Weekend Wrap up: Tiny towns and large beaded giraffes.

Hi Readers!   I hope you had a great weekend!

This week was pretty exciting work-wise.   Early Monday morning it was off to a tiny town in the Orange Free State Province to visit one of our co-manufacturers.  I assumed "free state" had something to do with Apartheid and it was the free-ist  state or something.   Not true.  At least in the way I had assumed.   It was a "free state" but for the Dutch in the context of British rule.  Ironically, it was the most strict during Apartheid.  The results were still lingering... almost everyone in the town spoke Aafrican's primarily and all signs and communication was in Aafricans   A little difficult to communicate, but I could, for the most part, ask questions in English and then just interpret the response (which was in Aafricans) depending on context and gestures.  

Oh hey, cows... in the middle of the highway.

The adventure began on the road.   We almost slammed into a herd of cattle crossing the road.  There were two guys waving flags, but it was really unclear why... until suddenly there was cattle in the middle of the road.  Shortly after there was a jack knifed truck.   We were pretty late to the plant and missed the first meetings.  Whoops.  Africa time?

little springbocks

The owners of the plant are avid hunters and animal collectors.  I was surprised to find blasbock, spring bock and zebras grazing outside of the board room window.   I was even more surprised on the last day, when one of the guys came charging through the board room and out the back door with a rifle.    Apparently, it was time to cull the herd.   Three of the blasbock had been pushed out by the dominant male.   They tried to convince me that this was much more "humane" that them killing each other.  I really wasn't convinced.  It was pretty traumatic.  

Sniff.  I'm sorry blasbock.

Also traumatic was our bed and breakfast.   It was fun because our whole team was staying in one house, kind of like a weird work slumber party.   Weird because the decor was a little...um off.  Breakfast was lovely though.  She offered dinner as well, but we, unfortunately, were at the plant until late each night.   One night, the plant had a braii for us, which was fun.  They  promised they weren't cooking up their pets.  I finally got to try Amarula, a South African liqueur made from the Marula fruit.  It's creamy and similar to Bailys.  Very yummy.

Her name is La Teetla

Oh Hai, suicidal fairy in my bathroom

Friday, I headed to the bench in our pilot plant.   I feel like it is the end of the semester and my final project is due.   I've been working on developing a prototype snack  for the last five months and now I finally have enough knowledge and skills to do some recipe development and produce some samples.  It's really exciting.  When I first told that I would need to "go in the lab and make stuff", I was really intimidated.  Now, I have so many ideas and so little time.   I can not believe how much I learned in the last few months.

After all the excitement and hard work during the week, the weekend was pretty low key.  Mostly, I needed to work.   I was going to attempt to run or hike on Saturday, but I woke up with an almost migraine  that threw me off.     Also I had a bunch of shopping that needed to be done.  I only have a few weekends left and needed to hit the summer sale racks to update my summer wardrobe for a steal and I have a few more gifts for friends back home (and for me) to purchase.   I ended up at my favorite mall, Rosebank, which is dangerous for me.  

 I'm not a huge shopper or a mall person, but this mall has a good variety and end of summer sale + strong dollar mean amazing deals.  Rosebank also has a Art & Crafts market in the basement, which consists of tons of stalls selling African crafts.   It reminds me of the Jamaican markets "just a look ma'am, looks are free", but slightly less aggressive.I have this problem where if I engage with a vendor, there's a 75% chance I'll busy something.  So I bought a lot of somethings today.  Including a 4.5 foot multi-colored beaded giraffe to decorate a room for a child that has not even been conceived yet. 

Woot! I'm the most awesome impulse buy ever.

 On Sundays there is also a rooftop market in the parking garage that also has African Crafts, misc. craft vendors that run the circuit (I see them everywhere and yes, I've bought something from several), antiques, music, food vendors and bouncy houses for the kids.   The selection of food today was fantastic.   I was torn between Indian or Malaysian.  Redman Home Industry Indian Cuisine won.  I had the vegan dish, of curried sugar beans and roti.   Man, was it spicy, but delicious.

I leave you with my happy-inducing items for this week.

Pink Gerber Daisies and a cucumber candle

What brought you happiness this week?

Stayed tuned... Garden Route Day 2 coming right up...