Lifestyle

By Roger Diamond We’ve been arguing the relative merits of nuclear power and other energy sources for the last few weeks, but I want to change tack and look at energy usage and ultimately, reducing it. This post will not be a list of 100 green tips for your household, as much as those are […]

I have been deflowered. The days of wondering what it’s like and when my time will come, if I’m ready and whether I’ll be disappointed, are long gone. Now that my seven day fling with Grahamstown is over, it’s really just a matter of how long the romance will last, and whether I’ll be drawn […]

I had two dates with crime last week, and although they jolted my emotional safety belt, they ultimately were experiences that gave me a lot of hope. How so? They showed me that, despite the general lament about its disappearance, ubuntu still exists in our society. Here’s what happened: Last Sunday, my neighbour looks out […]

If you’ve been following my recent moans on the lack of party! party! in Grahamstown, you will be happy to know that I am far more satiated today than I was a few days ago. Maybe my friends have gotten cooler, maybe I’ve become a bit less demanding, maybe I’m just desperate to be able […]

By Roger Diamond My last article generated some good discussion, including some vehement pro-nuclear commentators who reckoned I should climb back into my time capsule and go back to the 1980s. This post aims to point out the merits of such time travel! Firstly, if nuclear power is so great, why is it not being […]

The National Arts Festival has kicked off. More like, started a brisk walk. I managed to see through my first day in the town I almost studied in. I am excited, and yet a little weirded out at being in the place that I was this close to spending four years of my life in. […]

I know there are many people who scornfully knock the saying “everything happens for a reason”. However, they do miss the profound chink onto appreciating life more: there is a teacher in every event. Whether one acknowledges the teacher in the event is another matter. Once giving consent to that truth, the chink then opens […]

The other day, while checking the news on the Sydney Morning Herald website, I happened across this story. It’s about how a spectacularly tasteless Greek wedding in Sydney, spread to Facebook and then across the world, passed on by those of us who treasure chav* culture in all its rich and varied forms. Have a […]

At 02h00 this morning I filed an article on the Sentinel site confirming that Michael Jackson had died. It’s now about 02h05 and I can’t sleep. Watching Sky News I can already see that there are going to be a billion conspiracy theories and the whole family including his young children are going to be […]

Somebody asked me to write a “How to eat organic and not feel like a Buddhist monk” guide. Firstly, I must admit that my knowledge of Buddhist lifestyles is almost non-existent — apart from the fact that some live under extreme religious and political suppression, wear bright colours and have shiny bald heads! There is […]

“The people in this town only know the pace of the cow,” said my aunt, who lives in Pietermaritzburg. She was responding to my husband’s moans about the way the locals took as long as possible to cross the road, so that they were still strolling along the tarmac long after the lights had turned […]

It has been well documented through the ages and throughout the world that people are impacted by role models. We learn the same language as our primary caregivers, be it Spanish, English or Japanese. We speak with the same accents, integrate many of the same values, copy many of the same behavioural patterns and reactive […]