ABOUT

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‘Our Family plus a friend’s son, at Ironman SA, 2015: Front row left: Chiara, Joe & Davide’

I wasn’t always a city child. I grew up, largely barefoot, in Keurboomstrand. Back then, no-one knew where Keurbooms was (except about 35 holiday makers from Pretoria). I guess in today’s world of Kumon, OT and stroke correction swimming lessons, you could say I was home-schooled until Grade 1. My mom worked from home and somehow found time for stories and dress up. The beach was our backyard…But at heart, I am a city girl.

After Rotary Exchange in Belgium, four years at UCT and a stint in London and Rome, I followed my university sweetheart (now husband) to Johannesburg in 2003. This is where my mom grew up and lived in the forties, fifties and sixties and I somehow feel at home in the concrete jungle that is modern-day Jozi.

I started blogging about my surreal experiences as a “lady of leisure” in Sandton, in 2009. I now blog about parenting, being married to a Mamil, travel, being a tourist in Joburg, exercise and weight-loss and whatever else strikes me as ironic or interesting.

Here’s what I like: romance languages, history and heritage, décor and design, tennis, the Daily Maverick, rooftop restaurants, Michael Lewis. My favourite children’s book is “Eloise”, about a little girl who lives in the Plaza Hotel in New York.

Chiara is nearly six and Joe will be four later in the year. I do worry about being a role-model to my daughter, especially, as a stay-at-home mom. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I am still in denial. But I do dream of one day re-entering the workplace and once more becoming an active participant in the economy – not just as a shopper. But first things first, and, for now, Economics II is calling.

Natalie

Xxx

 

10 comments

  1. greetings Natalie!
    i'm still working in Sandton and would love to have coffee some time 🙂 lost your number when my phone was affirmatively appropriated. cool that you're writing a blog. just got to check out the kiddie flight entry as my eyes are very heavy 🙂 time for bed…

  2. Nats…perhaps I'm bored, perhaps I'm not, but was very curious when Sylvia mentioned your blog. Here I am, so captivated by your writing, perhaps relating as a lady of leisure. It's so beautifully and thoughtfully written. Very real, love it! Cand's

  3. Love it!  What a way to put it.  I think I'm going to steal this idea and explain that I'm somewhere in between mommying, blogging, starting a business and studying because people keep asking and it's mission to explain it all!  But motherhood does kind of take up your every waking moment for a while…

  4. Wow, Leisl! You have alot on your plate. I can sort of relate to mommying to one child, blogging and starting a very small business, but studying as well? That is just insane. Respect!

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