Live your life #OrDieTrying

    I met a girl in the spring of 2007.   A mutual friend introduced us. For purposes of this piece we’ll call her Farah, one of my closest friends and lifesaver. We parted ways on 22 December of 2012 after a very good 5 year relationship. Let me tell you a little about this girl named Farah. She’s round; compact and pale faced. Forget her appearance, Farah is high maintenance and very demanding too. I love her nevertheless. In our 5 years together, we had a rule to call each other every day. Every now and then I’d forget about her, for days on end sometimes.   Life gets busy and apart from that, I detest rules.   Well, to be fair in such cases I would make it up to her and make not only morning calls but goodnight calls as well. 22 December 2012, I made one last call and thanked her for having played such a big role in my life and said goodbye. Today 25 November 2015 I found myself looking for her and there she was, same vicinity we met all those years ago only she had cha

M y best friend #TheFirstLady & I took a #RoadTrip to the Kingdom Of Lesotho in 2012. Long trips, I often say take someone you like. Yes, I said like. This is the only person you have throughout your trip, you’d better get along with them and enjoy their conversations and sense of humour. Ensure they are level-headed in case of a tyre puncture in the middle of nowhere; random police stops coupled with possible harassment or even those mild annoyances at immigration office. I’ve seen a lot at those immigration annoyances especially at OR Tambo airport. Staff is usually not very friendly towards visitors it’s embarrassing at times. I remember a rather bitter welcome at Charles de Guille in 2013, a story for another day. As amaXhosa would say "Asikho lapho"                                    Choose your travel partner very carefully, ladies and gentlemen.  Welcome to Lesotho We crossed the Maseru Bridge border post with ease and made our way to our first home in Mase

  Birthdays are a big deal in my world. They are so big in fact they take place over 2 months. No your eyes are not deceiving you, I said 2 months. This happens in 3 phases: Birthday countdown (3 June – 2 July); Birthday celebrations (3 July – 5 July) followed by Chizama Month (6 July- 31 July). I tell everyone I come across, a month in advance: family and strangers alike. I do not want to know whom within my small circle of friends and family will/not remember, I gather if I tell you often enough you have no way to forget. Birthday Countdown usually comprises travel and shopping for a perfect gift that I wrap and surprise myself with on my birthday. I do realise that nobody in their right mind would want to join me in this madness, I do most of it on my own.  My best friend joined me for a Eurotrip in 2013 where we travelled using road transport from France passing through Paris; Monaco; Cannes; Nice then Switzerland Geneva and finished in Italy Montecatinni; Venice; Florence and

My siblings & I had a dog once. His name was Benjy, a Jack Russell Terrier I think. I’m a black South African, I grew up in the 1980s and the only breeds we knew were the bulldog and a German Shepherd or “police dog” as it was known. Benjy joined our family in the late 1980s and unfortunately met his Maker in the winter of 1991 after a short illness. The loss was unbearable for all of us, it was very hard losing a member of the family. I remember my dad’s prayer at the funeral. Yes that’s how much we all loved that dog, we held a funeral. My dad described life as a Stage Play. He said, I paraphrase “Lights come on, the audience claps and the actor plays their role. Once their role is done, the actor runs or disappears backstage and that is the end.” 24 years later, those words I still carry with me every single day.                      I too have a role to play in life and had better make it memorable.  My father, u Dukie; #TheDuke, Bra Max, Merican, uTata Bhobho, Principal u