Schizophrenic

Links for the day:

"When people here are confronted with any task, the stock phrase is, 'Make a plan,' and invariably people do."

The Guardian's Joburg correspondent tells us why he doesn't love SA, despite recognising how all-round fabulous it is. Perhaps perversely, this story rouses my (steadily mounting) homesickness in full force, while also rousing the heartsickness that comes from acknowledging how deeply screwed up the place is.

It's still an amazing place, though. And bless Rory Carroll for his honesty. It is wonderful - definitely perversely so - to have a foreigner engage with SA's contradictions and challenges in exactly the same way as many of us do. Okay, so he doesn't quite love it. It's not his home. But at least he can see what there is to love - as well as why many white (liberal) South Africans don't behave the way liberal outsiders think we should.

And we will make a plan. And it will all come together in the end. But the end is still a long, long way away. I hope to be there again one day, to be part of that plan coming together.

So much for words. Look at some pictures. Pretty! Totally not political!

And finally for something completely frivolous: let me share with you the tri-partite Scroobious Rule of Shopping.

a) Don't look at the price. Seriously.
b) If you don't love it, don't buy it.
c) Conversely, if you really do love it, take it home.

Properly executed, this strategy will be good for both your wardrobe and your budget. I mean that. You will never again fall into the trap of buying something you don't ever wear because it was "good value". But "properly executed" means, of course, that a degree of discretion must be applied in two key areas: Exposure and Application. The first dictates that the shopper Must Not go into shops that she can't afford (or must not go into any shops at all if the budget is under particular strain). Not that hard for me, I hate shopping. The second applies to what the "it" may be, viz: don't go buying ballgowns if you're a Chinese takeaway kinda girl; don't shop for stilettos when what you really need is trainers.

Why am I sharing this with you at this juncture? Well, for the good of humanity, of course. But also, in my great humility, to invite you to laugh at me and the little flaw in my Brilliant Strategem.

It's the Exposure angle.

Monsoon has gone and opened a store on Waterloo station. Double negative result: I can overspend and miss my train at the same time.

To compound the problem, they don't have a fitting room.

Don't make me take them back.

(in my defence there were oh so many dresses I loved but DIDN'T buy and they're not actually both red the one on the left is black and a girl can never have enough dresses and dammit they're pretty)