Union Cafe was built by my grandfather a few years before the country became a republic. He did not change the name in 1960. It was the quintessential Greek cafe. It stood on the corner of 7th Avenue, a steep sloping road, in the middle where it flattened out a bit. The double wooden framed…
Conversations with a Coach
My father and I often spoke about life coaches. In a way, he was a crisis coach for many people. People came to him with a problem, he analysed it with them and helped them look for solutions. He was a financial coach for others, a bit more structured, and something he clearly understood. We…
Conversations with a Municipal Manager
In the seventies our home town near Johannesburg faced massive growth and became a hub for commuters staying nearby but working in Johannesburg. Traffic volumes were set to increase in the next decades and even though there were new highways replacing the old main road, aptly called Voortrekker Road for the locals, the cars and…
Conversations with a Gypsy
I used the think the Jews were a measure of the wellness of a country. Its weather and opportunity and lifestyle and democracy and lastly its economic viability. Now I know it is the gypsies. I saw no camps in Greece this year, no caravans with cars, in fact the only beggars I saw in…
Conversations with the Baker’s Wife
The straight road from our village Artemisio into Tripolis reaches the first platea or square quickly. The bus stops here as well, and it’s our village square. The villagers alight here, greet each other and bemoan the state of affairs. The square is dry and dusty, with bright light because all the buildings are painted…
Conversations around a Bowl of Soup
Every Easter the Orthodox are supposed to fast for Lent. Now that I stay in Durban it seems everyone thinks a fast is like the Muslims do for Ramadan: nothing passes your lips from sunrise to sunup. The Orthodox fast is supposed to be a sacrifice as well, but not of meal times, just of…
Conversations with Number 100
I don’t know why I chose 100. I wrote it in red figures on a white circle on the shiny black background. I won 2 races in it, and have 2 big trophies at home to remind me. I deserved those trophies, as the victory really was on the edge of my being. It scared…
Conversations with a Doctor
In the end my father only dealt with super specialists: he had a Chinese cardiologist and another cardiologist who managed his arrhythmia. A pulmonologist who spoke Greek. A daughter-in-law who is a breast surgeon. A son-in-law who is a hand surgeon. But in the early years our general practitioner did everything. He delivered my father’s…
Conversations with a Navigator
My father always had the street maps for the Witwatersrand n his car. Over the years it grew from a 40 page booklet to a 2000 page map guide the size of a telephone directory. We needed the map to guide him to meetings and also to look at properties that were for sale and…
Conversations with a Rocket Scientist
I was listening to a lecture by Alain Aspect, a French physicist. His lecture at the Imperial College of London was entitled “From Einstein’s Intuition to Quantum Bits”. He is a wonderful speaker, passionate and very clear in his argument. He also took measure of his audience. In the first quarter of his lecture he…
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