The main game in my early years was soccer. Like cricket, it was a pastime that I learned on the tarred soccer field outside 44 Dale...

Round-the-Cape-Peninsula Drive There are so many ways to do this.  Any weather will do. 2] Highway 1 drive towards the Mother City. This...

My last blog before the festives was on boerewors.  This one will deal with a potential for dessert or a treat when a sweet is needed. I...

Round-the-Cape-Peninsula Drive It’s a must-do drive for visitors and locals.  For the energetic, it’s a must do cycle ride.  I biked it...

This is the quintessential component of a good South African braai – barbeque just does not cut it.  This wors is worth a few words on...

Part 2. Some days, I preferred to take the train for the second leg of my commute.  Peak-hour trains were as crowded as the buses....

Okay.  Enough of the blokey stuff.  Who played charms?  No, not who played with charms.  We’re talking serious competitive stuff here. I...

Here’s another of those ancient games from pre-Christian days.  It was certainly popular in Rome. It really took off in the early 20th...

All countries love to braai – OK, to barbeque, with deference to those from elsewhere. All nationals think they do it best.  You live in...

Part 1. The Black South African of the 1960‘s and later was an amalgam of people classified as Indian, Coloured, and Bantu.  A “ few days...

Buqa buqa.  Adapted from a 16th century painting. Many of the street games had Afrikaans names.  In many areas, we mixed the languages. ...

I love reading tattoos and often wonder about many of their origins.  Did they marry the person whose name they branded on theselves?...

My apologies for the previous long post, but the curry recipe needed it if I was to do it justice. Equally important is the rice.  A good...

I cycled my way up to UCT past the fence around the rugby grounds on which I could not play for my alma mater.  Other legal barriers...

THE GAMES WE PLAYED. 5. Kap-kap. Spinning top [4min read] <– Thanx Pat! Most of the kids in our street preferred the red and blue banded...

So where were these beautiful ladies sixty years ago? The streets were the domain of the boys.  An occasional tomboy joined in and took...

South African schools were hives of antistate activity. It was no coincidence that a student-driven revolution finally brought down the...

3 Blikkies / tins Many popular street games were cheap.  Often they had to be; money was tight in the townships. Kennetjie was free...

This one recipe is useful for  500g of meat/chicken/fish/crayfish [yes, it has a strong flavour and goes well with curry], minced meat,...

Apartheid Museum, Gauteng, South Africa–> Crime and violence were always endemic in South Africa.  Poverty, ill health, crime, and...

There’s no translation that I know of for this game.   It was the ultimate street game so it takes pride of place as the first game...

We ate ust about anything that one would expect from people with such diverse Global backgrounds.  We were definitely not a family for...

<– Photo of the plaque at the Hecter Petersen Memorial in Soweto. [taken 2016] Wednesday 16th June, 1976, is seared in the memories of...

I played most of my games in Dale Street, Lansdowne where I spent my formative years before a Group Areas rezoning of our suburb.  When...