Who Moved My Good Cheer?

Have a long list of reasons why I'm feeling extremely grumpy. Includes the fact that Baby has a stomach bug and is off school, I'm very behind with work due to lack of access to client sites (service provider problems ) and no matter how much I push, I feel like I'm running on treadmill.

But, I decided to steal Tamara and LauraKim's ideas about listing the positives ( or having Gratitute Wednesday). So here we go.

I'm grateful for:

1. My friends who've been emailing/IMing/to check on me and say "Mwah! we love you" even though they didn't really know I was off.
2. Having the resources ( a bit of time, internet access, this blog) so I actually have a platform to whine:-)
3. Kind clients, who have been very understanding of the fact that I'm a tad off. Don't worry, I'm not planning to take advantage of your goodwill. Work is work and it still has to get done no matter what.

And in terms of work, today I posted a poll where we look at some of the things women have tried to stop ther husbands/partners from having sexual relationships with other women.

Some of the suggestions are really bad and make me wonder why people would think they would work in the first place. So check out the post and choose one or two suggestions which you think would work. And please feel free to make comments on some of the more ridiculous suggestions.

Also posted a very good article on the Kwanda main site on what to do if you have been raped. The issue came up because in last week's episode, a good friend of one of the team members was raped and she decided not to report the crime.

2009 South African E-Commerce Awards

I've been invited to join a panel of judges of the 2009 South African E-Commerce Awards. The Awards are run by Jump.co.za, a South African online shopping search engine.

"These awards have been designed to recognise and reward those companies and organisations that have demonstrated excellence through the use of the Internet, with specific emphasis on E-Commerce. The Awards are open to South African online stores based in South Africa," says Jump.

Judges include Matthew Buckland, head of 20FourLabs.com and former GM of Mail & Guardian Online; Vincent Maher, the portfolio manager for social networking at Vodacom; Amanda Forsythe, a professional interpreter and translator and Ramon Thomas, who offers blogging workshops across South Africa. The judges votes count 51% of the votes and the other 49% will be given to the public.

To learn more about the awards, visit Jump and read some of the questions that are frequently asked about the awards.

You can also learn more about the judges here.

P.S. Today is the last day for nominations, so if you have not nominated your favourite online store, make haste to visit Jump and do so.

Loads Of Admin Work To Do. Bleh!!

If you watch Kwanda, the community makeover show, please send me a short review of the TV programme? I will publish it on the Kwanda sites, and provide link backs to your site.

I also welcome stories and tips on how you stay faifthful to your partner, or how you dealt with the challenge if and when your partner cheated on you. Those stories are published on the OneLove web site, in the category of Real Stories.

Loads of Admin Work To Do. Bleh!!

I'd promised myself to take a bit of rest today, but I still have a whole lot of stuff to catch up on. I've come to appreciate in the past couple of weeks that I'm very good at writing articles and posts and copy, and updating sites and promoting and moderating, but I'm terrible with admin work, which is the engine that keeps the business moving. I keep telling myself - write one more story, then do the admin. And before I know it, the day is over and the work is not done and I'M NOT SORRY. He!

So I'm behind on:

* A client proposal/quote
* A six-month report on a project
* A monthly report
* A report on media liaison activities done in past couple of months and a plan for the next six months

Obviously I give a lot of thought on how to effectively manage the sites and keep the content and traffic churning. Still, clients do need the paperwork that tells money people that work is actually getting done. Grrrrrrrrr!!!

Question: Do you struggle to do the admin work that is related to your writing craft/business. If so, how do you motivate yourself to actually get it done?

And on to more fun things

Baby was still very young when the Harry Potter craze first took over my part of the world. Now that she's 11, she has become very curious about what the books were about.

Not that she hasn't seen some of the movies, but as she says, "movies leave out a lot of details, and sometimes they tell a slightly different story."

I wasn't a fan - much preferred Lord of The Rings actually, so I bought her the collection. Thank God for ebooks, which were way cheaper. I couldn't have afforded printed copies.

So Baby began reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on Wednesday. And she's so absorbed in the book; has been so quiet, sometimes I wonder if there is a kid in this house.

P.S. She loved Anne of Green Gables.

Baby: Why did they set the book in such a strange old era?
Me: They didn't set the book in the past. The book was published way back when, and the setting was modern then.
Baby: Oh wow! You should consider writing a modern version of this story. I bet girls today would still like it, but they need stuff to relate to. Like using cellphones and the Internet, instead of having to walk all the way to someone's house or have these funny signals if you want to tell them something.

I think that might take away some of the charm of the story? So a writer would have to be very talented to attempt it.

10 000 Kids At The Park

OK. Maybe that's an exaggeration. But I took Baby to the park to meet up and play with some friends, and the park was packed to the rafters with kids. Hundreds of kids.

A couple of pre-schools from disadvantaged areas ( that probably don't have a park) bussed in their kids to spend the day at our park. It was like Spring fair again.



















The kids had a blast playing ball, climbing the jungle gym....




















It did my heart good to see them using the facilities.

Heritage Day Post: Setswana Culture

Tomorrow is Heritage Day here in South Africa, so I've decided to share about my culture, which influences my writing in many ways.

Batswana are mostly based in the North West province of South Africa and have strong ties with the Batswana people of Botswana.

History says we were the same people, and when the region was colonised and divided into South Africa and Botswana, an arbitrary border was simply put through, separating the people.

In the beginning

I learnt a lot about my culture in my childhood, when my grandparents, Iphapheng and Damaria Senne were still alive. As I've mentioned before, they were born way back when: Iphapheng 1889 and Damaria 1894. So while there was a lot of German influence in their lives due to religion and schooling, they still held to most of their cultural practices.

Home

Batswana people lived in thatched roofed huts, which had hard floors smoothed over with mud and cow dung.

Outside the huts was a small wall, roofless enclosure, called lapa. The lapa was also kept clean by packing it with mud and the smoothing it over with the dung, which looked very smooth and did not smell when it was dry. [The second image is the modern version of a lapa, still very popular, today]

I remember as a child going with other children to the dam, where most of the village cattle drank water, to go pick up cow dung so my grandmother could use it. It was fun for me, and not really a job.

Batswana people usually had separate huts for cooking and sleeping. They kept their homes meticulously clean, and one of the things I learnt from my culture is to sweep and scrub/polish/shine my floors EVERYDAY. My helper also has to sweep the smooth surfaces in my yard, which I still regard as my lapa, everyday. I don't mind whether things are tidy [whether the kids leave stuff lying around, but the house has to be clean]. Drives most of my friends crazy, as they claim I have an obsession with cleanliness.

Utensils

Batswana people used clay pots [image left] to cook their meals. But I never saw them in person, as my grandparents mostly used metal, three-legged pots.

Similar clay pots as these ones were also used to collect and store water, which kept the water very cool and refreshing regardless of the weather.








To laddle water, they used the dried shell of an indigenous melon whose English name I don't know. After harvesting, we'd eat the melon, and then the shell was left to dry and then later used as a laddle.

Batswana are also keen weavers, and made grass mats and bowls and baskets and other types of containers for dry goods.

Food

The Batswana's staple food is a brown grain food called mabele. It's currently sold in stores, and is also the basis of the breakfast cereal Maltabela.

We eat it sour - that is you ferment a portion of mebele with warm water, then when you cook it, you boil a pot of water, mix with the fermented mix, allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, thicken with dry mebele, and allow to cook until it's done [another 20 minutes].

You can eat this carb source with meat and gravy, vegetables or whatever else you want. Batswana also grew maize, but mostly ate it off the cob.

When I was growing up, there were a lot of wild vegetables and fruit that we used to pick. I used to be able to recognise a wild tomato [was green actually, not red like the tomatoes we use today] and wild onions indegenous to the region.

Our village was also packed with mochana, [don't think there's a mainstream alternative to this fruit], mmupudu [looks like a small apricot and morula [ja, that fruit that flavours the Amarula, the alcoholic drink].

I completely, absolutely refused to eat dinato [ those edible worms that thrive on morula trees] though i did eat locusts a couple of times. And my cousins did catch me a snake once to eat. And nope, it didn't taste like chicken. But it was delicious once i got over its origins.

I'm not sure if it's part of culture, or born of necessity, but Batswana people have a strong interest in growing/raising their food. The region has some of the largest cattle herds in the country, and even today, many of the people in my village grow maize and some vegetables in the Spring/summer period, when they know the rains are coming and will keep the ground well-watered.

Clothes

Batswana ate most of the meat from their animals, including the entrails [mala le mogodu], which made a very cheap and popular dish.

The animal skin was then used to make loin covering for men and boys, and skirt-like covering for women which were longer at the back, for older women. Young girls wore makgabe, that skirt that is made up completely of fringe.

Setswana language

I mostly communicate in English, even when I speak to Black South Africans, because I speak the old traditional Setswana that many young people do not use here in Johannesburg.

But in truth, I love Setswana - writing it and speaking it. I think it's a very beautiful language. And it has a turn of phrase that is very very funny. Setswana is part of the Sotho group of languages in South Africa.

Sourc for some of the images: SA Cultures

My Promised Report From Sanlam South Africa Fashion Week

Last week I said that I was going to attend Sanlam South Africa Fashion Week for the first time, and promised to give some kind of report afterwards.

Of course the whole adventure didn't start well, considering how uneasy I felt about it. First of all, the place was practically empty when I arrived around 9am in the morning.

I'm used to events that start around 08h30 or 09h00; and it turns out people at Fashion Week don't even start arriving until 11 mid-day. So I shopped at Exclusive Books in Sandton and had some tea at Mugg & Bean to kill some time.

That said, going to the event was worth it, not just profesionally, but also personally. Saw some really nice street wear collections.

Here are some photos of Kwanda Brand Klothing at the event.

P.S. Pics include clothing items and accessories, the design team and some stall shots. Nope, I was not the photographer. And please email me for permission to use the images, as they belong to Soul City.


Find more photos like this on Kwanda


The Kwanda Brand Klothing design team ( first pic above) was very nice and helpful and very interesting to interview, BTW. Not fluffy at all.

This week I'm publishing a series of interviews with each team member on the Kwanda web site. The first 'victim' was Molefi Mohapi.

He says:

"Fashion should reflect our lives. As fashion designers, we are individuals and the things we design should be original and reflect our own sense style, taste, history and experiences. I also think that designers should not be one-trick ponies, with only one style done in different ways."

Read the full article if you have 5 minutes.

The Lessons We Learn Unconsciously

Lastely I've been thinking of my paternal grandfather, Iphapheng Senne, [1889 - 1988] we think, and the influence he had on me.

I didn't know him very well, mostly because he was from an era in my community where parents and grandparents did not communicate very well with children, and therefore, did not know each other well as individuals.

Also, I found him to be a dull old stick who spent too much time in the family garden, growing vegetables I thought we didn't need, as we could afford to buy vegetables and fruit from the markets. Now years later, I find myself working just as hard as he did to grow my food.

And I'm grateful that he instilled a love for organic gardening in me, even though we both didn't realise how much I was absorbing at the time.

And yeah sure, it's still easier to pop into my nearest Fruit & Veg City to buy what I need [ and definitely kinder to my aching body], but I find the exercise soothing. And it's nice knowing that no matter how tough times can be, I'll never starve, as long as I have access to a a very small patch of land and rain keeps coming.

It has also made me wonder what life lessons I have unconsciously reflect in my writing without even known.

Question: Is there a person in your life who taught you things earlier in your life whose benefits you only began to understand later? And how do these life lessons impact on your life and your writing life?

Guest Post On Fanagalo Lingo: Why I love Johannesburg (Part 1)

Fanagalo Lingo, a new web site which aims to bring all South Africans and people who have visited the country together in a place to communicate and share their experiences, has published a two-part article where I share some of the reasons why I love Johannesburg.

If you have a minute, check it out please.

Reason I like Fanagalo Lingo: "I want to bring back the rhythm that is South Africa through shared memories and stories. Memories of the good the bad and the ugly. The only constraint on this site is that contributors share actual events with honesty," says owner Mark Oelofse.

Note to South African bloggers or those people who have visited the country: Mark is still looking for contributors and /stories. So if you have a South African story to tell, give him a shout.

Janet? I think you might have some interesting pics to showcase and a unique viewpoint to South Africa and Phokeng.

Po - I loved your story of being "samped" and think it's a uniquely South African story.

Emails From Dead People

If dead people had email addresses, wouldn't it be intruiging to receive an email from tshepo@hell.org when you expected it to come from tshepo@heaven.gov, asks Gakwi Mashego on his blog, Kasikulture!

Writer, poet, blogger and somewhat controversial, Gakwi's work is very different from what I usually read. BUT, it's very interesting. On a personal level, Gakwi never fails to make me laugh, or think, with his very unique view of the world. Check out his blog.






Anyhoo, I spent spent a lot of time on Saturday/Sunday outside working in my garden, digging out weeds, preparing a new veggie patch, transplanting tomato seedlings. I also planted cabbage for the first time this year, and it seems to have been a good decision.




And my marigolds were so lovely in April I renamed "merrygolds." I also decided to plant them again this spring.


Oh! And I cut my hair. Completely. There's now a piece of fuzz where my hair should be. It feels fantastic! And I look great, if I do say so myself:-)

Do Children Need To Learn How To Use Maps?

Baby picked up Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and Where It Stops Nobody Knows by Amy Ehrlich from her school library.

I always enjoyed Anne of Green Gables, so I'm looking forward to stealing moments here and there to read it. But I started out with Where It Stops Nobody Knows and out loud a couple of pages near the end of the book while we prepared supper. [I always read the end of a book first before I decide if I like it].

There's a part where Nina, the teenage main character, looks through maps with another girl to show her where the many places she has travelled.

Baby: What's a map?
Me: Oh, you know. Those big books that have drawings of all the countries in the world. You use them to find places, even street addresses.
Baby: [looking puzzled]: Sounds like waay too much work. Why can't the person just use Google Earth to find places? Or GPS if you only have an address but don't know how to get there?

Ja, I know it comes from growing up with a geeky mother who relied heavily on GPS. But I think it's time I invested in a map. I don't know whether Baby will understand why I want her to look for countries and places using it, rather Google Earth. I'm not even too sure if I'm romanticising something that is actually obsolete. But %^$#%! I can't have my child growing up never having touched a map and thinking GPS is the answer to all directional troubles!

So what do you think? What's the advantage of teaching our children how to use maps, rather than relying GPS?

Guest Post: No Guest Bloggers Allowed

I wondered if I would I ever decide not to have guest-bloggers on my blog. Would blogging be just as rewarding for me? And what about you? Are you comfortable having guest-bloggers on your blog? Why/not?

So I wrote a post about it, which Tamara over at Doodles Of A Journo kindly published. Check it out, and if you have five minutes, please spend some time exploring Tamara's site.

She's also a scribe, working a morning job writing PR copy, and spends her afternoon after as freelance journo. She particularly likes writing feature articles.

Many thanks Tamara for hosting me. Much appreciated.

What Criteria Do You Use To Buy Books By A New To You Author?

"The most criticism that’s levelled on writers is that after the submission of the manuscript, we sit back and relax and wait for the book to sell itself," writes Zukiswa Wanner in her latest post entitled "It's Still The Marketing Stupid!" Zukiswa is the author of Behind Every Successful Man and The Madams.

I beg to differ on that with regards to South African writers (and you can call me a fictional writer if you like), she says.

"South African writers are some of the most hard-working marketers that I know. I have never yet known anyone who has turned down a chance for a radio or television interview. I am yet to come across a writer in this country who is approached by a magazine to write an article and they do not do it. This should be enough to put them in the psyche of the mainstream right? Right?"

Nope!

Check out her full post here.

So, I'd like to ask you guys to tell Zukiswa what brings writers to your consciousness when you buy books. How do you decide which new author to try out, and which book to buy?Have you ever decided to buy a book because you liked an author who was interviewed on TV or radio or you read their profile in a magazines?

Guest Post: Help Me To Understand The World Of Mean Girls

I promised Baby that I was going to blog about her being bullied by girls at her school, so we can get more input from other women because she feels that what I am saying is not helping her much. So I did a post about it for Female2Female.

Check it out, and if you have some words of wisdom, please share.

Expanding This Writer's Horizons

I finally found a copy of Anna Karenina and it was a free ebook download from Planet ebook. Planet eBook offers free classic literature to download and share.

The list of free ebooks include 1984 by George Orwell, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.Visit the web site for the full list of classic books turned into free ebooks. You can even suggest a classic book you'd like them to publish. Looks like I've found another treasure trove to mine:-)

A day in the life

So this week I'm attending South African Sanlam Fashion Week. At least, for a couple of hours , to meet and interview the designers of Kwanda Klothing , check out the clothing range and blog about it.

High fashion is so foreign from my usual milieu it's not funny. I feel like a duck waddling into a flock of swans. I'd feel better attending a workshop on how to develop software for high-powered computing or how to develop communication strategies to reduce HIV infection rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Hang on, I do regularly attend those kinds of workshops, and I never even break a sweat! Seriously though, it'll expand our horizon all round, not that you asked:-)

Yesterday was a good writing day, though it started oddly. Went to the dentist as planned, and after probing around in my seemingly healed mouth, announced that the nerves around the broken tooth were dead. We could extract the whole tooth, or we could do root canal. I opted for the root canal, whereupon which she worked with that little metal drill thing to open my tooth and remove the dead nerves.

Because the nerves are dead, she reckoned I didn't need any anaesthetic. Very scary concept for me, having a dentist work in my mouth without any injection whatsoever. But it was very soothing and I could have fallen asleep right there on her chair if I didn't need to keep my mouth open.

After updating sites, I spent the rest of the day doing a lot of business writing ( aka, media plan for Team Software Process) and a couple of guest-blog posts.

Two fantabulous developments in my writing life:

1. Traffic on the OneLove regional web site has picked up so much I had to ask the client to upgrade their hosting package. We had traffic the same amount of traffic in the past two weeks of September as we had in June, and we'd thought June was not shabby. So wonderful to see the online promotion activities, which are mostly tedious and repetitive, pay off in solid numbers for the client. [ P.S. If you want to republish one of my articles/ blog posts in return for a shortt bio and link to my sites, drop me an email.]

2. This month I did a survey for a publisher, and she assures me that if their proposal for a series of books is approved, I'm going to get a slice of that.

That will mean, finally taking my writing to the next level : Books! Lots of books. My name on book covers! My books in schools! My books in libraries!

He he! Before I get us all carried away, I'll only know at the beginning of 2010 if their proposal is approved, and even then it will be a long hard slog getting the brief/researching/writing/editing/polishing/submitting the manuscripts/ the publishing process. So it could be years before I even hold one of the books in my hand.

If the whole deal pans out.

But, it's a wonderful long-term plan that could take me closer to where I want to go as a writer....

Those who've been hanging around here long enough probably know of the many possibilities, and disappointments I've had trying to break into book publishing in a big way. So you'll know it can work out either way, and that's the nature of the business.

Having Talent Is Not Enough

Had a problem getting into my Google account and Blogger sites yesterday, so i was not able to leave comments on the sites I usually visit. Sorry guys; I could only lurk:-)

Anyway, yesterday I met a man who used to be a very good writer. His company sent him to see me about some business matter, and he was curious enough about what I do to ask me about it and I had a moment to engage him because my computer was driving me dilly because I couldn’t access Google or Blogger sites.

The man said his stories were published in national magazines, and rights to those stories were also a number of magazines across Africa.

“I used to receive cheques out of the blue from magazine publishers, saying that they’d sold the rights to my story to publishers in other countries. All I had to do was cash the money,” he said.

Then major life events, including divorce and alcoholism happened, and his life had a downward spiral until his career prospects disappeared too.

“I know I’m a very good writer, and the writing process was very easy for me. Once had a story I wanted to tell, the words would just flow. And now when I sit here and tell you about it, I feel like a drunk who regales people with tales of his past glories,” he said.

Now he’s starting his writing career from scratch [again] and the publishing world he knew has changed. He started a blog to showcase his work and expected that publishers would encounter his work and ask for more to publish.

But publishers are not knocking on his door like they used to, and I felt bad telling him that there are enough writers out there that publishers don’t have to search out talent from the Internet.

Well, we all know it happens. Once in a million. To someone else:-) And most of us just have to read the editorial guidelines and keep sending stuff out.

I don't think he liked my view that he has to find the publishers, study their editorial guidelines and then choose the ones who are looking for material that look close to what he writes.

Or that he has to do a lot of marketing of his work to potential readers and build a following long before publishers even offer him a contract.

Or that he couldn't just create his masterpieces, post them on his blog and hope that his readership will grow. He has to go to where his potential readers hang out and entice them to try out his material. And he has to supply them with material consistently enough for them to start coming to his site on a voluntary basis to see if he has something new to them.

Will he take my advice? I don’t know. He said he would, and I emailed him editorial guidelines for a publisher whom I think he could write for. But many people ask me about getting into writing, and some of them never seem to go beyond asking about it. “I don’t have time to write,” they tell me. And I say nothing to that, because we all get the same 24 hours per day, and we allocate what is important to us to it. Not giving writing a higher priority is not a bad thing; it just is for some of us, because we have other things that we need/want to do with our time. Even if we do want to be writers. And writing is work, just like any other profession/family obligation /parenting /housekeeping chores.It requires you to put aside time for you to do it, or it doesn't get done.

I did feel compelled to tell him that he can succeed as a writer: clearly he has confidence in his abilities and his history of having published gives him an advantage most beginning writers don’t have. But I’m not quite sure if he is hungry enough, persistent enough to keep writing and sending his work out.

And in that, we are different: becoming a writer was not easy for me, and I knew I had to fight for the right to be called writer, and to make a success of it. And I learnt the hard way that marketing is crucial for a writer’s success, even when the publisher assures you they’re doing a lot of marketing for the work.

Question: What motivates you to sit down and write/blog, when you could be working in your garden, cleaning the house, having fun with your family or friends?

Kwanda Klothing To Make Its Debut At The SA Sanlam Fashion Week

So the interesting news re Kwanda is that the producers of the TV series are going to launch Kwanda Klothing, at the South African Sanlam Fashion Week, which starts on Wednesday ( 16 -19 September 2009) at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

Kwanda Klothing is a chic urban sportswear collection for both men and women was developed during the making of Kwanda, the community TV makeover show.

The collection was created for sustainable job creation, which will endure beyond the television series.


If you're attending the SA Fashion Week, you won't want to miss this. Make a special effort to see the Kwanda Klothing fashion range and interact with the designers of this innovative project.Visit stalls B35, B36, B41 and B42

To read more about the Kwanda Klothing range, visit the Kwanda web site.






And in the third episode of Kwanda on Wednesday




Help me spread the word
Post the link to this post on your Facebook profile.

Lots To Learn About Teamwork

A very warm welcome to all the people who recently signed up to follow Storypot. Thank you so much for choosing to follow my life and writing adventures. And to Sara Jane, I hope some of what I write about here does resonate with you and helps you to jumpstart your writing career. And when you do have a blog, let me know so I can check it out?

Sandu, thanks for following me too. Sorry I don't read Spanish, but I like the looks of your blog. I did wonder if you were planning to blog the World Cup Soccer?

And with the welcomes out of the way, in terms of writing news, the new project in my schedule (until March 2010, we think) is to do media liaison and publicity about Team Software Process for a client. [I did mention that I'm a former tech/telecoms journo:-)]

If you're wondering what in heaven's TSP is, the short explanation is that teams that develop software can use the TSP establish goals, define team roles, assess the risks their project faces and produce a team plan.

I'm sure by the end of the year you'll have sucked in more details about it by osmosis. But don't worry, I'll keep it light and say it in English:-)

What it does boil down to for me is that "TEAMWORK" seems to be becoming an integral element of my writing life:

• Couples working as a team on their marriage and communities and countries working as a team to reduce HIV infection in the region [the OneLove regional campaign]
• Forming, training and managing volunteer community development teams [as in the five volunteer teams who's adventures watching every week on Kwanda on SABC1] and
• Software engineering teams at a bank.
  

The big irony for me, is that I've never been quite sure that I work well in teams. You don't become a journalist so you can share your leads and sources with competing journalists/media, and you certainly don't choose to be a work-at-home writer because you do your best work within a team:-). So lots of lessons to absorb in the coming months.

Question: Do you do your best work in a team or alone? And if you do your best work alone, why would you still need to understand how teams work and be a good team player?

Spring Fair At The Park

Last Sunday we spent the day with close family friends at the Spring Fair at the park. We had a lot of fun. Baby and I arrived around mid-morning at the park, after the stalls were set up but the crowds hadn't arrived yet. I wanted us to be able to go through the stalls without too much aggravation.

I loved watching the crowds, especially the kids running about and playing. So I took loads of pictures with my trusty cellphone.

















Enjoyed lunch - my friends Lynn and Alison packed loads of stuff they knew I could eat, so there were no awkwards moments where really nice food is offered and I have to decline.

Thanks guys, for being good friends who don't argue my meal choices with "surely one little slice of chocolate cake can't hurt?" And a bigger thanks for letting me take a nap for a couple of hours so I could really rest.

Happy Friday!

It’s a lovely Friday morning because:

• My face no longer scares small children and big people alike. Yes folks. My right cheek was distended to almost double its size,which made me look very interesting:-).
• I can actually look at food without trying to figure out if trying to eat is really worth the bother. Living on mashed bananas and scrambled eggs (and eating those with a teaspoon) is not fun.
• Kwanda’s now has 200 Facebook fans, the Kwanda social network has 100 members and the polls and comments on the OneLove regional web site keep coming. You have been so supportive of the various projects I've worked on. THANKS.
• An online publisher has picked up my old “I Love Johannesburg” story. This is the third time in the past six months that I’ve had requests for reprints of that story. [The first 2 were dead tree publishers].
• Baby is well and looking forward to a weekend of swimming and baking in the sun.
• My home office is quiet and peaceful, and I can actually hear myself think.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Why I love Ebooks

One paperback novel at Exclusive Books ( by my favourite author) = R103

Three secondhand paperback novels = R40 each, which translates into R120. If I can find the books.

Eleven ebooks by my favourite authors (same titles I could have bought in paperback) = R111.50 from Must Love Books.

And yes, I still love being able to touch a book and turn the page. But somehow, the math says buy an ebook. I don't have to leave the house to get the books, they are way cheaper and I still get the same titles I would have if I bought the paperback. Now if only I could afford a decent ebook reader.

SIGH!

So how do you feel about ebooks? Do you ever opt to read them, rather than a book? And why?

High On Antibiotics and Painkillers

So over the weekend I broke a tooth trying to eat a rice cake. The sucker broke right up to the gum! What do they put in those rice cake thingies?

The short story is, it hurt like the dickens, and my gums got swollen real fast. So I went to see my lovely dentist, who did her magic, gave me antibiotics and painkillers, and asked that I come back next week Tuesday. [P.S. And I feel much better now than I did on Monday, so no worries]

So this week I have alternated between being high, in pain and taking a nap. Not very good for productivity. Thank God I work from home, cos I can schedule posts and marketing activities during my sane moments!

Speaking of work, if you haven't joined to become a fan of Kwanda, please do. Or you could write a letter to your local newspaper or call into your favourite TV show of blog about Kwanda, explaining why you like the programme.

Read Karen Black's letter to The Times for some ideas of what you could say.

And I have another poll on the OneLove web site. This one asks: if you trust your partner, do you still need to use a condom? Toddle over there and leave a comment if you have 5 minutes. Thanks.

I was also very touched by LauraKim's post about the global child sex trade. She quotes Diana Scimone, who wrote the article she references for BCN.

"You can sell a gun or drug only once but you can sell a child over and over again."

Check out the post, leave a comment, and if you can do anything to support organisations that rescue and house these abused children in your area, please do so. The problem is much bigger than many of us realise.

I'm Famous!

LOL. Not really.

But the authors of Ethnicity Inc. refer to me and a blog post that I published about the plan of the Royal Bafokeng Nation to install Internet services in my home village, Phokeng. [more of a footnote, really:-)]

Still, it felt weird reading my words in the book. And I was mildly freaked out by the realisation that once you publish something in the Internet, your words can spread to places you never even dreamt they could reach, and have unintended consequences.

To paraphrase Lord of the Rings' Frodo, when he spoke about his uncle Bilbo Baggins: "It's a dangerous business, Damaria, blogging on the Internet. Once you publish your words on your blog, there is no telling where they might be swept off to."

P.S. Ethnicity Inc. is a penetrating account of the ways in which ethnic populations are remaking themselves in the image of the corporation—while corporations coopt ethnic practices to open up new markets and regimes of consumption. It was released last week, and is available at Exclusive Books.

Thanks Sue, for the heads up.

And in the second episode of Kwanda

I Am A Blogger (Take 2)

I lifted this meme from Laura at Harassedmom. Hence, take 2.

How long have you been blogging:
Since January 2006

Why did you start blogging:

I was working as a telecommunications journalist and wanted to write about the creative writing aspect of my writing. Mostly I chatted about my writing for children and parenting.

What have you found to be the benefits of blogging:
a) I made friends and it’s a way to keep in touch with some of my real-life friends.
b) It helps me keep the people in my life updated on what I’m doing.
c) It has evolved into an online portfolio of my work, so potential employers can see what I do, my areas of interest etc.

How many times a week do you post an entry:
I aim for 5 days a week, weekdays.

How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis:
Lots. Those I like, and I’m also constantly looking for bloggers I haven’t read before. Then there are those I read for networking purposes for work.

Do you comment on other people’s blogs:
Yes. But there are a couple where I lurk.

Do you keep track of how many visitors you’ve had:
For Storypot? Not really. I have the tool installed, though I rarely study the data. I keep track of the comments though, and am very happy when people who's been here leave a word.

Do you ever regret a post that you wrote:
I did once. It was about about my father, who died of cancer in 2002. I hadn't really come to terms with telling my life stories then. So I felt too exposed and took the post down. I'm still not very comfortable sharing my feelings on the blog.

Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog:
Perhaps. I think my audience has a true sense of my writing life. But then, sometimes when we write, we inadvertently reveal aspects of our personalities, so I’m sure they are building a good picture of me from that info too.

Do you blog under your real name:
Yes.

Are there topics you would never blog about:
Yes. My relationship issues. That is, my social/dating life,what happens between me and my clients or my relationships issues with my friends either.

What is the theme/topic of your blog:
The life of a writer

Do you have more than one blog. If so, why?
Yes. I eventually moved my children’s stories and poetry to another blog, because I felt that the conversation on this blog made it very difficult for readers who are interested in the stories to find them. I haven't updated the site in a long while though.

Have you ever deleted a comment from your blog:
Yes. Spam. I've been lucky to escape the attention of trolls, and hope my luck holds for a while longer.

Okay, I Knew I Was Moody

But not to this extent. So yesterday was a difficult day, as mentioned in my previous post. In addition to my brain simply refusing to function, I was sort edgy. Wanting to jump out of own skin. And I was not in the mood to cook, which usually relaxes me.

Decided to go to bed early, and today I'm my normal, cheerful self. And wondering " what was that about?"

Anyhoo, being in a bad mood last night, I decided to do a quick, easy meal. I'd bought Tastic Simply Delicous Ready To Eat Rice for Baby some time back. We very rarely eat packaged foods, because of my condition, but I don't want her to feel imprisoned by my dietary requirements. And the advert made it look so interesting!

I should have known.

According to Baby, it's not too bad, if you don't mind the after taste. However, she wouldn't eat more than a spoonful, even though she proclaimed herself very hungry. So I still had to cook normal Tastic rice, which we love, and fresh vegetables.

Ho hum!

And on the work front:

* 408 readers on the OneLove regional campaign web site have taken a poll to tell us what love means to them. Have you taken the poll? If not, please toddle over there to take it. It's not a long poll and the votes are evenly distributed, so more votes will hopefully make one or two choices stand out more clearly.

* A number of people phoned Soul City to ask how they can take Kwanda to their communities. Here's an article that can help.

Enjoy your weekend.

About Hags, Community Make-Overs & Anna Karenina

Today I’m feeling a bit off. Not sick, or anything, but my brain sort of scattered and not doing what it’s supposed to. And it takes me a bit longer to figure out things that should have been obvious.

So the post will be a random list of stuff:

Internet is slow. Very frustrating, especially as I'm working off an online project management programme for one client and I have to download documents I need to get the job done.

Feel like a hag and blogged about it at Female2Female: What Makes You Feel Sexy and Feminine?

But excited about the online launch of Kwanda. Had 124 Facebook fans and about 41 members on the Kwanda social network at the time of writing this post. And it's a 13-part series, and should pick up momentum as more people hear about it.

Many thanks for all the people who signed on, or told their friends about the TV show, let me guest-blog about it. Much appreciated. And my apologies to the people still waiting for the guest-blogs. I know what I want to say in general, but as I said, my brain is completely fried:-)

Have guest blogger Nana Darkoa, she who blogs at Adventures from the bedrooms of African women on the OneLove Regional web site talking about 12 Things Women Can Do To Have Mind-Blowing Sex.

Been thinking about Anna Karenina (above image) lately. Haven't read the book in years, and I think I'd like to again.

The Beginning Of Third School Term; Kwanda Site Ready For TV Series Launch

It's the first day of the third term of Baby's school year, and we'd gotten lazy over the past month, because we didn't have to wake up early. So I woke up an hour later than I would have liked, then rushed Baby through the morning rituals.

It helped that she's an oddly organised small person and she'd taken out her uniform and all other necessities the night before. So there were no tears ala "I can't find my socks!" and she was out of the house by 7h10.

Then I checked the Kwanda site and the design had improved so much. MANY THANKS to John Phillip, web designer extraordinaire, who worked his butt off to make sure that concepts are turned into an attractive site that does what it's supposed to.

P.S. I can't pimp John enough. He's talented, he'll work late into the night [though maybe the calls after midnight to explain stuff to me was unusual:-)] and he's very easy-going.

Kwanda premiers on SABC1 tonight at 9pm.

P.P.S - The OneLove regional campaign is still rocking along too. And I'd really appreciate your input on this reader story: "I've just found out that my husband is cheating on me!"

No, this is not a True Confessions type of thing. It's a real story from a woman who is clearly hurting and would appreciate some words of encouragement. Especially if you've been there, felt her pain. Because sometimes, it's comforting to know that you are not alone in the dark, scary room.

Happy Spring Day

I always look forward to the flowering of the little plum tree in my backyard. It means that Spring is finally here, and my garden is being renewed. It's also time to get off my butt and actually plant some vegetables.

But I'm not ready yet to work; I just want to enjoy the warm weather and scenery. So yesterday afternoon Baby and I went to the park near our home.

I took lots and lots of photographs with my cellphone. Especially the flowers....


















We walked around the dam.........


















Enjoyed the colourful scenery.


















Walked down the bank of a small pond near the dam and photographed a lonely flower.


















Then we sat on the benches to watch the sun set, listening to the birds sing.

















It was a lovely, relaxing time. And something that I hadn't realised we needed so much after the brutal winter.

For me as a writer, Spring is also a time to sow; time to review what I've done for the year; to cut out the chaff, improve what I can, work flat out on projects I wanted to do but did not manage to get to them. Spring is time for me to start setting up systems for new objectives , so by the time the year ends, I can relax and not be under pressure to make resolutions..

So, do what does Spring mean to you?