BruceTP

My shipment arrived this morning and I collected it from the post office en route to the "QS #5 - Jhb - Picnic while Harvesting Gold" event. They are stunning coins, simple and ideal to pop in a micro. The down side is that all ten went like hotcakes and I have none left available for sale. They are indeed a worthwhile investment if you enjoy geocoins. Obviously Coins and Pins aka Geoswag did not consider the number of cachers worldwide and in South Africa who would want to own a SA Flag micro coin because they are all sold out. I do hope they make some more. Encore, Encore!

I rely on members of the community to nominate and find photographs which they feel as worthy nominations. May was a quiet month and yet there were still 247 potential photos from which to choose. It makes my job much easier when people come across a photograph which I may well miss but which just capture the essence of the cache of even the TB at the cache. In fact, the February winner I had not picked up on at all and it was only when someone sent it to me to consider that I realised it was there. As it turns out it was a very good photo and was voted the winner by the community thereafter. So please, if you find a stunning photo on a TB listing for a particular month, draw it to my attention and I shall post it in the album.

In the absence of nominations coming from you, I have selected one from each TB for May.

Sorry for the delay. Since the changes to the GC website were made I experienced some difficulty in extracting accurate figures. Thanks to B&C who came to the rescue again I think I have a more accurate reflection of the scores as of today. If any of you are keeping your own personal tallies and there is a discrepancy or if I have missed out on your collection of FTFs, then please drop me a PM so that I can update the score sheet accordingly. We are approaching the half way mark so keep the TBs moving. A lot can still happen in the second half.

Thanks for sponsoring it! I may well be in line for that prize too! The racing motorcycle has been stuck for 140 days now.

The position of reviewer is a totally voluntary one which they try and fit in in between everything else. Rod, you are doing a sterling job, especially with the volume of caches emanating from Gauteng. It was therefore good to see both you and Joan relaxing and enjoying the picnic event on Saturday. Thank for your commitment in supporting so many of the other events here. It is much appreciated.

My shipment arrived this morning and I collected it from the post office en route to the "QS #5 - Jhb - Picnic while Harvesting Gold" event. They are stunning coins, simple and ideal to pop in a micro. The down side is that all ten went like hotcakes and I have none left available for sale. They are indeed a worthwhile investment if you enjoy geocoins.

If you come to the QC XV - May 2011 - Voting Day event on Wednesday, I should have a few spare TB tags left over from the race launch along with some other interesting hardware.

I don't understand. Go to the play tab then hide and seek a cache. The dropdown which follows is the same enquiry as before and you can search on any criteria. Although not one of my favourites, Long drop is there, exactly in the middle where it says and you have to reach over and under to get it without dropping it. Not ideal. But hey, each to his own...

If current trends are anything to go by, there will be a lot more out there! For my first techno event I brought in a shipment of nanos and bison tubes for people to buy at the event. The 25 nanos went like hot cakes not to mention the bisons of which I had had to acquired a further batch of over 100 to meet the demand. This means that I will now have to go and find them in the wild as well!

I would like to reserve 23 July 2011 as the date for the next techno event. It should be a techno event with a difference, so watch this space and all will be revealed. Damhuisclan would like organise a hands on event for solving puzzles. The idea is to get into groups and solve puzzles together from scratch without help or hints. Two heads are always better than one.

I get most of my stuff from Geoswag.com and other hardware like bison tubes and camo tape from Amazon.com. Certain coins are only available through specific suppliers like Socalcoins and Oak Coins etc... I have had no real problems with delays in customs. It is generally three weeks max.

Coming to a cache near you...

How many of each were made? Clearly not enough to satiate the coin starved South African market. What are the chances of an extended run? Alternatively, lets design another local is lekker coin... Thanks to CapeDoc for running with the idea and seeing it through to completion. The coins are indeed beautiful collectors items and I shall treasure mine.

The scores as at 6 April 2011 have been compiled as well as all the photo nominations for March. Please have a look at them all and choose a winner. You can either PM me or nominate on this forum. I look forward to your input.

How's the patience holding out, Bruce? Got your coins yet? Oh no.... Any more news on them? Yes, Yes! They did arrive - all of them and in one piece. It was interesting the order was split in two, supposedly from two different vendors but they both arrived safe and sound.

Did your's arrive, Besem? Everybody else seems to have got theirs but my order seems to be taking a bit longer. Maybe it was too heavy! Patience, patience - let me wait another 10 days

The mid month scores for march have been published. No real surprises or upsets there. Check your TB's score and position Here Congratulations to Skyjuggler who took February's photo of the month of Rhino and Hedgehog's Hard Hat Harry at Snoopy Heights. There were some really good photographs this month and I agree with those who voted for this one as it has that artistic flair to it especially in the sepia tones and composition. So well done to Hard Hat Harry. Keep the photos coming for March. February Winner

I felt sorely tempted this week to delete the logs and ask the cacher to rather just put a TFTC on the four caches he logged of mine with the same drivel but making no reference to the cache itself. The log actually served no purpose. I wonder how many of the caches logged on that day were #909 because each of the logs says the same: 91 to go to reach 1000! The verbosity badge is not worth alienating the caching community.

What is the consensus in the GC community? Would you like me to postpone it till the 14th while it is still early and there are no logged attendees yet?

CJ would like to tackle HTML and cache listings and the 7th would suit him better so have scheduled it for the 7th of May. Keep a look out for GC2QERD, soon to be revealed.

I agree - Duly added

Thank you to everyone who has sent birthday wishes either by phone, e-mail, SMS, Skype and even this forum thread. It is much appreciated. The highlight of my birthday will still be the great event bash we had on Saturday. That was really special to have my caching friends come and celebrate with me. Everything turned out better that I had expected. So watch this space.... Maybe I shall do an encore for the Big one next year. I already have sone ideas brewing. But back to reality... Go to the Race website and see all the photographs and get voting. Some of them are really good. February photos

The latest scores and photos for February have been published. Interesting - Madsons position at number one has been usurped by an outsider! Well done to "Great SA TB Race 2011 - Man on the Move" of g.i.s. who has moved onto the overall lead. In all fairness, though, Madsons' "Sylvester Sea Turtle" still leads in the local category. Well done to all the TB's who moved in the month of February, especially those who posed for the photo of the month competition. Please view all the photos and choose which one you feel should be the winner for February.

The techno event on 26 February was a great success and it was encouraging to see so many first time cachers coming to the event. It was suggested that we have another one in about two months. Looking at the calendar for April it looks quite full. So I am proposing either the 7th or 14th of May for the next one. Please indicate which would be more acceptable. I don't see anything else planned for either of those two dates. My preference would be 7 May. Unless I hear anything to the contrary, I shall list it at the end of the week.