I woke up this morning having arrived in South Africa yesterday afternoon and after a fairly long drive back to my parents new home, it was time to sleep. Today was really the first time I had to spend a full day in South Africa since I arrived. It rained the whole day.
My parents have the most beautiful holiday/retreat style cottage which reminds me of an resort holiday villa. It's entirely made of wood, raised off the floor and beautiful located within the permanent residential area within a seasonal managed holiday and camper's caravan park, called Prarie Park. We're not talking of ones natural tendency to associate a caravan park with some old, run-down, delapedated residence of the inbetweener and deprived improverished population, which I must admit had flashed through my mind when first I was told of it. This is very different. It's beautiful, tightly and beautiful woven haven of dotted cottage all linked together by local roads all within the enclosed and secured area of the park. It's has the feel of good management, good everything. The cottage is surprisingly large and it's wonderfully styled and extremely holiday-ish with its front deck, which looks just great. It's really just perfect, everything about it is ideal. It's kinda wierd because it's bigger than my apartment in Wimbledon and has all the modern things you'd might not immediately expect like a superb kitchen, oven/stove, counter top combination and are surprised by the lack of compromise that you might have thought would come with buying a new place when one isn't a millionaire. You come to expect certain compromises but I'm so pleased to say that there seems to be none just pleasant normality. I am very happy with the new place and it's fits them like a glove. It's perfect.
I hung about today, just talking about anything, having general conversation and enjoying seeing my parents happy and supremely capable. It's nice to talk to them, hear what they say and absorb the words into my soul.
When it stopped raining, I went for a 5.56km run to the beach and back. I got to the beach and momentarily considered running on the beach but as my shoes sank into the beach sand, the idea of sand sinkingly strained plodding quickly left my inner voice intimating that dude, na that's not for today and I turned around and went back the way I came. I had run down winding, wet and rain soaked roads, from the outset and it's became obvious that there were no pedestrian walkways along the roads which hadn't been completely obvious to me before but was now. I had to run on the road. They were quiet roads, winding roads, passing similar multi-housed complexes along the way. Towards the sea, more larger, fancier and separate houses were found. Rather fancy at times. I ran back after seeing the sea and during my beach-running considerations, spotted a few cars that has parked on the cal de sac that overlooked the facing sea. I stood here and subsequently went no further but saw a few lone fisherman braving the tempestuous and raging waves in the shore. It was rather miserable weather but made more beautiful and enjoyable by being part of my run. When I got back, I let myself in with the infrared remote that I had been in my hand while I had been running. I was surprised to have run as far as I did, considering that it didn't feel very far and I was rather tired most of the journey. Once I got back, I could sense the relief in my parents who went I proposed the idea had seemed rather uncomfortable with the idea. I sensed the concern for my safety. I guess, it's a concern that I must confess has always been with me when I think about South Africa and my experiences before here. Semi paranoid awareness which, certainly is not unfounded concern but inconvenient non-the-less concern. At times I take for granted the safety of London, surrounding communities and well, pedestrian walkways next to roads - very runner an walker friendly. Here, positively unsupported.
Non the less, I was determined to be both aware, sensible but adamant that I would go for my run as planned.
The rest of the evening, and even before the run, was tinkering with both my mom and dads new gadgets. My mom got my old laptop for her writing ambisions, and iPod nano for her listening pleasure. I gave my dad my old iPhone 3G and blackberry but that seemed to have a faulty battery due to long time in storage. The iPhone was ok through. My parents now both have laptops and iPods.
I've got a cat on my bed trying make me sleep as uncomfortable as possible, but if it wasn't for my most sincere affection for it, it would have ousted it - but I'm very fond of it as my parents are. Indeed it was my cat, prior to leaving South Africa, which i guess explains my affections really. He's old but as adorable and friendly as ever. My parents look well and happy and that makes me happy. It was apparent to me, being back in South Africa, how volatile life is, how life is life no matter where you live, what you do and it's scary that at times, I feel that being in south Africa and relating to it and associating it with my up bringing, my 1st life seems so contrary to my new life, I guess ambition, new experience, freedom and it's success that being post South Africa makes me cautious a little, it reminds of much much person I came from. How much I have in London and how happy I am in London. But being here, feeling this way, it gives me perspective and puts my feet firmly on the ground. It's fairly unsettling at times, coupled with the uncertainty of life in general no matter where one is. It's a interesting complexity: being here, fundamentally cautious for all these reasons and more and then fulfilling a part of me that needs to embrace my past, my parents and reality. A holiday seems almost difficult a term to describe my visit to South Africa, yet a yearning it is, a complex psychological yearning. Perhaps mostly to reach ground zero, remember who I am, where I was, who I was and who is responsibly, to a large extent, to who I am and have become: my parents.
Tomorrow is Sunday and I can't imagine it being much different which is superbly and utterly fundamentally fine by me.
My parents have the most beautiful holiday/retreat style cottage which reminds me of an resort holiday villa. It's entirely made of wood, raised off the floor and beautiful located within the permanent residential area within a seasonal managed holiday and camper's caravan park, called Prarie Park. We're not talking of ones natural tendency to associate a caravan park with some old, run-down, delapedated residence of the inbetweener and deprived improverished population, which I must admit had flashed through my mind when first I was told of it. This is very different. It's beautiful, tightly and beautiful woven haven of dotted cottage all linked together by local roads all within the enclosed and secured area of the park. It's has the feel of good management, good everything. The cottage is surprisingly large and it's wonderfully styled and extremely holiday-ish with its front deck, which looks just great. It's really just perfect, everything about it is ideal. It's kinda wierd because it's bigger than my apartment in Wimbledon and has all the modern things you'd might not immediately expect like a superb kitchen, oven/stove, counter top combination and are surprised by the lack of compromise that you might have thought would come with buying a new place when one isn't a millionaire. You come to expect certain compromises but I'm so pleased to say that there seems to be none just pleasant normality. I am very happy with the new place and it's fits them like a glove. It's perfect.
I hung about today, just talking about anything, having general conversation and enjoying seeing my parents happy and supremely capable. It's nice to talk to them, hear what they say and absorb the words into my soul.
When it stopped raining, I went for a 5.56km run to the beach and back. I got to the beach and momentarily considered running on the beach but as my shoes sank into the beach sand, the idea of sand sinkingly strained plodding quickly left my inner voice intimating that dude, na that's not for today and I turned around and went back the way I came. I had run down winding, wet and rain soaked roads, from the outset and it's became obvious that there were no pedestrian walkways along the roads which hadn't been completely obvious to me before but was now. I had to run on the road. They were quiet roads, winding roads, passing similar multi-housed complexes along the way. Towards the sea, more larger, fancier and separate houses were found. Rather fancy at times. I ran back after seeing the sea and during my beach-running considerations, spotted a few cars that has parked on the cal de sac that overlooked the facing sea. I stood here and subsequently went no further but saw a few lone fisherman braving the tempestuous and raging waves in the shore. It was rather miserable weather but made more beautiful and enjoyable by being part of my run. When I got back, I let myself in with the infrared remote that I had been in my hand while I had been running. I was surprised to have run as far as I did, considering that it didn't feel very far and I was rather tired most of the journey. Once I got back, I could sense the relief in my parents who went I proposed the idea had seemed rather uncomfortable with the idea. I sensed the concern for my safety. I guess, it's a concern that I must confess has always been with me when I think about South Africa and my experiences before here. Semi paranoid awareness which, certainly is not unfounded concern but inconvenient non-the-less concern. At times I take for granted the safety of London, surrounding communities and well, pedestrian walkways next to roads - very runner an walker friendly. Here, positively unsupported.
Non the less, I was determined to be both aware, sensible but adamant that I would go for my run as planned.
The rest of the evening, and even before the run, was tinkering with both my mom and dads new gadgets. My mom got my old laptop for her writing ambisions, and iPod nano for her listening pleasure. I gave my dad my old iPhone 3G and blackberry but that seemed to have a faulty battery due to long time in storage. The iPhone was ok through. My parents now both have laptops and iPods.
I've got a cat on my bed trying make me sleep as uncomfortable as possible, but if it wasn't for my most sincere affection for it, it would have ousted it - but I'm very fond of it as my parents are. Indeed it was my cat, prior to leaving South Africa, which i guess explains my affections really. He's old but as adorable and friendly as ever. My parents look well and happy and that makes me happy. It was apparent to me, being back in South Africa, how volatile life is, how life is life no matter where you live, what you do and it's scary that at times, I feel that being in south Africa and relating to it and associating it with my up bringing, my 1st life seems so contrary to my new life, I guess ambition, new experience, freedom and it's success that being post South Africa makes me cautious a little, it reminds of much much person I came from. How much I have in London and how happy I am in London. But being here, feeling this way, it gives me perspective and puts my feet firmly on the ground. It's fairly unsettling at times, coupled with the uncertainty of life in general no matter where one is. It's a interesting complexity: being here, fundamentally cautious for all these reasons and more and then fulfilling a part of me that needs to embrace my past, my parents and reality. A holiday seems almost difficult a term to describe my visit to South Africa, yet a yearning it is, a complex psychological yearning. Perhaps mostly to reach ground zero, remember who I am, where I was, who I was and who is responsibly, to a large extent, to who I am and have become: my parents.
Tomorrow is Sunday and I can't imagine it being much different which is superbly and utterly fundamentally fine by me.