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.

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.

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.

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.

This is my official first grade class portrait. I am 6.

This picture was taken en route to my friend, Dawn’s 25th birthday party. We all had to come as something starting with a D. From left to right are me (dressed as Dracula, apparently, Lauren (who I think is a diva) and Barbara (as Dolly Parton). Lauren and I are 24. Barbara is 23.

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.

This picture was taken on one of Mr O and my very first dates (before we split up and got back together). We are on our way to a club night called Face Down to see Sonic Boom Six. I am 28 and he is 25. Courtesy of Timehop, which I recently discovered.

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.

It’s Mother’s Day in South Africa on Sunday so I’ve decided to post this picture of me and my beautiful mama. She’s never really liked photos so as with most pics of her she looks a little bit like she’s been caught out but I think she looks so lovely. I am 10 or 11 months old and she is 31.

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.

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?

I think this photo might explain where my love affair with cake started. It was taken at my first birthday party. I am clearly thrilled with my personal cake.

While I was in South Africa my mom brought me some pics of me from when I was very small so there are some really old school Thursdays coming up, including this one where I am about 4 months old.