bits and bobs

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September 27, 2012
Namibia, Swakopmund
2 Comments

in a couple of days its going be five months since we’ve moved to namibia. which is crazy because it feels like much less than that. the shooting schedule has us here for another five weeks, after which we will either be extended in swakopmund for another three weeks or move to cape town for three weeks and finish up there. i would love to get a chance to visit cape town – many of the crew are from there and say its absolutely wonderful. plus there are lots of yoga studios, asian restaurants and health food stores that stock staples like coconut oil and apple cider vinegar. fingers crossed!

we haven’t been on any adventures lately due to random parties and other commitments, which is why there has been a bit of a drought in terms of updates. we don’t really bust out the camera when we’re just hanging out at home. but we have been enjoying ourselves! but we do take video here and there! here are some highlights:

one of our newer discoveries is this small farmstead about 10km out of swakopmund called desert hills. they are only open on saturdays, when you can go and have lunch, hang out and check out and assortment of food and cosmetics they make on-site. its a really chill place and we’ve been back two weekends in a row. lots of the products they sell are made from the !nara plant, which is native to the area and used by the bushmen around swakopmund for thousands of years.

in other news, one of nayou’s best friends atticus turned 7 last week. and there was a bouncy castle at the party. oh yes.

last weekend the production threw a huge party to celebrate making it halfway through the shoot. everyone was invited and there were easily over 1,000 people there… seeing everyone made me realise exactly how big this movie really is. crazy! many of the people i spoke to where super tired from working long days in the desert for months on end, but it was still a big night. especially for me – i stumbled home early in the morning and passed out cold. i had to burn my hangover off in the sunday sun.

34

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September 6, 2012
Namibia, Swakopmund
2 Comments

last week i turned 34. its been an unusually introspective sort of birthday for me this year, in a good way. a couple of days before my birthday i had this conversation with nayou:

nayou: papa, i’m luckier than you

me: why?

nayou: because i haven’t decided what i want to be yet

it got me thinking about the general perception that as you get older life presents less opportunities to you. there is definitely some truth to it, in the sense that you can’t go back in time and change all the things you wish you could. but at 34 i find myself really happy with where i am, for which i count myself among the lucky. i’ve got a partner i love so much, we have a beautiful son together, i have an interesting job that takes us all around the world and gives us the opportunity to take long stretches of time off. i’ve got a yoga practice that has give me profound insights into myself and shows no sign of letting up. sure life isn’t perfect, but then again no one’s is. and i have to say that i like mine. a lot. what more could i ask for?

skydiving.

yes, the one thing that was missing was a 30 second freefall at 220km/h (137mph) from an altitude 3000 meters (10,000ft). so this year i set out to fix that at the swakopmund skydiving club. last sunday we rustled up a big group of friends and took turns jumping out of planes. it was scary, exhilarating and really really fun!

check out  my “namibia” gang sign! looks like just an outline of the country!

i’ve also received some really thoughtful gifts. the kind that you end up using every day and thinking about the person that gave it to you.

one of those gifts is a super warm blanket from my mum:

i also got a big delivery of japanese food from my parents, plus another one is on its way from aya. we’ve already made a significant dent in the food stash. i’ve been missing those japanese flavours since we got here. hana has made something for me too so it looks like this is going to be the birthday that keeps on giving!

brenda and nayou got me a brand new backpack which was very much needed, and a massage. oh, and these beautiful works of art which now adorn my office:

thanks to everyone for all of their presents, well wishes and good vibes! its been a really nice birthweek 🙂

activity roundup

By
August 26, 2012
Namibia, Swakopmund, Uncategorized

for some weird reason all of the photos i batch processed turned out square. oh well, at least it still shows the important bits.

someone is happy with their chocolate ice cream…

last weekend we spent a day driving around to various watering holes south of swakopmund. once you get inland a little bit you see a lot more plants and the landscape starts to look more like the stereotypical african savannah.

we saw tons of ostriches, oryx and springbok, but the highlight for me were the three warthogs. they are so cute! they seemed pretty wary of us and didn’t venture too close but seeing them trotting across the plains was great.

on the way home we got a flat tyre. flats seem to happen very regularly out here. i’m starting to become an expert in changing tyres, although i wouldn’t have managed this one without brendas help 🙂

the silver lining was that it delayed our return enough to see the most amazing sunset on the way home. its a shame that the photo is blurry because it was really spectacular… like something out of “empire of the sun”.

a few days ago brenda and nayou went out to visit this lady’s farm with a troupe of other mad max families. there are these beautiful farms out in the middle of nowhere in namibia. people raise horses, grow veggies and lead the slow life. seems pretty nice given that i spend ten hours a day in an office staring at a computer 🙂 i’m definitely looking forward to some chillaxing after the shoot wraps!

 

lego creations

By
August 8, 2012
Namibia, Swakopmund, Uncategorized
3 Comments

lately we’ve been on an even more intense spree of lego building. nayou has been obsessed with lego for a long time now and his fascination with it hasn’t flagged at all. our creations have been getting pretty cool so i thought i would share some with you.

first up we have a double decker space ship. with a hidden luggage compartment. oh yeah.

a fire truck!

one of nayou’s specialties – a jail truck.

nayou has also been building space aliens and various modes of transportation for them.

i also made a hospital last week. i tapped into my inner boy for this one… building it totally reminded me of what it felt like to play with these when i was little 🙂

wheels!

By
August 5, 2012
Namibia, Swakopmund, Uncategorized
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take a look at this desert beauty.

we don’t have a name for her yet, but she is a gorgeous 1980 mercedes-benz, in great condition. riding in this thing is like riding in a tank. but smoov, baby, oh so smoov. i think kids these days would say “swag“. we’ve actually had the car for about three weeks now. we had been on the lookout for a car – swakopmund can be travelled on foot, but there are much fun to be had out in the desert! – so when brenda saw it with a for sale sign in the window, it was love at first sight. we didn’t want to buy it outright, so brenda talked to the owner and rustled up a lease for the duration of our stay here instead! win! they don’t make cars like this anymore – its a real pleasure to drive this thing:)

speaking of wheels, we went go-karting! its just five minutes out of swakop but its in the middle of the desert. the photo of our car was taken in their parking lot!

this is the sign of the v8. mad max’s car is the v8 interceptor, and this is the hand sign that one of the guys came up with. they’re using it in the movie as as well. i think its quite clever! speaking of the movie, the shoot is in full swing now (hence lack of blog updates… ahem). the footage they are shooting looks amazing and i am really excited to see the finished version. its going to be awesome!

this looks like some tame david lachappelle shoot to me.

a weekend at brandberg

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July 14, 2012
Namibia, Uncategorized
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brandberg mountain is a big chunk of rock about three hours north-north-west of swakopmund. it is famous for having rock paintings that are over 4,000 years old, including the well known “white lady“. the place has been on our radar ever since we got here, but last weekend was when the stars finally aligned and we made it out there. we camped out at the white lady lodge, which is a gorgeous lodge/luxury tent/campsite facility right at the base of the mountain. the lodge has a history of spotty reviews from various websites, but the campsites were really nice.

there are some resident springbok and a cute but very grumpy meerkat at the lodge.

the weather was perfect – sunny and hot. it was a nice change from the fog and chill of swakopmund.

we even found kermit the frog sunbathing!

on sunday we did the one hour trek up to see the white lady. some baboons where chillaxing along the way.

the paintings are remarkably well preserved. our guide told us that the artists mixed animal fat in with the pigment which is what has made it last so long. i wonder if anything that we create will be able to reach across four millenia and be marvelled at by distant relatives.

 

tommys living desert tour… round 2!

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July 12, 2012
Namibia, Swakopmund
2 Comments

well i’m certianly making up for lost time with all these new posts!

about a month ago brenda and nayou went on a living desert tour, which is a wonderful half-day excursion to see all of the smaller creatures that call this arid patch of land home. nayou really enjoyed it and talked about it for days afterwards. going again was an inevitability (is that even a word? it is now!) and that inevitability happened on monday. tommy the tour guide did not disappoint and both brenda and nayou came back with big smiles on their faces.

look how cute this chameleon is! i can’t wait until i see one in the flesh.

this looks like it could be ticklish… or kind of painful.

they even saw a horned adder!

nayou and brenda make a stop motion movie

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July 12, 2012
Namibia, Swakopmund, Uncategorized
3 Comments

co-written and co-directed by brenda and nayou!

the story goes like this:

there is a wild velociraptor on the loose, which is tranquilised by a dinosaur huunter. an ambulance rushes to the stunned velociraptor and a medic tries to help it, but it wakes up and runs away.  however, the dino hunter is on its trail again and the poor thing goes down again with a tranquiliser dart. the medic rushes to its rescue but the raptor wakes up. the raptor is not happy. it sees the dino hunter and chases after him. luckily, the medic grabs the tranquiliser dart and takes the raptor down. then the ambulance people come and take the raptor away…. to where? nobody knows.