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[omw-col-things]

Urban Camouflage

The only thing more ubiquitous than Ubers and food delivery bikes in an urban setting are narcissists. I considered this phenomenon while observing a pair of Cape Spurfowl (I think that’s what they were) in the bush outside my home recently. There these dun-coloured birds were, (They look like boring guinea fowl): I saw them by sheer chance, perfectly camouflaged as they were in the middle of a…

[omw-col-things]

Not a Barbie Girl

I was coerced into going to the Barbie movie. I even wore a pink polo neck, although I baulked at wearing my pink coat, fortunately, because my girls let me down by pitching up with only pink make up… Faders! As I sat down next to one of my daughters, I muttered, ‘This had better be satirical!’ I don’t remember playing with Barbies much as a child, although I do remember turning my chest of…

[omw-col-things]

The Misogyny of Socks

I have been accused of over-dressing for the South Pole when I go to bed in winter (from someone who wears a beanie to bed I might add – I have photographic evidence). But I must confess, I do like to be warm. And if my feet are cold, I cannot sleep. So, fast forward to this year, and I needed new socks. Unable to nick the man’s, I headed off to the shop to purchase appropriate black hosiery. I…

[omw-col-things]

The Secret Garden

I’m a Narnia/Secret Garden kind of girl and The Secret Garden beneath 47 On Sea in Bloubergstrand does not disappoint. In fact it is one of Blouberg’s best kept secrets – even some locals are unaware of its presence. Once you have purchased your coffee and cake at the coffee shop, you can either watch the parade along the quaint Stadler Road, with the magnificent On the Rocks Restaurant and…

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Don't Look Away... and Three things to learn when you do:

The problem with multitasking is that sometimes one of those metaphorical balls in the air inevitably comes tumbling down on your head. In the last year I have had three massive, lead, wrecking balls crash down on my life and the way that happened was brought home to me in a physical way last weekend when I got caught in a storm… literally. To set the scene: it had been raining off and on in…

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Nikwanto and the Snow

Nikwanto was dying. At 15, he’d already had two kidney transplants and the second one was failing. He was a year behind his peers at school, in both stature and academics, because of this, and was frequently absent in order to undergo dialysis. It had been whispered to us that there was not much more that could be done for him, yet he remained a jovial, mishievous Grade 10 student at Holy…

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Of Poop and Picture-Poetry

One of the downsides of walking the glad lab is that she has a healthy gut life and ALWAYS has to go on our walks. Besides the obvious embarrassment of standing there while woman’s best friend poops in public, it forces one to stop midstride on your hike. And you have to look.. somewhere. She may have no shame and be perfectly fine with squatting next to a busy, public road, but I do feel she is…

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Finding A voice

Magda Fitzgerald, Alma Mahler, Sylvia Plath: just three artistic voices stifled by their husbands’ voices, their genius subsumed by their more famous spouses. Were these men incapable of nurturing artistic talent in their spouses? Were they jealous of their wives’ talents, or did society’s demand for women to play the wife, mother and nurturer destroy their chances of being truly great? Is art…

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Go and tell them

Last week, I read up a bit about the American celebration of Juneteenth (19 June), a federal holiday which Wikipedia records is ‘commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.’ In fact it is so much more than that. One such important takeaway for me was the fact that it isn’t a celebration of the actual proclamation of the freedom of all humans in the up-until-then Divided States…

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A Tale of Three pictures

The ephemeral beauty of unusual pink lilies: I’d call them rose-coloured, but every one of my former students would have a facepalm moment at such poor style! The blooms burst into glory today; yet already are showing signs that their exquisite splendour is transient. I can’t stop looking at them. Despite their impermanence, they make me happy. I stopped at the shops on my way home: a faint…

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FIVE Minutes of Enchantment

I left for school this morning just after six, in the middle of a downpour. The first section of my trip skirts a suburb where there are no streetlights yet, so I was cocooned and captivated in five minutes of phantom magic. The car, the rain, the music and me. My car seemed to float over the gleaming wet tar (well, vorsprung durch technik of course!) as the adagio movement of Aram…

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Dopamine Dressing

2022 brought in a new fashion: mixing bright colours. And you know what? You can get high on such couture… well sort of. Anyone who knows me, must be aware of my weakness for (shopping for) clothes. I love co-ordinating colours, and as a little girl, hand-me-down days were like Christmas, even though I was at the end of a long line of cousins and a sister with completely different colouring from…

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Careless People

“Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.” Goethe Donald Trump, the former (thank goodness) president of arguably the most powerful and richest nation in the world (if you ignore the trillions they owe in debt) mocks (with unparalleled spite) everyone who has the temerity to cross him. He is a vile human, who spews hatred and prejudice. What I cannot understand is the…

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Brrr...

How do you stay warm in the cold? It’s Winter in the Western Cape. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am a Summer kind of girl, so when the temperature doesn’t get much higher than the 6 degree Celsius nighttime temperature during the day (and, dear Northern hemisphere friends, we don’t have double glazing or radiators – because, well Africa is hot, yeah?!…No!) then I am pretty…

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Be Better

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to attend a concert in the City Hall in Cape Town. It was a beautiful programme from the dramatic Schubert Rosamunde Overture, D 644, followed by the quirky Melvyn Tan as soloist in the Mozart Piano Concerto No 17 in G K 453 and ending with the melodious sounds of the Schubert Symphony No 9 in C, ‘The Great.’ As we drove home rhapsodizing about how great it…

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Becoming - Reflection at a Nursery School Graduation

Becoming – Reflection at a Nursery School Graduation

I was hunting through a cupboard last night looking for a Mariah Carey CD (Yes, it is that time of the year) and I came across a VHS tape (one of the many – don’t laugh; I bet you have a few) of my children’s pre-school concerts. Straight away, I was transported to those precious times when they were little – when Sean was a pitch-perfect singing prince in tights, when Shannon was a cheeky star…

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Greetings

Since my Damascus Road doctor’s visit and attendant epiphany over exercise, I am now a devotee of beachfront walks. Being a rather friendly sort, I greet most fellow promenaders and joggers and have been doing my own sea breeze research on passersby: If I smile, will they? If I say good morning, will they return the salute? Are they responding to me or the sweet Lab? So besides the fact that the…