This cute as a button lady is my granny.
sweet huh?
She's a baker, homemaker, seamstress deluxe,avid orchid grower.
This year she will have been married to my grandpa Rudi, for 61 years.
jeez, can you imagine.

They met on a train(i know!)
It was raining cats and dogs.(HAVE YOU EVER!)
He came into the compartment where my granny was sitting and took the only seat available(yup you guessed it!the only one available was the one next to her.)
At her stop, he offered to walk her home, she had forgotten her umbrella(Are you sighing yet?)
And in the words of my cute as a button granny...'My dear.. We fell in love on that walk home and never looked back'
Im such a sucker for big romance.
I believe in movie endings, the grand gesture, the hollywood kiss...
And these two have it.
Real old fashioned, good as pie, true as a lovebirds heart...Love.

Back in the day, sometime in the early 1950's...when Grandpa Rudi wanted to ask Grandma Christine to be his steady, he would take her to the Pinetown Bioscope to go see a film.
She, in her floral hand-sewn dress and gloves.. his hair perfectly brill-creamed..
It was a vintage date night to remember.He would make sure to suggest the film that would be on for the longest (He turned to me while telling this story and whispered 'More time to canoodle with her in the back-row you see!'
He calls her Pop...she kisses him all the time.
They spent their whole lives in a little house in Durban, with a back-garden filled with fruit tree's and cherry blossoms...and a dog called Fancy who use to bite the clothes off the washing line.
My darling granny wrote me a few weeks ago, and her letter knocked my socks off..
for in it she says..
My dear little girl...have some faith in love...because everyday, the first thing i do...is close my eyes and imagine a man, a good man, who loves dogs and food, and laughter just like you do, a man who is creative but who can support you, a man who will really love you and i wish for him to find you.. And i know my prayers for a good man for you will be answered.
Well gosh..I must say, i got a little sniffly and teary eyed at that.
So thank you Granny Christine..
I guess i just have to keep my eyes open...and look out for the handsome and creative(but financially stable)man carrying a French loaf in the one hand and a little puppy in the other...And ill know you wished hard enough for us both.

My month in pictures

Life has been travelling at New York subway speed.
Oe minute its summer,the next your wearing three pairs of socks.
My face seems to have more wrinkles suddenly, my father's grey hair seem's more grey...(Can life really move that fast?)
Exhaustion is my colour these days, so writing has taken a back seat...Here are some pictures of where ive been, what ive been doing, who i have met and who i would like to meet(See image 1)

Whats Swedish for Marry me Per Gessler?

Im gonna get dressed for success.

Listen to your heart, when its calling for you.

She's got the look...

Three lines from three of my favourite Roxette songs ever. seriously,like ever.
Round age 12 I fell completely in love with Per Gessler, his husky voice and tight stone washed pants.
I mean completely in love.
I imagined him serenading me..at a Roxette concert..Our eyes locking in a moment of pure fate, he hushes the band..grabs his guitar, strumming and singing, all the while never breaking his gaze from me..he staggers down slowely, with the moves of a jungle cat (because come now, who can move fast in tight stone washed jeans?)The crowds would part, as he made his way to me...he would throw down his guitar, grab me in his arms, and kiss me...

Being somewhat of a realist i knew his Swedish accent might catch me off guard and i wouldnt always understand what he was saying but in my opinion...'i love you' sounds wonderful in any language.
I could see us...living in a little Swedish house in our matching stone washed jean pants with our two Swedish babies...singing old Roxette tunes on the Kareoke system.
We would be in Swedish bliss...

Fast forward some years later, and my burning love for him, had taken a back seat to the teenage real love that started happening in my life.
And even though the Adam's and Mark's and Sean's and Todd's and whatshisname's were great fun..i still couldn't fully let go of the man who first made my heart go boom.
So our relationship became a secret love affair. We would meet...via Walkman, twice a week...It was oh so romantic, having to hide my first true love from the cool mysterious men of the hour in my life.
But somewhere between ages of 17 to 25 i found our relationship was becoming too tricky... he was from the 80's!it was never going to last!So alas...our relationship came to a sudden end...

Then in January, word arrived in a frenzied whisper..'OMG!Roxette is coming to South Africa!' I was speechless, i was ecstatic, i was a little mortified of the Justin Bieber-esque fan yelp that escaped my lips.
A funny thing happens when you resume a full blown love affair after many years of being apart...
its called Hysteria..
And i swear to god, Beatlemania had nothing on me on the evening of the 14h of May. when that man staggered out onto the stage in his tight leather pants, with that familiar face,the face i had loved for so long, a little older but still as handsome..Oh lord... i had an out of body experience like you cannot believe...

Nausea,from over excitement made its way up my body, trembling began to rear its familiar head,adrenaline began coarsing through my veins, my face turned hot, my eyes welled up with tears...till finally.. i listened to my heart...

'Per Gessler!i love yoooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuumarrymeohmygodiloveyoouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu' escaped in a shriek that could be heard from the pits of hell it was so passionate,so honest so 1992 that the minute these words escaped my mouth i knew they were true, oh dear Lord i just knew..
I had foolishly spent my teen years persuing boys who couldnt hold a candle to my Per Gessler.
I was totally and utterly horrified that i had ruined my chance of happilly ever Roxette with this cheesy 80's Pop god..

Its taken me a month to write this post,due to the trauma that occurred when googling his marital status the next day and finding out he was already married...and im telling you..to some girl, who unlike me never let go of the Swedish babies and swedish house and Swedish kareoke system dream she had as a young girl.

This is a cautionary tale for young woman everywhere... Even if the man of your dreams wears stone washed jeans and has really really really bad hair, dont forget, love is love...so be proud of it.
Go on.
Listen to your heart.

Sjoe!Whats cooking in the kitchen?

Sjoe ive been busy.
I have flour in my hair,
Cake on my vintage dresses,
and the whiff of vanilla following me around like a lost puppy.

There is something delicious about being paid to do something you love.
Which, lucky me...
I get to do all day long.
The green grocer knows me by name,
I get caterers discount at Impala...
Sjoe im practically dating the baby marrows growing in my backyard.

Its a funny thing, being 25 years old and changing your career path...not in a dramatic, 'Im moving to Paris to become a Burlesque dancer' way, but more a 'Sjoe i love cooking...maybe i could charge people to like..i dunno...eat the food i make?' way.

And can you believe it!they all said yes...
Happy eating everybody....
And remember..an imported chocolate a day keeps the doctor away.

Baby its cold outside.

Sjoe but its cold in Johannesburg.
The 'Im turning blue, my toes are freezing, i cant get out of my slippers' kind of cold.
So imagine, if you will, being this cold, and not having a warm fireplace, hot-water bottle,pot of soup, or even, a roof over your head to come home to?
No one should be cold and hungry in Winter..it should be a human right to be warm..
So i urge you all today dear bloggers,
Buy a loaf of bread.
A ready made soup.
A blanket and a pair of socks.
And keep them in your car.
Give out each one of these things to someone in need...
By the end of the day you would have helped four people.
How great would that be?

Go On, Blow Out your Birthday Candles!

My friend Orly had a baby and a birthday all in one week.
The really cute pink footed kind.(The baby not the birthday.)
Orly and i met at University, where we were both starstruck by the idea of being on a stage everyday,
and where Shakespeare was the topic of the day.
Today is Orly's birthday, which was meant to co-incide with her due date(How magical is that?)
But Mr cute pink foot decided to show his little face a few days early, which i think is a wonderful surprise birthday present.
So far he is nameless, So today, on the 1rst of June 2011, i want to say...
baby 'Working title' your mommy is one special lady, filled to the brim with super amazing gifts like a heart filled with love, the best chocolate brownie recipe and the innate gift of loyalty and kindness, welcome to the world little one, We have been waiting for you.