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Showing posts from December, 2012

Christmas Time is here again

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I know we tend to complain about the hype, the energy and the unchecked spending as a run up to Christmas and the festive season. But what the heck… Christmas way back then… Everybody works their fingers to the bone the entire year. There are many of our compatriots barely earning enough to put food on the table, but they will participate in savings clubs at their workplaces so that they have holiday cash. My mom used to work in a factory when I was still at university and I can recall how on Fridays, even she would be paying some cash to Jeanette for “ Revierra” hampers and some cash to Mr Geduldt, I think, towards stamp money for the grocery hampers.  Then, there were the Bashews assorted cooldrinks that always travelled on a lorry from house to house. At Christmas time, my dad would order 6 cases and we would indulge in these fizzy drinks with abandon. Then, when Christmas is a few days away, the same frenzy as today would prevail. We would go to Wynberg main road and coll

Berg River Camping Retreat

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Back at the Berg... Berg River with rapids in the distance Our brains possess the miraculous ability to re -wire our thoughts in an instant. After spending the greater part of the year like madmen on a highway chase, we are calibrated to go into holiday zone. We are slowed down so that our senses can be drenched in the sounds, smells, tastes and feelings of REAL life; an absolute necessity else we will go crazy “chasing pavements” as Adele sings. Our family is going nowhere slowly here at the Berg river resort in Paarl. Although the sun bakes fiercely here in the Swartland, we are willing to make that sacrifice. Our home from home at the Berg River  Resort   View from our caravan - area where you can go down the rapids There is nothing more therapeutic than surrendering yourself to the rhythms of nature. Simple pleasures abound. A critter that would normally scare the daylights out of our children, become an object of wonder – science in motion.  Just this af