Taking the Dutch to Oude Molen

Xperience 18

I have a strange soft spot for museums. One of my earliest memories was dragging my poor dad to the museum in Hartenbos. To me a magical place caught in a time bubble, now that I think back, not exactly what my dad had envisioned when they booked our seaside vacation.

So new town means new museum too and off I went. Swellendam has an interesting history and museum to go with it, but this was not the new xperience.

Something I didn’t know was that there’s a blueberry farm just outside the town. I know it’s not season, but after I saw the sign, I had to follow. I found a little farm called Wildebraam. They do not only grow blueberries, but make jam and liqueurs from all kinds of fruit which they buy in. Here comes the best part – tasting! I tasted Pineapple & Granadilla Jam, Sundried Tomato Mustard, Hazelnut Liqueur, Sweet Pepper Jam and I’m sure there was a Chili Chocolate Liqueur. For a change, these weren’t my new xperiences either.

Back at the backpackers I started talking to a Dutch guest touring our country for 4 months. I couldn’t help to mention he must have the best boss in the world, taking leave for 4 months? Jasper confessed he resigned his job to travel. During this whole conversation I invited him to join me for dinner at the Oude Molen, a small restaurant that came highly recommended by a friend.

Now I thought this was going to be my new xperience for the day. While having dinner at this wonderful little place just outside the town, Jasper threw a spanner in the works. My new xperience was not the restaurant, no. My new xperience was inviting a total stranger out for dinner. We only introduced ourselves after the first glass of wine. I know, I know, but it was only while we were ordering we realized we don’t even know each other’s names.

Looking back now, it seems Jasper and Natasha both pointed out a very important point. Every new xperience might have more than one dimension. Thanks to a stranger and a trusted friend, I’m now looking out for 2D (or maybe even 3D) xperiences.

 

Ginger and Vortex Crew, things to add to the day

Xperience 15

Been on holiday is one thing, been very lazy whilst on holiday is a given. A new xperience every day isn’t that hard it turns out, writing about it everyday, that’s the challenge.

I’ve been going to outdoor festivals for about 9 years, which means I’ve pretty much done everything you can, including eat all there is to offer.
Sunday morning I dragged myself out of the tent at about 3am to start my shift at the bar at 4. Yep, that’s when our shifts start. Next time the chick/dude behind the bar don’t laugh at your half-assed joke around lunch time, think about this, we’ve been listening to drunk jokes for 10 hours already.

It turns out that winter also graced our presence at this party and we got to enjoy a lovely 3 degrees for a few hours (just for the record, I’m severely allergic to cold).
Unfortunately, I reverted back to eating something new for this xperience, I will get fat…fact.

There is a new stall around, selling 100% organic, homemade yummy food. And greek coffee…yes, I was jumping up an down seeing this. Giovanni’s is far-far away, I need some kind of substitute.
They had butternut & ginger soup, xperience 15 saved Renee and my frozen bum. I’m so going to try and make my own at home, can’t believe I never thought of ginger??

Xperience 16

Monday I was back at my spot behind the bar, serving the happy, lucky folk of Vortex their drinks.

I decided to sleep at the venue on Monday night, seeing that we still had to pack up the bar and home was far away. Oh, did I mention I was on leave as well? No reason to go home.

Nella and Renee invited me to stay over with them at the crew camp. We packed our tents (in my case, pretended to fold it up and chucked everything in my car) and made our way to the bush camp, with A-frame “chalets” and beds. We were queens and a king for one night!

My evening with the crew was awesome to say the least. A new xperience I would love to have again and again.
Most of these people only slept about 18 hours over 6 days or more, working their asses off to make sure we got parking, music, lights, warm water and about a million things I can’t even think of. And they still partied with us around the fire, telling weird (and quite funny) stories of everything that happened behind the scenes.
We crawled into bed around 5am, about 26 hours after I started my last shift. I fell asleep with a huge smile on my face, new friends are the best new xperience one can ask for.

 

The whole shabang!

Xperience 14

I haven’t been to a Vortex since they moved to the new venue near Riviersonderend. It’s just too far to drive back from at the end and too far to make it financially viable if I’m working only one shift. This time though, I got two shifts at the bar and as a bonus, I’m on leave and don’t have to go back to Cape Town straight away, double bonus.

There is a perfectly good reason for making this an xperience only on the second day of the Vortex.
The bit I saw while exploring the night before didn’t even closely prepare me for the whole Vortex xperience.
Visually the only word to accurately describe this is enchanting. Standing at the bar to my left is just a forest of trees and to the right a mirror image.
The dance floor is a circle of ancient oak trees, each marked with a crystal. In the shade an old caravan sells tea in cups and fairies, elves and pixies chooses their favourite blends. (For the record no mind altering substances was taken during this xperience)
Seriously, this venue reminded me of my very first party, where everything was so new, mystical, beautiful and quite enchanted.
I had a wonderful breakfast and met up with the Nella fairy.
The rest of the day was spent dancing, laughing, hugging, smiling and thoroughly enjoying every sight, smell, touch and taste that was too offer.
The best was connecting again with my friend and mother fairy Nella. Thank you for a magical day, above all, thank you for been there all this time…

This was the whole shabang, with a bang…
To the Vortex crew, WOW!!

 

Hong Kong Ding Dong

Xperience 12

Oops I’ve been neglecting to write down my xperiences due to time restraints. Don’t judge. Believe me you don’t want me writing after a couple of drinks, especially the ones with the girls. And writing on my Blackberry and driving is illegal in this country.

So back to Thursday.
The last day of work for me before my 2 week holiday was most certainly also the longest ever. When 5 hit at last, I was invited to have drink with a few girlfriends at Bueno Vista in Green Point. Yeah, xperience for the day, I haven’t been to the new venue.

We got there and was quite amazed at how “busy” they were. Not so much people, but all the tables were reserved for later. We hassled a waiter to allow us to squat at a table until 7.

Lee* and I were halfway through our drinks when Sarah* whizzed in. She hardly had a sip of her wine before she gushed, “I have no freaken idea how this happened, but you will NEVER believe what I got!” Lee and I looked at her laughing and fumbling with her phone.
On she went to Lee and me, “You know Clare’s* ex-husband living in Hong Kong now? We’ve been chatting on Skype lately when suddenly he sends me this e-mail with a picture of himself. ”
She finds what she was looking for and passes the phone to Lee, by Lee’s face I had to see too. And right there was a full frontal nude photo of the dude…zoomed in, get my drift??

Both of us looked, giggled like catholic convent girls, handed the phone back to Sarah and asked it back again. We couldn’t wait for Michelle* to get there, we had to show her too!
Michelle hardly had a first sip of her wine when we shoved the pic in her face. She spluttered, swore and refused to look again, for the moment.
We ordered another bottle of wine, had a round of tequilas and got evicted from our table. By this time nothing was a challenge anymore, at our new table we shamelessly flirted with the new waiter, picked up an Argentinian who’s friends never pitched and Michelle even had another look at the photo.

It was one of those completely unexpected fabulous nights with some of the best girls around, thanks guys.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of my partners in crime.

 

A Family Affair

Xperience 7

It would be a bit far-fetched to say a wedding is a new experience, though this one for some reason promised to be a new experience from the beginning.

Marko and Janine was the last unmarried couple and the pressure was on… They withstood the pressure really well and made it clear, if they decide to tie the knot it, will damn well be in their own good time.

Needless to say their engagement announcement was completely unexpected and to make matters worse, Janine kept the secret for almost 2 weeks!! Not on, dudes, not on at all…                                                       Everyone made themselves ready for a long engagement, it did take them about 6 years to get here after all.

Big was the surprise again when, one night three of us were hanging over some kind of divider at ‘n club called Aandklas, Janine quite carelessly mentioned their wedding in seven weeks time, only 5 months after they got engaged. I know it’s not a big thing, but this couple is known for taking things veeeeerrrrryyyy slow.

The invitation called the wedding a family affair and frankly none if us ever knew just how true these words would turn out to be. I bought a new dress and shoes (as every wedding deserves this, call it my idea of a good luck charm to the bride) and got my bum sprayed (refer to “Bend over…please”). In really bad taste I arrived 2 minutes late, but thankfully a good friend (Ed), warned the bride to be fashionably late.

The couple had the ceremony and reception at the groom’s brother’s house. An amazing place with the most awesome garden. They went all out and it looked like a Top Billing crew was about to jump from the bushes any minute to do some of those cheesy “What do you think of the couple” inserts.

When Janine walked down the path on her father’s arm, everyone went “Aaaah” at how perfect everything turned out. The wind from the night before disappeared, but for a light breeze and Janine’s father was most probably the proudest and simultaneously the saddest dad at that moment to give his beautiful daughter to Marko. It was very clear that only their closest family and friends was there to witness this union.

The feast then began, my word, did we feast. The Blush was flowing at the bar, manned by family, the food was finger licking good which brings me to the main course. The most delectable lamb curry I have ever eaten, there was almost a fist fight for left overs (I’m not kidding), made by Janine’s new in-laws. The white chocolate cheesecake wedding cake, also made by family members, made me forget about trying to cut down on sugar. This whole wedding was a family affair in the truest sense, everyone pulled in and made Janine & Marko’s day everything they dreamed it to be.

I am truly grateful to have spent this very important day with them. Thank you Marko & Janine, may your marriage be blessed with love, magic, happiness, patience and a long life together.

 

Number 1, here we go!

Xperience 1

So today was the BIG day, day one of 365 ones to come. I have to admit, this morning I had a daunting feeling that this might be a bit bigger (quite a bit actually) than I anticipated.

I drove back from town, as I slept over at friends’ house (too much red wine on their lovely patio) and it was a beautiful golden morning, the mountain was crisp (something I didn’t feel) and suddenly it was a bit overwhelming. I felt a bit lonely and missed my family, plus I made this stupid pledge…and I told everyone about it, so I can’t pull out now.

At home I threw myself back in bed for an hour or two.
I was woken by messages, texts and FB messages from friends and family. Even though my family was far away, I was blessed with the most amazing friends, right here.

After a good hearty breakfast, some coffee, the Sunday paper and a (somewhat) loving cat, I got excited, really excited…

A while ago I ran into an old friend. I’m sure all of us have a friend like this. Someone you always see at parties, have an awesome time with and promise to have dinner some time, but it never happens. This is Marianne and me, it took us about 8 years to do dinner and boy what a dinner it was, yummmm.
However, back to the story. At the last party I saw Marianne, she mentioned her new job as a manager at a restaurant in the Durbanville hills.

So when I was thinking of something to do for my birthday and xperience 1, I did consider something more action packed, more active, but wisely (I think) decided to rather do a civilised lunch. Marianne’s restaurant (Ke-Monate) was perfect.
I’ve never been there, in fact I’ve done none of the Durbanville Hills wine farms yet, perfect to start a new year.

What a lunch it was…
My closest friends, a bunch of crazy, great and downright adventurous ideas for the next 364 days to go, wonderful food- like the swordfish (pronounced with a silent w), a savignon blanc straight from heaven, phone calls from my parents and sister and I had a perfect birthday.

Thank you to everyone who was there today, in person and spirit.

(Please note I’m writing this on my BlackBerry, no spell check and with a good share of that sav blanc, I take no responsibility for vocab and general editing…)