Tracy Engelbrecht

Tracy Engelbrecht is a writer and mother of two. She lives in Cape Town and doesn’t grow freakishly large prizewinning vegetables, but she does do a nice lasagne and her children aren’t in therapy yet, so things are going well. She hardly ever drinks pina coladas or gets caught in the rain, but she’s working on it.

That’s the official story. The truth is, of course, much less exciting.

I was once The Girl Who Couldn’t Say No, but these days I’m mom and eternal tea-maker to a teenage son, and mommy and copious cuddler of a tween daughter – both unique specimens of delicious humanity, way cooler than you’d expect with me as a mom.

I’m also blogger, a columnist and a Tweeter-in-training. What else? Ah, yes. Thinker, reader, pudding-fantasist, champion-napper and above all, a sensible girl.

I have a thing for history and science, am a genealogy freak and gravestone stalker. This may or may not mean dubious things about my psychological state. I’m going with “may not”. Wishful thinking? Indeed so.

Huge fan of curiosity and learning new stuff, my last words are most likely to be “Hey, what does this button do? ”

Hopelessly inelegant and perfectly inappropriate for every occasion, I wear my awkwardness like a badge of honour. I have to. It’s the only jewellery I own not made from macaroni.

I’ve given up on the pina colada thing (see above). It was never me anyway; I’m much more a creme soda float girl. Wif sprinkles.