For the love of stories! 📖

Dear Friends,

Hope you are all doing well.
We are right in the middle of exam season here at the KuierKos headquarters. Anne is busy writing exams, and this mom is one big stress ball. Not because she doesn’t study. I know she works hard and wants to get it done. But now I finally understand how my own mom must have felt during exam time. Actually… I think my mom probably had even more stress. I was not a model high school student.

My matriek year started with choosing the best boarding school room, the one with the brightest security light shining through the window all night. Not sunlight… security light. That was my secret weapon because it meant I could read my romance novels long after bedtime. Some people might say that’s why my eyesight is terrible today. I say those extra reading hours were my saving grace in Afrikaans and English writing.

I hated school. I was never part of the cool kids, but I also didn’t really fit in with the misfits. I was simply walking my own path. While everyone else dreamed about university, I was dreaming about my big adventure waiting for me in Germany as an au pair.
Do you remember the excitement of finding the perfect matric ball dress? The hairstyle trials? I’m talking early 90s here. The stress of wondering if someone would ask you to the dance… and the disappointment when they didn’t. Too many girls, too few boys, and some boys simply decided to go solo.
Then came the matric ball and the afterparties… and me? I went home and read a book.

After that, the real countdown started. Exams. Teachers dressing up as matrics, boys dressing as girls, girls dressing as boys… some discovering their inner cross-dresser right there on the school grounds. Then came the final yearbook signatures and the white school shirts covered in messages, silly jokes, promises to stay friends forever, and terrible doodles. And then suddenly… hours of studying, writing exams, and waiting. Back then, all the matric results were printed in the Beeld newspaper. By the time the results came out, I was already in Germany. I was that confident. Now, as a parent, I realise there’s not much you can do except be there for your child, keep the snacks ready, and pray for a little angel to help carry them through the exams.

So this is your reminder from the KuierKos kitchen: Make sure you have enough snacks in the house for the study sessions!

KuierKos will be open on Hemelvaartsdag / Ascension Day (this Thursday) and we are looking forward to see you at Afrikaans Is Lekker 2026 on Saturday evening.

Lots of love,
Marnella en Andreas