It’s always an emotional experience collecting or dropping off a loved one or family member from the airport. Hellos are exciting but goodbyes have a touch of sadness. Especially when you turn on your car radio and Chris Isaak is singing a cover of “My baby left me” which is featured on his 2011 album, Beyond the Sun. The album is a collection of covers honoring Sun Records artists.
Cape Town Airport, previously called DF Malan, was where I bought my own ticket and flew to Johannesburg in August 1980. That was a major emotional upheaval leaving the town to start a new career and life in a new city. Journalism beckoned and the main city for this was Johannesburg.
Over the past two weeks we explored all the places I go to and those that I normally don’t visit. That’s the benefit of being with someone out of town – you get to see where you live again from the perspective of an outsider. Refreshing.
The peninsula has much to offer even in late autumn as temperatures drop to 15°C. Seals at Kalk Bay Harbour, the giant driftwood sculpture of a Malgas bird at Kommetjie and the serenity of a small beach past Simon’s Town.
Amazing to behold was a young woman going for a swim at 8pm after dark under the full moon at Fish Hoek beach.
I came into town early this morning and was lucky to find a small Starbucks in Kloof Street that opened at 6:30. I have some shopping to do later in town but the shops only open after 8am. Good time to reflect.
In the blue silence after people have left your life, even if only temporarily, you wonder what being together really means. If it’s mutual respect and kindness, then it leads to the right kind of things. Some people grow into dependency and that can lead to relying on the other person for all sorts of things. Others become needy. Only the timbre of your own emotions and thoughts can decide what you really prefer.
The dawn has broken now and it is a new day. Too soon we get caught back into the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It’s the natural course of things. Special moments, special times become part of the accumulation of memories we hold dear.
