Time for a break!

I'm taking a few days off this week to catch up with admin work before I fly back to Prague for New Year.. really looking forward to that trip actually.. it's been a while since I visited and it will be nice to catch up with friends and family there. Mmm.. the thought of having carp for Christmas won't appeal as much to you no doubt but if you're Czech, it's heaven!

A few interesting developments came up over the last week. I saw a couple of my friend Pratish's cartoons on the Mail & Guardian thought leader website - e.g. see Michael Trapido's article on the controversial Zapiro cartoons and free speech - they're excellent. I have spoken to him about making some cartoons for my coverage of the SA 2009 elections .. I think that'll be amazing. Also check out his cartoon blog called Wonkie to get a feel of some of the caricature and satiristic humour.

Tragedy strikes when you least expect it

Sorry for disappearing for the last 10 days .. have been spending some time with a dear friend from Zimbabwe who lost her brother in some of the recent violence in Zimbabwe. Things have deteriorated to an unbelievable level and it's had to believe the international community, particularly South Africa is just sitting around and not contributing to the solution there.

Anyway, not much in the mood for updating this now although I have taken quite a few photos over the last week.. some pretty amazing ones at that. I'll post them soon.. just too down and out at the moment to upload and resize for the blog.. soon

Visitors and more visitors!

Had a guest over this weekend from London - it was great catching up after so many years. It's amazing that with some people you don't keep in touch for ages and then when you meet them again it feels like you've never been out of contact at all. I guess that's a sign of enduring friendships.

On the whole the week was quite a traumatic one.. one of my very dear friends, Joseph is a journalist and was based in Mumbai to cover some of the upcoming 20-20 cricket events. Fortunately, he wasn't caught up in all the chaos in India with the terrorist attack.. it's quite scary to think about being there. I remember speaking to Pratish, another close friend who was living in London at the time of terrorist attacks on the tube there. It was awful.. he was much closer to the blast and pure luck and what turned out to be bad (or is it good!) timing prevented him from being at his regular metro stop that day.

It's sad that the world has come to this. I do hope the catch many more of this group and do whatever it takes to neutralise them. Sorry, I don't believe in Gandhi's turn the cheek approach when it comes to this sort of thing.

A photo - finally!

It's been a great week so far.. lots of action on the work front and ahead of schedule for once.. nice feeling (too bad it doesn't happen very often though!) I'm still waiting to develop some of my photos from the weekend escapade at the play.. shall post them on as soon as I get a chance.

In the meantime.. I would be curious to see any thoughts on this photo. Firstly it would be great if someone could guess what it is!



I'll give you a clue - it's not a fireworks display.. think closer to home.

Monday.. and I'm not blue!

Actually I'm feeling really well today. I had a relaxing Sunday - went out with a colleague to see his daughter's play (she's 4) .. not something I'd normally do but I was feeling quite chilled out so just went with the flow. The play was titled The Grasshopper and the Ants (my friend's daughter was a cute little ant all dressed in black with adorable red antennae). I guess the play inspired me to get my act together and do some work!

I had quite a productive morning - completed one article that will be published next weekend in the UK.. that ought to pay the rent for a couple of weeks lol :) The article is basically a foreigner's commentary on South African politics and the run up to the election next year. Pratish - you're going to have to give me license to use that Julius Malema background cartoon of yours at some point - it's great!

Basically I do agree with the analysis on the cartoon blog - Malema has been at the firing end of the media guns for a while now. While he has been victimised to a certain extent it would serve people well to remember that a lot of his rhetoric is not targeted at the media - his real audience - the poor, young and uneducated - relate well to him and probably get all worked up and energised by his speeches. It's funny to see how the ANC is trying to reign him in now - articles in just about every paper about this today!

Saturday afternoon

So I'm actually half enjoying this even though I'm not writing very much each day. Well - it is supposed to be a photo blog! Have taken some amazing photos over the last day .. have left my USB cable in the car though and too lazy to head out of of the house to fetch it.. lol, nice to take photos - uploading them editing and writing blog posts around them is a lot more painful (OK OK I'm lazy.. enough already!)

Getting ready for dinner.. more tomorrow!

Friday, Friday!

It's Friday at last - not sure what I'm happy about considering this whole week has been like a weekend for me.. it's been great! Yesterday I just decided to take a complete break and not feel guilty about it - it was great! Think I needed the holiday actually.. am raring to go - off to take some photos this weekend .. will definitely post them on the site as promised when I started this venture earlier this week!

Pratish - liked the Obama Kenya cartoon on Wonkie... lol - not sure they'll fancy the paternity testing joke there though :)

R & S - see ya tmrow evening for dinner.. shall bring the shots from my last trip to Argentina for you.. Please sms and let me know if Nikita is coming too so I can bring her baby stuff! Have fun and catch up soon!

Help!

Why can't I just get going with my writing - it's been a couple of days now and I've been quite happy catching up with research and not doing anything I've been supposed to be doing! I'm not feeling lazy at all - I want to do stuff but I just can't seem to get the kickstart I need... the difference between writing for work and writing for pleasure I guess.

Am attaching a photo of a Jamaican sunset - dreaming of the Caribbean again today!



Anyway, I'm writing the rest of the day off - perhaps I need a break.

Just can't start working!

It's been a rather long and lazy day - spent most of it reading up on the history of the ANC and other South African political parties. I think the run-up to the South African elections is going to be quite an interesting one - probably not quite as entertaining as the US elections this year. It will certainly be a lot more physical and animated though!

I miss sitting around at Radost in Prague.. think I may well go back there for Christmas.. am babbling.. will write more tomorrow.

Back to work

Back to work today (yes, freelancers do have work times too!) Spent a great day yesterday catching up with my friend from India. It always amazes me how calm I feel after I talk to him.

I'm writing an opinion piece on the SA 2009 elections for a paper in Europe at the moment and came across some really interesting articles over the weekend papers. One in particular in the Sunday Times by Paddy Harper was great - it was titled "A promise for every voter".

I loved the twist in Sizwe's Zuma cartoon on his cartoon blog - it always intrigues me how the general public fall for politician promises so easily and so consistently.

I know I promised to post some of my photos on the site (yes Ray the nagging will eventually work!!) - will get them up by the end of the week - promise!

Lazy Sunday

Not much going on today thankfully - just out and about all day with a guest from India. Looking forward to taking a break and catching up with an old friend. Heading off to Brightwater commons and then to Montecasino for a while - gamble a little (there are no casinos - well legal ones at least - in India so the novelty will be there for my friend!), perhaps watch a movie.

Still trying to figure out how to make image and video posts here - will start taking some photos today for my photo blog element :)

Thanks!

Forgot my list of thank you's to finally get this blog going - a special thanks to my colleagues Ray and Susan... mwahhh! I'm sure you're going to continue pestering me to keep this up to date as well! And Pratish what can I say.. love your cartoon blog.. can't wait to see some Czech cartoons there soon! Lol

I'll post some of the photos of my recent trip to Lesotho and Botswana next week if I can figure out how to upload things to blogger!

My first day

So I've finally gotten off my cute behind and decided to start writing a blog - hopefully this will last for more than just a few days - I am determined to stick at it though! So a little about me - my name is Olga and I'm originally from Brno in the Czech Republic.. have been living in Africa now for the last 12 years and loving it.

There have been many interesting experiences here over the last decade and I hope to share some of these with you and my thoughts on current residence in South Africa. Workwise for those who don't know me I write under a pseudonym for a variety of international papers - largely on subjects of current affairs and topical local news.

Enough for today - at least it's a start to this process.. chat again soon!