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The Other Woman, a Letter From My Heart
"Your children are not your children.They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you." On Children – Kahlil Kibran An open letter Dear Mum and Dad of The Other Woman, When I...
Between The Covers it's Man up or Clam up
We need confidence and courage to grab an opportunity and run with it, to persevere and not lose faith takes guts.“A ship is always safe at the shore; but that is NOT what it is built for. Right ― Albert Einstein. People are fascinating and if you’re a little more aware and have an...
A Photographic Walk
Today was a walk in the park. A delightful day of taking photogaphs of some the people I encounter in my daily life. As Bruce Gilden says "I love the people I photograph. I mean, they're my friends. I've never met most of them or I don't know them at all, yet through my images I live...
Sea Horses and Mermaids
For a while now we’ve been hearing rumours about snorkelling with Sea Horses,"Right!" I thought "and I’m talking to Faeries!" they’re almost extinct and live in the Tropics somewhere. Exactly, in Inhambane in the tropical waters there! So one day we investigated, of course it’s easier said...
Moon On The Water - Where a Simple Life Comes Together
As soon as the furniture is arranged on the veranda and the long table is placed against the railing I sit down and feel my shoulders drop, my neck becomes looser and the tension flows like blood through my veins out through my toes. I can breathe again, long slow inhalations,...
Good, Better, Mozambique
It’s a long and winding road getting to Lua No Mar, a cottage on the beach in Tofo, a pinprick on the map of Mozambique in the Province of Inhambane. This is the place of long white beaches, mosquitoes, sand flees, balmy days, and the friendliest most accommodating people in Africa. Vasco...
Rhubarbs reign here, Miss Figgy and Aubergine
People very rarely change and our nearly neighbours moved after a lifetime on the corner, quietly without making a fuss, not the slightest ripple on the pond, the only sign of their departure is their absence and the sense of loss the stately old homestead has taken on! No one is doing Thai-Chi...
At a Loss
“Before the war Sofya Levinton had once said to Yevgenia Nikolaevna Shaposhnikova, “If one man is fated to be killed by another, it would be interesting to trace the gradual convergence of their paths. At the start they might be miles away from one another – I might be in Pamir picking alpine...
Figs, Frogs and Red Onions
The countdown has begun only seven sleepies to go! If the dining room is anything to go by we’re going to need a pantechnican to get us to Tofo. There's no doubt we're all fatigued at this time of the year, although it’s gone like a flash, and the year is just a memory we’ve all had our...
Ta-Ta-Ra-Ta Tarte Tartin
“A party without cake is just a meeting” ― Julia Child. Tarte Tatin - a type of upside-down apple tart consisting of pastry baked over slices of fruit arranged in caramelised sugar, served fruit side up after cooking. Every cook should go to a cooking class at least once a year. Besides...
The Melting Pot
Chocolate Melting Jar an innovative find by Kitchen Inspire by ANZO. Often the best buys are the ones I do on the trot while my eyes are searching shelves for the thingy on the list. My blue eye spotted this gem while scouring the shelves for the 6th colander for our summer cottage...
Open Secrets Closed Books and Fishy Tales
Speckled eggs, peanuts and raisins with Mustard leaves and ginger are my new addictions; if I didn’t know better I’d think something fishy was going on! I juggle the three in no particular order while I make a salad and think about Village life on a Saturday morning. I love the bunch of...
Of Crowning glories Queen of Tarts and Family Jewels
are none of the things I can boast of. You could say I'm always the second runner-up or the Burntoutactress being a drama Queen, the reigning Queen says the family jewels are for the aging Queen. Such is life. But sit me down to Pudding and I'm in clover! The real Queen of Tarts is...
Hydrangeas Hot Chicks and Old Favourites
The hydrangeas are blooming, all cotton-candy pink and lacy blue. My Pecan nut tree is throwing off its flowers and my garden is swarming with bees, dragonflies and frogs. It’s old summer magic and there’s no time to waste experimenting with new menu’s, which suits me just fine. Last night...
Chocolate Champagne and Caviar
the star attractions leading all the wise men to your festive table. “Happiness, Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart, Bitter. Sweet. Alive.” - Joanne Harris, Chocolat. Don't invite the usual suspects, be brave and invite someone new; who'll breath new life into...
Five Fish and Four French loaves
Won't cut it if you're planning on feeding a multitude. This basic recipe for everything divine, double it up for a crowd. My motto is: Consistency is unimaginative, dress it up or pasta it down. Girls just want to have fun and preparing a meal must be quite a quiet quicky. Every time I serve...
The Fast Lane to Bloemfontein
You may well ask, what on earth were we doing in Bloemfontein? The home of the Safari Suit; indeed, one only goes there for a wedding, a funeral or a meeting. But someone’s wagon stopped there. My Ouma was a student at the Teacher’s Training College in 1929. Today, unless you’re accepted...
From Leap Frog to Toad in the Pole
Silvery soft, silky, squishy and slightly dry that’s what I thought the glob of sticky putty would feel like as I gingerly tried prying it from between my speedometer and dashboard while driving home; and then it jumped! It was a silvery soft, silky, squishy and slightly dry Arum frog...
Being a Free Spirit and an Aging Gypsy
Children are resilient, so is the child in me. Circumstances change, I’ll adapt. Nothing is impossible, my mind renews like shedding skin. I’ve wept, it made me strong. I loathe mediocrity, apathy and dullness. When I'm hopeless I live one day at a time. When depression knocks I walk to find...
Curry Flavour When It Rains In November
111 years ago on this day my Grandmama was born. How the world has changed, the only thing that hasn’t is the rain! Bob Hope was also born in 1903 and Konrad Lorenz (Austrian Zoologist 1903-1989) said "I have found the missing link between the higher ape and civilized man: It is we." George...
Fashionable Food for Fabulous Fridays
Those are some of my favourite F words; fortunately it was a good week so I have no desire to stab someone with a cake fork. To celebrate the weekend there’s nothing better than having fab food lined up which won't keep you in the kitchen for hours. Try these when serving sundowners or as...
Clickety-clack choo-choo
Clickety-clack, Clickety-clack choo-choo-choose your train wisely! Trains and Champagne. I’m neither an Anorak nor a Trainspotter but I love the huge beasts. Skinny bandy legs, new black lace-up shoes the dress 6 inches off the floor when kneeling. A very wobbly chin, I'm petrified I’ll...
Pass Lee's Age Rose Merry and Time
These are some of my favourite things! It’s snowing in Canada and a fine mist covers my mountain. Comfort food is called for which is perfect as it stews in its own juices while I get spring out of my garden and prepare for Summer. Clay pots will be filled with culinary herbs, Parsley,...
Halo! Halong is Halong Bay? Halong can I stay?
“To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value.” and “To contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;” I must confess I knew very little about Halong Bay except that it was exceptionally...
Silly Season Snapping at our Heels
This morning I didn’t wake up to the chirruping of songbirds, but to the clanging of a bucket, snap of a step ladder and a jodling painter, Wally is revamping. Roof trusses are being knocked up across the street as a new house shoots up and according to the owner his parents are moving in on...
Fat Plump October
Now’s the time to get Grand’Mere off the shelf, dust her and riffle through her pages to the two stuck together when I baked last year’s Christmas cake. It’s eight weeks to go and that’s how long one needs to mature a cake. This fact struck me like a blow to the solar plexus this afternoon when...
Decidedly Dilly Divas and other Dramas
Confucius say “short man who dance with tall woman get bust in mouth”. That is indeed a pearl of wisdom! As we were privy to local lore we were treated to strange customs in Ha Noi. So instead of watching the famous Water Puppets we went in pursuit of Fre Astair and Ginga Roger (in keeping...
Oranges and Lemons ring the bells of Citrusdal
Just a quickie before I forget, do not pass through Citrusdal without stopping for brunch and coffee in the main road. The chocolate cake is the best in the west and the baked cheese cake is celestial. At the Grapevine Coffee Shop the instruction is clear, "greet everyone with a smile!" and...
Street food in the fast lane
Streets are swarming with scooters, rickshaws, hookers and hawkers. The sidewalks bustle with traders, pedestrians, street cafes, and panhandlers This frisson is like a needle in a vein and addictive. The steamy life on the street is heady and the cacophony of sound and raw energy makes any...
Serenading Sundays
More lyrics have been written about a Sunday than any other day of the week. From Queen to Joni Mitchell. Here Sundays are a day of worship, thankfulness and rest. Panama hats, cheesecutters and blazers, the old school tie, and Church Schools are still a firm favourite in our neck of the woods...
Cheese Souffles
There’s nothing nicer than waking up to a freshly mowed lawn, Cape White-eyes splashing in the birdbath and that special feeling of well-being when the sun shines. Perfect Porcelain blooms cover rosebushes; I spot the neighbour’s cat unwinding himself from his scratch-pole. All this calls for...
Having street food without being a pavement special
Si! “The Italians and Spanish, the Chinese and Vietnamese see food as part of a larger, more essential and pleasurable part of daily life. Not as an experience to be collected or bragged about - or as a ritual like filling up a car - but as something else that gives pleasure, like sex or music,...
The Church Boutique Hotel Hanoi
Imagine our excitement when we touched down in Ha Noi, we’d had a brilliant flight, been attended to hand and foot, but, a cunning little cottonwool cloud floated over our sunny, autumn horizon as we were being ripped off at the Tourism counter when we ordered a taxi. Charging us an arm and a...
In a Singpore Grip
Lets agree prohibition sucked and led to all sorts of mischief. Imagine a government that bans chewing gum? The fear of the law was put into me and I had visions of sniffer dogs discovering my Imodium and Vomifene so I rushed to my G.P for prescriptions in case I got the chop, no questions...
Green Mango Salad
Sing-song voices of ladies walking and the chitter chatter of birds wake me up on quiet mornings, summer's here, it's flip-flop-sunhat season and we need refiguring for the beach. Salad days are back, perfectly timed are the fresh summer fruits and vegetables appearing on our shelves. GREEN...
Lemon Grass and Turmeric Chicken Skewers
When the sun shines evenings are balmy and a perfect reason to have a mid-week celebration, light a fire and barbeque something easy, fragrant lime and delicious. Sip cold crisp green Sauvignor blanc and listen to evening sounds. LEMON GRASS TURMERIC CHICKEN SKEWERS(this recipe has been...
Ruffled in Raffles
This I’ve got to get off my chest. When in Rome do as the Romans do, right? So off we went to the iconic Raffles bar for the famous Singapore Sling. It was a typical hot and humid Singapore day so we didn’t need much encouragement to visit this famous landmark. The beautiful Raffles Hotel...
Yikes bikes, peddling power
“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realise fishing is stupid and boring.” Desmond Tutu, high-fi! This afternoon I donned my cycling shorts and reluctantly went off to the gym to attend a Spinning...
Clams Crabs and Cookery Courses
Slipping into a sexy, starched apron with a new recipe in one hand and a flute of bubbles in the other is bliss. The olive in my Martini is attending a cookery course re-kindling my passion for food, where delicious recipes are shared, prepared and then enjoyed by the group. Good food and...