Through my own eyes

All things Audi!

2008-03-28T19:37:00.006+02:00

For those of you who know me, you will know that I am a bit of a car nut. I'm no mechanic, and hate getting myself dirty, I just LOVE to admire them: for their heritage, for their design and for the technology that goes into them, amongst other things.

I've been a Ferrari fan for as long as I can remember and not only on race days. Everything Ferrari! Unfortunately, I'm not financially ready yet, so I don't own a Ferrari.

I've fairly recently indulged myself a little bit and bought myself an Audi. It's a stunning car! Has all the design elements of a modern German engineered beauty, the cutting edge technology and has a heritage that is so deeply rooted, it could bring someone to tears when hearing the history of Audi.

I found this picture showing the history of the Audi logo that sums up the history so perfectly, that I'm not even going to explain it.

For the record, I have this deep rooted annoyance with BMW's. I think that they are overpriced, over glorified lawnmowers with leather seats. Their cars are made of recycled coke cans, too common and resale is crappier than used shoes!!!
Mercedes, now that is probably gonna be my next car if I don't stick to Audi! :)

Finding a Geek's Chi

2008-03-29T20:45:00.003+02:00

Found this pic and figured its worth sharing!

Zimbabwe votes!

2008-03-29T21:05:00.004+02:00

If you don't know about the recent happenings in Zimbabwe and it's HILARIOUS path into economic melt down, you clearly need to come out of your bubble!
In fact I shouldn't use "melt down" as a verb, its too late... its melted and hardened into the figure that had me cracking up while I was listening to a news article y'day.

10 Years ago, 1 US Dollar bought you 11 Zim Dollars, as of y'day morning at 8am, 1 US Dollar bought 30 BILLION Zim dollars.
A soft drink costs 30 million Zimbabwean dollars, a chicken 200 million, a tank of gas 1.8 billion.
:)

Anyway, in true Mugabe style, he said this today, "We don't rig elections," he said. "We have that sense of honesty. I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have cheated on elections. Why should I cheat? The people are there supporting us."

It also turns out that people who have died upto 20 years ago have recently registered to vote in these elections. There's also that hilarious news piece I just saw on SABC of a journalist standing on a piece of vacant land but holding a elections registrar depicting that 10 000 people have been registered from that very piece of land.

I must admit, Bob is funny!

Apartheid today: the white man blaming the black man!

2008-03-30T16:10:00.003+02:00

I've very recently been sucked into a topic that I would usually avoid, but I feel so strongly about it that I ended up going back to Wogan's blog to read the article. This is NOT Wogan's work, so before you get all worked up at him, I should make it clear that he merely posted the article published by "The Mercury".

I'm going to repost it here for the convenience of having it on one page.

Subject: We Apologise

To the Previously Disadvantaged,

We are sorry that our ancestors were intelligent, advanced and daring enough to explore the wild oceans to discover new countries and develop them. We are sorry that those who came before us took you out of the bush and taught you that there was more to life than beating drums, killing eachother and chasing animals with sticks and stones.

We are sorry that they planned, funded and developed roads, towns, mines, factories, airports and harbours, all of which you now claim to be your long deprived inheritance giving you every right to change and rename these at your discretion. We are sorry that our parents taught us the value of small but strong families, to not breed like rabbits and end up as underfed, diseased, illiterate shack dwellers living in poverty. We are sorry that when the evil apartheid government provided you with schools, you decided they’d look better without windows or in piles of ashes.

We happily gave up those bad days of getting spanked in our all white schools for doing something wrong and much prefer these days of freedom where problems can be resolved with knives and guns. We are sorry that it is hard to shake off the bitterness of the past when you keep on raping, torturing and killing our friends and family members, and then hide behind the fence of “human rights” with smiles on your faces.

We are sorry that we do not trust the government. We have no reason to be so suspicious because none of these poor hard working intellectuals have ever been involved in any form of corruption or “irregularities”. We are sorry that we do not
trust the police force and, even though they have openly admitted that they have lost the war against crime and criminals, we should not be negative and just ignore their corruption and carry on hoping for the best.

We are sorry that it is more important to you to have players of colour in our national teams than winning games and promoting patriotism. We know that sponsorship doesn’t depend on a team’s success.

We are sorry that our border posts have been flung open and now left you competing for jobs against illegal immigrants from our beautiful neighbouring countries. All of them countries that have grown into economic powerhouses after kicking out the “settlers”. We are sorry that we don’t believe in witchcraft, beetroot and garlic cures, urinating on street corners, virginity testing, slaughtering of bulls in our back yards, trading women for cattle and other barbaric practices. Maybe we just grew up differently.

We are sorry that your medical care, water supplies, roads, railways and electricity supplies are going down the toilet because skilled people who could have planned for and resolved these issues had to be shown away because they were of the wrong ethnic background and now have to work in foreign countries where their skills are more needed. We are so sorry that we’d like this country to fulfil its potential so we can once again be proud South Africans.

The Previously Advantaged

Now, this is the kind of shit that boils my blood to the core!

Ford simplifies car shopping again!

2008-03-30T16:28:00.004+02:00

I've recently bought a new car and being the internet addict that I am, I did quite abit of research. I made sure that I knew ALL my options, and researched brands, their technologies they used, the model line up, the comparative spec sheets, pricing, etc. Yes, I'm obsessive about these things.

Anyway, I ended up with a list of 25 options, narrowed it down to top 10, top 3 and then finally made my selection. I was so picky about the colour, that I purchased mine from a dealer near the border of Botswana and South Africa, and I live in Cape Town.

Henry ford is famous for selling cars in any colour as long as it's black. Well, Ford is going to basics as it has realised that the cost of offering customers so many variations of the same model is far higher than convenient.

Ford's chief of marketing, Jim Farley, who was hired away from Toyota Motor Co last year, said he was stunned to find that Ford was offering 100,000 combinations of options on its entry-level Focus sedan. Some 80 percent of Ford's sales came from just 4,000 of those combinations, he said.

This is of course not so great for the consumer who enjoy highly customisable everything nowadays, but has a major long term effect on the economy on a global scale.

South Africa gets a drivers licence points system!

2008-03-31T03:28:00.004+02:00

The much anticipated and talked about points system for drivers license is set to roll out by the end of this year. Ever since the card type license system was employed (by the Sheik & Zuma syndicate) this has been the future of the system.

It seems that each driver will start with 12 points and depending on the nature of the violation, the offender will be demerited. Drunk driving counts for 6 points, in case you are wondering.

Drivers will however be able to win these points back at a rate of 1 point every 3 concurrent months. So, it would take 18 months to win back the 6 points lost in drunk driving charge. Upon losing all 12 points, your license will be suspended.

As of now, the pilot project will be rolled out in Gauteng as early as mid-June. I'm still scratching my head as how this can be controlled only within the province, surely this must be a national roll out, as controlling movement of offenders between provinces is a bit like having your soup with a fork!

South Africa's response to electricity crisis!

2008-03-31T05:07:00.004+02:00

I'm sorry, I should be more positive about things, but this was just too funny to let it slip!

I got another joke:
What's the most useless thing a mother can tell her child?
Don't stick your fingers in the plug socket!

CheapTrip.co.za for a cheap trip!

2008-03-31T18:01:00.003+02:00

Like most people my age, I have this dream of traveling the world before I get too old and before it becomes an inconvenience to leave my life for a few weeks at a time to go on holiday.
Fortunately, I have been very privileged to have done quite abit of traveling already, even though it is nowhere even close to being enough!

I book most of my flights, hotels and even rent cars online. CheapTrip.co.za is one of the sites that I use often. It's an all-in-one booking engine that emails you your ticket info when you are done.

They also have a facebook group for fellow travelers to chat about destinations, and help eachother out, so it is definitely worth checking out if you are planning a trip anytime soon.

Petrol price on the up again!

2008-03-31T18:19:00.003+02:00

So we have all been expecting it. Don't act surprised as you read this, because we were all warned a few weeks ago when petrol went up by 60 odd cents.
But what you weren't expecting is the 66 & 68 cents bump! (Cue your shocked look!)

With it going up on the 1st of April, you are bound to think that perhaps Trevor Manuel a.k.a Trev does have a sense of humour, but as soon as you realize that we are looking at R49.50 extra to fill a standard 75 litre petrol tank, you will ditch that smirk for a frown and start shaking your head.

It's time to get that car pool going!

Robert Mugabe steers his ship!

2008-03-31T22:13:00.004+02:00

Google extends its reach towards a fully fledged OS!

2008-04-01T00:35:00.003+02:00

It's not new news that Google has been speculated to be slowly entering the OS market, and recently made the biggest step towards this goal by releasing its offline platform called Gears.

But now, Google has made its Google Docs available for offline use. It can be seen as the most natural progression since Google Docs is so successful, but lacks the offline ability that makes MS products superior and more convenient to business travelers.

Google makes the Docs available and its spreadsheet app available immediately for offline use, but will postpone the release of its slide presentation application due to technical testing.

To make use of the offline availibility, users will need to install a plugin into their browsers, known as Gears, and then visit the Google Docs page. Expect your Docs folders to be synced as soon as you have internet access again.

Check out this video by the Product Manager for Google Docs

How-to guide to saving Zimbabwe!

2008-04-01T01:44:00.005+02:00

I'm no political analyst, so my views are to be treated as exactly that, my views!

This past weekend saw elections in Zim go off with little violence. Naturally, there was the classic "I will not cheat!" speech from Mugabe, and then hours later, he banned the Electoral Commission from releasing results until it passes through his offices. No Bob, it doesn't smell fishy! ;)

Anyway, I've come up with a few things that need to be corrected in order for Zimbabwe to get things on the right track.

Facts:

Zimbabwe suffers from a major hyperinflation problem, due to the fact that the Reserve Bank keeps churning out trillions of newly printed dollars whenever the government has a bill to pay. This has led to a major devaluation of the currency and thus the plummet of the economy.
A law was passed a few years ago stating that 51% of all mining shares are to be reclaimed by the government, thus hugely impacting on mining and other related industries, which ended up with most of them closing shop, adding to the huge unemployment issue and kick the economy in the proverbial balls.
There was the much publicised land ownership issue where Mugabe reclaimed farms and distributed it randomly to uneducated, untrained and unmanaged war veterans, which saw a major drop in the nations produce as well lost quite a few international friends.
In 1999 he lost a US$193million from the IMF because he failed to meet basic conditions of the financing.
He unleashed violence against supporters and members of his political competition, which resulted in tourists being scared away, which led to the collapse of the tourism industry.

As an example of how bad it is, The US suffered a loss of 30% of its GNP during the depression, Zimbabwe is currently 40% lower that its GNP values for the year 2000.
As a further example of the hyperinflation of Zimbabwe, 8yrs ago Z$14mil could buy you a mansion in a posh suburb in Harare, 3 weeks ago Z$14mil bought you a can of coke. By yesterday, the 31st of March 2008, a can of coke cost Z$56mil.

The biggest question that comes out of this elections, is "How do we fix this mess now?"

Humbly, I suggest

Step 1: Shut down those printers at the Reserve Bank. Printing more money is only devaluing the currency and adding to laughing inflation rates. This of course leaves Zim with the problem of who will pick up the bills... Simple, in 1999 Mugabe signed a deal with the IMF for funding as long as Zim kept their end of the bargain, this deal is still valid as long as the new leadership manages to fulfill the requirements. (I might be wrong, but I think that the deal breaker was that Zimbabwe was spending more money on its military than on health care and the IMF asked them to change this.)

Step 2: Give back ownership of the mines and hope that the mining companies do come back to open shop again.

Step 3: Return the reclaimed farms to the legal Title Deed holders, and encourage the employment of the new land dwellers by the farmers, perhaps by providing farming subsidies to these farms.

Step 4: Get a new currency! C'mon, no respects a Zim Dollar anymore and it will be cheaper to convert all of the existing currency into toilet paper than try to save the existing currency.

Step 5: Job creation and solving the unemployment issue. This can be helped by step 2, but the problem is more deep rooted than that. Honestly, I have no suggestions how to solve this.

Step 6: Stop the violence and go back into being the peaceful Southern Africa neighbour that you used to be, and watch the tourism industry find its feet again!

The problems are of course deeper rooted into a policy level, and hopefully with the right assistance from major world organisations and leaders, Zimbabwe will find its way back to being a respectable nation!

Future president planning ahead!

2008-04-01T23:31:00.001+02:00

Eskom load-shedding schedule!!!

2008-04-02T00:17:00.003+02:00

Please click on the image to view it bigger if you can not see the words.

So Eskom is still playing peek-a-boo with our lights! Good thing that they have solved the load-shedding warning system by publishing the schedule on their website. They have launched a fairly easy to use system on their site.

So click here to access the ESKOM LOAD-SHEDDING SCHEDULE. It is of course not very reliable, but we will nag about that next week perhaps ;)

SA house prices show signs of dropping!

2008-04-02T01:31:00.003+02:00

For the first time in 8 consecutive years, the South African average home price has shown a drop in value. Based on year end results the index which is an average of home prices shows that the average price of a home in SA fell from R570 000 to R550 000. Showing a negative inflation of 5.2%.

This is good news for young up and coming couple who are looking at buying their first home, as the dream of becoming a home-owner seemed to have been fading away recently as home prices sky rocketed.

Of course these values will not apply to any specific region, as the gap between low cost houses and the luxury mansions found in SA's premium suburbs is phenomenally huge.

Looking on the bright side of ESKOM!

2008-04-02T23:22:00.003+02:00

Load-shedding is on everyones lips nowadays along with Zimbabwe and petrol prices. With all this misfortune going on, I must admit that i have been VERY impressed at ideas that South Africans have come up with. Besides the usual Zapiro pencil sketch, I have seen tons of hilarious emails knocking these problems. Not to mention the 1000's of hilarious Zuma emails doing the rounds!

The company that stands out most for brilliant turn arounds with their ads is Nandos. Currently running the ad of the Bafana Bafana fan kicking the ball, and his boots are too big so it ends up going in the wrong direction!

This ad below is just one of the many hilarious Nandos ads. Please watch it to the end for the punch line, you will LOVE it!

Britian's new coins revealed!

2008-04-03T14:42:00.004+02:00

After an intensive design quest where 4000 different designs where considered from 526 designers, the British Mint has finally minted a new set of coins to be distributed in the UK soon.

Africa's health care spending in serious need of policy overhauling!

2008-04-03T22:28:00.004+02:00

Africa is in serious trouble. We have war, political turmoil, financial crisis, educational shortfalls, drought, famine and a phenomenal health problem. I am no pessimist, and I truly love Africa as it is my home, and I believe that given the correct opportunities this continent can stand as proud as Europe and North America in a decade or so from now.

Africa has all the necessary resources it requires to become a self sustainable continent, however corruption, mismanagement and stupidity in some cases are amongst the reasons why Africa lacks behind in terms of development, education, health care and financial stability.

It seems that 9 out of the 10 serious TB nations are found in Southern Africa alone, collectively, Africa has a higher AIDS prevalence than any other randomly chosen 2 continents combined.
80 million Africans are lost to Aids, TB, child and maternal mortalities each year, which is more then the sum of the population of Botswana and Sierra Leone.

Africans are expected to live 36 years of their lives as healthy people, relative to 67 years in developed nations.

Cuba, who have a population of 12 million, currently have 67 000 registered medical professionals, whereas Malawi has 300 doctors, Zambia has 900 and Zimbabwe has 2000.
Because of a lack of budget spend we lose our medical professionals to countries who have better salary and benefits structure for health care professionals. We spend millions in training, only to lose our trained professionals to developed nations.

Our African nations promised to spend 15% of their national budgets on health care, however many of our nations spend as little as 3%. Botswana is listed as the most commendable, who spend 23% of annual budget on its health care systems and training.

The US managed to save $20billion by attracting 250 000 health care professionals who were neither born nor trained in the US. They look at it as $20 billion saved, us Africans need to look at it as $20 billion lost!

This figures are not 100% accurate, as I have encountered variations to these figures during my research, however I have based values listed above on the African Public Health Rights Alliance findings.

MWEB forced to cann their WiMax testing due to ICASA red tape!

2008-04-03T23:02:00.007+02:00

MWEB has been doing beta testing on its WiMax towers in Cape Town and Johannesburg. 3 of them can be found in Cape Town, in Plumstead, the Foreshore and N1 City, while 5 similar towers line the skylines of Jo'burg in Soweto, Sandton, Boksburg, Randburg and Victory Park.

An email sent to its 1000 beta testers in these areas, states that ICASA has revoked MWEB's trial license effective 29th of April 2008. This brings to close almost one year of testing by the ISP Giant, who intend dominating the WiMax market with its entry level packages which are rumoured to help establish a much larger internet user base in South Africa, benefiting schools, health care facilities and SME's.

Currently the internet infiltration levels are 4.7% of the total population of Africa relative to the 71.1% of the total population that North America boasts, making them the leaders in providing their population with internet access.

The pie chart shows the distibution of internet access of the world.

C'mon Bob, we're waiting!

2008-04-04T22:21:00.002+02:00

With all the rumours going around about the Zim elections, I am getting a bit annoyed at having to wait so damn long for the result. Bob, if you gonna whip out your red pen and make corrections on the Electoral Commissions report, then hurry the hell up about it, why don't you?

Lifes valuable lessons lie in our nursery rhymes!

2008-04-05T02:31:00.002+02:00

F1 prodigical kid crashes out of Bahrain practise!

2008-04-05T03:35:00.004+02:00

Lewis Hamilton has crashed his McLaren y'day during first round of qualifying. He did manage to post the 4th best time of the day, behind his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen.

Ferrari repeated their 1-2 standings with Massa leading the 2nd line by just over 1.3 seconds.

Bahrain F1 GP practice times on Friday

2nd practice
1Felipe Massa (BRA) Ferrari- 1min31.420
2 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari- 1min32.327
3 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) McLaren- 1min32.752
4 Lewis Hamilton (GBR) McLaren- 1min32.847
5 Robert Kubica (POL) BMW Sauber- 1min32.915
6 Nico Rosberg (GER) Williams- 1min33.022
7 David Coulthard (GBR) Red Bull- 1min33.048
8 Kazuki Nakajima (JPN) Williams- 1min33.098
9 Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) Toro Rosso- 1min33.197
10 Nelson Piquet (BRA) Renault- 1min33.247
11 Jenson Button (GBR) Honda- 1min33.710
12 Fernando Alonso (ESP) Renault- 1min33.755
13 Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull- 1min33.782
14 Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota- 1min33.822
15 Timo Glock (GER) Toyota- 1min33.856
16 Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Honda- 1min33.966
17 Nick Heidfeld (GER) BMW Sauber- 1min34.023
18 Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Force India- 1min34.388
19 Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India- 1min34.405
20 Sebastian Vettel (GER) Toro Rosso- 1min34.787
21 Takuma Sato (JPN) Super Aguri- 1min35.288
22 Anthony Davidson (GBR) Super Aguri- 1min35.712

First practice
1 Felipe Massa (BRA) Ferrari- 1min32.233
2 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari- 1min32.350
3 Nico Rosberg (GER) Williams- 1min32.415
4 Lewis Hamilton (GBR) McLaren- 1min32.705
5 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) McLaren- 1min32.868
6 Kazuki Nakajima (JPN) Williams- 1min33.121
7 Robert Kubica (POL) BMW Sauber- 1min33.333
8 Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota- 1min33.539
9 David Coulthard (GBR) Red Bull- 1min33.788
10 Fernando Alonso (ESP) Renault- 1min33.815
11 Timo Glock (GER) Toyota- 1min33.929
12 Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull- 1min33.950
13 Nelson Piquet (BRA) Renault- 1min33.981
14 Nick Heidfeld (GER) BMW Sauber- 1min34.106
15 Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) Toro Rosso- 1min34.235
16 Sebastian Vettel (GER) Toro Rosso- 1min34.321
17 Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Force India- 1min34.862
18 Jenson Button (GBR) Honda- 1min34.915
19 Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Honda- 1min35.174
20 Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India- 1min35.429
21 Anthony Davidson (GBR) Super Aguri- 1min36.145
22 Takuma Sato (JPN) Super Aguri – 1min36.536

SA Home Affairs needed to be kicked in the nuts before it sorted itself out!

2008-04-05T22:03:00.004+02:00

We have all either experienced the Home Affairs dismal service levels or at least been at the receiving end of someone else's bitching about the Home Affairs. The queues, the 4 month wait for your ID document to arrive, the rather intelligent counter staff, and the never ending corruption stories.

But due to major knocks to the PR of the dept by journalists from the likes of Special Assignment, Carte Blanche, the Sunday Times and a host of others, the Home Affairs Director-General Mavuso Msimang has rolled out a strategy to get things respectable again.

He has since managed to knock the wait for ID to be processed from 120 days down to 86 days, but is striving for a 60 turn around time.
He has also implimented a series of quick fixes to cut down on the blatant corruption of the dept, by tightening security, firing and charging staff found involved in any suspicious activities and implementing a tracking system for all applications and ID's in the processing system.
Well done DG Msimang!

Now, as part of this major drive, the dept. will be testing smart-card IDs. These will replace the current green bar coded ID, that we all so painstakingly got just a few years ago. The system will be full automated, and the amount of information stored on the card will allow the card to fullfil multiple tasks, like host your drivers license details on it as well.

I think that this is a huge step towards an organised nation. DG Msimang, if you get to read this, I do have a few suggestions for the card as well. Integrate it into our public transport system and allow users to buy credits either online, through machines located at transport interchanges, malls, etc, and develop a swiping system for the card for our trains, our buses and eventually in our taxis. This system is being used in Singapore now and it works absolutely great!

Good luck DG Msimang, I hope that one day all South Africans can talk about you like how we talk about our financial guru Trev!

Smallville soundtrack makes it a winner!

2008-04-07T02:05:00.004+02:00

I'm not really a big fan of Smallville. I have probably watched 5 or 6 random episodes. I just watched an episode from season 4 when I realised why it is such a great show. It's not about Clark Kent and his trip down self-discovery lane, or how pathetic he is with Lana. It's all about the tunes! Smallville has CONTINUALLY featured amazing tracks in the series.

One look at the list of the tracks found in only the first 5 episodes of season 1 and you will agree.

Eve 6	Rescue
Matthew Jay	Let Your Shoulder Fall
Juliana Theory	Top Of The World
Pete Yorn	On Your Side
Jewel	Standing Still
Alien Ant Farm	Movies
The Wiseguys	Ooh La La
Stabbing Westward	Breathe You In
The Cranberries	Analyse
Todd Thibaud	Unbroken
Unwritten Law	Up All Night
Shelby Lynne	Wall In Your Heart
Zed Silencer	Renegade Fighter
Gorillaz	Clint Eastwood
Sum 41	Motivation
Fuel	Bad Day
Third Eye Blind	Never Let You Go
Binocular	You
Papa Roach	Last Resort
Weezer	Island In The Sun
Better Than Ezra	I Do
Turin Brakes	Underdog (Save Me)
Cake	Love You Madly
Aeon Spoke	Damaged
Calling, The	Wherever You Will Go
Bruce Hornsby	The Way It Is
Eagle-Eye Cherry	Long Way Around
Stereoblis	Eight Half Letters
Embrace	Wonder
Calling, The	Unstoppable
Fear The Clown	Inside The Memories
Capitol Eye	Let's Go
Stereophonics	Maybe
Jude	Everything I Own
Lifehouse	Everything

My how-to guide to surving the tough financial times we are in!

2008-04-07T02:24:00.004+02:00

Times have been hard lately. Petrol is sky high, school fees now cost more than buying a small car, food prices are on the up and credit is destroying a lot of people!

I'm no financial guru and to be honest, I have debt too, so my advice shouldn't be treated as golden but rather guidelines to simplifying your budget issues.

Assess which of your debt has the highest interest rate, and if you can't pay them all off at once, pay the one with the highest interest rate first.
Try to keep your monthly debt to about 30% of your income.
Put away at least 10% of your income away towards your retirement. Remember that once you retire your income will stop, and your monthly living expenses wont.
Buy in bulk. Items like rice, sugar, cereals, pasta, etc dont go bad if you store them for a while and are always cheaper when buying the bigger bag.
Buy the shop name items. Usually the same quality as the branded item, but always is much cheaper.
Quit smoking! Enough said
Give up fizzy drinks for water. It's cheaper and its healthier
Take a packed lunch to work everyday. Buying lunch daily is expensive!
make sure that your tyre pressure in your car is right. Driving with low pressured tyres increase the drag, which results in higher fuel consumption.
Avoid using the AC in your car. This increases your fuel consumption heavily, if left on for your whole journey. If you have to use it, set on high for the first few minutes and open your windows to let the hot air out of the car, then close the windows and allow the AC to cool the car. Turn it lower when the car is at a comfortable temperature.
Kill two birds with one trip. If the store is on your way to a friends house, you might as well stop at the store onroute and pick up the items you need on the same trip. This requires SOME planning ahead, but isn't rocket science.
Avoid traffic. Idling in traffic and driving in a stop-start rhythm uses alot more fuel than you think, so if you can, avoid it.
Avoid speeding. Most cars today have a display showing the fuel consumption of car at that very moment. Try to find the sweet spot where your car uses less fuel while still traveling at a decent speed. In my car, I have found that 115km/h uses 2 litres less fuel per 100 km than traveling at 120km/h. Every car is different, so its up to figure out your cars sweet spot.
Avoid using your cell phone for calls to landlines that can wait till you have access to a landline. Charges are incredibly high from cell to landline and vice versa. try getting into the habit of calling another cellphone from your cell phone, and landlines from your landline.
Eskom has been preaching this one for a few years now, so by now it should be habit, but just in case... Turn off your geyser when are not at home. Keeping it running all day consumes alot of electricity.
Make sure your iron has a thermostat that works.
Switch off unnecessary lights.

If I've missed something important, let me know, but I think I touched on the basics.