Hello everyone,
As 2018 draws to a close, I find myself in the customary reflective frame of mind. As each year passes, I feel we generally seem to focus on the bad stuff instead of the good that took place in the year, always hoping for better the following year.
However, as I look back on the year, I feel that 2018 has actually been one of the better ones. What follows are my highlights of 2018.
Holland
I had the most incredible privilege of visiting The Netherlands in April of this year. I spent a week there in total – three days in Rotterdam, and three days in Zaamdam.
Rotterdam is the birthplace of my late grandfather, Teunis van Rossum (my mom’s father). My grandfather was born in Rotterdam on the 12th of January, 1926, but moved to Bloemfontein, South Africa on the 7th of August, 1952 after the devastating effects of the second world war on Holland. Growing up, I can remember how fondly he spoke of his hometown, and I always hoped that one day I would get to see the side of the world that he loved so much. I would never have thought that dream would come true, but in April it did, and it was just simply amazing. I had such an incredible time there, and hope to return in the not too distant future.
I even managed to learn a fair bit of Dutch before my visit, which served me well on my visit, and continues to do so, as I have since switched to watching mostly Dutch television, thanks to BVN (Het beste van Vlaanderen en Nederland, “The best of Flanders and the Netherlands”), which is a satellite and cable television channel providing Dutch and Flemish public-service television to viewers around the world.
Books
Reading is one of my favourite pastimes. I love to read books on Physics and Astronomy, which are subjects that fascinate me tremendously. Over the last few years I have managed to accumulate around 100 books, again, mostly on Physics and Astronomy, including Albert Einstein’s work on Relativity Theory, Isaac Newton’s Pinrcipia, and Euclid’s Elements.
I am often under the impression that I don’t get much time to read. Some way or another however – be it on the train to work, on holiday, or any other excuse I could come up with, I found enough time to get through the following list of books during the year.
- Now: The Physics of Time, by Richard A. Muller
- Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, by Carlo Rovelli
- Calculating the Cosmos: How Mathematics Unveils the Universe, by Ian Stewart
- Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist’s Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature, by Steven Weinberg
- The First Three Minutes: A Modern View Of The Origin Of The Universe, by Steven Weinberg
- “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character, by Richard P. Feynman
- The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, by Anne Frank
- Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time–and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything, by George Musser
- The Road to Relativity: The History and Meaning of Einstein’s “The Foundation of General Relativity”, Featuring the Original Manuscript of Einstein’s Masterpiece, by Hanoch Gutfreund, Jürgen Renn, and John Stachel
- Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law, by Peter Woit (current book)
Bicycles
Another passion of mine is cycling. If you know anything about me, you’ll know that cycling ranks amongst one of my favourite activities.
Back in 2003 I weighed just over 100kg. Then I discovered cycling. I ultimately lost nearly 30kg by the time 2004 rolled in, and by 2005 I was chosen to race for one of the top South African Vets licensed racing teams, Gims Powerade.
I was a roadie (slang for someone who rides on the tar roads) through and through, but always felt tempted to get a mountain bike. At the time I was racing (around 2004/5/6), a lot of my peers had acquired mountain bikes, and they would go on and on about how much fun it was. I always felt tempted to get one, but I could never justify it. In 2017 my daughter decided she wanted to do the 94.7 mountain bike race, and needed a mountain bike. I got her a Giant 29er, and rode it myself once or twice. That was all it took, and by March of this year (on my birthday in fact) I purchased a Silverback Sola 4 29er. I have since racked up 2,688km on it, and it’s been quite a ride.
But, as I said, I’m a roadie at heart, and for many years I have been threatening to get a new road bike. My trusted steed for many years, an Orbea with an aluminium frame, I have had since around 2007. But the miles have started to show, and sadly spares are in short supply for this bike. The headset rattles like crazy, but the bike shops can’t do anything about it, as I am told they are no longer able to obtain the spares to repair the headset. So in June of this year I started to seriously shop around for a replacement, and after much help and advice from friends, finally settled on a Specialized Tarmac SL4 Sport. It has a full carbon frame with a Shimano 105 groupset, and is simply the most amazing bicycle I have ever ridden. As of this writing, I have enjoyed 2,803km onboard it.
With all that said, earlier this year I set a target for myself to ride a total of 10,000km in 2018. I am very proud to announce I reached that milestone this week. It’s has truly been an amazing year on the bike.
Guns n’ Roses
Another dream came true this year when one of my favourite bands of all time decided to tour South Africa.
My daughter and I had the pleasure to see Guns n’ Roses in Johannesburg on Thursday, the 29th of November 2018.
Guns n’ Roses are truly one of my favourite bands ever! I even still have a scrapbook that I started putting together in high school (around 1988) with photos and articles on the band. And if Guns n’ Roses are one of my favourites bands, well, lead singer Axl Rose is one of my favourite singers of all time – across any genre.
I never thought I would ever see the day I would see them live. In fact, I was very tempted to pay a visit to my sister in Melbourne, Australia to see them last year, but it turns out I just needed “a little patience”. It was an amazing, surreal three-and-a-half hour experience, and it was everything I had ever hoped and imagined it would be.
Blog
I came up with the 46Apples monicker around 2009. Since then I have posted various blogs and code projects on various online forums under the 46Apples banner.
The original 46Apples blog was hosted on blogspot since 2009 (and can still be reached at http://46apples.blogspot.com), but I found that the site was very isolated from the rest of my online content. What I wanted was to have a central hub for all things related to me and 46Apples, be it social media, source code, training activities, and blogging. And so this month, December 2018, I made that a reality by registering the 46Apples.com domain, and created a web site that serves mainly as the new home for my blog, and also as a springboard to the rest of my online content.
The lows
Of course there were challenging times in 2018 as well. My dad had a cycling accident in April, which landed him in ICU for a few weeks with multiple fractures and bleeding on the brain, injuries I am happy to announce he has since fully recovered from.
There were other moments in 2018 that were not too rosey, but as the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I think compared to the rest of the year, most of the lows were rather negligible.
Conclusion
And there you have it. All in all I feel it’s ultimately been a good year. We (as a family) have been through a few very hard years prior to this one, so perhaps that’s why it seems better in comparison. All the same, when I look back on 2018, I am happy to sign the year off with a smile 
Happy holidays folks. See you soon in 2019.