fred hatman

Jack Russells. Amazingness. I’ve always thought them super-intelligent. The sharpest tools in the entire dogbox. Now I must revise my assessment. They’re actually far cleverer than that. If there’s a pattern developing on this crazy unicycling adventure, other than the obvious one of The Heartman furiously pedalling his AmaOneTyre in front of the back-up vehicle [...]

OK. So as I write this, I’m sitting in the back-up truck, rain drizzling through the lichen-coated trees which line the dirt track stretching before us. Us? Yes. The Heartman is dozing among the tyre tubes, Glaceau Vitaminwater bottles and bags of Gower Power nutritional supplements piled high in the back of our vehicle. He’s [...]

Here at the Bush Palace, our “Control Tower” for the Heart & Sole Tour to raise awareness of landmines, we hold a great fondness for brilliant advertising. So when an ad campaign comes along which is both ingeniously executed and highlights the man-made and totally unnecessary scourge of despicable landmines, we are doubly chuffed. Witness [...]

In another of my weekly interviews with interesting folk who live in my beautiful seaside hometown of Umdloti in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, I popped in to visit the lovely and effervescent Michelle Robb at her rather tasty little sex shop in Glenashley… FH: You run an adult shop. How does a woman such as you [...]

I was summoned at the weekend by The Oyster Box’s Head Honcho to discuss his proposal for my weekend residency at the newly revamped colonial-style hotel, a veritable institution among old Natal hostelries. Over the finest cream tea to be had anywhere, our residency agreement was speedily finalised. I mean, am I the biggest fan [...]

In the sixth of my weekly interviews with interesting people living in and around the idyllic seaside town of Umdloti on South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal coast, I asked the Big Five questions of Adapt IT internet boffin (and developer of Durban’s official World Cup 2010 website), Richard McLennan… FH: You are known as the man behind [...]

In the fifth of my weekly interviews with interesting people living in Umdloti (on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, South Africa), I asked the Big Five questions of Germaine Horowitz, tireless founder and co-ordinator of The Kidz Clinic, which reaches out to and counsels children, living in and around Waterloo township, near Umdloti, who have been [...]

And now, for no reason at all other than to pay homage to the sumptuous weather which we on KwaZulu-Natal’s sub-tropical coastline enjoy all-year-round and thus seriously piss off our friends in Cape Town who continue to be deservedly punished by winter’s woes, I bring you some jolly japery from the weekend. The Heartman, my [...]

In the fourth of my weekly interviews with an interesting resident of Umdloti, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa – the idyllic seaside village in which I am blessed to live – I asked the Big Five questions of Andre Cronje, director of the Wild Touch programme on SABC. Let’s have a quick look at him, shall we? [...]

In the third of my interviews (published here every weekend) with interesting people who live in my hometown of Umdloti, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, I asked the Big Five questions of Vera Hindmarch, a clairvoyant and the source of great spiritual inspiration to many… FH: At what age did you realise that you had the ability [...]