I’m 15-going-on-16. In the morning room of my boarding school in the Cape Town city centre watching dust motes dance in the sun pouring through high sash-windows – I’m so sadly angry to be stuck there on a Saturday when our family home is only 10 minutes away in Rondebosch. They’ve allowed me and other […]

The more I think about it (especially since it’s once again become a big political talking-point in SA) the more I begin to see that Communism isn’t so much a political system as a really long and detailed bout of depression…… It’s like the practical manifestation of despair regarding the human race. That we can be […]

It’s Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday, and I thought I’d find something we could all use and give away – there’s bound to be something on this list for everyone: drink water, at least four glasses a day eat breakfast every morning choose steaming over frying or baking when you can eat fruit and vegetables, a […]

(Repost – first appeared on Health24 2010) “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey…” – anywhere else in the world you’d be correct in assuming that these are signs of autumn.  Not in South Africa in 2010 – those falling leaves and mounting clouds signal the beginning of a threatened railway strike.  […]

Marcus: Twirling autumn leaves gusting in the old walk way in old cape town pigeons seeking shelter shoulders hunched, eyes cast down soaring far above, a man on a ladder painting to a rhythm, obscured by wind   Joanne: Just stare long enough and details emerge the man is painting white icing onto a gingerbread […]

In response to a post I read (First posed April 13, 2011) Um, truth be told,  sure – as a white South African, I am certainly clear about my agenda: freedom of speech, freedom of association, the right to work, the right to create work, safety for the most vulnerable of SA’s citizens (children, their […]

for this one to make a guest appearance: Bukowski liked crazy women On days like these When I feel brittle and paranoid and overwhelmed, When my well-modulated voice strikes a brittle note, When my feet forget how to dance and My soul feels stunted and petulant.   On days like these When I can’t even […]

Some rants are too good to run only once (First posted on Letterdash) It’s late, late, late on Saturday night.  Spent the day doing last-minute maniac home repairs and garden maintenance in time for my first visitor of the season – this time it’s my Dad. But that’s not what I want to write about […]

(First posted on Letterdash Anyone who grew up in the 80′s and spoke English will probably remember Tyler Durden – that sleepless poet of solitude who sounded a warning bell for an entire generation. The problem was that Tyler was so impossibly cool – no-one remembers the message: that single-serving lives, where every waking moment […]