A conversation about digital balance, paper bills, trust, safety, and the contradictions of ordinary life When The Mayor began the conversation, the topic was digital balance. But digital balance is not only about phones, computers, social media, or how many hours we spend looking at a screen. Sometimes it is about control. Sometimes it is…
A Mayor’s Pen reflection on Australia, Brida, growth, usefulness, and looking from another angle When you grow up in Australia, you learn at an early age that the rest of the world thinks you are upside down. Maps do not help. Most maps place Europe somewhere near the middle and Australia somewhere near the bottom,…
I arrived a little bit late for our meeting, and I was like, sorry, because I was with my friends and I absolutely forgot the time. Fruitloop said it was okay because she used the time to give cooking instructions to her husband. So really, I was late, but also I helped the dinner situation,…
Some weeks seem determined to test your patience, and this one certainly qualified. The summer heat arrived with full force, turning everyday life into an endurance challenge. By Thursday, I could honestly say that I had very little energy left. It wasn’t just work or family or the weather—it was everything together. Even sitting in…
We arrived at the table already halfway into the weather report, which is often how Lunch begins: not with a formal opening, but with someone worrying about someone else’s temperature. Rosii was worried about the Mayor, and fairly so. While Brazil was sitting at a dramatic 10 degrees, the Mayor announced that his corner of…
A Peeling Potatoes conversation about technology, imagination, and one very important potato This conversation began with a simple Brida theme: digital balance. But this is Peeling Potatoes. So we did not begin with screen-time statistics, productivity advice, or a serious lecture about switching off notifications. We began with nonsense. A dramatic phone.A sulking French router.Unread…
This is one of my healthy breakfasts, but of course I cannot just put quark in a bowl and be finished. No, no. There must be a little experiment. The low-fat quark is good, the protein powder makes it stronger, the blueberries bring the sunshine, and the sparkling water makes it lighter, almost like the…
It was already very hot outside. Not just warm, but the kind of hot where the air feels heavy before you even move. I think it was close to forty degrees, maybe more in the sun, and I had seen the heatwave on the news the evening before. When Fruitloop told me it was cold…
Chapter One The smell of braai smoke and cut grass hung heavy in the warm summer air. It was the perfect Saturday evening. My husband and I were sitting outside on the patio, watching the wood fire crackle down to a bed of glowing orange coals, while the faint, joyful sound of a neighborhood kid’s…
When the Mayor and Fruitloop called me to talk about my life in England, I knew immediately that this was not going to be a normal interview. With them, it is never just a list of questions. It is always a conversation that goes in many directions, with jokes, teasing, serious thoughts, strange comments, and…
