Loving Life
So I think I am really privileged. I get to do some really
interesting things in my life. I do love diversity and the contrasts that a
day brings. I started my day at 5.30ish this morning in the pool at the local
Virgin Active where I swam 140 lengths as part of my training for Ironman. I
had a fresh carrot juice and cookie while I checked my mail and then headed
across the floor to do some gym for about an hour with my iPod blaring The
Script. Can’t be much better ways to start the day.
I was running a little late by the time I got to my local coffee shop /
restaurant Nino's in Dean Street Arcade to meet with my colleague Ryan and our
guest Simon Jackson, a director of Sportstec who is in Cape Town for the week.
Ryan is doing a great job finding new customers and fans for the Sportscode
video analysis software which we are the distributors of Africa (except
Egypt). Simon is here to help us learn more about the software. They have a
fantastic business with more than 4,000 clients around the world and more than
60 medals associated with teams and individuals using the software the Beijing
Olympics.
Gary Gold discovered the software while he was coaching at London Irish some
years back and became a real expert on how to use it to improve rugby
performance, in the process becoming a very accomplished coach. When he
returned to South Africa he involved Alan Goldberg who runs the Apple Store in
Claremont Project 3 and then later myself in what would become the African
distributorship. We're starting to get some real momentum with the business
and it's an exciting time.
I dropped out to pick up my two darling daughters Amy and Nina from
Springfield at lunchtime. They were heading to their cousin (well kind of)
Jamie's birthday party in Greenpoint with Dee, so I dropped them at Dee's
office. We marveled at the progress of the new Hospital Bend interchange as we
drove into town - every day there is something added. Always great to see the
world through young eyes.
I've been exchanging calls with a lovely lady since December who has been
wanting to chat to me about executive coaching. It has reached such an extreme
stage I left her a message saying that I felt like we had a long distance
voice mail relationship as a result of the number of messages we have left for
each other. We finally spoke to each other today, first with me catching her
in a meeting on my way to pick up the girls and then her phoning me back as I
was dropping them with Dee. We finally had a chat with me pulled over on the
freeway and will meet up next week.
I spent more time with Simon and Ryan this afternoon and then met up with my
brother in law Marc and school friends Craig and Rob to chat about a young man
who we support at Wynberg Boys High. He is in grade 11 and we're keen that he
gets the best education and opportunities as possible.
Our plane (ZU-EPL) which is hangared out at Stellenbosch Airfield is going
through the process of an annual renewal of it's 'Authority to Fly'. This is a
piece of paper issued by the Civil Aviation Authority stating that the plane
is airworthy. It’s been a bit of a process and I spent some time on the phone
with my partners sorting through how we move it forward. Will hopefully get it
resolved in the next few days. Which reminds me that I need to do my annual
pilot medical before the end of the month.
Back home Dee and I caught up about our trip to Australia later in the year.
It feels like we have been passing in the night the last few days as things
have been really busy. We have a friend Thomas (met Thomas in 1988 when he
presented AIESEC at Cape Tech where I was studying) staying with us from
Ghana. I’m now relaxing at the end of the day chatting to Thomas and writing
this blog.
I’m tired and need to get a ride and run in tomorrow for my training. So time
to sleep and let my body integrate my training from today. Good night.