Of Goggas & KolKol

A few weeks ago I bought the newish DJI Mavic Pro. It is hands down the best piece of tech I’ve played with (at least since my first iPhone ±10 yrs ago) and I plan on doing an in-depth review of it soon.

On a recent trip to the KolKol cabins, my goddaughter christened the Mavic, ‘Gogga’, which is a South African slang term for ‘bug’ / ‘insect’ and is derived from the Khoikhoi word ‘xo-xon’. Non-South Africans will struggle to pronounce it, but this is how it sounds:

 

It was the first real expedition for the drone and, although the wind was too strong for most of the trip, I managed to put this together:

I’m learning so much about flying the drone, filming and editing! Mostly, I’m learning how long editing can take! I’m sure I’d save a lot of time editing by putting together a shot list beforehand and getting better at flying and filming.

Cape Town’s Burning!

The Mother City has had a rough week. Two huge fires, fanned by gale-force winds, have wrecked havoc to the slopes surrounding Cape Town’s city bowl.

 

Last night, a fire swept through one of my favourite walking / trail-running / MTB’ing spots, Deer Park. The folk who volunteer to fight the fires all night are real life heroes!

An Attempt at Blogging

I’ve never been good at keeping a journal or blogging; but, now that I work in the Data team at Automattic.com, I thought I’d give it a whirl.

A little bit about me: I live in Cape Town and wrangle data at Automattic (of WordPress.com, WooCommerce, JetPack etc. fame). A husband to 1 and father of 2. Love spending time outdoors, travelling, singing and hanging out with family and friends!

Not really sure what I’m going to be writing about. Perhaps a bit of code, a few pics, some data science and book/tech/film/music/tv/travel reviews.

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