Winter comes to Cape Town

Easter Sunday today. Last night, after two glorious sunny, but cool days, the rain began. It's always good to think that the dams are filling, the swimming pool in the house we rent too, and the cold is always a reminder that we are heading home soon. Six and a half weeks for me before I go to London to check up on Cameron.

Cameron is growing - latest pic from London

Tim and I were heading to Hermanus this weekend but were both too sick to be sociable. Such a pity because Nan, Daniel and the children are there, staying with friends, and we were looking forward to a good old reunion not only with my daughter and family but with John, Judy, Alan, Di, Mike, Louise, Catherine and Glynn.

The ailment is the common cold. I've been searching the internet to find out why we say we caught a cold - I always thought catching was a sign of excellence. You catch a ball, a thief, a fish for supper, perhaps a rabbit too, something to be proud of. Why would you want to catch a cold and where did that expression originate?

I found a definition at The Free Dictionary see Verb, item 20, meaning contract but nothing on the origin of the expression. Looking at all the definitions for the word catch, I was almost sorry I started this search. And I guess that just shows how Tim and I are spending our weekend, feeling under the weather, trawling the net!

Readers in other parts of the world may wonder why Friday and Monday are both observed as religious holidays in South Africa, a country of so many diverse people and beliefs. Why do South Africans deserve this four day weekend? Isn't one day enough to hunt for Easter eggs?

And this year, two days after Easter Monday, we have April 27 Freedom Day, a good day for a holiday being the anniversary of the first democratic elections in South Africa in April 1994.

But hold on, as if that isn't enough holiday-ing, May 1st falls on a Sunday so Monday May 2nd is another day off for the workers and guess how many South Africans get out of town on Thursday April 21st and begin work again on May 3rd?

Wait, I know it's a few weeks off, but I spy another holiday on Wed 18th May. "Election Day" for local government elections in all the provinces.

You can imagine how these "holidays" throw the Stanford Centre's Academic Schedule into turmoil. Students are having a ball!

Last week we drove up the West Coast Road to !Khwa ttu, the San Cultural and Educational Centre, to learn about the San language and lifestyle. We followed that up with the Pieter Dirk Uys show Desperate First Housewives at Evita se Perron, in Darling. Photos of the day here. Pieter Dirk Uys as always such a great entertainer!

Dinner with the Stantons begins again

Tim and I really look forward to our evenings with the students every quarter. We have four of them over to our house for snacks and drinks on Wednesdays and then walk down to the Wijnhuis restaurant for dinner.

There was a time when I would cook and we'd eat at home, but we changed to the restaurant because it is much more fun for the students to got out to eat. And I was running out of recipes!

Here are two photos from our first dinner on Wednesday. Camil Diaz brought her camera - thank you Camil!

Anne Sophie, Judee, Sherry and our amazing waiter, Ritesh

Sarrah, Camil and Tim

Tomorrow we're going to the San Cultural Village, !Khwa ttu, up the West Coast, close to Yzerfontein, with the students, to learn how the San people once lived when the Dutch came to the Cape in 1652. After that we drive on to Darling to watch Pieter Dirk Uys perform in his show Desperate First Ladies at Evita se Perron.

April news

Tim got back from his trip to the US minus his precious computer and his suitcase. Fortunatly the latter was not missing. It just missed the connection in Frankfurt and arrived 36 hours later. His computer has gone. Strange thing was that when he was back home in Inverness, my computers, stolen last July, turned up in Marin County. Is someone trying to tell us something?

We've had a spurt of sunny windless days and Saturday morning found me back on the slopes of Table Mountain, the first time since January 31st. Bliss!! I didn't venture off the beaten track as I love to do, but stayed on the level jeep track. Meanwhile Tim did the big loop, up the left side, through the indigenous forest to the contour path and a long walk at 300 metres above sea level until he joined the track back down again. Lucky him ... I hope to be able to do that soon.

The new "Spring" quarter has begun. I was at Orientation Lunch last week where, after lunch, students got to meet the faculty. See photos. We ended off this week with our first Sites of Memory class at Groote Constantia, followed by the Welcome Dinner at the Jonkershuis restaurant in the beautiful grounds of this wine estate founded in 1685.

We had four very special guests with us who we were lucky to meet last year when Grant Parker was the Stanford faculty in residence. Grant's mum and dad, Mavis and Dick Parker. And Marie and Dick van der Ross. Dick vd R's family had lived in Strawberry Lane, near Groote Constantia, a coloured community evicted by the Group Areas Act in the late 1960's. We stopped by the plaque commemorating the people who lived there, met our guests and heard a bit about the area from Dick vd R.

Strawberry Lane, Stanford students and guests Dick Parker, Marie van der Ross and Dick van der Ross. The plaque is on the left of the green fence and not up in the trees!

Here's a link to some photos of yesterday afternoon/evening.

A Welcome to Cameron in London

Two weeks in London chilling with baby Cameron Mir Allden Lloyd, daughter of Naseam Mir and my son, Gareth Allden Lloyd. I had a wonderful stay, was very spoilt, walked with the dogs every day and really enjoyed getting to know my new family. Naz is a brilliant mum and I can see Cameron and Gareth are lucky guys!

Walk in Wimbledon Park

My last day ... Hi Dad!

Between Crutches and Cameron's arrival

It's 5+ weeks since my fall in Newlands forest and my ankle is well on its way to recovery. Back on the mountain trails in three weeks hopefully.

The Stanford quarter is almost over. Classes finish this week and next week is final exams, farewell dinner and flights back home for the students.

Tim will also go home over the break - to visit his parents, attend a meeting, check in at Stanford and spend a night in familiar Inverness, in that order. So we're almost at the half way mark for this half year.

Days are filled with reading papers for classes, too many hours at the computer, and work of the domestic sort. We do manage to slip in a few memorable moments like eating good food, drinking yummy wines and socialising with fun friends.

And seeing Nan and Daniel and my two Cape Town grandchildren. Not enough of them, but at least they're not too far away. N&D have sold their house and are looking for a replacement in a bigger village, closer to the sea, shops and schools, and also closer to Kommetjie Waldorf school where they both teach.

For the past two weeks, in the Genocide class, we studied Rwanda. Tim and I watched 2 Documentaries and 4 feature films on the Rwandan genocide after which I was a bit of a wreck for a few days. Such brutality is hard to imagine so to see it enacted on screen is shocking. And to watch the denial of the West was pretty appalling.

To take my mind off Rwanda I read The Heart of the Hunter, a thriller by Deon Meyer - his books seem to get better and better and it is such a pleasure to read about events taking place in and around familiar addresses. But I had to wonder about my shift from genocide to crime and murder - is there some deeply embedded need to dwell on the dark side in us humans?

Baby Cameron - March 3rd 2011

Clever Naz gave birth to baby Cameron last week after three long nights in hospital waiting for pills to induce labour take effect. They didn't so finally she had a c-section on Thursday. Home by Saturday. All is well and my son Gareth is a very proud and happy dad!

I am off to London this Saturday - just can't keep me away.

Freedom ....

After two weeks in a hot, sweaty, constricting boot, hobbling about on crutches, I am finally free! What a difference to be my own person again compared to being locked up at home, dependent on Tim and friends every time I needed to see what the world was like outside my front door. Of course I forgot to take a photo of my "injury". But maybe I forgot on purpose. Who wants to remember incarceration!

I guess the low point was when Tim went off to Johannesburg last Thursday, on the field trip that we had planned together. I had made bookings with all the places we were to visit and with the coach company to get us from the airport to the B&B's and beyond. Thursday night they went to the Market Theatre to have dinner and see the Hugh Masekela show Songs of Migration, just before it closed on Feb 13th. HM is a unique performer and he led his stage team on a journey of song reflecting different migrations in Southern Africa and other parts of the world.

Next day, Friday, they went to Constitution Hill, the site of the old jails, one for men and one for women, now the Constitution Court. Then to Liliesleaf farm in Rivonia, once the headquarters of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC, where the treason arrests were made back in the 60's. Following on, the Apartheid Museum described the years from 1948 to 1994, and lastly an unscheduled quick drive through Soweto with a stop to see Nelson Mandela's home which happens to be in the same street where Bishop Tutu lived, both Nobel prizewinners.

Saturday began in Pretoria's Church square with a bit of background history from Sally Roper who was on hand both days to guide and inform. Next the Union Buildings, then the Voortrekker Monument and finally the new Freedom Park, built to memorialise freedom fighters who died in all the wars, starting with the San, the indigenous peoples of South Africa.

I vicariously enjoyed the trip through Tim's descriptions when we chatted in the evenings. It was almost as good as being there.

The King's Speech finally opened in Cape Town on Friday and I was lucky enough to be picked up and taken to the afternoon show. Understated humour together with overt emotion - brilliant is too small a word to describe the film.

I'm reading Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost about the Congo for my genocide class. It's a great history lesson and really well written for anyone with the stomach for greed and gore.

We had a fun Valentine's supper last night with Breda and Billy, our Irish friends who we met at the Wijnhuis last year. B&B brought the meat, spuds, salad and pud, Tim bought bubbly and assorted bottles of yummy wine. He braaied too - everything was perfect and made even more so today by my release from the boot!

We celebrated my freedom with lunch at the Casa Labia the former Muizenberg residence of Count and Countess Natale Labia.

Crutches

I suppose over my many years I must have used many a crutch to help me along the road, but I've never needed the medical variety until earlier this week.

Not only crutches, but a hot and sweaty moonboot too. It's a whole new world! A very much slower one, a deliberate planning of out how to get here, how to get there. How long it takes to get to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and bring the steaming liquid back via furniture stops. I stand still, let go of the crutches, move mug from one surface to the next within arm range. Back on the crutches, move to the middle of the next two posts, lay aside crutches, move mug to new position, and so on and so on until finally I sit with a huge sigh and wonder if the trek was worth it!

Tim and I were taking our usual hike in Newlands Forest last Sunday. We'd walked along the 300 metre contour path and had just begun the descent to the woodcutter's trail. I love this path. It's not all that well known, narrow and twisty and rocky and somewhat overgrown and I immediately started slowly jogging with a sigh of immense pleasure, remembering discovering the route back in the nineties when I had three Jack Russell terriers in tow.

A large black insect with long trailing legs flew across my path forcing me to duck and take my eye off the path. Searing pain dropped me to the ground with immediate huge swelling - it didn't feel or look good!

We met five wonderful women who helped strap my ankle and stayed close by me as I slid downhill on my behind, or hopped along, supported by small tree trunks and a borrowed walking stick. Finally we reached the forestry road where a National Parks worker fetched me in his truck and took us home and I could shower and ice and ice.

Monday's visit to a physiotherapist concluded I needed an x-ray and the report of that indicated a small bone fragment torn off the outside ankle bone. Tuesday then saw me strapped into the moon boot, needing crutches too, for at least a week. Then one to two weeks of moon boot alone.

These past few days have been hot and humid. But it could be worse!

As I mentioned earlier, life has slowed down a bunch. Maybe it's time to get some of my projects finished?

A brief outline of a busy month ...

Nearly the end of January and the Stanford program is into it's fourth week now. Our days are full. Weekends we try and hike both days, one with Nan and family if possible. Regrettably there is no time in the week for roaming the mountain trails before work. Well, I guess if we didn't read for so long in bed when we wake we could hike. But lazy sloths we are, and reading is compulsive for both of us.

Tim is just finishing off Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, a book I also read. Fascinating, science-fictiony, marvelous story-telling. And I turned the last page today of The Fear by Peter Godwin. If you haven't already read Mukiwa and When the Crocodile Eats the Sun do so asap. And then read The Fear. The three books take you from an idyllic, peaceful, wealthy, although not a democracy, nation through the transition to democracy and then to bankruptcy and unimaginable violence.

I hadn't realised how much The Fear would tie in with the genocide class I take on Thursdays, almost the same course I took last year. I liked it so much I'm doing it again! Not exactly. I was drawn to the gap in my knowledge of the history of Southern Africa and am so lucky to have the opportunity to study with the students again.

Alternate Fridays see Tim and me with all the students in the Sites of Memory Class. So far we've only had one class and that began in the crypt at St Georges Cathedral with a chance meeting with Bishop Tutu much to the delight of all as Bishop Tutu insisted on shaking hands with each and every one of our group of 29!

After tea and a talk by John Parkington we walked up Government Avenue to the South African Museum to see three exhibitions there, first one on the people of South Africa, next the rock art of the San and lastly a marvelous exhibition curated by Pippa Skotnes and Petro Keene displaying the art of Leo Frobenius and his team who came to South Africa from Germany in 1928 and painted some huge canvases of the rock art he saw in Zimbabwe and Lesotho, some of which were bought by the SA Museum in 1931 and kept in storage for years and years.

This coming Friday we'll hold the second class, visiting the Prestwich Memorial and the Slave Lodge, learning about the early days of Cape Town.

With all this work there is little time to devote to a social life outside of work, although I have started playing bridge with my old group from the 1990's who still meet each Tuesday evening. So far, two weeks in a row, I (and my partner) have been consistent in coming 2nd from the bottom both evenings!

Each Wednesday we take four students to dinner to our favourite restaurant around the corner from us in Newlands, The Wijnhuis. Our first evening was last Wednesday and we'll keep it up until the end of February. It's a really nice way to get to know the students in smaller groups. Here we are with Ariana, Danielle, Leslie and Natie, all looking very satiated! Thanks to Ritesh for taking the photo with Leslie's camera! Ritesh is the reason we keep going back to the Wijnhuis. He is by far the best waiter I have ever met. He knows what wine we like and has it chilled to just the right temperature for our arrival. He can even predict what we'll order which isn't very difficult because we always order the same dish! Well, almost always...

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

We said farewell to 2010 on the lawns of Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens enjoying a concert with Johnny Clegg and his group. Long picnic first, a leading act, and then finally Johnny Clegg was onstage to much joy and dancing as all 6,000 at the concert stood and rocked to the truly South African rhythms.

Our friend Kay was visiting from Inverness and she joined us, as well as my daughter, Nan & Daniel. We sat next to our good Cape Town friend, Lucille, owner of Ivydene Guest House, who took the photo on the left. Kay took the photo of the concert, right.

It's nearly 7pm on January 6th as I write, sitting outside on a chilli-hot breathless day, the third in a row of scorching temperatures.



On Monday Jan 3rd, we spent a blissful evening with Kay on Table Mountain, first hiking around the top, admiring the views, and then watching the sunset from the summit bar sipping a cool glass of Sauvignon Blanc enjoying the stunning view from the top of the mountain, see photo. Thank goodness Kay took her camera - here we are in the gale before sunset on the front side of the mountain - that's the city you can just see on my right. Monday was the last of the windy days - we were lucky to get up - the cable car was closed most of the day because of "gale force winds". We ended the evening with dinner at the Africa Cafe - such a fun restaurant, it's worth checking the link.


The Stanford program began on Tuesday with Orientation and a lunch and I was there to enjoy the food and the course outlines by faculty, and to take photos, of course (with a little  help from Kathleen Levitt so there is even a photo of me!)

It feels exciting to be starting another quarter with 23 fresh faces and a number of new courses on offer, together with some of the same from last year. This week is all Orientation, ending with a dinner for staff and students on Friday at Solms-Delta in Franschhoek.

Two new staff have joined the Stanford Centre this year. Jen van Heerden will be assisting Janice McMillan with the Service-Learning placements, and Jessica Lothman has settled into Freeland Lodge with the students as their Resident Assistant.

Last year Claire Gibson, who was a student with us in 2008, filled both those roles. She was an important part of the Stanford family last year and we miss her enthusiasm, her bright face and happy smiles, and wish her luck at Mills, on her medicine track.