* I have one book to give away thanks to Gareth Cliff and his team.  All the details on how you can enter at the end of this post.

Gareth Cliff on Everything

Every time I hear Gareth Cliff on his 5FM Breakfast slot, chances are my body cringes and my ears beg the question: Did he really say that?

True to form, he did. And he has half the South African population after him for saying it as it is or for saying it the way he sees it. ‘Cliff on Everything’ is just that. It’s a collection of Cliff’s opinions and essays, including his famous letters to government.

Its opinionated, self indulgent, entertaining, makes me want to slap him over the head book, which lives up to his motto of making some noise. Its not a book we haven’t seen before – reminds me a bit of Jeremy Clarkson, but its short easy reads which can be read at anytime.

No matter how much you love or hate him, one thing is certain – Cliff is an educated, enlightened individual even if he seems otherwise live on air.

My opinion: I dislike the man most times, but I admire him for being able to say it as he sees it. His book has me reading intrigued, even though some of it I have read online already. Its all him and I didn’t expect anything more or less.

Win a copy of the book

If you want it leave a comment on this post letting me know what you really think of Cliff and / or follow me on Twitter, tweet the link to this article and remember to use the hashtag #CliffonEverything. Winners will be chosen on Monday. So get moving.

It’s taken me this long to talk about it. To really say what I feel. It’s a mere 40 days yet the trauma is still fresh in our minds, hearts and souls. Losing loved ones is never easy; losing them this way is the hardest.

Forty days ago, I watched as my family’s life was turned upside down. My cousin lost his wife and four kids in a dreadful fire that no one could comprehend least of all him and my dearest aunt and uncle. His siblings also suffer along with him and so does the rest of the family. In five short years that he has been married, he has fathered four children and watched his family perish before him.

The difficult part is attempting to put the family back together. The fact that he survived hasn’t been easy on him nor her family, but all we hope for is that Allah (God) makes it easier for each of us.

Helping him put back the pieces of his life has been a challenge. He along with his wife ran a home business in which they sold chicken to people. We’ve started getting his business back in order but some beg to ask, how can he so quickly recover, so quickly go back to running a business? It’s not easy but he has to. If he didn’t he would loose his mind thinking about his children and his wife. We all recall stories but nothing compares to a father’s memories.

I write this knowing that some person in my family or in his in-laws would read this and not approve. But sharing the hurt helps me, just a little.

I’ve been strong for my cousins – his siblings because when I moved up to Johannesburg they were my homes away from home. They cared for me every time I was sick or made sure I was ok after having an accident or whatever the situation may have been. Now I try to return the favour even if it means staying at their homes so they are never alone over the weekend, even if I am fast asleep in another room and they are having sleepless nights. The thought that there is someone around helps strengthen them.

I wish I could do more for my aunt, my dad’s eldest sister, but nothing can help ease the pain knowing your grandchildren have left this world before you.

I pray every day that it gets easier. Suraya, Mohammed Uzair, Fatima Zahra, Laeeqah and Mohammed Zubair – their names will be with us always. May Allah grant them Janaat-ul-Firdous and may he make it easier on the family.

A home they moved into only a month before

- the Businessman/woman’s phone

Nokia E7

Let me set the record straight. I thought after my first Nokia review [Nokia N8], the guys would refuse to send me another phone to review, but I guess they like my honesty.

So here are my thoughts on the Nokia E7.

I was a little hesitant to test out the phone after my horrible review of the N8 but surely Nokia had something up their sleeves. Right?! Yes they did. They added a QWERTY keyboard and removed the bulky camera back that they had on the N8. No more worries about injuring the phone while just trying to fit it into your pocket.

Overall in terms of look and feel, the E7 is an improvement on the N8 any day. Though a little on the heavy side, I give it the benefit of the doubt due to the QWERTY keyboard. Smooth feel as well. Aluminium all around as well as glass Amoled screen which did with stand a few urr falls. No cover this time around, so no idea how that would fit in. One slight problem, if you didn’t see the instructions on how to slide the phone up to display the keyboard you may get a youngling [meaning my younger family members] trying to push open the wrong side of the phone. Wonder if in time that would be a problem with the slide mechanism. [Or in my fidgety state if I slide it open once too often would I break it?!]

I fell in love with the feel of the QWERTY keyboard. No idea why as I have been using a touch screen phone recently but the keyboard just felt so smooth. The top row of keys [Q-P] may be a problem with ‘big fingered’ people as your thumbs tend to hit against the top half of the phone. But its something you can work around.

Sadly though the E7 still runs Nokia’s Symbian^3. This for me is a no-no. Especially if I want the phone to keep up with everything that I do. Symbian in all honesty is old, even though it has been updated over the years. It sadly shys away from the current competition that of Android, RIM and Apple. Something that the guys at Nokia must be really worried about. It also makes the phone ‘difficult’ to work with. Reason for inverted commas, is that with time or a few days [like me at least a week] people learn to adapt and learn to use what the phone has to offer.

Setting up the phone is easy enough, but every time you want to connect to the Ovi store it asks for your password and if your phone completely switches off or reboots it asks for your email password. Can be really painful and tiresome.

Saying that though, one needs to remember this is a business phone and the email set-up is easy to use and pretty functional for those people who are attached to working all the time.

The social integration programme they have for the phone started of as something pretty neat but ended up also failing. Being able to connect Twitter, Facebook and other Social Networks on one application is an instant key to success, but the application continously asked to be signed in and there was no notifications when people tweeted you etc. Pretty bothersome for a person like me always socially connected.

But again it is a business phone and most probably that really is not an important feature to the target market.

The camera was beautiful and Nokia has not stepped down on that one leading from the N8.

Another little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the free navigation on the Nokia.Without a doubt Ovi maps has to be one of the nest navigation apps on a smartphone.

Overall the E7 rates: 7/10

Some major room for improvement still from Nokia if they want to compete with the likes of the smart phones.

Nokia E7

The title gives it all away. The beautiful people at Xbox South Africa decided that they would send me the Xbox Kinect to test out for a bit. I was a little gobsmacked, because if you knew me you would know that I am a little dyslexic when it comes to gaming.

I somehow manage to hit the square instead of the triangle or the B instead of the A and somehow forget to press the arrow keys while doing it. You get the picture.

Nevertheless, here I was receiving it at the office and thinking would it be possible to hook it up here?

Connecting it – easy! I even got my flatmates to help just to check how easy it was to connect it. I am geared up on wiring and so forth so that would have been the really easy part for me.

All set up smoothly and the tv even played nice with us. So let’s tell you exactly what I thought of it…

BRILLIANT!

Yes one word to sum it all up. This coming from a dyslexic gamer! Started off pretty easy, took a little longer to find me in the room and adjust, I think that’s due to my shortness or maybe not. Word is, it was due to the lighting in the room.

The guys sent through four games: Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures, Dance Central and Kinectimals.

You are the controller

My favourite is Kinect Adventures. But we started off with the Sports and the Dance. Sports was awesome especially the boxing. My flatmate and I had it out for a bit and its a good way to get rid of the aggression. I failed at the Dance, maybe because I was really not interested in it but the Adventures rocked.

Loads of teamwork and exercise. I have to admit that the next day after playing for a good 2 hours, we kind of got wrapped up in it, I could really feel as though my thighs and arms had gotten an extreme gym session.

Was hooked for the two weeks I had the Kinect, so much so I begged Xbox to let me have it for an extra week! They let me have it for another two weeks. Have to hand it to them, they made a plan!

In that extra two weeks, I borrowed a friends Kinect Fitness, which is an intense fitness programme. I was amazed at the accuracy of the programme and the work out I got. Who needs a gym?!

The Kinect was beyond all expectations. I had seen it at the launch but really did not get a full sense of its capabilities till now. I have played with the WII and attempted other gaming consoles including an Xbox, but the Kinect made a difference to my gaming experience. It’s easy to use and to follow the menu, not having any controls in my hand and thereby not pressing the wrong buttons and the fact that there were no cords pulled across our lounge has to mean that its perfect for the anyone, anytime.

It connects in a few simple steps to the wifi at home linking you up to the Xbox360 experience. I unfortunately did not try this out to its full capacity and did not game against anyone even though I was nagged by Faranaaz and Sameer to hook up with them.

The Kinectimals also did not appeal to me but it is aimed at a younger audience. The Adventure my fav as mentioned before and the Sports is cool especially if you want more people involved.

[Side note: Watch out for the hilarious images which some of the games capture and videos. Had has laughing at each other more then playing the games.]

I have no idea how the Kinect will pan out in the long run but for me now, it was and has been the best gaming experience I’ve had in ages. And for it gets a solid 9/10. To all the true gamers, I am sorry if this fails you but for us n00bs it is the perfect platform to get involved in gaming.

Kinect Adventure - Image Courtesy of El33tOnline http://http://www.el33tonline.com/

Disclaimer: These a long winded blog posts. Your choice how much you read but these are purely my take on my adventures in the Middle East

Land and sea. Onwards on our journey and the true adventures began. Heading from Sharm, we travelled the rest of the Sinai to Nuweiba, passing close to but not near enough Mount Mosa, or St Khaterina where Musa (A.S.) received the Ten Commandments.

In Nuweiba we hopped on a ‘ferry’, which was more like a huge speedboat that was to carry us across the Red Sea towards Aqabah. The first of many customs crossings began. First in Nuweiba and then in Aqabah. On the speedboat trip we saw the lights of Eilat in Palestine and then the coast of Saudi Arabia. Pretty cool if you think about it. On one side Egypt, on the other Palestine, and another Saudi, while in front was Jordan. That’s four countries bordering the Red Sea.

Ferry aka Speedboat

Aqabah was a quiet night. Well almost quiet. After supper Uncle Abie treated us to the first of two lectures. The lectures were held to help us understand the history of Palestine and the so-called State of Israel. Uncle Abie’s lectures are indeed something everyone should listen to, minus the wayward jokes in-between. Not only is it informative but also captivating to know that the stories we have been fed over the years are in fact lies. Something we all ‘kind of’ know but never fully understand. I would go into his lectures here but this is not the place to start writing about it. [May do it in a total separate post from this series especially with the recent Palestinian Papers released].

Early morning start led us on the road to Petra. One of the ancient wonders of the world, no one can fully understand how people, mere people with out the tools and equipment we have today, can build such structures that have withstood time. The feeling of seeing the pyramids for the first time was about to be relived through the amazing structures at Petra.

The bus ambled along towards Petra, moving through arid land, we climbed some of the highest points in Jordan, and our guide, an amazing awesome person named Na’eem, pointed into the distance saying: “Petra is there”. “Where?” “There between the hills.”

You can imagine how I looked at him like he was crazy. How can huge structures, I had seen in movies like Indiana Jones and even Transformers, be there amongst the hills with nothing showing or even hinting it lay in that area. Na’eem did explain that the people who built Petra originally moved to the area of Jordan to hijack and steal from caravans moving along the route, and that is why their buildings were hidden from site. But seriously, I did still not totally believe him.

The bus moved through the town of Petra, which is just the town that is on the doorstep of where Petra lies. I am sure he told me a specific name, but I can’t remember it. It was a little nerve wrecking to see a big bus move between tiny streets and down into a valley near the entrance of the ancient city.

Entering the main gate, is the usual security check and then you are set upon by the guys who have horses you can ride down into Petra with or take a horse and carriage. They do mention that your entrance fee covers the ride down but not the ride back, but be warned… they will not leave you alone till you pay them something. Walking was a better idea for most of us but there were a few including the brother who decided he must ride a horse down to at least the entrance into the canyon.

[Btw walking down into Petra is easy, it’s the walk back that you should be weary of.]

Follow the road into Petra

Following the road, between shear rock faces that rose from either side, the valley/canyon was incredible. You notice aqueducts built into the rock face, chiselled out to perfection, that could have still been in use today if need be. The tools and the way these people lived left me gobsmacked.

The walk down takes a while before you even see the main attraction, the Treasury of Petra but along the way, the moment wraps around me and somehow for a short while I am sent back into history. I can picture people on horse back riding down into the city and the image is enforced by the clip clop of horses and the rickety sounds of the many carriages taking tourists down to the city and back again. The horse’s smells are even helping with the imagery and they stink!

There comes a moment when Na’eem makes us all stop, to point out various ducts and tombs in the wall, then tells us to walk on the left and of the canyon and to look ahead for our first true glimpse of Petra.

First glimpse of the Treasury of Petra

Through the rock wall peeps the Treasury of Petra, and the first sight take your breath away. The ancient city is nothing like you’ve seen before and the movies don’t even come close. To stand in front of the Treasury and take a picture and when you look at it again you can’t even make out who you are, hits home the enormous size of the buildings. The pyramids are one thing but this is unreal as people built it to live in.

Treasury of Petra

The theatre is as magnificent and we all did a bit of Shakespeare role-playing. Julius Caeser to be more specific. Your voice resonates off the rock walls and seating area and you can imagine how it must have been thousands of years ago. It can seat some 7000 people and would make any stage in the world look like mini-town in comparison.

The Theatre of Petra - Can you be the next Broadway hit?

Onwards to Amman and the Cave of the Sleepers. The Cave is one in which the Qur’an speaks about the sleepers who were persecuted and Allah safe guarded them by putting them to sleep for over 300 years. It is called the Cave of the Seven Sleepers but that number is actually unknown. It can be 3 or 5 or 7 as the Qur’an mentions. The cave is also around the Roman burial areas and structures. A mosque is situated in the area as well. If we had visited in the day we would have seen the olive trees and apparently lavender fields. Not so sure on that as we arrived in the evening and it was pretty cold.

The entrance of the Cave of the Sleepers

Amman was our final stop for the evening and also made up the final part of Uncle Abies lecture. The following day was the start of the main part of the trip I was awaiting – Jerusalem!

Uncle Abie's last talk on Palestine

Travels 3 to follow… Jerusalem

*all the pics here

Citadel Salah Al-Din

Disclaimer: These a long winded blog posts. Your choice how much you read but these are purely my take on my adventures in the Middle East

I promised to blog about my travels so here goes. No words can explain the full experience that I had, the sights that I saw and the emotional and physical aspect of the entire Middle East Tour.

My parents decided that we should do Uncle Abie Dawjee’s Middle East Educational Tour for the mere reason that we would be seeing more places and in the hope that we all would learn the history or the Middle East better from someone who understands it and reads about it extensively. The blog posts that follow have nothing to do with what he said and I hope not to preach anything much about it but just to share my experiences completely.

So we set out on December 16, 2010, to do five countries, 7 cities in two weeks. No easy feat but think about it along the lines of Contiki Middle East style.

It was exactly that. Loads of traveling over land, in tour buses and sleeping one night in places, which you would never usually book at. Those were the little things to me. In all honesty it was more like ‘sleep when you dead’.

Landing in Cairo in the early part of the morning, we were all loaded into the various tour buses and taken out immediately to see the sites of Cairo.

The land of Kings and Queens, Pharaohs and Roman Emperors, the old and the new. That is Egypt. Mythical, mystic and one that you either love or hate in a heart beat.

Khan el-Khalili Bazaar

Yes, the pyramids, sphinx, perfume shops, and bazaars as well as the “Citadel of Salah Al-Din” were our calling card on the first day of travels. Not only that but we also managed to fit in Jumuah [Muslim Friday Prayer] into that day as well. This was a tour filled with Muslims, so lots of salaah [prayer] stopovers were required.

The citadel is one of the most beautiful places. Its called Salahudin’s citadel as he prepared his armies from this and various other locations to take back the land of Palestine from the Crusaders. He is also honoured for being a leader who did so without shedding unnecessary blood and for not killing innocent women and children. It also is a mosque whose architect was a Jew. Just goes to show that Muslims and Jews can live in peace and harmony. [We just don't like Zionists much]

That night for those who wanted to, there was the Nile cruise, which included food, belly dancers, and whirling dervish amongst other things. Our family decided to pass up on that as we had visited Cairo before and have been on the Nile cruise. From other who went, they immediately proclaimed that it was indeed awesome and definitely not to be missed.

The Great Pyramids of Giza

The following morning started out true adventure around the Middle East. Climbing onto the bus, we started out journey along the route the Prophet Musa (A.S.) [Prophet Moses] took on his flight out of Egypt and then on his escape from Firaun [Pharaoh]. Through the dusty, dessert of Egypt we went, till we reached the most important canal in the world today – the Suez Canal.

The Suez was actually built by French investors to shorten the trade routes. So instead of a trade route that went around the tip of Africa from India to Europe, it went through the Red Sea, Egypt and into the Mediterranean.

You can imagine how surreal it is to see a ship moving across the desert sands of Egypt. Almost floating on a magic carpet. My imagination was running a little wild when we happened to see what looked like a container ship floating over the sands. Blinding to the senses.

Container Ship on the Suez Canal

We crossed the Suez by actually going under the canal. The Suez is one of the most important canals and the importance can be seen in the various phases of its history. Firstly when Egypt decided that it belonged to them and it should be nationalized, the ‘Suez Crisis’ ensued. Thereafter during the 1967 war between the Arab nations and Israel, due to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, which to this day still continues.

Fact: The taxes on the Suez can finance one person in Egypt $300 per day according to a population of 60 million people as worked out a few years ago. Sadly this cannot be seen amongst the population today.

Under the Suez and continuing on Musa (A.S.)’s journey we came to the ‘Wells of Musa’. These were a number of wells of which we only say about three but which originally numbered close on 20. It was in this area that Allah [God] provided the Israelites water when they fled Firaun.

The sea from these wells is approximately 1km away and, according to the Qur’an, is where Musa (A.S.) fled from Firaun. Across the sea on a clear say you can see a mountain that looks like Firaun lying dead with his hands crossed against his chest and his head lying back.

Bedouins still inhabit this area and we were able to buy a few trinkets from them.

Bedouin Women Trading

Back on the buses and we headed to Sharm el-Sheik , passing by Mount Musa, where Musa (A.S.) was given the 10 commandments, which forms one of the holiest books in history, the Torah. A book all Muslims believe in as well.

Sharm el-Sheik: Best diving spot in the world, Red Sea

Sharm was completely full of beauty and I would have loved to dive there but sadly the shark attack a week or so before we arrived changed my original plans. Still swam in the Red Sea and saw the most beautiful fish swim around my feet. Also Sharm brought with it the entire beach resort experience with night life and so on. Joined the girls and headed to a shisha/hooka/hubbly setting. Brilliant watching the so dubbed ‘Boy Bands’ do boy band moves to entice people into their shisha houses. Yah group of guys doing the exact same dance steps to the loudest music. Hilarious but also an amazing site to see. Got to also do a little desert quad biking at sunset and boy was that an experience.

Sharm Boy Bands

Desert Quad Biking

Travels 2 to follow… Crossing the Red Sea and experiencing a little of Jordan.

*Pics of first leg here

People usually tell me my life is exciting but these last two days steal the cake for this month. Yesterday, 17 November 2010, was Eid ul Adha. One of the times I love most and I love going home, Durban and spending it with the family. This year was no different except that I had all of one day at home to celebrate it. Flew down early in the morning and flew back the next morning. Exciting times!

Eid was a little different this year. Headed out to Inchanga Islamic Centre as usual to cut my Qurbani [sheep] and ended up staying to help my uncle who was short staffed. He runs proceedings at the centre and helps facilitate the entire Qurbani process. Having stayed longer it was interesting to see my cousin who normally would never get involved stay and help as well. She is really a girly girl and even though six months my junior we are like toasted chalk and cheese. So different but so together, if you catch my drift.

Then it was loads of family time and that I love most in the world. I have this motto: “Family First” and so far I’ve always managed to stick with it. So much so that at times I miss out on some pretty exciting opportunities, but family is my life and that’s the way it should be. So happens that my extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins – are so close to me that not spending enough time with them, is sometimes actually bad for me and makes me moody. Go figure!

More excitement arrived today, 18 November 2010. I managed to get pick pocketed at OR Tambo International Airport on returning to miserable, coldish Johannesburg. Sigh. Running around like a frantic chicken with out a head is definitely a sight to see. I’ve been fortunate in the past that this has never happened to me and I am grateful that the incident this morning did not have anything to do with being held up or threatened or confronted in any way. Also I am grateful that the only thing they managed to take was my cellphone and not my wallet also lying in the same bag.

Today is Thankful Thursday and I am thankful, for family, friends and moments that even though bad have a silver lining in them.

My sisters amazing Eclairs - she caters for Durban

The Samsung Galaxy S Rocks!

It seems I’ve been loaded with reviews lately but seriously its not my fault that all the good things come at the end of the year in time for Christmas presents.

Hope you caught the hint!

I want this phone!

Yes I have a birthday coming up before Christmas so I have a few suggestions on my present list and this is one of them.

Why the Samsung Galaxy S? Well here are the reasons…let me count the ways…

The Galaxy is a a little bigger then other phone but it is slimmer and lighter. It easy to hold and has a slight bump at the base which fits nicely in my tiny hands and makes it easier to hold on to.

I love the screen which is bigger then any other phone out there but also clearer and not pixelated. With a 480 x 800 pixel screen images are awesome, brighter and better.

The 5-megapixel camera will suit anyone just fine – though I wish it was slightly higher. Even with that in mind, I have no issues snapping away with this camera.

Google is central to this phone and once signed in on your Gmail account, everything else is connected including your calendar and contact list with phone numbers. No need to sync with your computer if you have already synced to your Gmail account.

The best part about all of this is that the Galaxy is Android, which means countless ‘Free’ apps for download. I originally went a little crazy when I received the phone and managed to download tons of applications I may never use. The best applications though for download are Angry Birds – highly addictive, Tweetdeck, Mashable and Google Goggles.

Hours of entertainment in your hand!

Swype your fingers across to type a word

Another excellent feature on the Galaxy is Swype. Touch screens are generally difficult to use, but Swype makes having a touch screen worthwhile. Sliding over the keyboard, the Galaxy is able to pick up the word you want without you ever lifting your fingers. If it can’t find your word it will list the closest possible words to the letters you moved over.

Lastly, did I mention that with me going crazy over this phone, I only charged it after about 36 hours! Yes almost two full days with no charge.

This phone has an excellent battery that keeps going. Though for better performance, I suggest you download “Advanced Task Killer” to end all background applications that drain the battery.

Total Score: 9/10 [yes love the phone, if you have not caught on already!]

I have to be really honest here, Samsung was never my choice of phone, but things are changing. So will someone gift it to me please! [Yes I have to return the review phone - sigh]

Nokia N8

Happy clappy me got sent a Nokia N8 to review. Awesome!

I really got excited when it was delivered to my office and the first thing I did was as usual pull it out of the box and get my sim card in it. The phone on first looks is awesome, smooth, slick but a little heavy. Turn it around and your head does a tailspin and begs the question: “Now why would you have the camera jutting out?”. That little mistake for me kills the streamline beauty of the phone. But it’s a small thing and I can work with that.

Clever Nokia RSA guys sent me a cover with the phone. For future reference – I am not a pink girl and really not a lover of the colour, I’m more a red, blue, black, purple kind of person. But definitely a clever move by them as I do managed to scratch my phones faster then regular people.

So lets get going… Sim inserted on the side of phone, so no back cover and no battery to remove. Nifty if I didn’t bite my nails [should I have even said that urrr] and could open the flap, but that is no problem at all. It means sim is secure on the side. Good but weird move [I think].

I have to admit that this is the first proper Nokia I have played with since I owned the Nokia 7210 [fond memories I have of that phone]. So this for me is an all-new experience.

The phone is not as responsive to my touch as I would have liked and that makes a touch screen a bit tricky for me. The interface is a step away from Nokia’s easy to use. When you think Nokia you think: “Hey anyone can use this, that’s why people buy it”. I understand that with the way technology is moving forward phones are expected to change and develop but somehow I miss the easy functionality that can normally be found on a Nokia.

What I do love about the phone though is the amazing camera. I am such a camera happy clicker that this 12 megapixel phone is one awesome beauty! Also its HDMI ready, but not sure how much I would really use that. Happiness for intense geekers but not so much for me.

The regular apps like mail works awesome. Bit tricky with the Facebook and Twitter one. Battery life is reasonable but that’s mainly if I kill all open applications – which is true for any smart phone. It runs Symbian^3, which again not so sure on as I am no techy geek [well completely!]. Is not Android the way to go?

Plug and play with the N8 is not that easy. I’m also a Mac user so it becomes a whole lot more trickier. I still have not been able to download my pics but I will keep snapping away till Nokia takes the phone back.

[Just figured out how to get my images -- see below - image quality rocks even in bad ass lighting!!!]

I added a few apps from the Nokia OVI store and they run smooth, though the phone somehow manage to freeze on me twice and then crash thrice. A few times I pulled it out of my pocket it was off. Not sure maybe it was the battery or maybe it was unlocked and something was pressed in my pocket. Eitherway – freaky!

Overall this phone scored a 6.5 for me. Only because I love the camera.

*Disclaimer: Chances are that Nokia may not be happy with my review, but this is me being honest, and I am ok with them being unhappy and never sending me anything else to review. They are running a little review and keep competition. See Casey’s tweet: @NokiaRSA (client) has 60 N8s for folks like me and you to review.Top 8 reviews keep the unit. Just wanted to say unit http://bit.ly/d6DSDT

12 Megapixels Rock!

]]> http://zahira.co.za/blog/2010/10/28/review-nokia-n8/feed/ 1 http://zahira.co.za/blog/2010/10/24/interview-with-above-and-beyond/ http://zahira.co.za/blog/2010/10/24/interview-with-above-and-beyond/#comments Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:59:00 +0000 zk http://zahira.co.za/blog/?p=633

Above and Beyond

It’s not always that I get to interview some of the musicians or dj’s that I admire. But lately I’ve been a little lucky. Scored an interview with DJ Tiesto and now with Above an Beyond [A&B].

A&B are hitting South African shores in November. A&B are the British trio of Jono Grant, Paavo Siljamäki, & Tony McGuinness. More popularly known for their albums Ajunabeats the trio can be found weekly on the airwaves on their live radio broadcast of Trance Around The World.

Smirnoff decided to change the way we usually do interviews and got us to ask questions directly to A&B on Twitter. They were given our Twitter handles [names] and asked specically to reply to only us and only if we were using the hashtag #ABTOURSA. Pretty cool spin by Smirnoff and would have worked even better if we had A&B answering the questions on time.

Either way… here is my awesome interview with A&B [replies by Jono Grant]:

ZK: Hi @AboveandBeyond, Thanks for this chance, first q: Define the sound of Anjuna in a tweet… #ABtourSA

A&B: J: @zk #ABtourSA I would say emotional electronic dance music is the core sound of the Anjuna labels

ZK: With regards to your radio show, where is most of the mixing done? On the plane, in the studio, the hotel room? #ABTOURSA@Aboveandbeyond

A&B: J: @zk we have 2 studios now because there are 3 of us, and one of those is used for radio once a week #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Could they ever see a 4th member being added ? #ABTourSA

A&B: J: @zk 4th member? No way. 3 egos is enough and creates enough fighting as it is! =) #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Would you ever have a live TATW from SA?#ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk would love to have a live SA TATW. Your place?!#ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Who were your influencers? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk influences when growing up were PSBs, depeche mode, new order, Jarre, Electronic, 80s synth pop, pink floyd, genesis etc… #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond Only 2 of you are designated per event, how do you decide who gets to go where? Rock Paper Scissors?#ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk nowadays I try to be a bit of a sponge with music and soak up as much as possible from a wide mix of genres….#ABtourSA

ZK: @Aboveandbeyond A remix was done on the J-pop artist Ayumi Hamasaki tune,a very “out of the box” scenario,wat led to this project? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk Nobby Uno from Avex records got in touch having liked our Madonna remix. Ayumi was the Madonna of Japan at the time#ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond Considering the plethora of acts/aliases associated to you,what is your “own favourite”, an alias you hold dearly? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk I can’t pick an alias as it’s all us under different names! I am probably most proud of Air For Life as a track. #ABtourSA

ZK: @AboveandBeyond – Perhaps a teaser into your studio, the software and hardware tools used ? #ABTOURSA

A&B: J: @zk Lots of hardware synths-we just bought a prophet 08 which is lovely.Sequential Circuits ProOne is also a beast.We use logic #ABtourSA

Above and Beyond will be performing at Godskitchen Boombox South Africa. You can catch them in Cape Town on 19 November 2010 and in Johannesburg on the 20 November 2010.

Godskitchen Boombox

PS: Thanks to Birdman for these awesome questions!