‘Norah, you are never going to be beautiful so you had better make yourself useful’. This, according to Gillian Trotter, was in Norah Wellings’ mind when she looked at herself in a mirror in 1919. With sheer determination, hard work and loads of talent Norah became one of the best soft toy makers in the world.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) has ravaged the globe killing more than a 100 000 people and infecting over two million. We do not leave our homes without wearing a face mask and surgical gloves. During the Victorian era gloves and a hat were common accessories for men and women when they went outside but to ward off disease and the plague they often wore a nosegay or tussie-mussie.
With the recent heavy downpours in Bloemfontein and the images and videos thereof popping up all over Facebook, one cannot help but be reminded of one of the biggest disasters to ever hit Bloemfontein, the flood of 1904.
In the early years of Bloemfontein its famous Bloem Spruit regularly flooded its banks after a heavy rainstorm. One bystander described it as follows: “A magnificent sight after a good downpour, the water, brown and foaming, shooting up as it flung itself against the huge boulders in its way, or swirling and eddying around them.” This, however, was under normal circumstances.
Kim Kardashian has made news headlines once more. This time it was an image of her perfect hour glass figure that set social media alight. Rumours ran rife and it is even speculated that she had some ribs removed.
With Election Day around the corner (8 May 2019 will be the sixth democratic elections in South Africa) it is important that we are once again reminded of and celebrate our right to vote.
Throughout history most societies believed women to be inferior to men. Women were also thought to be less intelligent. Since ancient times the lives of most women centered around their children and homemaking. In most countries women had no or a very limited political voice.