👟👠 Kicking and screaming, but I'm back! (#93)

Hi ! I’ll bet you didn’t think anyone else would wish you a Happy 2026, and yet…here I am! Consider yourself wished. Also, Happy Valentine’s! Today I am writing about odds and ends...just dumping all the little things on mind that had no place to go for a whole month and a half. Like: Hikes, sushi buffets, stubborn cats, men, mountains, AI therapists and George Michael 😀 - Eve D.❣️

👋 Hi, Hi Hi!!! I said I’d be back in February, and here I am! That’s how we roll in 2026. Today’s newsletter is a brain dump of things I’ve wanted to write for weeks. Odds and ends.

How ARE you? It’s a wild year so far, no? I’ve had coffees with two friends recently(both those coffee dates lasted 3.5hrs each!!) and both friends said they’ve had a very shitty, chaotic start to 2026. True for you too? For me: I’ve been busy and overwhelmed, but nothing unusual. I have no idea how 2026 is going to pan out, to be honest. It could be the greatest year ever for me, or the worst. I do know it won’t be easy. Honestly, we just have to wait to see how the cookie crumbles. And hope for the best. (Obviously, the world has gone mad. We’ll get to (some parts of) that).

📖 What have I been doing while not writing to you wonderful people? Reading! I started off strong. In the first 2 weeks of the year, I read five fiction books. Unfortunately I have stalled on a book for three weeks now, not because it’s bad but because I’m doing so much other reading that I don’t have the energy for fiction. My favourite of the year so far is The Artist, which is beautifully written and utterly captivating. I think I read it in a sitting or two. Perfection also gets a thumbs up. It’s a very quick, different read and a great commentary on the times. It’s written in a most unusual style: it’s nothing but a narrative of the lives of two expats living in Berlin who are navigating the slow onset of unavoidable boredom in their lives. Not one line of dialogue is spoken, and I don’t think we meet any other characters. It’s just a dismal recount of the banality of life driven by the pursuit of happiness but it’s still thought provoking and somewhat jarring. You will see at least a little bit of yourself in the book, and it will make you cringe.

🍣 Went to an all-you-can-eat sushi place (for the first time ever), and I think I won.

☕️ I hung out with old friends over braais, coffees and slow lunches. Met up with friend whom I hadn’t seen in years because she moved to the other side of the world, literally, but came over to visit her folks. That was extra-fun.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Met fun new people. May this trend continue!

😡 I ranted on LinkedIn about the misuse of apostrophes and the post got 40,000+ views . Posted about my work and got about 37 views. Gotta love social media… designed for outrage and angst.

🏃 I did my first parkrun ever, and then I did another one! They are more difficult than I thought (not exactly the literal stroll in the park I was expecting), but so much fun, especially because I am doing them with both my kids. Fun fact: My home parkrun (Pretoria Botanical Gardens) is the biggest one in the world (by registrations)! Another fun fact: seven of the world’s largest parkruns are in South Africa. We really are outdoor-sy. (Some of us more than others, ahem).

😺 Remember when I didn’t have a cat? This is the same stray cat who basically walked into our house, off the street, in May last year. He’s now my anti-assistant.

🎹 Rediscovered George Michael. I’ve spoken about my very specific preference of music here before. (I now realise, by the way, the preference is not unusual at all. It’s simply “80s and 90s, and Taylor Swift”). At some point in January I realised I had not heard a George Michael song in ages (I cannot begin to describe how obsessed I was with him as a teenager), and so I plugged in his full discography on YouTube music, and relived my youth. When “Different Corner” came on I was almost breathless when the emotions of that era came flooding back. Apparently, your body does indeed keep the score. (Pun!). While I was listening to the music, I started reading about his life during the time that he wrote his songs …how he lost the love of his life to AIDS, and had to pick himself up again, and how the music is a reflection of his turmoil.

😢 Was devastated to hear that Cathryn O’Hara aka Moira (Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice, Home Alone) has passed away. We’ll now never have another Schitt’s Creek reunion 😭 😭 . She was a legend, a superstar. Made me howl with laughter (and always will). I loved and appreciated her greatly, and am anguished that she is no longer able to contribute to the world of comedy.

👋 G and I stole a 3 night weekend away to his bush getaway, where I climbed the highest mountain (not highest in the world, but highest in my life). I feel a sense of tremendous accomplishment at this. I mean…I was on top of that rock. Well done to me! And that’s just the start of 2026 hiking adventures (see below)! Aside from hiking, we also just chilled, but the time flew way too fast and I don’t feel rested at all. Which is scary and unfortunate because I have literally already had two proper getaways in the last two months. Can’t ask for more than that!

⛸️ The Olympics are on, but I am not spending too much time on them. (But I am watching figure skating with one eye and was happy to see a team skate to a George Michael medley!)

🍰 Both of my kids celebrated their birthdays this week! I now have a 15yr old and a 24yr old. Wow to me!! We ate a lot of cake, and a lot of doughnuts (two dozen doughnuts = 24 = OMG) and had a merry old time. But also: the chaos of life always makes it seem like the time between 1 December and 13th Feb (Micole’s birthday) is chaotic and unstable. Only once I cross mid-Feb can I actually focus on work and stuff. So, let’s go!

🐆 I’m going for a long walk! G has provisionally agreed to take me along as his +1 on the Leopard’s Trail in May. If you don’t know (and why should you?) it’s quite a famous multi day slackpacking (carry only what you need that day) hike through some of South Africa’s most beautiful scenery. It’s difficult to get reservation slots (they sell out in minutes), but G managed. He wan’t intending to take me (he’s not convinced I can manage the 62km up and down mountains), but I have wormed my way in and have promised to train like mad and be ready. And I did climb that mountain (see above), so I’m well on my way. (Will 2026 be a year of puns?)

(Watch the short video, it’s stunning!)

I see Alisson Holker is engaged. (If you don’t know who she is: a minor celebrity who lost her seemingly ideal husband to a suicide three years ago. It was a horrible and shocking story). Now, I am not at being judgmental here but I find it amazing how quickly some women can spring back from devastating loss. I had the same reaction when Sheryl Sandberg (then Facebook COO) started dating just nine months after the tragic loss of her husband which totally devastated her at the time. I’m not cut like that, I don’t think. I know men (generally speaking) cannot be alone for long, but it always surprises me when women are similar. Good for them etc etc.

This is just for my friend Laura:

I did this intense (free) personality test. It takes about 40-60 minutes, and you get back a massive report on your character. It’s built with AI (obviously), and uses the science of psychometric and similar tests to “figure you out”. It’s remarkably brilliant. Here is the best part: I asked G to do it too, and we shared our reports with each other. So now I have a lot more insight into him than I did before (it’s a bit like sitting on a therapist’s couch). But then! I took both reports, fed then into my AI (Claude) and asked it to help me figure out, based on what it now knows about us, how G and I can better show up for each other. And…OMG!!! Did it deliver!! It was so spot on it was scary. It absolutely 100% nailed our different styles of conflict management, and how we can work together to make sure we are both “heard”.

And there is more: G now has an extensive 80 page report on my personality (and I of his). There is nothing stopping us from asking AI to help us deal with issues, or make relationship stronger, or even come up with a good birthday gift idea. Is that wrong? Is it wrong that we can quietly interact with our AI about each other? It’s not that different from sitting in front of a therapist and asking them questions/advice, except that my therapist would only know my version of G! And that obviously cannot be accurate. Lots to think about here! (I think leaning on AI could be a huge problem if G and I ween’t able to communicate, and used the AI as a proxy, but let me assure you that G and I do not have this problem. We talk very well together, about everything, including about us individually and us as a couple. The AI input is general insight which we then discuss.)

Also: I used my report and AI to ask a lot of questions about me. You’d think I know myself pretty well by now, but I learnt so many new things about how I function in this world, and how to make my life here better. Turns out, I am “deeply dissatisfied” with life. Huh? I asked Claude how that could be…I know I am definitely happy. Turns out there is a big difference between “happy” (feel good no matter the circumstance) and satisfied (feel good with the circumstance). Anyway…I’ll be changing some things soon!

Long story short: I strongly recommend you do the test too.

I learnt something new this week that I feel like everyone else around me has always known: one of my favourite shows, House MD is based on the Sherlock Holmes character. (If you don’t know: House is a doctor who solves patients’ illness mysteries that no other doctor can figure out, and he’s very good at it). Here are the Holmes and House similarities:

• Holmes sounds like Homes which is ….House (!!!!!)

• Holmes’ bff was Watson, House’s bff is Wilson

• Both live on 221 Baker Street (!)

• Both have an addiction (cocaine, Vicodin)

• Both are anti-social

• Lots more here

I don’t want to talk about this, but I also don’t want to not talk about this. Epstein files. What the actual fuck. Men!!!! So, so, so many men. So many “good” men. Which begs the most uncomfortable of questions: given the opportunity, which men would run in the opposite direction, and which men would not?? AND HOW CAN WE TELL WHICH CATEGORY WHICH MAN FALLS INTO? Argggghhhh!!!! I am so extremely livid and disgusted and frankly speechless. I adore the men in my life, but fuck. (I’m also completely overwhelmed by it all, which apparently is a tactic: Overwhelm the audience with millions of unstructured documents and endless rabbit holes, to a point where we are incapable of actually doing anything about it.)

In much jollier news, have you seen Taylor swift’s new video for my favourite song, Opalite? It’s funny. And clever.

🐍 And before I leave you, we need to talk about the Chinese transition from Snake year to Horse year (G, you can stop reading right now! (FYI: G hates all references to astrology)). We are shedding the Year of the Snake this week Tuesday, and entering the Year of the Horse. Snake is associated with introspection, self-awareness, and letting go of habits that no longer work in our favour. It’s a quiet, slow process of growing discovery. The Horse could not be more different: it’s associated with strength, speed, movement. For us it means an honest pursuit of what matters, a shift in direction, a move to live an authentic life. The past few years have taught us a lot about who we are, what matters to us and what kind of life we want to live. The Horse energy now invites us to act on that knowledge, and bring in changes. Good luck to us all!

Thanks for reading! (It’s good to write again!! )

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