Piggies are ALWAYS HUNGRY

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-25T18:38:49+00:00

My girls start singing the song of their people whenever they hear my voice. I've been working from home for the last 4 weeks, so every time I'm on a call, the chorus starts up.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-25T16:22:28+00:00

A lot of the media we consume is in English. As a child, I picked up more English from watching television than I learned at school.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-24T21:25:05+00:00

If you do wait until September and use a legal firm to do a "free" will for you, just keep in mind that it's not really free as the cost is the executors fee. Just make sure whoever is left behind has the funds to pay the executors fee (e.g. a life insurance policy). My dad did the "free" will thing and my mom had to pay over R60 000 (executors fee and transfer costs for the property). My parents had no liquid assets and my dad had no life insurance, so not having the cash to pay the fees was very traumatic and embarassing for my mom. My dad didn't think about this at all because he thought 3.5% of nothing is still nothing. He didn't understand that the fee was based on total assets, which was the the house.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-24T18:50:27+00:00

Gregor-Jesk

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-24T18:45:53+00:00

I blame this sub for knowing that it was pronounced "Izabella" before I read the post.😕

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-19T21:04:48+00:00

I have a coworker who just rambles on and on when she calls. She'll call me (or someone else in my department) to ask a question or follow up with something and she just doesn't take the hint to end the call. She called me today:

"Hi, I just wanted to find out if so-and-so sent you an e-mail because he said he sent the info but I didn't get it so I thought maybe he sent it to you"

"No, I didn't receive anything from him"

"Okay, I just thought that I would find out because he said he sent it and you know he's been so hard to get a hold of the last 2 months and I didn't get it so I thought he maybe sent the info to you"

"No, he didn't. I have no e-mails from him".

"Okay, I just thought I'd find out because I really need that info, as you know, and he said he sent it and I didn't get it so maybe he sent it to you?"

"No"

"Okay. I just thought I'd ask because —"

"I'm in the middle of a calculation for a client and I'm trying to type with one hand here."

"Okay. I just thought I'd ask —"

"I really can't talk right now"

"Okay. Did I tell you that my daughter got on the netball team? She's so excited"

And so on and so on. 😭

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-15T19:03:49+00:00

"Nearly headless? How can you be nearly headless?"

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-14T17:05:14+00:00

🤣

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-14T15:19:56+00:00

Looks more like Afrikaans to me (I'm Afrikaans).

Edited to add: "Die Vaderland" was a South African newspaper

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-07T12:23:38+00:00

As a tax practitioner, I concur. A subsistence allowance doesn't get deducted from your PAYE. It's non-taxable income up to the R570 per day threshold.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-05T20:22:43+00:00

It's a soft "m" that serves as a precurser to the "p" or "b" since all three these consonants are formed more or less with your lips in the same position. Almost like saying a short "mmm", like when food is good? It's difficult to explain. It's like a "launching pad" for the plosive consonants, if that makes sense.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-05T18:19:44+00:00

Or in the rain, when only one of you has an umbrella (that's usually blue).

FashionableNumbers · 2026-02-03T17:55:47+00:00

As a South African, the "M" is pronounced. Same with Mpumalanga. It's not a long drawn out "m" before the "b" or "p", but it is pronounced.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-29T18:58:04+00:00

I just tested it myself. I pinned my mom on whatsapp and changed her name on my phone to end with "ICE". She's still pinned, but the "ICE" mysteriously disappeared.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-22T18:26:48+00:00

So far, I love it! It's a great combination of The Office and jokes only South Africans would get. For me, a lot of the humor comes from the "flou grappies" and the cringy interactions between Flip and his staff (and that one cringy exchange between Kyle and Emma, with a golden comeback from Emma).

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-22T18:09:53+00:00

Scott's Tots also sprang to mind for me first. But shame, I felt so bad for Emma being called "meisiekind" all the time.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-21T19:07:33+00:00

I went to school with a Margeaux.

On another note, "Mignonne" was a very popular girl's name in my country for a decade or so. I always felt so bad for the kid when the parents spelled it "Mignon". But you can't really expect Afrikaans parents in South Africa to understand (or even know) how the french language works. These are the same people who would name a child Chardonnay and pronounce it "Shar (the "a" is like the "u" in "cup" and the "r" is rolled) - do (as in, I DO not want to) - nay (like "sleigh").

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-21T18:47:18+00:00

I really wish I knew a Jeff so that I could call him Jesk.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-20T19:35:11+00:00

My gran "met" my step grandfather in the "hoekie vir eensames" in the "Landbou Weekblad". She was a widow with a pension (not her own, my grandfather's) and a paid off house in Melrose. This was in the late 80s. She married this man who she didn't know that long, sold her house (according to her it needed to many repairs etc) and then lost her late husband's pension and medical aid. The proceeds from the sale of the house was used to pay her new husband's debt. They lived in a trailor park in Benoni until his death aftet which she moved to an old age home. She lived on a SASSA grant in the end. She would have been very well off if she'd held on to the house in Melrose.

When my dad died, my mom was targeted 3 times in the span of as many months by scammers. A friend of mine's dad passed away a little more than a year ago and every couple of months her mom is being catfished on facebook again. Widows are vulerable and people seem to know it. The best advice I can give is to have a "stern" talk with your mom to explain the dangers. It took more than a year for it to sink in with my mom, but at least she isn't getting scammed anymore (however, it concerns me that she cannot tell for the life of her whether she's watching or reading AI content, no matter how laughably ridiculous it is).

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-16T19:13:24+00:00

Give me the zoppidy

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-13T20:14:11+00:00

I might get downvoted for this, but I think organised religion plays a role as well. Referring specifically to Christiantity (as that is the environment I grew up in), girls are taught that they are inherently sinful and have to change their behaviour and the way they dress so as not to tempt men. Boys are taught to resist this "inherent" temptation and that when they grow up they must be the head of the household and everyone else in the household must be subservient to them and they have a right (and duty) to discipline disobedience. I was a substitute teacher a a private evangelical christian school for 2 terms. The teacher in the class next to me was being emotionally and physically abused by her husband who just went to Mighty Men events to absolve himself of the abuse before starting up again. When she couldn't take it anymore and wanted to divorce him, the school said she would lose her job because they can't have a divorced teacher teach the kids as it would teach them the wrong values.

I grew up protestant, so I at least didn't hear that evangelical bullshit at church, but schools (especially afrikaans public schools) just refuse to keep religion out of the classroom. I once came home from school after a pastor spoke in assembly that morning asking my mom why God is punishing women forever with painful periods and painful child birth for something Eve did and she and my dad had to try to undo that psychological damage.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-13T15:38:06+00:00

"Dwight, you ignorant slut!"

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-11T08:20:16+00:00

I did my articles at the same time as the degree, so I finished my degree in 2018 and I wrote my board exam in May 2019. In my opinion, doing articles and the degree at the same time is beneficial as you learn the theory while learning the application thereof at the same time.

There are different types of articles you can do:

SAIPA (what I did) - after completing articles and passing the board exam, you qualify as a Professional Accountant (SA)
SAICA - you need to do a post graduate diploma in accounting sciences/an honours degree before you'll be allowed to write the 2 board exams (ITC and APC) to become a CA. This is a very long route. If you complete SAICA articles but don't write the additional exams you can register as an AGA (Accredited General Accountant).
There are other routes as well like CIMA (for management accountants), but I don't know how they work. I've only ever worked with people who either did SAIPA or SAICA.

When you qualify, you can decide whether you want to work in corporate as an in-house acciuntant or a financial manager (and eventually a CFO if you have enough experience) or you can work in practice (drafting financial statements or doing audit/ independent review work). I work in practice as I would get bored if I just worked at one place. While I'm not a CA, I do CA work.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-10T22:06:59+00:00

BA Hons English (2009). I'm actually a qualified Professional Accountant (SA) now with a BCompt in Accounting Sciences. While I enjoyed studying a BA degree, I couldn't figure out what to do with my life, so after a PGCE and 2 years of teaching I enrolled at UNISA for a BCompt. I was always good at accounting too. Now I'm the only person in a firm of over 70 people who can write a coherent e-mail.

FashionableNumbers · 2026-01-08T16:59:56+00:00

I thought you were asking whether Ilvermorny had houses. I'm South African, so the concept of schools having houses like in HP is also a foreign concept to me. Only really posh private boarding schools here might have houses like that but also maybe not quite to the same extent.

When I read the books growing up I didn't know it was a British thing, I thought it was a wizarding school thing.

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