noodle was here

I remember watching the original 7 Up documentary as a 12 year old when it was first broadcast and still remember it vividly to this day. The apparent differences (and similarities) between children of different cultures and demographics were so poignant. I remember my friends and I discussing it at school for weeks after, creating catchphrases from some of the most amusing answers.

I believe it is a very accurate and real portrayal of the world us South Africans live in. It gives a lot of food for thought in terms of what has changed since 1992. How different would life be for todays 7 year olds?

Watch the entire series on Youtube, and prepare to be moved.

7 Up South Africa

14 Up South Africa

21 Up South Africa

28 Up South Africa

links i liked

2016-09-16T16:30:00.000+02:00

London's Selfless New Tube Map Encourages You to Walk, Not Ride

10 Perfect Choices on the Peaky Blinders Soundtrack

The Boers at the End of the World | An Afrikaner Community in Patagonia

Winona Uninteruppted

Why 4 Day Weeks are Bad For Your Health

Use Paint to Add a Patina to a Wooden Frame | DIY

Acknowledging Our Grief Anniversaries

13 Tips For Clearing Your Laptop Once and For All

How Kids Around the World Get to School

The 11 Best Audiobooks to Listen to Now

Do You Really Have to Refrigerate Butter and 9 Other Debated Food Myths

The Dark Side of Roald Dahl

50 Reasons Why Everyone Should Want More Walkable Streets in their City

Grammar Rule That All Native English Speakers Use without Realising | Great Comments

For Doctors | How to Tell A Mother Her Child is Dead

How To Be Yourself | Cos Its The Best

This 8 Year Old is the Youngest Girl to Skate in the Vans US Open Pro Series

How to Recolour Your Kitchen Appliances | Game Changer

'Arrival' is Sci-Fi at Its Smartest and Weirdest

22 Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do to Boost Your Productivity

ten years on

2016-09-14T05:00:00.000+02:00

Life was quite different for me ten years ago… I drove a second hand Citi Blues with a cassette player, my cellphone (a Samsung nonetheless) had a handy flip screen and could take a grainy snapshot if you needed to. But not too many or else you would run out of space. I would try to navigate the internet occasionally using WAP (?), but generally my phone would be for text messages. I had mastered the one handed predictive text type without even looking. I used to cook a few times a week, and the blog posts over here were a lot more regular. I had bangs! I was single, having just broken up with my first serious boyfriend, albeit years later than I should have. I had just travelled to London to spend some long summer days with friends and family, drinking Pimms, having a laugh and walking the city of Westminster flat.

The biggest difference in my life is that my dad was still around. My very difficult and stubborn father, who I fought with endlessly. Always butting heads, both of us with strong and different opinions and both of us insistent that the other person is wrong. I always had to have the last word. Sometimes in my anger and frustration I would think that we would be better off without him, never realising how quickly the universe can pull the rug out from under you.

And then my dad became ill. He had surgery due to adhesions from a previous surgery, and complications meant that he never came home. He stayed in hospital for 74 days enduring many further surgeries and procedures that were unable to fix his broken body. Yet I was grateful for those 74 days, giving me time to talk and to listen and for us both to heal.

I wonder what he would have to say about things if he was still around. Would he still be telling those same jokes we'd heard a hundred times before? Would he still drink as much beer? Would he be proud of his children, and most importantly, be able to show it? I wonder what he would think of the world we live in today, and where he would find his place in it as he got older.
He loved gadgets and I know he would have been the first in the family to get his hands on a smart phone or tablet and he would have driven us all crazy with the latest app and tricks. So its been 10 years without my dad to argue with, but what I missed the most is realising how much he kept the family together.

While we all became so close during his time in hospital, hours spent at his bedside, carpooling to visiting hours. That same closeness has faded as time went on. Without him our family unit has gently unraveled, us not realising how fragile it was without him holding it together. No one strong enough to make sure that his children and grandchildren are always connected, no matter how far away we are. And so at least I know now, that life isn't better off without him. Its so very different, our journey and experiences forever altered.

I sometimes wish he was here for his grandkids that he loved so much, and I would give anything for a quick catch up. But I know that he is always close by, keeping an eye on things and possibly giving a lot of unsolicited advice under his breath as our family General Foreman.

10 years has gone by so quickly. Miss you Dad…

links i liked

2016-09-02T16:30:00.000+02:00

A Bright Friendly Los Angeles House Tour

This Restored Landcruiser Will Take You Back to 1967

The Best Advice Your Mom Ever Gave You | What You Have is What you Value

The People Pleasers Guide to Pleasing People | The Worst

The Structure of Gratitude

Wine Popsicles are Officially a Thing | I'm on the fence

How To Interview a Potential Caregiver

The Custom Jalopies That Move Travellers Across Continents

How To Digitally Erase All Your Stuff When You Quit Your Job

Surfing into Adolescence | To Be Thirteen, With a Surfboard, In Hawaii

Sometimes the Best Diet Has Nothing To Do with What You Eat

7 Best Podcast Episodes

How To Set Your iPhones Brightness to Dimmer Than Dim

The Most Ridiculous Rainbow Balloon Backdrop Ever | Ev-er.

How Screens Turn Kids into Digital Junkies | It Affects Their Brains Like Digital Heroin

Coconut Yellow Split Pea Soup

Your Vacation will Feel Longer if You Don't Overplan It

A Great Idea For a Writing Class | Its All About The Editing

The Encyclopedia of Matt Damon | Lovely

Never (Ever) Say This Word to Guests in Your House | Ever!

West Africans Ditch Dutch Wax Prints for Chinese Real Fakes | So Sad - Greenmarket Square is full of them :(

The Three Ingredient Spanish Snack You Need Now | Pan Con Tomate

links i liked

2016-07-29T16:30:00.000+02:00

How To Make a Police Shooting Disappear | The Tamir Rice Story

Inside the World's Chicest Cult | What's Your Threshold for New Age Spirituality?

Rosemary Chicken, Bacon & Avocado Salad | Flavour Bomb Deluxe

The Real Reason You'll Never be Able to Parent Like a French Mom

Why Turtle Evolved Shells | It Wasn't For Protection

Devilled Egg Jello Shots | Love Love Love

The Best European Arthouse Films of the Year so far

12 Travel Maps Apps That Beat Google Maps Whether or Not You Have Wifi

Detox Slow Cooker Lentil Soup

Why Are Women Not Supposed to Hunger | For Anything. Any Thing.

Allergic to Life | The Arizona Residents 'Sensitive to the Whole World'

The Tragedy of Gandeel Baloch | The Pakistani Social Media Star Gave Voice to a Generation of Women

Stand at the Edge of Geologic Time | Okay VR Now We Geddit

My Venezuelan Nightmare | A Mother's Diary of Searching for Food in a Collapsing Country

Bigger Than The Weather | In 2015 3 South African Seamen Disappeared in the Southern Ocean. What Happened to Them?

Roasted Breakfast Potatoes | 8)

The Difficulties of Trying for a Second Child :)

The Unified Theory of Deliciousness | The Secret Code to Unleashing the Worlds' Most Amazing Flavours

The Magic that is Indigo Skate Camp - Valley of a Thousand Hills | Beautiful Video

links i liked

2016-07-15T16:30:00.000+02:00

Ditch the Diet to lose Weight | Why we Really Should Be Focused on the Microbiome Instead

Art by the Truck Load | Bringing Mobile Street Art to Spain's Delivery Vehicles

Turn a Blind Eye to First Impressions | Why Interviewing Candidates Blind Might be a Fairer Way to Pick

Zucchini Noodles with Mini Chicken Feta & Spinach Meatballs

A Manifesto Against 'Parenting' | Be a Noun not a Verb

Peaky Blinders | The Binge Watching Guide

The Mysteries of the Thyroid | And Why the Body Doesn't Just Attack Itself

5 Ingredient Creamy Kale Pasta | Yum

If You Can Do Something, Anything Then You Are Helping | Black Lives Matter

With iOS10 Your Phone is Basically Just a Lockscreen Now

A Very Simple Yet Perfect Explanation of Privilege

Learn to Crochet in 12 Days | Free Mollie Makes Course

Yes, You Can Be Pro-Black Lives Matter and Pro-Cop | Trevor Noah

Girl Talk | Transgender Voice Therapy & What it Means to Sound Like a Woman

The Suit That Couldn't Be Copied | Lovely

Pokémon Go Is a Government Surveillance Psy-op Conspiracy

Gratitude Printables

The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close

Why Every Baby You Know Chews on the Same Rubber Giraffe

Joyous Photos of Haiti's First Ever Surf Competition

An Ode to Alone Time | Yes

Synthol Freaks | I Know, Lets Inject Ourselves with Chemical Sludge!

Are You Paying Your Domestic Worker Enough | Wow

things that get us through a weekend in cape town

2016-07-05T08:10:00.001+02:00

a 120 year old stone cottage in glencairn :: dinner at dixies the local dive :: a roaring fire to warm the cockles :: saturday morning lie ins :: a gorgeous sunrise :: my blue eyed boy bundled up on the couch with a book :: muizenburg missions :: mimosa flavoured dough-sants :: strolling around bree street :: a gobsmackingly impressive lunch at the shortmarket club :: catch ups with my sister :: smouldering chestnuts ftw :: a quick drink at the village idiot :: as our waiter said, it's better than a hunters :: dozing off on the comfy couch of death :: brekkie in noordhoek :: lazy sunday drives around cape point :: roadside snacky pies from the food barn :: perfectly timed stop and go :: the valedictorian of car guards :: coconut (him) and coffee (me) ice cream :: kalk bay selfies :: sunday afternoon chill :: perfect pizza and wine to end it all