It was the first 27 Dinner of the year, and it was held in Melrose Arch this time at JB’s Corner.  What a stunning venue… the food was excellent and the mojitos that we got were sublime

The speaker was Fred Baumhardt (Specialist Sales Director and Chief Technology officer for Microsoft South Africa).  His talk was very interesting… I did in fact listen as I was close to the front I was especially interested to hear his take on subscription software and outsourcing vs insourcing.

The host of the event… Mike Stopforth

The guest speaker… Fred Baumhardt

I can’t not take some photos of the geeky stuff, it was after all a geek event

First, how cool are the stamps?!! “27 Dinner the geek shall inherit the earth”

Then, check out the phones at the table I was sitting at… my poor little pink Blackberry was seriously the odd man out   Just after I took the shot, a guy came up to the table and commented about all the Apple geeks there, and when I said I had a BB, his retort was “I guess you work for a real company then… one that uses like email and that” LOL!!

During the evening, the iPad was announced and the guys were going ballistic on Twitter…

Ooh and check out this rad t-shirt! Jessica and I voted it t-shirt of the night.

And other random photos from the evening…

Hey Craig, you’re supposed to be listening not tweeting!

There are a few more photos in my Flickr set too.  It was a good evening again, pity I didn’t get to talk to more people though, but that tends to happen when I hide behind my lens

A whole bunch of bloggers and tweeters met up this morning for a brunch/lunch at the River Cafe in Sandton this morning.  It was organised by Wenchy and it was great to see great to see everyone again, and to meet a few new faces.
And of course I had my camera, as did most other people so there are umpteen numbers of photos flying around the interwebs with proof of the happenings of the day

Gina’s Aaron was quite comfortable with the camera, and the opposite photo is on her blog

Meea’s Michael was such a chatterbox and kept Bradley company.  It was great to see him make a new friend today.

Sally‘s Rachel and Sharon‘s Josh kept each other company for 5 minutes on the swings

The moms nattering

I really liked Jessica‘s new t-shirt

And then we had to leave, because Connor started getting “attacked” by bees, and he was petrified and yelling the place down. He had a close call when he squished a bee between his arm and his eye, and thankfully didn’t get stung! But that was enough excitement for me for the day, so I called it quits and headed home with 2 tired boys

I finished Stef’s gallery tonight, finally, and while I was finishing off the editing these photos caught my eye.  I love the moment that I captured here, and the images just make me smile!

I attended the 27 Dinner this evening that was held at FTV Village Walk.  It was fabulous seeing all the tweeters again, and meeting new people, and finally putting faces to some of the names that I’ve been chatting to over the last few months on Twitter.

The speakers tonight were Ronnie Apteker (founder of Internet Solutions)

and Benjamin Marais (CIO of eBucks).

I got told 2 things this evening that I thought was very funny.  The one guy I met (cannot remember his name) told me that he didn’t think I looked like someone that worked for a bank! LOL! I like that!

Then, later on, I was rocking on my feet a bit while I was standing chatting, and Sheena said that she can see I’m a mother… and the reason… only mothers sway from side to side   LOL!

Anyhoo, now for some of the photos that I took…

Sally with the guy who doesn’t think I look like I work in a bank…

Angel armed…

Neels trying very hard to hide behind the pillar, with Angel, Cheryl, Shaun, Exmi, and Snowgoose

Not sure what Sheena was saying to Bergen here

Vincent Hofmann with Justin Spratt and Don Packett

Jackie Scala with Justin Spratt and Aki Anastasiou

Phillip posing with Sezleigh

Walter Pike and EveD

It was a fun evening and I’m definitely going to try and make the next one in 2 months time.

There are also a few more photos on Flickr, and I’ll post a few more tomorrow evening.

We had a very busy day yesterday, with Laura’s daughter’s birthday party in the morning, a Babynet meeting in the afternoon and then dinner with friends in the evening; and to add the very slow internet to the equation, has meant that I haven’t been able to get online.
I’ll post the photos of Friday night’s 21st tomorrow morning… if our Telkom connection will let me… but in the meantime, here are my favourite photos from yesterday.

Laura’s masterpiece

Kiara watching the candles

Cheese on a bike

Say cheese

Playing in the grass hut

Jackson

Fun on the tractor

And then we went to the Babynet meeting to welcome Maria to South Africa (she’s just moved here from the UK), and to say goodbye to Marlise (who is emigrating to New Zealand next weekend)

Maria’s daughter Leila (on the right)

… and her son Adam

and Carapax and Magic Crow (aka Bradley and his friend Thomas) on their last day together

And I can’t resist also showing you a couple of the local residents of the farm from the maternity photo shoot I did last Sunday too.