My boys went hiking on Table Mountain this past weekend so Mela and I had all of Saturday and Sunday morning to ourselves. After dropping the boys and some of their scout buddies off at Table Mountain I went down into the city to visit some camera stores. Although it's been almost five years since we moved down here I haven't been into the city centre before so I got a little lost but eventually found my way to a parking garage that was situated between the two stores I planned to visit. On my way to the first store I found a bargain book store and bought a few older British photo mags at really cheap prices. I was actually visiting the camera stores to buy a 58mm to 5mm step-down ring but ended up coming away without one, but with a monopod and a photo backpack.

I took Mela for lunch at The Orchard in Grabouw and we continued on to Hermanus. Looked around the flea market briefly then went down to the cliffs to see if there were any whales about. There weren't but we found the whale crier.

He told us that he had spoken to people at Die Kelders in Gansbaai, across Walker Bay and that there were many whales there. We drove the further 45km there and sure enough there were about 10 whales there quite near to shore. They were jumping quite a bit and I took some photos but even with my telephoto lens they were just a bit too far away for decent photos.

Mela fancied tea and cake so we thought we would stop in Hermanus for some on the way back but when we got there at 6pm we found that the tourists had all gone home and the coffee shops were either closing or already closed. Instead we stopped at the Spar and bought a chocolate cream cake, took it home and made our own tea to have with it.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day but it was a bit much for Mela and she felt pretty lousy on Sunday.

Here are some of the first photos taken yesterday with my new Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D).

My Digital Rebel was delivered this afternoon but unfortunately we had plans to go out for supper and it was almost 9pm before we got home. Then I watched a DVD that my kids rented today. It has to go back in the morning so I had to watch it tonight if I didn't want to pay for twice the rental. It was The Girl Next Door, not bad but not that great either.

With all that I never got a chance to play with the camera but have charged the batteries and tomorrow afternoon (a full morning is planned) I will sit down and read just enough of the manual to get me out, shooting some pics.

I received a reply from FriendsOfLive and it seems I had missed the info on their site mentioning that there would be two versions of Awake, with or without DVD. They have passed my mail on to the marketing guys to try and find out why the CD/DVD combo does not seem to have been released in South Africa.

Live is a great band so I suggest that whether you know their music or not, you go out and buy at least Awake :: The Best Of Live, if not their other albums too.

In my post awake, I mentioned that I had received an e-mail from FriendsOfLive, the website of the band Live, notifying of a new release. Extracting the essence, it said;

> The new CD/DVD combo package, "Awake, The Best of LIVE" hits stores 
> worldwide on November 2nd

Worldwide was apparently not to be taken literally because it was yesterday before I finally found product on a local store's shelves. Naturally I bought a copy, rushed it home, only to find that it was not a CD/DVD combo as promised but merely a CD, with a slightly different track listing to the US release. Needless to say, I am not amused and sent the e-mail below to FriendsOfLive. I suppose there is a slight hope that it ends up with someone that can actually make a difference and help to provide better uniformity for future worldwide releases.

This is the e-mail I sent as a reply to the one I received from them.

After almost daily visits to record stores here in South Africa, I
finally found Awake on the shelves yesterday and bought a copy.  The
packaging didn't say anything about a DVD but I remembered that the
latest Linkin Park CD/DVD was in a standard jewel case so I wasn't too
worried.  Imagine my dissapointment, that soon turned to disgust, when I
found no DVD on opening the case.

Why would the ZA release not have the DVD?  Is this to be taken as a
message that the band sees us as second class fans, not worthy of
receiving what fans elsewhere do.  I seem to remember that there was
some extra with The Distance To Here that was also not available with
the ZA release.  After having bought every one of Live's albums (some
twice after the first copies were stolen) I am beginning to wonder if I
should continue to do so.

I love Live's music, but the marketing/distribution of it really sucks.
To be told that the release will be a CD/DVD combo when in fact it is
only a CD makes me wonder if the album might not more aptly be titled,
"Awake :: The Best Of LIES"