Firstly, I feel I must apologise to Agaete for saying it had little green to offer. It has since been serving up little oases of green daily. I’ve also been told, by a visiting Brit, that it may rain this week and I’m sad that I’m going to miss that.
I decided to use my Iberia voucher (for a flight I couldn’t take last year) and have collected my over-sized bright yellow tog bag in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria where Africa Mercy is in the shipyard, in the dry dock. The bag stayed behind when I left in March 2020…
You know, when you mostly write to earn a living it never looks good if there hasn’t been much action on your website, right? So, this is me, dropping in from my little writing retreat, where the longed-for “clean headspace” has often been severely challenged by the mostly alarming news…
You guessed it! My test was negative, and I boarded my flight on Monday, arriving in the land of milk, mountains, and red bull on Tuesday, at the crack of dawn. Today is Day Five of my 10-day mandatory quarantine and I will go for a Rapid Test on Monday…
What a strange world we live in, where we have things like ghost decuplets; the White Spiritual Boy Trust; a health minister on special leave for trying to become a digital celebrity; an invisible virus wreaking havoc – I mean… you couldn’t make these things up, if you tried. No…
………. there are no babies. Who thought that there ever were?…
There’s nothing unusual about politics and mayhem within body corporates – I remember sympathetically listening to friends airing their challenges, clueless as I nodded my head, a little smug that I was a free agent and silently relieved that I’ve never had to worry about such a creature. And, when…
A few months ago, we were preparing to return to the ship, which would include a week or so of quarantine in Dakar at the beginning of June, before embarking on the Africa Mercy, and finishing the field service there. I’d got my psyche re-aligned to being ‘out in the…
Today is the one-year anniversary of my return from Senegal. And so much has happened, since I got back here. In the world, and in my little old life too! And boy, am I ready for an aeroplane ride again. So much so, I would happily have one of those…
In mid-December 2020 my volunteering journey led me to the wild and wonderful Hoedspruit, where the Tshemba Foundation’s volunteer programme places medical professionals (from SA and abroad) at Tintswalo Hospital, the Tintswalo Eye Clinic and/or the Hlokomela Women’s Clinic. I came to know about Tshemba via a physiotherapist volunteer from…
If I hadn’t had to come back from Senegal last March, I wouldn’t have been able to work for general construction company PAMCO on a ‘make it inspiring, tell a story’ brief at Maserunyane High School in Limpopo. In fact, I quoted the project manager for my small contribution (to what…
Music often streams in the background as I work, or read, or write, clean the house or do the dishes (yip, a bit of signature un-glamour right there for you). Sometimes, a song begins to play, grabs my attention and moves me to drop everything I’m doing. One moment, I…
Over these last few months some days have felt like I’m an extra in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day (anyone under thirty google it). Wake up, do the day, sleep, repeat… And it’s not because the content of my days is the same, it’s more that the narrative of the…
Last week a few folk asked me why I hadn’t included a photograph in my “dating profile”, so I thought I’d start off with that, just to set the scene… You’re welcome! You know who you are 🙂 Twenty-twenty sure has dished out some hidings, hey? And many folks…
The bank that I’ve banked with all of my life decided that as a self-employed individual, I was too risky to bet on with a small bond. And, after banking with them since I was barely out of nappies, as well as journeying my entire adult life with them (house,…
To my dear friends, who encourage me to try and meet a good man and settle down, I’m so sorry to have gotten your attention under false pretences… Man, how I hate it when advertisers bait you with their fake news headings… Anyway, I’m glad you’re here now, I hope…
When I moved into my little garden flat (aka Bruno’s Bungalow) six months ago, I arrived with a bag of eighteen toilet rolls, and jokingly told my landlord, that this was how long I’d be here: who knew when my ship would sail again. Well, it’s been more…
It rained through the night last night, and oh, what a blissful night. Just rain on the roof. No midnight, post-curfew peacock squawks. No piercing four am peacock screams. No honking from the droves of peacocks that have taken siege of the banks along the extremely polluted Hennopsriver. Have…
Ever been on holiday at the other end of the country, and then driven home to Gauteng, all in one go? It’s like the trip just never ends, and as you drive through the different landscapes, the mood and alertness levels vary. When you’re driving up or down a mountain…
There’s a lot of animal action around the neighbourhood at the moment. In particular in the wee hours of the night. It seems that the creatures have also emerged from lockdown and are using the property’s borders as a highway to move between appointments. Or perhaps it’s just that time…
It was Vera’s birthday on Friday, and it was such a treat to have a family get together and to physically be in the same eating venue (@Mami&Papi) as multiple other heartbeats. When I got home, I felt like a child coming down from a sugar high… that slightly directionless,…
I had the strangest dream… I was arrested. It was a false ID, but the arresting officer made a point of telling me that I looked dodgy… or more specifically that my mole made me look dodgy. After being made to feel terribly guilty for Mother Nature’s role in my…
These last few months I have become very conscious of passing time. Not just the lockdown. But the time that has passed, since I first began making memories. I live not far away from my childhood home and my morning walks and cycles take me down roads that I haven’t…
When I first arrived on the Africa Mercy in January, the ship was already over halfway through its field service in Senegal. I’d joined the crew at the end of the orthopaedic surgeries, so all the little patients that had their bowlegs or windswept legs straightened, had already had their…
I wonder why it takes so long to develop a vaccine. I feel very misled by all those blockbusters where the heroes draw blood, rush to the lab in a race against time, find the antibodies and VOILA! a potion is conjured up and used to save lives. And all…
Today I’m officially out of that fourteen day self-quarantine I put myself into after arriving back from Senegal. Now I’m looking forward to at least another two weeks of house arrest…possibly more. Boy, is it going to feel strange when today becomes yesterday, and we’re all allowed to move around freely…
One week ago, today, I landed back in Johannesburg, after two short months onboard the Africa Mercy. I don’t want to romanticise my experience, as of course it wasn’t all “Kumbaya” or plain sailing – living in close confines with many others comes with its own set of challenges. Still, I…
After three flights (Dakar to Bamako, Bamako to Nairobi, Nairobi to Johannesburg) and half an hour from OR Tambo to the house I sold in December, I arrived, safe and sound, on Thursday afternoon. It felt strange walking back into my old home – especially as I had not expected…
Last weekend I had a fabulously restful two nights and two days off ship. I spent it at the home of a lovely couple, Petra and Fred, from the Dakar German Embassy. They have been in the city for a year-and-a-half of their intended four and it’s been really interesting…
Today is a ship holiday. We have a long weekend every six weeks, and this is my first, so I’m excited to have a little extra downtime. I decided to blog today, so that I can spend the weekend really relaxing, maybe visit some patients on deck 3, maybe go…