Ask Steph

So many stories start with those words.  Funny stories , sad stories , tragedies ... it's hard not to add on your own leanings as you hear or read them. So much is going around about  Oscar Pistorius at the moment, opinions, strong feelings, some fanaticism on both sides of the fence. I'm not going to go through what I think, I do believe there is far too much pre-judging going on at the moment, but I will share with you something that happened to me about 4 days go, and let you draw your own conclusions. I woke up around 5:30 am , unable to sleep, it was a hot muggy night and morning ( Melbourne has been averaging the high 30's for the last week , with unbearable humidity ) . I was feeling down , as my mother's visit was coming to an end , and all of this added up to me being unable to sleep very well. It was pitch dark in our room, the blinds are flipping brilliant at blocking out almost every smidgen of ambient and street light . I got up quietly , so a...

So I've been going through some of the boxes that are still packed . The ones that didn't hold the kitchen equipment and bedding , that were not critical to my survival when the container first arrived with my worldly possessions from South Africa. And I found some old school memorabilia, certificates of achievement , you know, those all important spelling things , and full attendance for 100 years straight , all those typical nerdy things that 10 year olds are so proud of , but pretend doesn't matter to them. I stumbled onto some of my old poems. I was quite the little pen-woman in my primary school days. Particularly after my grandparents died. I suppose it was my way of dealing with something big  and shocking that I really couldn't process any other way. It was something that shook up my whole family. My grandparents, my Aunt , and 2 cousins , all died in the same car accident , when a drunk driver , on the wrong side of the highway ( freeway if you're Aus...