Columns written during my time at IOL, and some written in the years since I left.
An interview with Jack Seddon, bottler of honey and breaker of business models. What if we all went for total honesty in business?
When you buy something in a supermarket, how much do you know about it really? Say it’s a bottle of honey – where did the honey come from, where was it bottled, how did it get to that shelf?
Continue readingTraining is big business. From online courses to workplace workshops, skills development is a Big Thing. But why does it cost so much?
The price of training comes down to time.
Continue reading2023 is the year I get a tattoo.
I’ve waited a long time to get one, for good reason. When I was growing up, even piercing your ears was a huge step. I had to wait until I was 18 and had earned some money of my own before I could pay someone to apply a stud gun to my ears. Continue reading
In South Africa, electricity comes and goes: we call it load shedding.
That’s because Eskom, the state-owned power utility, is unable to generate enough electricity to meet demand, and so it “sheds” power over the course of a day, meaning scheduled power cuts for everyone in the country.
The economic impact is enormous, the personal irritation levels are high. All anyone can talk about is the (insert swearword here) load shedding, and ways to mitigate its effects on their lives.
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It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child.*
In the case of my own son, it takes a playgroup.
I had Jack when I was a career-oriented, control-freaky 40 year old. I knew I was a prime candidate for post-natal depression and knew that I was going to have to look for and take all the support I could get.
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I do love a recipe book.
I know of course that the Internet has a recipe for every single dish ever made by a human being anywhere. And I hunt for the perfect way to roast peppers, just like everyone else.
But I can’t be the only person who starts to feel a little frazzled on reading the 20th set of instructions telling me how to make pork crackling.
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People know that I get up early, but they are always a little surprised by how early.
I start a part-time online news shift at 6am, and stagger out of bed at 4.50am.
Most people, when they hear that, wonder what I can be doing that takes so long – the general response is that quarter to six would seem more than adequate (as in clean your teeth, make coffee and sit down in your pyjamas).
Well yes – but I do need a shower to wake up properly, and to feel as though I am a professional preparing for a day of work (no lockdown PJs for me).
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