🥔 Peeling Potatoes 20: Life, Interrupted
What defines a life? The quiet routines we take for granted… or the moments when everything shatters and forces us to rebuild? In this episode of Peeling Potatoes, Janita and Frank strip back the layers of their own histories. One was betrayed at 25, the other floored by a heart attack at 55. Both discovered that life only makes sense when you stop trying to control it — and start learning from the interruptions.
🚑 Frank’s Wake-Up Call
Imagine losing two big contracts in a blink — then hearing your blood pressure is 200/100, and you need to get to the hospital now. That was Frank’s reality in 2015. Contracts gone. A heart attack. Lifestyle shattered. Out of the wreckage came one blunt truth: health is wealth. “Look after yourself,” he tells his younger self. “You don’t waste life.”
💔 Janita’s Broken Engagement
At 25, she thought she was building a future with her fiancé. Within months, he was gone — and she was back at her parents’, heart in pieces. But nights spent building a house with her father (installing ceilings, wiring electricity) turned into a ritual of resilience. Cycling came next, and a new life began. Lesson? “It wasn’t me. I was better off without him.”
Both prove the same point: crisis isn’t the end — it’s the crucible that forges who you become.
🇫🇷 France vs 🇿🇦 South Africa
Two countries, two realities:
- France (Frank’s lens): Quiet villages of 750 souls, café culture, tablecloths at dinner. A healthcare system that works (but costs), and a government debating scrapping holidays to save money. Safety? So normal, he once left the door wide open all night with zero consequence.
- South Africa (Janita’s lens): Diversity, malls, American influences. Relaxed outdoor vibes shadowed by constant vigilance. Gated communities, competing security firms, handbags strapped cross-body. Safety isn’t assumed; it’s a daily calculation.
Same world, different scripts. And when you step into the other’s shoes, the contrast is blinding.
🔄 The Life-Swap Thought Experiment
What if they swapped lives for a week?
- Frank in SA: Daunted by gated living, the background hum of danger, and the whirlwind energy of Janita’s young son. But curious about her butcheries, meat markets, and daily rhythms.
- Janita in France: Unafraid of language barriers — she’d decode life through gestures and context. Most curious? Sitting down for “girl talk” with Frank’s wife and mother, navigating family dinners and kitchen routines.
It’s playful, yes. But the undercurrent is serious: what would you struggle with if your life suddenly swapped tracks?
🎭 Subtitles of Life
If their lives came with subtitles, what would they say?
- Frank: “Translate my tangled thoughts into clarity.” His subtitles are about cutting through the overthinking and focusing only on the essence.
- Janita: “Just be happy, do your thing, don’t worry too much.” Her subtitles, colour-coded like traffic lights, would flash her happiness levels as a beacon for others.
One pragmatic, one philosophical — both revealing more than they realised.
🔁 Would You Restart Your Life?
Pressed with the “restart” question, both had different takes:
- Frank: No changes. His life has been unusual, privileged. Regret is pointless. The heart attack sharpened this philosophy: life is fragile; don’t waste it.
- Janita: No major rewrites either, but she’d trim the “time wasters” out of her story. Her take? Even mistakes and bad relationships had lessons — but why not cut the nonsense faster?
Would you press restart, or live with the messiness?
🌐 How Global Events Hit Home
Finally, they zoom out. The world keeps spinning — but how much of it really matters in your day-to-day?
- For Janita: The US dollar exchange rate is vital. A government shutdown in Washington shakes her reality more than a war in Ukraine.
- For Frank: Ukraine is at the doorstep of Europe, with Russian drones buzzing NATO borders. Yet between his projects and pressures, even this is background noise most days.
Conclusion? The importance of events depends on their proximity to your daily bread. You filter. You absorb. Some sticks, some fades.
🚀 Action
This isn’t just a podcast. It’s a mirror. A challenge. A reminder that disruption shapes us, safety is relative, and regret is wasted energy.
🎧 Peeling Potatoes 20 — press play now, before the potato skin grows back and the raw truths are hidden again.
