LISTEN FIRST A slightly more subtle one, which i have found myself guilty of, is composing an answer or response while the person is speaking [to give once they are finished] instead of giving them your full attention. While this is not [to me] as bad as responding before someone has finished, this also shows a less than complete interest in what the person you are talking to is saying to you. It also suggests [...]
This is a tough one for me. i feel like i can probably get over whatever other friend-losing behaviours i share after this one, but this one just feels so incredible rude, that i would struggle. Immediate downgrade to acquaintance or person-i-walk-away-from-quickly-when-i-see-you-heading-my-way feels fair. Does that seem too harsh? Maybe you've never known someone who does it. i am thinking of one person in particular. Really nice person. Quality. And so a number of years [...]
If you have a good friend you're trying to get rid of... oh wait, that only happens in the movies, right? Well how about a friend you want to keep or make? From time to time i hear people complaining that they don't have any close friends as if the Close Friend Fairy has passed them by [Did you put your old friends under your pillow?] As cheesesome as it may seem, i believe it's [...]
I was thirty-five when I tied the proverbial knot and so had attended many marriages and yet this one continues to stand head and shoulders above the rest. Not simply because it was my marriage, which no doubt adds its own weight of bias, but I imagine regardless of whose ceremony I was attending that day, I would have still been blown away. Purple-haired, black suited, I waited nervously for my bride to arrive. Upon [...]
i have a good friend called Megan Furniss and we like to make things up. a lot! Megan was responsible for pretty much bringing Improv to Cape Town in the form of TheatreSports [now Improguise: Players of TheatreSports] which quickly became Cape Town's longest running and much loved show. And best kept secret, it seems at some times, although at the moment we are doing some highly experimental and completely fun shows [different formats every [...]
10 things vegetarians are sick of hearing / your vegetarian friends want you to know I became a vegetarian on my ninth birthday. This usually elicits shock and the assumption that I am vegetarian because of my family / culture / religious beliefs. But, no – I was just a child who was interested in where my food came from and when I knew the facts eating meat (read meat, fish, poultry) didn’t make sense [...]
My Facebook friend S'thabiso gives this topic a little bit of a different spin as she addresses: 5 questions you ask guaranteed to break the peace with any 'black' vegetarian If you have prior to reading this asked any of the below please kindly proceed to the nearest tree and hug it tightly and ask Zeus to advocate on your behalf for mother nature to forgive you - repeat this three times whiles doing a [...]
Imagine waking up one morning and going online and seeing a semi-naked-sprawled-out-on-the-bed-alongside-your-Improv-friend picture of yourself circling the internet... Cause for panic, right? You'd think so, unless the picture was this one: Which i woke up to a week or so ago and was like 'Holy Crapamole, what's my wife going to think?' Fortunately tbV was awake and laughing at it in the other room and so we just jumped on the banned wagon and helped spread [...]
Another guest on Friday was our mate Portal Pete who has moved with his wife, Sarah, into Manenberg and is running a drug rehabilitation program among other things, and he had these words to say: Great food etc. It didn’t feel awkward to me. It felt OK. Living and working in what some call missional community in Manenberg, I feel and cause offence on a fairly regular basis. We’re learning that offence most often leads [...]
My lovely wife Val was of course the hostess for Friday's dinner and deep dive into Race, Boundary and Location conversation that i wrote about over here, and she shares some of her thoughts from the evening: The idea is simple: gather good people around good food and good discussion and see what happens. So we did. We turned off technology and tuned in to people. It was messy and it was chaotic, it was painful and it [...]