What is the colour of the wind?

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"The real Africa can be smelt the minute you step off a

plane onto African soil and feel the air calling you,

beckoning you home."

'They' always say you never truly appreciate something

until its gone! And how true, it takes leaving Africa, home,

to realise its true value, to realise how close you actually

hold it to your heart.

Arriving back on African soil you can see clearly the colour

of Africa's air, it isn't a colour you learn at school; red, green

or blue, but it is the colour of a calling. Someone or something

pulling you back, reminding you of why this is the place you

choose to call home.

Colour, in the sense of moving air, is not necessarily something

you have to see to explain; it can be felt, smelt or even heard.



'There's a frog in my lettuce!'

At a family braai yesterday my dad discovered a frog in the salad bowl!
The salad had been made with a prewashed packet of lettuce from woolworths and the rest; cucumbers, tomatoes and feta etc, had all been seperately chopped!
That little frog had travelled and survived in that bag of lettuce from its place of origin, the lettuce field, and had probably endured very cold temperatures.
Shows what determination, or hibernation, can achieve.

If I were the boss...

Well I am, the boss of me atleast! Being the boss means I can choose how to treat myself. At the moment it's all about health.

I have just returned from three months of travelling through Australia, Italy and the UK. I had a fantastic time, but my poor body suffered. I didn't wear a pair of running trainers once, I ate all kinds of yummy things and my liver and me became enemies. So my body decided on return that it would rebel against me and together with the scale the two of them shocked me back into reality!

I have now taken charge, I am the boss, and we, my body and me, are eating much less and have joined a running group, Run/Walk for Life. However, we have found some common ground and agreed that our happy place, wine, should remain exactly that.

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Lacquered nails

I'm new to many things this year and like blogging, long nails is just something I've never done before.

Keeping my new years resolutions short this year I decided they would be:
          1) Find my true niche
          2) Grow my nails

As an aid to their growth, almost like their very own personal trainer, I have kept them painted for almost two months now. If something looks good I won't damage it. Well-manicured and painted nails always look good, so they don't get 'eaten'.

Now I just need to tackle resolution no. 1. Funny how we so often focus on the easier things in life, and in this circumstance the prettier things in life.

Life in a honeycomb

Our lives, whether as a social recluse or a butterfly, are all joined in some way or another. The hexagonal wax cells that bees build in their nests as storage facilities are a good way of understanding life. Life, and not just human forms of life, is individual and yet it forms an intricate web. We are all somehow connected and we all have an impact on the lives of others.

A damaged honeycomb will not provide the bees with a safe shelter for their larvae and honey, just like a damaged world will not provide every living thing with the best possible opportunity to survive and flourish.

If you're not convinced that your honeycomb does in fact affect the others it shares sides with, then try for one day to stay in bed, don't get up to feed your pets and children, don't go to work or university, and don't answer any texts, emails or phone calls. See for yourself the affect you have on another persons life first hand. Doesn't it feel good to feel connected? An unconnected life is a life not lived. Always remember that your life affects the lives of others, we each play a role in the honeycomb of life. 

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Moving Day

I have made the move across from tumblr and now I'm here! Unlike moving house, it only took a couple hours and I'm happily settled.
Don't know if a move of this size really deserved a celebratory drink but I opened a bottle of good wine to mark my small success!

confidence vs. arrogance

It all boils down to merit.

Confidence is a state of being. A confident person deserves to be so. One is confident of a hypothesis or prediction, or the expected outcome of a particular course of action because of deserved merit. Merit that is built on true understanding, hard work or the mere fact that this particular trait is the quality that pushes one to eventually fulfill the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Arrogance is unmerited confidence. An arrogant person believes their thought and opinions are true because they are their own, not for any other reason. An arrogant person admits no limits despite the fact that humans are inherently flawed.



(photo taken from blogthought.wordpress.com)



The only pity I have is for those whose confidence is misunderstood as arrogance. Make sure as a confident person you do not come across as being arrogant.

Two people come out of a building and into a story

A story is only as good as its characters.

As long as two ‘interesting’ people come out of a building at the same time something is bound to happen. They could possibly meet eachother and a conversation could be sparked or they might only acknowledge one another. However, they will both become part of a story, whether it is the continuous story of their individual and seperate lives or a story in which their lives are brought together for an unknown period of time.

What matters is that everyone’s life is a story, it will unfold accordingly and unlike certain things in life, the people you meet throughout your story cannot be controlled.

So why not open your story to the possibility of good characters?

Make your life story a good one.

Change of tone... Uganda's new Anti-gay bill

I wanted to try and keep my blog positive, I think there is enough negativity fed to us through the news and other media sources. However, some things just do not sit well. Today I read the article Ugandan bill ‘to stop promotion of gay rights’ on News24’s site and I have to say I agree with US President Obama that this proposed bill is ‘odious.’ I am glad to read that the Ugandan government does not support the bill, but who are these lawmakers backing this anti-gay bill?

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Ugandan-bill-to-stop-promotion-of-gay-rights-20120210

At least the reintroduced bill proposes to drop the death penalty clause introduced as a sentence for certain homosexual acts. If African countries want to earn global respect from international governments they need to stop draconian anti-gay bills such as this one. ‘Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda,’ isn’t this bad enough, is a new bill really necessary. Steps forward, not backward, are needed.

Meticulous list-maker

I am a list-maker of note which means when things need to get done they are written onto a list, whether that list be in my diary, on a piece of scrap paper or on my phone’s ‘to-do list.’ Writing lists in my world means things get done, each task is ticked off meticulously according to the urgency they require.

If you’re not like me, an organised breed of the German typology, then lists might seem a scary way of showing yourself ALL the tasks you need to do. But take my advice, even if you just write a shopping list, something good will come from it.



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frozen memories

Old photos. Such time stealers. I can literally get lost in them for hours. Frozen memories.

Charly's mucking afazing cakes

Being a student at CPUT, Cape Town campus, seems strange and different at the moment but the positives seem to be appearing quickly; the classes are smaller, parking is much easier than UCT and of course, I’m now 500m from Charly’s Bakery.

If you haven’t yet made a trip it’s well worth it, although a little bit pricey! I wouldn’t necessarily recommend their highly rated personalized cupcakes, I think they’re overrated…
… but their chocolate brownies are fantastic and if savoury is more to your fancy then try one of their quiches, you won’t be bored for choice.

Christmas time in my family is ALWAYS complete with a cake or two from Charly’s, usually the baked chocolate cheesecake and the lemon meringue, neither are in anyway traditionally christmas but for my Cape Town family Charly’s is tradition.

(Both photos were exported from http://www.charlysbakery.co.za/)

You can find Charly’s on 38 Canterbury Street, Cape Town.

How hard is it to follow instructions?

Not very hard at all, listen carefully and make sure you understand what is being asked of you the first time round.

It only gets difficult when you don’t want to follow the instructions. Sadly, there are times in life when we don’t have a choice. Solution: listen when you have to, it will make the instructions that much easier to follow.



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