Picnic in Cutteslowe Park

Today, Athol celebrates his birthday.

We had a lovely picnic in Cutteslowe Park, on a bench under a big tree overlooking the Cherwell River.  It's been extremely hot here, 30 degrees the last two days.

We do enjoy picnics by rivers.

Proudly Chinese SA

I am a third generation South African Chinese, born and raised in JHB.

I am proudly South African! 

I can speak Afrikaans, I can sing the national anthemn and I love biltong and braais. I am first and foremost South African.

I was born in 1980 in the south of Johannesburg, so grew up during apartheid but was fortunate not to suffer too much as I was young. Apartheid ended in 1994 when I was 14 years old. My grandfather came over around 1920. My Dad used to tell us stories of how badly the Chinese were treated, including himself.  He was sworn at many times and teased. Chinese were not allowed to live or own property in certain areas - nor were they allowed in the 'Whites only' beaches, toilets and buses. We lived in Southdale and, along with my brother, I attended Robertsham Primary School. In Standard 4 (or Grade 6 as it is called today) I remember that Coloured and Black learners were allowed into our school for the first time. It was a Model C school. I think that I was probably too young to fully understand what was going on. To me it was nice to have more interesting children at our school. In primary school, I played netball, did well academically (I received the Dux Ludorum for top academic achiever), was a prefect in Standard 5 and I never missed a day of school. I remember eating iced zoo biscuits, rusks, niknaks and simba chips as a child. I remember the empty milk bottles which we used to leave on our wall. I remember visiting the Rand Easter Show. Going to Eastgate Shopping Centre and Sandton City was a treat, and we used to love slap chips, pies, Steers and KFC burgers :)

My family was Catholic so we went to church in Robertsham every Sunday. I went to Catechism on Saturdays, was baptised when I was born, did my first holy communion and got confirmed. We celebrated Christmas, Easter and New Year's Day, like most families. We often had a braai or roast on these holidays. I believed in Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny (amazing how my mother fooled us all those years!).

I attended Sir John Adamson High School in Winchester Hills. I played netball, did drama, public speaking and was even Headgirl and Scholar of the Year in matric. The south of JHB was always looked down upon, as the posh areas were in the north. I was proud to have grown up in JHB south, as it taught me to be tough and to strive for a better life.

After school I studied at Wits, did an undergrad in Computer Science and Maths, and I did my honours in Maths.

I worked in business for many years as a strategy analyst. I now run a literacy NGO called Read to Rise, which my husband and I founded www.readtorise.org. We promote youth literacy in under-resourced communities. I also run a publishing company, I illustrate children's books and am a fine arts photographer.

South Africa is a great country, there is so much beauty to see, great food, sunshine and we have such diverse cultures. I know that we have the legacy of apartheid and that it will be an ongoing challenge to reach social justice for all, but South Africa has come a long way, we are politically free. I am proud to South African.

I am proudly Chinese!

Sadly, growing up in the western world, we have lost a lot of our Chinese culture. My Mom and Dad spoke English, I went to English schools and had English-speaking friends. I can't speak Mandarin. The Chinese community in SA is very small, estimated at only 10,000 of the local Chinese. I remember we used to go to original Chinatown now and again. I remember the Chinese New Year and Double Tenth Chinese Celebrations. I used to do Chinese dancing and Modern dancing for Chung Wah, a Chinese association. We used to dance at different locations around JHB. Through this I was fortunate to go on a tour to Taiwan and Hong Kong with the Chung Wah dancers. We even danced in Swaziland a few times, and Lesotho. We danced on Good Morning South Africa and at Mandela's Inauguration on 27 April 1994! I also played basketball. The Chinese have an Easter Sports Tournament every year in a different city. I played for Southern Transvaal a few times.  There is an annual Hong Ning Braai every year to raise funds for the aged.

My grandmother in PE used to make delicious Chinese bowties, noodles, dumplings, etc. Many years ago my mom used to have a stall at the Rosebank fleamarket selling Chinese goods.

I have a Chinese name given to me by my Dad's dad. Our surname should have been Zhu but when my grandfather came over from China they wrote his surname as Lock. The Chinese write their surname first so obviously that was the misunderstanding as his name was Lok.

The Chinese have a colourful heritage. We always used to get red packets with money for birthdays and new year, this was for good luck. On birthdays, we ate noodles. On New Year eve, we'd eat Chinese rice soup (we called Chok) and fried chicken, and play fireworks.

I sadly have lost touch with the Chinese community over the years.

Proudly Chinese SA

There has been a lot of foreign Chinese come to SA over the recent years. Apparently there are about 250,000 Chinese in SA now. There are a lot of Chinese shops that have opened, including the new Chinatown in Cyrildene.

The recent hate speech against Chinese really upset me. I hate generalisations. Just because abalone and tusks are exported to China, and some people in China eat strange things like dog doesn't mean all Chinese do it! I most certainly don't.

I am proudly South African and I am proudly Chinese.

So I founded Proudly Chinese SA, to promote our Chinese culture and promote Chinese individuals/businesses/organisations.


Website: https://proudlychinesesa.wixsite.com/proudlychinesesa
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/proudlychineseSA/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/proudlychinese

Visit to SA 18-26 May 2017

A quick trip back home to CT and JHB. Athol had business commitments in JHB so we decided to also spend a few days in CT.

Athol was invited to speak at the Living Newspaper on Monday 22 May, which is a non-profit which hold talks at the synagogue in Sea Point. Athol spoke about A Life of Possibilities. Me, You , Us.

Athol also spoke at Portlands High School in Mitchells Plain and Lwazi Primary School in Gugulethu.

Trip to Pisa, Italy - Part 2 - Food Heaven

The food in Pisa is amazing! I've always wanted to visit Italy. I grew up with Italian food. My mom used to make spaghetti and pizza. My mom used to have an Italian coffee shop and sold cappucinos, tiramisu, focaccia, Italian ice-cream, etc. Even my two best friends at high school were Italian.

We have the best pizza at Pizzeria Rustica. To our surprise we loved the Funghi pizza without cheese! You really get to taste the base, mushrooms and pomodoro. Think it was the best pizza we ever had.

We also tried their Anchini which are fried rice balls with vegetables inside.

We had a great lunch at Ristoro Pecorino on Via Santa Maria - Bruschetta, Vegetarian Platter, Ribolitta (known as poor man's food, which is a vegetable stew with beans and bread) and tiramisu! Absolutely delicious!

We had pasta at Il Peperonchino on Santa Marina one night. I had the Spaghetti Cabonara and Athol had the Pesto Tagliatelli which was absolutely delicious!

 Of course, we had to try the gelato :) I tried the Straciatelli i.e. chocolate chip :)

Trip to Pisa, Italy - Part 1

Athol handed in his 30,000 word thesis last week. So we decided to take a short trip to relax and have a change of scenery. We still have our Schengen visas which are valid until January so decided to take advantage of it. Flights from London to Pisa, Italy are cheaper than a return flight from CT to JHB! We decided to spend four nights in Pisa which is a 2 hour flight from Luton Airport. We caught the bus from Gloucester Green bus terminal in Oxford to Luton Airport, it was a 2 hour trip. It's the first time going to Luton Airport, which is under renovation. It is much much smaller than Heathrow, only one terminal. Most of the low cost airlines fly from here to Europe. We flew with EasyJet. They had an automatic bad drop, the first I've seen. So simple, you weight your checked in luggage yourself, the label gets printed then you put the label onto your bag and hand it to the attendant. We just had to get our SA passports validated at the counter. Through security, there are a few restaurants, there's a Pret a Manger if you want to grab a quick bite.  

Flying into Pisa you see the beautiful Italian coastline.

As it was May Day, there were no buses in operation so we caught a taxi to Via Santa Maria which is the centre of Pisa, 10 minutes from the airport. This is a busy pedestrian only street that leads to the majestic 'Field of Miracles' where the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Cathedral and Baptistery are. What a sight! This tower leans at about a 10 degree angle :) funny seeing all the tourists taking pictures pushing the tower :)

This area is extremely busy during the day, the best time is to go in the evening.

Walking along the streets has a real Tuscan feel - it feels like you are at Monte Casino (for those of you in JHB!). So pretty with the colourful buildings and window shutters.

Our third children's book - Oaky the Brave Acorn

In February 2017, Theart Press published our third children's books in the Oaky series - Oaky the Brave Acorn.

This is the prequel to Oaky and the Sun and Oaky the Happy Tree.

Such a cute story by Athol Williams (www.atholwilliams.com) with such a positive message about being brave. I loved doing the illustrations of Oaky hanging from the branch, jumping off and having fun with the other acorns rolling in the grass.

Available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and Theart Press. All proceeds go to literacy NGO READ to RISE so that we can inspire children in South Africa to read.

Athol and I are currently working on the fourth book which will be published in May 2017.

www.theartpressbooks.com

Exploring Summertown - Cutteslowe Park and Sunnymead Park

So after 14 months in Summertown, we discovered Cutteslowe Park and Sunnymead Park is a short walk from where we live. It's the biggest park in North Oxford with large open fields, basketball courts, beach volleyball, jungle gyms, etc. We've noticed that there are so many nice open places in Oxford where you can go for walks.

This is Sunnymead Park which has a beautiful view of the River Cherwell.

Cutteslowe Park stretches over the highway so you have to cross the bridge. Lovely to explore on a lovely Spring day. The clocks went ahead 1 hour on 26 March so the days have become longer, with the sun rising at 6am and setting at 7:30pm. Summer is going to be so nice!