The Madd House

After having decided to treat myself with a post-payday-Friday indulgence I attended one of the coffee shops in Sandton City.  My experience was nasty and this is the letter I've just written to the head office.  If I don't receive an appropriate response I shall be blazoning their name all over social media. " I had a very unpleasant experience at your Sandton City branch this morning and thought I should bring it to your attention in order to hopefully prevent other customers from experiencing similar situations. Upon arriving at the counter there were four staff in attendance.  The one lady, the cashier, looked at me and then walked away and started talking to the other lady.  After a while she walked back but seemed to be very involved with the cash till.  Eventually she looked straight past me and asked me how I was.  I am still waiting for a smile or an appropriate “good morning”. I placed my order: a cappuccino and a muffin.  I had to ask twice what type of

Well, this isn’t necessarily something that I would blog about but it feels like a story that should be told, so tell it I will.   I woke to the sound of hammering.   Persistent and LOUD hammering.   Instantly awake with my heart pounding in my chest I peered at the clock radio: four minutes to midnight.   WTF?!?   I lay still for a second trying to determine the actual location (a moot effort as most of you know that I am “rigting befok” because of my hearing problem) and the source of the hammering.   Having no luck I decided that I had better investigate in case someone was trying to break in.   Creeping silently from my bed and barely moving the curtain I surveyed the garden.   Nothing was moving although quite a few dogs in the nearby vicinity were barking.   The hammering stopped.   The silence hit my ears with a pop and I strained to hear anything through the hiss left behind.   Hearing nothing but my elevated heartbeat I crept out of the bedroom.   I coul

"In a world full of Kardashians, be a Sarah Connor."  This is a meme currently doing the rounds on social media and it actually got my hackles up.  Let's unpack this: The Kardashians are a family of folk who barely seem real.  For some or another reason their contrived antics appear to be hugely popular.  I could not, in all honesty, aspire to be anything like they are in their superficiality and nor would I encourage any young girls I know to aspire to this apparent fickleness. Let's head in the opposite direction: Sarah Conner - a fictional character created for the Terminator Series.  Designed with the typical Barbie-goes-badass look she is rough and tough.  A no-nonsense woman who is mildly sadistic, extremely violent and loses touch with her humanity on more than one occasion (as an aside, I read an article some time ago where it was said that the writers based aspects of her character on folk such as Joseph Stalin).  Either way, she is still my first choice

Autumn is, by far, my favourite season.   The skies become a crisp blue and it’s distinctly chilly in the mornings and evenings.   The dew on the grass reminds you to enjoy your last few weeks of wearing sandals.   I always feel a sense of anticipation as though something exciting is about to happen.   For almost all of my life it has been my own personal “New Year”.   My time for introspection and for weeding out my mind.   Some of my biggest life decisions have been made during Autumn.   Sometimes it creeps up without any warning, but not this year.   This year it waited for a Sunday evening and then appeared with pangs reminiscent of childbirth.   It started with a vague sinus headache, heralding the change of season, which slowly developed into a debilitating cramp on the left of my head and down the left side of my face.   Then panic set in.   I had arrived at nearly the end of Sunday and still had too much that had to be accomplished before the new work/school wee