Mark vs. Supermoon: The Battle at Lion's Head

So the other day, Andrew, Danel and I hiked to the top of Lion's Head. It's a famous peak next to Table Mountain in Cape Town aptly named due to it's resemblance of a head of a lioness lying down (see below).

Lion's head is the peak on the left while the one on the right is Signal Hill (where apparently they still fire a cannon at noon everyday and have since the early 1800's)

Anyway, we were hiking up to see the sunset as well as the moonrise. It was a full moon and also the moon was at it's perigee (where it is closest to the Earth) so would be somewhat brighter and a tad larger.

There will be a quiz on Thursday.

The hike is pretty cool with some steep sections and great views. A lot of people do the hike during a full moon because it allows for an easier descent (the extra light from the moon) as well as an awesome view of the moon rising over Devil's Peak.

When we reached the peak it was like a small party up there. Everyone had some wine or beers and sat around first watching the sun set then switching sides to watch as the moon rose. It was really cool. We, ourselves, enjoyed some Sparkling Rose that Andrew had brought. It was pretty delicious (Graham Beck makes some quality sparkling). The walk down was like a mass exodus of people wearing headlamps. The cult of the full moon descending down the mountain (no spaceship came this time). Probably looked like some vigil to those on the ground.

Here are some photo's from the event (click anyone to enlarge).

From left to right: Cape Town, Devil's Peak, Table Mountain, 12 apostles, and Camp's bay.

One of a billion sunset photos I took.

At dusk. The clouds began forming on Devil's peak, where the story goes that some Dutch guy, who's name I can't remember, and the devil are having a smoking competition. Sounds like some story stoners tell, to me.

The supermoon, not like that fake moon that almost got me fired.

"When the light, go down, in the citayyy. and the moon shines on Camp's bay"

The Gods Still Must be Crazy or Africa by Toto is still a classic

For those not aware, the movie The Gods Must be Crazy was filmed in South Africa. Coca Cola is still very delicious and awe-inspiring as well.

How N!xau didn't win an oscar I'll never know

Speaking of "as well". South Africans have a funny dialect when it comes to this phrase; They seem to put the wrong emPHAsis on the wrong syLLAble. They prefer saying AS well unlike the rest of the worlds as Well. Guess you kinda have to be here. Anyway, other fun Afrikaans stuff: v's are pronounced like f’s, d’s are pronounced like t’s, and they loooooove putting vowels together (i.e. Boukenhoutskloof, Mooiplaas…two wineries btw).

Here his name would be spelled Baabbii Vlei

And for those needing that Toto fix:

On a completely separate note: I don’t think my Zimbabwe investments are doing too well…unless I invested 10 googol (the correct spelling thank you, go ahead and look it up on google...whoa) Zimbabwe dollars. Even then I think it’s just like 20 bucks. With the Euro dropping I thought the Z dollar was due!

Yes that is a 25 billion Zimbabwe dollar note...there was also a trillion dollar one.

As for myself, I am done working (and there was much rejoicing) and have been busy going to many a South African winery. Current count is at 53 visited as of May 3^rd. Here’s my list of South African wines that are really really really good:

Rust en Vrede – Single Vineyard Syrah

Le Riche – Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

Jordan – Nine Yards Chardonnay

Luddite – Shiraz

Klein Constantia – Vin de Constance

Beaumont – Hope Marguerite Chenin blanc

Boekenhoutskloof – The Chocolate Block

Ken Forrester – Reserve Chenin blanc

Rustenberg – Five Soldiers

Simonsig – Red Hill Pinotage

Up next is South African Roadtrip 2012 or in Afrikaans: Lekker Rooadtriip 2oo12. Trip entails stops in: Jeffreys Bay, Cintsa, Coffee Bay, Hogsback, Addo, and Oudtshorn. Sidenote: Hogsback is supposedly where Tolkien got his idea of the shire, land of the hobbits, my feet are kinda hairy so I should feel right at home. Feel free to google some of these spots and become jealous.

Me and you Frodo

Anyways, at my current rate, my next blog will occur in 2013…so enjoy patiently.

Here's a cool photo:

Click for larger image. This is driving round Chapmans peak.

To Live and Braai in SA or Ain't Nothing but a G(rill) Thing Baby

So the braai (pronounced Br-eye, or Bri as in Unkie Briii (somewhat inside joke, sorry outsiders)) is the best way to eat in South Africa. It’s essentially a barbecue but using special wood and lasting over several hours thus being a social event. Basically you get your wood and get it lit; everyone hangs out around the fire having wine and beer. This lasts an hour or two till the fire has turned to hot coals and those coals are then cool enough to cook over. You then chuck your meats of choice on the grill be it pork, beef, chicken, hippo, ostrich or whatever. Two guaranteed entrees are boerewors and briaabroodjies. Boerewors is a giant length of what is somewhat similar to a spiced sausage (see below).

Mmmmmmm, spiraled meat

 Briaabroodjies (not even gonna try to spell it phonetically) are the greatest thing invented by man (South African man anyway). It is kinda like a grilled cheese sandwich but a) cooked over a wood grill and b) containing onion and chutney. They are delicious and I will definitely be bringing them home with me.

As delicious as they are hard to spell

So I think I’m averaging about 3-4 braiis a week; so my pork intake is doing quite well (as well as my lager consumption….since all the beer here is the same. The new leading candidate is Tafel Lager: a Namibian brew that is crisp and refreshing but still a run of the mill lager).

Tafel Lager: Namibian for beer

My “apartment” doesn’t have a couch so in honor of this I present my list of stuff I miss from the states:

1)a couch

2)a tv

3)a couch and a tv working in unison

4)march madness (the first couple round anyway)

5)chik-fil-a (just randomly popped  into my head, but I love it)

6)readily available internet

7)gluttony

8)california

9)and of course friends and fam

And in honor of my blog title: 

"The Mullet is Alive and Well and Living in South Africa" or "The long awaited 5th post"

Been pretty busy and wifi hasn't seemed to have sprouted here like it has in the states so posts are few and far between I'm afraid.

This post is dedicated to all those wild south africans with business going on in the front and a party raging in the back i.e. The Mullet. (see below). Once "popular" in the 80's in the US (as seen below), the trend seems to have finally reached Cape Town. How many photos like this are currently being generated here only to be horribly regretted in 5 years?

Looking good Doug. Does Billy Ray Cyrus know how much he influenced a generation?

I've seen countless mullets during my travels around. They are often found to be inhabiting young male adults, often of a quasi hipster or rugby variety. Unfortunately, I have been without a camera during all of my encounters. I plan to stage a mullet hunting expedition to capture images of them in their native habitat: often lowbrow bars with high levels of Castle beer in the air. Pictures are soon to come.

Anywho, work is going well. Today we bottled the first 2012 red wine in all of South Africa. It is a Beaujolais nouveau style wine, I won't get into anymore detail other than it is a young wine, released basically 2-3 weeks after harvesting and is drunk soon after without any aging potential.

Some of the newly released wine. It was such a joy getting to stack all these all day.

Yesterday was a full moon and I got some pretty good pics. Would have been better if my camera was decent. Anyway here's one. Enjoy.

Click to see full size.

 Anyway, that's all for now; too tired to keep thinking of stuff to type. Till the next episode: "To Live and Braai in SA"

"Chip Manufacturer to take Disney to Court"

That is clearly what the headline should be. May I present exhibit A:

Curios....a lion named Simba, eh?...ha, just noticed this is chutney flavored, but not just any chutney...

Dear Disney, will your next animated movie featured a mustached gentleman named Pringle? perhaps he meets a young lady with the last name Utz? Maybe an antagonist by the name of Senor Dorito? A crime takes place....nothing Detective Lays can't solve. And who can forget the lovable Doug Sunchip.

Anyway, you get the point. And this company has been around well before the movie.

"there's a stampede in the gorge! OH No! my chips (sorry, crisps) are down there!!"

Also, sidenote, was looking at my jacket today and noticed this:

100% Alf....nevermind the polyester nonsense below that

Yep, my jacket is made from 100% of everyone's favorite 80's sitcom cat-eating alien: ALF

"I thought it was cat filet tonight...Hey!"...classic ALF

Also, sidenote, I believe this is the second ALF mention in one of my blogs, which leads to the question: When do the Harry and the Hendersons references begin!

Not soon enough, eh Harry?

To live and die in SA

I'm currently sick. Tonsillitis. Go figure. I'm gonna have to just cut those bastards out of my throat myself. Stupid vestigial organ anyway. However, I decided to go to a doctor instead and got antibiotics. This is my vent.

A late Post number 2 or Posting on Africa time

So it's been about 2 weeks, figured I should try and get the energy to post something to this thing. As is the usual custom when traveling, I have been searching for what will ultimately be my beer for the harvest. Currently the two front runners are Hansa marzen gold or Carling Black Label. For those interested, they are both lagers as is most beer here. I really can't imagine a scenario where I would want a porter at this point. The sun is hot to say the least.

View from near the winery

To give a short synopsis of my sitation, I'm currently working at Asara winery, which is actually a huge hotel and restaurant as well as winery located in Stellenbosch, SA. Unfortunately, I didn't get the penthouse suite like I thought I was going to (bastards). So it goes. Instead, my fellow housemates and I were given a different "penthouse" which is actually a converted office. It's actually not that bad except for the fact that we don't really have a shower per se (don't feel like explaining...there's a shower downstairs that I use that we get to share with the vineyard workers, so it's obviously very clean and works well) and that my bedroom is soo huge and empty that I often feel as if I should start playing indoor soccer in there or something (word on the street was that a ping-pong table might go in there, which I am obviously all for). Man I'm tired, really don't have any energy to think of something fruitfull and entertaining to write. Hell, I can barely spell at this point. Most of my day currently consists of lifting, stacking, moving, and emptying crates full of grapes...as well as the usual winery work (fun fact: wine is made from grapes!). Sorry if this sounds like complaining, but after dealing with 4000 of these things I'm allowed to (see pic below). Anyway, looks like its just another harvest getting paid to get in shape, boo ya; suck on that Jack Lalanne. (the other day we did a heavy day and I got to enjoy lifting 10 tons worth of grapes in crates in about 4-5 hours...."Where's the goddamn protein, MA!!")

I can take you, old man

Lebo with the remnants of a crazy hour of tipping crates onto the sorting table....we organized them later

Fun South Africa facts:

-In Africa time, now means tomorrow, soon means next week, and later means never
-the sun is hot.....very hot
-beer is cheap but you feel like its expensive..."no way man, 50 rand a 6 pack what is this? Lethoso??"
-trucks are called buckys and traffic lights are called robots...go figure
-people are in every parking lot to help you park, its like all of South Africa has valet parking....cept there are really just there to stop people from stealing shit......if you pay them
-to easily communcate with everyone at work I need to learn 3-4 languages....which isn't promising considering most people don't understand my english
-jerky is the national food only here it's called biltong and is made from all sorts of crazy animals like kudu, springbok, ostrich, and eskimos
-the rand (unit of currency here) is not quite as strong as the dollar, so despite the fact that I have fifteen 100 bills in my wallet, I am not a baller


that is all. Maybe I'll get around to writing another before I leave in May.

How to avoid winter or I haven't seen a spring in 2 years

Hey gang. So I decided to keep the tradition alive and write stuff while I'm traveling 'round the world. Next stop: South Africa. For those of you not in the loop, I'm going to work a grape harvest outside Cape Town in Stellenbosch. I'll be working at a winery called Asara. I'm not entirely sure if I'll even have an internet connection where I'm staying so this might be shortlived....that's what she said.

Anyway, here's a short list of stuff I hope to do while there:

-go on a safari
-climb to the top of Table Mountain
-not get eaten by a lion
-learn all of the 53 official languages of South Africa
-use the term "bru" an inordinate amount
-not get eaten by a Great White
-grab a Springbok by the horns and squeeze in such a way that a sound comes out "MaarrkkDaaviis", it won't be quite right but it will be pretty good for a Springbok (see minute 3:40 below...not sure the link works though)
-not get eaten by a Hippo
-regain pigment in my skin via sun exposure




Anywho, I head out bright (read dark still) and early tomorrow morn and begin the 23 hour journey to Cape Town. Unbeknownst to most, the city is actually named after an extremely popular fashion trend in the mid 1800's where almost all the residents adorned capes on weekends. Learn something new everyday.

this is a springbok btw....TO Bill Brasky!!!

See ya America!