Well today is the first cloudy and downright dreary day that I’ve experienced in Joburg yet. I actually went to a local homebrew shop earlier in a town called Emmarentia, and planned to visit the nearby Johannesburg Botanical Gardens and Emmarentia Dam after my lunch there, but it seems blasphemous to walk around beautiful gardens on a crappy day like today. So, I decided to come home and write another long overdue blog post.
I have much to say, so I’m going to structure this post to be a non-flowing mass of “articles” about the various elements of my time here in the past few weeks.
Crazy Landlord Lady
For those of you who read my last blog post, I closed on a note of having quite an interesting experience at the B&B my company had staged me in for my first month here. Here’s the backstory…
The B&B, located in a suburb known as Paulshof, was quite quaint, pretty, secluded, quiet, had seemingly friendly owners, etc… All good things. Within several days of arriving, however, I came to learn that this B&B did not serve breakfast… WTF! So why is it called a “Bed & Breakfast” if they don’t serve breakfast? Ugh, aggravating… but not the end of the world. I will survive.
Within a week of arrival, I came to learn that the B&B, or shall I say “B”, owners fought with one another — a lot. If I haven’t already mentioned, the owners are a couple, they are alcoholics, and the woman is CRAZY. So, naturally, couples are prone to fighting here and there. But not like these two! We would hear shouting matches late at night, doors slamming, etc… One of my colleagues who has been staying at the B&B for over a year had mentioned that he even heard the sounds of plates and glass breaking quite often during these fights. Needless to say, my opinion of the B&B was becoming less and less with each passing day.
The icing on the cake, you ask? Well, for completely legitimate and personal reasons (totally aside from all negative aspects of this B&B) another one of my colleagues who arrived at this B&B the same time that I did asked my company if they could change B&B’s. The company complied, and broke the 3 month contract they had set up with this B&B so they could move my colleague to a new place.
Not surprisingly, the B&B owners were upset about losing the business… but the crazy lady took things a little too far. Although I did not break any contracts (since I was only supposed to be there for a month anyway), I was inevitably associated with the company who DID break a contract with this place, so I was pleasantly greeted one afternoon with some nasty verbal assault from the crazy psycho lady. I don’t see any need to go into details about what she said specifically to me or my colleagues, but let’s just say she was drunk, incoherent, and very threatening. All of this happened on a public holiday, but we decided to call our HR director to let them know this lady was trying to throw us out. So, the HR reps from my company took time out of their day off to come rescue us from the wrath of hell! We were put into a new B&B for the remainder of our contract terms.
Don’t think the company is going to be using this B&B anymore 🙂
My New Apartment
After several months of looking at apartment listings on various websites, I started to view several within a week or so of arriving in Joburg. After looking at 4 or 5, I found one that I just absolutely adored 🙂 It’s in a suburb known as Parktown North, which is just north of the CBD (Central Business District). While I’m not in “downtown” Johannesburg, I am still in an area with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants, spas, malls, gyms, yoga studios, etc… Everything I need — and most of it within walking distance.
Despite the horrendous Johannesburg traffic, my commute to work is fair — approximately 15 km, which takes 30-35 minutes each way during rush hour traffic. This is actually quite ideal, since my commute from work to the B&B was less distance, but took more time.
The only downsides to my new flat are: 1.) It is unfurnished, and 2.) No pets allowed. OK so the no pets thing is probably a good thing, since trying to bring a kitty with me whenever I move back to the USA might prove to be difficult. But I will certainly miss the comfort of a little furry friend while I’m living here. As for the unfurnished bit? Well, in my house hunting adventures, I came to note that furnished places were considerably more expensive than unfurnished. So I did some research on the average cost of household necessities, and realized that the money I’d spend on furnishings was actually less than the average differential of furnished and unfurnished apartments. So, not a big deal from a financial perspective. But from a convenience perspective? Ag! (<– a South African-ism) Trying to buy furniture is a pain in the ass! I initially had trouble in my attempts to purchase anything online because of some banking glitches. But when I got the banking glitches sorted out, I still had trouble. There was one company who required a South African ID number to buy anything (aka they refuse to sell to non-citizens), and another with whom I had some order processing issues. I called their customer service hotline, and when nothing was accomplished then, I actually went to the store to try and get things sorted out. Even THEN nothing was solved. I never thought customer service could be so terrible. As always though, it could be worse. I can’t complain too much…. Pics of the new place below (unfurnished, of course). I’ll post more once I get it all furnished and decorated!
Joburg Festival of Beer!
Yes, another beer festival. I just can’t resist! This one was held a local rugby stadium, just 1.5 km away from my new pad! I went with a couple of friends from work, and had yet another amazing beer experience. I tried some beer from a small brewery up in Rustenburg called Brauhaus am Damm, and their Wiessbier was ASTONISHINGLY good! I’m not huge on Weissbiers, but this one was definitely noteworthy. I spoke with the brewmaster for a while (who was a woman, by the way) and decided that I had to get back into brewing beer while I’m in South Africa. The kits here are relatively inexpensive, so why not? My one work buddy who came with is also a homebrewer, so he bought some ingredients to do a small-batch IPA that we could brew together the following weekend.
I never thought I would have so many beer-related things to do here in South Africa 🙂
CSM Quarterly Social
As I mentioned in a previous post, I work for an environmental consulting firm. The team I work with specifically is known as the “Contaminated Site Management” or “CSM” team. To sum it up for you, my team basically investigates and remediates sites with soil or groundwater contamination.
Anyway, that’s beside the point. The CSM team here in the Joburg office holds a social gathering every few months, and we just had our last one on October 3rd. The theme for this event was ‘World Foods’ where we split into 5 groups, and each group would collaborate and bring in one type of ethnic cuisine. Well somehow, someone came up with the idea of having American food as one of the 5 ethnic food groups, and naturally, I was nominated to lead this group. I still don’t know why American food was chosen since there really is no true “American” cuisine, but what the hell. I figured we could braai (grille) some mini burgers or something simple. Unfortunately I didn’t have a lot I could do since I was still living in the B&B at the time and didn’t really have a kitchen available to make anything. So burgers worked out great. My team and I bought the ingredients the day of the event, formed up some patties, and braai-ed them during the social. It was a rather unoriginal idea, but probably the best I could come up with that is truly American and simple enough to make. One of my team members thought it would be a good idea to serve some Jack Daniels, as well. Very American, indeed 🙂
The other teams served Indian, Malaysian, Mexican, and South African cuisine. The Malaysian and Indian teams just ordered food from local restaurants (boring!) but the food was good none the less… The mexican team made fajitas and served some chips with guac and salsa… and the South African team made a poijtkie, which is basically a pot roast/stew kind of thing. It literally translates to “small pot” I think. And the poijtkie they made apparently contained wildebeest meat! It was super yummy.
Overall, a very enjoyable evening for the local CSM team 🙂
I suppose I should have taken pictures of the people and food at the CSM quarterly social, but instead I focused on the little toads hopping around the Boma (the outdoor venue within the office park where the social was held).
Brewing Beer with Hennie
Last Saturday, I went to brew that IPA with my friend Hennie from work. Another friend from work, Peter (the Aussie I have previously mentioned… also the same guy who lived at the infamous B&B for over a year) also joined us at the brew session. It was quite an interesting dynamic because Peter has been with the company for a while and is a Technical Director within our Impact Assessment Planning team — aka he’s a bigwig. I am a “Consultant II” or a project manager who’s been with the company for 4 years, and Hennie is a junior level field geologist with under a year of experience. I’ve never experienced such a range of consultant levels all hanging out together as friends. I loved it!
So as I mentioned earlier, the beer we brewed was an IPA. I say “we”, but Hennie pretty much did all of the work. Hennie also came up with the idea of adding peach juice to the boil and then adding peaches to the fermenter. Since Hennie is a fellow metalhead, and all of the beers he’s brewed have had metal themed names, we decided it would only be appropriate to come up with a metal themed name for this one as well. Some of the contenders include Number of the Peach, Judas Peach, Son of a Peach, Vlad the Impeacher, Vlad the Impale Ale… We haven’t chosen one yet, but I’m leaning towards Judas Peach 🙂
A pic of the metal themed beers I brought to the brewing session. Skeleton Coast IPA and Bone Crusher were quite delish!
Randlords
Randlords is a 22nd floor rooftop bar/lounge/concert venue located in Braamfontein, just north of the city. I went there last Sunday with a few work friends for a “sundowner” (aka sunset party) and to watch some local rock/blues bands play. It was a crazy fun night with beautiful sunset views. See for yourself (again, sorry… these pics were snapped with the every-so-shitty Blackberry camera).
A view of Nelson Mandela bridge from Randlords bar.
Looking Northeast towards Sandton City. Note the upper-most window in the building — it’s the girl’s bathroom 🙂
A rug within the Randlords bar — mimics a slice of blue agate, eh? I couldn’t NOT take a picture of a geology themed rug!
Pre-sunset view of the Sentech Tower.
Early sunset view of Sentech Tower.
Mid-sunset view of Sentech Tower.
Close-to-the-end-sunset view of Sentech Tower.
OK… closer-to-the-end view of Sentech Tower.
Seriously, last one, I promise… really-really-close-to-the-end-sunset view of Sentech Tower.
Colleagues and their significant others.
Bluesy rock band… think they were called Raoul and Black Friday. Not bad!
Consulting Skills Workshop
This past week, a bunch of the Consultant I’s and II’s were sent on a “Consulting Skills Workshop.” The workshop was held at the Zebra Country Lodge located northeast of Pretoria. The lodge is situated on a game reserve, and needless to say, there are zebras all over the place!
The workshop itself was enlightening and entertaining. We learned some valuable consulting skills (and I even slightly conquered my fear of public speaking!). But most importantly, we all had a lot of fun! It was two days long, so we stayed overnight at the lodge. The company surprised us with a little treat after the workshop on Day 1, which was a game ride through the reserve. The tour guides were incredibly informative, and the guide I had was particularly keen on describing the mating habits of the various animals we saw 😉 During the game ride, we were taken to a lookout (looks over the game reserve) and provided with a cooler full of beer and cider to sip on before heading back for dinner. We all had some drinks and played pool after dinner. And I must say, the pool balls they use here in South Africa are a lot smaller than those we use back in the States. Inevitably, this observation lead to an evening filled with very inappropriate banter!
Room at the Zebra Lodge.
Another view of the room at Zebra Lodge.
Game ride!!!!!!!
A not-so-good pic of a Kudu.
Moonlight over wild horses.
Our guide. Wish I could remember his name…
Colleagues on a separate buggy.
Zebras — straight chillin.
A shitty picture of a beautiful sunset.
Giraffe’s definitely got dumps like a truck (what, what)
Surprised this picture came out visible — a horse grazing literally right outside of my room at Zebra Lodge at like 12:30am.
Miscellaneous
I finally dragged myself to the local Bikram yoga studio here in Joburg last night. After several months of stress, anxiety, and alcoholism (yes, the wine here is good), I needed to detox — BAD! It was a tough class, but I feel so much better after going. I bought a 10-day first timer’s special, so my goal is to go to a class there every day for the full 10 days! One down, nine more to go!
I had lunch today at a place called District 6 in Emmarentia. They are known to serve pretty authentic South African food, so I went there, read a magazine, and enjoyed a Bobotie, which is kind of like a sweet Shepherd’s Pie with minced beef, raisins, and almonds, and instead of mashed potatoes on top, there is a thin layer of egg. It was friggin’ awesome!
Bobotie! Even the veggies were flavored with something sweet and spicy!
Tonight, I’m planning on going to dinner with one of the new recruits at the Joburg office. Her name is Perrine, and she hails from Belgium — the land of amazing beer! She just moved here with her husband to work on the CSM team doing the same things I’m doing. Obviously her and her husband also appreciate good beer, so I’m going to show them The Foundry, which is an amazing restaurant with an amazing selection of craft beer. And it’s right down the road from my place :).
But for now, off to round 2 of my 10 yoga sessions. Wish me luck!
avontuurjoburg 