The Story of an African Christmas

It is a little known fact that long ago, back when they first realised that the world was big (and round), the Santas of the world united to ensure that no child would be left without joy during the festive season. That’s right: Santa, or “Father Christmas”, as we called him growing up, is in

in memoriam

it is a curious thing, when one of our own dies young. and I do mean curious there are just a handful of common things that kill young doctors and our profession demands nay normalises we find those common-things-that-occur-commonly this is no simple diagnostics it is more than morbid curiosity it is a need-to-know (if

I’m Writing Lists This November

Moving on: THERE IS A NEW SOCIAL NETWORK AND IT IS ALL ABOUT WRITING LISTS. (I think NaNoWriMo is cool but I’m trying something new this year.)

An Audio Treat in Afrikaans

As a little girl, my dad created a special story and character with which to entertain me at bedtime. Her name was Lientjie (pronounced “Linky”) and she was a “cheerful butterfly”. As you may recall, my dad is visually impaired, so bedtime stories were told (often of his own invention, as is this one) and not read.

Everything, Everything | SCID, Snark and Sweetness

“I’ve read many more books than you.”

What a first sentence! I liked Madeline immediately. She obviously liked books, and she’s mouthy. She has a tumblr and she reviews her books. Books remain an integral part of the whole story! Booknerd alert: I basically love her. Sometimes she re-reads her favourite books from back to front, and she writes things in the front of her books, like this:

Go Set A Watchman Read in a Parallel Universe

A review of Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee, as imagined in a world where To Kill A Mockingbird never existed; and therefore GSaW did not become an instant bestseller based purely upon its history.

A Tale of Two Sciency Books

I quite enjoy sciency books – from the focused, like Seven Modern Plagues and Stuff Matters, to the kind that addresses all sorts of random topics, like What If.

For Healthcare Workers: Turn Their Pain Into Power

When one patient after the other in Antenatal Clinic is a teenager, and I feel angry about their bad decisions and angry at their parents for not looking after them well enough and ANGRY with whatever boy did this to her…

I ask them if they go to school. What they want to study after school. Affirm that yes, that’s a great decision, and yes, you can do it.

Turn their pain into power.

A Young Doctor’s Oath

I had the desire to thank a whole lot of people and to impress how many people contributed to my success, and this was the closest I could get.

The Knitting Intern

I just… I mean… KNITTING?! I have so many bad preconceived notions about it. The teenager in my brain still wants to paste an L to my forehead just thinking of it. Which is mean because people I love have made me some really awesome knitwear. Will I enjoy it? What if I suck at it? Is it an expensive hobby? Will I really be able to put it down and pick it back up without difficulty? WHAT WILL I MAKE?!