The list of my all time favourite albums includes Oldies such as Millie Jackson, Candi Stanton (Here I am ), Joan Amatrading, Cindi Lauper, Shirley Brown, Olletta Adams, Petti Labelle, Kool and the Gang...you get the picture neh! Local Oldies would include Sankomota, Stimela, Soul Brothers, Mahlatini and Mahotela Queens, Stompi Mavi, Joy (Paradise Road), Juluka, etc. My brother Xolile always teases and calls my taste of music 'Clicks' music...apparently it is the kind of music you will hear when at a Clicks/Pick 'n Pay in-house radio shows.

That's it...I really think that more often than not I am misunderstood for not willing to conform. Believe you me, many a times I have tried this conforming thing, but I fail dismally!

I have tried straightening my hair (about 10 years ago)...I swear I looked like Aunt Jane from years yonder!!! I tried the weave about three years ago. I went to a posh salon in Polokwane for the weave....I got really good compliments from my friends....apparently I looked like Noleen Maholwana Sangqu! With all the goodness this hairstyle came with, I could not stand the way it used to make me forget my manners! The itchiness that would come with it would send my fingers to scratch, at times in the middle of important business meetings with very important people. It had to go, three weeks was too much!

Then came my chiskop...this for me was a time of bliss. I needed no showercap when getting in the shower. Vaseline Blue Seal petroleum jelly was good enough to bring a good shinehead! I even mastered the art of shaving my own head! This one hairstyle brought me closer to my partner as all that he needed to do was brush my head for our minds to meet...and sometimes he could achieve more than a mere meeting of the minds ;-) ...if you get my point!

Now, as of this moment, I keep my hair natural....literally! I shower from head to toe! Hairfood is all I need after that...no comb....my fingers are my comb! Once in a while I will be spotting cornrows...but the torment of someone puliing my hair for two hours is rarely justifiable!

What do all these tendencies make me? A village girl (Which I am)? A hippy? I couldn't care if you asked me!

It's not the hair alone by the way that renders me a different kind of a woman! For years I endured suffering simply for being a conformist! You see, whilst I enjoyed the end result of alcohol, the feeling of being tipsy that is (intoxication in virtual terms), it took me a long time to settle for what makes me really happy! I used to drink the likes of 'Savanna and family'...endured the after effects of carrying a heavy head the following day! What about the fact that these were a very reliable laxative the following day! I let this happen to me until I discovered and acquired the taste of Heineken! Twelve dumpies do not guarantee you a bad day the following day....you wake up as if you never spent the night and a quarter of the morning at the Cubana Lounge! Yes, you will endure the funny looks from guys and dolls that are this year's judges of 'Junkee of the Year'....but wena mos you know that's one competition you did not enter!

I don't know if there is something I'm missing by not being a conformist...you tell me....like if each one of us had their own planets...would you visit my planet???

Please don't get me wrong! I conform with everything else that makes our world a better place....like I wash my dog, I pray, I eat meat (not just leaves), I use tissue oil on my stretch marks (for years now...but they are still there...lol), oohh yes....like many people I know...I call cool drink cold drink---not because I don't know---just nje!