Fairlady October 2016

Thuli Madonsela… For the past seven years of her life, she has been the calm, incorruptible eye at the centre of a considerable storm. We owe her a debt of enormous gratitude, and our undying respect. Thank you, Advocate Madonsela, for your grace, integrity and enormous courage – we salute you! Clarins Waterproof Cream Eyeshadow and Labello lip balm Metallic bronze eyeshadow (this one is part of a limited-edition Clarins 2016 Summer Makeup collection) PLUS a must-have summer lip balm (Labello SPF 30 Sun Protect) = summer, sorted! National Garden Day. It’s a Thing. This is an urgent call to spend Sunday 9 October in your – or any – garden. National Garden Day is about being outdoors with your loved ones… not weeding or deadheading, just vegging (to keep…

WINNING LETTER Gender bender Liesl Robertson’s article on the financial load of being female [‘The real cost of being female’, July 2016] really spoke to me. I was in a largely male profession and paid considerably less than my male counterparts, yet was expected to be grateful for the job. As for the not-so-hidden costs of ‘pink’ products, I have an answer for some of them. Having found that women’s fleece pyjamas left a gap between top and bottom, came only in twee designs and cost a bomb, I idly checked out the men’s department in the same low-priced chain store. Eureka! Nice long tops, cosy fabric and much cheaper. After a year’s wear, I can confirm they’re much better quality too. Next, I tried men’s socks, then trackpants and…

I’m very comfortable talking about it. ANDREA DE VRIES CANCER PATIENT I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. I had a mastectomy and my lymph nodes were removed, and I was all clear for six years. Then I was diagnosed again in September last year. There was no lump or anything; I was just feeling out of sorts, and it took them a while to figure out what was wrong. It’s stage four this time – the cancer has spread to my brain, my liver, my lung and my spine. But through treatment, my brain is all clear and everything else has shrunk quite significantly. I first went for radiation to my brain, and then onto chemo, none of which really agreed with me. I’m now on Herceptin,…

“We’re all naturally curious explorers, seeking new experiences and new knowledge. I think if we stop exploring, we may lose touch with what it is to be human.” What is home? It is a question many of us have contemplated at some point, but perhaps few more than Adriana Marais (32), who’s been shortlisted for a paradigm-shifting project that will attempt to settle the first humans on Mars. The Durban-born postdoctoral theoretical physicist is among five South Africans on the shortlist of 100 candidates vying to call the red planet ‘home’. Next year, Mars One, the organisation behind the initiative, will announce their top 24, who will undergo 10 years of intensive training to prepare for the adventure of the century. The idea of emigrating to a new planet is…

 Is it really possible? “I’m not cutting off opportunities because I might go to Mars – I’m embracing them. I live in the moment and appreciate the people around me as if I might not be living with them forever.” ‘It’s not only possible, it’s inevitable. With all the technological advancements we’re seeing today, and the fact that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Nasa have also announced plans to put humans on Mars, I’m pretty sure we’ll see it happen in our lifetime. Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” The biggest challenge the Mars One project faces now is funding. It’s a private organisation and estimates it will need about US$6 billion.’ What about the experiences you’ll miss on Earth: weddings, births …. even settling down…

There’s no universally accepted definition of what dreams are, and theories range from the spiritual to the strictly scientific. All we know for sure is that they are real, and that we all experience them. But is there any point or purpose to the stories we weave during sleep? When my grandmother died, I had a vivid dream about my late grandfather. It was so real that I could still feel his cheek on mine as I woke up. What knocked me for six, though, was his advice that I should learn to let go of the past and move on. The loss of my grandparents catapulted me into nostalgia about the end of an idyllic childhood and feelings of deep insecurity. Regardless of how or why I dreamt what…