Day 33 - A picture of the house you grew up in

On Google Maps, this is the Street View of the house.

This room overlooks some of the backyard.

I couldn’t find a photo of the front of the house, so I snagged this one from Google Maps. (By the way, I think that the Street View option on Google Maps is one of the greatest, yet creepiest, inventions ever. Don’t you?)

When I was one and half years old, my parents moved into this house in a small town in South Africa. Twenty five years later, they are still living there.

I have many fond memories of growing up in this house. We were lucky to have a huge front- and backyard, where we could run around with our friends.

My parents love gardening and my dad even has his own vegetable garden next to the house. They have also renovated the house over the years, adding another living room, a swimming pool and they recently redid the guest bathroom, the kitchen and their bathroom.

I will always consider this house as my home, even though I live almost 13000km (about 8000 miles) away now. 

Day 32 - A picture of a crazy night

With my eclectic group of friends, most nights seem to be crazy nights. Never a dull moment with this bunch. But immediately, the most recent crazy night comes to mind. New Year's Eve.

It started off as most New Year's Eve parties here in Taipei. We all went to a friend’s apartment’s rooftop, had some champagne, took hundreds of photos and laughed as we excitedly awaited midnight. Finally, the clock struck 12 and the city, together with the Taipei101 fireworks, exploded!. It was magical! We screamed “Happy New Year!”, hugged, kissed and took some more photos and everyone had a smile on their face.

One hour later, I was standing in front of the police station, balling my eyes out. After the rooftop party, we went out and my bag got stolen. With my cell phone, apartment keys, ID card (with my address on it!) and my beloved lip balm.

The fact that my bag got stolen was crap, yes, but I was mostly worried that the person who had my bag could easily get access to my apartment and all my information on my phone. And we couldn’t get into our place that night. By that time it was too late/early to contact our landlord.

The Boyfriend and I ended up wandering the streets in our neighborhood looking for a locksmith and a miracle. The Boyfriend ran out of credit on his phone, and we had almost no money on us. We were miserable and made our peace that we would maybe have to sleep in the park by our house, as we couldn’t contact anyone. Luckily, our friends called us and offered us a warm place to sleep. We had to walk for 25 minutes to get to their place.

We slept for about three hours and tried to contact our landlord. His phone was turned off, so our friend arranged a locksmith to open our door. As luck would have it, he could only open one of our locks, and we had to get a second locksmith to open the other lock. 2300NTD (about $80) and 3 hours later, we were in. The sound of that door clicking open was the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.

Needless to say, The Boyfriend and I made a pact to never go out on a New Year's Eve again. It’s just too crazy!

Day 31 - A picture of a tradition you have

Me and The Boyfriend in Cape Town, South Africa 2009

Me and my sister, Lynette, in Cape Town, South Africa 2010

Me and The Boyfriend in Cape Town, South Africa 2011

As some of you know, I've been living and working in Taiwan for almost four years. My parents still live in South Africa, and I try to visit them as often as possible. Which turns out to be maybe once a year.

I know I'm home when flying into Cape Town International Airport on a beautiful, cloudless and sunny day, and seeing the spectacular Table Mountain on the horizon. 


It has become a tradition for me to take a photo with the famous Table Mountain in the background when visiting Cape Town. (By the way, did you know that Table Mountain was just voted as one of the new natural wonders of the world?)


It's just so special and always makes for a fantastic backdrop for people to drool over on Facebook. Cape Town is one of my favorite cities in the world, and it's really a place worth visiting. I'm definitely continuing this tradition!