Regular readers of this blog know that my boyfriend, Thorsten, is an architect. You might not know that he is also an artist, and he recently created a beautiful series of prints portraying historic monuments in our home suburb of Brixton.

I’m obsessed with Joburg thrifting (see here, here, and here) and the more I shop second-hand, the more I realize it’s almost never necessary to buy new things. There are so many great places in Joburg to shop for used clothing, furniture, jewelry, shoes, housewares – everything you can imagine. The quality is usually better than buying new and the prices are cheaper, even for amazing vintage stuff, if you’ve got some patience and know where to look.

I’m struggling to figure out how to start writing this post because I’m struggling to figure out how to explain koesisters.

The koesister ranks among South Africa’s most iconic foods, right up there with biltong, boerewors, chakalaka, and milk tart. Koesisters are vaguely like donuts, just with a different shape, flavor, and texture. (So maybe not that much like donuts after all.) The koesister’s identity is further complicated by its close relationship to the koeksister – same word except with an extra k in the middle, but possibly stemming from an entirely different root – to which the koesister is similar, but different.

About a year ago, as I wandered the halls of the Turbine Art Fair, an annual fair featuring the works of emerging South African artists, I stopped short in front of some poster-sized pictures by John Phalane. The pictures portrayed maps – mostly Joburg maps – drawn in riotous rainbow colored pencil.

A few days ago I walked into the Drill Hall, in the frenetic center of downtown Joburg, and went through a wormhole into an alternate universe.

I’ve spent the last three days pondering this one-hour visit and how to present it on the blog. I wasn’t at the Drill Hall long enough to take it all in – I would need to hang out there for at least a week to properly document this place and what’s happening there. But I’m impatient and I really want to share my pictures now, so here is a quick summary.

Yesterday I listened to an episode of The Daily, my favorite news podcast, titled “The Writers’ Revolt Against AI Companies”. The episode focused on a current news story about comedian Sarah Silverman, who is suing OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) for copyright infringement. Sheera Frenkel, the New York Times tech journalist interviewed on the podcast, also spoke about her own experience asking ChatGPT to write a paragraph in her voice. Frenkel said she was “creeped out” by how accurately the bot was able to mimic her language and style.

Last Saturday, to celebrate 49 years on earth, I gave myself a gift: I booked an Airbnb experience with Caraci Clothing and pretended to be a fashion designer for the day.

I’ve always been intrigued by Kensington, a suburb just east of downtown Joburg. Kensington is similar in many ways to Melville, where I used to live, and Brixton, where I live now: An older neighborhood, filled with big trees and houses with pressed-steel ceilings, populated by lots of quirky artists and other creative types. Kensington is only about 20 minutes’ drive away but I feel like I haven’t spent enough time there over the years to really get to know it.

I recently returned from a weekend at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), where I was invited to participate in the Standard Bank Art “Be Part of the Arts” social media campaign. The National Arts Festival (NAF) has been running since 1974 – it was born the same year (and the same month!) as me – and it’s a rite of passage for South Africans who love theatre, music, dance, and art of any kind. People have been raving for years about how fabulous NAF is; I have no idea why I’d never gone before.