Frances. It's Rispa Frances.
Surely that isn’t a real name?
No, it isn’t. Of course not.
Ah, so you’re a fake?
I guess you could look at it that way. I, however, prefer multifaceted.
Mmmm. Sounds like the answer a good liar would give?
Oh, trust me! I’m a real person. Make no mistake. One who can navigate past most captchas the world throws at me.
However, I firmly believe most of us, whether we are honest with ourselves or not, harbour at least one other persona, if not many more, within us. In the normal course this does not make us certifiably schizophrenic. Hopefully not. It only makes us, well, certifiably normal.
We all carry within us a second self, an inseparable friend (and sometimes enemy), another aspect of ourself. We all have different behaviours we display in certain situations. We are all master actors on the stage of life.
I’m a very average person. With average needs, wants, desires, dreams, hopes. With a healthy dose of intentions. With a firm belief in endless possibilities. With a constant search for elusive answers.
And what do you do?
Since the late 1980’s I’ve primarily been employed in the weird, wicked and wonderful world of Market Research. I’ve loved most minutes of it. The relentless deadlines notwithstanding. There are the amazing stories that lie hidden in the data that well-designed questionnaires allow the writer to tell. There is the meticulous search of the right people to talk to. There is the unparalleled satisfaction of being immersed in a study of which the outcome is going to make a difference to a consumer or a citizen or a voter and, of course, to the bottom line of a company that cares enough to be concerned about what its customers think.
I’m a bit of a Market Research jack of all trades. There are few aspects of the trade I have not been involved in and a large variety of projects I have worked on. Yet there are many synergies between my personality and my chosen career path: a deep sense of curiosity, meticulous attention to detail, reasonable adaptability to disparate situations, an ability to embrace alternative solutions and the flexibility to accommodate change. Oh, and then there is the unremitting desire to count things!!
On the side, and undoubtedly for my sins, I owned a cocktail lounge for nearly a decade. Until the ridiculous hours nearly killed me. It was a business I started from scratch and built up to be very successful. I would, however, lie if I said it wasn’t often a rocky road and definitely a path with many highs and lows. Having sold the business a few years ago, I cannot say I miss the hospitality industry much. I did not find it an industry very hospitable to owners. I do, though, often miss the many varied and interesting patrons that made their way through the doors of my ‘sophisticated lounge venue for open-minded people, rich in decadence and full of life’. In-between pouring drinks and serving delicious light meals I did manage to forge some close and lasting friendships. I treasure these and know that I will carry them with me for the rest of my life.
Between figuring out what people want, what I want and how to mix the best Martini, I have also been dabbling in words for a number of years. My involvement with words started off with writing restaurant reviews for a publication which unfortunately lost its footing in a very competitive environment. For the past few years I’ve mainly been doing translations – from English to Afrikaans or vice versa. My own writing largely remains confined to many black books littering my bookshelves, but this site is an attempt to step out into a larger world.
I didn’t want my professional profile to have an halo effect on something I want to establish in my personal capacity. Using a nom de plume is common practice and I couldn’t exactly show up at the office one day, insisting that my colleagues and clients call me by a different name. And, honestly? I do rather prefer the anonymity it offers me venturing out into a world I am still mostly unsure of.
The obvious pseudonym, Rispa Frances, was chosen for very personal reasons. Rispa being an anagram for Paris and Frances meaning 'from France' or 'Frenchman'. I'm an incurable Francophile and have a deep, inexplicable, love of all things French, but I have a severe disability to master the language in spite of many attempts to do so. I can, with confidence, say ‘Bonjour’ and that’s more or less it!!
Shortening Rispa to Ris also works for me. Ris de veau is right up there with Magret de Canard, Foie Gras and Crème Brûlée as one of my favourite French dishes and 'ris' is laughter. Laughter, good food, good wine and good company - what more could a girl want? Just a bit of love will do nicely, thank you!
My many dear, wonderful and amazingly long suffering friends who care, share and enrich my life.
The creatures who share my home. My many felines with their velvet coats who remind me that true independence and comfort in your own skin is attainable. The Princess who reminds me that change is indeed possible. Never being much of a dog person and extremely reluctantly bringing her into my home, she discovered in me one of those personas spoken about earlier I never knew I had. Unwittingly, she has changed my life forever and I love her BIG!
