Good to see you again!

It was a real treat to welcome old friends to my home this afternoon - a rare occurrence as I usually socialise away from home, as seems to be the norm for a lot of people these days - eating out at lunchtime has taken the place of evening dinners as I prefer not to be out on the road at night. Hans and Ellen were effectively my son's second parents in that he spent a lot of time at their beautiful thatched home in Noordhoek during his school years as their son's friend, and many hours were spent in convivial conversation when dropping off and picking up. Robert had his first taste of international travel while still at school when he accompanied them on a trip home to the Netherlands and again in later years, when he stopped over to visit on another trip. I believe the opportunity to travel as a 'local' rather than a tourist was an invaluable life experience for him.

The prospect of going off to the Netherlands, or any other country for that matter, for a quick visit to see friends or family is always an exciting one, tempered by the incredible inconvenience of having to apply and pay an exorbitant amount for a visa, simply because a South African passport now carries a stigma due to the extent to which criminals have easy access to them. Not least because we can trace our lineage back to the 11th century in England on one side of the family and Catherine the Great on the other, so if anyone should be able to travel freely in the lands where all our relatives are buried, it is us. Of course, being pals with Jan van Riebeeck possibly doesn't help our cause.
So in the meantime we will just happily look forward to visits from friends and family here in South Africa until we lose our pariah status - it must surely happen eventually??. After all, it still remains one of the most desirable places to live in the world, we are told. We can accept that.