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UK summer in all its splendour
It doesn't surprise me that so many songs are written about the English countryside. Everything looks so clean. The grass is greener, the air looks and feels cleaner and even the animals grazing in the meadows look clean.
We spotted some cows alongside a fence and the picture they painted against the green meadows was picture-box pretty. The cows looked scrubbed. I wanted to go and inspect them to see if t ...
A Christmas eve to remember
Christmas is a time for giving, receiving, sharing and spending time those closest to you; a time to remember Jesus’ birth and more importantly, a time to remember His word. James 1:27 expresses the importance of kindness, “...look after orphans and widows in their distress...”
On the 24 December 2007 at a place called Sunshine Village in Phuket, I found myself surrounded by parentless and abandoned childr ...
Discovering the best of Basingstoke
When the move to the UK was firmly on the cards, as my husband paced up and down the streets of London, going for multitude interviews, I would spend feverish hours on the internet back in SA, searching for the right place for us to stay. We had a long criteria list: Hampshire, close to rail and bus transport, reasonable schools/colleges, swimming-training facility, hopefully a dancing school and some shops ...
Boerewors in Taiwan
Friends and family often ask, 'So how’s life in Taiwan? and I find this to be a question of which the answer is as ambiguous as they come. One wants to say, 'oh it’s great', but then you think of the smell of the sewage and you feel like saying 'it’s crap' and then you remember being hungry at 3am in the morning and feeling totally safe on your scooter, popping over to the 7-Eleven for a curry and rice and ...
In search of a quaint seaside town in the UK...
I’d like to use the word ‘quaint’ when I describe most English villages but as the dictionary states the word means strange in an interesting or pleasing way, then I’m not exactly sure it’s the word I’m after. And yet, it’s the only word that comes to mind each time I drive through the scattered villages.
Emsworth in Hampshire is one such place. Although the Sunday food market is small, there is certainly ...
Always on the go, like the energiser bunny!
My expectations of being part of the sports staff were somewhat different to what the job actually entailed. There were so many safety procedures that employees had to learn as part of the job requirement. In addition, staff are required to dance on theme nights, marshal excursions, disembark guests and perform in parades. I really got more than what I bargained for, but I took it in my stride as any crewme ...
Songkran - wetter than water
From 13-15 April 2010, the Thai New Year Celebration - also known as Songkran - is celebrated nationwide. Although the festival is a time to reflect on life's blessings and pay respect to elders, the most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water.
Thais and Farangs (foreigners) roam the streets with water containers or water guns (sometimes mixed with mentholated talc), or post themselves a ...
Hitting the slopes by day and the dance floor at night
Challenge: Festival skiing
Location: Mayrhofen, Austria
Month: April 2010
There’s always a fine balance between pushing yourself to the max and then extending your limits. I did not know what to expect when it came to Snowbombing. I am a keen festival goer – and can truly say that after each festival I’ve attended, my body is in shock and exhaustion for a good week thereafter. Couple that with hardcore m ...
The one about being an outsider
A few days ago, the lovely editor of SA PROMO Magazine sent me the blurb for this month’s article request. In a nutshell, 'What would it take for you to come home / what’s stopping you from coming home?'
Immediately, I started banging away on my keyboard for about 15 seconds before I came to a grinding halt. Whoa-f**ken-whoa… this is a heavy question and a hell of a hard one to answer. So I have been stewi ...
Mud mud glorious mud
The thought did cross my mind when we left SA as to whether my sports-loving son would continue in his sports quest here in the UK. Besides studying sports at college (he immediately jumped at the chance of studying sports instead of history and geography of course) he has tried various sporting activities, but finally settled for his one big passion, rugby.
What he didn’t account for though, was that play ...
Understanding Thai culture and Thai time...
The locals on the island do not need an excuse to throw a party and they are champions at that. More often than not this takes place at a local restaurant or eatery and lively social interaction with a variety of different dishes is standard.
Karaoke is also a favourite pass time and the local people enjoy their nights out with music, good food and a few drinks (especially local beer – not bad at all – an ...
Snow-land in Scotland
When you think of Scotland, you may not necessarily think of taking a skiing or boarding holiday there. Your first thoughts may be of green rolling hills, the infamous Nessie and delicacies like Haggis and whiskey. In fact, Scotland is home to five ski centres and in a good winter, like the one we’ve just had, the country turns into a winter wonderland with skiers and snow-boarders jumping at the chance to ...
Festivals and temple fairs
As I am sitting in my office, giving one long yawn after the other, I am silently cursing the temple fair that robbed me from my valuable sleep last night... To understand what this is all about, I want to explain a bit more about the festivals and temple fairs on our sunny island, Koh Samui.
Koh Samui is a living, working island with distinctive local habits and customs. The first settlers that landed her ...
Snow-land in Scotland
When you think of Scotland, you may not necessarily think of taking a skiing or boarding holiday there. Your first thoughts may be of green rolling hills, the infamous Nessie and delicacies like Haggis and whiskey. In fact, Scotland is home to five ski centres and in a good winter, like the one we’ve just had, the country turns into a winter wonderland with skiers and snow-boarders jumping at the chance to ...
Ups and downs of being back in the UK
Coming back to London was also a pleasure as there are countless blessings and perks of living in a society such as that of modern England. Communication is at the forefront with the readily available wifi internet and being able to get back to running the online empire that was difficult to manage from my sparse and pricey encounters with the internet in Zimbabwe.
Being able to transfer large files and k ...
Changing of the seasons
It’s the changing of the seasons. I’m back in the UK and the distant rumble of the approaching spring train can be felt on the ground, so much so that the trees are finally starting to dance to spring’s beat, shaking up the buds to usher in their new outfits of flowers and leaves.
Having just spent eight weeks in my native Zimbabwe after an absence of a whopping seven years, it feels like my personal life ...
Adjusting to Saudi time
It took me a while to get used to the strange working hours here. I am not even going to mention the absurd hours during Ramadan – that is a blog entry on its own.
At first it sounds quite normal: Nine working hours and eight teaching hours a day. Not much of a difference from the typical working day in South Africa. But I think it is the distribution of the hours that gets to me. In the mornings the firs ...
Dancing with the exquisite, in a fetish garden
Challenge: Feta-ish
Location: London Bridge
Month: February 2010
Do you rock around the grave? Do you back into the wave?
There has always been one thing that I’m open to (but not so open that everything falls out) – and that is people embracing their sexuality, or at least their true selves. The room is decked with red and black couture, ladies (and men) in dramatic black eyes and a quiver of the unkn ...
Create empty space to allow new into your life
I have been confronted with the question of ‘Will you go back to South Africa?’ a few times over the past weeks. Also, ‘What will make you go back?’ and ‘What would have to change before you go back?’.
These are not questions with straight answers for me since nothing is cast in stone and it was not only one thing that made us move over here or causing us to stay.
Now comes the big explanation of the why ...
Feeling safe in England. If only in SA...
My son sits upstairs at his computer, he’s busy chatting on Facebook to his many friends both here and in SA and in the background, his speakers are blaring away. Downstairs working on the computer, I listen to the very loud music. I wipe away at tears that stream down my cheeks as I listen to Kurt Darren’s Loslappie – ‘O ek wil huis toe gaan, na mamma toe.’ Robbie Wessels De La Rey and Player 23 follow. ...
