Dogs playing on Longbeach, Kommetjie, Jan 2011

Fantastic Weather on Longbeach today

The dogs are cavorting and people are having fun on the beach.

The black Great Dane came charging up to Hugh, barking, and then just before it reached him, veered away and went running back to "his" people.
It is wonderful to watch the dogs and how they run around with total joy and abandon. I love it when they've been in the water and you can see a shake coming on. It starts at the tip of the nose, then the ears flap, the rest of the body sort of rotates around itself and then the tail, right to the very tip. There is no consideration for anyone or anything that may be sprayed in the process. If you're within spraying distance, you will get a shower, unless you move out of the way.

The black scotty, I didn't check whether it is a he or a she, had his tongue hanging out. It looked very cute the pink on black and the shadow was also interesting.

The bloodhound, I think it is a bloodhound was running like mad, running rings around the other dogs.

I am not going to comment on the tail picture for fear of compromising someone. Make your own deductions, conclusions or assumptions. The picture says it all, doesn't it?

Isn't it sad they allow the vehicles on the beach?

Longbeach Jan 2011

Click on the image above to go to my web album to see the rest of the photos.

Escape Adultitis Article in Cosmpolitan Magazine

'Escaping Adultitis'

Escaping Adultitis is all about rediscovering the carefree fun, wide-eyed excitement and intense curiosity of childhood, and incorporating it into your adult life.

Glynis Horning wrote:
When last did you laugh – really laugh, from your tummy, till your eyes watered and you almost peed? Children laugh on average 400 times a day; adults, 15 – and in a much more restrained way. It’s a discovery that prompted US cartoonist Jason Kotecki to produce a book, a website and a movement to prevent and treat what he terms ‘adultitis’.


Kotecki defines adultitis as a silent epidemic that slowly erodes our inborn childlike spirit, killing our dreams, curiosity, happiness and hope. As he and his coauthor (now wife) Kim explain in The Escape Plan: A 40-Day Plan To Annihilate The Adultitis In Your Life (JBird Ink), adultitis usually sets in after the age of 21, when you’re weighed down by a job, bills and responsibilities. You catch it by associating with others who have it, ignoring your dreams, caring too much what society thinks, constantly chasing the ‘next big thing’, trying to keep up with the Khumalos, and taking yourself too seriously.


The symptoms are essentially those of stress and depression (see ‘Are you afflicted?’). Left unchecked, these can kill – they increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, cirrhosis (from alcohol abuse), substance-fuelled accidents and suicide, says Durban psychologist Rakhi Beekrum.

I wrote:

When you observe a young child, what do you see?
Moment-by-moment experience of what’s unfolding.
Curiosity; they explore their surroundings with total focus, abandon, using all their senses.
Express their wants and desires without any consideration for others.

What are our primary or basic assumptions as adults?
“Life is hard, a struggle, full of problems, and then we die”. “Adulthood is about responsibilities, sacrifice, pressures, hard work and a denial of pleasure”. To the degree you believe these assumptions to be true, to that degree your mind will try to prove you right, and find evidence to support your assumptions.

Where’s your focus?
“What’s wrong with the world?” or “What’s right with the world?”

I believe balance is the answer. If you don’t look at what you need and just allow things to happen, you can eventually be treated like a doormat, or even worse, a slave. On the other extreme, you can become totally self absorbed and self-indulgent. If you only look at what’s right and ‘good’, you can be in denial about what’s really happening. Someone in your family or team at work will have to play the ‘bad guy’ even if that’s not their natural modus operandi, just to bring things back into balance, and make you ‘see’ the other side.


Steps to finding your way back to honouring ‘the child within”
1. Define what ‘fun’ and ‘pleasure’ means for you. If you don’t know what it is, you won’t recognise it even if it bites you in the… you know what.
[One aspect of this for me would be the surprise element, or something that ‘tickles’ me, whether it is a breathtaking sunset, a quirky comment, paragliding, a beautifully crafted object, an unexpected gift, caress, or hug without ulterior motives, learning to snake-board and falling off a lot, reading up about something that I’m really interested in, or anything that makes me laugh from the centre of my being. In essence this has to do with something ‘new, different, creative’, allowing me to see something in a way I haven’t before. Another aspect would be antici….pation; something to look forward to.]

2. Make time for this and be non-negotiable about it. This does not mean not being flexible as to when you do it, but just about making sure it happens. You owe it to yourself and your family. Proviso; “as long as this is not harmful or life-threatening to yourself and others”, and I’m not talking about extreme sports here, if that’s what gives you ‘kicks’ then “go for it!” (Any form of abusive behaviour is not on this list; drugs, gambling, etc.).

3. Acknowledge yourself for doing it, and enjoy it as your ‘treat’ when you do engage with it. If you do this you will be adding to your ‘me, me inner child’ bank balance, which will give you much more patience, tolerance, and everything else for the rest of your interactions with others, be they kids, family, clan, parents, etc. If this should become a habit and you do not acknowledge it as a ‘treat’, it will no longer have the same value.

4. Don’t knock yourself and others out if you don’t do it. Learn from your experience and find a creative way to get your needs met, as well as the needs of others in your life.

These were the notes I gave her to complete the article.

The last few months of 2010

First of all I hope you had a wonderful and safe festive season.  I wish you a terriffic 2011 in all ways.  May the things that bugged you last year evaporate, and the things you didn't get to, happen easily and effortlessly this year.

So here is a little bit about what I've been up to the past few months....

I house sat these little mischiefs a few times last year in Simonstown, real cuties. The house has a magnificent view of False Bay, but the wind... Yinne! When it blows, it pomps. I sometimes thought the house was going to take off, like in "The Wizard of Oz". And when the wind doesn't stop blowing for days on end, and you're not used to it, it sort of fries what's left of the little brains you have.

More pics on my blog

Simonstown Harbour on a dreary windswept day when I took the doggies for a walk.


November we drove up to Rustenberg in Gauteng for a family reunion. I lived in Rustenburg for a few years in the mid eighties. My cousin and his wife came to visit from Paris, and my dad wasn't well, so I hoped to catch two birds with one stone. My dad was worse than I had thought. I couldn't believe how thin he'd got. I last saw him when I was there in July with their wedding anniversary (I'm not going to say which one, 'cause then you can work out how old I am. Not that it matters. Anyway...) and he looked fine, his normal self.

Rustenburg "Masked Ball" - July 2010
Family reunion in Rustenburg  - pics on web album - Nov 2010

We came back and got Hugh's 50th birthday edition of New Contrast together. We used some material from the 1st Contrast of 1960 with a lot of Afrikaans words. The scanner doesn't do kappies en deeltekens aka ^ and ", so we had to correct it all manually. Quite a process. Now it's all done, printed and is now in the post after waiting for the printers because they couldn't finish the job last year before  they closed.

This is quite a milestone in the South African literary  field.  This is the longest lasting literary magazine of its calibre in South Africa, as far as I know.

The New Contrast website -  if you wish to purchase a copy, subscribe for 2011, or get back copies for 2010, or any other year.

Hugh has also launched his 'As You Like It'  As You Write It Creative Writing Course. It is great fun and definately stretches your creative writing muscles. I met some really interesting new people, and wrote a few poems myself.  I put the websites and blogs together.  As You Write It blogspot

The idea is to help writers get their literature (poetry and prose) published and create a pool of people who you can ask to check your work for some constructiuve feedback.  Being an editor of The South African Literary Journal he knows what editors look for in writing.  At least he knows what he looks for in writing. The Poetry Publishing Company - and other Literature

Our Art year-end function was very lecka in Kerry's beautiful spacious home. As usual there was too much to eat and I definately had more than an elegant amount.  My clothes have shrunk another size over the holidays. Sitting around with nowhere to go and nothing to do but eat has not been good for my waistline, nor my derriere.  At my parent's house there is a snack at tea in the morning and tea in the afternoon and full-on food at each meal. Oi wey!

I suppose we were eating to help my dad eat more.  He is thin as a rake.  His shoulderblades stick out like wings.  It is awful to see. The doctors said he has a slow cancer, but he has gone from a vibrant, young for his age man to a doddering old man who sleeps 98% of the time, can hardly walk without a kierie (walking stick) in less than 6 months.  He is 84 and has had a full life....and I didn't expect him to deteriorate so fast. I massaged him and did what I could.  He has been in hospital this week and getting  protein feeds. I am not going into the gory details. I suppose we all have to go some time or other.