The Afrikaans Language Monument just outside of Paarl in the Western Cape is impressive. It was designed with the intention of showing how fast Afrikaans, one of the world’s youngest languages, grew through the shape of a rapidly ascending curve. That’s the intention. The reality is, it’s an embarrassingly large…
When I was much younger I toyed with the idea of becoming an astronaut (I think this was right after my phase where I wanted to be a detective like Nancy Drew or the girl who rides the elephant in the circus). Unfortunately, growing up at the bottom end of…
I finally know why all my friends with children had become boring. As it turns out, having a baby and a full-time job does not leave much room for anything else. Most evenings, after the evening meal, bath time, play time and, finally, rocking baby to sleep time, I’m left…
Many years ago, on our first visit to Scotland, Gareth and I, along with my parents, visited Hadrian’s Wall. For those of you who don’t know, this ancient structure was built in 122 AD by the Romans to protect the northern frontier of their Britannia province from the fierce barbarians of Scotland. It…
Whenever he gets the chance, Gareth drags me off to see cars on display. We visited the Ferrari museum while in Italy, which I found extremely boring (but who am I to come between a man and his lifelong obsession?). So with good grace I relented yet again and let…
My forefathers, the brothers Jean and Gabriel le Roux, arrived in the Cape of Good Hope in 1688. As Huguenots, a protestant denomination inspired by Calvinism, they were persecuted by their Catholic countrymen and finally fled France for the promise of religious freedom in the colonies. The brothers settled on…
It rarely snows in South Africa, and never in Pretoria where we live. If we’re having a particularly cold winter, the Drakensberg mountains might get a light coating of the muddy-white stuff, but not enough to ski in. I was 21 years old, on holiday in Europe, when I first stood in…
I remember the day we went to visit Stonehenge. Gareth and I were still living in Penarth in Wales at the time. We jumped onto the train one morning and arrived before the shops had opened in Salisbury. With hot take-away coffee and tea in hand, we caught the shuttle…
A bee zooms past us, eagerly on its way to pollinate the rows of bushes in the field of green and purple that stretches out before us. The aroma of lavender permeates the air. A small pond glimmers in the late afternoon sun and tall trees lead our eyes upwards…
Lonely Planet’s The Best Place to be Today is an amazingly fun book. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to know where the perfect place to be on any given day is? And apart from the editors’ obsession with bat colonies, there should be something in here to suit everyone’s taste.…
