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Ryno and Isabelle are engaged to be married but Isabelle is keeping a deep, dark secret away from him. To further complicate matters, Ryno’s ex-wife Emma is back and she would do anything to re-unite with her husband especially now that she has overheard Isabelle’s secret. Will Ryno still want to marry Isabelle once he finds out the truth?

Isabelle aka Livia’s memory returns

Livia is one nervous wreck, her memories came flooding back and she soon realized that Ryno, the love of her life, is the same man who was involved with her sister Suzaan, twenty years ago. She completely blames him for Suzaan aborting her baby and dying as a result because the letters she read were from Ryno to Suzaan where he basically abandons her and tells her to go ahead with the abortion.

It makes sense now why Livia came to Hillside with a gun in her handbag, she wanted to avenge her sister’s death by killing the man responsible. Lucky for Ryno, she was attacked before she could do the murderous deed.


The whole story becomes complicated because Livia who is actually Isabelle Moolman has since fallen inlove with Ryno, how can she possibly love him and yet feel this overwhelming sense of hatred towards him at the same time, he is the reason her twin sister is dead, the family has hated this man for many years.


Later Isabelle got a hold of Ryno’s poetry book, the one he read to her at dinner and in there she found a poem which was written about his own guilt feelings 20 years back when he abandoned the woman carrying his child, the poem basically saved Ryno’s life without him knowing about it because Isabelle was hellbent on shooting Ryno with Madel’s gun.


Karien is the only person in Hillside that knows the truth about Isabelle’s memory returning, she has confided in Karien everything about the past and the more Karien has persuaded her to trust Ryno and tell him the truth, the more Isabelle is convinced she will lose him forever. She knows now that Suzaan’s death has haunted him as much as it did her family.

Isabelle’s sister, Helene comes to town

As time goes on, Livia and Ryno grow closer and closer, Livia has begun to relax but continued to pretend as if she knew nothing of her past.

She made a phone call to a mysterious woman who later turns out to be her sister, Helene who’s living in Australia. She hung up before Helene could ask any questions. As it would turn out, Helene made her way to South Africa after finding her sister listed as a missing person on the internet. This was just the break that Ryno was looking forward to. Alas for him and Helene, Livia barely recognized her sister or pretended not to.


Now Livia is a very complex character or more like confused, she’s always nervous and anxious and with Helene being around, she became even more so. Helene caught her out in a couple of lies where she pretended not to know about something when in fact she was just covering up. It wasn’t long before Helene confronted her about her memory returning and Isabelle was forced to admit the truth. What shocked Helene was when Isabelle told her the reason why she’s keeping the truth from Ryno.


Helene could not look at Ryno the same way after that. She hated him and she refused to pretend otherwise. Ryno sensed a vibe with Helene’s sudden chilliness towards him but Isabelle just covered up for her sister. Helene threatened to confront Ryno but Isabelle begged and pleaded saying she doesn’t know the real Ryno, she, Isabelle has gotten to know him and he’s kind, generous and loving, not the faceless monster they had initially thought he was. Helene decided to remain quiet for her sister’s sake.

Eventually Helene decided to return to Australia but first she made her way to Cape Town to get some paintings for her art gallery.

With her sister away, things quickly moved forward for Ryno and Isabelle. Ryno’s divorce from Emma was through and Isabelle was waiting for her own paperwork from home affairs. The time was ripe and Ryno was ready, we all know Ryno don’t keep them dangling for too long, he simply loves saying wedding vows, he’s the Elizabeth Taylor of 7de Laan.


Now when Ryno plans to propose, the setting has to be perfect. He made reservations at an expensive restaurant, tango music was playing in the background, red roses were on the table, the setting was perfect and Isabelle knew he was gonna propose if the little card he sent her during the day is anything to go by “tonight your life will change forever”.

Isabelle had already discussed the possibility of Ryno proposing with Karien, she had already made up her mind that she cannot say yes, it’s too soon. Well when Ryno proposed, she was caught up in the moment and said "yes", then she said "no" but the next day, she finally agreed to be his wife, like I said, she’s a confused broad, this one.


She was planning to run away, to meet up with Helene in Cape Town and never return to Johannesburg but when the Hillside Travel phoned to the bookshop to confirm her booking, Ryno picked up and cancelled the flight. He then went over to the Terreblanche house and convinced Isabelle of his genuine feelings for her, again she was swept away and that was when she agreed to be his wife.

Things are now honk dory between Isabelle and Ryno, we have never seen her this happy or relaxed. Ryno wants to have an engagement party at the Terreblanche house and has arranged with Felicity to design a dress for Isabelle.

When Helene returned from Cape Town, she was happy to see her sister so ecstatic but she was very concerned that Isabelle is going into a marriage with a big secret hanging over her head. Isabelle just brushed it all away, she was on cloud nine and nobody was gonna spoil things for her.

When she made her way to Felicity to discuss the dress, San Mari overheard them speaking about the engagement and naturally she couldn’t wait to tell her buddies who were sitting in Oppiekoffie. Shame, nobody saw Emma sitting at the counter listening sadly to all the excited comments.

Welcome back Emma!

One day out of nowhere, who should rock up back in the laan, none other than Emma Lategan. I must say she was looking prettier, yeah she was still slightly big but the clothing she wore suited her figure and either they did something with her make-up or she has some inner glow, she was also sporting a new hairstyle, her long locks had been chopped off and in its place was a nice bob style framing her face.


Everybody was surprised to see her, she explained to all her friends that things didn’t work out with Tonie, she was never inlove with him and she came back to finalise her book deal and also her divorce from Ryno.

However, Emma had something else up her sleeve, she was hoping against all hope that Ryno would somehow forgive her and take her back, she realized she made a mistake by wanting to divorce him but she was shocked when she learnt that her husband had already moved on with another woman, a beautiful, sophisticated more his age type of woman. Emma didn’t stand a chance, not when Ryno kept pushing her about when their divorce will be final.

She finally made peace with the fact that her beloved Ryno was lost to her forever. She decided not to go ahead with publishing the book which completely surprised Ryno and he was just as shocked when Emma revealed that she’ll be staying in Hillside after being offered a job at the boutique.


Emma is now sitting anxiously with information that could possibly change everything for her, she phones Ryno but gets his voicemail. She leaves a message telling him she needs to speak to him urgently.

Meanwhile the plans for Ryno and Isabelle’s engagement, is going full steam ahead and everyone in the laan is excited.

Unable to keep things to herself and to keep from going out of her mind, Emma decides to meet up with Karien to discuss what she had overheard. They planned to meet in Oppiekoffie but on her way there Karien was distracted by all the excited commotion in the boutique. Isabelle was about to fit on her dress and the girls were all there, Karien decided joined them.

Emma was waiting for Karien when Diederik told her he saw Karien in the boutique, Emma stood in the arcade and saw all the excitement surrounding Isabelle and she immediately left in a huff.


Later she again tried to get a hold of Ryno but still she only got his voicemail.


Will Emma get to Ryno before the engagement? What will Ryno do? Will he believe Emma and confront Isabelle? What happens after that? Does Emma stand a chance with Ryno or will Ryno forgive Isabelle and marry her? So many questions, stay tuned to find out.

Goodbye Dezi, we wish you well

Awhile back we were totally disgusted by Dezi’s slutty behaviour when she chose to get involved with Jan Hendrik’s buddy, Douw. She was about to give up everything to ride into the sunset with this guy when she heard the news about her beloved Theuns being involved in a train smash in Germany. This opened her eyes and she realized that Theuns was indeed the one and only love of her life.

She knew that her feelings for both JH and Douw is not a patch on what she felt for Theuns and therefore she had to break it off with both guys.

First she broke Douw’s heart when she told him she cannot go to East London with him because she doesn’t feel for him what he feels for her. The guy was forced to pack his bags and get out of Hillside since he couldn’t convince Dezi otherwise.


Next up was JH who found out from Madel about Dezi’s affair with Douw. JH seemed to be more upset with his mother for not telling him and immediately packed her off to Waenhuiskrans.

Eventually Dezi broke it to JH that she wants out of the marriage, she’s been living a lie for far too long and it’s time that she moves on and make a new life for herself. JH was flabbergasted, he begged and pleaded with his wife promising her the world but Dezi refused to budge, it was not about him, it was about her, for once she needed to think about her herself, she told him.


Another person who was highly upset with Dezi was Felicity. How could Dezi do this to her, it was her idea to start the business in the first place, she knows nothing about running a boutique, why is Dezi ruining everybody’s lives, Felicity cried out.

Dezi felt bad but her mind was already made up, she hired Xander of all people to have power of attorney in all her affairs of the boutique. Felicity was not a happy girl, her best friend and partner was abandoning her and to make things worse, she has to constantly deal with the very man who betrayed her.


That was that then, nobody could convince Dezi to stay and quietly she left the laan when Paula came to pick her up to take her to the airport. No big party, no champagne, balloons, winged words, nothing! I suppose it would’ve been inappropriate for the way in which the character was exiting but I’m damn sure they had a big farewell party for her behind the scenes.


We all know that the actress Elma Postma has sought greener pastures and will be making her way to Tinseltown in the hope of following in the footsteps of our very own golden girl, Charlize Theron. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.

Marko and Altus battle it out for Karien’s heart

Karien has suddenly become the girl that the hottest guys in the laan want to date. First up is Altie, I’ve been wishing for a long time that he and Karien will somehow get together, they had some chemistry going and I was long over Altie and Paula when she fell for Brandt.

Unfortunately Altus becomes all nervous and tongue tied when it comes to romancing Karien, she tends to have that effect on guys, remember when George literally turned to jelly in front of her?


To make matters worse, after Marko’s fling with Suzette turned sour, Altus has enforced this rule about office dating and since he is Karien’s boss it would definitely conflict with their whole office set up if the boss were to date his employee.

Now Marko has started looking at Karien in a new light, he saw her beauty, her brains, her sense of style, her no-nonsense attitude about typical female behaviour, her humour, warmth, you name it, Karien had it and Marko was no fool, this tomcat was about to pounce.


It all started off relatively innocent, drinks at O’Malleys, a movie date, grabbing a bite to eat, then things got abit more serious with Marko sending her flowers, wanting to go out almost every night, eating at a fancy restaurant and the girls were teasing Karien about her new relationship.

She made it clear to them that she only sees Marko as a buddy, eventually she realised that she needed to spell it out to Marko. He was not happy at first but with Vince egging him on, he thought she would eventually come around and perhaps start falling for him if they can just spend a lot of time together.

Altus on the other hand was watching the friendship/relationship between Marko and Karien take off and he was not happy. In fact the green eyed monster got a hold of him and he was like a bear with a sore tummy, he looked miserable watching the two laugh and joke around and he decided to let his jealousy of Marko get the better of him.



It all started innocently enough with him trying to get Marko to spend less time with Karien by giving him more work and making sure he keeps him occupied with meeting clients after work. Then he invited Karien to fancy restaurants claiming to meet clients who never showed up and finally he spent a rather huge amount of money getting Marko out of the way for a full week by having him book in at a lodge using the excuse that the client wanted to thank Marko for a job well done.

Things kinda backfired for Altie when Danny and Karien insisted on being rewarded as well and when he arranged for a weekend get-away at some fancy shmancy hotel and casino for him and Karien only, things again backfired when Karien thought it was for her and Danny, poor Altie he seems to be losing bigtime.

Only Mandla knows that Altus has the hots for Karien and he has confided in Mandla that he does not recognize himself anymore, this is not him, he has never been the sneaky, manipulative type. Well Altus love makes one do very strange things.

When Karien invited Altus to dinner, they were getting along so well until Karien mentioned that she sees him only as a brother, ouch!


What is Altus to do, should he continue pursuing Karien or risk losing her to Marko?

Marko is back in town and he’s thrilled to see Karien again. He’s also noticed the close interaction between Altie and Karien and he doesn’t like it one bit. Before he left, he sent Karien a bunch of flowers with a note but she never received it because Altus intercepted it and gave the flowers to Karien as if it came from Bruynwaves. Marko has become very suspicious of Altie’s behaviour and his plans to sabotage his relationship with Karien.


What will Marko do? Will the two men come to blows, what about the fact that Altie is Marko’s boss? Who, if anyone, will eventually bowl the maiden over?

Bart is laid to rest

A day or two after Bart died, Tessa was busy with funeral arrangements, she was trying to be strong by occupying her mind with making sure that Bart gets a fitting farewell. Everyone in the laan was willing to assist her.

Bart had left Tessa a beautiful, touching letter where he tells her how much it meant to him having his life complete with her in it. He also joked about the time he and Marko boxed Liesl’s lights out. He told her that he wanted all his buddies to have a drink on him at O’malley’s which is exactly what everyone did, laughing and joking about the good times they had with Bart.



Finally it’s the day of the funeral, everyone is at the church to pay their last respects. Oom Oubaas did the obituary speaking about the wonderful man Bart was and how he finally found his better half in the end. The writers decided a farewell is not a farewell if we don’t take a walk down memory lane.


The next day when Tessa collected Bart's ashes, she left for the Okovango to go scatter Bart's ashes.

Rest in peace, Bart. Your character will be sorely missed.

Other Developments


- If you were wondering where Paula was, she went to some lodge to “find” herself. She’s going through some or other crisis where she needs to find meaning to her life, she’s doing some soul searching to find some purpose in her life so to speak.
- Enough said about Xander and Vanessa, the better, but things were slightly shaky in their marriage there for a moment. They were going through the usual marital bickering of money troubles, unnecessary spending, the fact that Vanessa can’t cook and things got extra heated when Xander lied about seeing Felicity as a client. Vanessa packed her bags and moved back to mom’s house.


Well that was not the end of it, Xander being the mature adult in the marriage decided to work things out with his wife, and after some groveling, she finally forgave him. Things are back on track now, their financial problems are sorted, Vanessa has learnt to cook, the only minor thing bothering Xander now is the fact that Vanessa has mentioned not wanting to have any kids. Charmaine has managed to convince him to leave her be for now, to give her some time to heal after Aubrey’s death, she will eventually come around, Charmaine ensured him.

- Matrone has decided that she wants Oubaas and she wants him bad so she and Hilda are back to battling it out. First it started with the baking and selling of cakes which Matrone forced Oubaas to help out with, for a good cause you know, to raise money for cushions for the church benches.


The cake sale was a huge success but poor Hilda had to swallow her pride when things didn’t exactly pan out for her the way she had hoped. Now that the cakes business is over with, Matrone has resorted to cooking delicious foods for Oubaas behind Hilda’s back and who is Oubaas to turn a good plate of food away?

Now the latest ploy on Matrone’s part is to bake delicious meringues, cakes and koeksisters for Oubaas and with Maria playing the middle man between the two, they are unaware that Maria is cashing in bigtime. Instead of giving Oubaas the delcious treats, Maria has resorted to making a fast buck by selling off Matrone’s treats to the young folk of Hillside using the fake excuse of the roof of her house blowing off. Aggie has spoken to Maria about her evil deeds, saying she will never get to heaven but nobody in the laan ever listens to a very wise and sweet Aggie.


How far is Maria prepared to go and what will Matrone do when she finds out about Maria’s scam?

Tune in for all this and so much more!

7de laan
Mondays – Fridays
SABC 2
18:30

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