We’ve been planning our trip to the Caribean (for about 9 years) and have finally booked for March ’09. It is a rather (a-hem) dear trip that’s straining our piggy bank, so we’d decided not to do anything for Christmas or New Year. But this resolve didn’t stop me from missing my mommy (nope, not even when you’re nearly-40 are you too old to miss your mommy).

And then out of the blue, feeling for me, Marcel surprised me with a booking confirmation (by e-mail!) saying that we were going to the UK for New Year. WHAT?? It was the 29th and the tickets were booked for the 31st! Read the rest »

“No matter where you come from, as long as you’re a black man, you’re an African. No mind your nationality, you have got the identity of an African“. ~ Peter Tosh

Albeit in reverse, Peter Tosh sings about the way I felt a lot of the time while growing up in South Africa with my pale skin – I felt out of place in my country of birth. The old apartheid “European Only” signs indicated that a white skin meant that we were European, but we felt African. So, who and what are we? Are we South Africans? Are we English? Are we Dutch? None of the above? Read the rest »