NAMA 2012

In a hurry? pack your bags and head for Namibia.

What a beautiful country! I was expecting flat, dry, hot and dusty conditions. And I was disappointed in a way but pleasantly surprised. Instead I saw amazing countryside and scenery. Windhoek was the port of call for the 2012 NAMA music awards held at the now abandoned Ramatex textile factory. Ample space made for a spectacular affair and it was a joy working with everyone there.

The Namibians are sooper friendly and will go out of their way to help. Afrikaans is also widely spoken, probably more so than English, which was very surprising. Currency is on par with South Africa and they even accept our Rands in their shops.

Namibia's population borders on 2 147 585 for the entire country. Compare that to Kwa-Zulu Natal which sits at 10 819 130 or Gauteng which is 11 328 203 leaving our total country population at 50 586 757.

I'll gladly move there if it wasn't for the fact that Windhoek is not near the ocean. The streets are clean and the places we went to, uncluttered, letting Windhoek's natural beauty shine through. I wonder if Swakopmund and Walvis Bay are the same?

Canada next, should be cold!

Catch the 2012 NAMA wrap video here

Well, here is wishing and hoping that you all had a fantastic Easter week-end.

It's amazing the things you just happen to 'see'. I arrived at Durban International airport early for a flight so I thought a newspaper and cup of coffee would be in order. Stopping in at Exclusive Books for a newspaper, I noticed another newspaper and it's headline, as per the scanned image, at the counter while paying for The Mercury. Anyway I think it makes for interesting reading and am quite amused that probably not a single word was said in protest, neither was there anything actioned by Exclusive Books to reject the sale and display of this particular edition. I wonder what would have happened had the headlines been reversed. What are your thoughts?

Cyclone Irina brought so much rain, and superb surf to the Durban basin. Plenty of standouts in the big surf so check out the upcoming editions of our local surfing magazines for more on that. The wave of Llewellyn Whittaker at Tiffanys Reef in the wrap video is about half the size of some of the sets that came through that day. So solid!

Flying back into Durban from another production had us all on a flight with a group of people who were flying in to join one of the shipping cruises to our nearby islands. Boy did I envy them. The stills image in the beginning of the wrap video gives you a good idea on the conditions around the Tinley Manor area and those same conditions that they would sail through. H.D. Ackerman was flying back with us and got a serious briefing on how to operate the emergency exit. Really, one of the most serious briefings I have ever seen.  He was so concerned about the flight that he just had to immerse himself in RED by Gary Neville.

The UCI World Downhill Mountain bike event held in Pietermaritzburg recently was another cool production to work on and as with such events, there are always spectacular crashes and jumps. Sometimes it looks like the guys were breaking the sound barrier. Not as many crashes as last year though, people were losing teeth and all sorts. Ouch! Check out some of the scenes in the wrap video.

Please feel free to check out http://richimagesproductions.co.za/ for the latest and final film of Dimity EcoBride. This is a wonderful culmination and brilliant video of the Dimity EcoBride range.

See richimages in action in this article with Ryan Logie. Images by richimages.

This is the wrap video.

Three Cities, One Destination.

It's amazing how you can wake up in the morning in Durban, wash your face, have breakfast and be on a plane at 08h40 to Johannesburg and end up in your hotel room by about 10am.

In case of an emergency, which exit should I use? Left or right, left or right, left or right...

A bumpy flight on the way up to JHB on Friday morning with quite a few 'weightless' moments in the approach to ORT. The guy in the seat next to me was gripping his armrests extra tight, just in case the emergency exit door blew open and tried to suck him out.

The hotel check in at Barbara road City Lodge was no mess, no fuss and I was impressed that they allowed such an early check in. Not all rooms are created equal.

Neither are all stadiums. Call time at the Willomore Park stadium in Benoni was 13h00. Back at the hotel by 23h00 so all good in the hood.

Saturday morning, us jetsetters flew on down to Cape Town on the 09h00. We checked into the City Lodge at the Grand West Casino with call time at Newlands for the Stormers vs Hurricanes game, 13h00.

I was nervous as hell working on this game as it was my first rugby game of the season. Twenty minutes into our half hour build up, the entire ob van tripped. Off air we go. It's amazing that in a multi-million rand van it's still a basic thing like power that can rule the roost. Thankfully this was the only hiccup of the day. The de-rig was fairly painless and we were back at the hotel by 22h30.

We stayed on in Cape Town to cover the T20 game between the Dolphins and the Cobras in Paarl on Sunday. Go the Dolphins!

With near 40 degree, temperatures being a cameraman is dangerous work!

Cameraman Alex Grist has the evidence to prove it and to those of you who think skin cancer is a myth check out the before and after pictures posted. Bear in mind this is the second dig at getting cancer out of his system. The first go was on his face and shoulder. We wish you luck big fella.

So three cities later I have only one final destination, home.

X-PLORING

What a great way to spend an hour of your morning!

We left at 06h00 this fine morning, 21st February.
Objective, to discover a warm water left hand reef break.
Mission, get there by any means possible in our Nissan X-Trail.

Obstacle, the only patch of beach sand on the entire sugar cane farm which happened to bog us down!

We armed ourselves with sticks and boy, did we show that beach sand!

Are we there yet?

You said you wanted which oil?

Kev, you can come out, all the hard work is done!

Victorious at last! Check that mound of sand! The one I'm standing on isn't to bad either.

South Africa vs Australia

Well here we are again. South Africa vs Australia and we’re one game apiece in the ODI’s so far. Tension is mounting and hopefully South Africa can pull a rabbit out the hat. Weather is not predicted to be good for the final ODI confrontation in my home town, Durban, and it has been raining since Monday evening and is predicted to continue on until match day, Friday.

Port Elizabeth was the scene for the second ODI which leveled the score 1-1 and it’s also a town I love going to. It is a clean and friendly city and visiting PE offers us the opportunity to eat at the Fish Finder and it’s also in striking distance of Jeffreys Bay, a world renowned surf spot.

Our Vt Co-ord, JVT, miss-placed his spectacles and couldn’t find them for the match day. Strange thing that, how do you find your spectacles if you can’t see without them? They eventually turned up in the place where they first looked. Check out THIS video of the Andre, J VT and myself in action during the Port Elizabeth ODI.

Another fine example of Port Elizabeth’s beauty is THIS short time lapse of the beachfront. I love the little burst of light towards the end of the video.

One half of the VT work area

My work station

Andre at his work station

Jeff, the guy on the right, hard at work while waiting for a flight. An all to common sight this.

Eeew, what a close game! Bangers vs. Zim-Match 3.

Previously on days of our lives, Neil ‘manners’ Manthorp won the 21 dollar sweep from match 2. Offered to buy the crew some beers with his winnings after the ODI but then promptly ducked off to his hotel after the days play. His excuse was that Steven Segal had to get back to the hotel so that he could break his fast and that he was the only one that could give him a lift there. Unbelievable!

So what happened with the sweep on match 3? Well, he with the most nose knows most and Lo has a rather prominent nose so he must know a lot! And that knowledge translated into him winning the sweep on match 3. Beginning to wonder how he does it. I am sure it’s because he makes up the rules as well as the ‘challenge’ for the sweep on that day. Lo has won the sweep for match 1 and 3 now. Anyone know a good auditor? You’re kidding me!

Here’s a very quick rundown on some nicknames of people on our crew. Steven Segal; Dik / Village; Manners; Dean 2+3; Hans; Guthers; Lo; Felix the Black Cat (because he’s always on life 9); Pete Le Strange; Harro / Ballie; Kamba; Z; B; Tofaz; Kep; Kirabooo and Pommie are but just a few of our crew. Will endeavor to get some more. We sound like a bunch of real professionals don’t we!

Call time to leave for Bulawayo on Wed the 17^th of August was 07h30. Some never made the early call time leaving others a little miffed that they also hadn’t slept in and missed the call time. The bus waited though, as did everyone else for the unmentioned, B, person to eventually arrive.

We arrived in Bulawayo safe and sound. Phillip copped a USD 20 speeding ticket for doing 110kph in an 80 kph zone. Kep and Pommie also had a woeful tale that encompassed an hour round trip backwards and forwards between roadside police officers and the police station. All the traffic cop wanted was a USD 15 bribe but Kep and Pommie refused on principle to cough up. Good on them! The roads we travelled on were really good but the same cannot be said for the driving ability of some people HERE.

We were rather surprised to find that our booked rooms at the Holiday Inn had been given away and with nowhere to stay in Bulawayo, B and Z had to do some serious head scratching and secure rooms at the Rainbow Hotel. Well done. Else we were sleeping on the streets and it is leeu koud here at the moment!

Dougie the groundsman, who is from Harare, instructed the Bulawayo groundstaff to water the pitch with a hosepipe. They thought better and decided to use a sprinkler instead because it was easier. 12 hours of watering later he suddenly had lotsa grass and a rather soft pitch. Check the images for the amount of grasss he mowed off the two pitches and trust me, it looks like he’s mowed the outfield there’s that much grass in the bucket! They’re sweating bullets trying to get this pitch sorted for the 4^th ODI. Two words, crisis management.

It’s almost time to head home. Two more ODI matches and then were outa here!

Ever get the feeling someone is watching you? Couldn’t understand why this chap is on the cover of every Herald newspaper, daily. Then someone told me that the Herald is the ZANU-PF mouthpiece.

Rudi having a look at how TV cameras work.

 

This is an ATM in Zimbabwe, a safe at the back and some form of dispensing at the front. If this was in South Africa it would have been chained to something and if not chained to something, then gone.

Hungry anyone? A fairly humorous image depicting GM foods.

Green, green grass of home!

Sweeping Times.

Rory ran a sweep amongst the TV crew for the first ODI, one US dollar got you in. The sweep was to guess the total runs scored in the first ODI. Instinctively I said 360 but then change it to 340, gave it more thought then decide to stay with my first instinct. It was great fun to track the progress of the various players in the sweep as the ODI developed. Who was falling out and who was coming into play. It ended up being a race between Z, Lo and me. Z guessed 320 and Lo guessed 387 odd I think. Some overs I was asking Zim to take a wicket and curb the run rate to keep me in the sweep, and they would! It see sawed back and forth like crazy, Z would be in it, out, then in and eventually out altogether. Then it was just between Lo and myself.

As it turned out Bangladesh ended up scoring 184 which sort of put me out of the sweep if Zim won the match, so at the change of innings, I changed allegiance and started cheering for Bangers! It was really fun because there was interest from everyone involved with the sweep in every delivery bowled and shot played which also makes the day and production exciting and go by that much quicker. Well Zim certainly had no interest in me winning the sweep. They ended up drilling Bangers and winning the match by 4 wickets and Lo walked away with the spoils, 17 US dollars. Lucky bugger. Wish it was me!

The cameramen hear the stump mics in their headsets all the time during a match. This helps them hear what the ball is doing off the bat when a shot is played so that they can follow it. One of the fun things that comes from hearing the stump mics is you often hear what the wicket keeper has to say, and they say a lot! Andrew reckons Mushfiqur, the Bangers keeper, was shouting at one of the fielders after a shot was played and the ball rolled into the outfield- ball Saqi, ball Saqi. Read it out loud, fast and repeatedly and maybe in Afrikaans.

Good news is that both EVS machines are working and the van hasn’t caught alight, yet. A friend of a friend here in Zim had secondhand SCUSSI drives and was kind enough to loan them to us.

The caterers have finally come to their senses and are letting us dish up our own food.  We were given the most ridiculous portions, 3 cubes of meat at the one lunch. One piece of chicken at another. Some guys only got a wing! I’m not talking about big pieces here either.

This great advice from a local newspaper here in Zimbabwe for when you are driving - Don’t sleep on the wheel.

THIS is probably how not to do it!

Our trusty steed and universal mode of transport, the bus.

Another great day here in Africa.