22 Jun 2008

Blogging

Why do people blog ?

I mean why do people have the urge to disclose every little aspect about what they are doing to complete strangers? Ok not all blogs are like this. Most have a topic and stay to that topic. Like photography, current events etc. People like to share information and a blog can be a powerful tool to get that information out to people on mass in an easy format.


I was never really a big fan of blogging my self. I often use blogs to find info on a variety of subjects but that was about it. Blogs about a little girl’s cat really annoyed me. Does the world really want to know how often your little cat has been sick? NO! I DON’T THINK SO! But the world does want to know about the latest innovations in the world of cellular communications or medical advancements. I also think people can learn from others experiences. Or share in someone’s adventures. This is the reason I am blogging. I wanted to share my experience with family and friends. And so far so good on that front. But am also finding that blogging is a great way to un-wind and it can be quite rewarding too.


People don’t just blog in the conventional way, in the written form like this blog, but via video and photography. I have been blogging in all three formats. Video on YouTube and photography on Flickr. I have been getting a real buzz out of blogging in the two visual formats. People I don’t know have been posting comments on the images they are seeing. This just encourages me to do more and to make the items more interesting. The reward is having someone comment on an item in your blog, YouTube or Flickr image. And there is a real special feeling of achievement when someone flags an item up as being one of there favourites.


But for me I thing the best thing about blogging is sharing my thoughts and experiences with my friends back in the UK and else where in the world. Normally I would share these things with them in person but with flights being the price they are now a days its not very practical. We do now truly live in a global village with social networking sites like Facebook and instant messaging programs like Skype and MSN your never really far from your mates.


You can visit my Flickr photographic page by clicking on the Flickr logo bellow.


You can visit my YouTube video page by clicking on the YouTube logo bellow.

9 Jun 2008

Kiambi

I wrote the following while I was in Zambia a few weeks back.

I was feeling a bit low as just wished I could have shared the experience with my friends.

____________________________________________________________________

What is man without beasts?

If all beasts were gone,

Man would die from the great loneliness of spirit for

Whatever happens to the beast,

Also happens to the man.

All beings are connected.

(Chief Seathl 1855)


The above quote was found on the cover of the Kiambi Safari lodge guest info booklet.


It made me think, “What is a person with out the support of there friends?” It’s kind of the same thing. Friends are all connected and they play a vital part in our lives. Good friends are there for the up’s and the low’s in ones life. I know from my own experience that when one of my friends is low, I am low. If they are happy then I am happy. We are connected.


No I have not lost the plot, yet, or gone all philosophical nor am I depressed. I do how ever miss my friends back in the UK and do wish I had someone with me at the moment to share in the wonders of Zambia and the “Mighty Zambezi” river. Going “AWE!” “OOOOH!” “AWESOME!” or “WOW!” does not quite have the same impact when your on your own than when you are with someone.


BUT


On the flip side of thing I am getting to meet some fantastic people along the way.


Kiambi Safari Lodge is around 24 km away from the Chirundu boarder post between Zambia and Zimbabwe. I am currently here overseeing the setting up of a Wellness Centre just out side the border post.


Some of the people that have touched my life are the staff from “Coridors of Hope II” who are going to be running the Wellness Centre at Chirundu. When we opened the doors to show them the insides of the converted container it was like Christmas day to them. Loads of “OOOH’s!” and “AAAH’s!” from them. It was a great feeling to share with them. They are so driven now to getting every thing sorted for this centre.


As mentioned I am at a safari lodge at the moment. The staff here have made me feel very welcome and are all quite interested in the work I am doing here. Some of the guests too have shown an interest too in what I am doing. One such family is that of Mark, his wife, two young kids and his mom and dad. Mark also runs a safari lodge in Zambia on a working fish farm. His lodge is called Nsobe Game Camp. Nsobe is some 3 hrs away from Lusaka towards Angola. It has been great to meet such warm and welcoming people on my travels. It helps with the isolation that I could have felt if I had not been in contact with people like these. It makes such a difference.


I guess I will have to settle with the second best way I can think of sharing my experience with you. Blogging. I do appreciate the comments I received from all of you who have viewed my blog. Keep them coming.


Will update this in a few days with links to photos I have taken while I have been on “Holiday” (I mean working!)


Photos of Kiambi along with the boat trip on the Zambezi river. It was spectacular and I thank Mark and his family who I went with for making it quite a special occasion as it would have been really lame to have gone on my own.


Photos of Chirundu Wellness Centre being off loaded and site preparations.

5 Jun 2008

Walk the World – Johannesburg Zoo – South Africa


On Sunday the 1st of June 2008 I braved a very chilly early morning start to head down to the Jo’burg Zoo to take part with around 200 or so TNT staff, family and friends to “Walk the World

Walk the World is an annual event that TNT hosts to raise funds and awareness for the World Food Program (the UN’s WFP) thousands of people all around the world take part in this event that is held around the globe on the same day.

I think this sums up what Walk the World is all about – source: Moving the World website.






Walk the World 2008: A great success!


Thousands of children who know what it feels like to be hungry took to the streets yesterday, together with TNT- and Unilever-employees, their families and friends. From Indonesia to Guatemala, more than 250,000 people in 70 countries participated in End Hunger: Walk the World. Across 24 time zones and in more than 250 locations, initial reports say the global walk raised more than $500,000; enough to feed 2 million children for one day through WFP's school feeding programme. We expect this number to increase significantly in the weeks to come. "Walk the World is the event to raise awareness for all the children who suffer from hunger every day," said Peter Bakker, CEO of TNT. "At TNT we believe that hunger is not acceptable in today's world. I am proud that so many employees, their families and friends on all continents of the world have actively taken part in this Walk to show their solidarity and to raise funds to give these children the daily meal they deserve."

Funds raised by TNT South Africa will be channelled though to the South African Food Bank this year as WFP do not host any feeding programs here in South Africa as this is handled by the SA Food Bank. WFP do however support the SA Food Bank.

So I arrived at Jo’burg Zoo a place I had been to many, many times when I was a lot younger. I have a vivid memory of the polar bears that were kept at the zoo when I was younger. I was very pleasantly surprised to see they still had the polar bears in a much nicer enclosure. Jo’burg Zoo is the only Zoo in Africa to have polar bears. I also saw the original enclosure and I was very sad to see how small it was. Things have defiantly progressed for the Jo’burg Zoo.

I am not sure if one can realistically base how well a city is doing on how well maintained it zoo is. I was surprised to learn that the zoo still existed let alone see how well maintained it was and the range of animals in it. It could be rated as world classed. But to me it does give me some hope that Johannesburg as a city is heading in the right direction. It has fantastic restaurants, top music acts like James Blunt and Counting Crows are performing in Johannesburg (or have quite recently) so it must be doing something right.

Back to the walk!

So some 200 people arrived to take part in Walk the World Jo’burg. There was also an event in Swaziland and one down in Richards Bay ( home of the SA Food Bank) The weather was fantastic, a bit cold to start with, clear skies and well just a really nice day to go for a walk around the zoo. To give you an idea of the size of the zoo the walk was around 5km in length and it was all within the grounds of the Zoo. This made it a really ideal location to host this walk. Not only did it offer a save place to walk but it was an interesting place to walk too.

I am not sure how much money TNT SA raided for the SA Food bank but as soon as I have an update I will let you all know.


I took loads of photos during the walk (121 exactly) The pix can be found here.

Here are some links to the YouTube clips I have posted from the Walk the World event.

Part 1 can be found here

Part 2 can be found here



As some of you will know I am a bit of a gadget nut head. I love my toys and I am proud to call my self an anorak. I have always enjoyed photography and recently splashed out on a digital SLR. I got my self a Canon EOS 400D awesome bit of kit. While I was reading up on tutorials I came across an interesting article called GEO-Tagging. Basically it’s the syncing up of the date and time stamp of your photos to a GPS track log. This info gets attached to a meta tag embedded in the photo. So this means you can now see the lat and long of a photo you have GEO-Tagged. Flickr reads this info and plots it on a map. Cool stuff hey.

Click here to see the map of where my photos were taken on Flickr.

You can also see the data log file in google earth here. I am yet to work out how to get the photos to appear in this file online. It works fine on my laptop as the file knows where the photos are (they are on my laptop!) so that’s a bit of a project for me to work out.

The GPS Data Logger can be used for other things besides the photo tags – you can upload the file into google earth and see where you have been. The data logger I am using is a Sony GPS-CS1 with Jet Photo Studio. (click the links to find out more about these items)

Attached here is my route to the Zoo – you can see I got a bit lost! The squiggles on the left of the log is the zoo. (You do need Google Earth to view the track logs click here to down load it)

So I got to have a good walk with some fantastic people take some fab photos with my new camera and play with some new toys too. Great day out 





To find out more about Walk the World please click here.
To find out more about the partnership between TNT and WFP please click here.

You gotta love Africa!!!!

I had these emailed to me this morning,

Very real and very funny but this is a place where everyone makes a plan!