Back on skis

Today was my first day back on the mountain after six weeks away, in Australia saying goodbye to my Dad and then in South Africa for some work (so I ended up flying around the world - Denver to LA to Brisbane to Perth to Johannesburg to London to Denver).

I promised my wife I'd take it easy today, which I don't really know how to do any more, so instead I skied hard but only for about an hour for a total of 7,000 vertical ft.

Spring is just about upon us, but on the upper mountain the snow was perfect; smooth and buttery.

Cloud face

Here's a little gadget from the Emirates web site - you upload your photo and it turns your face into a cloud.


Not quite sure what this has to do with promoting an airline, but it's cool in geeky sort of way.

Pretoria rugby

I had an invite to a corporate box at Super 14 rugby match at Pretoria's Loftus Stadium last night. The local team, the Bulls, defeated the Auckland Blues resoundingly. I'm an Aussie so when a South African team plays a New Zealand team, I'm supporting the referee, so I didn't mind the result.

This is one of the main stadiums that's going to be used for the Soccer World Cup next year and they've got a bit of work to do before then. The worst problem is the transport and the parking. It works fine for the locals because they just arrive two hours early, find a spot and pull out their braai (barbeque or grill). I can't see visitors from overseas wanting to do that.

There's other little things that are annoying but easily fixed (which in a way makes them more annoying). For example, your ticket has a gate number on it. Of course when you get the ground the gates are not signposted with their number!

Update (21 April): I had this photo of the stadium on my phone which I only just uploaded (yes I did forget it was there).