So we’re having dinner at a friend’s house and we get onto the subject of customer service. Specifically, the lack of it, and how, if you want to sort out a problem, you have to have a tantrum or nobody pays any attention. (This is exactly what one of the guests did in the reception […]
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
How do you trust this dog again?
I’m a cat person. Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time will know that I have a soft and smooshy heart for all things feline. One of the best things about being back in Joburg is getting to live with a cat again. (She still prefers my husband to me. Ah […]
Posted inGeneral
Spare me the African sunsets
The secret to successful relocation — whether between cities, countries or continents — is not to think about what you miss about the place where you used to live. I’ve never bought into romanticised notions of uniquely African sunsets or the magic of Highveld thunderstorms, and though I love the bush more than anywhere else […]
Posted inMedia
These are a few of my favourite ads
Now that I am back in South Africa, I have had a chance to catch up on some of the ads that are being flighted right now. While most are unremarkable, and a couple are actively offensive, a few campaigns do stand out. 1. The ad everybody loves right now is the TV commercial for […]
Posted inLifestyle
Yes, I have crossed over to the dark side
This week, I went over to the dark side. Yes, technically it is a four-year-old car and technically, it cost less than a Mazda 2 1.5 despite being an auto and having only 27 600 km on the clock. But it bears the kidney-shaped grill, the badge divided into blue and white quarters (a spinning propeller […]
Posted inGeneral
Why I am an ex-expat, for now
Right, confession time. I haven’t blogged for a while because I have been too busy. Moving countries and starting a new job tends to have that effect. Yes, I am back in Joburg and yes, I am one of the returning expats the Sunday Times wrote about with such undisguised schadenfreude earlier this year. Don’t […]
Posted inMedia
Mrs Balls-up
“Admiring advertising for its creativity is a bit like admiring Nazism for its cool uniforms,” Chris McEvoy wrote recently, and even though I’ve worked in the ad industry for virtually my entire salaried career*, it’s awfully tempting to agree with him. “The advertising industry is a soulless vortex that sucks up all the creativity it […]
Posted inLifestyle
‘Men shouldn’t have to beg for sex’
Sex always gets people talking, and Australia is no different. Over the past week, the media have buzzed with responses to the argument by sex therapist Bettina Arndt, who says that Australian women should have sex even when they don’t feel like it. (You can check out her website, which appears to have been inspired […]
Posted inLifestyle
The pointlessness of bling
I’ve never really seen the point of bling. Of course, I have my wedding and engagement ring (which used to be two separate rings until a bee flew in through the window and stung the fourth finger of my left hand, causing it to swell grotesquely and forcing me to cut them off. Long story.) […]
Posted inLifestyle
Are men naturally funnier than women?
The other day I was having a conversation with a friend in which he argued that most women don’t have a sense of humour, and few women are really funny. Which took me back somewhat, given that I’ve always thought that I am quite good at being funny, in conversation. If anything, I was a […]
Posted inGeneral
Church in Oz: A club nobody bothers to go to?
So I’ve mended my heathenish ways and started going back to church again. After last year’s less than happy encounter with low church Anglicanism, I found another church more to my liking, more traditional — so much so that I have joined the choir. So far I am enjoying going to church more than I […]
Posted inMedia
I wish more advertising was like this
I’ve always believed in the power of advertising, not just to sell stuff, but to transcend the narrow boundaries of commercial speech, to express joyful creativity or capture a particularly telling insight — and sometimes both. This is especially true in South Africa. Think back to the 1990s, when the little white mouse used the […]