''At the end of the day we're all going through the same things,'' Zuraida Jardine tells me who's pregnant with her second child (a boy) and who's filming the second season of the inspirational lifestyle show Life's a Journey. In the week I met up with Zuraida Jardine who is back from today as the presenter of the second season of the show on SABC3 on Sundays at 16:30 for 13 episodes.
ALSO READ: Life's a Journey on SABC3 renewed for a second season with Zuraida Jardine as sole presenter.
Zuraida Jardine tells me about some of the people and places Life's a Journey will showcase in the new second season, reveals her personal favourite highlight so far and talks about having added weight because of her pregnancy, although she says she feels just great. ''We're going to give you the tools you need to get through what you need to get through,'' she says about why viewers should tune in.
For my full interview with Zuraida Jardine, click on READ MORE below.
What will viewers see in the second season of Life's a Journey?
We won't be doing anything differently that the first season. The recipe is working. Life's a Journey is excellent. What we realized the first time round is that people want to see more of the people that we were interviewing, more in depth-ly. We're bringing back a lot of the aficianados from the first season and speaking more in depth with them about health and wellness and destressing and getting over adversity. Then of course we have new content in terms of where we're going, location wise. In this season we've gone to New York, we're going to Zanzibar, we're going to Italy and then of course we're to amazing locations within South Africa.
We're interviewing rape and assault survivor Alison this season. We've chatted to a guy called Ruben who owns a big restaurant in Franschhoek and recently took over from Gordon Ramsay at the One&Only hotel and just his remarkable and inspiring story. He comes from really humble beginnings and now he owns his own restaurant chain. We're still in the process of shooting but the recipe for the second season of Life's a Journey is basically exactly the same.
A personal highlight so far?
For me the highlight the first season and this season is dr Toni Luck. She's mind-blowing. She's one of those women that you have ''wow'' moments with. You sit and listen to her and it's ''wow'' and ''wow''. She's definitely the highlight for me. I personally really enjoy listening to her.
You've got a very good timeslot for Life's a Journey's second season on SABC3 now on a Sunday afternoon at 16:30. What has the feedback been like from viewers on the first season?
Very positive and which is why Life's a Journey has been renewed for a second season!
And Zuraida, you're doing this season with impending motherhood, expecting your second child – a boy – is there a difference for you or something you're doing differently?
I knoooow! I look like a whale! [We laugh.]
No you don't!
I mean, there's no doubt about it. I look like a whale. You know, I've been lucky and fortunate enough in that I haven't had a crazy pregnancy. The good news is that I'm feeling great. I've just put on a lot of weight.
For viewers who perhaps haven't yet watched Life's a Journey, why should they tune in?
Why should they watch? Because you know what, at the end of the day we're all going through the same things. We're all trying to lose weight. We're all trying to destress at work. We all try to leave a job that we hate but that we just cannot get out of. We all have been in a very precarious situation and we just don't know how to get through it.
The reason you need to watch Life's a Journey is because we are going to give you the tools to help you get through what you need to get through. We equip you with all of the tools to get happy and be happy and to not have any excuse to be happy in your life.
Having done the first season of Life's a Journey, is there a bit of personal wisdom you gathered or came across that you can share?
I interview people who really do inspire me. As a flawed human being, I also forget. So someone may inspire me but then in two weeks' time I forget what that inspiration was and I'll go back to my default bad ways. However, Life's a Journey has made me so aware and conscious of what I need to be aware of. And as long as you have some sort of awareness in your life, then it gives you the ability to practice what you need to practice. That's what it's been to me: Working on Life's a Journey allows me to learn how to be a happier, more success human being within myself. The show isn't about outwardly things. It's about how you feel inside and how you execute that in your life.
Life's a Journey II, Sundays, SABC3, 16:30
