Branded Blog

Last weekend the barefoot man & I were in Joburg for a conference and insetad of my default car-hire, we used the Gautrain.  Twenty minutes including waiting time from ORT (Oliver Tambo International) to central Sandton in air-conditioned quiet with plush seats and almost sci-fi looking stations, and no hint of getting snarled up in Giloolly’s interchange or Grayston drive – what bliss!

We used the trains all weekend from Rosebank where we stayed up to Sandton, downtown to Park Station seeing the city I know so well from a new, pedestrian point of view. I do not know this city like this, it is a city of wheels and traffic lights and shopping nodes and underground parking lots to me. Not one of shadeless pavements, intimidatingly wide roads and  stupid un-sitable pseudo-benches in train stations . It’s funny how well I know the city, and how foreign it is to me all at the same time. I don’t know the walking, train-riding, taxi-catching Joburg, not many in my peer group do.

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Almost 4 years ago while training as a yoga teacher I came across the idea of  “sanskara”.  Sanskara has varying definitions, but in general they agree on the idea of there being repetitive pathways or patterns in our lives that are embedded in our minds. They are said to be the impressions from past experiences – and, if you’re so inclined, past lives –  that are left on our subconscious minds and which form the fears, desires and habits that influence our future behaviours and responses.

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I have a confession: I have become an absolute, flag-flying, plan-my-schedule-around-a-TV-show fan of MasterChef. I adore it. It is fascinating, watching the brave contestants breathe deeply and put a plate in front of those three daunting judges, and then try not to cringe as they comment no-holds-barred.

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In about February this year I started to run. Not very far, and really not very fast, but I was doing my best Forrest impersonation and that was fairly impressive for me really.

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When I was 2 years old, my dad went to war.

It’s the kind of thing that you think of in movie terms really, despite the fact that about  over 35 active conflicts or warzones in the world at any one time these days.

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