Of Relevance

Pheww….this blog post has been a long time in the making.

You might not have noticed, but I have been very quiet lately. That is about to change.

There is nothing quite like taking (being forced to take?) eight months of “take it easy” due to health issues (and a new baby!), to reassess ones life and career. And trust me, I have been doing a lot of thinking, scheming, planning and …reassessing. So, there are a lot of changes afoot, and I thought I would jot some of them down here quickly.

1. I am moving to Joburg
This is mostly motivated by the fact that I had become really unhappy with my daughter’s school (I think I will do a blog post on this later), and I was looking for alternatives. I realised that I was also displeased with the whole education standard/process and that I need to move out of the system. So the kid is starting the American International School in August, which I am very excited about. The school is 7.5 km from Dainfern and the surrounds, so I will probably be moving there.

2. I am rather fed up with social media
I am still very, very much interested in the technology/start up scene, and am putting most of my focus there. I will still be available as a consultant or strategist to third parties, but I will be taking more of an assessment and advisory role (I really like Toby Shapshak’s title of “bullshit detector”!)

3. I am going to write. And then I am going to write some more.
I’ve always wanted to, but have never really followed through. So expect many many more posts on this blog, columns with Daily Maverick, Mail & Guardian’s Thought Leader and anyone else who will have me. Heather Ford and I promised each other we would write a book each, and I think our timeline for an outline was the end of this year, so I am in big trouble there.

4. The CrowdFund is ON.
And Geekspace is soon to follow. I was unable to do the project justice because of my health issues over the last 8 months, but I am ready to tackle both the projects now. So I will be posting updates shortly, and we should have our first startups in action by the end of the year.

5. BEE Bible is ON
My main money making focus for the next 12 months is going to be the BEEbible, which is a directory of BEE verified businesses in SOuth Africa. There really isn’t one out there, and if you know how BEE works, you will know that there really SHOULD be one.
So this is going to be taking up a lot of my time and energy, and I am really looking forward to getting very involved in this project.

6. Kids focused sites are ON
I am also going to be setting up a site to help divorcing parents do best by their kids. My boyfriend (Baby Zac’s father) has been going through the most acrimonious divorce possible since 2007 (you will, of course, know that I had nothing to do with the break up of the marriage) and I am horrified by the effects this has had on their two small kids. I have spoken to many psychologists and other professionals, and we are going to put together a website that will help parents navigate a separation in the most child-friendly manner possible.

I am also launching a little side website for fun ways to spend weekends with your kids. Now that we often have four (!) kids under our roof, entertaining them all is a challenge (although, to be fair, four kids really entertain each other). I am hoping to rope in other parents who blog to help me populate it with ideas and venues for weekend getaways.

7. Todays Deals etc
The Todays Deals (aggregator of most group buying deals in SAfrica) is published daily. Sign up to get via email if you haven’t done so already. I t beats having to wade through 15 individual emails from the group buying sites.

There are plenty of other things going on to, but I will write about them as they become more relevant. I will also be updating the design of this blog to be more “Tumblr” like, so that snippets of information can be posted and shared quickly.

Thanks for listening :-)