JANUARY - 2015 OFF TO A BANG (sort of...)

JANUARY - 2015 off with a bang! (sort of...)

(COTW SEASON 4 - EPISODE 3)

welcome to this month's blog!
if last month was a mini-blog, this a mega one!
LOTS to catch up on, so pour yourself some java and a long read...

GLAD TO BE ALIVE!

yesterday i went kloofing down Suicide Gorge. Kloofing is literally "gorging" and it means climbing down gorges with streams and walking over river rocks and jumping down the waterfalls. it feels like "special ops" and yesterday i earned my navy seal merit badge. we hit the trial at 8.30 and returned to the parking lot at 6p. that's 10.5 hours on the trail. plus we got lost.

kloofing Suicide Gorge is gnarly because as the name suggests, the waterfall jumps are suicidal. we did jumps of 12', 20', 30' and 45 feet! that takes a while to muster up the courage to leap off of that last one. then the very last jump is 60 feet and our guide had a bad landing there once so we all followed her around the highest jump. fine by me, by that time i was pooped. kloofing demands 100% concentration as you are walking in wet slippery shoes over mostly slippery rocks. no missteps or you slam on some hard, non-caring granite.

i slipped and almost smashed my face on a wet granite slab the fist hour. still not sure how i avoided it. it is kinda fun swimming in beautiful, natural pools of cold water, but mostly it's a lot of work for the older set like me. age has taken its toll on my balance system and i feel detached like my head is way up here and my feet are way down there. imagine walking on a balance beam for 10 hours. there you go. feel the fatigue. muscles always tense. 

then you throw in some high, tall jumps into uncertain depths and the adrenaline rushes go sky high and also add up to fatigue. plus a few bad water landings tweak you up and a few slips and falls on the rocks lead to body aches and scrapes and scratches. i was so ready to head home when we finished the gorge. my legs were spent and i was shot. but it turned out we had to hike out of the bottom of the gorge to get back to base camp (the parking lot). 

so Johan and i headed up first ahead of his daughters and friends and we had to go straight up this mountain, literally straight up this rocky bit. steeper than stairs. more like a rocky ladder. with overgrowth  i thought NO WAY i have the strength to do that. turned out, we did do it but it was the wrong trail! Meralda and her friends took a lower route out and we were too high to turn back. so we took the goat trail to the top, only to be totally lost. but we weren't backtracking. 

my legs were now beyond tired, and we ended up "bunderbashing" across this ridge, blazing our own trail through very thick flora and fauna. well, fauna is animals, so not so much that, although we did see scat up there. but the flora was like walking like through snow. trudging uphill, bunderbashing, hoping the next ridge would offer a view of hope. then my left leg said enough. the quad muscle starting cramping up. i could barely lift it. 

so....my first rest stop of many. but we had no water, it was the late afternoon heat of the day, i was already exhausted, and didn't see much hope of finding the fire road we came in on. i was touch and go, and of course thoughts of Into The Wild and Touching The Void started creeping into my head. this was the longest day ever and my body was starting to shut down. hot, tired, parched, cramping, lost, thick impassable flora, it was not looking good. plus the age factor. the cold cloud cover would be blowing in soon, but i still wondered if i could make it through the night on that mountain and climb out the next day. i was getting ready to call it a day. my systems were shutting down. 

now i've run the Berlin Marathon and climbed Kilimanjaro, but this was by far my longest, most exhausting day. it was as if i couldn't take another step uphill. we spotted an antenna a few peaks away and thought surely there'd be a road or trail to that. 45 minutes later we got there and no road. no trail. the sun was going down and the clouds were rolling in. we were in no man's land on top of some mountain with steep cliffs for a descent. the footing was terrible, you couldn't really see where you were stepping, and the other leg was starting to protest. 

i didn't quit, i tried not to complain. i just finished reading American Sniper and i wanted to be Seal tough. another slip, another fall, more scratches that were bleeding now, a sore hip, prickly bushes, loose rocks, just about every obstacle you can imagine...at the end of an already very long day. somehow, we kept mushing and found the other group again down the mountain. and we found the fire road. another 45 minutes to get to that. meralda climbed up a loose rocky path, and brought us water! an angel! then we could walk down the loosely rocky path or head up to the 2 lane fire road. but i had no more "up" left in me.

she insisted up and fire road was the best bet. it was maybe 100 steps straight up to the fire road, and now both quads cramped up completely. i hobbled like a cripple over the top and found a rock to rest on. it was all downhill from there but still my legs cramped up from sheer dehydration. but we were at last on the fire road and heading downhill. the sun was setting, but i was going to make it off the mountain after all. 

it was all probably a lot less dramatic than what i'm writing, but at the time it was HECTIC as they say around here. unfortunately when you're kloofing everything gets soaked, so no iPhones brought. no pics. but the hills were alive...with the sound of agony! but all's well that ends well and i made it home to a hot bath and cold glass of chardonnay. the end. however, i may not be kloofing again for a while!

THE NEW DIGS
well, you can't judge a book by it's cover. my new Dubai like high-rise has been a nightmare. never seen a building with worse craftsmanship. built poorly with cheap China fixtures. i was told even the large tiles buckled one winter after owners had moved in. the builder said tough luck. not our problem. this building is a joke. 

not so funny is the wicked wind that blows in over the mountains from Gordon's Bay. and of course i have a window that doesn't exactly close all the way, the seals are shot, so at night this place sounds like Base Camp 5 on Mt. Everest. then if there's no wind, it's stifling hot. there's no air con, no shutters, no curtains. just a large wall of glass cooking from the afternoon sun and glare off the sea. and even at 15 stories high, you still get sand up here. and the tap water is so gnarly. milky and gross and even smells a bit. this is turning into the whiney whingeing blog! 

but the wind IS crazy, the afternoon glare is unbearable for 2-3 hours a day, and Strand has no vibe, it's not my scene. no where to go and nothing to do. i had huge renter's remorse, regretted heavily not moving into "town" like downtown Cape Town also called CBD or Central Bowl District. and the hip places like Green Point. so I checked out Green Point and the rents were twice as much for much less. 

the problem is i'm really a pensioner trapped inside the body of a hipster. (or make that vice versa...more the body of a pensioner!). but moving into town is costly and i just moved here and i don't know a soul and i want community which i have in Helderberg more or less. the truth is i miss Papyrus Lodge, but that was no longer an option. 

the new digs are stressful, not finished, and i felt a wrong choice by me. it's like living in high-rise hotel room that has no carpet, air con, curtains, just a shell. and TODAY i discover from the construction above in the penthouse that they are demo-ing a swimming pool right above my flat and then finishing the build out! supposed to take 5 months! talk about no full-disclosure! so my pimpy residence may be temporary. i'm getting used to it, but right now i'm wearing the largest headphones i have and am listening to miles davis to drown out the noise upstairs. i can still hear the guy sawing or sledging away. oy. weeks more of this. IDK, is this a high end problem???

THE MELTDOWN AND LAST RESORT
then last week i had an anxiety attack. my meetings and emails looking for work here have turned out unfruitful. read: rejection. the problem is that's it's a tight industry here to begin with, and most of the production companies here only accommodate other agencies and shoots from overseas which bring their own directors and DP's. even PULSE, a freelance crew agency, wouldn't take me. so...not much love for ddm/COTW. and the Bread Shack investment is a long work in progress in something i know nothing about. ugh.

frustrated and discouraged and, as usual, always putting a lot of pressure on myself to achieve and perform, i finally felt the crush of it all and decided to give up. Retire. buy that cowboy house with a lap pool in stanford and officially embrace the golden years. putz around with an endless fixer-upper and leave the grind for the less faint of heart. i was done. 

move into the country, be part of a small town, no more pressure to attain or achieve, and call it a career. i knew that house was still waiting for me and now that i am a "temp resident" i knew i could get a bond/loan this time around. so i had my solution to my dilemma....retire, pull in the shingle, and fade into the sunset. so i started the loan process to get pre-qualified. 

just one problem, my cowboy house had already sold! that cool lap pool gone! Plan B poof up in smoke! no going back. i missed my chance. not to be. i was gutted. now what???? well, already deciding to retire and take the pressure off seemed to help. Suicide Gorge may kill me but i was no longer going to have a heart attack over working in cape town. then i took a deep breath and let things stew a bit. what to do??? what was my niche? what was my unique product that no one else could copy or offer? my unique selling point? what could i offer that made money? 

well after a day or two, what surfaced up was the ole HAMC, my Hollywood Acting Master Class. it was a success in Nairobi and by now i had an idea for an affordable venue and even found a young gun for hire in my building to help with all the admin. Genaro loves film production and wants to learn. he will be a big help. so...back from retirement, i am presently producing the next HAMC 8 or 9 saturday class. and i'm actually looking forward to it. kind of excited. i love teaching and love being on set and the class offers both. so hopefully next month we start HAMC CPT! then maybe make it into a weekend seminar for Joburg and Durban. or Dubai!

A LOVE LIFE?
well folks, i kissed a girl the other day. a few weeks ago actually. someone i like. and my first kiss in over 3 years. wow. amazing. you married folks should't take small things for granted. she thinks i'm "gorgeous" and "adores me". geesh, never thought i'd hear that again. so that's been fun!

there is a hitch...she was stabbed in the throat a short while back and nearly died, then more recently was egregiously sexually assaulted...so...she's not ready for anyone yet. has some trust issues. gee, ya think? but "close friends" is okay. and that's okay with me. it's a little complicated, and i'm not sure if i'm retiring, moving over the mountain to stanford, or what the heck i'm actually doing! so baby steps is fine. but i was smitten for the first time in a long time. but she was up front in only being friends. fair enough. we still steal a smooch now and then. 

then i met a great german gal visiting her mom in Cape Town from Frankfurt kloofing for the first time. we spent the next week together hanging out til she flew home. also fun. so...ddm has some game left after all. not too comfortable posting pics of my dating life...feels a bit like kiss & tell. but if something gets serious, i'll let you know! the cool thing is that i'm meeting them!

AND WHISKEY...
this weekend i'm going back to stanford for my first scottish Robert Burns Night! 

A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day (or Robbie Burns Day^[1] or Rabbie Burns Day) or Burns Night (Scots: Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.

Burns suppers are most common in Scotland and Northern Ireland, however, there has been a surge in Burns' Night celebrations in the UK events industry seeing the evening being celebrated outside their traditional confines of Burns Clubs, Scottish Societies, expatriate Scots, or aficionados of Burns' poetry. There is a particularly strong tradition of them in southern New Zealand's main city Dunedin, of which Burns' nephew Thomas Burns was a founding father.

thanks to my dear expat friend matt chancey, i'll be reading his poem in full scottish regalia this saturday night. i'm going "Hemingway" (growing my white beard) for the occasion. here is the poem...preferably read with a scottish accent if you can muster it.

"Whiskey"*

Matt Chancey

Peat and moss and dew on the heather.

Rain and sleet-- good Scottish weather.

Smoking fires and cracking logs,

Icy brooks and muddy bogs.

Rocky walls, great halls.

Running stags, neighing nags.

Cold chills and copper stills.

Winter carols, oaken barrels.

Heiland hills and deep ravines,

Blackened lochs and crystal streams,

Salmon angling, chasing dreams,

Children playing, sun beams.

Country Kirk and city spire,

Covenanter psalmist crier,

Holy Rude and Stirling sires,

Reformation bon fires.

Seedy pubs and smoky tables,

Singing drunks and story fables,

Roasting meat and rotting gables,

White wash and smelly stables.

Dancing maidens, wall flowers,

Thatched roofs and castle towers,

Celtic fiddles playing hours.

Spirits ripen, beer sours.

Woolen kilts and porridge spilt,

Pipes blaring, sweethearts starring,

Bonnets waving, penny saving,

Sheep bleating, shepherds sleeping.

Selah

All the love for hearth and home.

All the joy for what has been.

All the grace and all the sin.

Where can I even begin?

The blood and the toil,

The sun and the soil,

The sea and the shore,

The wind on the moor.

Old friends gone.

Loves forsaken.

Tears untapped.

Memories taken.

An empty house,

A horse untamed,

A wandering heart,

I am the same.

I pine away for what is lost,

My memory is bleached with frost.

My musty books cannot console,

Nor chase the gloom from my erring soul.

But, aye, there's a word t'would be submissive,

And put to bed this lengthy missive.

In beauty it amply summarizes,

All of life's lows and rises.

It lurks in dungeons, towers and heavens,

It sanctifies mean and conversing leavens.

It heals the sick and cheers the dying,

Repairs the breech and sends us flying.

When all is said and stories ended,

Battles ceased and hearts mended,

Through tears our vision may be misty,

But in our hearts we know it's whiskey.

*Winner of First Prize, Burns Night, Talisman Restaurant, Nairobi, Kenya

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014
all rights reserved by matt chancey

you get the vibe. lilty and fun.  I told you this was a mega-blog! pretty cool poem eh? not sure i'll be kilting with no knickers on as a true scot should, but you never know.

TURTLE DOCO UPDATE
no news on the turtle of lamu except an email from the UK from Scorpion TV from an interested buyer. i sent him the Vimeo link to watch the film and it's been nothing but crickets. it looks we'll be in the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in NYC this October. i have other festivals i need to pursue also.

THE OSCARS
for some reason this year i'm really into the Oscars. possibly because there are so many great films. haven't seen em yet, but been pouring over trailer and featurettes on youTube. Birdman i saw here and it blew me away. wow. so fresh. nothing what i expected. great stuff. also love American Sniper, the Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything. plus a big Bennett Miller fan from Capote so Foxcatcher also looks amazing. IDK, just some good cinema out there. may do a 2am party here in my building with my friends downstairs and watch it live! i'm secretly cheering for Imitation Game to sweep. excellent filmmaking and acting.

ONE MAN SHOW
now that i'm growing my beard, i actually could pull off Hemingway. if anyone knows of a 1 man theatre show of Hemingway or wants to write one, i would put it up here in cape town. i would be very keen to do that. kindly forward any ideas on that! (i just emailed the writer for the film tribute called PAPA.)

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES
so, the new life journey continues. and i continue to live in places, meet people, and do things i never in a million years would have ever imagined. sure it would have been nice to buy that cowboy house and finally have a permanent home, but in the meantime i'm taking water upstairs to the poor kid from Zimbabwe who single handedly is demo-ing and finishing that penthouse. and kloofing. so there you go. 

no regrets about leaving Kenya although i still have fond flashes of lamu and my students in NBO, but overall the Western Cape is a pretty great place to be. i'm working on my Permanent Residency card, and always am looking for some cool little cottage on some charming vineyard somewhere. but with deciding to teach the HAMC and perhaps find a niche with that, it looks like i'll stay in the greater Helderberg/cape town area. that means somewhere between Strand, Somerset West and Stellenbosch. with surgical strikes into the city.

have to say Cape Town hasn't turned out at all like i hoped for or expected, but overall the adventure has been amazing. learning to stay present, not get too far ahead of myself, and remember what my dad used to say: "nothing very good or very bad lasts very long". including being stuck on top of a gorge with both legs cramping with no food or water and the clouds blowing in while the sun sets. but hey, i made it out. i survived. perhaps my hardest day ever. it's all downhill from here! time to enjoy the little things. i spent an hour prepping an omelette this morning...dicing tomatoes and green peppers, ham, and cheese. just fun to cook and slow down the pace a bit. as aaron rodgers says...RELAX. i guess i'm not a hipster anymore. only at heart.

AND NOW FOR SOME PICS!
...some of you have had a sneak peek on Facebook! most pics are new!

the old cowboy house and empty lot in stanford...SOLD. no Plan B. yikes. time to improvise.

christmas spirit in stanford. dolphins instead of reindeer. you feeling me? me neither.

Strand. my high rise. such as it is. a lot of strings and mirrors. those windows may or may not close properly.
and the wind might be the strongest in the Cape.

all my belongings are in this bakkie on my move to Strand. living small. now i have more stuff.

work station on my balcony. 

sundowner in the new crib.

The V&A Waterfront in Cape Town proper. always fun to visit. i'll meet you there.

always room for an Ocean Potion at Triggerfish Brewery.

Kloofing country.

feels like Special Ops working our way down the gorge. think navy seals.

my first kloofing expedition. 

Haas coffee shop in CBD. classic hip and cool.

another view from above. looking up Strand.

that window on the left doesn't quite close all the way. hmmmmm. base camp scenario when the wind howls nightly. sometimes all day.

Bread shack. small beginnings.

yes we make wood fire pizza too!

a very nice rustic space.

date night at The Bungalow. lekker. poa sana. very cool.

killer vibe at The Bungalow. makes rezzos for sunset! near Clifton Beach.

groovy crowd.

nice road in the wine country.

i may invest in this restaurant idea. Mediterranean vibe.

comes with tables and chairs and lots of stuff.

a great family in my building wants to open it. "Delponte's"

food truck.

patron at el burro upstairs. nice sombrero. killer chicken enchilada.

Watershed at Waterfront. nice refurb job. striking.

lego artist at The Art of the Brick. amazing stuff.

all done with lego bricks.

incredible.

lego swimmer.

more lego.

lego girl with the pearl earring.

incredible.

old part of cape town...from Traffik Casting.

the other century city. saw Birdman here. really good!

my secret alpine resort...MOFAM river lodge. 50 minutes from Strand

the view to the left of Gordon's Bay. waiting for transpo for suicide gorge.

"the tower". looks can be deceiving. do i still have to pay rent if there's a jackhammer
everyday for the next 4 weeks???

reverse angle...looking out from hills of Gordon's Bay. i live in the distance.

Suicide Gorge survivor. happy to be home. the beard filling in.

i hated this place shortly after moving in. so i protested buying cookware. after cowboy house sold, i bought
a pan. made some eggs. (the worst food shot ever!) but i'm here for a while. i guess. gypsy boy still on the run.

still fairly sparse in the furniture dept. should i stay or should i go????

believe me now??? the swimming pool upstairs. full demo job. the architects never provided ventilation
for the pool. it was like a greenhouse in there. a kitchen will replace it. it's a big mess, and unfortunately,
it is my problem at the minute. jackhammering starts tomorrow for a week or two. ugh. Judge Judy, what say yee???

linc will play at the robert burns night. my first piper friend. he played 8 years for the
south african military. the guy is solid!

WELL THAT'S ALL FOLKS! TALK TO YOU LATE FEB!