African Gypsy

Instead of the old Shaka Day, we now have Heritage Day on the 24 September, which is tomorrow but in the Spirit of Heritage Day, we all came to work wearing our tradition clothes. Well all expect little old me as I was slightly confused as to which culture I should dress up as because all 4 of my grandparents are from 4 different European subgroups, Scottish, Irish, German, and Dutch, ouch. You could say I am representative of the European Union.

 Anyways above is Zanele dressed all colourful Zulu garb and below is a video of Ilana who also comes from diverse European subgroups, dancing a little gypsy belly dance for me. Okay, okay, Ilana was dancing for my blog, not me.

Nou gaan ons braai!

Pop goes the Bubble

Finally the bubble chair that was ordered from Italy in April arrived today with our team all excited but wait isn’t there made in China on that box? Oh well lets be like an iPhone which is I hope designed in the US but made in sweat shops in China. So without popping anyone’s bubble, this bubble chair must have been designed in Italy and manufactured in China.

Musical chairs anyone? Because of the long wait, great expectations was built up and now is the time to test ride this baby.

Ahhh about time - Nomanangaliso

This is comfortable - Kay

Let me think - Velile

I can just plop into it - Lesego

Get me out - Malibongwe

Quiet Contemplation - Ilana

Uhmmm - Paballo

As much headroom as a Ferrari - Desmond

No, no, this freaks me out - Julius

Yes my child - Terrence

Lol - Adam

Fairy Dust

eKayaMedia creative streak continues as now it is the multimedia team’s turn to get their office’s sprinkled with fairy dust from Ilana’s magic wand. Here is Ilana and Cyril showing us how much they enjoy their new look office.

I still think mine’s better, and thanks Ilana for making that TARDIS appear through that big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff. I think she would make a good Doctor's companion.

It is so Huge!

With the year about to run out of days, eKayaMedia decided to have their year-end function at the Berlin Pub and Restaurant in Ruimsig. Now this establishment specialises in German cuisine and is renowned as the best eisbeins in Johannesburg.

The day was sweltering but that did not stop us from ordering eisbeins and I can now vouch that the eisbein is one of the best I have ever had. The top photo is of Johan and the bottom one is of Denise, both are about to tuck into their huge eisbein. The rest of the photos can be found in my Facebook album Wow it is so HUGE!

Two Men

Was it two men or three men in a boat? Or was it a boy and a tiger in a boat? Anyways whatever, the Life of Jerome continues. Back at the ranch, eKaymedia, not our digital side but at traditional, they are doing some fine art.

As you can see Ilana is painting these two men sculptures in cultural colours and designs. I know artists don’t like an audience so I popped my head in every so often just to view the process. Believe me good things take time.

Quarter Century

Happy birthday Ilana, at a quarter of a century, you have your whole life ahead of you. Okay it is not like you have turned sweet 16, 21, 30, 40, or even 50 but you don’t turn a quarter of a century every day. So 25 cameral cupcakes is just what the doctor ordered. Yummy.

Cold Smile

Since posting Noma and Pabs hugging hot water bottles on Wednesday, I found Ilana also embracing a hot water bottle. Wow, this winter must be getting to everyone. Cold as it may be, it is Friday and Ilana can still smile.

The Fringe

When it gets very busy in the office, the thought of a photo a day sometimes nearly slips past without being noticed. Mondays for me have always been one of those demanding times when the boss’s blog post has get out error free. Stressful times but I think the team handles it well.

Home time has somehow crept up on me unannounced and I hadn’t any idea of what photo would represent today that was until I saw Ilana’s fringe across her eyes as she did creative stuff. Ahhh these right brain peoples of eKayaMedia. I like balance in my life, a bit of expressiveness, a dash of creativity, a pinch of rationale, a sprinkle of colour, and a little slice of stats just spice things up a bit is all what my brain needs. I must be on the fringe of society, uhmmm, oh well.

Order! I say order, everything must be in its messy place that only I know where they are.

Who Moved My Cheese?

So Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw, which one of you had the audacity to move my cheese? Now please don’t say the cheese doesn’t matter, or in the Matrix tone, there is no cheese, just tell me who moved my cheese?

It is mid-week with only two of my team, which includes me, are holding up the flag as sickness hits the rank and file of New Media. I too am feeling not altogether there but with some medication I am slouching behind my desk going from one energy high to the next.

Walking between the empty offices looking for my cheese, I came across Ilana, our conceptual designer sporting her newly painted finger nails of a mouse and some cheese.

What would you do if you weren’t afraid of what tomorrow would bring?

3000th Post

Here are my team mates at eKayaMedia gathered together to wish me all the best on my 3000th post. In the front row, left to right is myself Jerome, Kabelo, Noma, Paballo, Sandra, Calvin, Des, and Ernest. At back is Johan, Ilana, Mpho, Ella, Xolani, Mkuseli, Philip, Bridget, Lawrence, Wayne, Viandre, and Jacques. Below are the three special children Rob, Velile, and Gillis, who couldn't make the group photo. Thank you everyone who participated in this 3000th blog post.

Wow to reach 3000 posts on this blog has been something of a ride. What do you expect with all ups and downs of over eight years of a blog post per day till now? It’s nostalgic looking back through all my posts. Some bring a smile to my face, and some make my eyes all teary, but such are these 2999 memories woven into the fabric of what I call a sorry excuse of my life. And now I have one more which takes it up to 3000.

Every one of these 3000 moments are precious to me even the broken pieces when my days were dark as the light, the joy of life just overwhelms everything else. Someone once said that a photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.

Please feel free to browse through all my life posts, right back to the start in January 2007. Yes one day I’ll look back on all this and smile because it was life and I decided to live it.

The Sunflower Fund

As we approach the second Christmas that God has granted Nika since she was first diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia, I sat and folded the Sunfower Fund’s bandanna for tomorrow’s Giving Thanks Day at Bosasa. My thoughts were on Nika who this Christmas is doing exceptionally well compared to last year February when she was diagnosed with this life threating blood disorder.

Nika’s options to live were very slim in South Africa, thankfully her parents managed to get her booked into the Toronto Children’s Hospital and she was flown over as soon as she was stable. The Northern American Bone Marrow Register is so much larger than the South African one which increased her chance of finding a bone marrow match.

Last year for Nika had been an up and down in the hands of God and the talented staff of the Toronto Children’s Hospital type of year. This year she slowly improved and now Nika is nearly normal little girl who has been though a lot.

So now we get to Nika’s blessed second Christmas since her journey with Aplastic Anemia started, I plead you to help get our South African Bone Marrow Registry bigger. Many South African children need you to register so there might be a slim chance that they would have many more Christmases too. If you are committed to helping; are between the ages of 18 and 45; in general good health; over 50kg with a Body Mass Index higher than 35; and prepared to remain on the register until you are 60 years of age then please why are you waiting?

1. Call 0800 12 10 82 or 0210661
2. Answer medical questions and if you are eligible then
3. You will be directed to your nearest recruitment clinic
4. Two vials of blood will be drawn
5. Blood would be tested and results put on the register
6. The South African Bone Marrow Registry will post you your card in 6-8 weeks

That simple. Oops I forgot that the Postal Services are still on strike. Oh well don’t let that stop you.

Please note, small print time, to narrow any complications with the bone marrow the South African Bone Marrow Registry asks that if you not register if you think need an HIV test; have been exposed to hepatitis or HIV by contact with family or work; have injected yourself even once with illegal or non-prescription drugs; lead an unsafe sexual lifestyle; get regular tattoos or piercings; are pregnant or have had a baby in the last year; have had cancer; and have a phobia for needles.

They say finding a match is 1:100,000 in South Africa so please pick up the phone 0800 12 10 82.

At first I thought that if they find me as a match to someone I would have to go through operations but the Sunflower Fund has told me that it is a process of 4 to 6 hours which they draw blood from your arm into a cell separator machine which extracts your bone marrow from your blood and returned back into you. Plus it is at no charge to you as all costs are picked up through donations. So no skin off your nose. Get registered and help save a life!

That is all I have to say other than to continue folding hundreds of the Sunflower Fund’s bandanna with Mkuseli, Ilana, Mpho, and Noma.

Ikhwezi Primary

The print side of eKayaMedia was busy with a deadline that require hands to help Ikhwezi Primary School, one of our Corporate Social Investment programs. As they say more hands make light work, and with the digital team getting stuck in, soon we had the deadline licked. Here you can see Sandra, Wayne, Mpho, Pabi, Noma, myself, and Ilana striving for excellence.
Even though we managed to complete the CSI project in record time, Eskom's bad planning caught us out with electricity load shedding, go figure.

Safety Dance

Seeing this iDance earphones on Sanda’s desk reminded me of the band Men without Hats who took to the radio waves way back in the 80s with their hits Safety Dance and Pop goes the World. Okay Ilana, I was bopping to this at the Port Shepstone High School socials which will now be giving my age away. Pop goes my world.

We can dance if we want to
We've got all your life and mine
As long as we abuse it, never gonna lose it
Everything'll work out right
I say, we can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine

For those that remember the 80s will now have this tune running in their heads.

Is it safe to dance?

Black and White

Black and White, not the two ladies but the earphones they are wearing. Here are Ilana and Sandra, our Conceptual Designer and Graphic Designer hard at work that was until I disturbed them with my camera.

It was close to the end of another day and they still had their noses to the grindstone with music pumping from their beat boxes through their black and white earphones and into their heads. Now I am wondering if it is rock, classic, rap, metal, pop, blues, or better still punk.

Bosasa Hlangana

Our Mpho aka Oompa Loompa, designed this hat for the Bosasa Hlangana which was held last Friday. Bosasa is the name of our company and also the Northern Sotho word for the future or tomorrow and Hlangana is the isiZulu word for togetherness. The Bosasa Hlangana day is celebrated to bring the family of the Future Together and celebrate the spring. A competition was held for the best hat made from recycled materials and this was Oompa Loomps’s entry, very bright with vibrant colours just like our future.

Ilana welcome to Bosasa

Well I have been so busy this week that I didn’t get round to welcoming our latest member, Ilana, to the eKayaMedia team. She has joined us as a Conceptual Designer and we from the digital side of the building welcome her into our Bosasa family. May you become an integral part of our effective team and that your career here be one of growth at Bosasa.