Falling into Place
It's pretty exciting the way things are starting to really pick up speed leading to my "get the hell out of here" moment!
My plans are solidifying - a bit - as I set my sights on a mid-November departure. It looks like (at least at the moment) that I will initially go to Mick in KZN (KwaZulu Natal) where I will meet up with Zoze who flies in from New Zealand towards the end of the month. Then we will head down to the Cape mid-December and stay with Biff and at a self-catering cottage while Julie's Susan is with them over Christmas. We are hoping Mick will be able to come down then as well.
While in the Cape, I will be visiting a lot of distilleries with the blessing of the South African Craft Distilling Institute who is busy opening doors for me! The articles will be mainly for ADI but I have also pitched South African Country Life , which I used to write for, but haven't had a response yet.
SACDI has offered to put me up and introduce me at other distilleries up around Johannesburg and Pretoria, and I will also be doing one of the their distilling classes, which is very exciting. What I would like to be able to do is to take the Light Blue Train from Cape Town to Jo'burg and then back from there to Maritzburg. I have wanted to do a train trip like that for ages, and with the exchange rate in my favor at the moment, it seems like a great opportunity.
Once back in KZN, we want to do a couple of game reserves in Zululand where there is a also a new rum distillery! And of course, I will be spending time with my oldest best friend Rosemary and my god daughter Catherine at "the cottage" at Clansthal.
Then at some stage, probably February or March, I will fly back to LAX, see the boys then head south to Belize for the duration, however long that is.
In the meantime, I have three articles to do for American Distilling Magazine. I need another interview with Keith at Bainbridge Organic Distillery which I hope to do tomorrow and then will go over to Ballard, across the Sound for two more, hopefully next week.
This distillery biz is all a huge learning curve for me but I am thoroughly enjoying it and loving the people who are involved in this industry. They all seem so passionate about what they do, which is so very refreshing!
I realized that I have not posted anything about my trip to Coeur d'Alene with Ryan to see Cody and the little boys, so that is the next one; a bit out of order but oh well...