It was the morning after the dreadful night before and I was making my way with my best mate in a gold, rust-ridden 1985 Volkswagen Passat into one of South Africa’s informal settlements – Sweet Home Farm. We hadn’t even driven round the first corner when the young boys from the community spotted our car. Worse, they knew we were English. Before you could even utter the words ‘goal-line technology’, these boys were running up to the car laughing and holding up four fingers with one hand and just one solitary finger with the other. ‘Germany 4; England 1’, they shouted with glee. And with that went my faint hope that this might be the one place where that news had filtered through... But if I needed a perspective for my football blues, I had come to the right place. Sweet Home Farm is one of 323 informal settlements in Cape Town. It is located East of Cape Town's Southern Suburbs within the district of Philippi. The settlement started in 1995 on a rubbish dump when 12 familie...
I recently quit my job as a charity CEO for a time of reflection, running and adventure. This blog started years ago as the musings of a 20-something wanting to change the world but now is part reflections on work and part travel log as I take on running challenges and make pilgrimages, including solo travelling back from Beijing along the Silk Road during a year of micro retirement.