Since Flu, fishes and flip-fops, I woke up and headed straight to the showers and my morning routine does not seem to have any dependence on the continent that I find myself on. I still hadn't my luggage and having been informed that it was somewhere in Maritzburg, thankfully I was able to brush my teeth and shower comfortably due to the toiletries my mother had already provided to me along with the dentist kit I received at the hotel in Newtown, Johannesburg.
My luggage eventually turned up down at the reception and my dad came up with it around 11 am. Until then we’d sat in front of them tend to discuss things in general. A new couple of campers turned up and were set up in front of our tent and we eventually got to talk to them and figure out a little about them. They were farmers in the area coming for a weekend, along with their two children who periodically took their bicycles out for rides. This included occasions when the father would do with them and explorer the surroundings. We would fairly frequently engage in friendly conversation from time to time. Terry came down and sat with us also and I talked to him about his journey from Jersey, Rhodesia and South Africa.
One thing I’ve come to realise is how liberal and adventurous could be in the course of one's life, particularly moving from where you were born to a new country and happily embracing the changes and requirements as they arise. I find this quite a determined existence, perhaps brought about by a self-directed appreciation for the opportunities you can take in life.
My mother enjoys watching the cricket on T.V and today South Africa were playing Sri-Lanka in Newlands in cape town and as I enjoy cricket, particularly South African cricket having been brought up on it, we decided to do down to the recreational facilities near reception and watch it. At this time, I’d already given my father his new phone and he had been taking the time to investigate how it worked and was quite established and so the cricket came and went and he hardly saw any of it as his attention was squarely directed elsewhere.
I decided to order some food from the restaurant and ended up choosing a chicken salad and a trout and pea Quiche. I enjoyed it tremendously because I was hungry and had decided early on in the morning that I forgo any sustenance until I went down to the restaurant in favour of having something ‘exotic’. The cricket was interesting and served as appropriate background entertainment for both my eating and my dad's exploratory learning session. My mother casually was knitting a square or something. We also ordered and enjoyed some drinks in the form of sugar-free ‘Sprite Zero’ and ‘Coke Zero’ which was mine and my parents’ preferences respectively. Thankfully we’ve all embraced the idea that sugar isn’t necessary – even more so because my father is diabetic so having these options suited us well. It was also a warm day and I’d put on a long sleeve exercise-like top which quickly became apparent was not suitable.
Terry came over for a scheduled stop and my folks shared a beer or two with him as it was his penultimate day and he would be leaving the next day.
I decided to leave them talking and considered it an opportunity to re-read my research paper for my university assignment and make a concerted effort to start evaluating the paper critically. This is an interesting but quite laborious exercise requiring deep understanding and concentration.
I put a camp chair outside my tend and with a pen and pad started to externalise my thinking and interpretation of the paper. I’d read the paper in full on the bus from Johannesburg to Ladysmith to familiarise myself with it however it required further iterations and reflection to prise the viewpoints I needed to critique it. I found a new technique by linking phrases and words together with arrows and interconnect them as well as expand them with ideas/questions with arrows as they became apparent. I used this approach to analysing the previous days’ podcast. I made some progress and as the scheduled ‘Load shedding’ kicked in and the lights went off I had about an hour in declining light fuelled by a headlight to keep me going, at which point I felt sufficient progress had been made.
I re-organised with my parents as night fell and discussed what it was, I liked eating in the UK, specifically the more interesting things like, Artichokes and chicken sausages. We talked about food and we talked about politics. Specifically, we talked about Brexit and Trump and it was, as always, and interesting platform for debate. My dad decided to go to bed and me and my mother shared a few jokes before we agreed to go to bed at this time was a good idea.
In my tent, I used my laptop to write out my critique and went to bed.