Lifestyle

Irony. This was a word that was passed around quite a lot this past weekend. I am quite sure that the readers of this prestigious blog space are quite learned and know what the word means. For effect, though, I shall add the definition as defined by Dictionary.com. ioroony [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-] — noun, plural -nies. […]

One of the best books I have ever read in my life is East of Eden by one of my favourite authors of all time, John Steinbeck. I have read the book three times from cover to cover — the first of those times as a wide-eyed, innocent 18-year-old. The book resonated with me on […]

Call me frothy, call me whimsical, call me light-hearted (don’t call me nice), I’m sticking to my guns — I think adults don’t play enough. I’m not talking the playfulness of running around in playgrounds, acting like idiots, or enforced-game-time playfulness (“You will have fun!”), but just good old-fashioned playing. A sense of lightness to […]

When I was 16 I met a very nice, cute girl. She lived in Cape Town and I live in Johannesburg. We met through IRC and had one of the sweetest “flings” online, with a brief off-line kissing-friends visit to her family’s wine farm in Franschhoek. I remember the day I visited her. I was […]

As the leading exponent of open-necked trousers, my brief foray into women’s fashion will probably leave the editors gobsmacked. I can actually picture them sitting there, desperately trying to figure out whether this is some sort of revenge for their point-blank refusal to entertain an article on women and paralytic parking. Riaan Wolmarans checking every […]

Being happy is so chronically un-hip. It’s taken me a while to realise it, but I am now (slowly) facing up to the sordid truth. Much as I have delighted, my whole life, in being cheerful and appreciating the little things in life, and picnicking in the sunshine and listening to happy tunes, I have […]

There’s a movie out soon modelled on the artistic persona of Bob Dylan. One of the four “Dylans” is played by Cate Blanchette, in an Oscar-tipped performance. Unfortunately this is reawakening Bob’s-a-genius nonsense. The revival of the singer’s fortunes can be traced back to 1997, when he emerged with an album called Time Out of […]

I used to think that those who claimed men and women were vastly different just weren’t trying hard enough to understand each other. “I’ve got three older brothers,” I used to boast. “How difficult can men be to understand?” How wrong I was! How naive! How foolish! Men are, truly, a different breed. You want […]

On Wednesday night I went to see Jethro Tull in concert. Not because I’m a fan, but because my wife is and one of my favourite things to do is go to live concerts. Another is to keep my wife happy, so this worked all round. In fact, even saying I’m not a big fan […]

I’ve finally worked out what it is that’s killing people. It’s not butter or margarine. It’s those clowns who carry out the medical studies. Every day we’re told that studies show that eggs are killing more people every hour than Stalin ever did — only to be informed two days later that in a study […]