I love South Africa. I really do. I love being a South African. I can’t imagine being any other nationality. One of the things I love most about this country is the spirit of its people. We just never seem to want to give up. It’s that never say die attitude that I love. If you actually sit down and think about what this country has gone through since 1990 it is amazing that there has not been major bloodshed. There are many countries on this planet that have gone through half of what we have and have imploded. But we have carried on regardless and made the best of the hand we have been dealt.

We also punch above our weight limit in a big way. We believe we can chew whatever we bite off. We just do. I love that. Our sporting culture screams that. In particular South Africa’s ultra distance running culture says tons about us as a nation. Go to any other country and mention that you are running or have run a marathon (42.2km or 26 miles) and they treat you like you are an absolute rock star! And you should be treated like that. A marathon IS a big deal. It’s a hell of a long way to run in one go but more than that it takes some serious commitment and dedication to train for the actual event. Tell a South African you’re running a marathon and no one bats an eyelid.

What really got me thinking about this was all the running Read more…

The last 18 months have been a serious rollercoaster ride in my life. I have been lucky enough to transform myself from a morbidly obese couch potato to a pretty fit triathlete. I have been able to achieve some things I never thought possible but have also had a few lows along the way.

I’ve been working on a few projects outside of radio over the last few months and I have been lucky enough to share my story with audiences around the country and even though there is a lot more I’d like to achieve I have realised that a lot of people can relate to my background and have gotten fired up by my journey.

If you would like to hear what I have got to say you can book me as a motivational speaker for your conference or event. I will share my journey with you and some of the obstacles I have had to overcome along the way. It’s a story that will make you laugh, it will make you cry and in the end it will have you cheering. I will share with you the trigger points that got me thinking I need to make a change. I will also give you practical steps to make positive changes in your life. If you would like to share an inspirational story that proves anything is possible with your staff or clients then I might just be the guy for you. To find out more about me as a motivational speaker or to book me please click here.

When it rains it seriously flipping pours! A lot of people have been asking how I broke the granite kitchen counter. Like most Darwin Award winners it was a moment of not thinking things through before execution. It all started with a tenant that went awol in one of my properties. Not only did they do a disappearing act without paying rent, they also didn’t pay their electricity account and they also left with most of the keys so I’ve had to get a locksmith out to change all the locks.

I’ve had to clean the unit (because they left it in an absolute state) and get a bunch of rental agents Read more…

Halfway into the first week of 2011. Can you cope???!!! Phillip has come and gone and we’re into a new year. December was quite a hectic month and I was rather quiet on the blogging front.

I can honestly say that I am glad the silly season is over and that we can now return to some sense of normality. December was crazy busy. I worked through, as I always do, but there weren’t many fill ins on the radio, like there normally are, so I kept myself busy with other work. I was able to get a whole bunch of admin and necessary leg work out the way to start the new year off with a bang.

In other related news I had 2 tenants in properties I own decide that December is a horrible time to pay rent and that it was better to enjoy their Christmas celebrations than to honour their financial commitments. Needless to say I made sure both were homeless by Christmas but I still took a massive knock financially in December.

On the training front it was a great month. I managed to get a whole bunch of quality training sessions in, even if the weather wasn’t playing along much of the time. Ironman 70.3 in East London is just over two weeks away and I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Even though I might be doing the swim without a wetsuit due to the aforementioned tenants. But it is what it is and we’ll make the best of it regardless. I also realised in the last week and a bit it is time to start getting serious about my running and January 1 means Comrades 2011 training has officially started. I had a look at the training programmes on the Runnersworld website a week ago and they scared the living daylights out of me. So far so good though, for the last week I have managed to follow the sub 11 hour training programme. I had a chat to Lindsey Parry (the Comrades Coach) just the other day to see if I was on the right track. I told him I’m keen to run four times a week, cycle 4 times a week and swim 3 times a week. He reckons if I do that I’ll be a for away for Ironman in April and Comrades will be no problem in May. So, that’s my training regime for the next 5 months. Watch this space.

2010 was really a bipolar year for me. There were some serious lows. In particular losing my mom and not having my run on the afternoon drive extended. But there were also some awesome highs. Personally the turn around I managed to pull off as far as my health and weight is concerned has to be the biggest highlight for me. From a serious couch potato in 2009 to running my first marathon in 2010 (and subsequently running one more and two ultra marathons) as well as completing a couple of 100 plus kilometre cycle races and two olympic distance triathlons and also losing about 40 kilograms in the year.

2011 is going to be a year of new opportunities for me. I have decided to put most of my time where I get the best results. 2011 is going to be the year to make some serious progress on my business side of things. You may or may not know I own a consultancy where I help business owners develop and create new business online. I’ve been picking up new clients over the last year but it hasn’t been my primary focus. This year it is going to be. I am actively looking for and helping people who need help marketing and growing their business using the internet. I’m quite excited and have already picked up a few clients this year who are already benefiting. If you know anyone who has a business that they would like to grow and expand in 2011 please pass on my details, I’d love to help them out.

For now can I take this time to wish you a very happy and prosperous 2011. May it be your best year yet.

Wow. Wow. Wow. That’s about all I can say really. Was veg’ing in front of the telly last night. To be honest I don’t even know what I was watching. I’ve always been a massive fan of music. I love movies that have great soundtracks. An ad came on with an amazing song. I still don’t know what it is (After a bit of research on Google turns out it is written and performed by Leah Siegel and the song is called human although it is often thought to be called It was dark when I found you) but it sparked my interest and I focused on the ad. I missed the first part of it but caught the last half and was blown away! I then went back on my PVR and watched it again. The word that comes to mind to describe it is powerful. We often get flooded with messages about aids and HIV and they tend to get lost in the noise. But this one definitely got the message across. I really wanted to share it with you and I hope you share it to. Let me know what you think.

I’ve been asked to give the keynote speech at my old high schools awards evening this coming Thursday. I am extremely flattered that they think I have been successful enough in my endeavours to impart some wisdom on these young and, might I add, brilliant minds. The funny thing is that in my entire high school career I never excelled enough to qualify to attend the awards evening!

I need your help in putting my speech together though if you don’t mind. Think of it as your chance to change the world. Sort of. I have been thinking on what I can speak about and this is where you come in. Even if you’ve been out of high school for a year or fifty years it does not matter to me. Please wouldn’t you mind and give two minutes of your time. Knowing what you know now about life and everything else, what advice would you love to have been given when you finished up high school? Or what advice were you given that has made a world of difference in what you are doing now? It might be serious life altering stuff or light and entertaining. Please would you comment below so that I may include it in me speech on Thursday.

My New Allstar Sneakers

I had an interesting couple of days this week. I’ve been on the hunt for new shoes. I’m not the shopping type at the best of times. Like most guys I’m a hunter not a gatherer. I know exactly what I am going to the shops for, I go in, get it and get out. My shoe shopping experience has been mildly frustrating to say the least. The biggest contributing factor to my frustration is that I can never find shoes that fit me. The reason for that is Read more…

Well let me be totally honest with you here. I don’t have the balls to hang glide. I think it must have something to do with the fear of heights I have. When you’re as tall as I am you come built in with a fear of heights. You’re even scared of falling off yourself. But that is a whole different story.

You may or may not know about my fundraising efforts for charity but its time for me to spread the love that I’ve received pushing my cause over the last year and a bit. One of my biggest cheerleaders in the lead up to Comrades and Cycle Challenge has been Leanne Operman. We met on Twitter in the build up to Comrades 2010 and even though we haven’t met in ‘real’ life she has followed my journey from fat to fit. Anytime I needed some help getting word out on a fundraising drive I had put together for PinkDrive she was always the first one to retweet my message. She was along for the ride as I was twunning (tweeting while running) trying to qualify and was quick with words of encouragement when things weren’t looking good on race day at Comrades.

Its now my turn to see if I can help Leanne; You see, Lea has an extremely rare condition called Hereditory Inclusion Body Myopathy, a form of muscular dystrophy and even though its easy to give up when things don’t go your way, Leanne has decided as long as she is able to she is going to make a difference. Last year she decided she wanted to skydive (I suspect she may have been dropped on her head as a baby to). Not only did she jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane but she turned it into a huge fund raiser. She managed to put together an event called Krazee for Kripples with the theme of “going mile high for muscles”, got a few bands to perform and sold t-shirts and braai packs to raise funds for the Gauteng branch of the Muscular Dystrophy Association of South Africa. She managed to raise over Read more…

Emergency Services put out the flames

Its amazing to me how people consume news in today’s world. A prime example would be of this mornings incident at OR Tambo International Airport where a 1Time Airline plane’s engine apparently exploded just before take off. Idols presenter Proverb was on board the plane and posted this picture on Twitter. The tweet he posted with it read as follows “Absolute Drama & Panic! The engine of the plane I was on (fire), apparently Exploded!!! We just evacuated!”

I read about it on Twitter, found the post and saw the picture. Who needs conventional main stream news?

I had a serious field of dreams moment last week wednesday. If you haven’t seen the movie let me give you the thirty second version. This dude has some serious voices in his head that keep telling him “if you build it they will come”. So he builds a baseball diamond in his mielie field. And they come.

I have been travelling around the country for the last six weeks speaking at the Comrades Marathon road shows about the charity initiative I’ve put together for 2011. Last Wednesday we were in Polokwane. The talk was practically in the shadow of the Moses Mabida stadium. I couldn’t help but leave with the feeling that it is just another multi billion rand white elephant.

On thursday morning two things struck me about Polokwane. The first thing was that I don’t think if you herded up the entire town and put them inside the stadium that you would fill it. And secondly that the entire town was infected with field of dreams syndrome. Every third house that I ran past on thursday morning had been turned into a guest house or bed and breakfast. If you build it they will come. They did come. For the few games that were played at the Moses Mabida stadium during the 2010 FIFA World Cup (am I allowed to say that or is it still owned by Sepp?). I was trying to figure out how sustainable all those establishments are really going to be moving forward. I know Polokwane is a town that has quite a bit of traffic going through it but I honestly cannot see all those businesses keeping their doors open. As far as the stadium is concerned I am also battling to figure out how that is going to be maintained moving ahead. Just 3 months after the world has gone home the paving around the stadium is being over run with weeds. After just 3 months. What will it look like after 3 years?

One positive that came out of that run was that I got to run down some of the prettiest streets I have ever run down. I’m not so sure of Pretoria being the Jacaranda City anymore. Polokwane may have very good reasons to claim that title. One of the streets I ran down was laced with Jacaranda’s in full bloom. For as far as the eye could see was purple flowers. The mass of flowers provided respite from the burning sun but had also spared enough to blanket the road surface with a generous sprinkling of blooms.