Sweet Violet posted an article on SweetViolet Cooks! - Feb 10, 2012, 9:15 am
Violet’s Key Lime Pie for non-American households(American substitutions in italics) This delicious tart (“pie” to Americans) is a light and luscious summer dessert treat. Originally invented in the Florida Keys (small islands off the southern tip of Florida), it is properly made with the smal...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jan 22, 2012, 3:46 am
You would think, at this venerable age, nothing a person could do would surprise me, that by now I would have experienced enough that little in the human condition would give me pause. So, when my phone went “ping” repeatedly this morning—at 5:30—you would think I would expect it to be...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jan 3, 2012, 6:05 am
 Our calendars have all come to an end and have been chucked out, replaced with bright, new, unsullied calendars for the next cycle of days. All over the world, obsolete Gregorian calendars (the common calendar in use today) lay discarded and largely forgotten, new ones having taken their place on ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Dec 16, 2011, 3:00 pm
Contrary to popular belief, Christ was not born on December 25. The best guess of Biblical scholars puts the time of year more towards autumn, most likely some time in September. Late December is the time of the winter solstice, a sacred time for the nature-based religions of pre-Christian Europe......
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Oct 13, 2011, 9:39 am
So, on Oct 4 at about 6 pm, I was in the supermarket doing something I have done at least weekly for pretty much the last 45+ years: grocery shopping. The only appreciable difference between South African supermarkets and American supermarkets is the hours they are open, so my shopping skills, finel...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Sep 8, 2011, 11:19 am
A very smart friend of mine was filling me in on her “three year plan” for her finances. She’s an accountant and holds a very responsible management position in a fairly large firm…when it comes to money, she’s no dummy. But she said something that disturbed me—her next plan (this one is...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on SweetViolet Cooks! - Aug 31, 2011, 8:57 am
An American Thanksgiving favourite, pumpkin pie is a delectable treat. When my kids were young, instead of cutting up a pumpkin for a jack o lantern, we drew a face on it with markers and saved it until the weekend before Thanksgiving. We carved it up into chunks and made pumpkin puree and and from ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Aug 17, 2011, 2:52 pm
...I should have just stayed in bed.
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Aug 16, 2011, 6:11 am
I received this email this morning: Hello Dear I am interested in establishing and operating a very viable business as a means of investment abroad. I do not know too well on how this is done in your country, so I will need you to help me in this regard. My preference is any good profit yielding bus...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Aug 2, 2011, 7:05 am
I have to go on a diet. I don't want to. Not because I don't want to lose weight, not even because I object to reducing my caloric intake...I don't want to because I know what I will be expected to eat and I don't want to eat it. Margarine is gross...it feels disgusting on the tongue, and tast...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jul 31, 2011, 3:39 am
Today I laid my hands on another person’s child…actually, I could have easily walked off with said child and, except for the fact that he and I were of widely divergent colour, nobody would have blinked…not even his so-inattentive parent that s/he didn’t object to my manhandling the child, p...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jul 25, 2011, 4:06 pm
This last Saturday I got up early, took a leisurely shower, washed and conditioned my hair and then set off with my husband for our local warehouse store for the monthly bulk purchase of staple goods. After the store, we took the purchases home and put the 9 lbs of butter that was on sale into the f...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on SweetViolet Cooks! - Jul 25, 2011, 6:20 am
Photo by DailyInvention, FlickrWho doesn't like pie?? Whether one-crust or two, fruit or custard or something more exotic, nothing pleases like pie! But even the best fillings are diminished if the crust isn't perfection. Here in South Africa I have found that dessert pies (called "tarts" here, no m...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jul 22, 2011, 9:01 am
I nearly laughed out loud when I saw the headline “No religious freedom in SA.” In fact, I found it so amusing, I had to click on it and see just what this person was on about. You see, South Africa is just about the most free country, with respect to religion (and many other things) I hav...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jul 21, 2011, 7:40 am
I have been a loyal user for more than five years now, and during that time we have happily...and effectively...shared the bond of English as our common tongue. It appears, however, that you have begun taking language lessons, a la our erstwhile symbologist and musician, the singer formerly an...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jul 20, 2011, 5:51 am
Until it starts to abate, I don’t think even the suffers realize how much long-term chronic pain can diminish their lives. It does more than limit activities that exacerbate the pain, it affects and informs virtually every aspect of life, from mood and sense of well-being to sleep to willingness t...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jun 15, 2011, 9:25 am
“Watch your pennies,” my grandfather used to tell me, “and the dollars will take care of themselves.” The old man was right—there are a zillion ways we waste money, some of them obvious, some of them not-so-obvious, all of them draining pennies from our pockets, pennies that add up.  Seve...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - May 24, 2011, 12:08 pm
I miss... Dreyers Rocky Road Ice Cream. Rocky Road ice cream of any kind, in fact...here, Rocky Road is a kind of candy...and not very good, either. I haven't even found any good chocolate ice cream, either...for some reason, plain chocolate isn't good enough, so whenever I can find chocolate,...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - May 23, 2011, 6:50 am
According to Wikipedia, doublethink is “a word coined by George Orwell in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, describes the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct… Its opposite is cognitive dissonance, where the two beliefs cause conflict in one's mind.” ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - May 20, 2011, 5:58 am
I’ve been gone a while…real life sometimes gets in the way of cyberlife, ya know? There’s a spinal condition called “lumbar facet syndrome” and I’ve had it for some time now. Some x-rays that were taken five years ago showed some problems and ever since then, it has gotten progress...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - May 9, 2011, 5:15 am
Apparently Google did some kind of "upgrade" to the system between my last post and now and just didn't bother to tell us users about it. As a result, I could not publish because of a timestamp error that was incorrectable. Seems the solution was to go into "Settings" and select the new editor...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Apr 12, 2011, 2:48 am
Well, I finally have my Telkom ADSL back. It only took a month to get it reinstalled and have several visits from the technicians to troubleshoot the installation to get it working right. Yesterday I had to call Telkom because I was hooked up to the ADSL line and the router was showing all lights gr...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Apr 5, 2011, 4:08 am
Hubby's birthday has come and gone...we made a weekend of it, going out to eat, taking in a show, hitting a couple of casinos. It was a great, relaxing weekend. April in South Africa is roughly equivalent to October in California. The weather is cooling, storms come and go...we've had two bang up ra...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 31, 2011, 12:16 pm
Lovey (aka LoveBug, aka LoveThug) is nearly five months old now and she has recently begun learning the art of Watchdoggery. Unfortunately, she is learning it from Puddin', she who thinks anything that moves...or might move is worthy of warning the household about. And while Puddin' pretty much igno...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 22, 2011, 5:27 am
The purpose of a business website is, of course, to get people to go to the site and do something…buy a product, click on an ad, respond to a query or a poll or “comment” section…and hopefully to come back again and again to do it…again and again. SEO—search engine optimization—is a te...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 18, 2011, 3:14 am
We all know how I feel about Cell C...and that I think Telkom, as bad as it is, is a better alternative for internet access. I am beginning to rethink that... After months of sturm und drang regarding that stupid stick and weeks of angst waiting for the Telkom ADSL line to be restored, last week it ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 17, 2011, 5:50 am
Yesterday I received a comment on my post "Dear Cell C" that was supposedly from the CEO of the company. I dunno if it was really him or a person with a sick sense of humour, but it doesn't matter since I was unable to respond to LPR's offer to help me because LPR didn't bother to leave me a number,...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 15, 2011, 12:28 pm
Yesterday I was 64. Hard to believe, since at one point in my life I seriously doubted I would live past 30. Even harder to believe that only two siblings (I have six), one of my kids (I have three) and none of my grandkids (I have two adult ones) wished me a Happy Birthday, although I received more...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 14, 2011, 11:06 am
When I lived in California, as I cleaned out 20+ years of accumulated stuff in preparation to move to South Africa, I Freecycled...a lot. Freecycle is an international Yahoo group dedicated to keeping stuff out of the landfills by giving it away to people who can use it. The various Freecycle organi...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 11, 2011, 2:41 am
So, Hubby, tired of listening to me moan about that accursed Cell C stick, calls up to get Telkom's ADSL line reinstalled. After a few days, I get a call from Telkom confirming Hubby's call and confirming the order...except that they have the order wrong. I correct them, they acknowledge. Monday, th...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Mar 1, 2011, 6:54 am
I have two of your "speed sticks," a white one and a black one. I have had them since December. I HATE them. HATE HATE HATE them. I hate them so much that next week I am going back to Helkom and their ADSL. I put up a blog entry in December, a week after I got these pieces of crap, complaining about...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Feb 26, 2011, 10:22 am
Ya know that flat my of my brother-in-law's, the one the tenants screwed up and the rental agent allowed to fall to wrack and ruin? Well, in the space of a month my husband and I (and a really talented, diligent contractor) have cleaned it out, renovated it...and rented it out! He finished the work ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Feb 24, 2011, 2:12 am
One of the wonderful things about South Africa is the Advertising Standards Authority. This is a proactive organization with teeth and it is not afraid to use them. I love the ASA! When a company is advertising something falsely, misleadingly, or if the advertisement is offensive, you can lodge a co...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Feb 22, 2011, 8:15 am
You’ve heard the expression “old age ain’t for sissies,” right? Well, I’m here to tell you it’s true. Next month I am going to be 64 and I cannot believe how much my body has deteriorated over the past decade…especially the last year. I have been reasonably healthy most of my life…ok...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Feb 15, 2011, 3:43 am
I prefer not to think of people as stupid…misguided, perhaps, or misinformed—even unthinking…but not stupid. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to stick to my resolve, difficult to refrain from assigning “stupid” or even “bone-deep stupid” to a person, based on a remark or an outlandi...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Feb 4, 2011, 4:45 am
Yesterday I posted the following on my Facebook page: Some of us are believers...some of us are not. But, for the sake of argument, let's say that the god of the Christians is sitting across the table from you and you can ask him/her one question and get an honest answer. What would that question be...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jan 27, 2011, 4:23 am
Puddin' and Lovey. Lovey is in the jammies because she decided to take a walk on Sunday...into the pool! Apparently she has not yet grasped the concept of "transparency" as she still tries to walk through glass doors and on Sunday, tried to walk on the surface of the pool. Fortunately, Hubby was in ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jan 25, 2011, 8:19 am
Ok, I need a contractor. My brother-in-law owns a flat in a suburb not too far from my home and the property management company recently called him saying it needed some painting, the quote for which was outrageous. BIL asked Hubby and me to go have a look for him. I don’t know what those people h...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jan 17, 2011, 3:26 am
This comment was too large for the comment section so it was emailed to me. I am passing it on. The writer lives in Arizona. Hi, Good comments. Sarah Palin scares the shit out of me. As far as I'm concerned, she is very dangerous. And her choice of the term "blood libel" was very unfortunate. I re...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jan 11, 2011, 11:30 am
I have long questioned the IQ of Tea Party darling, Sarah Palin, but with her response to the recent Tucson tragedy, I find myself questioning her EQ as well. I cannot say if the woman is as intellectually challenged as she seems, serving up stupid quips for answers to serious questions and inventin...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Jan 1, 2011, 5:38 am
Happy New Year, everybody. May the coming year bring you clarity, joy and prosperity.
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Dec 21, 2010, 2:25 pm
At one time in my life I lived in a 100-year-old tin-roofed adobe out in the Sonoran desert. At some point in the house’s history someone had added a lean-to off the back of the house and furnished it with a sink, shower over tub, and a toilet. They even installed a septic tank out behind the hous...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Dec 20, 2010, 2:06 am
No pics yet, but this weekend we added a new member to our family, a Yorkie puppy we have named Pavlova Caramel (in keeping with the "sweet things" theme of our girls' names...Candy, Puddin', and now Pavlova) but we are calling her "Lovey" for short. When she wakes up from her nap I'll do a few pics...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Dec 17, 2010, 2:54 am
Hakunamatata Estate in Muldersdrift was the venue and believe me, they could not have chosen a more beautiful site! The rain stopped a few hours before the event, so everything was beautifully green and washed clean. After a moving (and occasionally amusing) ceremony, we danced and partied into the ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Dec 10, 2010, 5:31 pm
How would you feel if you walked into your kitchen and somebody had rearranged your cabinets for you? You hadn’t been consulted, your opinion had not been solicited, you had not even been warned…you just opened the drawer to take out a towel and found cutlery instead, you opened the cupboard to ...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Dec 8, 2010, 7:05 am
OK, it's official...the Cell C "whoosh" wireless connection thingie sucks. Big time. Constant drop outs, reconnects that don't actually reconnect to the network. Long dead times while you connect, reconnect, and reconnect again. Save your money and stay away from this turkey! This review is based on...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Nov 30, 2010, 2:30 am
My first great-grandchild! Born 28 November 2010 (somewhere in the Boston area...dunno which hospital yet). She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz, is 20 1/2 inches long. Mama (my granddaughter Courtney) and baby doing fine...even went home from the hospital early!
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Nov 13, 2010, 8:13 am
How old are you? How old is your make up? If you are over 40, you need to read this. If you are under 40, keep reading…one day you will be over 40 and you will need to know this stuff. And if you’re a guy…well, who knows when this sort of thing might come in handy? Most of us already know that...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Nov 4, 2010, 3:37 pm
These people just never learn, do they? How many times has one über-Christian numbskull or another predicted the second coming of Christ and how many times has the dimbulb been wrong? Well, I can’t answer the first one…there are far too many to count. But the second one is easy…every single t...
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Sweet Violet posted an article on A View from the Other Side - Oct 30, 2010, 1:40 am
We have a couple of friends who are getting married soon. I haven’t been to a wedding in South Africa, but I’ve been to a bunch of them in America, and virtually every one of them has left me shaking my head…not at the nuptial couple, but at some of their guests. Who knew that the abandonment ...
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