Jacqueline on Charlotte

Dark Chocolate.

Dark Chocolate, in the library, over two years ago that is how I met Charlotte. She offered me a piece, neither of us were that into it yet, but we were both trying to convert. ‘Hello’s’ here and there became weekly lunches after our Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa class and then somehow we found ourselves living with nuns in Zambia for a summer.



Charlotte is a Virgo, and she definitely is one – clean, careful, driven, determined, loyal, intellectual, meticulous, selfless and sensitive. Although many Virgo’s perfectionism take them down the doctor/lawyer route, the attention to detail in Charlotte’s stars has blessed her with a distinct ability to design, create, and cook up masterpieces both in the kitchen and around the house.


‘Guestamaker baker.’ That is the name I have coined for this girly. In Zambia we did a lot of baking for the nuns and I am pretty sure I can attribute my new love of baking to Char. She is a master guestamaker baker who has taught me that baking does not need to always be as (ridiculously) exact as it seems, and those of us with the looser hand, usually designed for free style cooking, can still bake up lovely goodies.

Back to the creature of mystery - learning about Charlotte is somewhat like studying a creature of the wild, the more you patiently watch and listen, the more mystery is revealed to you. She never ceases to amaze me. Alas, you will almost never get a good picture of Charlotte because she likes to blow her face up like a fish in heat, as a protection mechanism or something strange, you will see that I have mastered the rare ability to capture two absolutely stunning pictures that I am insisting on posting. I think I should submit them to National Geographic for catching the ‘guestmaker baker’ in action, which is not an easy task ;)

All foibles aside, Charlotte is absolutely wonderful and unquestionable unique. Without this sounding like a love story, I would like to say that she came into my life at a time when I was in desperate need of a real soul sista’ and I am fortunate to be in her sphere of energy. I believe, for both of us, it has been a wonderful two years of feeling free to get ridiculously excited over kitchenware together, discuss TV characters as if they were alive and dream about life in the Big City (and notice I wrote the not a). Feeling empowered about yourself and others can only truly come in the presence of an inspiring and loving person. So please do stop in for a story of fate (and banana cake of course). A story which I hope keeps on writing itself into a never ending book filled with tales of happiness, creativity, travel and food. Charlotte - the nester, crafter, guestamaker baker - is someone I hope you all get to know as well I do. See you for a whole lot of afternoons.

Jacqueline