The Lonesome Trip

Xperience 17

It seems I’ve been so close to my own xperiences, I’ve lost a bit of perspective.

On Tuesday I thought my new experience was Swellendam, a small town I always see the sign for, as I drive down the N2 and hometown of a close friend.

It was my friend Natasha who reminded me that the new xperience, actually, was going on a road trip by myself. She’s right.

I’ve found myself to look for the more literal new xperiences, however small, rather than my original intention, to xperience not only the tangible (and frankly, a lot of times, tasty), but also the more insubstantial. Those seem to be quite a bit more difficult to spot and to plan. Maybe that’s just it, don’t plan it, but keep my eyes open for when it happens? At least then I would be able to write a better post about it?

The first day of my Lonesome Trip was hardly anything to mention. I was bushed from the 4 day outdoor party, and pretty much got myself cleaned, fed and crashed for about 14 hours when I got to my destination. During the drive to Swellendam though, it did feel quite empowering to realize I could go and do whatever I felt like. I made no reservations, I listened to a CD of Verdi’s best arias and if it had a few more I might even have driven on to the next town. I confess I did feel a bit lonely while shopping for some sandwich goodies, it lasted about 2 minutes until I spent an obscene amount on a small piece of cheese.

While sitting next to a big warm fire in the backpackers and talking to some other travelers, I realized, I might be alone, but I was by no means lonely.

 

Hit me with a Houtstok

Xperience 2

At one stage today I thought, aaah crap, day 2 and already I can’t think of anything new to do. After lunch I got quite irritated and by 5, I had a slight panic attack.

In the car I took a deep breath, I had at least 45 minutes of traffic to think of something. I’m a serial channel jumper, something that irritates the living daylights out of anyone who has the misfortune to share a car or a tv with me.

Today it paid off, instead of just hopping between the pre-programmed channels, I let it scan…and found something quite interesting.
I’ve heard about a new radio station from some friends. They also warned me it may not be my cup of tea. So the radio landed on a station playing some Afrikaans music. I knew for a fact it wasn’t KFM as they don’t play any Afrikaans as a rule. I thought it may be RSG but the frequency was wrong. After alternating between a few English and Afrikaans songs like playing “one for you and one for me” the announcer mentioned I’m listening to Radio Houtstok. Yep, you read right, Houtstok, almost like Woodstock, not as old or cool as the original, but quite controversial.

Googling this station I found out that all the presenters walked out late in March. I hope this will explain the presenter today, who didn’t mention his own name once in the agonising hour I sat in traffic. Surely a presenter should do more than read listeners e-mails, traffic and news?
One of my favourite local stations is Bush Radio, a community station based in Woodstock. Maybe Radio Houtstok should take a few pointers from them on how to do an “independent” station.

My friends know me well, this wasn’t my cup of tea…one I liked trying but rather give me a cup of chardonnay. Try Radio Houtstok for yourself on 91.3fm.