Midway

Must be brief, running out of batteries and time.
Some pictures. In no particular order, unfortunately. No time to be artsy.

This is the back patio of the Labri Manor, where I spent all but one night while in Stellenbosch. The body of water in the rear is a "plunge pool", an unheated (by anything but the sun) pool about 1.25 m deep, just for refreshing on a hot day. I was on the patio the last afternoon before leaving, because it was stinking hot. And I used the pool--took the plunge, as it were.


Now I'm waiting at Heathrow Airport, again. It's about 0930 on Tuesday (I think). Virgin Atlantic Flight 019 leaves at 1100. So, not much time, this time, to 'blog'.


After the conference I had a couple of days to look around. Mac (Leila's partner) and I drove into the mountains that frame Stellenbosch, and found a fly-fishing trout farm. It was fairly pretty, as you can see.

Dear Anonymous

The absence of pictures is due to my inability to use my own computer to accses the internet. Sorry. You'll just have to wait!
I hope you have a good weekend. I'll be home soon.

What An Interesting Couple of Days

I've been unable to use the guest-house computer for the past two or three days. What a pain. Lots has happened, but I'll only be able to shorthand it now that the news has been accumulating for a couple of days.
It's almost 11 PM. I've just come back from dinner with Iain (my old head of dept) and a couple of his friends. Today was the last day of the conference. Iain's off on an excursion to a cave site where they've got beads and ochre from ~75,000 years ago. It's hugely important, but as always, I'm the only one in the world who's even a little bit sceptical about the dating.
I've met a few very nice people here, and been shunned, for the most part by the rest who have any idea who I am.
I've got some great souvenirs, and I very much look forward to getting home to my family. Thanks for the comments! I have a couple of days here that I'd originally planned for any excursions that might have been on offer. However, the only one was, for logistical reasons, only advertised to a couple of dozen people. So, I'll be able to drive into the mountains and have a look around. It's really beautiful around here.
I'm very, very glad at the results in the election. But I wish I could have been a lot gladder. It doesn't seem right that the Bushies and the Republicans get to have so many Representatives and Senators. Wish the Demos a lot of luck.
I'm really tired, so I'm off to sleep. Please keep a candle in the window so I can find my way home!
Be well.
I'll try to post again tomorrow, and from there on. But it remains to be seen if I can get access to a 'puter.

Mission Accomplished

Thanks to my family for the heartwarming comments, and for the news about Ad and Deb. It's really awful news about Ad. Unbelievable! They should probably find out which one of their friends, if any, is a user. That'd be the first place to look, sad to say.
Thanksgiving at D&T's would be fine with me. I'm sorry that the other options don't seem attractive to me.
I gave my presentation today! It went pretty well, considering that many of the images I'd laboriously placed were rotated or squished or in the wrong place altogether. Thanks, Microsoft!
There wasn't much time for questions after my talk, since the session had a late start and my well-timed presentation almost filled the time until the scheduled start of the next talk. However, I've met some very nice people, including, incredibly, a Bill Noble analog who works with one of Iain's old acquaintances, who, believe it or not is a clinical psychologist who works on personality disorders in older adults, and has just published a book on the matter. He's a very nice man, and terribly funny, and I feel as if I've known him all my life (although he may just be very good at makking people feel that way).
Anyhow. I feel pretty good about the day, even though it was not physically comfortable. I must have neglected to put my gut pills in my pile this morning, and by mid morning I was suffering terribly. Luckily there are some very helpful people at the conference center who organized first bicarb of soda, and then managed to get their hands on some antacid tablets. So, by the time I gave my talk, I wasn't feeling like I wanted to puke.
I'm actually looking forward to the rest of the conferencem, both because the venue is a very lovely place, and because there are so many good people that I've managed to hook up with, thanks to Iain.
I'm eating very well, fairly cheaply, and Hazel's gift is providing me with a "last hurrah" that I'll remember for a very long time.
I love you all, and I very much look forward to coming home.
Be well.

Contact

I met up with my old head of department this morning after breakfast, and we spent a couple of hours at a coffee bar. Iain is checking his email and I'm, well, I'm blogging. The conference welcome is this afternoon, and, as it happens, it's not at the conference center, it's in the center of town, near where I'm staying. I still can't get on the wireless network at the Labri Manor, so I'm posting this from an internet cafe. It's another beautiful day, warm and sunny, and I'll probably end up wandering around the town with Iain, looking for souvenirs to take home.
OK. I'm done for now. I'm going to try to remember to take some pictures and post them later today.
Bye for now.

Safe and Sound

I made it to Stellenbosch!
It's a very charming little burg. I have a really nice rental car, and one more day before the conference starts. Due to unexpected (always) difficulties with the internet hookup here at my guest house, I'm on a generic terminal and thus cannot upload the very interesting blog that I'd composed for this moment. Ah, well. You'll just have to wait.
Anyway, I'm here.
Bye for just now.

I'm composing this at London England's Heathrow Airport. I arrived at about 10 AM Friday Greenwich Mean Time. It's now 4 PM, and I'll be here until the scheduled departure for Capetown, at 8 PM. Security precautions are increasingly ridiculous, as I see it. At San Francisco Airport, I had to leave three bottles of water that I took with me for my trip through London to Cape Town. However, even sealed bottles of drinking water wouldn't pass. Then I thought I was going to have to leave the shaving cream I'd purchased on the morning of my departure, since all such items needed to be sealed in a clear plastic bag. A kind security agent figgered out a way to let me through with it. Pointless, really, as Ford said to Arthur, since I had to go through security once again upon landing in London, and here they allow NO liquids, creams, solidified creams, gels, toothpaste, etc. So, I had to jettison my toothpaste, my deodorant, my EXPENSIVE hair fixative, my shaving cream (thanks anyway kind security agent in SF), and my tongue cleaning spray. BUMMED! Moments later I found myself in the biggest shopping mall in existence. Heathrow's international departures area is one gigantic shopping center. I've never seen anything like it! Givenchy, Chanel, Gucci, Harrod's. You name it! It's here. Even Boot's the Chemist, which is a real good thing, since I was now bereft of every item of personal hygeine. So, Boot's cashes in on the security crackdown, and (not knowing when I'd get to a chemist's/drug store after arriving in Cape Town, and hoping not to offend even the animals in the country upon arriving) I had to buy more toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving cream. I decided it wasn't worth it to buy hair stuff, since I just had my hair cut, and despite my well-disguised vanity, would rather have been able to use, decided not to purchase more EXPENSIVE hair schtoff until my return home.
Finally, I was very surprised and pleased that my daughter, now old enough to want to disown me as her own flesh and blood most days, asked me to come by her school at noon on my way out of Santa Cruz. She came out and hugged me like I can't remember her doing for a long time (and repeatedly), and it was enormously satisfying to say "so long" to her in that way. She even left me little notes in my carry-on, which I appreciated more than you can imagine.
Anyone reading this will know who I'm talking about in this post, so I want you to know that I love you all, and I appreciate working and living with you more than any of you can know.
So, without further ado, I'll take you leave now.
I'll get back to you in South Africa!