Lifestyle

We all have expectations of what our future could be like, but where do these come from and how true are they? The most obvious way to see what our lives could be like is to look at our parents and their peers. This is typically filled with some sense of revulsion that we’ll turn […]

Creating successful families does seem to be a strange concept to many. The predominant belief that we do not choose our families (our parents and siblings) leads us into the experience that either we are lucky to have good family relationships or unlucky. If you no longer like a certain friend of yours, you can […]

By Suntosh Pillay “Are you living your best life?” Oprah Winfrey likes to ask. Jennifer Niesslein asked herself this, took it quite seriously, made a list of areas in her life that needed improving, and began an ambitious two-year experiment — follow with devotion the self-help gurus and their advice. In her own book Practically […]

By Roger Diamond Imagine one of those fine hotel buffets, with lots of food and places to sit, drinks to order and generally a good old time is being had by all. You’ve probably been there. Imagine the people just keep streaming into the restaurant steadily and the food just keeps being renewed, replaced, new […]

Disclaimer: The author neither endorses nor supports reckless and unsafe behaviour where any children or driving and alcohol consumption is concerned. What he does endorse and fully support is having a sense of humour about things, especially where no ultimate harm was done. I have a confession. Like all males since time immemorial I have […]

Robbie Jansen, legendary Cape Town jazz saxophonist, flautist and singer, turns 60 today (August 5 2009) … and I am fortunate to pay tribute to this musical great while he is still alive. These days it is quite sad to see Jansen perform with his ever-present oxygen tank. He still tries to hit the high […]

Do you consider yourself interesting? A good conversationalist, perhaps? Someone others enjoy talking to? The other day I was bemoaning the relentless dullness of so many of the people I meet — especially young women — and I started to wonder what makes people interesting. Dinner party-worthy, say. Or not. I work in an industry […]

By Warren Whitfield According to the latest United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime stats: Drug use in South Africa is double the world norm. South Africans consume more alcohol every year than anyone else in the world. About 15% of South Africans are “problem drug users”. The Northern Cape has highest incidence of foetal […]

I plonk my bag of groceries on the bar counter at Malone’s American Diner on Tongren Road, Shanghai, and the bar staff immediately walk over and inspect the contents. They stare in awe at the large container of freshly picked and washed lettuce, the blocks of cheese and the bread. Wu Hao wrinkles his nose […]

(See part 1 here) I managed to get my two siblings seated around a table. With all three of us living in different parts of the country, it was not often that we all got together. And every time we got together, we were reminded of how great it was to be together again. It […]

WS Gilbert pokes fun at ancestral one-upmanship in The Mikado, with the absurd Pooh Bah boasting how he could trace his ancestry “back to a protoplasmal, primordial atomic globule”. How ultimately meaningless it is to brag about one’s ancestors becomes even more apparent, moreover, when one realises that, according to modern-day research, everyone is practically […]

Disclaimer: This piece has nothing to do with any engagement I may have had or will have in the near future with any female imagined or otherwise. This is merely for me to pose a question that has bugged me forever. We all know what prostitution is; let us first accept that it is the […]