The Disco Pants Blog was created by Susan Hayden who lives in Cape Town with her husband and two daughters. She is a freelance journalist, editor and columnist and the author of five books. If you want a Disco Pants-style blog about your restaurant/hotel/holiday house/business send her a mail and she’ll tell you how it works:
susan.hayden@gmail.com
Facebook Disco Pants and a Mountain
Instagram susan.hayden and susanhaydenart
Note to readers:
I love hearing from you and your comments and opinions are valued, but anything unkind, abusive or troll-like will be deleted and you’ll be blocked. No kak gedagtes here.
COPYRIGHT SOUTH AFRICA – THE DISCO PANTS BLOG. ALL RIGHTS STRICTLY RESERVED. NO CONTENT ON THIS BLOG MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR, SUSAN HAYDEN. SHOULD YOU WISH TO RE-PUBLISH ANY CONTENT, SEND AN EMAIL TO SUSAN.HAYDEN@GMAIL.COM.
The Disco Pants Blog 
Hello, I’ve just found your blog and I wanted to tell you how much I like it. xox
Thank you so much! Much appreciated :-)
Hi Susan
I have just discovered your blog and really love your sense of humour. It has made my Monday – yay! Rock on, sista.
Thanks so much, you sweet thing! :-) Appreciate the kind words x
Great blog Susan.
So funny. I’ve had two of your posts sent to me today by two very different friends:) Loving you blog.
Sincerely yours
New follower x
Yay! Thank you, Natasha :-)
Hi Susan,
Natasha Clark led me here and my ohhhhhh my – where have I been.
Looking forward to sipping tea tonigh and indulge in your masterpieces.
Hanru,
x
lol! Thank you, Hanru! :-)
You are hilarious! I have to follow you!
Thank you so much, Karin x
Enjoying your posts! Glad I found you…
How can I follow you on facebook
I don’t have a Disco Pants facebook page yet, Sasha, sorry! Next on the to-do list. Thanks so much for reading me.
Hi Susan
I’m a South African from Cape Town who immigrated to the UK with my 5 year old son last year and I’ve discovered your blog and love it to bits! It’s my little attachment to home!
xx
Just found your blog via a friend on Facebook. Love your style, very easy reading and great topics.
Hi Susan, your articles are so beautifully written. I found your article on moving back to SA via a friend who shared it on FB. I’m so glad to see a journalist doing well. It’s one of the careers i would’ve loved to have been successful in. i look forward to reading more of your work.
Thank you kindly, Kate! Much appreciated :-)
Thank you so much, Kate! lots love x
Love your blog! I’m a Brit who lived in Cape Town for 3 years, am missing it hugely. Your writing is fantastically entertaining, thank you.
Thank you so much, Helen!
Hi! My cousin just sent me your article about “on moving back to south Africa”… I found much comfort and understanding in it. I just recently moved back to SA (within the past 6 months) after 20 years in the US… many folks don’t understand my decision. But something called me back and despite the ups and downs of relocation and starting my live over, I have a peace and joy about it, I can’t explain. I am living in Cape Town and every day I leave my apartment and look over the Mountains toward Paarl, I think to myself… “I am living the dream…”… Stay true! =)
I hear you, Nicki. Hard as it is at times (this weekend’s Sunday Times was nothing short of harrowing) I have exactly that peace you describe. This is where I belong, plain and simple. Welcome home, friend.
Great blog – beautifully written – we’ve been away from Cape Town/Stellenbosch for 26 years – we are musicians and we wouldn’t know what to do work-wise if we went back, although we miss it terribly…
Thank you so much. I hope you come down lots on holiday :-)
Great blog Susan!
I’m happy to be a new follower. Keep up the great work!
-Andrew
Just discovered your blog, Susan and I´m hooked!
Hi Susan, just found your blog and just love it – you’re frank and funny and a breath of fresh air which is what we all need in our beloved country.
Thank you so much, Margi!
Hi Susan I have just discovered your blog…..and really appreciate your humor and interesting write ups, i particularly loved your article on returning to SA, fantastically written, what a breath of fresh air, and thanks for sharing your feelings and for being so honest in doing so. Look forward to many more reads.
Hello! Absolutely loved your latest blog. Led here by a publishing friend and I’m clearly going to be hooked. Can’t wait to read some more and dig through your archive entries. I fiddle about with a blog too, and if you’re ever in the mood, it’s called, “From the birds and the bees, to family trees”. Keep well and keep on writing!
Thank you so much, Helene! :-)
You have made my week for the 2nd week running….first read your moving back to SA article and then today on my commute into NYC I read the angry version – you capture everything so perfectly, and to those haters out there, they need to get a life. SA rocks, with all it’s faults. I have not lived there for the past 14yrs, but it’s still home and will be home again one day. Hurry up and write something new already :-)
Hi I have just had a friend share your blog and i am so impressed i love what you say
A
Great blog… Love reading it all the way from LA!
beautiful writing, I am a new fan!
Wow. You write an amazing story. So funny. Your “On Angry South African Expats” bought tears to my eyes (not from laughter) as you (and others that replied) mirrored the emotional connection my husband and I feel for this awesome country and it’s people. We also have 2 young girls (9 and 11) and live in the “sticks” in the Karoo. We have been privelleged to give them the most unbelievably connected-to-nature upbringing. We homeschooled these past years but as from this one, we’ve woken with the birds (aardvarks in winter) at 5am to hit the dirt road to make the 35km journey to school daily. What a different school experience to ours! What a joy to have mix of colours and cultures. And of course not without it’s own difficulties and challenges. I needed to discover your blog today. Thank you for sharing.
Wow, what an amazing thing to do for your kids – and yourselves! Am a bit jealous :-) Good for you, and thanks so much for writing! x
* I said “bought tears to my eyes (not from laughter)…” but that too actually!
A great refreshing positive Blog. Well done.
2nd time one of your articles has made it’s way to me…intelligent writing, feel-good reading..thanks
Your blog a serendipitous find – love it. It would be great (for me at least) if you would create a FB page with links to your blog – then I, and others, could ‘like’ and keep updated
Thank you! Yes, you are right – next step :-)
Greeting from Copenhagen :) Your blog is awesome but it’s also making me feel homesick – I’m still going to bookmark it though & hopefully ‘like’ your upcoming facebook page too. Keep up the good work, smukke :)
I live in California now, and love my life here, but I sure miss those big African skies. I love reading your blog (although it makes me even more homesick…which I did not think was possible..). Keep them coming!
Just found your blog too! I’m hooked :-)
Your Blog is awesome !!
Thank you, sweet thing x
Fun, frank and fab blog. Thanks!
susan your writing blows me away. can’t get enough of it. you are super gifted. lorraine
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have just discovered your blog and absolutely love it. It makes me laugh and cry! Currently living in US but very homesick now!! Keep writing your talent is great! Everything you write about is spot on and very applicable to me.
Absolutely outstanding! This blog mirrors so much of what I happen to think – and as someone who returned with (also SA) husband and child in 07, after nearly a decade in the UK, it really rings true. Where did you go to varsity? It wasn’t Rhodes, was it? If it was, then we really are eerily parallel in many ways… and yes, that sounds, well, very creepy and single-white-female… but there you go!
Thanks so much, Caroline! I should have gone to Rhodes and done the journalism course but I wouldn’t leave my boyfriend, so it was UCT :-) Thanks for your cool comment. Mail me and tell me more about how it’s going for you guys! x
Just discovered your Blog on Facebook about the life of a South African maid. Very well written! Heart wrenching for a mother who has to take care of other children, which she clearly loves doing, but to leave her own children for so many hours and when they are not well and need extra help with school work. So not fair!
Thank you, Mickey. Yes, we have a long way to go.
All hell is breaking loose on Facebook about your South African Maid story. Men are completely unsympathetic and women the reverse. Very interesting. I am actually quite flawed!
Herewith the link of comments https://www.facebook.com/groups/106453442729264/614120518629218/?notif_t=group_comment_reply
Ha ha, thanks for posting! People certainly have a lot to say on the topic :-)
How on earth do you find time to write professionally, write a blog, have a husband a
Sorry pressed enter too soon! …and children, dinner parties and a life?
Well, I do things like forget to take my children to birthday parties. Not ayoba :-( Thanks, Mike, ha ha!
Brilliant stories and beautifully written. Thank you!
I discovered your blog yesterday when a thoughtful British friend passed it on. We have been living abroad for nearly 10 years (Holland and now in the UK) but will be returning to SA next year April. The timing of getting hooked on your blog couldn’t have been more perfect. Thanks so much for sharing all your thoughts and experiences. I know that we are not simply “just going home” – living abroad for such a long time has carved certain behaviours and thoughts deep into my soul. But there is no denying: SA just lives in you and we can’t get rid of it. My husband and I believe that now is the time to show it to our girls. Giving them the opportunity to experience it for themselves and for them to be able to tell more than one story is what we’re after. This video is a great one to watch: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
From a fellow prospective ‘homecomer’.
Hi Lizanne my hubby and 3 girls are also returning home after 12 years in the UK as well I do hope your move goes well. Get in touch if you can. My email is ar.ludick@ymail.com
Antoinette
Interesting, Wonder how you cope writing on so many websites at the same time?
I want to subscribe. You are a talented writer
I have, like quite a few people it seems, recently found your blog. So glad I did! I get excited to see the email in my inbox with your latest post.
I am still living in London after nearly 10 years. It wasn’t a conscious choice but somehow I have created a life for myself here. I love it and am hugely grateful for the choices and opportunities I have. But South Africa has always had my heart. It’s rhythm and energy still beats it’s drums in my veins and in my dreams. I am overwhelmed each time I come back for a visit because while so much stays the same, so much changes too.
I am not blind to the difficulties, the crime, the pain, the long road that still lies ahead. But hearing your voice, loud and proud, through your blog gives me hope and joy. South Africa needs people like you to keep shining bright and to never give up.
I don’t know if I will ever come back to live in South Africa for good. A big part of me hopes so. Regardless, I will keep listening to the beat in my blood, will wear my green and gold badge with fierce loyalty and pride. And I will keep reading your blog with interest and joy!
Thanks for the laughter, tears and joy! :)
I have, like quite a few people it seems, recently found your blog. So glad I did! I get excited to see the email in my inbox with your latest post.
I am still living in London after nearly 10 years. It wasn’t a conscious choice but somehow I have created a life for myself here. I love it and am hugely grateful for the choices and opportunities I have. But South Africa has always had my heart. It’s rhythm and energy still beats it’s drums in my veins and in my dreams. I am overwhelmed each time I come back for a visit because while so much stays the same, so much changes too.
I am not blind to the difficulties, the crime, the pain, the long road that still lies ahead. But hearing your voice, loud and proud, through your blog gives me hope and joy. South Africa needs people like you to keep shining bright and to never give up.
I don’t know if I will ever come back to live in South Africa for good. A big part of me hopes so. Regardless, I will keep listening to the beat in my blood, will wear my green and gold badge with fierce loyalty and pride. And I will keep reading your blog with interest and joy!
Thanks for the laughter, tears and beautiful words! :)
Hey Susan, I just found your blog on the Homecoming revolution web page. It couldn’t have come at a better time for our family who are returning to SA next year. Thank you for providing an honest view about SA also with a great sense of humour I miss that about South Africans we know how to laugh for sure!
Just discovered your blog via a FB post from a friend. Having read the link (a day in the life of a maid), I found I lost the subsequent hour drifting through your previous posts. I’ve now posted a link to your blog on my own page! Lovely, funny, thoughtful stuff – thank you.
Just discovered your blog via the Facebook Site of Africa, this is why I live here and I enjoyed reading through ist so much! I used to live in East Africa for quite a long time (and my heart is still there).