Graham took out his earrings when he went in for some dental work, lost some of them, and we were wondering if the holes were still open. So I unpacked my earrings to lend him some, those not lost over the passage of time and many moves, and fell down a rabbithole in memory lane.

Looking at these, I am reminded of what a full, privileged, colourful life I have. I am also amazed at how many memories they pack in this small (and mostly cheap) form. Even if I had to leave everything behind I could grab my little tin (and extra baggie because they don’t all fit in the tin anymore) and still be able to hold on to the memories.
I also chuckle, because I almost never wear jewellery. Which does not stop me from buying jewellery, at all.

1 – A silver ring that I bought, very hungover, in Helsinki in 2006, after taking an overnight ferry from Stockholm and seeing the sun rise across the Baltic sea. This was a trip through Europe that I saved up and stopped drinking beer for all year during my Masters. The memories of this trip alone could probably fill a book. I’ve tried to repeat it but the ease of digital map access and age and experience just makes it different. I have had better experiences that is more similar to that trip just getting lost at home. But I digress. I bought the ring as an engagement ring for someone who when I returned to South Africa was engaged to someone else. Bizarrely, looking back, I don’t even think we ever dated! I was a confused little one. I wore the ring on my thumb for years and years after that, and the delicate grooves have all worn off. I love the heavy feel of it.
Along with this, a wooden box and I think a bracelet made of freshwater pearls, bought in Doha in 2012-ish. We were there for some TED related thing, and I was already starting to wonder about how to get people to see TED talks as a hook, the start of a conversation rather than the whole story. How to complicate the narrative. There were others there who shared this concern but I don’t think we got anywhere. I remember crying in the lunch queue (the wheels were starting to come off in terms of my mental health, helped along by a bad break-up), but also falling in love with a camel. I love the feel of the pearls but can’t wear it, the feelings are too sad. Also it’s quite heavy and I’m scared I break it while animatedly gesturing at something as I am wont to do, causing pearls to scatter everywhere. I should deconstruct and make something else with it.
2 – A trinket charm necklace that I think was from the Honey brand, early 2000s, a cheap brand that is like Tupperware for jewellery, and is dangerously close to a Ponzi scheme. I don’t think I’ve ever actually even worn this, my neck is too thick, but I like the idea of the charms. I should deconstruct and make something else with it.
3 – Dichroic glass pendant bought in Yorkshire during my Masters December 2005. I cycled to this castle or something in the very cold; it was my first experience with snow and I think my toes got hypothermia. They stung and itched so much in the shower afterwards!! I thought this captured rainbow was the most beautiful thing; I am a sucker for light refraction. The connector broke, it was a bit heavy as a necklace, and I feel too precious over it to wear it, but I always spend a few moments appreciating it when I see it. I think it should be framed on a wall that catches the sun.
4 – A zultanite necklace bought during a 40th roadtrip to Türkiye with my best and oldest friend in 2023. It changes colour when it hits the light. I feel very worldly when I wear it.
5 – Compared with another Honey purchase, I think, a kitch costume jewelry piece from Boksburg that catches the light in such fun ways. I wear that embarrasingly often, using a piece of black ribbon instead of a chain. So kitch, lol!
6 – A bracelet made of little prints of the cover of Drum magazine. I think I got this, along with the earrings (25) during my political awareness phase, either in the early 2000’s or in 2006 on returning from Britain, where I holed up in my room for three months learning about the actual history of my birth country rather than the Afrikaner version. I still can’t fathom how I managed to stay so ignorant for the first 25 years of my life.
7 – A glass pendant which I think I bought at an airport jewelry shop, hoping to mimic the love I felt for the dichroic glass pendant but without feeling so precious over it. It was quite heavy and I think I just don’t like stuff around my neck. I’m keeping it in the hope I’ll find some alternative use for it.
8 – Cuff-links? I don’t remember these at all, but I assume I went through a phase of wearing mens shirts and wanting to tie the cuffs in a cool way or something. Unfortunately, as good as tailored shirts look, they’re uncomfortable for a hooligan like me, so that didn’t last.
9 – Synthetic opal earring and necklace set I bought as retail therapy once on a visit back home in Boksburg. I don’t know what I thought to capture or recover or discover but it ended up just feeling the same as the earrings (13), just sad. Also I realised I don’t like synthetic opal, it’s too perfect, too homogeneous. Boring.
10 – Scattered around are those cheap earrings from those overly pink shops, that I can’t resist everytime I walk past. I like the bulk purchases, where you get six sets of little animals or ice cream or whatever figurines.
11 – A ceramic astronaut that was gifted to me during a TED event, possibly also Doha? He gifted it to me after a brief conversation, he said because I was interesting, and I have never felt so seen, before or since. I think we are friends on Facebook still and I think he’s also gone through some hectic ups and downs mentally, like me. I think of that brief but meaningful interaction often.
12 – Pearl earrings from Hout Bay, no idea from when, 2017 ish? I love these and keep misplacing them (I actually think I bought three pairs but can only find the one). I love their elegant luster and almost-smooth-but-not-quite-just-so-you-know-they’re-legit texture.
13- Sparkly earrings that catch the light, which my mom bought me “for mathematics” when I was 12 years old. I don’t remember the exact reason, I do remember that it was not necessarily for maths, and while I love their sparkliness, somehow I can’t manage to wear them for the sad feelings they bring up. I should deconstruct and make something else with it. Something that completely obliterates those feelings.
14 – Plain black earrings, I think this was an attempt at fitting in. I’ve never worn them.
15- Earrings I made from Dutch beads when I went there, was that 2011? They ended up being quite heavy though, and I’ve lost my obsession with the Dutch (straight talking apparently means you’re great at dishing it out but less good at taking it in), but they feel smooth so I don’t want to get rid of them.
16 – Delightfully sortof gothic earrings I bought in Riga, Latvia, in November 2023 during a wonderful day out just being a girl and doing girly stuff with another “Canonical-wife” during an Ubuntu Summit.
17, 18 are various earrings that collectively is probably best described as me trying out different styles and not really liking any of them.
19- Clay earrings bought in Cavaleiro, Portugal, during a weekend away from the coastal Algarve, when I said to Graham if he doesn’t get me out of here I will genocide the whole damn lot of old British drunks. Goddamn I hate the Algarve. Not the Algarve, per se, but the expats who avidly live for their alcoholism and manage to be in the country for 20 years without so much as being able to say Obrigada.
20 – Mock antique costume jewelry earrings that I loved because they were dainty and interesting, but that lost their attraction when they yellowed with age. I probably got these in high school, late 90’s?
21- Earrings bought in Monchique during our first visit to Portugal, end 2022. It was the start of our new adventure.
22 – This tin also tends to collect the broken and picked up flotsam. I don’t remember the elephants, but they’re very cute. I should do something with them. I think they didn’t fit with their fittings and kept getting knotted up, which is probably why the one ultimately broke.
23 – I think these are my only actual silver earrings. They’re very fancy and understated and I wear them when I feel like my pleb side needs to go deep into hiding.
24 – A rather big, bulky, bothersome earring and I lose its partner during a party. There was another mismatched earring of similar length and I used to wear the two together to be edgy. It’s also lost by now. If I showed up wearing these (especially wearing black), it meant a night of trouble.
25 – Subtle political earrings made of small images of Drum magazine. I loved these but moving to Cape Town and its wind made them hard to wear; they are little sails and whacked into my ears a lot and poked my neck. They’re light and fun to wear but I don’t feel that sort of political anymore so I don’t feel like wearing them anymore.
26 – Moon earrings. Also very old, 1990’s somewhere. The cool thing about them is they have a smiling face on the one side and a sad face on the other.
27 – Earrings I bought in Brazil on the Argentinian border near Iguazu National Park. I didn’t like Brazil but I could not BELIEVE the butterflies, and they come drink your sweat which was epic because I got pissed off at the tourists, ditched a bus and walked 4 or so km back to my hostel, so I was sweating a lot. Epic win.

A close up of the alpaca earrings that I bought during a shopping mall adventure – the peak of Boksburg culture – with the roadtrip friend and the third friend of the trio. It was such a normal event but we had such a good time.
And then I have to include the tin I store the earrings in (well, those that fit). There was a fourth friend but we became estranged. She gifted me this little tin filled with scented sweet pea soaps back in high school, so 1990’s somewhere, and I loved the soaps so much, and adore the tin, and have not been able to find scented sweet pea soaps or a tin I loved equally as much again. I am now again on the mission.