1 Earth. 6.5 Billion Adventures

South Africa Nationals Ultimate Tournament 2013

Jaco Swanepoel — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:52:10 +0000

Although my international tournament participantion has dropped to 0 since leaving Malaysia earlier this year, I have played against more teams and new people than I could have imagined. This weekend passed all that playing culminated in the biggest tournament on the SA Ultimate Calendar: the SA Nationals. East London Suspends Wind for Ultimate 15 [...]

Happy 10th Birthday Jarrod Lee Swanepoel

Jaco Swanepoel — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:30:22 +0000

Dear Jarrod – Happy 10th Birthday! On your 10th birthday I find myself in Cape Town, the city of your birth, in the shadow of the mountain that saw you enter, and take your first breath, in this world. Today, I look back on both the last day and the first day I saw, the [...]

MCI Tournament Pics on Skyd Magazine

Jaco Swanepoel — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:20:47 +0000

At the start of the month I attended my first South African tournament, the Mother City Invitational. Unbeknownst to me at the time of entry, it was, in fact, a bare-bones tournament on purpose, so I’ll reserve a post comparing SEA Ultimate tournaments to South Africa’s until after nationals next month. I took a few pics at the [...]

Cape Town Ultimate Summer League 2013

Jaco Swanepoel — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:56:38 +0000

What’s one of the first things an Ultimate player does when they get to a new destination? Hook up with the local Ultimate scene, of course. I had my eye on Ultimate in South Africa for a while already, secretly cursing the fact that it has been played here for so long, but that I [...]

27 For Freedom Fun Run

Jaco Swanepoel — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:26:11 +0000

“I’m not a runner”, I keep telling myself, often just before I end up running something and, in today’s case, it was the 10km in the Nelson Mandela 27 For Freedom Run. “It’ll be fun,” said a new Ultimate friend of mine when she made the pitch for why I should go run 10km instead [...]

Hiking Table Mountain: Walking in the clouds

Jaco Swanepoel — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 01:00:36 +0000

Table Mountain is not a high mountain. At around 1,085m above sea-level it pales in comparison to the mighty Mt. Kinabalu, which stands tall at 4,095m. I’ve climbed Mt. Kinabalu 6 times, twice of which were in one day. That doesn’t mean Table Mountain can’t hurt you. Because she can. And, if you disrespect her, [...]

Sunday’s Franschhoek Fire Comes Knocking at Wemmershoek

Jaco Swanepoel — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 06:40:55 +0000

On Sunday, on the way back from Ultimate practice in Stellenbosch, I saw a fire raging on the mountain slopes above Franschhoek. I thought nothing of it and was sure the authorities would have it under control soon enough. Little did I know. Yesterday morning I noticed a few wispy, low flying clouds pass over [...]

Home Is Not Where It Used To Be

Jaco Swanepoel — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:45:40 +0000

After an ever-increasing intense last few days in Kota Kinabalu, 13 January rolled around all too quickly and, following sad goodbyes, I boarded the flight back to Cape Town. 31 hours later, having flown Kota Kinabalu – Kuala Lumpur – Doha – Johannesburg – Cape Town, my grey-haired mother stood waiting with a warm embrace. [...]

Who Will Call to Buy, or Not, the Car You’re Selling?

Jaco Swanepoel — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 01:00:00 +0000

With my car tagged and bagged, I have a few experiences to share about selling your car. Not sure if this is specific to Sabah or whether it happens everywhere in Malaysia, but here are the people who will call to buy, or not, the car you’re selling. I got an interesting collection of people [...]

How to Sell Your Car in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Jaco Swanepoel — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 09:09:39 +0000

I recently sold my Perodua Myvi here in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. To, perhaps, make somebody else’s life easier, here’s how I did it… First, my scenario: I had a 5-year loan on my car, which was paid off last year. My car was just about 6 years old, with 80,000km on the clock, had been [...]

AirAsia Might Care – It Remains to Be Seen

Jaco Swanepoel — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 08:04:16 +0000

So @AskAirAsia eventually replied to virtually all my tweets from yesterday with what might as well be bad AI robot replies (or a really bored person copy-&-pasting). Except for one, which appeared slightly less robotic. It asks to write them via their online feedback form. You mean somebody actually wants to hear? Well, maybe. Let’s [...]

The Missed Flight

Jaco Swanepoel — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:13:41 +0000

If you’re going to miss your AirAsia flight, you better make damn sure it’s not during a busy holiday period. Otherwise you might just end up having to pay an extra RM520 for a flight, but only 24 hrs later. Kind of like me… I was already feeling that this trip to KL was the [...]

Social Media Event B2.0 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Jaco Swanepoel — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 06:13:50 +0000

Last weekend I was invited, as SabahBah.com, to attend the B2.0 Borneo Bloggers + New Media Dialogue. A lot of very favourable reports have been written about the event. This is not another one of those. Organised by online portal Borneo Colours in conjunction with M.E Malaysia, the big draw was speakers who stand out [...]

You So Funny Stand-up Open Mic Press Conference

Jaco Swanepoel — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:24:06 +0000

Much too long after the event a press conference was finally held to announce the winners of the You So Funny open mic night held at Gaya street, with the showdown that followed at the Comedy Club Borneo Tour Vol 2. And the winner is… Last year, in November, I entered a drinking challenge that [...]

Comedy Club Borneo Tour – Playing with the Big Boys

Jaco Swanepoel — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:13:46 +0000

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series You So Funny Open Mic CompetitionThe whole of last week I avoided thinking about this weekend’s gig. We, the ‘Top 3′, were to do our bits on both Friday and Saturday night as part of our separate competition. Then the heavy weights would come in [...]

Laughing in Borneo Cause You So Funny

Jaco Swanepoel — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 13:52:51 +0000

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series You So Funny Open Mic CompetitionI don’t consider myself a funny person. On the contrary, I’m so regularly told that I’m grumpy, that I often believe it. That didn’t stop me from being rubber-armed into doing standup comedy though. Friend and serial entrepreneur Joel Low was organising an [...]

Japan – Day 9: Bye Bye Osaka and Japan

Jaco Swanepoel — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:59:08 +0000

This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series Japan Travel AdventureSo last night we asked the front desk about options to get to the airport at around 8am for a flight leaving at 9:40am. Our options were either cheap or really, really early. Journey to Kansai Airport: Break that Piggy Bank First the [...]

Japan – Day 8: Onsen, Nomihodai & Tabehodai

Jaco Swanepoel — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:59:37 +0000

This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series Japan Travel AdventureLast full day in Japan. The Journo still had shopping to do with no interest in an onsen experience. I on the other hand still had onsen’ing to do with no interest in shopping. The logical conclusion was to split up and have [...]

Japan – Day 7: Universal Studios Osaka and Nomihodai

Jaco Swanepoel — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:58:06 +0000

This entry is part 7 of 9 in the series Japan Travel AdventureWe perhaps didn’t get the early started that we wanted today, but slept in a bit instead. When we did get a start though, we headed to where we planned on spending the entire day: Universal Studios Osaka. Prepare for Fun. And Movies [...]

Japan – Day 6: Kyoto to Osaka and Forgotten Passports

Jaco Swanepoel — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:54:23 +0000

This entry is part 6 of 9 in the series Japan Travel AdventureAh, Day 6 – another travel day as this time we headed to Osaka. We got up early, had breakfast and checked out. Having luggage and knowing the train station wasn’t so far away, we took the taxi to the train station. The [...]