The reluctant tagger- Proudly SA- the last i promise (maybe)

"A Proudly South African meme inspired by EXMI

Rules:

Link back to the Meme creator - Caz

Link back to the person who tagged you - this girlie here.

Give at least 5 reasons why you love SA

Let me know once you've done it."

Our country is a troubled teenager. Its soul wrestles and sweats with the burly demons of crime, poverty and corruption. It thrashes with poor service delivery, reckless political mouthpieces, unemployment, class struggle and HIV/Aids.

But it still believes; this teenager harbours hope.

And I still believe, though on some days, it gets a bit hard to. But that is the nature of Faith.

And with that, I give you 5 reasons why I love South Africa:

1. Our freedom of expression/religion. I can be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Taoist, Bhuddist, Wiccan, whatever. I can wear the symbols of my faith freely and there is no obstacle to my practice.
   
2. We all go on about what a beautiful country this is, because, what do you know,  it really is a beautiful country. Click here for pictures the husband took over at Chapmans Peak, Cape Town. That's just one place.
   
3. Our internet access is not censored or restricted. (But we'd really like more bandwidth please)
   
4. We managed a fairly peaceful transition into democracy back in 1994, when the world thought we'd burn each other up. And that gives me real hope for our future.
   
5. We are a nation of creatives and achievers: in the arts, technosphere and on the sports field. 
   

Your turn.

"Be water, my friend" and current addictions

Ramadaan and fasting has me as placid and calm as an undisturbed forest pool,  and I am more inclined to do what is asked of me. 

Like Bruce Lee, my way is of water.

So while I don't usually respond to tags as a full blog post, I will do this for Fatima because not only am I roza-compliant, but she is almost-family and gave me a really awesome serving bowl as a wedding present.

My five current addictions are as follows:

1. Fennel. The seeds, the sprigs, ground up or whole. I will add it to any dish I can get away with.
   
2. Google reader. How could I have not latched on to this sooner!? Shame on me.
   
3. Twitter. I'm following some of South Africa's brightest people and some brilliant buitelanders.
   
4. Woolworths Taste Magazine
   
5. Making coffee popsicles. See here for directions. Add a bit of elachi (cardamom) for that lekker extra.
   

--note-- Killa's gone and tagged me as well. Even though I didn't get a discount on the jellies I bought from their shop, he's family too (the tentacles of the charo-connections* extend into the blogosphere)

I will not tag anyone specifically. If you care to play along, leave your list in the comments section.

*aka "haga kareh" in the guji vernac, "my granny's your grandpa's cousin", "my aunty's married to your brother-in-law's sister" and on and on until you discover you've gone and married someone whose forebearers worked in the same village rice keti as your great-great-grand-dada's.

5 things

As if to reiterate the incestuous cast/cast of the blogosphere posited here, I've being tagged by both dreamlife and Taz to list "5 things people don't know about you".

I've already quantified my weirdness.

But seriously, what don't you (you: the blog-hopper/the phantom commentateur/the one who googles hentai spaghetti) know about me? Are we (personal bloggers) not the over-revealers in this sphere that we'd otherwise avoid eye-contact with out there in the supra-http?
What more do you need to know?
Here I write my vices, the way my heart shatters and beats, the things I eat, the places I lose myself in, the people I can't digest, the dreams that are just that eyelash-breadth out of reach, mortal quirks that amuse and the consistencies of the polyfilla that holds me in.
I blog, ergo sum.

But despite this, I guess there'll always be 5 things more things you didn't know about me until now:

1. I can do cartwheels, and sometimes I spin down the office corridor on palms and feet when I work late.
2. I enjoy my vices.
3. I am as vain as I am insecure.
4. Once when I was around 9, I karaoked (sp?) to Jailhouse Rock in front of a crowd of strangers at the Rand Easter Show.
5. There are 7 things you'll never know about me. (because my mum reads this blog too)
   

I tag the fat kid who always gets picked last.