Rowan Spazzoli

Strategist. Lecturer. Consultant

Being Home

There’s nothing quite like being at home with mom. As much as I’m a 25 year old (mostly) functional adult, there is still something really special about being in the comfort of the home space.

It’s refuge from the intensity of the world. A small oasis where you can be safe. A place where the fridge is actually full.

After a week like I’ve had, this is exactly where I need to be.

Home.

Image was taken overlooking Wilderness on the drive to the airport this afternoon 🙂

Note: apologies, the previous version of this post was titled “home” which sent people to the home page. Hence the update!

Blog: 170/365

Song of the day: Gareth Emery & Ashley Wallbridge – Crypto

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Rest

Resting has been difficult this weekend. Even though I’m in the perfect environment for it, I have work anxiety sitting over me. I’m also still recovering from this week. And keep having flashbacks to Monday.

I’m going to try being more patient with myself. It’ll take a while to get back into the swing of things. And that’s okay.

Image was taken on a run in Camps Bay last year

Blog post: 169/365

Song of the day: The Grease Medley

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The Friday Shoutout: Abalone House

After the robbery on Monday we were feeling really distraught and helpless. We popped in to a hotel down the road from where we had been staying, Abalone House.

Despite the kitchen being closed, Lee (the general manager) organized breakfast and coffee for us. We were looked after by a Gale, who made sure we were okay.

When further disaster struck, and our friend rolled her car on the way to pick us up, the people at Abalone House came to our rescue again. Lee lent us her car without hesitation to go and pick our friend up. And one of the staff coincidentally stopped to make sure the friend was alright.

And again, we ended up back at Abalone House where they got us tea and soup. They also made a fire for us and looked after us until our second recovery vehicle arrived. And they didn’t even let us pay for any of this.

So the Friday Shoutout goes to Abalone House and the wonderful people there. Thank you for looking after us at our time of need!

Image is from the Abalone House Facebook page 🙂

Blog: 168/365

Song of the day: I think we’re alone now – Tiffany

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Out of (my) control

Today I tried to tackle some of my post-robbery admin. I started with something that I thought would be an easy win with a big impact: getting a new sim card.

This turned out to be much more difficult than I anticipated. The MTN store I visited was closed. Three other stores were out of sim cards. And when I finally bought a sim card, the system wasn’t working to register it.

I then travelled to another MTN store and found out that the RICA registration system was down. Nationwide. And had been for the last two days.

So there was literally no way to get myself back online.

I found this so frustrating. My one, simple objective had not been achieved.

In reality, it was impossible to achieve it. There is no way I could get the national system back online.

Despite realising this, I’ve spent the whole evening brooding over it. And I need to be more patient with myself.

Because ultimately, it was out of my control

Image was from 2013 when my car broke down in the middle of the road

Blog: 167/365

Song of the day: Maliaka – Destiny

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The Luckiest

I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect on what happened on Monday. In the space of a few hours my life and some of the lives of people close to me were shaken up. We lost a huge amount of stuff, including laptops, phones, wallets and cars (one written off in an accident and the other rendered useless when the keys were stolen).

In spite of all this, we were incredibly lucky.

My friend heard the thieves in the house but thought it was me getting a glass of water. If he had gone outside there is no telling what they would have done to him. He was lucky.

The thieves came into my room armed with a massive knife from the kitchen, which they dropped just outside the door to the room when they left. I slept through all of this. I have no idea how they would have reacted if I had woken up. I was lucky.

The friend that came to rescue us from this situation slipped off the road and rolled her car, destroying it completely. Yet she was able to walk away almost completely unharmed, with only a bruise on one side of her body. She was lucky.

The Luckiest

The upside of this whole situation was how lucky we were. Things were bad but they could have been drastically worse. And the items can all be replaced, we can’t.

To top this all off, there was a strange cosmic moment that happened at the car accident. Once the car came to a stop, my friend’s phone, which had had no music playing before, suddenly started sounding out a few chords. And as the dust settled and she realised she was okay, she begun hearing the music playing next to her. She recognised it immediately.

The song was “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds.

We were the luckiest.

Image was taken from my residence at UCT in 2011 🙂

Blog number: 166/365

Song of the day: The Luckiest (About Time Version) – Ben Folds 

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Piece by piece

With all that’s gone on in the last two days, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with what needs to be done. There’s a massive list of admin to sort out including:

  • Applying for a new drivers license
  • Getting a new phone and computer
  • Getting new prescriptions for my meds
  • Ordering new keys for my apartment and for my car (which includes getting certified copies of various documents)
  • Getting the insurance sorted out on every single one of these items
  • Fetching my car from Malmesbury, where it was towed to
  • Catching up on work I missed
  • Organizing a new SIM card
  • Getting back in to my accounts
  • Getting a new credit card

To be honest, it makes me feel rather anxious, especially considering I’m supposed to be going to Joburg and Sedgefield next week. Also, the financial impact of this all is massive.

But I’m going to take it one at a time. There’s no rush, and if I let people down it’s entirely understandable. I’ll rebuild, piece by piece.

Image was taken on our 2016 trip to sedgefield

Blog 165/365

Song of the day: O fortuna – Carl Orff

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We all fall down We live somehow We learn what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger

“Rowan wake up! We’ve been broken in to”

That’s how my day started out. The lovely beach cottage we were staying in has been ransacked in the night. They removed a glass pane in the door and stolen everything while we slept.

The scary thing is that they took my phone, which was lying next to my bed. And they left a large kitchen knife just outside my room, which we think they might’ve come in with.

I lost my phone, laptop, wallet, credit card, bag, medicine, notes and books. Additionally, they took my car and house keys, leaving us stranded, 200km from Cape Town.

Luckily they hadn’t taken my friends phone, and so were able to call the police and make contact with friends and family.

One friend then got off work to come and fetch us. And we grabbed breakfast while waiting for her.

And just before she arrived, she hit a slippery patch on the road and rolled her car.

The car is written off but by some miracle she came out completely okay. We borrowed a car from the wonderful people at Abalone house and picked her up

Finally my friends mom came through and we managed to get a ride back to Cape Town. The rest of the night we spent in the hospital doing precautionary scans.

The most important thing is that we’re alright. We didn’t get stabbed. The car accident didn’t cause any harm. And all the stuff is replaceable.

Got a lot of admin to do, but we’ll be okay 🙂

Image was taken last year and is the laptop that got stolen. Title of the post is from the lyrics of the song below

Blog:163/365

Song of the day: Sharp Edges – Linkin Park

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Delicate

Over the past four years I’ve been fortunate to experience a variety of fine dining experiences. A close friend of mine brings me along on his escapades, and I get to participate in some incredible adventures. And the thing that stands out for me is how delicate they are.

It’s easy to over emphasise stuff. A massive steak, a big glass of wine, an extravagant ice cream. But the thing that has stood out on these adventures is restraint. The ability for the chefs to make phenomenal experiences with few ingredients.

This speaks to more than just food. Being outrageous and loud is one way to attract attention. But there’s something much more special in making a craft out of the delicate and the subtle. The noise may bring the people, but the gentle craft is what keeps them there.

Image was taken today at Wolfgat, the restaurant we were at. If you’d like to follow my friend you can find his instagram account here

Song of the day: Taylor Swift - Delicate
Blog 162/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here
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