Yes, I have to fess up to yet another addiction today and it’s not pretty.   My dear husband often points out that we could probably have been pensioners with the amount of shoes in my cupboard and the thing is I get it, I really do, but who wants to be a pensioner and wear sensible shoes anyway. There is nothing like the perfect pair+ of shoes, I remember the acquisition of every single pair that I own. I can remember how I felt when I bought them, I spend my nights thinking of shoes and what to pair with them.   It is crazy, this addiction and affliction of mine.   One thing most have in common, they are high heels, I am only 1.63 meters tall (Gerhard often had to correct me when I told people I am 1.83 meters tall).   And when I do not show up in heels, people at work tend to think that I am ill, and short.   Strangers always comment on how short my kids are and I smile, you see my heels have become such a part of me that people generally no longer see...

There is nothing quite as glamorous as being woken by your five year old telling you that he vomited in his bed, twice, on one night.  After cleaning up the mess twice, and basically not sleeping, you can imagine this mother's absolute frustration when Luka's school then phones and tells me that she is coughing, to such an extent that you need to come and get her, immediately.  As mothers we always need to be on call, we need to answer our phones all the time, we need to wake up in the middle of the night, immediately and clean up vomit.  We need to keep track of the entire family's social schedules, just in case.   As a mother you are on call twenty four seven, three sixty five, you cannot lose patience, you cannot stop answering your phone, you cannot disappear and go to the spa for a week, you cannot spend the day on the golf course with no phone.  So tonight I am putting on my pajamas extra early, and I am running for the bed at eight with the kids, we...

Today I want to spend some time reflecting on a retail outlet in South Africa called Jet.   I have never been particularly fond of Jet, the quality of their clothing is just not great.   Jet has however over the last couple of weeks become my all-time favourite place to shop. Luka wants to go to the shops all the time, and when you ask her what she wants, she answers that she wants dresses (rokkies) and coffee and cake.   And she also tells Liam and Gerhard that shopping is for girls (doggerkies) and that they, being boys, cannot go shopping. So off to the Mall we go, enter Jet, behold, yes, Luka SHOPS like her mother, we know what we want and we want it straight away. So this past Sunday, we went shopping again, and like I said, thank heavens for Jet, I can afford multiple dresses, three pairs of shoes, new tinkerbell pajamas, lipstick, alice bands, umbrellas and sunglasses, ballet skirts.   Bags full of pinkness.   And all of this for around the sam...

I just love the pool, and lounging by the pool, and wearing flip flops and bikini's and sipping cold beers.  This past weekend was so much fun, we had my family over, and we started arranging this weekend and looking for dates that suited all of us in July!  And then waited patiently for this past weekend to roll around.  We were a lot of people, small and large, and we all spent the time outdoors around the pool. We also celebrated my sister's birthday and it was a surprise, despite the fact that Liam kept on asking me when we can give Tanja her helium balloons and the fact that my sister in law asked me and Albert (my brother) if we took the top of my car down and he casually replied that we could not as we had a car full of helium balloons... We swam, and laughed, and braaied, the littlest van Wyk, the very cute Aldin had his first sleepover, his first swim, his first red velvet cupcake...and Liam of course keeps on asking for a baby.  Cute babies like Aldin...

I have come to realise a couple of things over the last couple of weeks, in no particular order: People smile at girls with red lips, true story, I don't know why, but it happens, it really brightens one's day and I just love it, thank you MAC for making this possible. People smile at girls in convertible cars when the top is down, true story, I just love it, sitting at the traffic light irritated that things are moving so slow, and all of a sudden people are just smiling at you, small kids wave and blow you kisses, lovely. Luka for all her feisty behaviour is in fact a mini me...how the hell did I not see that one coming... We share similar interests, dresses, SHOES, coffee, salt and vinegar crisps, despised by millions, a true acquired taste.  And show me another two year old that gulps down the mother's entire cup of coffee when mommy is not looking. And when she gets in the car, she asks me to take the top down and put some lipstick on her.  Go figure, so Luka...

So why did it take me 36 years to finally find MAC make up.  I am in love, I think I love my new make up more than shoes, and that is a bold statement coming from me, the ultimate shoe addict. Let me start at the beginning.  There is nothing that intimidates the average woman more than any one of the beauticians working at any one of the counters in your department store.   Clinique ladies are mean, always using mirrors and lights similar to the lights used in operating theatres to show you things like enlarged pores, well of course the pores are enlarged Hun, you just put like a million candlelight power worth of light on there.   At this point my nostrils must be spectacular.   And lets face it, despite global warming, we are nowhere near that levels of magnification or lighting here on good old mother earth.  My two year old will have enlarged pores under those conditions!   In the end, despite telling the Clinique girl that you are an ar...