Die Strandloper



Linda, Nolundi, Esethu, Lusanda, Sibulele

I spent a magical weekend in Cape Town with good friends of mine. We went down there for “The Franschhoek 'Magic of Bubbles' Cap Classique and Champagne Festival” because as my cousin put it ‘you’ve been colonised twice’. Living in France meant that I’ve adopted (destructive and expensive) French taste which generally is wine, cheese, champagne and more wine. We did really fun things all weekend and there was a lot of indulgence, en général.

One of the best things we did was have lunch at Die Strandlopper in Langebaan. It is a seafood dream right on the beach. Everything you eat is freshly made, from the bread to the Ten (I did say:Ten) courses of all kinds of fish.  The sun also came out its full glory perfecting the outdoor, seaside ambiance. A funny story… so all our phones switched off and there is no electricity at the restaurant. The heartbreak in everyone’s eyes when you see the thousands of pictures we could have taken. My dear friends who are avid Instagram-ers were most hurt, ‘how were we going to translate this greatness without pictures? #nofilter.

We were saved by the gorgeous Lisa, who was so gracious and took these Lovely pictures.

Student of Words.

“We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation -rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays Including Essays, First & Second Series, English Traits, Nature & Considerations by the Way

In moments of panic

In moments of panic:

i.
may you find love in the furthest reaches of your clandestine heart and un-celeste. you are a mighty fall, a swinging jeopardy. but even for you, there can be hope. there can be gravity.

ii.
may you uncover the lid you cemented over your own treasure. we remember it is because you did not know purpose could be so bright. so sweet. drink more of it.

iii.
may you allow another person inside your ruins. one who reminds you not of what was before but of the richness in what is left. build a new city with the old flesh, and command it to rise.

iv.
may you love long and hard until every one of your maps is browned from misuse. an adventure could never be according to plan, anyway. ensure you leave every day with your love well spent. rest.

v.
may you find solace in the prayers of God, in the peace and in the noise. i know the heat of a heart burdened to bleed. sometimes blood reminds us who we are.

vi.
may you find strength to laugh at yourself and pause to break by yourself. somewhere along the tangent of heartache you will realise that noone has ever mastered the trade of starting over.

vii.
may you find the outrage to be a revolution, naked in truth. with prize, or after a sunset. with man, or un-man.

viii.
may you walk with as much confidence as the weight of your tongue: snapped and flesh and surprising.

ix.
may you find yourself, despite everything.
-S.

Time

"We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infintesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas."


~Alan Watts

We are Star stuff

"There is a fundamental reason why we look at the sky with wonder and longing—for the same reason that we stand, hour after hour, gazing at the distant swell of the open ocean. There is something like an ancient wisdom, encoded and tucked away in our DNA, that knows its point of origin as surely as a salmonid knows its creek. Intellectually, we may not want to return there, but the genes know, and long for their origins—their home in the salty depths. But if the seas are our immediate source, the penultimate source is certainly the heavens… The spectacular truth is—and this is something that your DNA has known all along—the very atoms of your body—the iron, calcium, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and on and on—were initially forged in long-dead stars. This is why, when you stand outside under a moonless, country sky, you feel some ineffable tugging at your innards. We are star stuff. Keep looking up."

 

 

— Jerry Waxman,  was a professor of astronomy and environmental science at SRJC

The Fault in Our Stars

“I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.”

— John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Daughter - "Get Lucky" (Daft Punk cover)

      


 Dear Summer!

It is never too late.

“For what it’s worth:
 it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be.
There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want.
You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing.
We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it.
And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before.
I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of.
 If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”


― Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button screenplay

From Nonzuzo with Love

These pictures were taken by our talented and sweetest friend Nonzuzo Cheryl Gxekwa . She is a twin, we are twins, all too sweet really. She makes and sells all sorts of beautiful things, she also photographs.She is at Arts on Main every Sunday and every first Thursday night of the month.

Get in touch with her brand of beauty at:

BabycakesVintage
Cell: 0725954622
email: nonzuzogxekwa@yahoo.com
webpage: bcgoodies.tumblr.com facebook:boutique babycakes

For the days she spent wearing black.

“You should tell them the truth. Tell them that if they hold on too tightly, love might cut them. Tell them to hold on tightly anyway. Tell them everything is worth it and that the richness of life is only ever enhanced by its inevitable, brief flashes of sadness and loss.”

— I Wrote This For You: The Messenger Was Dead When I Got Here

Age

I am turning a potentially life changing, earthshattering. disproportionally large age soon. So I spend a lot of time thinking about age, aging, growth, life, meaning and all these grand philosophies of a life well lived. You know...as one does when drawing the curtain on an era.

The Black Pimpernel

Undoubtedly the best years of Madiba's life, for me were when he was known as the fugitive, terrorist, public enemy number one and The Black Pimpernel. For many who stood on the ruthless side of oppression he embodied hope and freedom. He was fiery, ferocious, sure, and carrying all anticipations of freedom. These were brutal times of bloody streets, silenced voices, shattered hopes and stolen livelihoods. Our heroes -sung and unsung- paid the ultimate price and it broke the many bonds of our society. It is so easy to be poetic about Mandela and forget the system that created him. It is probably convenient for the seekers of peace, a luxury for those who stood and watched and shameful for the perpetrators. But we have seen that at the end the euphoria of freedom lie some sobering realities. In fact the very definition of freedom is still illusive for far too many.

___Nolundi Walaza 

Confronting the Empire

“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.

The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
― Arundhati Roy, War Talk

We can be new.

"You don’t know anyone at the party, so you don’t want to go. You don’t like cottage cheese, so you haven’t eaten it in years. This is your choice, of course, but don’t kid yourself: it’s also the flinch.
 Your personality is not set in stone. You may think a morning coffee is the most enjoyable thing in the world, but it’s really just a habit. Thirty days without it, and you would be fine. You think you have a soul mate, but in fact you could have had any number of spouses. You would have evolved differently, but been just as happy.
You can change what you want about yourself at any time. You see yourself as someone who can’t write or play an instrument, who gives in to temptation or makes bad decisions, but that’s really not you. It’s not ingrained. It’s not your personality. Your personality is something else, something deeper than just preferences, and these details on the surface, you can change anytime you like.
If it is useful to do so, you must abandon your identity and start again. Sometimes, it’s the only way.
Set fire to your old self. It’s not needed here. It’s too busy shopping, gossiping about others, and watching days go by and asking why you haven’t gotten as far as you’d like. This old self will die and be forgotten by all but family, and replaced by someone who makes a difference.
Your new self is not like that. Your new self is the Great Chicago Fire—overwhelming, overpowering, and destroying everything that isn’t necessary."

__Julien Smith

well..

Opinions

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge… is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.”
― Bill Bullard

The road less travelled.

My friend Busi took this picture of me in Ibiza, Spain, she and I had the most wondrous time catching sunsets there. She titled this picture ‘The road less travelled’, I Love that. This truly was a road less travelled and perhaps it was the theme of that year. I was on the off-road, untamed, far, wandering and learning. It changed me I don’t think I’ll ever go back on the ordinary road again; life is so much more fun and far more rewarding on the edges. The road less travelled truly has made all of the difference.

Bua

"Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it’s personal. And the world won’t end.
And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don’t miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because, as I think Emma Goldman said, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking."

_Audre Lorde

Hopes

 " Last week,
 i walked through the part of the city i loved when i still loved you, our old haunts.
you know,
even the ghosts have moved on."

 

 

_Warsan Shire

This Journey

"Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”

 

 

__Jhumpa Lahiri

Herself

Courage

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Dove advert/ Sketches

I can’t remember the last time I couldn’t wait to ‘Skip’ a You Tube ad. This was worth all of my four minutes.

Our perceptions of body image are mostly distorted and misguided. Not only are we are so critical of ourselves but we feel the need to measure up (pun intended). Ideas of beauty are both commercialised and socialised to belittle and it is hard for a girl to find a sense of self in between. Here is my two cents: Own yourself, character is everything and beauty -I truly believe- radiates. It is not a physical thing; I’ve found that beauty is not tangible and that the most beautiful people I know radiate it -the way light would shoot through the dark.

Being Real

"Being real is more a process of letting go than it is the effort of becoming. I don't have to become me--although at times it feels this way--I am already me. And that is both the easiest and the hardest thing for me to realize."
__Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather.

Like is the Sea

She reminded me of the sea; the way she came dancing towards you, wild and beautiful, and just when she was almost close enough to touch she’d rush away again.

— Glenda Millard, from A Small Free Kiss in the Dark

Just because I miss France today...

 

....and France in the Spring is a thing of beauty.


“Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.”
― John Keats

Miss Winehouse, for a rainy day in Jo'burg

            /Amy Winehouse Performs "Wake Up Alone" At Shepards Bush London

These words

The meeting of the souls

"A soul connection is a resonance between two people who respond to the essential beauty of each other’s individual natures, behind their facades, and who connect on this deeper level. This kind of mutual recognition provides the catalyst for a potent alchemy. It is a sacred alliance whose purpose is to help both partners discover and realize their deepest potentials. While a heart connection lets us appreciate those we love just as they are, a soul connection opens up a further dimension… seeing and loving them for who they could be, and for who we could become under their influence. This means recognizing that we both have an important part to play in helping each other become more fully who we are. A soul connection not only inspires us to expand, but also forces us to confront whatever stands in the way of that expansion."

— John Welwood 

For the Thinkers

“
Our disrespect for thinking: 
someone sitting in a chair, 
gazing out of a window blankly, 
always described as ‘doing nothing'


— Alain de Botton

The road less traveled

This is Gratitude

|The King said it best, we owe you everything.
for the music
the books
films
clothes
art
crafts
and the details
and the way you make us feel.

Extend me

"That’s not to say that I don’t want to love and be loved; just to say that it’s no longer a question of “You complete me.” What I need now, which is so different to what I needed ten, five, or even three years ago, is not filling, but a use for my fullness. I want someone that will push against the wall inside me where I’ve spent all my time repairing the spidery cracks spreading across the surface. And when the destructive veins behind to reemerge, I want someone who will stand beneath me, holding the ladder I’m climbing to reach the blemishes, handing me the tools I need to smooth out the puckering in the paint as I go.

I don’t want anyone to complete me anymore, regardless of whether I feel complete or not. All I want is to be a girl standing in front of a boy, eyes full of tears, professing my love, and with ultimate resolve say, “You extend me."

— Kat George, No One Else Will Ever Complete You

I am a girl who is in Love with the world

I just remembered how I’ve left my heart in the most beautiful places. The beaches and the raw beauty of the human spirit in East Africa, nature showing off in South East Asia, Asia’s cities alive and so much character. Amsterdam and Berlin equally raising to my brand of crazy, France: you became home I adore you. Italy: I will never tire of everything you so beautifully carry, Eastern Europe: your lessons I carry with me. To all others who I escape to in daydreams and to the ones I am yet to see, my heart can’t wait                             

Through the layers of wildness

"One of the deepest feminine pleasures is when a man stands full, present, and unreactive in the midst of his woman's emotional storms. When he stays present with her, and loves her through the layers of wildness and closure, then she feels his trustability, and she can relax". 
 

-David Deida

Some Nights

                                                                 Fun: Some nights

 

Let's dream

Come Quick, We Are Dreaming.

__Lindani Walaza

Let Go

Love

“The moment you fall in love feels like it has centuries behind it, generations - all of them rearranging themselves so this precise, remarkable intersection could happen. In your heart, in your bones, no matter how silly you know it is, you feel that everything has been leading to this, all the secret arrows were pointing here, the universe and time itself crafted this long ago, and you are just now realizing it, you are just now arriving at the place you were always meant to be.”

 —  David Levithan, Every Day

Be

A morning in the City

I was lucky enough to be on the thirteenth floor of a building in the Johannesburg city centre.

This view always reminds me of the jostle that is this city, everyone seems hungry everyone chasing some dream.

The best day of your life..

“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.”

― Bob Moawad

To be lit up from within

This band

I had not done this in a long time and last Sunday we went back to Topo Gigio (it used to be Fratellis).  It is always such a great afternoon of music and mojito induced joy. The Rocketeers are a wonderful band and they do covers that are sure to bring memories tumbling down. The next time you have a free Sunday afternoon in Johannesburg, go to Greenside.