November 2005 - Posts

George Best dies ....

As most people know I am a raving fan for Liverpool, then the English soccer team and then English football in general with a strong appreciation for World Football ( sorry this is mainly Spanish, Italian, German, French with some EE countries and Latin America ).

George had all the style the looks ( 60's ) and the drinking capacity of a small ship like a tanker.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4380332.stm

http://home.skysports.com/broadband.asp?showclip=yes

God bless George! and may he rest in peace.

Posted Nov 25 2005, 11:28 AM by karen with no comments

NEW Madonna single - Hung Up

Hung Up is the first single of Madonna’s highly anticipated all dance album, Confessions on a Dancefloor. I have to say the album is good 3 tracks stand out for me on my first few listens - Hung up, Jump and Sorry

Hung Up is the best track mainly because I am an unashamed ABBA fan and she has mixed brilliant her lyrics which on the first 2 listens you ignore because your so happy ABBA Gimme Gimme Gimme is belting out and then you ignore the ABBA and get back to her lyrics - Time goes by so slowly ( which are a bit hypnotic ) and gets you to really appreciate her pop genius - with classic lines link - Those who run seem to have all the fun & Ring ring goes the telephonne the lights are on but there is no one home ; Tick tick tock it's a quarter to 2 and I am done I am hanging up on you !

So stop clicking away and give it a bit of a spin.

Posted Nov 23 2005, 08:51 AM by karen with 1 comment(s)

Books for this month

As some of you know I am big in to reading ... it helps break down the time waiting for planes with out the tramua of getting your laptop out. So books I have bought on this trip.

The Rules of Work - A Definitive Guide to Personal Success
Richard Templar

Rules of Management: The Definitive Guide to Managerial Success
Richard Templar

The Present: The Gift That Makes You Happy and Successful at Work and in Life
Spencer Johnson

The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am
Richard Greene, Peter Vernezze

Mental Space
Tina Konstant, Morris Taylor

Charisma: Seven Keys to Developing the Magnetism That Leads to Success
Tony PH. D. Allessandra

Posted Nov 23 2005, 08:45 AM by karen with no comments

UK 4 days and back to SA ( and the sun )

I arrive in the UK from not so sunny but reasonable warm barcelona to a freezing cold London. Popped in to my grandmothers on Thrusday night and crashed and had breakfast in Henley which was beautiful to look at as it was so cold during the night everything was solid white with frost. Friday was work and then driving down to Wales to see my best friend Andrea. We spent the evening catching up on the news and watching Children in Need ( massive Charity event ). Saturday - Drive down to Cardiff to watch the game .... freezing cold and disappointing that England lost to the Kiwi's. However at 5pm my focus was keeping warm in the Millenium Stadium.

Final score

Wales	16 - 33 (6 - 11)	South Africa	R
Tries: C Sweeney		Tries: B Habana 2, C Jantjes, D Rossouw
Pens: S Jones 3		Pens: P Montgomery 3

Cons: S Jones		Cons: M Bosman 2

Millennium Stadium

Sunday - back to Reading and dinner with Sam and Dave ( my mates ) and watching the Avengers http://theavengers.tv/forever/ there is nothing wrong with a man in a bowler hat, a pin stripped suit and a umbrella !

Then Monday work and off to London to celebrate my birthday with Ray Jones and Dee Smith and drink lots and lots of champers. Then Tuesday breakfast with Steve Deville and Jo Bagot and then Lunch with John and Julia Strudwick. Then the airport !!

Posted Nov 23 2005, 08:35 AM by karen with no comments

Big shout to the SBS MVP's

Again Steven did an awesome job of raising your profile so here are all your great links for everyone :

smbnation.com

sbslinks.com

smallbizserver.net

sbsfaq.com

sbsdiva.com

msmailbiz.com

sbs-rocks.com

sbsmigration.com

microsoft.com/sbs

so go check them out !!

Posted Nov 23 2005, 08:24 AM by karen with no comments

Barcelona IT Forum update

Before IT forum - I had the pleasure of attending the Community Leaders conference - this was a great 2 days organised by Philppe Lemens ( IT Pro Marketing Manager for EMEA , where community leaders from all over EMEA met and share best practises regarding their user groups.

A quick summary of IT Forum : Lovely to see so many MVP's on the ask the experts stands. Great to see Candice Pedersen and Susan Leiter from the MVP org in the US and of course great to see Alberto and Julie from my EMEA MVP team. The days were long and as you know I can be a great booth baby ( see Australia blogs) however I also managed to do stack loads of networking which was brilliant.

Best food - Restuarant Passadis Del Pep www.passadis.com No menu, really lovely tasty and fresh food and unlimited Champers and great company ( what more can a girl ask for !! )

Posted Nov 23 2005, 08:13 AM by karen with 1 comment(s)

Cape Town visit

So I drove to Cape Town - which as we know is a serious haul 1400 kms. We checked into the capetonian. Which was a good and a bad hotel. Bad in the sense the rooms where very basic for a 4 star hotel and the normal service was shockingly bad however the service for extraordinary things like my fanbelt is make a noise help I have another 1400 kms to get us back to JHB can you help was amazing as the driver in the hotel took my car to a friend of his and sorted it out ( stunned oh yes I was too !! ). So fanny the fan belt was okay.

Now I have to confess when I ask my mate Al aka Bougs ( Mr Alan Bougardt from Coca Cola ) for manly advice on Fan Belts I got a rather amusing answer - Yes I am a fan of your belt that you wore at the butchers bar and grill.Nice Al - not helpful but nice.

So I took Stephen to the Radisson hotel to meet Rog and co. Dined at Strata.

Saturday we did the wine routes of Fairview http://www.fairview.co.za/ now I have to say I really really liked the Primo Pinotage Spicy black fruit, chocolate and vanilla. Full grippy palate. Fleshy fruit.here and the Solitute Shiraz Intense red berry, vanilla and sweet spice aromas. Very full flavoured wine. Well balanced with a long rich finish.Now I do have at home - the C Black and the Jackelsfontien - both are also great wines.Then Lunch at La Cucina in Hout bay then my favourite Fish restuarant in Cape Town - Harbour House for an amazing meal.

Sunday - Robben Island, Drinks at Camps Bay with Hilton & Carlos and of course their lovely ladies Beth and Elsa then Diner at 0932 ( great Beligum place 32 is the dialing code of Beligum incase you are wondering )

Monday - the long drive back. Interesting moment - at the N1 engen station - I turned off the car and went to turn it on and nothing ... somehow the battery had disconnected itself ( how this happens when someone fills you up with Oil and Water I don't know ) but the nice man got the car working again.

Posted Nov 11 2005, 08:07 PM by karen with 3 comment(s)

Safari - Day 3

http://www.madikwe.com/ is the site for Jaci's tree lodge. Excellent food. Excellent staff. Excellent guide - Sam. Excellent facilities and accomodation the only downside it the grounds are very big and the environment is very bushy so the animals can hid and really can be difficult to find however Overall a very good place and one I would recommend.

Oh and I saw a leopard - So I have finally seen the Big 5.

Posted Nov 11 2005, 08:03 PM by karen with no comments

Safari - Day 2 part 2 - Charging Elephants

Safari in the afternoon …. Now how can I describe this .. OH MY GOODNESS. Tons of thirsty elephants who had been searching for water all day. You can tell that they are thirsty they flap their ears a lot. Their ears are their radiators and you will often try to cool them down by flapping them . Which was fine it started with 3 elephants then the entire herd about 25 of them. All is well we have 3 trucks ( of the Toyota variety ) infront of the elelphants . 2 are on the road and we are by the side of them as we were the first to arrive and we moved. Very close to a thorn bush. ( this is important )

Now this happened all very quickone minute the elephants start walking to the water hole and to do that they must walk passed the last truck. All is well then one elephant a female the head of the herd turns around. She flaps her ears . The first truck starts their car and this I think startles her or makes her mad even more than she is because she is thristy. The first truck moves then and this is the slow mo part the end truck moves forward reasonable fast and the elephant follows. Now the elephant catches up to about where we are in our truck slighty over takes us and BANG it shehits the truck. BENDS the BARs and pushes the back seats over.

Now the truck is now going at some speed and going straight passed us. We are stationary. Next thing WE need to shift it. We are now the only truck left. The elephant is looking at us… She starts chasing us. We whiz through the thorn bush ( a persons coat gets caught and is left behind we are accelerating that quickly ) and my face, as I am in the back seat, takes most of the bush. Some serious thorns are flicked in my face. Yes it did sting but quite frankly I was more occupied with two things.

1) telling the guide, Sam - through mind transference to MOVE IT GO GO GO !! ( I was so scared I could not speak )

2) Looking at the elephant who is gaining on us with every stride and having seen what the elephant did to the other truck shifting my *** to the very front of my seat.

Elephants can get up to 50 km’s or faster when chasing a predator.

So yes you will never out run a Elephant on the charge and if they catch you by surprise it will easily total a car. So beware Dumbo is not like bambi !!!

Well after that we didn’t see a lot of animals however the sense of relief was amazing. To give you some idea of the situation and how fast my heart was racing do you remember Jurasic Park and Jeff Goldblum with the T Rex chasing and him screaming Faster faster on the back of the range rover. Well that was us! I know the colour of fear and it is brown!

We got back and drank ourselves in to a slumber Gin and tonic is a colonial god send for that. We ate well Mushroom soup, Prawns , Racks of lamb, kingkip, crème carmel etc but we were all toasting are good fortune and reliving the close encounter.

I expect the Elephants were doing the same - drinking at the water hole and swapping stories of the trucks that got away but by goodness we nearly had them J

Posted Nov 11 2005, 07:53 PM by karen with 1 comment(s)

Safari update - Monday day 2 part 1

Sunday evening we went out and saw Elephants, tons of then going to a water hole playing mud baths and generally having a good time Dinner was awesome - Great food out amongst the stars and with potkie pots and the like

Part 1 of Monday

Highlight am drive - Lions just every where - the old males the young females and males ( big fat ones )

Rest of the day lounging by the pool and playing with the new man in my life – Pinkie.

Pinkie is fun, furry agile and has amazing teeth.Everything you look for in a mongoose really. Pinkie nibbles my toes and fingers and knuckles on a regular basis and now follows Stephen and I everywhere. To the pool to lunch back to the pool very cute very funny and I want to take him home. We go to Lunch and we get to see her have lunch too. 1 normal egg – she throws it and finally ccracks it and licks out the content with the joy you can only compare to a child stuffing themselves with chocolate or ice cream.

Posted Nov 11 2005, 07:49 PM by karen with no comments

Safari update day 1 - Sunday

After surviving Frasers amazing Braai ( with Ruari Tina Evan Lindell and families ) We finally start the holiday. Now it was a bit exciting despite the fact that I have been on several safari’s because we were flying on a plane with 12 seats.

Yes 12 and we only had 4 people on the plane. It was a great experience being in a plane on the ground and then the next minute we are up in the air all safe and sound. We flew at 6,000 feet so no pressurized cabin or anything and amazing views of JHB and the country side. Naturally the safari was going to be top notch. After all it was Stephen’s first Safari and his first time in SA so I wanted it to be a great experience and for me any excuse to be treated like a queen for a few days is always top of my agenda After all I am worth it and let’s face it if I don’t do it then no one else will. So we are off . I have to say I was asleep in 10 minutes ( typical me really - plane white noise then zzzzz ) Stephen on the other hand was wide awake grabbing the seat white knuckled.

I didn’t wake up to us bouncing around like to child being throw in his fathers arms but I did wake up when Stephen poked me several times. A nervous Stephen was pointing towards the pilot and saying eeerrrmm landing strip Karen.

Which I have to say it looked like a scene from WILD GEESE I was half expecting Roger Moore to greet us J Yes we landed on kind of flat red soil in the middle of no where with a few jeeps waiting for us.

Posted Nov 11 2005, 07:42 PM by karen with no comments

IT FORUM - Barcelona 15th-17th November - See you there !!!

http://www.mseventseurope.com/msitforum/05/pre/content/default.aspx

Oh and by the way ... I am presenting ( eek ).

WIT001 Women in Technology (Lunch Forum)
Kimberly L. Tripp , Olga Londer , Karen Young , Helen Duguid
Thu Nov 17 12:45 - 14:15 Room: 128
Women and men are invited to join this lunch forum for inspiration and a real opportunity to shape the future agenda for women in IT. The forum will focus on 3 areas: Education – Update attendees on Microsoft’s commitment to global diversity with specific focus on Women in Technology and, most importantly what is happening today in this field and what is planned for the future. Networking – Informal opportunity over lunch, to network and build connections with other women in IT, whilst exchanging key challenges and opportunities for women. Inspiration – An opportunity to take part in an open panel discussion, to learn from the panellists and to ask them how they have advanced their careers, overcome challenges and seized opportunities. Panellists will include Kimberly Tripp, Olga Londer and Karen Young. Space is limited, therefore please sign up in advance by contacting Helen Duguid (v-hedugu@microsoft.com).

WIT002 Women in Technology (Shaping the Future)
Helen Duguid , Kelly Jacobson , Mette Munck , Olga Londer , Karen Young , Susanne Brealey
Thu Nov 17 14:15 - 15:30 Room: 128
Both Men and Women are invited to join this working session designed to inspire new thinking, whilst playing an influential role in helping Microsoft shape the future agenda for women in technology. Do you want to shape your future? Do you want to shape the future agenda for women in technology? Inspire men and women in a highly interactive and practical session to shape the future. This session provides you with an opportunity for innovative thinking and solution finding as we work together on tomorrow’s agenda to help women to realise their full potential in IT and perhaps the broader society. Space is limited, therefore please sign up in advance by contacting Helen Duguid (v-hedugu@microsoft.com).

Posted Nov 11 2005, 07:36 PM by karen with no comments

I am in Dublin and yes I have tons of things to post

So what am I doing in Dublin - some training, the Irish Ready Launch and meeting my lovely MVP's with the lovely Fairy Godmother aka Lorna Williamson the UK and Ireland MVP lead.

Training - Crucial Conversations - very important and I can't wait to read the book - here is a quick look at their website - http://www.vitalsmarts.com/CrucialSkills/

Ready Launch - http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/servers/launchtour/default.mspx great to see the MVP's are the event and great to have a Guiness as well.

Meeting the Naked MVP aka Nick Whittome http://msmvps.com/thenakedmvp/

Confession time - I am staying in one of my favourite hotels - in the world - http://www.fourseasons.com/dublin/index.html

Also last night in the 4 seasons their was a massive charity event with raised about 250,000 euro's I think and all the guests where really famous :-) So I met Keith Wood, Brian O'Driscoll, Chris Eubank etc I had an awesome time.

Posted Nov 11 2005, 07:24 PM by karen with no comments

Bye Bye SQL 2000

We are planning a farewell party for SQL 200 in the form of some Tenpin bowling in Rosebank.

Best of all its free. Yes free. What a sweet deal man. this offer is for the first 40 people to confirm - after that you will have to host yourself :)

Please email your name to this alias: events@sqlserver.co.za

This will be a casual get together to say farewell to SQL2000 with a couple of drinks thrown in. Next Monday (14^th November) Starting at 15h00 and running till 18h00 (it’s a work night after all).

Venue: Galaxy World Rosebank. Rosebank Galaxy World contact number :(011) 447-9141

Brilliant Idea - Gary, Markus and Koos.

Posted Nov 11 2005, 07:22 PM by karen with 2 comment(s)

dotnet.org.za

This Blog

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Another Blogs

Archives

Karen Young