lines on this.

Lastly I don’t mind controversy. As I’ve said with my previous post on Tiger, I don’t care what the hell sportsmen do off the field, it’s not our right to judge! I don’t care Mario Balotelli parties in Ibiza with models mid-season (in fact I probably applaud it if his in field performance was as good as off it), I don’t care that Ryan Giggs had Tiger like sexual encounters and I don’t care that John Terry Slept with his teammates wife. All of these may be morally apprehensible but they are not popes or politicians, they are sportsman and the only judgment we can pass is that of their play on the field.

Now lets get to it then.

Football as far as I’m concerned has always had some controversy, sure, but it seems that nowadays we are entering a space that I feel the integrity of the game is being compromised. Racial chants from all corners of both international and local grounds, players spitting, punching and diving, referees using the pitch as their own personal power play, it is all starting to get a bit much and I feel a few people, especially one needs to made an example of.

Luis Suarez has made it into my crosshairs more than once and for good reason too. He has shown through so many events I can barely recount from biting someone, to racial abuse of Patrice Evra (then not shaking his hand in the next game), to hand balling in the World cup (and celebrating when the penalty was missed) to, this week for Uruguay, punching a defender in the face. I won’t go into his diving, crying and wining antics because that’s a football problem not a Suarez problem.

Through all of these things he is unapologetic and unwavering, he has not changed or corrected his behavior and it seems that the footballing authorities are either to scared or to stupid to do anything, but the bottom line is people who behave like this in sport degrade the game and its standards for everyone else!

Sure there have been some colorful characters in the past, Cantona, Maradona, Di Canio, John Terry, Joey Barton (I put him in the same category as Suarez, he should have been banned for years but he managed to run away and escape which is also not right) and the list goes on and on. The biggest difference is none of these players have had ongoing run-ins with refs, players and the rules like Suarez. Every time they stepped out of line they were punished or they learnt not to do it. Suarez like a child testing the boundaries with its parents continues to mess about and he needs to be put in his place, and soon!

The game is too precious to us all to allow people like him to continue to piss on the moral fiber that has been built for so many years. We must make an example of him, players like him and I fear that the football authorities must make the teams who employ these hooligans pay, not financially, for indiscretions that go unpunished.

I truly believe that if a few people are made harsh examples of we will be able to bring the moral compass somewhere closer to north because right now its certainly turning south and turning quickly!!

So Tiger is back on the throne he built! Thank everything that’s good in the world.

Yes sure Rory gave us some moments of magic and showed the promise of the golfer he may one day become and he even gave us some great new Nike ads that made us believe we could have two messiahs, but lets be honest, golf without Tiger is boring as hell.

Now all the buzz is about Nikes new ad after Tigers weekend return to the top. There seems to be a backlash of people online today complaining about what bad taste the ad was. I’m not sure if we are still silently punishing Tiger for being a philanderer or if we just don’t think he should be winning again but have a look.

For me its simple, I love Tiger, or at least I did until he stopped winning. I don’t care how many hookers he had dancing around his hotel room, that’s not what I watch him for. His personal life has absolutely no bearing on the way I feel about him what so ever! I watch him because he is a magical sportsman that draws me in to see him sink that long put and fist pump down the green as he reels in another major. That’s why I love Tiger.

So as you can imagine I am so happy Nike have the balls to come out right behind him and rightly so! He didn’t cheat like Lance (on his sport that is) and he didn’t shoot his girlfriend like Oscar. He had a personal issue which took him all of three years to get through and thankfully he is back.

A talent like his comes along once in a generation if we are lucky and when it does its there for all to marvel at! I hope he eclipses Sneads tour record and Jacks major record and I hope we can all go back to judging sportsman on the stuff that matters – THEIR SPORT!

Ps Its nice to see Tiger has a new Elin – hopefully this one sticks around, I’m not sure I can take another three years of Tiger-less golf!

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now (apparently, on review, a lot longer than I thought while writing this), and in fact I have urged everyone I know for the last 6 – 8 months to move their money out of Apple and into Samsung, due to the impending switch of gadget gods.

I don’t put it down to the death of Steve Jobs, although I considered him a modern day Leonardo da Vinci of sorts. Even he could not have continued on the curve of innovation he had started with, perhaps he would have had the vision to do what he did to music in the Television sphere, but I still think that Apple was due for a gut check and its coming right about now.

When you are an innovator you are basically giving the world something before your competitors have time to copy it, and, in the case of Samsung that’s not a lot of time, but I believe the switch at the top of the electronics world is happening for greater reasons than this.

Samsung has managed to establish a range of products for all pockets, for all needs and for the entire household. They can offer you everything from a fridge, to a microwave to a TV and everything around it, but now, finally, they have the key to unlock them all, mobile.

Its almost as if Samsung have just been developing their arsenal in every shape and size for any possible situation and now they have the remote control, literally, to make them all work in unison. This is slightly different to Apples strategy of developing the greatest possible weapon ever, like the iPod, and hoping it’ll destroy anything. Apple, it would seem, are for the first time out gunned in the war.

I truly believe Samsung will be the next 20 years’ Sony of the 80s and will continue to make products in every conceivable shape or size for everyday use. My biggest fear though, well technology wise that is, is that with no one for them to chase they will inevitably become slack on innovation. Currently they are chasing the iPhone / iPad in the mobile market and this has yielded fantastic results for the consumer so far. Two great companies pushing each other in every new innovation only to the benefit of you and me. We finally have multiple, equally interesting and innovative devices to choose from, but what happens when Samsung overtake Apple, which may just have happened with the new Galaxy S IV?

The answer I’m afraid to say is the sexiness of new innovation will slowly wither and wilt and we will be forced to swallow whatever crap the manufacturers spit out at us. How do you think a giant like Sony managed to die? If you don’t believe me look at the substandard Apple products you’ve had to buy recently. iPhone 4s & 5 are basically just face lifted products with no benefit really if you compare the change from your Blackberry to the first iPhone – you didn’t quite get the same tech hard-on did you. Then there are retina display iPads, mini iPads and the like that again have insulted our expectation of Apples usual ability to blow our mind. They have become sad, slow, corporate and unless they bring me a TV that is paper thin and can fly around my house, they will have not continued on the path they set out on – I hope Steve is turning in his grave!

For now enjoy the competition between two parts of the world, South Korea & The US of A, two tech giants, Samsung & Apple and two innovation kings but mark my words enjoy it while it lasts because with the world not chasing Apple down the path of imagination the same thing will happen to tech as happened to golf when everyone didn’t have Tiger Woods to chase around Augusta National – IT WILL GET BORING!

Lately humanity has left a bad taste in my mouth.

I mean there is a lot of evil stuff going on in the world but as a South African you sort of have enough of your own problems to worry about that you kind of focus on SA rather than worrying about the rest of the worlds ‘1^st world problems’. But lately it seems South Africa has taken a particular turn for the disgusting.

I can imagine this was what it was like during the dark days of apartheid, police opening fire on miners and the minister of police laughing when she sees the footage. Cops dragging ‘potential threats’ behind their van just to ‘teach them a lesson’ let alone the daily billions that are being pissed away by the government for fun and fancy with no regret or guilt for the millions living in dirt and squalor.

I’m getting a little off topic. Like I said I’m rather disappointed by the way the world is at the moment. Thankfully I came across this the other day. The story in brief is nothing short of Disney written and Hollywood produced (it may very well get to that point). Hollywood has for so long painted us pictures of unlikely heroes, movies like RUDI which is one of my favorites or RADIO has Cuba Gooding Jr at his pinnacle of brilliance, giving us heartwarming tales of the underdog, either physically or mentally, and their unlikely heroism. I know they are roughly based on truth but really now, who believes Hollywood’s version of the truth.

The sad fact in the world today is more like this video, I posted a few weeks ago, on bullying in schools.

I had all but given up in the future of the world until watching this. It’s not Hollywood, it’s not embellished, it’s not showy and it’s not fancy. What it is, is a moment when kids somewhere have reversed what seems to be the trend lately of picking on the kid that’s a little different. This really just is great story about what you see so often in the movies but sadly real life just seems to be moving towards the opposite at a rapid pace.

Enjoy this, for your soul . . .

It seems, for now at least, every new days brings something more tragic, more horrific and more disgusting in South Africa. I fear the the silver lining is fast dissapearing but i suppose its the world not just SA which looks like its going this way. We can only hope that the good that comes out of places like the above can permeate the bad not just in SA but all over the world cause the world really does need a hero right now!

There is a simple reason that literally not one of the 1.3 billion Chinese people in China has a Blackberry, because they are really shit. Plain and simple.

Blackberry are another example of a company that took its prominent market position for granted, assuming its market and consumers would never change and so before it new where it was it was the least favorite device of younger users just like Nokia and Sony Eriksson.

Only in Africa do these above brands still hold some piece of market share unworthy of a snigger, I am far too tempted to say because Africa is a little slow.

Blackberry have committed every corporate sin of a sinking ship, I use the cliché on purpouse, that is possible! They did not innovate fast or well enough. Their service slipped as did their devise and OS quality and finally when they realized they needed a game changing device to bring them back, it was leaked, late and nothing to change the game.

I didn’t think however they would stoop to petty pathetic cry baby politics against companies that don’t even get sold in the same stores.

You see blackberry took massive offense to Liqui Fruits adverts about their new flavor. Blackberry claimed they were infringing on their brand, because if you have R1000 you are certainly going to choose between juice and a phone.

Blackberry have decided to take Liqui Fruit to the ASA because that seems to be  their biggest problem right now, not that people are getting rid of their Bberry handsets faster than Nike are losing endorsement deals. It would seem once again they have taken their eye so far off the ball you’d swear they were trying to sabotage themselves!

Once again instead of understanding their market – appreciating its ever changing landscape and using its historical presence to engage on a new generations level it as decided to go cry to the advertising police. Personally I think this just shows how pathetically embarrassing Blackberry has become not only in SA but globally that it is wasting its time by whining about something fairly irrelevant to its existence!

You would think SOMEONE in the marketing dept of BBerry would see this as an opportunity to partner with a very successful and youthful brand in South Africa like Liqui Fruit and create something young, sexy and ultimately convince a few more people to pledge allegiance to Bberry for a few more years rather than pushing them further out the door!

Alas they still believe they are superior when in fact they are not even relevant! Everyone look quickly now, keep your Bberry phones and enjoy the last few years of a dying global giant that was something special once.

I wrote previously about this story and my views on it but since returning to China this tragedy has disturbed and irritated me beyond expectation.

From stepping back into China the first question people ask me about my trip home is, firstly, if I survived and secondly ‘what is the story with this pitos, pistorus, pistris (and any other mispronunciation)’. I read various takes on the story and on my country in every major news publication from Time to fortune to the economist and had to endure the abuse from various angles such as crime against woman, crimes against people and the legacy of both apartheid and Nelson Mandela. Everyone is putting their two cents in and i cannot say unfairly so!!

Its been more like the death of Achilles when, after his death, every soldier of the Greek army stabbed his corpse repeatedly with spears. This is what it feels like the media is doing to South Africas dying reputation.

Oscar Pistorius’s catastrophic action of shooting his girlfriend through a door and claiming it was due to his paranoia about South African daily life has finally convinced even the most ardent of defenders that SA is a war zone. This incident has made every news channel possible around the world highlighting the fictitious way South Africans live every day – in gated communities with gun collections under their beds and opening fire on anything moving in the darkness of night.

The truth is quite the opposite in fact, not that there is no crime but rather that he is a pathetic example of the real crime struggle most SAns, in disadvantaged situations, face every night of their lives. Most SAns cannot afford the luxury of guarded gated communities and fancy alarms with high walls like our dear Oscar. Please don’t kid yourselves most South Africans live a frightened life of potential rape, murder, crime and theft but most don’t have the status to make even a page in the newspaper or the lawyers to protect them when they blatantly murder someone out of personal pathetic reasons.

I dare not comment on Oscars mental state nor the formation of his character through a life time of adversity, i cannot begin to understand what he has over come but what is certain is he had the world at his feet (blades at least). He had reached a level of inspiration for all SAns that transcended the issues people face every day, the racial legacy from our history and the frightening corrupt and inadequate state of our government and our country.

He gave hope to people, all people. This is something reserved for those SAns who achieve superstardom and perhaps there are only a handful who give the real SAns fighting their own personal wars every day, in one way or another, hope of a better existance.

His actions have not only shattered this dream for so many around the country but around the world while simultaneously completely destroying South Africas image, well what was left of it at least.  Seldom before since the end of apartheid has someone managed to destroy so much goodwill so quickly.

The story of Oscar Pistorius is sad for every South African at home and abroad, every South African who tries desperately to hang on to hope of a better future, a brighter crime and corruption free future for our beleaguered nation. Oscar has, in the eyes of the world, set us back a decade in perception and will continue to do so, no doubt, through a trial that will blame South Africa and its condition for the end crime of Reeva’s tragic death.

The more I think about his reckless actions the angrier I get and the more I think they should hang the guy to send a message that our response to crime is as brutal as the crime itself. Then I think of the police officers who handcuffed a man to the back of a police car and drove him around until at some point he died or Oscars brother who has also been charged for killing someone while driving drunk or the head investigator who also drunk and opened fire on a mini bus full of people.

I start to wonder if Oscar is maybe just a product of the sick society we seem to be becoming. Either way what has happened and the events that have been told and those still to be spun are a tragedy for every South African and they will no doubt affect our view of ourselves as well as the perception of those around the world.

I cannot believe I forgot to publish something on this experience, I guess with the excitement of a trip home for a few weeks not much got written. Never the less here goes.

To say this place is cold is like saying Leo Messi can play football. The truth is I have never experienced a level of cold like this in my life before, if you think I’m joking, this is what it looks like.

If you have never heard of this festival its called the Harbin snow and ice festival and basically comprises of ice sculpting, snow sculpting, ice building and swimming (??!!!) oh and a sneaky trip to see a few tigers.

Teams from all around the world come to build these apartment-block-sized ice and snow sculptures for months until the festival starts mid Jan in the small (10m ppl) town of Harbin. They are then unveiled in a massive explosion of lights, ice and fireworks, while you look at the pics remember these are ALL ONLY ICE AND LIGHTS . . .

These are for those who are interested in grand gestures, then there are those that are in it for the creativity. Those teams who come for precision ice art, who design them and then create an artistic masterpiece from a square block of ice roughly the size of an SUV, I have shown a few but there must be about a hundred of them, each with a story and absolutely brilliant craftsmanship and attention to detail . . .

Then there are those that are interested in both, they use fashioned snow to create giant sculptures, stories, advert or castles that are laid out across a gigantic park for all to see, again this is a small sample of the hundreds of these things . . .

In between enjoying the art there are thousands who enjoy the outdoor activities like sliding down an ice hill in a tube, most fun I’ve had since i was a kid. Sled dog rides, think alsatian pulling a rocking chair, ice sailing, snowmobiling, spinning tops and anything else ice related you could possible to on a giant river frozen a meter thick!

Also there are a few, as you would expect, that are a snowflake short of a snowstorm. Every winter they chainsaw out a swimming pool in the frozen over lake and swim. Now I know what you are saying, its good for circulation blah blah. Believe me, I have on numerous times done the sauna to snow rolling around and back scenario, this is a little different.

First of all its -25 at best, when I took off my two pairs of gloves I literally felt my fingers go numb immediately, then start to burn like they were in acid, that was with two beanies, 3 fleeces, a ski jacket, thermal vest, long johns and pants on. It was so cold I have never in any ski trip over the last 25 years ever had to wear thermal underwear and here it wasn’t enough. To give you an idea my iPhone was so cold it just gave up and switched off only to restart in the hotel room after defrosting!

They do not start in a sauna, they walk out, de-robe and dive in. It helps that they are all part Russian but still I thought Lewis Pugh was hardcore, this is another level!

There is also the added benefit of going to look at the Tiger sanctuary, a place where Tigers are kept, rehabilitated etc and you drive around in a glorified bus to have a look, after that you go on the wakling trail (this is actually how they spell it) and can pay a small price to poke a dead chicken through the fence with braai tongs and feed the poor caged bastards, not exactly Inyati but still quite amazing.

Lastly one of the greatest highlights has got to be eating a hot pot dinner in an igloo. The nice warm luxurious Shangri La Hotel has built a freezer door which opens into a large nicely decorated igloo where you sit with blankets, heaters and a table full of freezing, literally, ingredients to cook hot pot (the Chinese version of fondue, sort of).

Then once you are stuffed full of meat, veg and what I can only assume where testicles of some kind you can march down the corridor and chill in the ice bar with a vodka neat, because when its -30 you don’t really need the ice!

All in all I have to say this was not on my bucket list, in fact I had no idea it existed but after seeing this it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The best part of all is in summer it’s a beautiful 35 degrees and they have one of the biggest beer festivals in the world!!

I haven’t written in two weeks, mainly because I’ve have been home and have pretty much gone from breakfasts to lunches to dinners for two weeks solid – in and out of drunk and sober with as little sleep as possible trying to fit in as much time with the people I love!

I suppose I also wanted to give a bit of time for this Oscar Story to resonate with me before I added my views on the matter.

Let’s be clear on a few things. One, no one other than Oscar Pistorius knows what happened that night. Two, there will be questions that will be answered, there will be lies told and there will be a decision (albeit, based on the bail hearing, it will take a seriously long time) and finally three, Oscar Pistorius walked down the passage and opened fire four times on a closed door with a human being inside. BANG,BANG, BANG, BANG. Whether it was his girlfriend or not is besides the point, he knew there was a person in there and he shot them, dead!

I’m not sure what the truth is, I mean there are a bunch of things I really don’t understand from someone being so paranoid they have a gun under their bed but sleeps with the sliding doors open. Why there was a fan standing outside on his balcony. Why he went outside and then came back in hearing someone in the bathroom and didn’t care to glance across to see if his ‘love’ was there to why she seemed to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom but locked the door.

For me there are too many questions that have constructed answers for this to be a case of a mistaken burglary.

What irritates me though is the way everyone on the Pistorius team is blabbing on about how much he loved her and how sad he is that he could have made a mistake like this. I can categorically say that if you hear a noise in your house and get up to investigate, the first focus you have before the intruder is making sure your loved one or ones are safe, so either he was merely having hot model sex or he murdered that poor girl – simple as that for me.

The second thing that is killing me is that the defense is going to use the argument that he is so paranoid and terrified (in his guarded compound estate), painting the picture of him wide eyed every night shivering in fear, shooting anything that moved around him because of the debilitating home invasions. Now don’t get me wong, since moving I’m one of the first to point out that South Africa is not a safe place but do we really want to be offering this up to global media on a daily basis just because this guy needs an excuse to get out of murder?

There are no winners in this case, not the victim’s family, not Pistorius, not the sponsors of his, not his or her family, not the country and not the legal system (whichever way this goes). It is just going to be a long drawn out smearing of shit over everything in its path, however the voyeur in me is a little upset I will miss the tabloid frenzy that this is going to create – at least there is always Twitter!

So I finally watched Searching for Sugar Man.

Right now its Chinese New year or spring festival whatever you prefer and so the entire country is on holiday pretty much, which means I get to go home for the first time in 8 months.

This means an hour taxi to the airport, two hour wait in the emirates lounge, 10 hour flight to Dubai, another 3 hours in the Emirates lounge, another 8 hour flight and then another hour drive, all a tiny price to pay to see my friends and family again.

The truth is I get to drink champagne and decent wine for 24 hours while watching movies on a bed drifting in and out of sleep – it’s truly fantastic compared to what I would be doing any other day of the working year!

So after the first 10 hours of watching meaningless crap movies which I can barely remember or maybe I’m just trying to forget Richard Gear clinging to his acting career, Ben Affleck playing some glorified American, Steve Carrell dying in an earth ending asteroid with Kristen Stewart, I mean Kiera Knightly, and Jennifer Garner barren again (albeit this time far more annoyingly than the first with Juno) I saw ‘Searching for Sugar Man’

I had seen so much noise about it on twitter but for some reason I thought that it was another battle of drugs and hard knocked life story of some overrated over privileged musical superstar that I’ve grown numb to and the fact that it’s not exactly freely available behind the iron dumpling curtain made it impossible to see until now.

The truth is I was being stubborn – I’m a Taurean so not exactly out of character. So between the 5^th and 8^th glass of decent burgundy I watched Rodriguez’s story.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I’d seen that Cold Fact album cover a hundred times in various CD collections of my much older brothers, I had just assumed he had lived a life of music royalty. When you are a kid the world is much simpler, especially a kid in third world apartheid, or newly liberated South Africa. If you made a CD, let alone a CD of that quality, you were famous, you were rich and that was the end of it.

How naïve.

I guess so many of us believe we are destined for something great, I thought I was the only one until I read that 85% of all people think that, I didn’t feel so great after that. I suppose all of us fantasize that in some place half way around the world they understand our genius and praise us not for anything other than our ability to connect with them on some level.

This man’s music has been one of the default songs when my brain thinks about music for so long I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t one of music’s golden children, one that was adored in every city on every stage in every country. I truly believed that by the way his music had become such a household standard that he was given the credit that he deserved for as long as I was alive and so really didn’t give it another thought!

When I saw the clips of him returning to South Africa in 1998 to an audience that had believed they had lost an icon, and that base started to play, the base that instinctively started a generation singing the same song much like the Beatles or the Stones, I started to cry. I’m not sure why it impacted me so heavily, maybe it’s because I think that I was so happy that he finally got the recognition that he deserved, maybe because the people got to connect in that moment with an artist who defined their first love, first intimate relationship, first joint, first whatever but a man who completed moments for so many South Africans. Maybe I was just happy that these two great forces got to connect with each other finally after so many years.

To see this man that had lived a life of relative poverty for most of his life to at least get a glimpse of the power his music had on a generation of people he probably didn’t even know existed, took my breath away. It made me believe in the magic of great music all over again. The magic of people, the hope of stories with happy endings and the ability to be great regardless of who you think is lestening.

If you haven’t seen it, you are allowing a part of South African and global music history that will make your heart smile, cry, break and come together all at the same time disappear all over again. This man is a genius, a true genius, a genius in the way great musicians used to be before they we created just to be jammed down our throats for a quick buck and a catchy tune!  Sadly the world doesn’t always understand genius at the time it appears. I can only hope the rest of the world will be able to experience this magic before it’s too late.

Searching for Sugar Man . . .

I haven’t written anything really since New Year, I guess not much has inspired me or perhaps I’m trying to work out what I want to be this year.

Normally come a New Years eve I reflect on what I have achieved, learned etc the year before and then try and shape what I want to accomplish or experience in the year to come. Normally this is quite easy, the plan I’ve laid down for the year gets reviewed with one or two disappointment’s and so I set about planning for the new year – this year however I’m at a bit of a loss.

I’m not sure exactly what I want to accomplish in my career, personal life, travel and the list goes on. I find myself in some kind of experiential purgatory, which for me, is quite dangerous because if I’m not moving or have a grasp of some sort on what I want to do I generally tend to wither, and exponentially so.

Often I need a trigger, a meeting, an ‘AHA’ Moment, a song or even as it apparently can be, an advert, something that can fire something in my brain that will give me the vision to see the next step in this matrix plagued world and last week, I got it.

A good friend of mine @jamesdey posted the new Microsoft tablet (with new Internet Explorer) advert, the browser which I fucking hate with all my soul by the way, but that advert connected with something in me. It made me proud of the era I grew up in and not resentful for the ones I didn’t. It made me embrace where I came from and allowed me to remember so many memories that I could barely relive them fast enough.

Here it is . . .

I cant explain it and most of you wont understand it, but sometimes in life you get tired, drained and unfocused – this normally happens at the end of a year (which in China is right about now) and this video just hinted at the spark for next year.

At the end of this week I get to go home for a bit which will no doubt be difficult because i know I will have to leave again but hopefully now I have found some new inspiration to achieve in 2013!

I don’t like resolutions, I think the fact that you need to stand on the precipice of a new year and promise to do stupid shit that you inevitably do not do is fucking stupid! If you have wanted to do something you would have done it already, the fact that you were waiting for the current year to end is merely an excuse to delay and as Pof Parkinson so wisely put it “Delay is the deadliest form of denial”

I far prefer looking back over the past year at my successes, my failures, the learning’s and the things that have changed me for better or for worse. I like to look at these things in retrospect to see where I have gone wrong and where I can try be better, happier and more successful in any sphere I think it necessary, certainly not just professionally.

So here goes (I like pictures so I’ve tried to use these wherever possible) . . .

Family.

The year started with a regular trip to the perfect sunny slopes of Arosa. This has been an annual trip for our family for pretty much my entire life (I could ski pretty much before I could walk) and as this years trip was my last one, living in South Africa, I didn’t realize until it was over the significance of it.

My family is a little scattered around the world now and its amazing when you are not close to your family, geographically, how much you miss them. I miss Friday night dinners at my parents, I miss the chaos of my two brilliantly beautiful nephews and I miss messing around with my two older brothers. It seems that our lives so far have flashed past us and somehow we ended up millions of miles away from each other, fortunately we continue to be very close, however its amazing how much you take time for granted until its no longer possible anymore.

Funny, every person will always tell you this but until you realize it yourself you will never fully appreciate it, I guess we can only hope that its not at the loss of someone close as this year I’ve seen many of my friends and family experience. Its sad and pathetically soppy I know but regardless of your relationships with your family, every time you get the chance to, hug them all a little tighter, none of us know how much time we have left together.

PS On a side note the Airbus A380 is fucking epic!!

Life Changes.

In March I moved to Shanghai for many reasons. It was a job that was supposed to be the first time I could elevate myself out of day to day operations and focus on building a long term strategic business in China. To date I suppose it hasn’t exactly turned out that way as I currently find myself running a business if 13 000 people with about 16 direct reports who barely speak English, needless to say it has been interesting.

What I’ve found to be most important is that in life we so often like things to stay the same. Not that that’s a bad thing but for me I needed life to be challenging again, I needed to be pushed and this gave me the opportunity to do it in probably the most vibrant city in the world! Has it been easy, certainly not in fact sometimes its so frustrating I want to cry in the fetal position in the shower but has it been interesting, that goes without saying. It has been perhaps the greatest learning time for as long as I can remember – plus it has certainly changed a few stereotypes of China for me.

All in all 10 months in I continue to be on the border of invincible and totally defeated even on a daily basis but one thing I have learnt for absolute certain is that in life its important when you get a win, no matter how small, you celebrate it! The other thing I’ve learnt is no matter how hard things are and difficult life seems, you never, ever wish time away because each moment defines you no matter how hard it may seem at the time. Someone much smarter than me once said ‘this too will pass’ but I really do believe it is important to experience it all one moment at a time.

Home.

I’ve written a lot this year about South Africa through a number of different lenses. I guess having some distance gives one a bit of perspective. The most often asked question between SAns living here is will you ever go back? The truth is I’m not sure, my feeling is and will remain that I believe there really is no place like home and for its flaws I believe in the Africa that I came from, I really do. Having said that there are some very real issues that you can clearly see when you step out of the snow globe for a while. We have a President who is an absolutely epic moron, with respect, he is openly corrupt, completely useless at his job, has led us down a path of embarrassment and left us longing for an ailing Nelson Mandela to turn back the years and lead us once more. At least for now it seems like we have gotten rid of the spoiled whiny sociopath that is and was JuJu!!

My fear is that there is no one left to make the hard decisions in our country and it reminds me of a kill at Inyati where the lions take down some prey and eat until they are so fat they can’t move, then the hyenas come and fight over the scraps with the hordes of vultures picking at whatever is left of the poor carcass. One by one each species has its turn to stuff itself.

I experienced from a far the triumph of sportsman in London that for a brief moment allowed a shattered country to reunite behind a common goal only for it to be splintered again by the massacre of miners in Lonmin. An event that has opened a Pandora’s Box of disruption and chaos scarring the miners and people of South Africa with its apartheid style slaughter.

Closer to the end of the year again my heart was plunged into homesick sadness as I watched videos of a real true homegrown hero trying to make a difference for people in such desperate need of it, once again I truly believed that the soul of Africa is too good, too strong to let us die down this path filled with greed, corruption and gluttony!

So my roller-coaster of emotion and bonds with my home continues on. Like I have said before, there really is no place like home!

Food.

I guess this one is a little more caveman in its make up than the rest but this year in a city like Shanghai I have really realized that I live to eat, I truly do!

I have experienced meals that have blown every part of my mind from tasting menus prepared by students to the visionary opening of UV by Paul Pairet.

Like with music I cannot believe how these people, these magnificent creatures mange to create such sensational things out of absolutely nothing. It really is a gift and it is an honor of mine to be able to experience things like this so often.

I truly do live to eat!

Travel.

2012 was a bit of a bumper year for travel for me really.

There was the trip to Switz with the family in Jan, then move to Shanghai in March. After that a quick swing back to SA in June and then things started to get fun.

A swing through Singapore . . .

Then on to London to see two very special family members get married with a small stop off to recharge ones civility in Oxford.

Then into a few days of magical Bali . . .

Onto Russia (from Russia with love – a mad town!) and Bangkok (what i learnt in 30hrs in Bangkok) one for business and one to hang out for a weekend with the a fore mentioned brothers.

Finally to end the year with in my middle brothers new backyard of Patong Phuket & The Racha . . .  

With a sprinkling of trips inside China to keep things interesting. It’s quite amazing the things you learn when you travel in China, I’ve tried to put them all down but some I just cannot do justice to!

There are far too many pics to explain all the different words i would use for this adventure . . . you will have to go look for yourself!

So to sum it up 2012 was a fantastically difficult year, an amazingly challenging one and certainly both personally and professionally rewarding. In amongst it all I turned 30 with the absolute honest view that the 30s may well be the best decade yet, who knows really as long as you have fun along the way what else really matters.

So for now I remain content in rainy freezing Shanghai and will dive head on into 2013! May it be a sensational one for all of us!