Lean on Me

Seeing the photograph, made me think of the iconic song Lean on Me by Bill Withers. It reached  number one on both the soul singles and the Billboard Hot 100, and is ranked number 205 on Rolling Stone‘s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“. It has been performed and recorded by a […]

Read this . . .

In this installment:  An unusual camping/road trip and sunglasses for little and big people. This week I’m going to introduce you to Trinity River from the blog The Serenity Game. She describes herself as “. . . a woman of a certain age living and loving in Texas . . . Recently, it came to […]

Read this . . .

This installment of Read This includes: An expat goes home on vacation, paper architecture and a test: how good is your English? The first story comes from Kirsty who has a blog with the interesting title of 4 children, 20 suitcases and a beagle. According to her profile . . . “Kirsty is an Australian […]

Read this . . .

This installment includes: A post by a vet about “dangerous dogs”, a beautiful tribute to a grandmother and the Blyde River Canyon. Dr Rayya is an Australian veterinary surgeon with a really great blog. It’s not only informative, but she tells stories of her patients and includes beautiful photographs. With such a love and passion […]

Read this . . .

I am starting a new series called “Read this . . .”.  I really struggled to think of a suitable name for the series, and I’m not sure whether this one is the right one either. Any suggestions are welcome. So what is it about? Every week  I read wonderful posts and articles written by […]

The Tribe of Tiger by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

My “book reviews” to date – though they are more “random thoughts on books” than actual reviews – have fallen into two basic categories. Recently published books to which I had a very strong reaction – mostly of the not so positive kind – and my all-time favourites, which tend to be obscure books, often […]

Podcast: Alan Rabinowitz – Man & Beast

After recommending a science-related podcast yesterday, I decided to recommend something that would be for everyone. The Moth is a storytelling podcast which I’ve been listening to for years now. Some readers in the United States might have already come across their radio hours, or even been to their live events. The organization holds storytelling […]

Podcast: How blogs are changing science

One of my favourite podcasts to listen to is The Guardian‘s Science Weekly podcast. They recently (well, last month . . . I’m a little behind in my listening!) had a podcast titled How blogs are changing science. Their introduction to the podcast  . . . In a special podcast from North Carolina, Alok Jha […]

Local is lekker!

Lekker (Afrikaans). Good, enjoyable. [At least in the context I’m using it. “Lekker” can mean a whole lot of things, most colourfully detailed in the Urban Dictionary! See here for all their definitions.] For years I’ve been a fan of crime fiction. I’ve read crime fiction from all over the world. Well, at least the […]

My name is 麗莎 (if Google Translate has it right!)

Willie has over the years done some consulting work, for forestry companies outside of South Africa. Several times he was lucky enough to go to the Far East, specifically Thailand. His exposure to the Thai culture and food, has left a lasting impression on both him, and our home. Every time he returned back home […]