Splashy Fen will mark its coming of age this Easter from 1-5 April with its most exciting line-up yet, rumours of which have been causing a stir around the country for the last couple of months.

Many of the faces who have helped to make Splashy a world-class festival will be there, joined by the cream of South Africa’s rising new talent as over 80 artists play on two stages.

Held on a farm near Underberg in KZN, Splashy Fen is geared up to present one of its strongest and most diverse line-ups to date.  In addition to awesome music, a wide variety of food and drink outlets, arts and crafts, and a range of outdoor activities for the whole family, it will also feature an Eco Village powered by the elements – all in the midst of the breathtaking natural beauty which makes Splashy Fen so unique.

I can’t wait for this festival as it is one of the party highlights of the year. Versus wines will once again have a hospitality tent and the programme includes great music and comedy performances.

For more info on this event, and to see the festival programme, visit: www.splashyfen.co.za

Sometimes the Academy Awards get it wrong – very wrong. Test your awards know-how with a look at the Oscar winners that weren’t.

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Flight was a great addition to the way people moved around the world. However, suddenly we needed somewhere to land the darn aeroplanes. As planes became bigger and air travel grew commercially, airports needed a lot more space, and that wasn’t always possible. Sometimes cities were so high that the logistics of taking off and landing became trickier. Sometimes the conditions facilitated a need to do things differently.

Well, some airports managed to adapt to what was required, and here are five of them:

Unconventionalism is in our nature and we at Versus salute these the out-of-the-box and unusual thoughts that went into designing these weird airports.

1) Gibraltar Airport

2) The Ice Runway – Antarctica

3) Kansai International Airport (Osaka, Japan)

4) Qamdo Bangda Airport (Tibet)

5) Princess Juliana International Airport, Saint Maarten

http://www.gotravel24.com/theme/world/worlds-strangest-airports

An Art student created this amazing flipbook clip.

The student indicated that the assignment took three weeks to complete and it’s something like 2100 pages long, and about 50 jotter books.

We would have given the student full marks for persistence, creativity and unconventional thinking.

Unconventional wine brand, Versus, salutes the unconventional and creative efforts of this student.

Have you ever experienced that dreaded moment while unpacking your suitcase, where your post-holiday-glow is replaced with panic-induced perspiration as you realize you’ve forgotten something vital behind in your hotel-room?

Your first reaction is either crisis control or trying to shift the blame.

Nonetheless – the housekeeping staff of most hotels are pretty efficient in making sure anything left behind is properly stored until its rightful owner decides to claim it. But what about items that are just too weird or embarrassing to ‘fess up to?

In a recent online study a list of the top five things left behind in hotel rooms was created.  False teeth, sex toys and arrest warrants did not make the top three as there is weirder stuff on this list.

The list is vast and strange – so we’ve decided to take a look at the top three things left behind in hotel rooms. If you’ve encountered anything stranger – feel free to add a comment below.

3) Fake limbs
Surprisingly this is one of the most common things left behind by guests according to a leading British hotel group. One would have thought something as vital as your artificial leg, which helps you to get from A to B, would be the first thing you’d pack if not put on. Perhaps these guests were trying to make a statement about the cost of the accommodation, who knows?

2) Horse
While some duty managers have had staff discover the likes of snakes, hamsters and rabbits lurking around vacated hotel suits, how exactly do you get your horse into the room, without alarming the porter or concierge on duty – never mind rationalizing it as a house-trained pet. On second thoughts scratch that last bit but this is what staff at a certain European-based hotel group had to deal with.

1) Baby
Forgetting your pet might be forgivable even if it happens to be a horse but your own toddling flesh and blood? A forgotten baby earns the number one weirdest thing to forget in a hotel room title. In this instance it was a couple with way too much luggage who had to leave in separate taxis – a classic case of “But I thought you had the kid!?!”

Read more on gotravel24.com

From rock ‘n roll Valentines to raunchy rap come-ons, sexy soul serenades and more. Ready for romance?

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Splashy Fen celebrates its 21st festival this Easter (1-5 April) and with the coming of age, comes greater awareness and responsibility.

With this in mind, the organisers of South Africa’s longest-running annual music festival have joined forces with The Green Depot and the Corner Café in Glenwood to create an eco village that will give festival-goers an opportunity to see green initiatives in action and encourage a more sustainable lifestyle.

Powered solely by wind, water and solar energy, the village will offer zero-waste, eco-friendly camping, product displays, an environmental film festival, as well as the cool cuisine and fabulous coffee of the Corner Café eco-restaurant.

All food prepared by the Corner Café will be purchased from farmers in the community and eaten using 100% biodegradable utensils.  Organic waste will be fed into a giant worm farm, while other recyclable matter will be disposed of by YES (Your Environment Spotless), a waste collection and recycling company that aims to create a culture of environmentally responsible South Africans.

Versus Wines, which will have a hospitality tent at Splashy, also show their commitment to eco-friendly initiatives by using the wine pouch. This pouch is the environmentally friendly solution to wine packaging, creating 80% less environmental impact from cradle to grave than the equivalent volume in glass bottles, 90% less waste and takes up less space in a landfill than two glass bottles

For more info visit splashyfen.co.za

An extreme tattoo can be totally hardcore . Unless you spell it “exreme.” Then it’s just hilarious.

We’ve compiled some of the funniest tattoo misspellings we could find. Either these folks had no access to spell check or are simply oblivious to the mistake. Regardless, they cracked us up.

For more misspelled tattoos visit: huffingtonpost.com

Versus Brand News

Unconventional wine brand Versus, recently co-sponsored the Southern Ink Xposure  (aka Cape Town Tattoo Convention). Versus Wines, which aligns itself with unusual, fun and interesting events promoted their range of wines at this event.

Want to learn a new, unconventional party trick?

Here is a card trick that will impress your friends.

I don’t know how it works,  but it works.

Try it.

To add some excitement to the often otherwise dreary library environment, a group of students created a real-life Pacman in their varsity library. Unconventional wine brand, Versus, salutes these students for thinking out of the box.

Movie posters are sometimes misleading and if they told the truth the posters could look a lot different.

Here are a few unconventional (but true) movie posters by the unconventional wine brand Versus.

Pretty women

There will be blood

Titanic

Independence Day

Angles and Demons

More Posters

When Google began taking pictures of the entire planet, they must have known that they would snap a few oddities. Try as we might, we can’t stop laughing at a few of them.

Simon Williamson wrote that there’s also some real beauty to be found, some amazement and a whole lot of random. Come and take an odd international tour with us.

If you’re keen, well, here are some of the notable ones:

What is going on here is quite unfathomable. But seemingly, something fishy I’d guess. I have never seen a fish in someone’s roof before, but Google did.

You may think you can sneak in when no one is home, but beware the Google Street Cars bearing cameras. The whole world might be watching. Fail.

This mountain range in Canada looks uncannily like a human face.

We seem to have 9 UFOs that Google Street View managed to find. Erm… were they driving around Area 51?

This was a major hit on Valentine’s Day, surprisingly enough. The island, called Galesnjak, is off the Croatian coast.

To see more odd pictures visit gotravel24.com

Acknowledgment: All the  photos are  from Google Street View.

This year’s Southern Ink Xposure (affectionately termed “SIX”) looks set for a repeat performance, only on a bigger and better scale.
The 2010 Convention has almost doubled its roster of top international artists attending, once again including some of the biggest stars of international tattooing, such as Paul Booth, Bob Tyrrell, Hailin Fu (China), Nick Chaboya, Shane Munce, and Glen Paradis. And that’s not counting the local legends such as Manuela Gray, Rev. Simon White, Tyler Murphy, Milo “Mr. Lucky: Marcer and others.

Supported by Harley-Davidson, the second annual Southern Ink Xposure will be held from January 22nd to the 24th, 2010 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) and will again comprise a series of art exhibitions, live collaborative art events, top-notch live music and of course the convention itself-all of which aim to celebrate and showcase global tattoo culture and lifestyle within a uniquely and beautifully South African context.

Unconventional wine brand Versus, will be a product sponsor at this event. Versus Wines, which aligns itself with unusual, fun and interesting events will be promoting their range of wines at the event.

Source: capetownunderground.co.za

Sangria, is a delicious, fruit-based wine “punch” with its traditional heritage well rooted in Spain. Typically, Sangria is made with red wine, fresh, seasonal fruit and a bit of bubbly water or citrus flavoured soda.

It is easy to make, easy to drink and a huge hit at summer get togethers – even for those who are not “into wine.” While Spain is heralded as the creator of Sangria, countries all over the globe have adapted the recipe to make a fruit-filled wine beverage that is refreshing and easy to drink with a wide variety of foods.

One of the beauties of Sangria recipes is that you can use a variety of different wines in the recipe mix. It’s often wines that have not been finished the day before that find their way into a Sangria recipe, or wines in the “good value” category that make for a perfect Sangria blend.

The Basic Recipe for Sangria

The beauty of the basic Sangria recipe is that it is as delicious as it is easy, and it only gets better as you spice it up with your own additions! Really, it is hard to add the “wrong” ingredient here, think favorite fruits, spice and liquors. Chill and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 Bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja reds, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
• 1 Lemon cut into wedges
• 1 Orange cut into wedges
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Shot brandy
• 2 Cups ginger ale or club soda

Recommended wine:

The Versus Red 2008 is a great value wine and will be great in a Sangria. This wine has a  rich ripe berry fruit nose with hints of cassis coffee and chocolate on the palate.

Preparation:

Pour wine in the pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon and orange into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and add sugar and brandy. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving.

If you’d like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice.

Addition ideas: sliced strawberries, peaches, handful of fresh blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, a shot or two of gin, brandy or rum, a cup of ginger ale, citrus soda pop or lime juice.

The wine:

Source: wine.about.com

Unconventional wine brand Versus, will be a product sponsor at the second annual Southern Ink Exposure, to be held at the Cape Town Convention Centre from 22-24 January.

This event has grown in stature and the 2010 Convention has almost doubled its roster of top international artists attending, again including some of the biggest stars of international tattooing, such as Paul Booth, Bob Tyrrell, Hailin Fu (China), Nick Chaboya, Megan Hoogland and more.

Versus Wines, which aligns itself with unusual, fun and interesting events will be promoting their range of wines at the event.

For more info visit  capetattooconvention.co.za

Lord Byron said that “Fame is the thirst of youth.” This is so true and even more so today as the internet and TV as created a lot of fame seeking people.

There’s one sure-fire way to attain your fifteen minutes of fame, break a Guinness Record! Better yet, create a whole new one!

Here are a few weird records.

Source: iafrica.com

People insure things that are a crucial part of their income or income potential. Some policies are deemed to be unusual and here are a few unusual policies that the insurance market has handled.

A Dutch wine maker insured his nose for €5m to cover against any incident that could threaten his livelihood.

In 2004, Lloyd’s insured the £27m worth of jewellery worn by the stars at the Oscars.

Lloyd’s has insured the smile of America Ferrera, star of the hit television show Ugly Betty, for £5m.

Other famous body part insurance policies

* £40m David Beckham legs

* £25m Michael Flatley legs

* £4m Ken Dodd’s teeth

* £3.5m Bruce Springsteen’s voice

* £1.15m Heidi Klum’s legs (the pair)

* £500,000 or $1 million Betty Grable’s legs

* £350,000 Dolly Parton’s breasts (the pair)

* £250,000 Egon Ronay’s taste buds

* £200,000 The cricketer Merv Hughes’s handlebar moustache

Source: The Telegraph

I stumbled upon these utterly yet remarkable useless information.

The USA has more personal computers than the next 7 countries combined.

US tops the world in plastic surgery procedures. Next comes Mexico.

22% of American women aged 20 gave birth while in their teens. In Switzerland and Japan, only 2% did so.

American adults have been educated for the longest time.

The women of Iceland earn two-thirds of their nation’s university degrees.

More than 20% of the votes in the 2001 elections in Argentina were invalid.

You can be imprisoned for not voting in Fiji, Chile and Egypt – at least in theory.

One pair of rats has the potential for 15,000 descendants in a year.

The rat has been called the world’s most destructive mammal – other than man.

Rats destroy an estimated 1/3 of the world’s food supply each year.

26% of all electric cable breaks and 18% of all phone cable disruptions are caused by rats.

It took approximately 2.5 million blocks to build the Pyramid of Giza, which is one of the Great Pyramids

Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory.

McDonalds calls frequent buyers of their food heavy users.

Americans ate eight million more orders of french fries and almost six million more hamburgers this year compared to last.

Source: stunning-stuff.com

Lots of people change their name when they go into the entertainment industry.

This quiz is all about celebrities and their real/birth names

Take the QUIZ

Drinking and Driving over the Festive Season? Then it’s time to ask Goodfellas to the party.

Cathy Marston writes  “Sadly, I realise that this is not the norm here in SA. The drink-driving stats in this country are horrendous with alcohol being blamed for 50% of the 18,000 deaths on our roads every year – yes, that number is correct – 18,000 deaths a year. A massive sea-change is needed in people’s attitudes to drinking and driving, and one company which is providing a real alternative to this is Goodfellas. They offer a membership service which you can call after one too many drinks and they will come to wherever you are and drive you safely home in your own car.”

According to Alison Brussow, marketing manager for Goodfellas, all the drivers have to pass stringent background checks, driving tests on both manual and automatic cars and undergo regular training by the company. Both Morell and Mogamat had branded uniforms and ID cards and we were given their names by the call centre when we rang to book the service so there was no possibility of any mistakes. And we felt completely safe in their hands – much more so than when we pick up a random taxi from the rank, something which is an added boon for women going home on their own as well.

Drinking and driving is a complete social no-no in the UK – if ever I contemplated getting behind the wheel after a few drinks, then the thought of my friends’ total disgust and disapproval is always enough to change my mind. I have heard various excuses over the years such as “Well, we have to drink and drive in SA because we have no public transport!” or “I’m a really good driver so alcohol doesn’t affect me like other people” and really folks, enough is enough. The choices are simple -

• – Drink, but don’t drive
• – Drive, but don’t drink
• – Call Goodfellas or somebody like them.

and with the Festive season in full swing, there are plenty of opportunities to use a service like this and I fully intend to do so. After all, if it’s good enough for the Sharks, for South African Breweries and for Bob Skinstad, then it’s good enough for me too.”

www.gfellas.co.za Tel:   0861 433 552

Source: food24

Versus Brand News

Versus Wines  supports this initiative and urges consumers to make use of this service.

A Christmas card, poststamped 23rd December 1914 was posted for a Ms Ethel Martin of Oberlin, Kansas. It was from her cousins in Alma, Nebraska.

After 93 years, it finally arrived at its destination, in perfect shape. Too bad Ms Martin is already dead.

The card in postcard format shows a colour drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl.

As to where it spent the most of the 20th century is still a mystery. Indeed, it’s surprising that it never got thrown away and somehow someone found it and placed it inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin.

The original 1-cent postage stamp, the original cost of postage when it was first sent would not have been enough.

The card is now with Bernice Martin, Ethel’s sister-in-law. After it was featured in the media, she said she’d received calls from as far away as Japan and Iraq, even offers to purchase the card.

Source: kansascw.com

The silly season is upon us and someone , in moment of madness will suggest a karaoke.

If you are caught in this situation …one tip, don’t sing Love Hurts.

The reason is because the most difficult karaoke-standard song i.e. definitely can find in any karaoke bar is, IMHO, Nazareth’s Love Hurts… at maximum key. Yep, it is more difficult than working out which home insurance quote to go for.

Some people’s favourite music games is trying to sing this at the highest key possible on the karaoke machine, with usually hilarious results, typically at the point the words say “but they’re not foolin’ me”:

Source: worldrec.info

Sure, it’s important to get your message out to everyone, but make sure you do a sense check before sending, otherwise you can be spreading some Christmas cheer for the wrong reasons.

Here is an example of a wrong Christmas message

I think they meant prosperous

Fanatical sports enthusiasts are consumed with the role of the mill sports but there is another wide world of sports thriving out there. This is the world of the unconventional sports, weird records and abilities. The ‘home’ of this sport is probably YouTube and here are a few examples of these unconventional sports

World Record holding in fastest clapping

Cup Stacking World Record

Life sometimes throws you a period of utter boredom. How do you occupy these periods of time, either mentally or physically without dying of boredom? Knowing how to waste time creatively should be appreciated for what it is, an art form.

Here are some tips (from nzgirl) to rid yourself of boredom…they’re so good that I was distracted from completing this article too many times than I care to mention…

How to kill time at work:

The internet, what would we do without it? But be very cautious about misusing your company PC to surf the web for personal enjoyment. Your boss probably realises that the Internet can be a big time waster and is watching for people who are doing web searches for ..umm…games… Perhaps the best way to use the Internet for your time killing purposes is to use it for all your personal research. For example if a phone number for a client across town is needed, volunteer to find it on the yellow or white pages online….just make sure to drag it out as long as possible. Don’t be afraid to legitimately use the Internet for business AND for killing time.

If your boss is of the oblivious persuasion, or if you’re just extremely sneaky, here are two great websites to help you kill time on those non-busy workdays. Handy Hint – get familiar with using Alt -Tab for quick escapes!

www.ishouldbeworking.com

www.bored.com

At A Bus Stop:

You could always catch up on a bit of light reading whilst waiting for the bus. However, if you’d rather do something far less productive and are feeling rather brave, why not turn to the person next to you and whisper loudly, “I know what you did last summer.” The reaction you get will be priceless…plus you may even help to relieve their boredom for a moment or two.

In A Supermarket Queue:

The supermarket queue can be a major drag, particularly with all of the chockies and sweets seducing you to be taken home. Instead of indulging your thighs, why not indulge your brain? It’s a perfect opportunity for people watching! Have some fun guessing which comestible the person in front of you will reach for. Will the businessman wearing Gucci go for the Snickers or the Crunchie bar? Will the skinny blonde pick up the light flavoured Bounty or the full fat Moro? Have a bet and see how many you win.

Source: nzgirl