Tag Archives: Climate Change

Cape Town and a 70th Birthday Party

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I am back in Durban, and it is already rather warm here. The forecast for an El Nino event seems to be unfolding as we were warned. It could be really serious for much of the world, but the whole of Southern Africa might experience extreme drought again.

It has been over a week since I left Norwich. I caught the 6 AM flight to Amsterdam and then connected on the KLM flight to Cape Town. I was fortunate that there were two empty seats (the middle section) between myself and my neighbour, so we had room to spread out. After the 11-hour flight I was picked up by a prebooked shuttle service, and taken to my accommodation, the Mouille Point Apartments. Once there I checked in and fell into bed. I wish there was a direct flight to Durban, I normally change planes in Johannesburg which is a real pain, and I must spend a night at a hotel.

The following day there was a howling gale blowing that I found quite unsettling. I took an Uber to Simonstown to meet Sandra Dodson for lunch and a general catch up. She has been helping me with my memoir, which has been mentioned a few times in this blog. She is an excellent editor and proofreader and essentially made recommendations to restructure the entire thing. On Saturday I went to the Waterfront Shopping Centre to get a few essentials. It is quite eye-opening to see the consumerism and wealth in the city, with so many international tourists on the streets.

The main reason for making Cape Town the first stop was that three friends from Durban were celebrating their 70th birthdays. Rob Morrell grew up in Swaziland just a couple of houses away from us, his parents sent him and his siblings to boarding school in South Africa so I mainly knew him from primary school. He and I reconnected when he moved to Durban to teach at the University of Durban Westville. He was one of the ardent touch rugby players who met once a week on Hammond field. Geoff Schreiner worked in labour relations and played rugby with us. I did not know the third person, Paul Weinberg, in Durban, as he was neither a rugby player nor at the University.

The Touch Rugby Team at 70+, 19th September 2026

The party was a short distance from the apartment, at the Oceana Power Boat Club. This is a great, but hidden, location. I suspect its patrons are mainly local people who know about it and have done so for decades. Power boats and ski boats are popular amongst a certain segment of the white South African population; I don’t think it is a class thing but rather to do with enjoying the outdoors. It is not just mad dogs and English men who sit out in the midday sun. I briefly sat at a table with a Russian woman, her South African husband and their child. They were not there for the party but for supper. The husband is involved in cryptocurrency, so I do not fully understand what he does.

There must have been close to 150 people, and I knew perhaps half of them. It was good to have the opportunity to catch up with old friends and acquaintances and talk about how we, the country, and the world have changed. I suspect it will be the last gathering of this type, but we may just squeeze in 75th birthdays. Interestingly guests had started leaving by 10 o’clock and when I left at 11 there were just a few diehards at the bar.

On Sunday my brother, Derek, collected me and I spent two days with him and his wife Lynn in Hout Bay. On Sunday we had enough time to visit a vineyard near Stellenbosch. It has been owned for over 30 years by a French woman, now in her 90s but who still takes a great interest in the operation. Derek and Lynn very kindly took me for a day trip on Monday. We drove as far as Hermanus, a picturesque little town on the coast known for whale watching. There were no whales in sight.

A sunny day, facing the sea with a rocky seafront and restaurant dining in the foreground.

The view from the restaurant in Hermanus, September 2026

While I was staying with them, I read a book Lynn recommended: ‘Crab Soup and other Stories’ by Dirkie Joubert. This is the autobiography of an Afrikaans woman (and it was translated from Afrikaans), who was born in Montagu in the Cape in 1864. It is the story of the family’s six month plus trek by ox-wagon to Klerksdorp in the Transvaal in the 1880s. It is a fascinating tale of a difficult journey, as seen by a young white girl. The family meet and make friends on the way, and she, matter-of-factly, records the hardships, including deaths of people and stock. The journey is jeopardized when some of the oxen that pulled the wagon die. I enjoyed the book. It was published by the Montagu Museum and is, I suspect, hard to get.

Two things stood out. Firstly, although there were African and mixed-race servants on the journey, the race issue is barely mentioned. Secondly, the family managed to meet up with friends and family on the way. Quite how this happened in the vast Karoo I do not understand. We often underestimate the skills and communications of past generations.

On the long trip they passed near Kimberley, where diamonds were discovered in 1867, and ended close to the Witwatersrand where gold was found in 1886. There is a sense that the adults had a plan but Dirkie was not aware of it.

On Tuesday Tim Quinlan, who worked for me at the Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division in Durban, came to Cape Town from Riversondereind. I carried a bottle of whisky for him from the UK on behalf of his sister, so he had an incentive. We made a good call about where to go, and he took me to the airport. There are some decent places to eat so we were able to have a leisurely lunch and a long chat. Unfortunately, he was not able to make it to the birthday party, so it was good to have a chance for a long catch up.

I have been back in Durban for just a few days and there are clear signs of spring. In the last 48 hours nearly all the flowers have fallen from the Jacaranda tree outside my window and in a couple of weeks it will be in leaf. Sadly, though, we have lost a number of old trees in the neighbourhood since it has been incredibly windy. The trees were huge, but I am informed that the city is growing saplings to replace them over time in a managed manner. Most South African cities have excellent tree cover so that is something to be pleased about. Of course, our trees also provide a highway for the monkeys that come past every week or so, but that’s a small price to pay for the greenery.

I am looking forward to walking in Glenwood. For the past six weeks I have been suffering from stained Achilles tendons. We went to see the film The Odyssey a while ago, though Achillies does not make an appearance in this I made a tangential connection. It has been painful and disabling.

I finally saw a convincing health professional in Norwich. Charles Allen is an ‘Intrinsic Biomechanics Specialist’. His practice, Walk to Run,

‘bridges the gap between medical care and fitness performance… a preventative approach to… live well and stay mobile for longer. … intrinsic biomechanics assessing, soft tissue (sports massage) therapy, coaching and rehabilitation’

He spent over an hour with me and produced an extensive written report and prescribed a series of exercises. This works, and I will be able to start my walking regimen and gym visits again soon, I hope.

The Climate Emergency is Very Real

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I have been back in Norwich for a month and there has still been virtually no rain. Day after day the skies have been clear, and the garden has steadily grown more and more desiccated. Fortunately, we have a number of large trees that are surviving and presumably will make it through. This means, at least, the garden is cool.

There is no doubt we are facing a climate emergency and it is really depressing to see how much denial there is about this. I do understand the feelings of helplessness that many have when faced with this inexorable crisis. The only way to deal with it is to come together and hold everyone, especially governments and capitalists, to account. That requires leadership across countries as well as within them.

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Drought looms, fires burn

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I spent just under three months in Durban and returned to England over the last weekend in July. There was virtually no rain in Durban, and while it is the dry season, this was exceptional. We know, thanks to El Nino, there is an impending drought across Southern Africa. This dry spell suggests it may be severe, perhaps even the worst since 1983/84.

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At the end of the year

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The Norwich Anglican Cathedral is massive, ancient, and central to the city. On Christmas eve it was absolutely packed for the 3.30 pm service and procession. Ailsa and I were early enough to get seats, albeit ones where all we could see of the procession were the tops of banners and the bishop’s mitre! Technology means I can share a link. The inability to see did not detract from the occasion.

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It is Chilly in Durban

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When I last posted, over a month ago, I speculated about the prospects for a drought in the south of the UK. Although I have now been in South Africa for three, I am assured that there has been ample rain in Norwich, indeed some very heavy showers with ‘localised flooding’. Sadly, this is symptomatic of global climate change. By contrast, the nights in Durban have been extremely chilly, to the point that I have had all the blankets in the flat on the bed and am wearing my fleece.

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Is a Drought Beginning in England?

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June was a dry month, and the garden, which is still verdant, lush, and green, will start showing heat stress unless we have rain in the next week. I find it unbelievable that there are those who still deny the reality of climate change. I wonder if the importance of ‘lived experience’, pardon the academic jargon here, is underestimated.

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Family and Travel

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March should mark the end of winter in England. There are clear signs that spring is approaching. Some of the trees are covered with blossom. The daffodils in our garden are almost all in full bloom. However, despite the signs that nature is stirring, the weather has been rotten. We experienced periods of sustained strong winds and rain for nearly two weeks at the end of February. The western part of the country has had flood after flood, houses and homes have been wrecked. I find it quite confusing to see car roofs protruding from the middle of floods, surely you can drive a car out of harm’s way.

Of course, the serious floods over the past fifteen or so years meant defenses have been built, and in many cases they have worked. It could have been so much worse. The problem is that there are just too many houses built in vulnerable places (unbelievably on floodplains), and the nature of these storms is that they are ever more intense, a month’s rain in 24 hours. Yes, global warming is real, and it is affecting us in the UK in clear and measurable ways.

I had been organising a lunch in London with our extended family in mid-February. It turned out to be the wildest and windiest weekend of the month and public transport was greatly disrupted. As my sister and her husband are not youthful, canceling the gathering seemed appropriate, and indeed this turned out to be prescient. Fortunately, we made the call to postpone before I finalised the restaurant booking.

My brother, Derek, was passing through London for a day on his way back from the United States to Cape Town, and so we decided to have a smaller lunch the following weekend, on Saturday, 22 February. The plan was for Douglas and I to take the train down to London and meet up with the family at a restaurant they had booked near Notting Hill Gate. This was a central location and gave easy access to and from Heathrow for Derek as he had a limited amount of time.

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Heat and Humidity

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The Canadian summer has been hot and humid. I have never enjoyed humidity and so wonder why I managed to do summers in South Africa and Canada. The UN held a Climate Summit in September and there is increasing recognition of the environmental crisis we are facing. Earlier, in mid-September, the running news bar on the BBC was that the bird population has fallen precipitously in North America. In Waterloo there was a climate strike day on the 27th and people marched from the Universities to the town square. There were thousands of participants and I was proud to be among them.

Another running news bar on the BBC has been that ‘flight shaming’ means the growth in airline travel is expected to fall. Looking back more than 40 years I was so excited to take my first flight. I got a ride from Mbabane to Johannesburg, and boarded a flight to Heathrow to go to University. At 19, this was the first time I had been on a plane. I have a record of all the flights I took on a computer file, it is a bit scary.

Today when I board a plane I feel somewhat guilty. It is my intention to drastically reduce the amount of air travel and increase the amount of train travel. From Norwich to London is two hours by rail, and from there it is easy to get to Brussels or Paris. Plans for 2020 including going to Ireland (Norwich, London, Fishguard and the ferry to Dublin), and, perhaps, Amsterdam (Norwich, Harwich and ferry to Rotterdam). The possibilities are numerous.

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Frying in Norfolk

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Anyone who denies climate change, and more specifically, global warming, is seriously wrong. At the end of August we had record temperatures in Norwich. Fortunately it cooled down in the evenings so sleeping has not been too difficult. However, this summer the rowan tree in the front garden died from a mixture of disease and heat stress. Ailsa has been using the water from the rain butts to keep some of her favourite plants alive, but it is an uphill battle. It presents a dismal picture and I really wonder what the next 10 to 20 years will hold. I am increasingly aware of my contribution to this crisis, particularly through flying, but I do not consider myself to be a flamboyant consumer of other things.

Having said that, I have to begin this blog by reflecting on my travelling over the past month. My final class in Waterloo was on 30th July. I had to complete the marking and submit the marks by 8th August. I was able to do this, and almost all of the students should have been pleased with the outcome. The temperatures and humidity gradually rose in Waterloo, and I was glad to be heading for Norwich. I did not realise how hot Norwich was going to be.

I travelled over on Sunday 11th August, flying via Amsterdam. Toronto to Amsterdam is not all that long, just 7½ hours. This is not long enough to take a sleeping pill, so I sat and watched the film ‘Red Joan’. This was about a British woman who became a Soviet spy in the 1940s and 50s. Oddly I was reading a book called ‘And Is There Honey Still For Tea?’, by Peter Murphy, set in the same time period and covering the same topics. It is hard to believe how much skullduggery there was going on then. I guess it is still happening, with electronic surveillance playing an ever-increasing role.

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Sunshine and students

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There are three semesters at the Balsillie School, and across Canada. The Autumn term starts in September and ends just before Christmas; the Winter term is from January to April; and we are completing the Spring term which lasts from May to July. The terms are longer than in the UK and Europe at 12 weeks.

I taught two courses in the Spring and will teach two in the Autumn. Next calendar year (January 2020 to December 2020), I am on sabbatical and am very much looking forward to this. This is the first time I have been in Waterloo for the Spring term, and while it might have begun as spring it ended as summer – which is the one term we do not have. My word it was hot and humid for weeks at a time. Fortunately there were occasional thunderstorms that roiled across the region and brought some relief.

It has been very hot across much of Europe as well. We have a friend who has been in hospital in Norwich for some weeks now. The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital was opened in 2001. It was built on a greenfield site near the University, which means that UEA is able to offer medical degrees which was not the case when I was a student. It replaced a Victorian establishment in the centre of the city.

The new hospital is ‘state of the art’, except that there is no air-conditioning! This is OK for 10 months of the year. When there is a heatwave, as there was in July, it means that everyone from the consultants to the patients really suffers. It is miserable and sadly I don’t think there is any way that AC can be retrofitted into the building. The other major problem is that the hospital is not easy for the public to get to. It is an expensive and inconvenient bus journey, while those who drive have to pay car parking charges.

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