I have just had 10 glorious weeks in Durban. I travelled over in mid-May and came back to the UK at the end of July. I barely left Durban during this period. The only trip from the city was to Hilton, just outside Pietermaritzburg for lunch with people who attended Waterford. Most were a year or two younger than me, and I had not seen some for more than 50 years. It affirmed the value of the Waterford education and values for all of us.

This was reinforced by having lunch with Yunus Peer just before I left Durban. He was a year below me at the school. He now lives in Hawaii and set up an amazing teacher educator project in Southern Africa.

I have written about meeting him at the school in 2016 and sending him a poetry textbook from Waterford, with his name in the front cover. I had picked it up at a car boot sale in Norwich a couple of years before. In 2018 I sat next to someone from his project on a flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg. Last year I went to lecture for him at the Cradle Moon Lodge at the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng. It was great to have this long lunch and chat in Durban. He has an amazing story, and I urged him to write it!

So, looking back on my months in South Africa I feel I was very blessed. The weather was fantastic. The coldest it got, at night, was 12°C, and the warmest was 26°C in the middle of the day. I walked almost every day, averaging just over 10 km per day. Most mornings I made my way down to the wonderful Glenwood Bakery for coffee.

It was interesting to see the weaver birds begin the nesting process in a fever tree in Bulwer Park on the walk; they had not quite finished weaving when I left! I have written about the monkey menace in previous blogs, and I generally saw at least two troops per walk. There was only one instance of fruit theft from my flat. On this trip, I was also lucky enough to see a pack of banded mongoose in the suburbs. There were at least 20 of all ages.

On Mondays I met up for dinner with friends who have been a part of my Durban world for years, old friends in both senses of the word. There were between five and nine people at the table and the conversation was wide ranging but always covered our children. I believe these evenings will continue in my absence, which would be great. On Tuesdays I saw people who worked for me years ago, catching up with them as peers has been delightful.

There is a new restaurant in Glenwood: the Poké Box. We ate there frequently. The food was excellent and cheap. Because they do not have a liquor licence it was a case of taking your own wine or beer, making it even cheaper. I also made a few new friends, one of whom joined me on the walks and regularly came to the Monday evening at the Poké Box.

The Sunday routine was to go to the beach, only a 10-minute drive away in the early morning, and walk along the promenade to the harbour mouth. With luck I would see one or two ships entering or leaving the port. On one walk I bumped into the lawyer who handled property transactions for me years ago. We arranged to meet and have coffee with his friends at the Marine Surf Life Saving Club at the beach on subsequent Sundays. He is a cyclist, and it was part of his routine, so I was grateful to be included. On a couple of occasions, I went home and cooked a satisfying English breakfast.

One of the issues of my life in South Africa that I am deeply aware of is the inequality that is so evident. It is most evident in the people begging at traffic lights, or trying to make a living as car guards. Having said that, there is an attempt to give people more power at the neighbourhood level through Urban Improvement Precinct initiatives (UIPs). These have been about for a few years and are well established. The Glenwood one is making a significant difference as was clear from my walks.

“A UIP is defined as a ‘Special Rating Area’ (SRA) and establishment of a UIP is governed by the Local Government Municipal Property Rates Act, supported by Municipal Property Rates Policy … (it) allows property owners to invest in the management of a demarcated precinct to improve its safety, appearance, ambience, social cohesion and general livability. Property owners … provide additional contributions to their municipal property rates, which then contribute to the UIPs budget … to provide ‘top-up’ services … (a) misconception … is they are funded by the Municipality … it is the property owners who pay an additional rate contribution.” – Glenwood UIP

I am pleased to report that I made significant progress on reworking the memoir! I have a fair first draft of the whole thing but really put a great deal of effort into the first five chapters that have now been sent to a professional editor. It will cost a bit, but I think it will make the difference between getting it published or not. The process of writing has been rewarding in and of itself. Families are complex and mine is no exception.

It was a difficult journey back to the UK. The internal flight was fine, and I had just over four hours in OR Tambo. This was not a problem as I have lounge access so I went, had a shower, and generally chilled. I was in a three-seat section on the international flight and the middle seat was empty so that was fantastic, space to stretch.

Because the plane only left at 23h15 I simply sat and read my book, then on the plane I did not even look at the entertainment system, I had a snack and went to sleep. We got into Amsterdam at about 10h30 and my flight was scheduled for 13h30, but that was not to be. There was an Air Traffic Control failure in the UK and for a short while nothing was allowed into British airspace, I am not sure what happened to the planes in the air! While the outage was brief, the knock-on effects were significant. It was chaos.

My connecting flight was supposed to leave at 13h40 but was cancelled. The next flight at 17h00 was also cancelled after several delays. There was only one more possibility for me to get back, the 22h40. Fortunately, this one took off, but that meant that I spent more time in Schiphol airport than in the air! I am very lucky because the lounge access meant I could sleep for a few hours in a little cabin (for a fee) and have a long, and very needed, shower.

There was still time to kill so I went to what I was told was the best restaurant in the terminal. It was Asian fusion cuisine and was indeed excellent. I ended up talking to an interesting Dutch couple at the next table. The woman is joining the government, and I know people in the Ministry she is going to work in, so I sent (as promised) a few emails to introduce her.

As you can imagine being on the road for 30 hours was draining! It meant I did not do much on Thursday and am only really catching up now. I came back to a large tax bill and tried to pay it online on Thursday, which was a mistake. The transfer did not go through as I did something wrong because I could not focus. On Friday I went and made the payment at the bank. It was a relief to get that crossed off the list.