Branded Blog

Visiting London always feels like a mixed blessing to me. I’ve always had a bit of an ambivalent relationship with the original “Big Smoke” city, and this visit was no exception.

On one hand, it’s the most fabulous city to visit – so much to see, so many new ideas. Even if you ignore or bypass all the wondrous tourist stuff, it’s an awesome place to look for inspiration and new products and interesting people doing interesting things – sometimes odd, but usually interesting!

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Eating berries in the sunshine, as close as I can get to a moment of perfect contentment. I attach to this tiny moment in a busy Friday at the end of a crazy week a little bit of meaning. A bit of peace. A deep out-breathe. It is, to me, a moment to be. I attach all that to this glimmering 5 minute gap eating fresh raspberries in the warm winter sunshine of our little garden in Kommetjie, while the baboons call out from the mountainside behind me and my email continues to self-propogate on the table inside

It’s all about attaching meaning, in some way. We assign meaning to things, that’s the only way they become more than what they are.

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I am not a baker. A friend of mine from my wonderful (and much missed) Book-club in Joburg is such a creature – she would often calmly arrive at Book-club and announce that she had baked 3 thousand cup-cakes last night and then gotten up early that morning to make a 75 layer wedding cake, icing flowers and all, and then gone off to her day job. And then wonder why all the rest of us were staring slack-jawed at her. And of course it was always a treat to have book-club at the Baking Pixie’s house, treats at every turn!

But, as mentioned, I am not such a creature. I am, in fact, probably the polar opposite. An un-Baker, perhaps. Or maybe the opposite of a Baker is a Gobbler, then I would be a super-Gobbler. But a Baker I am not. Continue reading

One of the Barefoot daughters’ (i.e. The two little blonde girls who call the barefoot man “Daddy” and who are happily continuing his barefoot legacy) most favourite Saturday adventures in Kommetjie is the beach Treasure Hunt. It’s kept to a respectable 2 or 3 times a year so as to preserve the allure and intrigue, and so it was with great squeals of delight that the Barefoot man announced two weekends ago that he thought there might be new treasure out at the wreck, and maybe we should go and hunt some treasure.

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It’s been one month,  16 days and 4 hours since my first (and hopefully only) wedding vows…and so far, so good!

And yes, this blog is way overdue. Continue reading