After my brother’s recent moaning about my poor choice of photos of us I am hoping he’s going to like this one since its from one of his two London-based birthday parties. This was the first one where he made us all spend a night in Oceana in Kingston… but that wasn’t as chavvy as the second one where we all had to go to the greyhound racing. Anyway… it doesn’t matter where we go, I always have a great time with my bro. In this picture I am 26 and Pete is 23.
Tag Archives: throwback Thursday
Throwback Thursday #36: To Newquay we go
This photo of me and my friend, Lucy, en route to Newquay where a bunch of us spent five days five years ago. The caption is pretty apt because no matter how much time Lucy and I spend apart whenever we do get together something weird happens. After about 10 minutes we start to speak in our own odd little language. I don’t know why but we bring out the absolute weird in each other. We spent most of our time in Newquay shouting “nippleball” and “soup in a tube” at each other. It was wonderful.
It’s also a time when I had really long hair and this is the texture my hair is in in its natural state. I’m trying to grow it out now but time will tell if I have the energy to deal with all its wildness at this length again.
I am 28 and I think Lucy is 19 or 20.
Throwback Thursday #36: The big picnic
This photo is from the first ever album I uploaded to Facebook in 2007. It was taken at a massive picnic a bunch of us had in Wimbledon Park on a particularly sunny day in June. At that time my brother was living in London so we got to spend loads of time together. Maybe he will hate this pic less than last week’s, which caused a bit of a social media storm. I am 26 and he is 23.
Throwback Thursday #35: It’s a dog’s life
This is me and my brother and our puppy, Biffi in our front yard in the house we grew up in Johannesburg. It’s not surprising that I have a book since all I really did for most of my childhood was read. Unfortunately Biffi died at 14 in 2005 and we really miss him. He had an enormous amount of personality for such a small dog. In this picture I am 10, Pete is 7 and Biffi is 7 months old.
Throwback Thursday #34: Grade 1
Throwback Thursday #33: It starts with a D
Throwback Thursday #31: Granny Peg
In my family it’s often said that I look like my father’s mother, Granny Peg (short for Peggy, short for Margaret). Unfortunately you can’t see much of her face in this picture but there is definitely a strong resemblance down to the little bump on the left of my nose and a tendency to bustiness. Of course I am 5’7 and Granny Peg was 4’10! Unfortunately she passed away in 2001 after quite an exciting and glamorous life having left an indelible mark on our family.
I am about 4, my brother, Pete is probably 9 or 10 months and Granny Peg would be 66.
Throwback Thursday #30: Early dates
Throwback Thursday #29: High school glamour… NOT
This picture is from my first formal high school dance. Every year the Parents’ Association of my school hosted the dance and from standard 8 (or year 10), you were allowed to buy a ticket. As it was an all girl’s school and I was a giant dork it wasn’t all that easy to find a date… but I had sort of been talking to a boy from a neighbouring school so I invited him. About 3 days before the dance he decided he didn’t fancy it and my friend, Lauren’s poor brother, Al (who also happens to be the often mentioned Bronwyn’s cousin) was roped into coming with me at the last minute. 18 years later I am still grateful to him for his gallantry.
I am ashamed to admit that I behaved appallingly at the dance and copped off with Bronwyn’s date. Bad, bad, bad Abbi. It served me right though because he turned out to be insane.
Anyway, fortunately Bronwyn being the incredible human being she is forgave me and our lifelong friendship didn’t sustain any permanent damage.
The less we say about my hideous dress, bizarre tan or gigantic spectacles the better.
I am 15. Al is 16 or 17.
Throwback Thursday #28: Mother’s Day
Throwback Thursday #27: Early London Days
This picture was taken in the second flat that I ever lived in in London with my wonderful friend, Dawn. We lived there for a year about nine months after we arrived. It was quite big but it had some serious issues. The carpets in the lounge were red, the sofas were pink, grey and blue velour, the landlord was insane and it was in a part of Southfield so dodgy that we were unable to get pizza delivered. However, we did have rather a lot of fun living there. We are pictured here with our friend, Lauren, who briefly lived in London and often camped out with us. We are all twenty-four.
Throwback Thursday #26: My first Easter
This week’s pic seems very apt since according to my mum’s note on the back it’s of my first Easter. It’s also apt because it features my beautiful aunt, Rene, whose birthday it was yesterday. Rene and I have always been very close and she’s like my second mum. She is one of the people I miss most being away from home. The other two in the pic are my cousins, Roy on the left and Brend on the right. I am 5 months old, Rene is 28, Roy is 3 and Brend is 4.
Throwback Thursday #25: where’s me trousers?
Apparently it was International Sibling Day last week but somehow I missed it. Anyway, here’s a picture of me and my brother, Pete playing in our garden in Edenvale in 1985. I am about 4 and he must be around 1. I’m not sure why he has a doll’s trousers on his head but I am clearly puzzled. Also I appear to have lost my bottoms?
Throwback Thursday #24: My first birthday
Throwback Thursday #23: Sitting pretty
Throwback Thursday #22: The Moulin Rouge
The second flat I lived in when I moved to London had all red carpets on the ground floor. They were absolutely hideous. The one upside was though were that they made the perfect backdrop for my Moulin Rouge themed twenty-fifth birthday party. Here I am with my friend, Kerry. We are clearly going for serious glamour. Obviously I am 25.
Throwback Thursday #21: In bad taste
While we were living in our second flat in London. my friend Dawn and I were invited to a bad taste party. We dressed ourselves up as pregnant chavs, named ourselves Chardonnay and Charlotte and arrived smoking and drinking with our towel bumps in full bloom. A guy at the party who we rarely saw got a bit confused and half way through the night patted me on the belly and told me he hadn’t realised I was expecting… oh dear. We are 24.
Throwback Thursday #20: My little brother
On Saturday my younger brother, Pete, turns 30. Although Pete and I don’t look terribly alike we are very close. This picture was taken at my farewell before I left to move to the UK. I am 23 and he is 20.
Happy birthday, Petie. I love you!
Throwback Thursday #19
I would really love to know what my friend Megan and I are talking about here since it looks very interesting. We are definitely at Bronwyn’s parents’ house, which was always a great place to hangout because her family was so welcoming and kind to all of us. I still hang out there every time I visit South Africa. They’re like my second family. I am probably 22 or 23.
Throwback Thursday #18: The Prefects’ room
One of the big privileges of being a prefect in high school is that most schools give the prefects a spare classroom to use as a kind of base of operations (or a lair if you will). We kitted ours out with a microwave, a kettle and a stereo and chose to decorate it in yellow and blue. We thought it was beautiful. There’s a chance some of us might have been partially blind. The stereo was mostly used to play bad pop music and sometimes we danced on the tables because we were classy like that. Here I am showing off the “delightful” paint job. I am 17.