Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 182
July 13, 2009
Rayda Jacobs
Today I bring you: Confessions of a Gambler, by Rayda Jacobs. US, UK, SA Clearly a book is a winner if it has my father laughing out loud around page 1. I stumbled across this book in a backwards manner. I had already read another novel of hers, then at my last birthday I was given a copy of her memoirs. When I started to read her memoirs it became clear that I was losing out by not having read Confessions of a Gambler first. So I put her memoir temporarily aside till I could get my hands on a..
July 12, 2009
What is it about "cancelled" that is so hard to understand?
Ah, the real joys of an international move never ends. Yesterday an email pops up while I was glaring at a short story I am working on. It is a receipt from a paypal purchase. Which is very interesting because now that I live in South Africa paypal and I hardly ever speak to one another. In short, I have not paid anybody through paypal in months. Despite this, I somehow paid somebody. Needless to say I stopped working on short story and opened the email right away. I recognised the company. I us
July 11, 2009
I am my own worst enemy
A few months back I received a nice email from a human in the South African writing world. The nice human suggested meeting up next time I was in Cape Town - Sounds nice, yes? Except, I am the most awkward person when it comes to meeting people I don't know. Of course - makes perfect sense. I mean, I'm a hermit. That's why I am a woman who seems to be constantly travelling, has worked in sales, PR, marketing and whose life generally requires her to smile and introduce herself to perfect stranger
July 10, 2009
Not always sunshine and laughter
I mostly began this blog to: A - Highlight and talk about writing, especially books. B - Highlight anything I might get published C - Highlight a few things I cared about - such as ball-skills and other causes in South Africa that could use a little publicity. D - Entertain my readers with a few of my mis-adventures, because I seem to have a knack for it. And as much as I might be pissing with vinegar during the event, a part of me always knows that if I didn't actually have to be the one living
July 8, 2009
When pink is more than a colour
My daughter wears pink. I don't buy it for her. This is mostly because most people do, so if I don't buy something different she would be condemned to looking like a walking blue-eyed bottle of Pepto-Bismol. As a colour, I do not have a problem with it. But I am, admittedly, wary of pink. And to be honest, as cute as she can be in pink (and boy oh boy does she have some stunning things in pink) she looks better in red or blue. Then again, so does my son - must have something to do with their...
The final (I hope) update on locks and keys
Monday morning my husband crawled through the window one last time and fetched the yellow pages. Just past 8am I phoned the one and only locksmith listed for our area and the friendly folks told me they would be there in 15min. Such service! In our last rental we had a window broken and wide open to all (not such a good idea in South Africa) and it took over two weeks to get somebody in. (And the agent wonders why we wanted to leave that house. . . ) My hero The locksmith came, took down the num
July 7, 2009
How to comment on a blog
I have had a rather lot (relative to the hits on this blog) of people asking how to leave a comment. I have answered everyone who asked directly, but thought I'd also reply here in case there are other readers who have the same question. There are two views on this blog. One is "main page." On the main page you can see the most recent blog posts all at once by scrolling down. (The really old ones have to be accessed either by "category" or by archives - see blog's sidebar.) The other way to view
July 6, 2009
Nadine Gordimer
This week's book is: My Son's Story, by Nadine Gordimer US, UK, SA * Which has been highlighted due to an email from a reader of my blog (who will remain anonymous unless he states he doesn't mind) : "It's one of my absolute favorite novels... I will recommend it on the basis of its gorgeous prose and vivid characters, especially if you haven't read Gordimer before." Nadine Gordimer is a very well known South African writer. A literary heavy-weight, if you will. She is one of the patrons of New
July 5, 2009
It gets better...
Want to hear a joke? When I started this blog my first thoughts were, "My life has been so calm lately (relatively speaking) that it may be a struggle to come up with things to blog about." I thought lustfully of those group emails I used to send of our latest South African screw ups and thought, "Yeah, those would have made good blog stories." But folks, you few but lucky readers, my life is determined to entertain you. The weekend round-up resulted in: 2 office keys missing 2 kitchen keys brok
We may need a locksmith
No matter how sleep deprived I get, how woolly my brain becomes, how absent-minded and s...l...o...w...l...y... the neurons fire - there are some things my brain always knows: 1 - Stats on the children: last time fed, slept, changed nappy 2 - Where something is in my house, down to scarily accurate detail. This is an annoying trait to possess because people don't bother to look for anything - they simply come straight to me and demand to know where X is, even if they are the person that lost X.
