Fitness in third world countries.

I live in South Africa. In that part of Johannesburg where the rich black & white population enjoys supermarkets with an abundance of food, restaurants on a Friday night (and Saturday and Sunday since it's that inexpensive, for that matter), a braai now and then and an occasional robbery if you're popular as I am. (Or just bad luck, who knows...)
A place, where that richer population almost without exception has a a subscription to a golf course and a Virgin Active fitness chain.

And I know, since I'm member too. (Not the golf, that I still - wrongfully, I know - consider a sport I will take up in 30 years or so.) Who could have thought that I would once go 'work out' in a fitness center. The moral and ethical boundaries of running on a specially designed treadmill were to high, but my life (and my body) needed some sort of structural work, so I figured a fitness and workout membership could do the thing.

Running , on the streets, seemed not an option. That is considered dangerous. In many ways. yet after a while now, I'm running on the streets anyway. From my house to the gym. That way I skip the boring treadmill with built in TV screen and ipod connector, but keep the workout sessions.

Watch the guy that I caught on photo, in full exercise. Dragging a tire behind him up a hill towards township Diepsloot.
Respect.

trend research : The Penguin in all of us.

So here you go. The internet is doing what we all think it should have been doing 10 years ago. Until the bubble burst - and that was not my fault. I didn't find an investor back then. (Interested parties can always apply, though after the Kuwait Prince and the Malaga scam I am a bit, well, suspicious.)

But I wanted to point out a web 2.0 concept : I find myself throwing a party for my son Lucas, turning 8 years on Friday. Not a real one. A virtual one.

Both he and Emma, my daughter of 6, have understood what internet is about. If you look for something - for a project at school - you type orca, killer whale, My Little Pony or clown frogs in the little Google window on dad's computer. You select, you print, and hop, work is done.

It gets better. If your parents drag you from your friends in Belgium all the way to South Africa, than that's cool. You make new friends, discover new stuff, can swim while everyone in Belgium is freezing and hoping some sort of government actually would start to do something. But - you can stay in contact. Not with boring Skype and fractional images of grant mother, but ... by becoming a penguin.
So on Friday, Lucas' friends in Belgium will be joining him in ... his igloo, for which he 'bought' a dance floor, a DJ set, a palm tree and much more.
After the virtual cake, they will go and play in Penguin Land. Eat a virtual pizza, do some sledging, or stroll around the Penguin island to discover other friends.






Become a penguin here