A funny thing happened the other weekend. The husband and I were lolling around the apartment, doing nothing in particular – when the power went off. We looked at each other and waited for it to surge back on, but it didn’t happen. And although we didn’t really have any plans anyway, it unnerved us. […]
This is Africa
The weekend just past has seen the husband and I experience our first traditional African wedding. It may sound harsh to say, but weddings can be fairly generic. Back in Melbourne I saw my share of Western cookie-cutter weddings when I worked weekends at a function centre over a couple of summers, and frankly they […]
Bread + Ants = 1 Bad Saturday?
Sometimes the way a day starts is an indicator of how the rest of the day is going to turn out. This morning, for example, I got up, eager for our Saturday morning breakfast ritual of fried eggs and homemade bread. However, when I wandered into the kitchen, I was faced with an invasion, now […]
The Itch of the Island Mozquito
Last weekend I offered myself up as a main course for the mozzies during their fine-dining dinner convention. The offering was not intentional – it was just that I was lax in dressing myself in my mozzie-proof hippy skirt, or spritzing myself with Eau de Bushmans/Aeroguard/Rid. Mozzies have always loved me. Apparently my blood is the […]
Behind the Waterfall – Revisited
Some two years ago we made our first trek to the magical black sand beach and mystical waterfalls of the 5th wettest place on the planet. Ureka. It’s no easy ride to get there – what with getting the right permit, figuring out transport (particularly when the pool of licensed drivers here has considerably shrunk) […]
The Food Obsession
Food on the island can get a bit much sometimes. The constant obsessing over what one can get from which store and the way everyday conversations somehow seem to flow back to cooking – cooking styles, cooking methods, cooking preferences. I must admit that when I first arrived here I found the constant food obsession tiresome […]