(These are the best days of our lives).
It has been a wicked, wicked couple of months. My football knowledge has increased exponetially, and I no longer lie to myself when I check the Premier League scores so that I “know what to expect when I get into work”. Apparently I genuinely care which teams win and lose. Before you ask, I haven’t chosen a team yet, either. So there.
A couple weeks ago (9 May, to be exact) we all headed out to Klein Libertas in Stellenbosch for The Ataris concert which was the most incredible fun I’ve had in a while.
Sir Samuel* properly introduced me to The Ataris when we first starting going out, and “So Long Astoria” was one of my anthems for 2007 and the time around my father’s death. The weeks leading up to the show I had kept saying that I really, really hoped they played it – And despite me having one of the worst colds I’ve had in a while (I’ve now been sick three times in two months, what’s up with that?!), when they did play it, I went completely insane.
Sir Samuel and I acted like total groupies too… we managed to find Kris and nab an autograph which we plan to have laminated. Although the crowd was quite a lot smaller than I initially expected (really bad promotion of the concert, I think) the band really came all out and delivered an incredible performance. I am now officially an Ataris Groupie. I’ve had their songs pretty much on repeat in my car since then!
There were also some epic South African bands – it was great to see Crash Car Burn (formerly Tweak) pop out of the woodwork again, and Foto Na Dans were also fantastic fun.
In other news, I am now firmly behind a camera again! I’ve been doing a series for iafrica.com called ‘Shaping Up’. Our Head of Sport, Rob Peters, is taking part in a four-month long harcore training programme through Transfit in a bid to get fit and lose weight and so on. I get to follow him around with a camera and essentially tell his story – which is so much fun!
As soon as I can I will upload the videos here – in the mean time, you can check out the stories here: ‘Rude Awakenings’ (Video 1) and ‘Time to Assess’ (Video 2).
It’s really awesome to be doing something slightly more creative again… and I’m even secretly enjoying the moments of banging my head on the desk when the Media Encoder goes on the fritz at midnight on a Sunday night.
Bear in mind that the second video was edited in less than 9 hours spanning over 1.5 hours of footage. It’s not my best work – I don’t think I’ll be getting any awards for it. But it’s a step in the right direction. I’m extremely passionate about getting multimedia off the ground at iafrica.com and I have a whole bunch of ideas in the pipeline – so watch this space! (Or, better yet, keep visiting www.iafrica.com. You know you want to.)
* Not his real name. Previously known as “The Hamster”. Which is also not his real name. Clearly.
(The only thing that matters is just following your heart/And eventually you’ll finally get it right)
