Microsoft has really come to the party with a higher performance and truly worthwhile business productivity suite.

For quite some time now, I have not been using MS office at all and have been an advocate for Open Office and all things open source, but I have recently grown closer to my proprietary roots and have developed much appreciation for the work and effort that goes into bringing out products like Office 2010.

The new version of the well know business productivity suite, is simply impressive. Office 2010, loads faster, can handle more diverse file types and offers a host of functions and embedded applications, for tasks that one would previously need to perform in external programs.

I have still not managed to pull myself away from using Gmail as my mail management system and I can’t see myself moving back to Outlook anytime soon, unless Gmail and Exchange can communicate with each other directly. Gmail simply offers me the flexibility and scalability I need to manage multiple profiles and access my info instantly from multiple locations on the go.

For business use and from a corporate perspective, I think the new MS Outlook is definitely becoming a player and integrated with MS Exchange 2010, it makes for efficient management of internal work flow and cost effective email.

I am looking forward to playing around with the latest versions of Project and Visio as planning and monitoring seems to take up most of my time these days.

All in all, the new Office 2010, is most definitely worth the spend.

Considering our meeting ended early and we were catching a lift to the airport, we decided to go to the airport early, that way ensuring we won’t get stuck in traffic.

We had some fish and chips and the Keg and Aviator which was pretty good. Herman also spotted Sekoati Tsubane (Kabelo Padi) from 7de Laan. We then headed down to the security check point which was busy as hell. The staff were also hasty as could be and practically threw us through the checkpoint.

After gathering my things together and getting comfortable again, I noticed I had dropped my ticket, fortunately for me it was on the floor underneath the check point.

The wait had only just begun and we heard our plane was going to be about 40min late. I looked for a decent coffee shop but only found the wimpy. Herman, who sits through hours of 7de Laan also spotted Hennie Jacobs(Diederik Greyling) and Christo Davids(Errol Pieterse) who ended up sitting right behind us on our flight to George. He also spotted Nico Panagio (George Kyriakis) who is now presenting on Top Billing. It seems that OR Tambo is the place to be if you want to spot SA Celebs. Now craving a good cuppa, little did I know that I would find I Vida E Cafe on the way to the plane, now why weren’t they placed closer to each other… Well at least I know for next time.

The trip into George felt faster than the trip to Johannesburg, but got really noisy on descent, with a few children screaming, probably due to the change in cabin pressure on their ears.

We landed just around 20:00 after getting to the airport well before 15:00, we truly spent most of our trip at the airport.

Buzz is new and will probably take a while to stabilise but already it feels as if it will be adopted very quickly and I presume that it will draw more people to the Gmail platform.

I am glad to see the integration with Google Profiles, this is going to make Profiles more relevant and content rich.

If you’re not on Gmail yet the now is the time to open an account. I recommend Gmail to all of my clients as a system to keep track of all of your various mail identities and manage your digital life. Once you’ve got a Gmail account check out all of the other services offered by Google, most of them are also available directly on your mobile phone which is great.

The past twenty five years have been full of learning and a lot of work, not always doing stuff I wanted to but nonetheless earning some money and learning about business and dealing with issues and people. This year looks promising and I’m excited about all of the opportunities that lie ahead both personally and for MyEcommerce.

Amelia and I started off the day in a mad rush to get ready for Daniel and Marile’s wedding. For some bizarre reason, weddings always seem to invoke a form of natural chaos, even if it’s not your own wedding. The day was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, they had their service at the Moederkerk and their reception at one of the halls at Saasveld. The food was cool and they had the most awesome pumpkin dumplings in a caramel sauce and some really great desert too. Amelia and I left the wedding stuffed and jealous.

I hope that by next birthday I’ll be driving something with four wheels and hopefully be closer towards achieving my endless list of goals.

This morning, I got a call from Jovan and was asked to play in the Fancourt, Members Bar to welcome 2010, and I was more than stoked to do so.

I kicked off with a mellow mix from 19:30 till about 21:30 then picked it up a bit as some of the guests were looking for a slightly more upbeat vibe.

While we were waiting for more guests to arrive, Amelia and I had an awesome seafood pizza, prepared by the La Cantina Chefs, along with some really good coffee. If you get the opportunity to visit Fancourt and enjoy seafood, I’d highly recommend you have one of their seafood pizzas, if you don’t like seafood, you can’t go wrong with the coffee.

The crowd streamed in from about 22:40 and it was pumping through till 23:50 when I called last rounds for 2009. At ten seconds to midnight, we started the countdown and welcomed in the new year. One of the guests lead us, in singing Auld Lang Syne after which, I brought the pace down a bit, with some chilled dance tracks and good old classics. I gradually slowed things down from then and finished off my set at 02:00.

Placing and Sound provided by Jovan & Thelma.

There were supporters dancing and drinking in the most elaborate outfits. We even had a guy who fell in love with a chair for the evening.

I kept things drifting between chilled and uplifting, with a spread of local, and international house and underground. I was on the decks till last rounds were called and began striking at about 03:00.

Outdoor sound was provided by AudioWorx.

After getting all the gear together, I decided to take advantage of McDonald’s 24 hour drive through and went there to grab myself a McFeast Deluxe… I ended up in the cue for about forty minutes, before getting my food, it was well worth the wait though.

With a number of Flat screens spread throughout the premises, some people were watching the rugby, while others were eating, and the rest were partying it up.

By 22:00 the night was alive and the party was happening outside under the Bedouin Tent in the Castle Chill Zone. I held the tempo through till just after 02:00 when I started slowing things down, as people started leaving.

All in all a good night was had by all.

Ziyaad and Parveen went all out with the catering and their was still some great tasting pudding left, that we gladly indulged in.

I made OB and myself some coffee, using his awesome Siemens Espresso Machine, i could so do with one of these at home and the office.

The youngsters decided to go out clubbing, so Amelia, Parveen and I, after finishing our coffee with OB hit the road back to George.

Leigh and Velizar had a really cool wedding, that they organised on their own.

The reception, held at By Grace Alone, was awesome. The venue has a medieval theme, with suites of armour, a moat and the whole castle effect. The power even went out for part of the evening, so we sat in candle light, experiencing the true personality of the venue.

We were seated as if we were at a royal banquet. The food, which was aplenty was really good. My favourite was the pumpkin fritters with caramel sauce, which i had more than enough helpings of.

The meal was rounded up with some interesting berry and chocolate mouse pudding.

The dancing then began, with young and old enjoying the some classics.

The Girls all went to Far Hills Hotel, for a night of nails and dressing up, while the guys had a get together at the Prezens’ house with lots of beer.

I dropped Amelia off at Far Hills Hotel at about 16:00. I had work to do so, I stayed at the office till about 19:00 then carried on with some work at home.

The two parties met up at Cactus and I joined up soon after.

Amelia and I decided to have the legendary Cactus Pizza we always have there with; chicken, avo, garlic and feta.

Leigh-Ann was so funny, she was dressed up with a shirt saying bride, a white fluffy boa and a tiara. She must have had a lot to drink cause she had this glazed look in her eyes and was being so funny. She stole a few pieces of avo off our pizza, it was totally hilarious.

I am sure that they are all going to have funny stories to tell us at the wedding, not to mention some serious hangovers tomorrow.