Get the hell out of here

Picking Up Speed

Falling into Place

ColumnIt'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.

Whiskey barrels

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...