Reflections in, on and round about…with a lot of cooking on the side
Stories that don’t fit elsewhere and add to the rich fabric of life….
In the early 1990's, after living in Johannesburg for eight years, I moved to Queenstown, a small farming town the Eastern Cape. It's probably best known for its schools (my ex-husband-to-be was a teacher), and sheep. Mostly for wool. I had no job and although I'd trained to teach, hadn't. I didn't want to. The … Continue reading Living alone, gigs and working from home: lessons for lock down
May 2016 was an interesting and busy month. Not just in what was then my day job, but also doing something that was a first for me. During March, one Saturday morning, minding my stall, as is my wont, Treasurer of a local committee passed by and made small talk with The Husband. Probably about … Continue reading Humming with Hummus
Where to begin? That I've been working in the gig economy since before it was a "thing"? Or that I have been self-employed for nearly thirty years, effectively selling my time expertise to clients that are prepared to pay for it? Notice I didn't say value? Because often it wasn't valued. Particularly in the last … Continue reading Gigs, Headlines and Sound Bites – in the time of Covid-19
Yes, I know that at best, I'm employing too many cliches and, at worst, mixing metaphors, and I warn you, if you read on, it'll not get any better. It's not in my nature to air dirty laundry in public. I don't like confrontation, either. However, there are two other things I loathe more: oblique … Continue reading Hung out to dry, or did @gmuxx just duck?
I went cold. Not because a Cape Cobra had tried to join us for brunch. The moment The Husband and I rose from the table - in unison - he literally turned tail and headed back when he'd come. That was yesterday. This morning, going through the ritual Sunday chores, listening to the local radio … Continue reading Where were you when…?
We live in one of the more water scarce parts of South Africa and in a region that is drought-prone. Water scarcity and drought are nothing new to The Husband and I. He grew up and farmed in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). Water and farming? Cattle must drink and eat. One of his responsiblities on the … Continue reading Divine Water – 1
In March, South Africa, was on the brink of a national electricity blackout. And we are there again. Why? At the time, I said that the reasons are myriad and what one chooses to believe, also depends on to whom one listens. Now, it seems, we are getting closer to the truth: acknowledgement not just … Continue reading Loadshedding survivors’ guide
I loathe coleslaw. It's a long and irrelevant story, summed up in two words: institutional food. In my case, that was boarding school, followed by university. By the time I reached university, I just simply didn't eat what I didn't like. At school, that was less possible. However, more than forty years later, coleslaw remains … Continue reading Fusion Flatbreads
Fire is devastating: we had a fire in the mountains above our village in spring (September) 2014. It burned for what seemed like a month and because, to start with, it was in inaccessible parts of the mountain, it could not be effectively fought. So it spread and threatened prime agricultural land and vineyards. So … Continue reading When Cape Town Burned*
There is not one board game in our house. When I met The Husband, there was an ancient game of Trivial Pursuit which arrived as part of the final merger. Somewhere, though, over the last nearly 20 years, it's gone. I think it got thrown out because it was so old... I loathe bored board … Continue reading Bored Games