Long long time ago – I can still remember...



What an experience:  going out on a catamaran near
Cape Town harbour for a sunset cruise



So the song starts.  When you look back on all your holidays, what is it that you remember the most?  You certainly have different memories than someone whom have been on the same holiday.  It might be that great gelato near a sunny piazza; or the favourite family spot on the beach; or the long but fun 15 hours drive in a direction you have never been before.  My next question is then:  What made it memorable?  I can with certainty say that there is only one correct answer:  The Experience.

My wish for you this coming season is that whatever you do or wherever you go is that you enjoy all the different moments, laugh a lot and above all savour the Experience!

A few of my favourite things...

A definite "Eish!" moment

Asking people what they like about South Africa, you get a variety of answers.  The answers range from weather, the friendly people, nature and going past to the Big 5.

Mine is - apart from rugby, biltong, braai, Mrs. Balls (our favourite chutney!), bobotie, sunshine, and African thunderstorms - our Africanisms.  Now you may ask "Africanisms?".  Every place and region in the world have their own slang words.  The same goes for South Africa.  Here are a few of my favourite ones: 

• abba - Carry a child secured to one's back with a blanket. From the Khoi-San
• eish! - used to express surprise, wonder, frustration or anger
• fundi - expert (from Nguni  'umfundisi' meaning teacher or preacher) - used in mainstream South African English
• mamparra - stupid, silly
• gogo - grandmother, elderly woman (from Zulu, ugogo)
• haw! - expression of disbelief (pronounced ‘how’)
• hhayibo! - wow! (from Zulu, 'definitely not'; pronounced 'how-bahw')
• shongololo (also spelt shongalolo) - millipede (from Zulu and Xhosa, ukushonga, 'to roll up')
• spaza - an informal trading-post/convenience store found in townships and remote areas
• toyi-toyi - protest-dancing; used in mainstream South African English
• tsotsi - gangster, layabout, no gooder
• ubuntu - compassion or kindness, humanity
• yebo - Zulu meaning yes
• wena - Zulu meaning "you". (Pronounced ‘when-ah’) Commonly used in a sentence "Haw wena!"
• chop – idiot
• doff - stupid. "Are you doff?"
• just now - sometime in the near future, not necessarily immediately. Expresses an intention to act soon, but not necessarily immediately. (as in 20–90 minutes time)
• now now - an immediate but not literal declaration of impending action, may be past or future tense. From the Afrikaans expression "nou nou". (as in 5–60 minutes)
• lift - elevator
• zaamie - a sandwich
• buck - the main unit of currency of South Africa the Rand
• china - friend, mate (from Cockney rhyming slang china [plate] = "mate"), alternatively, as above coming from the Bantu word umshana
• chow - to eat
• shebeen - illegal drinking-establishment (from Irish sibín), synonymous with speakeasy. In South Africa it refers in particular to unlicensed bars in the townships, and has become a mainstream word. During the apartheid era laws prohibited non-whites from consuming any alcohol except traditional sorghum beer, and taverns selling 'hard-tack' became the centre of social activity.
• lekker - "nice" [from Afrikaans]. As in "This is a lekker bunny chow to chow my china!"
• lappie(pronounced “luppee”)- "cloth", "dish towel" "face cloth"
• bunny chow - type of food, made with a loaf of bread filled with a curry stew.
• bakgat - cool; expression of appreciation for something very well accomplished
• slap tjips - (pronounced as "slup chips") French fries, usually soft, oily and soaked in vinegar, usually bought in a brown paper bag. Slap is Afrikaans for "limp".
• sosatie - a kebab on a stick, used as mainstream word in South African English
• vellies - veldskoene, traditional Afrikaans outdoors shoes made from hide
• aitsa - is usually used when exclaiming agreement like you would when saying "sweet!", "nice!", "lekker!", and "got it!" .
• gogga - bug (from Khoe xo-xo, creeping things, here the g is pronounced like ch in Scottish loch)

Want to find your own favourite favourites?  Go visit http://www.southafrica.info/travel/advice/saenglish.htm

Driving in South Africa

 This is one of my very favourite subjects.  As a tourist guide and road user I find that I commonly speak to fellow drivers on the road - although they clearly can't hear what I'm saying. 

One of the 'conversations' I have is why there is the need to be there first - no matter where you are going to and where 'there' is.  So I normally shake my head when a driver past me just to squeeze infront of my vehicle to be stuck behind the truck I was stuck behind too.  "How could you not see that the truck was the reason for my patient driving?  The fact that the wheels are picking up pebbles like shrapnel seem not to bother you.  And you only past me.  Now you also realise that the truck is 22 meters long and that the traffic from the opposite direction comes in drips and drabs."

Another 'conversation' is why a taxi driver seem not to know the difference between hazard lights and normal indicators.  "Why, for the life of me, do you use the hazards?  Is there an emergency on board?  Are you turning left or right? Oh, there you...  Just picking up somebody!"  I do hope that somebody in some taxi association will someday come up with the bright idea that first you use your indicators and once you are almost stopping you put the hazards on.  Then we will love your driving just a little bit more.  We already appreciate the fact that as a taxi driver you perform a public service and have to be 'there' first.

For now, the last 'conversation' is "Why are you overtaking that or my vehicle when you clearly can't see if there is any traffic coming your way?!  Yikes!  That can't be good.. oh no! Eish! Playing chicken in broad daylight isn't fun!"

So?  The next time you are driving and you see some 'crazy' person shaking her head and talking animatedly to you, it might be me...

Save driving!

Starting something new

Good day fellow travellers, tourist, bloggers and subscribers,

My is, am and are's might not always be in the right places but my love of touring and passion for guiding will certainly make up for it.

Starting something new is always exciting and at first seems very easy.  Then the realisation sets in that you might have signed up for something way above your abilities and you start to doubt yourself - which by the way is quite normal! I always try to remember the following three things:

1.  When you feel like giving up, just keep on going:  You are just one step away from success;

2.  The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary;  and

3.  How do you eat an elephant?  Bite for bite.

This brings me to my next thought:  Starting something new is wonderful but how do you go on from there?  The answer is:  I am still finding out.  Trying everything along the way and keeping the best parts of it.  Most days seems like an uphill battle.  As that great inspirational song says:  "It's the climb!"


Hartbeespoort Dam Wall from the waterside.  This photo was taken on Thursday, 8 September 2011, while out on a Hartbeespoort Day Tour with a wonderful Saudi Arabian family. 

 I have started my company, DOT Leisure Travel & Tours, in January 2011.  The dotty part of the name comes from the fact that little dorpe (towns) or big cities is always a dot on a map.  As a tour operator and a national tourist guide, I love taking you to that dot on the map for you to experience the true beauty of South Africa and its people.

So?  From starting something new to going forward:

It's life!  Go for it!  There is no rewind button to it!