It’s happened twice this weekend: once on Friday among the black-pants-and-blue-shirt-set at The Baron on Fredman Drive, once at the Ciao Baby Cucina in Cedar Square. That’s where I saw young men wearing Power Balance wristbands. You have to admire their persistence and their bravery, because they might as well be walking around wearing twinkling […]
Sarah Britten
During the day Sarah Britten is a communication strategist; by night she writes books and blog entries. And sometimes paints. With lipstick. It helps to have insomnia.
Posted inLifestyle
What makes you smile about Joburg?
“What makes you smile about your city?” That’s this month’s theme in the global social media campaign I’m involved with and it’s a challenging one. I’m sure that the bloggers in London or Paris have loads of material to work with, but for Joburgers it’s a question so loaded as to be provocative. As one […]
Posted inLifestyle
Is your car a handbag on wheels?
Are you one of those people with a messy car? I will confess that I must count myself a member of that renegade tribe, but in my defence I am trying very hard to reform myself. I have resolved that my vehicle will be a model of minimalist motoring, devoid of all extraneous bits and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Must we create another monster?
So, the years of stirring are finally paying off. After spending aeons pissing off the members of the Mail & Guardian Forum, Sentletse Diakanyo has spread his wings and succeeded in knotting the knickers of half the known world. How else to explain how one blog entry can elicit responses, not only from other Thought […]
Posted inLifestyle
Where have you walked in those shoes?
This afternoon it occurred to me that I was wearing the same pair of shoes I had on when I got retrenched in Sydney a little more than two years ago. A pair of black Nine West pumps, I got them on sale from the store on Military Road in Mosman, which is the least […]
Posted inLifestyle
The terrible thrill of snakes
“Ooh look, snake!” said my aunt. Philimon stopped the game viewing vehicle and reversed. We aimed the spotlight and stared. There it was, orange with black stripes, undulating across the sand like an exotic bracelet unhooked and stretched out. It was very pretty, as snakes go. When it sensed the light, it coiled up, positioning […]
Posted inLifestyle
Our ever-inventive criminals
There’s a new modus operandi in Hoedspruit this holiday season. Criminals are waiting for people to go out on game drives, then raiding their lodges. People generally don’t lock their doors, and even if they do it’s easy pickings, especially if you know they’re likely to be gone for two hours minimum to look up […]
Posted inLifestyle
Respect the mud
I don’t have enough respect for mud. This thought occurred to me late on Christmas Day as I felt the Freelander slipping down the slope, its backside fishtailing out until all four wheels came to a rest of a bank of sodden grass. “Oh”, I said. “I wasn’t expecting that.” Behind us, tyre tracks were […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Ways of coping in South Africa
There are certain books I don’t read on principle. Either it’s because what I think is between their covers is so much bullshit — The Secret and anything by Dan Brown fit in here — or because I imagine that the experience of reading it will, for whatever reason, be just too painful. Anything by […]
Posted inLifestyle
‘The only difference between you and a Hillbrow hooker’
“So how was your weekend?” I ask the copywriter at the next desk. You know, being chatty and everything. “Oh,” she says — she has this deep, smoky voice — “I was burgled on Friday”. We commiserate over the frustration of losing laptops and the sentimental work we hadn’t backed up. Same thing happened to […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Do you want fries with your PhD?
The BA is not a way to find a man. It’s not a route to eternal poverty. And it’s not (necessarily) a soft option for students who can’t crack science or engineering. So argues the always provocative Professor Jonathan Jansen, who says that a BA is not useless degree. Jansen quotes the pizza joke (“at […]