Wow. What a week I had last week. It’s taken me a while to pause and reflect on it. First I had the pleasure of making a trip down to the Cape Talk Studio for an interview with John Maytham. To say I was nervous is the understatement of the year. My mouth was dry like the Sahara desert and…
Tag: Cape Town
Surf Trip, Staycation Style
Costa Rica is our dream surf trip destination. But we would take Maldives, Bali, Hawaii, Long Island or even Mauritius if you threw it at us. But you didn’t, so we gathered our battered Rands and set off for Melkbosstrand instead. We left after work on a Friday, so we missed the traffic. The journey from our home in the South to…
Spike’s Winter Swell Course-my review
If you let go the fear, the fear let’s go of you So said the surfer I passed on my first grim and terrified march down to the waterline at Muizenberg. Easier said than done, you Crusty Old Salt. But since knowledge is power, (And I already got a handle on the shark side of things HERE ) I decided to enroll in Spike’s Winter…
Ten Things I learned from Shark MOOC
I am so stoked that I learned such awesome stuff in this little thing called a MOOC. Confession: Despite being enrolled in the MOOC I had to Google what exactly the acronym stands for…wait for it… Massive Open Online Course I completed Sharks! Global Diversity, Biology and Conservation with Cornell University and the University of Queensland on the EdX platform…
The Kook Diaries Part 3: Paddle Outs and Pop Ups.
I choose to Stand Up Paddle because of the paddle, really. I prefer going into battle upright, with a weapon. So when they (they = Tarryn + Tyran @ XOTB) decreed that we were going out on surfboards (it was too windy to SUP), my heart sank a little. I have never surfed a surfboard before because of the paddle out. (At…
Finding her balance – the journey of a SUP mama
One of the first things you learn when you get on a stand up paddle board is to bring your big girl panties. It’s not for the fainthearted. The second is to learn to balance. You start with a wide board, a wide stance, some flat water and a fully engaged core. With a little ocean knowledge, courage grows and with…
The shark thing.
There isn’t a day I paddle out into False Bay that I don’t think about sharks. I have seen the aerial photos. I have watched the National Geographic documentaries. I know the sharks are there. Great Whites. Bronze Whalers, Raggies. But mostly Great White sharks. On a clear day you can see Seal Island, their hunting ground, from Baden Powell…
The Thinking Girl’s Guide to Life with a Surfer (The Kook Diaries Part 1)
It’s an unforgettable day. The morning haze lifts as the sun starts its daily ascent, scattering sequins across the ocean. A creature of splendid proportions emerges from the sea, clad in neoprene, and high on stoke. But he’s not the only one on cloud nine. It’s a sparkling day because you realize That Surfer is into You. Not because you…
When motherhood is elusive: What you need to survive IVF
That night it was my turn to host book club. The phone rang, shrill above the chatter. With the books on the coffee table and a wine glass in my hand, I took the call. It was the doctor. He didn’t soften his diagnosis with euphemisms. “You will probably never have children,” he said. I crouched over the phone, trying…
6 Things to do in Cape Town if you are Homesick for Port Elizabeth
Okay. You can stop laughing now. It really does happen. We Port Elizabeth creatures, despite living in the shadow of the seventh wonder, miss our home town. So what to do, girls of the Eastern Cape, when the oaks and the vineyards, the mountains and the Atlantic are just not cutting it? 1. Have coffee at Vovo telo. (Steenberg/Waterfront/Kloof Street, whichever floats your boat.) Yes,…
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