Midsummer Dream

You know those weekends where you feel like you’re in a dream and at the end of it you just feel like you’ve forgotten you work five days a week and have no idea how you’re going to survive on Monday? Yeah….I definitely had one of those.

Midsummer snacks!

Flower power!

It started off with Midsummer celebrations. Midsummer is a traditional Swedish holiday, almost as big as Christmas celebrated in the beginning of the summer with traditional food, dancing and flowers. I know what you’re thinking, “It’s not the middle of summer, its only the beginning!” but the Swedish are weird and no-one knows why it’s called that (well no-one I know anyway). So Anna, Dannie and I got into it full swing and made flower wreaths for our hair, got the chef Bruce to make traditional food and got everyone to go out on a drunken disorderly missions as that is what these holidays are ACTUALLY about.

Sys

So we started off at the Purple Bar in a Piazza in Genoa, they make really awesome cocktails and the place is humming with activity. Next we hit the Shot Bar. The boys got absinthe, which they couldn’t handle and the girls of course got marshmellow shots. They, give you a marshmellow on a skewer  then light some alcohol on a flat surface, over which you braai your marshy, dip it in the shot, consume then down the shot. It.Is.Delicious. We headed to Piazza Ferarri – slightly stumbling at this stage and hailed a cab. We were off to the beach front for the raucous part of the evening and Bruce got us nicely started yelling cazzo and vaffanculo out the window to passers-by. We headed to a new bar Sys and after a bit of haggling, Tom got us nice and sorted with VIP treatment: a table and a 1.5 litre bottle of Grey Goose and mixers that came in a sparkly haze to our dry mouths. After that was an epic blur of dancing and drinking and dancing and drinking until….uh oh, too much!! Made it home just in time though…

The next day was an early start and a four hour drive to Firenze for apartment hunting for Tom and Dannie for the end of the season. Sitting in a hot car with no air conditioning and no music is definitely one way NOT to cure a hangover. After the quickest tour around Firenze we were off to the countryside to stay at the Captain and his wife’s house for the night. Braaing ribs, watching hundreds of fireflies down in the valley and star gazing made the trip all worth-while. The next day was a late lie-in and a scrumptious breaky.

Firenze

My room in Firenze

But…its not over! We packed a picnic and headed for Pisa beach. It was packed to the max and you actually have to pay a euro each for a patch of sand, such a cheek! But once we hit the water, got some ice-creams and had quite a heated bat and ball match we forgot about all our cares and eased into the summer haze.

 But…its still not over! We made it back just in time for the England-Italy game, which normally I wouldn’t care about but Rubes and Al had money riding on it and I always love to see them squirm - mainly because they are always slagging off SA's sporting abilities. So when Italy won, I couldn’t help but laugh alone with the rest of the Italian fans. Don’t worry Rubes got his on back by ripping off his shirt and yelling: “We work on boats bitches”, (like it has something to do with anything) at the top of his lungs while standing on the bow. And with that a fireworks display erupted and we were mesmerized.  I swear I am not making this up. But come Monday morning it really did feel like a dream.  Sigh…back to toilet scrubbing I go. Until next time folks!

I AMSTERDAM!!

Dear Amsterdam,

I am sorry our time together was so short. Even though you left me liver-broken and penny-less, I will always cherish the memories of long walks in the red light district, visiting favourite coffee shops and making fun of wasted tourists while munching on brownies. You are perfect and I will think of you always, never change, until we meet again….

Train station

Ahhhh, the sweet smell of weed in the middle of the day….in the middle of the city….actually no, everywhere! When you think Holland, you think Amsterdam and when you think Amsterdam, you think red light district but there’s actually way more to do in Amsterdam and the red light district is awesome but surprisingly small.

I arrived on Friday afternoon after getting up at 5am, a change over in Rome and a hideous flight with 2 babies and a fat guy snoring and drooling on his belly, I made it! And my cousin, Alexandra (through marriage, twice removed) but cousin nonetheless, picked me up at the train station which is right below the airport. We took the train to Voorhout, I dropped my stuff off and we headed straight into Amsterdam. Some sight-seeing of random buildings obviously didn’t hold my attention and before long we were heading to a coffee shop…of course. Five minutes later we headed to the outskirts of Amsterdam and met up with Natalie (my other cousin) and her friend Sarah. Ironically we were going to the Goldfish concert. Down a path, through a park and into an opening in the middle of the forest was party central. Dutch bands playing, krokets on rolls – oh the cheesy goodness – and lots of drinks of course! We partied the night away, ‘no matter the weather’ (it was raining) and just had an all round epic time. Chilled Saturday, made a picnic lunch and headed…..you guessed it, AMSTERDAM! For a proper tourist round.

LIQUEUR

This picture really doesnt need a caption

Thats me on the E!

A stop on the pub crawl...or was it?

We started with a coffee shop…yes again, and if you ask me, don’t waste your time with brownies, just order a greencake, or smoke a joint. Next was a hubbly sesh at the Greenlight District, which is a shop, not an area, and then headed for the Bols experience (similar to the Heineken experience). And yes its an experience. It starts with a taster room where you guess the flavour, then you head into a room where you smell every liqueur they have to offer, then there is some boring movie which we skipped and then straight onto the free cocktail and shots, wooo!! Next we headed to burger king…most..amazing…meal…ever. (Note: I am a brownie, 2 shots and a cocktail down by now).  Finally we headed into the red light district for the pub crawl. I wish I could go in depth about this part of the evening but that could get pretty graphic and also….its pretty much a blur. All I know is that it lasted until 5am and we got a free t-shirt. Woke up Sunday morning for (Nat and Alex’s) father’s day breakfast. No questions were asked thank goodness and sunglasses where permitted at the table.  I already started getting withdrawal symptoms on the flight back and realised that I could easily live in Holland but not Amsterdam, that would be too much strain on the liver and wallet, and who knows, maybe that’ll be my next stop  on this journey we call life ;) 

Happy Sundae's

*******This blog is dedicated to JLP and the Maeva crew.*******

When you work in such unpredictable circumstances, you only get your Sunday’s if you’re very lucky. When guests are on, everyday is Monday morning so when the time comes where you can chill, you make sure you take FULL advantage.

Cocktails at Pam Pam! 

Pam Pam ice-cream - Manilla, mmm

Having a crazy Quaitie lady shouting “yella!” and forcing you to have conversations with her because she hates silence, treating the staircases like a stairmaster, packing and unpacking Louis Vuitton trunks, serving three meals a day and being pretty much a personal slave -who happens to get paid well - really can take it out of you!  It wasn’t long after our guests left (only a 4 day charter but it felt like forever) and we were out hitting Pam Pam with full force. Cocktails, ice-cream and friends is a perfect way to spend your Sunday in Juan Les Pins. Take a stroll down the boulevard, a swim in the Mediterranean, kick back and relax with a beer on the beach and you’re guaranteed to feel the stress melting away and all your troubles disappearing. Juan Les Pins also happens to be an amazing shopping mecca and anyone who is like me and can spend a whole day - and a whole paycheck  shopping - should definitely take a stroll around, there’s lots of gems to be found! Let’s not forget La Village night club , you walk in sober and you walk out at 5 o clock in the morning with one shoe and no memory except that it was frikken awesome, after which you make you way to wall street for the most amazing kebabs – delicious early morning breakfast and simultaneous hangover buffer.  

JLP is also my chocolate of France (i.e. my favourite) because that’s where I basically started this whole adventure. Around about April last year I was living in a block of apartments called Maeva, just starting out in my yachting career. I was staying in a 4 sleeper; that is 2 bunk beds and a pull out couch…with 6 other people, living off pasta and basically begging yachts up and down the coast to please give me a job. Now this might sound a bit like hell to most people but it definitely makes the rank of one of the best times of my life. I was surrounded by Safa’s and one crazy English chick and there were party’s almost every night on either the balconies or the rooftop, sunbathing on the beach (when we felt too depressed to dockwalk) and getting to spend time with some of the most amazing people who became my family in France. The boys - Brandon, Mike, Patrik and Blake - lived across from the girls - myself, Hayley, Nicky, Mary, Minna, Emily and other randoms who came to crash from time to time. After a hard day of dockwalking you could always count on someone holding a freshly opened beer or potent bottle of wine to welcome you home. Oh the stories I could tell about those two months....but I will not get carried away. All I will say is Hayley broke the chair on the roof and not by herself.

Best times of my life and hopefully more like them to come. Enjoy those special moments while the last because you can't live the same day twice. So drink it down and live it up and remember...

...life is like an ice-cream, enjoy it before it melts!

The Maeva Crew - Brandon, Mary, Hayley, Me, Grace, Nicky, Mike (Blake, Patrik and Ryansies are missing, dont know where they were at the time of this recording)

Everything that Glitters is Gold

In Monaco, this really is the case. I am not one of those people who is obsessed with hot cars and designer brands or anything else that costs a ridiculous amount of money but when I enter this 1.98m square piece of land, that all seems to change.  As pretentious and flashy as it is, I will never get tired of going there to see, well, all the flashiness. At first I was completely unimpressed and I remember asking a friend were all the nice cars are? I nearly swallowed my question because as I asked it, 3 Ferrari’s, a Masarati, a Prosche and a Lotus drove by. So yes, in Monaco, every second car does cost the same amount as my house. Other than perving at the cars, I also like to scout for wealthy, nice, good-looking bachelors (a seemingly impossible thing to find but I’ve seen him in my daydreams and in the movies so I know he exists) . My attempts this time were abysmal and I failed miserably at securing my financial future and visa’s problems, because believe it or not, there is more than just designer clothes and cars and hot people to look at!

Besides millionaire shopping, model and car watching in the street, Monaco has other fabulous attractions to offer. At the top of a very long, cobblestoned-climb you will find the royal palace, residence of the Royal family with a stunning view of both Monaco port and the neighbouring area Fontvielle (pronounced Fon vi-ay). There is also the aquarium/museum, in which we managed to kill 2 and a half hours looking at fish and some rather strange and slightly raw artwork. If you have, however, come to Monaco for the cars then you must visit the car museum (situated next to the McDonalds in Fontvielle) which contains models dating back to horse-drawn carriage-days all the way up to the newest Merc model and a car the has a 2 horse power engine (that’s right I said 2 horse power…so pretty much the same a carriage).

One event you also have to go to at least once in your life is the Grand Prix, even if you’re not a fan the vibe will blow you away. I was lucky enough to have been on a yacht that was situated on the track last year, and it was insane. Imagine the sickest, most mind-blowing party you’ve ever been to. Got it? Now times that by 10 000 and that’s what you’d feel. The free champagne, beautiful people, free food, music, Jacuzzi’s, race cars, celebrities and did I mention the free champagne?! I even met some girls from Stellenbosch who had won a competition and they said that after that week their lives would never be the same and they didn’t know how they would go back to living a normal life. So its not just me, even die miesies van die plaas af were hooked!

I must say that although it is grand to go to a place to go visit, that contains more money than you can wrap your mind around, it is a bit off-putting when you see how such wealthy people are so consumed by material possessions, image and making even MORE money are that I really don’t mind coming back down to earth to my lowly boat and resume scrubbing toilets.

In the wise words of Jack Johnson “Diamond rings and cars, bling bling, but those are only removable things. What about your mind, does it shine? Are there things that concern you more than your time?” In fact just listen to his song “Gone”, its all applicable.