He was not very big as spiders go, probably about five centimetres from the tip of one leg to the tip of the one opposite. (I almost wrote from, “wingtip to wingtip.”) He was also very low-slung. His belly seemed to scrape on floor or wall as he scuttled along.
On one day recently, Oom Wessel (not me) had a spade stolen that he had left outside, Bennie who farms with a modest variety of livestock lost one hundred chickens, a visitor from a civilised place called Johannesburg lost her car in a hi-jacking, a young man from the Pieterse
We were naturally outraged by someone defecating on our stoep. To be clear about this, we realised from the beginning that the responsible individual could not be much more than a foot tall. The size of the droppings told us so. Nevertheless, we felt this was very impolite. We first
I have heard it said that God placed dogs on earth to teach humanity about unconditional love. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of that statement, but if you know dogs it seems quite possible. However, dispensing unconditional love is not the only fine quality they possess. Another was demonstrated
The girl was very little, just five years old. Her grandfather, to whom she turned for information on every possible subject, was very old. Terribly old, she thought. He was probably the oldest man in the world. In fact, he was sixty years old. He had lived twelve times as
The start of the hostilities can be traced back to an absence of shade on our terrace. Miriam was determined that we should have shade and that it should be of the natural sort, provided by the leaves and branches of a tree. Accordingly, she set about acquiring a leopard
We live in the country, away from the city and the relatively sophisticated entertainments it provides. Now and then country life is enlivened by a touring entertainer. Usually the singers perform Afrikaans country songs that sound like an imitation of American country and western songs. Let it be said up
Oom Jakkals does not resemble a jackal in any respect. How he got his nickname no one knows. He is not alert as jackals are, or light on his feet as they are, or as well adapted to his environment as every jackal is. His environment happens to be a
The parking outside Pretoria North’s car licence department is always filled with men who seek to assist you in any dealings you have with the local bureaucracy. Car licences, registration of vehicles, driver’s licences for various size vehicles, road worthy certificates and anything else you may need from that office,
We are all hearing a lot of service delivery complaints lately. There are complaints about our electricity supply, Johannesburg’s water supply, potholes in the roads of various cities, education failures and many others, many of them real, some imaginary. But there is one failure that no one complains about, at