I have just done a survey among fellow ex-pats of other countries, via email or on the phone, including those who are not in China. The question was: Do you feel, as an ex-pat of sorts from your country, that your countrymen feel you have “deserted” or “betrayed” your country? On the whole, to boil […]
Lifestyle
Posted inLifestyle
All yesterday’s parties
It was almost a year and a half ago that, after months of travelling between Jo’burg and Durban with little more than my dancing shoes and a toothbrush, I packed everything that mattered to me into my little car, drove up the hill, and made Jo’burg my home. I don’t know what I was expecting. […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Woes facing SA pensioners, the State and our responsibility
“Please, Rod, make sure you and Marion stick away enough money for when you are older. Promise your old mother. Believe you me, no matter how much you save, it just isn’t enough for when you are older.” In Shanghai I listen to my mother’s youthful, imploring voice on the phone half a world away […]
Posted inLifestyle
A New Earth … the follow-up
I apologise — I assumed there had been so much hoo-ha about A New Earth that everyone knew what it was about and that I could just fleetingly mention it in my blog about how much I’ve enjoyed Oprah’s webcasts with author Eckhart Tolle. My bad. So, without giving too exhaustive a book review, let […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
You pessimistic quietistic anarchist, you!
“Crackdown on pirate DVDs” or words to that effect, are routinely touted in the local English newspapers in China. I can assure you on the same day and any other day I can take you to my favourite DVD vendors who will sell me the latest pirated DVDs for a mere seven or eight RMB, […]
Posted inLifestyle
I like Oprah again
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Oprah often gets a bad rap. Sometimes from me. It’s all that advice-giving. It gets to me sometimes. That said, I am now a born-again Oprah fan. Why? Well, no doubt you’re aware of her infamous book club selections — once Oprah chooses a book for her […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Of Bosluisbasters and other hybrids
“My father and them trekked with a donkey cart”, Floors explained. “It was a long distance to cover in that way and some families had it very hard. Somebody’s wife went into labour and they stopped at a farm. But the farmer wanted to know nothing and chased them away.” One of the government officials […]
Posted inLifestyle, Sport
The cost of scoring in 2010
When millions of football fans descend on South Africa in mid-2010, it’s not just the country’s tourism industry that will be welcoming them with open arms. Never slow to miss a trick, practitioners of the world’s oldest profession will be bracing themselves for the inevitable flurry of scoring that goes with an event like the […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Black Zimbabweans cracking Shanghai
“Hey Rod … how you doing, man?” comes the affectionate voice at People’s Square metro. I turn in surprise to see Cleto standing there, that familiar, huge grin on his face with all the perfectly white teeth, a pretty black woman next to him. It is amazing how in Shanghai, a city of ostensibly 20-million […]
Posted inLifestyle
Want to learn a language in bite-sized chunks?
It’s the beginning of the year and, if like many of us (me included) you’re brimming with enthusiasm to take up 20 new hobbies, you might want to learn a language. Before you sign up for an expensive language class (the buffet option), why not try out the snack table? What am I on about? […]
Posted inLifestyle
Those dreaded words, ‘however’, ‘unfortunately’, ‘I’m afraid’, ‘alas’ …
“Dear Rod Thanks for your proposal on the above title [Cracking China]. The sample you sent is very interesting and entertaining and I enjoyed reading it. However, it is not suited to our area of publishing. As a university press, we do focus more on academic texts rather than popular ones … ” (What’s wrong […]
Posted inLifestyle
Armed response … eventually
We were having after-dinner coffee with friends when my husband’s cellphone rang at eighteen minutes past ten. The signal was bad and he had trouble hearing what the caller was saying. “Is that ADT?” he asked, and my heart sank. The alarm had gone off, they said. The dinner party came to an abrupt end […]