Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 152

Football & Soccer (Which are really the same thing)

1. I cheered for two yesterday, their both going home. Argh. That said, as much as I wanted them to win...sigh. Must play to win - yes? Feel most terrible for Ghana, but ... penalty kicks are like free throws - the handball was like a basketball player taking a 5th foul - if the handball had not been caught, then he'd been an ass-hole like Mr. French. But the hand ball was caught, so it was an honest act of strategy. Then onto the free throw line Ghana went and they blew it. 2. Refereeing - F...

Friday round up

1. Post Office Son decided he needed to make an envelope. The envelope proto-type project was rather stressful for all, especially given that son is a rather intense and earnest human. But he got there. Ta-da! - an envelope with "post" was presented to his mother. Post was a very nicely coloured picture of rabbits in grass. I decided to "post" something back. Pulled out pink notepad with alligators on it and wrote: X, I love you. <3 Mummy - which are all words he can read (there are not many)...

Can't claim it's dull

Interesting times over here as many of you in FB land know. We have builders, but we're not building. But next door is… Thus, here comes the digger, and the children cheered. Thus, here came the fence builders and the parents watched carefully.* And for just over a week all looked to be well. Tuesday morning I woke up and noticed two sticks painted white directly outside a downstairs sliding glass door. ? Investigation showed more of these sticks, with what amounted to "trip wire" being strun...

The cold, Damaria and marriage

1. Fingerless Gloves. The temps dropped to considerable chill-degrees around here. Given my house is made to battle blazing February temps, rather than June's Arctic chill, my hands began to freeze. But gloves + typing is rather awkward. So I mused to Damaria if I should have a friend make me a pair of fingerless gloves, or would the cold spell be over? She pointed out that even if it warmed up, there was always next year. So I went to email my friend when I thought, "This is stupid. You are ...

Spilt Milk

Kopano Matlwa has published a second book, Spilt Milk. The fact that I am highlighting it today may be seen as controversial since the reviews have not been brilliant. Yes, I read those reviews, too. They seemed to be summed up into three camps: 1 - Spilt Milk is not the same as Coconut. This is a common criticism reviewers throw at second books, which is strange, because one would think it was clear that when a reviewer is handed a different book, complete with a different title, they would ...

Um, hello

Hi, Still alive. Been locked out of most internet sites since Friday night. Very strange. I could get on my local weather, FB (until accidentally logged out, then could not log in) and even my bank. I could not, however, get on most sites, including my EMAIL. That is very bad. Turns out for the first time since we acquired ADSL we we ran out of bandwidth - so only local sites were we permitted access, too. This is made stranger because some seemingly local (Book SA, for example) are not local...

Editing for the Inglourious Bastards

I had been in South Africa less than two weeks, back in '99, when I was informed that the original inhabitants of South Africa consisted of three tribes: The Koi, The San and The K... So strange, because most people I knew only spoke of two, but... A few weeks after being told this new found knowledge I sat down to my first tutorial class in South African Lit. The professor handed out a letter written in eighteen-something and there was that K-tribe! It was mentioned a lot. Only this time it ...

Me & My Big Mouth

Yesterday's rant caught some attention. Which is amusing for so many reasons. But the consequence is that I rewrote my post for Litnet. I am rather touched they asked me. I usually have to beg to have anything published (except for the blog - I bribe typepad with money - aka the bill). So here it is, the new and improved: South Africa on the Shelf: Read South African, South Africa Read. AND...because there are many more people on there, all more well known than me - here is the Main Link to L...

Read South African, South Africa Read

Many of my people IRL (in real life) have heard the rant. The proud and the few who have been reading my blog from the start may even recall why Tuesday is book day: Where's the books? I believe this: That South Africa needs to read more of its own books, no matter what colour the reader or writer. The more South Africa's patriotism is invested in their words, the better the chance to beat the illiteracy problem. When you own it, you work for it. That South Africa needs to do more to promote ...

Read South African, South Africa read

Many of my people IRL (in real life) have heard the rant. The proud and the few who have been reading my blog from the start may even recall why Tuesday is book day: Where's the books? I believe this: That South Africa needs to read more of its own books, no matter what colour the reader or writer. The more South Africa's patriotism is invested in their words, the better the chance to beat the illiteracy problem. When you own it, you work for it. That South Africa needs to do more to promote ...