A few random reflections

A long journey on three airplanes through four airports has delivered me back to good old Memphis, Tennessee.  Jet-lagged and just plain beat to the socks, I'm having trouble doing much of anything other than sit around the house and slowly get settled back in.  Winter Storm Landon has arrived in the Mid South--as I write this a light freezing rain falls outside, and I wonder how much longer I'll have electricity--and that's all the more reason just to take it easy for a while.

I do at least have happy thoughts of the people and places I saw on the Western Cape of South Africa to warm my heart.

Here's a photo of one place where I spent quite a bit of time: the Fish Hoek Beach Sports Club.  For a long time it was primarily a sailing club, but under no small amount of leadership from Dawid Mocke it has become a very nice gathering place and home base for surfski paddlers.

It's not particularly fancy--it'll never be mistaken for the Memphis Country Club or any such place--but for a guy who feels lucky just to have a marina with a water-level dock where he can keep his boat, the club is downright posh: it has storage sheds for boats, locker rooms with showers, a small kitchen and bar, and this lounge area where we unwound after each paddling session:

Clockwise from the bottom, we see Ezra, Moses, me, Donald, Jasper, and Dawid.

There's even a wind gauge outside, with this display on an inside wall:

My lodging in Fish Hoek was A Tuscan Villa.  It's basically a bed and breakfast, though "guest house" seems to be the official term for such places in South Africa.  Whatever you call it, it's a lovely place that I highly recommend to anybody visiting the area:

The innkeeper, Anita, is exceptionally attentive and a great source of information for the foreign traveler with many questions.

Fish Hoek itself is not a tony resort town; it has more of a working-class feel.  I like that about it.  I know I'm in a pretty good place when I see signs that make me grin, such as this one:

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