He woke up Windows XP from sleep mode and deftly defeated twelve notifications to update Norton AntiVirus. With a resounding click he opened Internet Explorer 6 and gazed deep into its depths, past the Yahoo toolbar, the MSN toolbar, the Ask.com toolbar, and the AOL toolbar. And then did he see, at long last, that The Google did load.

It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

After reading this article by Ken Murray, it definitely made me think about the “what ifs” when my time comes to make those decisions. Great read.

One example before I tackle our beloved Mugg & Bean, is rhino poaching. Friends of mine were making a big noise on Facebook and telling people to wear black on the 1st of September to raise awareness against rhino poaching. What the hell is the point? Have you met a rhino poacher before? No. Do you all agree we shouldn’t poach an endangered species like rhinos? No. Then stop the awareness only nonsense, find out how to help and go and do that! In this case, donate money to WWF’s Rhino Conservation fund which directly aids in fighting poachers. Make a noise about that, before doing your own little “copy and share this status if you agree rhino poaching is wrong”

Breast Cancer and my gripe with Mugg & Bean

Mugg & Bean, one of my favourite breakfast joints for that matter, is creating awareness for breast cancer by creating the cherry whizz milkshake.

On the back of that flyer, it says “In Support of Breast Cancer – SMS M&B to 38584 to donate R10 to the Breast Health Foundation and Bossom Buddies Support Group”.

How nice of them. (You do know that pretty much 50% of that R10 goes to the network operator, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C etc.)

So here is where I have a big problem with Mugg & Bean. Breast cancer is probably one of the most high profile diseases affecting women today. It’s so big, that an entire month is dedicated to breast cancer awareness! Mugg & Bean have instead doing something about breast cancer by donating money to worthy causes, they have pretty much done a “me 2″ in support of breast cancer awareness.

I was just about to buy that milkshake when I realised they weren’t helping breast cancer at all. They literally profiting off everyone who does support breast cancer! One thing I cannot understand is why they can’t donate R2 of every milkshake to those charities they mention? Hell, they could of increased the price of the milkshake and donated the difference if they are so hard up on donating any of their own profits. I for one would of bought the more expensive milkshake. I’d probably take a guess that the charities would receive more R2 milkshake donations than people sending an SMS to donate R10!

People are lazy. I would buy that milkshake 10 times over if it was donating R2 to breast cancer. Send an SMS? Forget about it.

So Mugg & Bean, and everyone for that matter that tries to raise awareness, next time, put your money where your mouth is first before making a noise about nothing.

(I have confirmed with Mugg & Bean’s Marketing Executive that they are in fact not donating any money to breast cancer charities, but have created the milkshake to draw awareness to this worthy cause)

The view from the Table Bay Hotel's Presidential Suite, the morning after.

Had an amazing experience at the Table Bay Hotel a few weeks back when Karina and I were invited to their #ChefTableBay event. I had no idea we were going to be doing a proper Masterchef competition to determine the winner and with our non-existant cooking skills, we were a really really LONG shot of winning, especially with real food and wine bloggers attending!

Watch the video below from the event – I feel like a proper rockstar watching it!

Here is a quick video walkthrough I made of the Presidential Suite at the Table Bay Hotel. So you can guess who won… :)

I guess its a tribute to Steve that I’m currently writing this blog post on a device he created and using a mouse he designed.

For a person who I never met, he has made the biggest impact on my business life. I strive to build websites that are as perfect as apple.com and design & code those websites only on products he created. I’ve changed the way I consume media by using an iPad and by watching movies on my Apple TV. I also started running because my iPod could track how far and fast I ran when synced with my Nike+ shoes.

A sidenote, take a look at all the patents that lists Steve Jobs as one of the inventors.

The world is definitely going to suck just a little more now that you are gone.

Rest In Peace Steve.

The Table Bay Hotel is one of Cape Town’s top 5 star hotels, situated at the V&A Waterfront.
Not only is it an exquisite hotel, it also boasts one of the best restaurants in Cape Town, the Atlantic Grill, which is where 1 lucky person can win a dinner for 2!
If you not in Cape Town, you can also win! Read further down…

How do I enter?

All you have to do is tweet about the Chef’s Table Bay event that is happening on the 24th of September, include the hashtag #chefstablebay and my Twitter username @JBagley. A simple retweet will do it too!

RT @JBagley A personal chauffeur, cocktails and a cooking show. #chefstablebay sounds amazing! http://jasn.me/pX0O0o. Click the link to enter.

Other examples:

• #chefstablebay sounds amazing! http://jasn.me/pX0O0o @JBagley [click here to tweet this]
• A personal chauffeur, cocktails and a cooking show. #chefstablebay sounds amazing! http://jasn.me/pX0O0o @JBagley [click here to tweet this]

Some basic rules

• The more tweets, the more entries you have to win!
• On Monday 26th of September, I’ll draw a winner from all the tweets received and contact you via Twitter.
• Prize is valid until the 31st of December 2011.
• If you are not in Cape Town, pick any Sun International destination country wide and you can have your romantic dinner there!

So what is the Chefs Table Bay all about?

A few bloggers have been selected to enjoy a day at the Table Bay Hotel. We will be driven to the event by chauffeur, treated to cocktails, enjoy our own cooking show and dine at the Atlantic Grill restaurant!

This competition is to help me win the prize at the Chefs Table Bay event and you’ll get to win dinner for 2! Even if I don’t win, I’ll still give away this prize. I’m just betting on enough people entering my competition to hopefully guarantee me winning a prize too!

Good luck to both of us!

The resort has a number of wooden cabins, apartments and backpackers lodge to cater for pretty much any size family or group. There were 10 of us and rented one of the largest cabins for 5 nights.

There is also a restuarant and cafe / pub that comes to life after the sun goes down.

They have 1 beginner training slope for ski’ers, an intermediate slope for beginner snowboarders and then their main 1km slope. They also create snow most nights, so during the winter months, even when it hasn’t been snowing, you can almost be assured of being able to snowboard and ski.

It took me about 2 days to learn to snowboard whereby I’m now totally comfortable going down the big slope and had the confidence to try new things. After the first days lessons I was so bleak. I couldnt seem to get anything right, my body was aching and I was so upset that I had spent all this money to get to Afriski and that I’d be there for a couple more days and couldn’t stand up on the snowboard! A good nights sleep and me dreaming about snowboarding seemed to fix that. It’s amazing what the sub-conscious can do.

I highly recommend anyone that is planning an overseas snowboarding holiday to hit Afriski first to get your snow legs and then head off to Austria, Switzerland and the likes.

The US have a huge obesity problem, but since when is its McDonalds fault? Sure they sell the food, but who pays for that processed burger, deep fried chips and fizzy drink? Parents! Kids are taken to McDonalds by their folks who order and pay for the unhealthy food.

So explain to me why McDonalds bows down to the US government when they tell them to make their food healthier? They are a private company creating thousands of jobs. Imagine McDonalds turned around and told the US government they were replacing 90% of their staff force with an assembly line that now automatically makes all their meals?

Start educating parents on how to feed their kids better, get them to exercise more and generally look after their kids heath, rather than changing an ingredient or 2 at McDonalds. By attacking and getting McDonalds to make these tiny changes, they sending out the message that its ok to eat their Happy Meals.

It’s never ok to eat at McDonalds if you are obese!

The point of this post is how addictive it has become. Every now and then a spot opens up in a game and I invite someone new. They walk off that court almost begging me to invite them to the next game.

I can’t get enough of it!

Also really want a pair of these customised Nike boots. Pity you can only order them in the US. I’d be the mainest guy with custom designed boots like these.

That little skwigly bit at the bottom of the space shuttle orbit is called camera shake. I had to manually press the shutter button to start the 25 second exposure as I don’t have a remote release. (Ordering one today though!)

Looking for the full hi-res image? Download it here (2.9MB 4288 x 2848). It’s free to use, for whatever you wish. Time magazine or National Geographic, if you use my image, a link to my website would be rad.