CP back in CL

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release
March 2021

CP BACK IN CL

Cilnette Pienaar has moved back to Stellenbosch. Sources are speculating that it might have to do with a mystery man.

Pienaar has however not confirmed these wild speculations. “The move back to Stellenbosch is probably a temporary arrangement to be closer to community while working online from home, and the potential of lock-down levels increasing again, are still realities,” she said.

She has been living in the lovely leafy Hout Bay since December 2019, and loving it. Then 2020 hit, and lock-down made meeting new people and building a community base pretty damn near impossible. When 2021 arrived and the situation didn’t seem to look like it would be changing soon, she began to realise how much of an impact the sense of social isolation was starting to have on her mental health.

“Mental and emotional well-being are as important as physical health. Hout Bay is lovely, and I especially enjoyed living a block away from a gorgeous beach and Chapman’s Peak Drive. Being so close to nature was a saving grace during the months of lock-down. But I haven’t really been able to connect with like-minded people there. Churches were basically closed. Cross-fit was a start, but not 100% my vibe. I started to slip into bit of a bipolar cycle, and that’s when I decided to get myself back into an environment where close friends are around the corner, and I can more easily join back into shared activities that make my life rich and my soul happy, like singing in an ensemble, being part of a church family and drinking wine with friends on my stoep on a Friday evening. And a Tuesday evening,” she explained.

She does however have some doubts. It was quite a drastic and sudden move. Like most of her moves. She had reasons other than work for moving to Cape Town, and those reasons are still valid.

She is also a bit nervous about the shift to being a landlord. Which she also considers, come to think of it, to be a rather feudal term. Be that as it may. “She considers the value of a field … “ Proverbs 31.

One of the thoughts that Pienaar had about moving back is to avoid familiarity, and to not “pour new wine into old wineskins”. She is mindful of how much the past two years have given her a completely different perspective on life, and of not assuming that people and institutions on this side have stayed the same.

“I am so aware of how everything has shifted over especially the past year. Everyone has been through a version of trauma, and everything has had to reinvent to just keep going,” she said. “I lived here for 10 years, and one builds up a certain reputation over a time period like that. I honestly don’t feel like the person that left two years ago. I used to have quite a few entrenched roles and “identities” in various contexts on this side that I intentionally stepped out of when I moved, and I am super mindful of not assuming that those are what I should be, or would be welcomed, to step back into,” she added. “I am however, so thankful to reconnect with the amazing people that I missed.”

Stellenboch is a mere 40km away from Cape Town. Very similar to the distance between Joburg and Pretoria. The similarities if that comparison is pretty striking.

“I am definitely not woke or English enough to every really fit into the Cape Town scene. I am also fundamentally feminist (in the sense of assuming equality as a value, not demanding it … a fine nuance), and that has clashed somewhat with a Stellenbosch patriarchy in the past. These are the tensions of culture in context that makes authentic living interesting,” she said.

Pienaar will not be entertaining the wild speculations about a mystery man. “If you are that man, you will know, trust me,” is what she had to say about that.

Ends

Notes to editors
For sh*ts and g*ggles. Selah …

Issued by: Cilnette Pienaar
On behalf of: Herself
For media inquiries please contact: I’m not putting my actual number our there 🙂

(PS. This was written as satire on my personal blog. If you are looking for me for actual media inquiries in a professional capacity, and came upon this blog in a Google search, please do get in touch via LinkedIn!)