There is something so exhlirating::so electric about watching massive late afternoon thunderheads banking against the blue highveld summer sky .. the anticipation of the powerful heavy storm to come. Growing up in Jo’burg has infused my body with this natural sequence as indelible cellular memories.
I miss it sometimes.

It’s what gives balance & strength when the inner skies have darkened and not letting fear have its way. The rumbling thunder, phosphorescent arcs of lightning and drenching rain bring life, energy & renewal in their wake to the baked city streets. Nature none too subtly reminds us that everything is seasonal.. no matter what you’re going through it will give way to the next elemental shift.

The concept of the gathering storm fascinates me (great film on the uncrushable Winston Churchill – of the same name worth checking BTW).. but neither rainstorms, nor the impending global storm rolling in on the human family’s horizon is what I wanted to post about.

It’s actually what I meant to say at the end of our geek dinner instead of the stream of who-knows-what that actually came out.

Having all sense & sensibility swoooshed away by the deluge of Stormhoek wines generously laid on by Graham Knox at our 1st official Geek Dinner in Cape Town.. I’m glad that the thundering headache in the wake of the fun has finally passed. Just some simple heartfelt THANK YOU’s:

• Firstly to Dave for the seeming effortlessness with which he organised yet another eventful success.
• To Graham and Shane of Stormhoek for the intoxicating fun (& personal entropy)
• To firestarter Gavin Chait who put our efforts in the greater economic & political context & stoked some fiery debate!
• To Conrad, giving the eloquent geekspin on blogger ID2.0.
• To the impressive Mike Stopforth who joined us from Jozi (content fell over the Pinotage event horizon but I do remember that his talk was delivered really well)
• Thankfully Jon Cherry’s red T-shirt was an anchor that reminded me somehow that he had launched a blogger competition (?did I imagine this) will have to zip over to the Cherryflava to find out more.
• Ever sparking Rafiq’s lightning speed wisdom swerved past the inebriated minds.. so if like me you need an encore
• To Adrian, Drupal hero of open-source publishing, gr8 to reconnect after BarCamp with this Bryght man
• To musician and designer Darin for the sound equipment & gorgeous ambient beats.
• To our flight Captain Chris for the speakers.. and bringing Ceri to offset any impression that bloggers can’t be good-looking
• To Roland for top quality photography from Pyxels
• To Gina from the Googleplex, gracing Cape Town with her fine self for just two weeks more :-( before heading back to Silicon Valley
• To Martin who brought the blogger crew from GlobalKinetic & surprised me, wonderful!
• To Mark of Kaluma, Silicon Valley survivor of Web 1.0 and thriver in Web 2.0 Cape Town
• To office pal Dr Don of Kreatif,
• to Joey and Christine,
• to fresh blogger Pia,
• to Rafiq’s partner in innovation Miguel,
• to mindsparking Ashley Shaw
• …oh gosh I’ll stop now.. to all of our fellow geeks who made the night thoroughly enjoyable.. Thank you for sharing the fun!

PS. Shane PLEEEEEASE edit my snippet out of the vid! (unless it’s in the Stormhoek side effects & overdose warning bit of course)