Weekend wrap up- Destroying Bathrooms and Dancin' it Out

Hi readers!

So, I'm pretty big on not having fears and facing fears that may pop up. My brother has a lot of weird fears, like a fear of cubed ham.   I do have one irrational fear, maybe just as strange as cubed ham- getting locked in a bathroom.  I've locked myself in a building once, over a holiday weekend, but never a bathroom stall... until this week.  The bathroom door at our plant has a weird skeleton key that you lock from the inside.   I have been wary about this lock from day one...sometimes i don't even lock it because I don't trust it.  This time I unfortunately did lock it and it broke leaving the dead bolt locked.    The way the bathrooms are there's a long hall way off the hallway of offices with two 1 stall bathrooms.
  Most people work from the main office and not the plant so there aren't too many people around.    When the key would not turn the bolt, I had a horrible fear that I wouldn't be found for hours.   I was shaking the door in hopes that the lock would miraculously open, when I heard a little voice way down the hallway-  "Are you okay in there?"  I was discovered!   I would not die in a bathroom!  It took a bit of effort to coax my male coworker into the bathroom, but once he was there he  did give it his best shot to free me.   We tried the key from the outside.   They handed me a screw driver from though a window and I tried to take the lock off.  Nothing was successful, so we had to call in the plant engineers.  By this time, I had  crowd.   I was kneeling on the toilet lid trying to talk to people in the courtyard though the window when... CRACK!   The lid shattered and I feel in the toilet.  Just when I thought the day couldn't possibly get any worse.  The engineers finally broke the door, freeing me.    Luckily, I don't get embarrassed easily.   I'm just going to say that incident report I had to fill out was hilarious. I laughed a lot that day.  Probably more than I have in years.

So it's been a pretty exciting week for me in South Africa.  Besides conquering my biggest fears,  I've been hustling and busting my ass to get everything done in the three weeks I have left in this amazing country.    Work-wise I've been busting my ass on what I'm now affectionately calling my "senior project".  One of my objectives was to design a prototype.  I had to review insights work, come up with an idea, develop recipes, produce samples in the pilot plant and then complete necessary analytical.  I spent several 12+ hour days this week in front of a deep fryer, leaving work smelling like a short order cook.

I got my hair did

By Friday I was ready for some fun.   Despite leaving work at nearly 8 pm after arriving before 7am and being on my feet in safety shoes all day, I grabbed my friend and dragged him to & for Toy Toy, this techno night that I love.  The club reminds me of an old Chicago club in the 90's/early 2000's- Crobar, but much smaller.   The vibe is similar though.    Luckily, my friend enjoyed it was well.   Although we didn't stay too late (relative), I only got about 2-3 hours of sleep before needed to rush to DNA Salon for my first (and only) haircut in SA.   The place was already packed at 8:30 am.   I absolutely loved my experience there.  I've been searching for this kind of treatment for years!    The stylist sat down with me before we started and showed me pictures and dye samples and looked at my pictures.   She gave some great input and suggestions.   Although sitting in a chair in a crowded salon while someone messes with you hair for 4 hours is not the most fun thing to do with no sleep and a slight hang over, it was well worth it.   I loved the end result.  I highly recommend DNA salon in Bedford Centre Mall.

After lunch I was hoping to sneak a nap in at home, but my friends dragged me off to Soweto for what was supposed to be a tour.  Soweto, one of the last touristy places I needed to check off my list.  Soweto is a bustling township outside of Johannesburg that was at the center of the Apartheid struggle as well as Nelson Mandela's official residence.   I uber'd over to Vilakazi Street street, wearing my sneakers, ready to tour.   She gives me a call and says, you are in front of the house, go take a look and meet us at the bar across the street.  We'll be drinking and waiting for you.  Perfect!  Pub crawl is more my thing.

The house is the original that Mandela owned with his first wife Evelyn in 1945.  Later his second wife, Winnie, and their children lived there while Nelson was in prison.  The house was restored in 2008, as it was destroyed by police during Apartheid.   The house now contains artifacts and awards pertaining to the struggle for freedom.    It was interesting, but only took about 20 minutes to read everything.


Then I was off to the Sakumzi.  Sakumzi is a tradition African bar/restaurant.  The original plan for my work farewell lunch was Sakumzi, but it was veto'd.  My friends still wanted me to check it out.The vibe was fun.  It's outside shared seating on picnic tables. There's both a buffet of traditional African food and an a la carte menu.    I found them sitting at a long table with a large group of new friends. The new friends were all in a motorcycle club  together and were touring around SA, with their next trip actually being Myrtle Beach next month.

 They ended up picking up the entire tab, which I was surprised and grateful, so I thanked them and then I thanked them some more when I realized none of my friends had acknowledged their generosity.  After they left, my friends were like "What are you doing??  Why did you thank them??"  And I was like "Why didn't you??"    Their response was "because they are men.  They were supposed to pick up the tab."  This started a long discussion.   Apparently, they don't believe in saying thank you, even to their significant other's... because it is expected, so why thank them for doing what they are expected to do.   I found this strange and then went on to thank pretty much everybody we encountered for everything, much to my friends' dismay.

I wanted to go to a shebeen next, which is a type of township bar that has political history.   My friends looked at me like I had lost my mind and took me to Chaf-Pozi a local bar underneath the Orlando Towers instead.  The towers are old cooling towers from a now defunct coal power plant.  The  have been painted all funky and re-purposed as an adventure center, where you can bungee and abseil and what not.  This was obviously not open that late, but I did get a few cool night shots of the towers and got to check out an almost shebeen, or at least the closest thing to a shebeen the girls would take me to without male escorts.  We met some people on the way out and all headed to a News Cafe in Woodmead.

News Cafes are a chain of bar/restaurants.   I have one near my place, but I don't understand how every News Cafe I've been to is substantially better than the one near me.  This one was particularly fun and our new new friends brought more new friends, whom were really really into Chicago hip hop and totally schooled me.   They wanted to drag me to some afters hip hop party, but I figured 48 hours was past  my no sleep limit and it was time for a nap.

Night cap at News Cafe

My happy this week, is my pet caterpillar, Bob.  Bob is getting so big (he's actually even bigger now).  He likes eating flowers and napping.  He dislikes being petted and picked up.  (I totally miss my fur babies, can you tell?)

Bob.

Travel- Day 2 on the Garden Route

Hi Readers!    For today's travel blog it's back to the Garden Route for Day 2!  (Day one is here)  I left off last in Plettenberg Bay and that is where I will begin here.   

We headed out from our B&B,  Beacon on the Bliss (reviewed here),  early to Robberg Nature Reserve, which was just a few kilometers up the road for a morning hike.  The day before when Phil and I were playing on the beach a couple of life guards had told us we could hike the whole island in 1.5 hours so we where fairly ambitious when we woke up. That ambition was quickly shot down when our hostess at the guest house told us it takes her 4-5 hours.   

We estimated our fitness level somewhere in between the two, so we expected a a 3-ish hour hike, which was about right- although we did a sort of a convoluted path- hiking first one side of the island and back and then the other side and back, instead of making a full loop.     The hike itself was on the moderate to advanced side with some parts of the trail marked with a skull and cross bones.  There were definitely parts that were more like bouldering than hiking.  The risk of tumbling off the mountain was well worth it!  The views were breath taking.   We  encountered a little rain when we rounded the mountain to the island, but luckily it was more of a warm rain, and we were semi-prepared with jackets and hats.   I was really jealous of Phil's water resistant safari gear that I had relentlessly teased him about.   There were a lot of serious hikers on the trail with a lot of serious hiking gear, including pack-covers.   That would have been helpful.

It's cool, waves, let your freak flags fly high. 

This technically was the trail.  

 There were also a bunch of trail runners!  I have no idea how running on this trail was possible.  The trail itself is made of several different substrates- wooden planks in some places, dirt and gravel in others, but also straight up rocks- where any resemblance of a trail was minimal.  The main hike is a loop, with the right hand side's reward being a beautiful beach and an island that can be explored- if you are cautious of the waves that have the potential to crash over the island.    The other side of the loop treats you to views of seals.

At least this part had a rail.

Horns for not breaking my ankle!

Interesting, due to my public health back ground, there were boxes and boxes of free condoms in the the ladies room at the park, in packs of 20, with visual instructions. These were sponsored by the South African Health Ministry.   Phil claims they were not in the men's room. South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV and AIDs in the world.

Bathroom Condoms

Stop 2 for the day was Knysna.    Here is one of the major stops on the Garden Route, the Heads.

All bundled up

Here is a webcam view if you'd like to see the heads in real time.  The heads are 2 hills that form the passage from the harbor into the ocean.   If you are running a ship and wish to come into the harbor additional insurance is needed....   the waves near the heads are that powerful.   Phil and I took a cruise around the lagoon.   It was chilly at first, but warmed up.   Luckily, there were heavy wool blankets to cuddle up with.

Knysna Heads

Stressed out mountain driving

After the cruise we head up to the mountains to Oudtshoorn.   Oudtshoorn is about an hour up into the mountains.  The drive was a little bit terrifying.   I almost crawled into the back seat.  It was a two lane highway with very little shoulder separating us from the vertical drop.  The little I saw from between my fingers was pretty stunning.  To make it worse, it was misty and raining a bit and the sun was starting to set.  When there was opposing traffic, Phil would pull to the left, where there was no shoulder, just a death drop.  I was glued to the side mirror, singing/screaming "TAR! TAR! TAR! TAR! TAR!" every time the touched the side of road.

Garden at Tierra Bianca

We finally made it to our third B&B, Tierra Bianca  without either of us crapping our pants, but it was a close call. When we first pulled up, we couldn't figure out where to go to check in.  There really wasn't any doors or signs, other than the main sign on the building.   We finally found a door and knocked and a man in a skirt answered and there was some confusion on his part as to why we were there and whom we were looking for.  He finally said, "Oh, you  must be looking for Morkel...  I will call him."  And shut the door.  Phil started humming the theme song for American Horror Story.   Morkel did show up relatively quickly after and he was fabulous.   He took us down to our room in the garden and had laid out menus in three categories on the bed for us:  his favorites, fancy places and places with a free pick up.   Free pick up???  Hell, yes.   That pretty much made up our mind.   Morkel called up Blackswan, made a reservation for us and arranged a pick up.

30 minutes later we were being shuttled away for wine and dinner.  The restaurant pretty empty when we arrived and we were seated at one of several empty 2 tops in the main dining room.    I picked out a bottle of wine, happy that Phil would be able to share since we would be shuttled back home after. Wine choice: One Tree Hill, Pinotage by a local winery Karusa Vineyard.  It was delicious.  I  regret not stopping at the vineyard to pick up  a few bottles.  I hope I can find it locally.  As we were looking at our choices for mains, the waitress came over, flustered and embarrassed and said that we'd need to move because an "old lady" had requested that table.   We moved one table over.  When the "old lady" came in later, it was really a rich old dude with his young trophy girlfriend.   Seriously, there was nothing special about that table... I think it was just an exercise in fake power and the need to feel important.   .The rest of our dinner was pleasant.  The food was good-  Ostrich filet for Phil (we were in the ostrich capital of the world) and a vegetarian pasta for me.  We shared a yummy traditional bread pudding custard for desert.   Then it was into the shuttle to be shuttled back to the B&B.

Stay tuned for Days 3 & 4 in Mossel Bay.

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...

Namibia 3.0

One more on the Chameleon Safari in Namibia!

The fourth day was bittersweet.   I was excited for a final day in this beautiful country but sad to be leaving this fascinating place and some great people.

It began again for me before the sunrise.... I love wandering around in the darkness and silence. I really wished I had brought running clothes.   After breakfast we waved goodbye to Desert Camp and set off to Solitaire to meet the biologists who would take us Cheetah tracking.  Solitaire is a quirky little town that I'm pretty sure only has the 1 gas station/rest stop.   The Cheetah rescue is a 10km square plot of land that is home ot 6 rescue cheetahs.  The cheetahs are too tame to be released into the wild, so they are collared and used for research purposes and for tourism.  We were able to locate 4 on our tour... one charged us, but only because she though we had food.  She retreated once she realize we did not bare chopped meat.   Her teeth are messed up from abuse, so we are useless to her unless we are chopped up on a platter.  I heard she prefers zebra anyway.

Cheetah Tracking

Some rocks on our way back to Windhoek

Our last ride in the truck

Goodbye Namibia!

That's all for Namibia... I highly recommend a visit to this country and I highly recommend Chameleon Safaris!