a blog. for those who don’t live where they live

  • Unexpected Stuff From Strangers’ Mouths:  Complicit Racism On a Visit Home

    Unexpected Stuff From Strangers’ Mouths: Complicit Racism On a Visit Home

    There must be something about my face. People want to talk to it. My sister’s been told she has resting bitch face, and I seem to project a benign resting Labrador face. My face and I are quite fond of minding our own business (quite unlike the aforementioned sister, who once joined a passing police…

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  • A childhood memory that arrived unexpectedly and didn’t leave

    A childhood memory that arrived unexpectedly and didn’t leave

    In the 90s: Winter. Cape Town. It is dark, very early in the morning. School holidays have begun. Rain slashes the windscreen of our old, rusted Datsun, the one with the hole in the floor that we could stick our fingers through or peer in to watch the tarred road whizz by beneath. The daily…

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  • 15 Things about Norway that will take a South African some getting used to.

    15 Things about Norway that will take a South African some getting used to.

    During a long night of trying to cajole/threaten the child to sleep, I fell into the black hole that is the frenemy of all people with a few minutes to spare (minutes that quickly become hours I will never get back): humorous listicles. After a few months back in Oslo, I have some things that…

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  • LifeHack: take something simple and make it impossibly complicated in zero easy steps.

    LifeHack: take something simple and make it impossibly complicated in zero easy steps.

    I slouched on the bus one morning about a week ago after a night of no sleep, and thought to myself: “this day is going to be kak”. I knew it the moment I stepped out of the house, and whether it was a case of self-fulfilling prophecy or not, I gave myself a sad…

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  • This Is My New Home

    This Is My New Home

    When the woman walked into the cafe, she seemed to bring with her an Autumn calm, a burgundy-coloured cosiness that made me almost look behind her to see if a trail of petals & leaves followed as she sat down at my table. We were there to talk business. She wore a flowing skirt, a…

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