As the year draws to a close so does the episode of my life that has been “living in Cape Town” and a huge privilege and pleasure that has been too. My house and car are sold my furniture and other personal possessions are in a container somewhere on the high seas and I am staying with my friend Lyn. I write this at her desk on the first floor of her delightful lakeside apartment. The view from here is the featured image for the month above, the back of table mountain. The Southeaster is howling, as it does at this time of the year, keeping you awake and making you grumpy. Two of my very many, very dear and wonderful friends are picking me up to take me out to lunch and I am feeling hugely nostalgic before I have even left!
However what I have to look forward to is exciting, scary and a whole new adventure. I have a small apartment in St Jean de Losne which is in need of a lot of TLC so the remaining winter months when I arrive will be spent doing what I do best, refurbishing. A very satisfying task. The boat will be ready (and, yes, Phillippe, I did say “WILL BE READY”) for me to cruise off in June heading in the first instance up the Canal de Burgoyne and Jon and Nikki will have the motor home that I will use to escape the worst excesses of the central French winter next year. I sincerely hope that many of my wonderful Cape Town based friends will come and play with me.
Lunch time today was a special event with lunch at the Noordhoek Farm Village with Paull and Robs. Special friends that although they will be sorely missed I am confident will come and join me on the boat or in the camper in the not too distant future.
24th December. Ian came through last evening and delivered a home-made Christmas pudding. I have been privileged to receive one of these every year for some years now. Ian will pick me up on Boxing Day for tea in the afternoon, I haven’t seen the family since last New Year! I dropped the pudding off with Tracey Main where I will be having Christmas lunch tomorrow. At 10am George picked me up and we went to visit Gill as it is her birthday. There was a good crowd of the Wednesday Walking group and niegbors there. On the way I had a call from Chris who is coming to take me out to lunch. The last few days here look to be full of gatherings with friends.
25th December. The day dawned beautifully with a welcome absence of wind and the view over the lake, with a lone fisherman, to Table Mountain was spectacular as I sipped my coffee on Lyn’s up-stairs balcony. I have a view across the railway line of the shiny gold dome of the new Mosque and beyond it a Christian church from whence the sound of church bell peeling travels on the still air……and all is well with the world….. at least the part of it that I can see!
MERRY CHRISTMASS TO YOU ALL.
Christmas Day lunch with members of the Fowkes, Main and Walker families at Jem & Tracey’s lovely lakeside home was beautifully enhanced by the chance to wish Andrew Main and family via Skype and the wonderful Christmas Pud that the Ian & Hiedi gave me.
26th December, Boxing Day, saw brunch with John and Sandi Fowkes and tea in the afternoon with the Frieslichts.
Take note Jonathan Jo – this is what you get for pulling faces – preservation for prosterity!
29th December
Di came to lunch today and later Mike, Lulu, Josh and Miky came to tea and we went together to the video shop to choose DVDs. and I completely forgot to take photos! Later I sat reading on Lyn’s upstairs balcony and watched as the Sunday steam train reversed its way back towards town.
I don’t know what to say
You make a plan
And then you find
That you have left
all your best friends behind.
You know you came
Into this world alone
And you expect to leave along that same road.
And yet
You fret
That what you thought a stride
Was just a stumble
A humble
Seeking.
A recognition that
someone
only hours ago
Called you “friend”
With hugs and tears.
And yet you hide
You are not satisfied
You field a call
A telephonic link
And on the line
You hear a catch
A snag, almost a tear.
But always “almost”
Lives too fraught
Too caught
Within the snare
Of what?
If not
The “daily grind”
That numbs the mind
Into thinking that this is the norm.
The “That, which is expected”
“why do we care?”
Who is there?
Watching how we react?
Retract
Our last banal observation.
When all the time we know
That love is all.
Why do we feel ashamed?
To claim
Those who we hold dear
For fear
Of ridicule
Why are we trapped on this treadmill?
Coming back to the blog several busy days later I am somewhat horrified at the wine soaked, nostalgic excuse for Hip-Hop that appears above! However it is out there now so there seems little point in trying to disclaim it. Ho Hum.
30th December Collected Lyn from the airport at midday and we had dinner with John & Sandi in the evening.
31st December, Lyn and Sandi took me to the airport. My last look at the Cape was over the top of the Emirate flight being prepared for take off towards the Hottentot Hollands Mountains in the distance.
capetocarpe 