tree and the gang.

in hindsight it probably wasn’t the best idea to send the one person who has never ever pitched a tent before to go to reforestfest early to pitch all the tents for our group. yes, that person was me. but since someone pitched my tent for me last year and i was the only one who could leave work early, i didn’t want to argue too much. good thing i had convinced my friend warwick to come down for the weekend and managed to bribe him with a lift from the airport in order to be my slave knight in shining armour. so off we went in my little car which was so stuffed i was glad i hadn’t offered anyone else a lift; when carpooling with a 9-people tent there is little wiggle room.

despite our best efforts we got there when the sun was already gone and were faced with the scenario we had tried to avoid: pitching tents in the dark. luckily i am a magical unicorn (warwick calls me that, i would never call myself something that cutsie) and unlike last year i have my own magical pink unicorn headlamp these days. magical properties, headlamps and some amounts of drink were indeed needed. have you ever tried to pitch a 9-people tent? if you don’t really, really have to, i recommend, you don’t. tell the two people who will share the 9-people tent to get a tent appropriate to the number of people who will actually share the tent. since i was supposed to be by myself sleeping in a 4-people tent i couldn’t do that.

in the end we managed somehow and thus i give you highlight no 1:  my first pitched tent ever.

i do apologize for the crappy picture, but in my defence my hand was still shaking with excitement that i just pitched a tent.

many more highlights followed, one of them being that we ended up building homes for 3000 little treelings instead of the originally planned 2000. yes, we were the kind of annoyingly happy tree huggers who preferred to plant another 1000 trees after reaching the planting goal earlier than anticipated instead of kicking it back with a g&t in the shade. i’m usually that much of an overachiever or one to pass up a g&t, but in this case something was different and also i didn’t bring any gin. but in this case i didn’t want to be left out. remember in high school when the cool kids would hang around the corner where no teacher could see them smoke? and you longingly stared at them from afar, wishing for one of them to invite you over so you could be cool too and do silly things. well, at platbos all the cool kids were planting trees. and the more they plant, the cooler they are and since the more people there are, the more trees can be planted unlike high school they will want to invite you over to get down and dirty.

nobody said cool can’t be dirty and we took our dirty faces back into the fairy lights lit forest camp after genie and francois, the forest owner (awesome title!) had planted the 3000^th tree. of course the only appropriate thing to do after planting 3000 trees is having pasta dinner and red wine by the camp fire as well as a tiny crush on the musician. and how could i not if he is singing lana del ray with a very raspy voice that made me wonder how he will sound like after a night of women, whiskey and cigarettes? since i look let’s call it, eh, unfortunate after a night in a tent and i had to share my mattress already (thanks, mate, for keeping me warm!) i didn’t explore that option further. instead we instigated a little zambian reunion and hopped around like crazy people danced the night away. i did so on a tree stump which i managed not to fall off of somehow and at this point in the evening i considered that a highlight in itself.

i remember last year i kept on going on and on about yoga in the morning under the old milkwood tree afterwards so i am a bit sheepish to admit that i didn’t manage to get out of the tent in time this year. on sunday however we did manage to be up and about for a forest walk led by francois. francois is a proper tree man and leader of the gang. he is witty and only a bit stern looking, knowledgeable and you know he shares your believe in magic when you hear him talk about trees.  if you are in the area, just do yourself a favour and go to platbos; ask him to give you a tour and explain to you how trees speak to each other and how a golf course makes for an excellent fire repellent. do say hello to our 3000 baby trees and please report back to me if they are happily growing after a first rainy shower today.

if you ever want to play with the cool kids too, check out greenpop’s website for weekly planting activities or join the übercool ones in zambia this july.  

One wedding and two unkissed frogs.

We have thoroughly examined my inability to pack and how when the time comes I always sit like a deer in headlights and just stare at my suitcase, right? Well as things go last Thursday I had to brave the unwanted task yet again and this time multiplied in its magnitude of what the heck should I take and how am I going to fit it all? It was my cousin’s wedding on Saturday and as much as I was all excited for a road trip (and yes, Grabouw makes it a road trip in my books!), a gathering with some a lot of my favourite people over wine and food, and of course the overall soppiness of a beautiful occasion, I had no clue what to take. Which was partly due to the fact that the groom who was in charge of two things, invitation and accommodation, but didn't get around to either. So I basically didn't know if there was any dress code and since I was scheduled to sleep in a tent I would have to get wedding ready in a bathroom which was called 'a clean ablution block' on the farm’s website.

Luckily I wasn't a slave styling assistant for years for nothing.

So I dug out my pink unicorn headlamp and an old dress, which was chic enough to match any dress code, yet slutty enough to make it appropriate for a sailor’s wedding (not a euphemism, my cousin is actually a captain) and I thought me ready for anything. The next day I even managed to buy some padkos though I realize I need to re-evaluate the concept of padkos as surely it doesn't count if you eat it all before you even hit the N2 or does it?

The drive went as smoothly as a drive can be with me and two cousins and no vodka:

Cousin 1: Did you bring vodka?
Me: No sorry.
Cousin 1: But what’s in the bottle then?
Me: That’s my yoga water bottle. Filled with water.
Cousin 1: Pity, it looked like a Grey Goose bottle.

Obviously there was much sex talk as we were driving to a wedding and thus deemed it the perfect topic of conversation.

Cousin 2: Let’s talk about sex.

And much screeching singing and me almost driving into the orchards while Night Fever was playing.

Me: Night fever, night feeveeeer!
Cousin 1: Whoo – why is there an apple tree in the middle of the road?

Somehow we managed to arrive all three of us and my little car intact.
Then there was…

A lake.

Fairy lights. Yay!

A slip ‘n slide with more adults fully dressed on it than I cared to count.

Tequila shots more than I cared to count.

Two swims around the entire lake and the realization that you do need your abs to swim…who would have guessed?

A DJ and a squazilionair, applying to become members of my family by the end of the weekend.

Countless pairs of shoes, cast aside after we opened the dance floor, patiently waiting for their owners to find them the next day.

A bit of magic all around.

Two frogs. Unkissed. At least one of them, as far as I know. Both may have been kissed. If you kissed one too, comment now or be forever silent.

The bestest chocolate cake ever. Seeing that it was delivered in person - do you read this, Callie?? – gives me hope that he may yet cave and make one little cheesecake for my birthday…

Oh yes, last but not least there was also a beautiful bride and a handsome groom and they both said yes!

Here are some little snapshots. I will not even try to explain the hats and wigs...

One should mention that there was however neither a full length mirror nor a power plug in our tent as some people…ehm, cousin 1?!...thought there would be. With that in mind I think I deserve a medal for my glamping skills.