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Two Legs, One Needle and a Sunday I’ll Never Get Back

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It’s hot in Gauteng. Properly hot. The kind of hot where you start the day looking like a CFO and end it looking like you’ve run to work. They installed a new aircon in my office last week. I’m told it works. I live in hope. So yesterday I went shopping for short-sleeved blouses. I came home with trousers. Green ones. Olive, khaki, army, I’m not sure what the label calls it, but whatever colour they are, it’s been a gap in my wardrobe for ages. And they fitted beautifully. Through the waist and hips, anyway. Below that, they carried on for quite some distance after my legs had stopped. I’m 166 centimetres tall, these were cut for someone who changes light bulbs without a ladder. A normal person would take them to be shortened. I have never, in my whole life, sent a pair of trousers to be shortened. I hem them myself. Saturday was for work. Sunday is for personal admin. And this morning, personal admin was me, a needle, a reel of cotton and a pair of olive trousers I wanted to wear to t...
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Look What You Made

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There are certain words that apparently cause immediate concern at our factory. “I have an idea.” I discovered this again one Friday morning when I phoned a colleague about five minutes before arriving. “I have an idea.” There was a small pause. “Oh no. What now?” Poor man. The idea, for once, was actually quite simple. Put Tanky on the factory floor. Tanky is my white Tank 300, and she wears parts our team makes. We were having a special morning. The team had worked incredibly hard, the factory looked magnificent, and we had a chance to stop for a moment and recognise the people behind what we are building. Tanky had other plans for her appearance. Earlier in the week, the Gauteng cold front and rain had made sure she looked considerably more like she’d just come back from an adventure than a corporate display vehicle. Fortunately, the factory is essentially her second home these days. The guys gave her a quick wash to remove the worst of the evidence, and onto the factory floor she w...
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Location: Pretoria East, Faerie Glen, Pretoria, 0043, South Africa
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The Loafers That Started a Revolution

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It started, as most revolutions do, with a pair of brown loafers. Okay. Perhaps most revolutions don't start with loafers. But mine did. I am 45, almost 46, and I have spent a significant portion of my adult life working in Finance. I did my corporate years. Deloitte left its mark. Somewhere along the way, I developed a very clear picture of what a CFO was supposed to look like. Black pants. Pretty blouse. Jacket if required. Black shoes. Black belt. Repeat until retirement. Perfectly respectable. Also, as I recently discovered, spectacularly boring. Which is strange, because I don't regard myself as particularly boring. I write. I take photographs. I run. I overland. I'll happily disappear into Botswana, crawl around a factory with a camera, climb into a ridiculously high 4x4 and follow numbers down rabbit holes because something doesn't make sense. My running wardrobe contains enough pink to be visible from the International Space Station. And yet every mo...
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The Corporate Challenge Before the Corporate Challenge

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(Or: How Ordering T-Shirts Became a Marathon) Somewhere in January 2026 , "iemand" in the office said the dangerous words: “We should enter the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge .” And just like that, the #ICPCLAN was signed up. Race entry — tick. Now anyone who has ever participated in anything remotely corporate knows that the real event is not the run itself. The real event is the T-shirts . Because if you're going to run 5.6 km with colleagues, it might as well be done in coordinated cotton . Phase 1: The Optimism Stage Naturally, I jumped into action and put together a concept design for the shirts. The last batch we ordered for the #ICPCLAN looked fantastic — but apparently some members of the clan felt the fit was… how shall we say… aspirational . A little snug. A little optimistic. Possibly designed for Olympic athletes rather than normal humans. So this time, armed with my concept design and a determination to avoid the “painted-on Lycra” look, I ...
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Hlalanathi Drakensberg Resort: Review and things to do in the area

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Know before you go Travel time - approx. 4 hours from Gauteng  Road conditions - tar Electricity - yes, blue caravan plug adaptor required Ablutions - very clean and functional. Private ablutions available, enquire when booking Shop on site - yes, basic supplies Fuel - closest filling station, Little Switzerland (petrol & diesel) Closest supermarket - Winterton Getting there Hlalanathi is approximately a 4-hour drive from Gauteng. It's a relatively easy trip with most of the route following the N3 highway. Once you take the turnoff to Harrismith/Bergville the mountains make their appearance, and we really enjoyed the stretch of road passing the Sterkfontein Dam. This body of water is enormous and its blue waters and abundant wildlife were sights to be savoured.  After Little Switzerland, the road conditions worsened, and there were plenty of potholes peppered along the route. There was a section of road that had fallen away which necessitated a short stretch of very rocky ...
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Kyleu Bush Camp: Why you need to consider camping at this spot on your next weekend breakaway

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Hubby and I love the outdoors and enjoy 4x4ing and overlanding. With over ten years of camping experience, we are usually well kitted out and mostly self-sufficient. With the sale of our offroad trailer in February 2022, we'd been investigating the available alternatives to meet our camping needs. Eventually shortlisting our favourites, we  decided to  rent a Bushlapa Miskruier for a weekend to test it out. Since this caravan is built for rougher camping, it made sense for us to try it out in an environment that required one to be largely self-sufficient.  In typical Scholtz fashion, our caravan rental was an impromptu affair (you can probably blame me for that). This meant that we had limited time available and necessitated we find a campsite relatively close to Gauteng.  Approximately a 45-minute drive from where we live in Gauteng, Kyleu is located in the Dinokeng Game Reserve. From the Tau Gate, it's a short 7 kilometre drive, with a small stretch of gravel road ...
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Our experience after renting a Bushlapa Miskruier for a weekend from Corcis Outdoor Rentals

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Here’s the scenario: We’d been researching offroad trailer/caravan options to decide which one to buy, but remained uncertain of the way forward. We liked the Bushlapa Boskriek, but was it really going to work for us? Even after inspecting as many of the various available offerings on the market as we could, we still had unanswered questions that were impossible to resolve by meandering around a showroom or chatting with a salesperson Here's where the expression “Try before you buy”  becomes relevant. It's s omething I wish hubby and I had done more of before purchasing big-ticket items. Buying any form of vehicle is a large investment and so we decided to rent a Bushlapa to experience it for ourselves.  Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Maybe you don't want to buy, but just need a rig for a once-off adventure? If so, our personal impressions after renting from Corcis Outdoor Rentals can help with your decision-making process. Click here to access the Corcis ...
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