Archive for October, 2010

by Ariellah Rosenberg, mom to three daughters (8, 13, 17), working at ORT SA  heading the Educators Empowerment division, can be found  on Twitter @Ariellah and her blog . Lifelong learner , Google Certified Teacher.

“Thank you for the music … for giving it to me”-  Thank you to the wonderful SA cast for giving us a local production to be proud of – Mamma Mia, a smash hit musical written by British Playwright Catherine Johnson, based on ABBA’s songs, and making  Ssouth Africa’s proud of their local talent.

If you are still sceptical about Mamma Mia and local productions standards – think no more when booking for Mamma Mia in Cape Town or Johannesburg.  The local cast all have  impressive South African theatrical backgrounds ,, and some of the lead roles include Gemma Donnelly, Christel Mutombo, Stephen Jubber (as Sky)- delightful when shirtless, Carmen Pretorius (as Sophie), Ilse Klink, Kate Normington, Murray Todd (as Bill), Neels Clasen (as Harry), Anrich Herbst (as Sam) and Gina Shmukler (as Donna).

Mamma Mia is known as one of the most sensational musicals of all times, with songs composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.  Love it or leave it, the show has  so far been performed in 13 languages, and according to the web, over 40 million people have now seen the show, which has grossed $2 billion dollars worldwide.

When I went to the show at Monte Casino, I had no expectations whatsoever about the show itself.   After all, I thought, how can you compete with such huge productions worldwide and especially with the Mamma Mia movie,  led by Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, and gorgeous Pierce Brosnan.  Wow was I wrong!  Gina Shmukler, playing the role of Donna was OUTSTANDING and accompanied by an amazing performance by the rest of the cast, it was just irresistible and hard to keep to our seats without jigging to songs like “Dancing Queen”, “Take a chance on me”, “The winner takes it all” and about 20 other of ABBA’s songs.

The story is about Sophie who is in her 20’s , on her wedding eve, wanting her father to walk her down the aisle (or as my 8 year old daughter said “walk her in the runaway”).  She invites three possible fathers to the paradise Greek Island and starts her quest for her father’s identity. The show is embedded with humou satire and wisdom  .. look forward to the South African witty pearls implanted in this local production.

Whether you’re an ABBA fan or not, do yourself a favour, spoil yourself and your family and go enjoy this fABBAlous Show!

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me!

Mama Mia is on at Montecasino in Fourways until Dec 12.  Click here for more information.

by  Michael Marinus, an early thirties  dad of Megan(3) and James(1) who also works as a Chiropractor in Joburg You’ll find him on twitter @mikemarinus or visit his blog

I remember being asked about two years ago if I had kids. “Oh yes,” I replied “I have a daughter”. “You don’t have kids, you have a kid” the guy replied.  I was a bit taken aback by this and was left wondering how someone could make this distinction, if you had gone through the trials of the first six weeks, run the gauntlet of dirty nappies and midnight feeds how could someone say just having one child somehow puts you in another category.  It doesn’t, of course, but the difference between a house with one and a house with two or more children are vastly different situations and the arrival of my son has raised some interesting challenges for me as a father.

When two parents are in charge of one child, you get breaks. Necessary little five minute ‘time-outs’, which I used, to compose myself and return to the calamity with calm and enthusiasm.  For dads like me who do not have built in maternal instincts and just want to problem solve, it is important to be able to take step back and assess if problems need to be solved or left alone. When baby number two arrived all bets were off. We were both in there, hammer and tongs, feeding one, bathing the other and passing each other by.

Having one child is much like getting a pet while having two is like going for your zoo-keeping license and not all animals get treated the same way. As a father I did not expect my parenting style to differ so greatly between my two kids. My daughter runs rings around me while my son generally brings at my inner disciplinarian and my wife finds it the opposite way around. This is also true for friends of ours and they too worry that they are not giving their children equal attention or love. Men want men to be men, women want girls to be little darlings and hence we bring up a generation of daddy’s little angels and mommy’s boys.

My wife and I may not agree on all fronts when it comes to parenting but we both agree that the leap from no children to one child, as life altering as it seems at first is not as great a leap as from one to two. From finding friends to babysit, to late night dual coughing fits it can be quite a shock to the system of someone who thought they knew it all.  But however difficult it may be, you now have two beaming faces smiling up at you in the morning and two sets of laughs to melt your heart. The good completely outweighs the bad and when you make it out of the mists of the first few months of ‘double trouble’ and you look down to see two little friends holding hands and trying to push each other over a pot plant  you realize that you don’t know what you did without them.

provided by Matthew Ballenden, dad to Isabella & owner of the Fresh Earth Food Store, an organic health store and vegetarian restaurant with a  great online store.  Visit their website to find out more.

Smoothies for breakfast are a very gentle way of ‘breaking your fast’ . They are easy to make and you can add all your bodies nutritional requirements like omega oils, spirulina, probiotics and much more in one glass.

Starting the day with a proper meal sets the tone for the rest of the day. Slow down and make the time to feed your body the fuel it needs to get you through the day.

Superfoods Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients:

200ml Freshly Made Organic Apple Juice
1 Handful Of Mixed and Frozen Organic Berries
½ Organic, Frozen Banana
½ tsp Ground Raw Organic Cashews
1 ½ tbsp Soya Milk Powder
1 tbsp Hemp Protein Powder
1 tsp Sprouted Flax Seed
1 tbsp Macca Powder
1 tsp Raw Honey (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in the blender until you have a smooth texture.

Add the honey last. Pour and enjoy!

(If you do not have frozen berries and banana, add half a cup of ice cubes)

Raw Chocolate Smoothie

1 tbsp Raw cacao nibs
2 tbsp     Raw cacao powder1 tbsp     Raw maca powder
1              Frozen chopped up banana
200ml    Almond milk or rice milk or oat milk
¼ tsp      Agave syrup
½ tsp      Organic Cinnamon powder
¼ tsp Organic Vanilla

Add everything to the blender and blend until smooth

Smooth-No-D (Smoothie No Dairy) Recipe

What you’ll need:

*Best to use frozen bananas. Take a ripe bunch –peel and wrap individually in cling wrap and freeze

Method:

Browse through other healthy smoothie recipes on  Fresh Earth Food Store website.