Last weekend the daughter was involved in a netball festival, which was lovely considering she last played in 2019. On the Saturday, her father and I were very keen to see her play, but the weather being what it was (thanks La Nina, you biatch) meant that the festival had been moved to an indoor venue in Edenvale.
The husband punched the road into Google Maps and off we went. The trip took on a lovely improvisational quality as we meandered all over Joburg but never quite seemed to get there.
- Me: I think we should be taking the R24.
- Husband: I thought it was in Soweto? That’s where the road is.
- Me: er, no. It’s in Edenvale.
Dear readers, we did a lovely tour of the Joburg freeways before we got her to the venue just before the match was supposed to start. Turns out there are two roads with the same name, one in Edenvale and one in Soweto.
And no, that was not all.
We went home in between the games and when we returned for the next match, the husband’s car had a flat tyre – from the shunt we had a few weeks ago – and naturellement the tyre decided to go flat on the freeway.
The daughter and I then had to catch an uber to the venue and she got there 20 minutes late. Luckily, the coach was understanding but frankly, I was ready to slaughter something and call on my ancestors to find out whom exactly I had pissed off.
After the match the daughter told us she would rather stay at the venue than travel anywhere with us, thank you very much. I completely understood.
AND YES, THERE’S MORE!!
- During all these rains, her roof which has been fixed numerous times started to leak again. We put in an insurance claim, the people came and fixed it. 15k later, it is still not fixed, dear reader.
- My car had the windscreen replaced after a stone hit it. They did not replace it properly, my car now leaks like a sieve.
You can’t make this shit up.
So, yes. The week had a bit of a shaky start which didn’t improve when I woke up feeling like death on the day of our #BigBookClubBash at Exclusive Books, Bedford Centre.
I was terrified that I had the rona and hurried off to go get tested. First up-the-shnoz test I’ve ever had, I’ve always had the tonsil tickle before but my tester assured me she was a pro…and she was. We had to do two tests because she wasn’t happy with the first and halleluia, I was negative.
Even though I looked like something the cat had dragged in and had to apply my make-up with a trowel, I was very glad I didn’t have to miss the event.
The Exclusive’s at Bedford Centre is fabulous, we had a red carpet welcome and the staff were so warm and lovely, plus the crowd was fantastic. There were amazing giveaways and our interviewer, Lundi Khoisan was brilliant.
Many books were sold and signed (and because of my bug, I did not lick anyone or anything). If you can, do go along to one of these events with your book club, they are a JOL!
Afterwards, we headed to a little pizza place called Pizza Perfect and had the most divine pizzas. The owner of the place was on his own, he had to send his staff home because he was worried about their transport but he cooked stunning pizzas for us and I will be definitely visiting there again.
Film/TV recommendations: The In Between on Netflix. Joey King not only stars in it, she’s also one of the producers. LOVE, love, love to see young actors taking control of their careers like this. Fun fact – Joey shot The Kissing Booth movies in Cape Town, friend and movie guy, Mark Auret worked with her and says that she was an absolute sweetheart. Check out Mark’s fab community-based accommodation on the Wild Coast here https://www.protearidge.com/.
The Senzo Meyiwa doccie. Yikes, it’s quite a story and what made this doccie extra interesting was seeing colleagues Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, Percy Vilakazi and Melinda Ferguson featured on it.
Book recommendations: I received a lovely collection of books from Helen Holyoake and Exclusive Books and I started off with Unforgiven by Liz Mcgregor. It’s about Liz’s journey to meet her father’s killer and to find out what happened on the day he was murdered. I found the stuff about the gangs both illuminating and depressing AF and I applaud her for making this journey. It’s a raw, vulnerable, beautiful piece of work and a real tribute to her dad. She will be in convo with Trevor Manuel about the book next Tuesday, April 19th at Exclusive’s Hyde Park. Not. To. Be. Missed.
It’s the anniversary of my mother, Evie’s death today, and as a devout Catholic, I feel she would be chuffed that it’s falling on Good Friday. She died in 2010 but I still get the urge to call her every now and again and ask her how to get a stain out of a piece of laundry or how long I should cook something for or why my kids are being so difficult (that question was usually met with guffaws and a ‘go look in the mirror’).
Today also marks the end of our season of #TheEstateOn3. It has been a fabulous journey working with this committed team and I’m so proud of the work we have produced. Tonight’s episode promises to be a cracker, and don’t be sad that it’s ending tonight because we are already cooking up more brilliant stories and will be back on air in July.
That’s it for this week. I just want to end by sending love and solidarity to the residents of KZN, the stories coming out of there are absolutely heartbreaking. If you want to make a donation, I would suggest sending money to Gift of the Givers https://giftofthegivers.org/make-a-difference/.
Hope you all have a great long weekend. Happy Easter, Chag Sameach, Ramadan Mubarak and happy reading xxx