It just dawned on me that my friend Sue asked me months ago to post a poem by one of my favourite poets, Billy Collins. She asked me on that social media platform that I am no longer on, so I’ll post it here instead. Better late than never, after all. I chose it because…
I have been privileged to have travelled extensively since I was a teenager, and to have lived in various countries worldwide. Part of that love of travel was awakened by my year as an exchange student in Belgium in the 1980s. Since then I have been back to see my host family a few times,…
What is beauty? What is ugliness? Is beauty found in the eye of the beholder as some say, or can we define it, perfectly? And what of “Beautiful people?” Is that not the most profound oxymoron, what with all the evil, self-centred, blemished examples we see of humanity? I have been taking photos for the…
Okay, I lied. I admit it. I’m sorry. I had said that I wouldn’t blog here any more, but I felt that I might have a couple more posts in me … Recently I attended a dance gala in a town which shall remain nameless. (This I have to do because it seems people are…
At the beginning of January I left home in Canada, bound for South Africa. It feels as if I have done a world tour, after the number of flights I’ve taken, but really it hasn’t been that far. My trip took me down to Vancouver, then on to France via London Heathrow. After a night…
I knew a family who, several years ago, moved from South Africa to Madagascar. I too joined them from 2009 – these parents and their five boys – until 2011 when I fell ill and had to return to S.A. And in those two years they became like family. Then, last year some time they…
No trip to Antananarivo, or Tana as the locals here on the island of Madagascar call it, is complete without a visit to the Digue Market. Prices for the souvenirs crafts touristy junk are set astronomically high (like ten times what they should be) by the traders, and by the end of a short visit…
It’s really difficult figuring out what to photograph in a place like Antananarivo, Madagascar. The place is so diverse, so rich photographically, that one needs to decide on a theme before heading out. I, of course, love taking photos of children, which is what I defaulted to. Herman, it’s about now that you should stop…
Madagascar, or the Red Island, is like a world that stopped moving with the times half a decade ago. As one walks through downtown Antananarivo (its capital) one feels as if one has stepped into the twilight zone, and then just kept on moving into another zone beyond – one so different and unvisited that…
I am in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital, visiting my friends Kim and Sue, their boys and all the neighbours. Yesterday, in an attempt to cut off a mutant strain of cabin fever in the home before it got out of control, we drove down to La City – the only mall in these parts. One takes…
On Saturday morning I flew to Madagascar, one of my homes away from home. I have been visiting the country since around 2003 and lived here from 2009 to 2011. It all feels so familiar, as if I was last here only last month: the same sights, smells, and swimming pools water-filled potholes. Here are…
A few days ago I wrote about the new Nelson Mandela statue in Pretoria – and the bunny in its right ear. I also discovered something in its left ear – something no-one else had written about – and I was intrigued. Our local newspaper in the city picked up the story (well, because I…
By now I am sure most of the world knows that South African icon Nelson Mandela passed away at the beginning of December 2013 at the age of 95. (If you didn’t, I’m sorry to have broken this news to you in as trivial a forum as this, my blog.) People would have read about…
Just to change the tone compared to my last few posts – a picture of a dead tree. I took this in the Rooisand Nature Reserve between Kleinmond and the Arabella Country Estate in the Western Cape. The area was ravaged by fire in 2011, I believe. The tree didn’t survive but does make a…
Rambling with a Cantankerous Old Mule 