Fairest Cape

Greetings Faithful Blogreaders

Yes, I know - too long since I’ve blogged. You log on to this website everyday looking forward to my witty/funny/clever renditions of my travels only to be disappointed .... Fear not. I'm back!
It’s been a crazy few weeks as we ended our Oxford stay and began our Cape Town stint. For the next 5 weeks we’ll be staying in the oh so charming seaside village of Muizenberg which is 25 km from the Cape Town city center. Our digs – “The Haven” – is fab. Spacious, full of character (built in the early 20th century), with shabby chic décor. We are right at the foot of a dramatic mountain so views are great. The beach – white, sandy, and wide - is a 5 minute walk. Muizenberg has an alternative lifestyle feel to it kinda like a mini version of Santa Cruz in California. This is a very popular surfspot with gentle waves for the amateur. Near us are numerous cafes, organic food stores, dance and yoga studios, and trendy restaurants. It’s undeniably a beach resort, but on a small, laidback scale. No big hotels and tacky touristy shops. I guess you come here to charge up your batteries - sun, beach, fresh air, good food, great wine from the region, and peace.

I’m enjoying being thrown back into spring just as winter arrives in the northern hemisphere. Long days, warm and sunny, and the promise of summer. We are signed up for a weekly organic produce pick up and I got to pick up the first box on Friday morning. What fun it was to find all these spring veggies – asparagus, baby squashes, beans, peas, lettuces. We got a bunch of bananas which were just picked, but needed a couple days to ripen. In the US and UK the bananas are utterly tasteless, so what a treat to have sweet, flavorful ones. On the weekend a vendor came down the road selling avocadoes and papayas. We are eating very well here.

We arrived right in the middle of a math conference. So on our first evening we attended the banquet dinner held at the Kirstenbosch Gardens, famous for its enormous collection of indigenous vegetation in a breathtaking setting. Getting there was an experience in itself. David ( our host and topologist at UCT) and his wife, Juliet don’t have a car and use public transportation to get around. There is a great train connection from Muizenberg to various places, but of course, in SA middle class folks drive everywhere. Given the incidence of crime here I found it a bit nervewracking to get on the train to the university. It was close to 5:00 so the train was very crowded. It was quite funny to see how noisy and full of life the train riders here are compared to London where everyone on the tube trains are quiet, serious, with their faces buried in the papers.

The dinner at Kirstenbosch was quite an amazing event. First there was music outdoors – a violinist and guitarist played popular classical music pieces. We had drinks and met people out in the gardens with the imposing Table Mountain forming the backdrop. A most elegant dinner was served at the restaurant. The meal was accompanied by wine from the Nederberg estate. It was really interesting to talk to SA mathematicians and learn about the local concerns. There seems to be a lot of discussion of math at the pre-university level. It sounded like in the past not everyone took math all though high school. Now a change is being made so that university bound students would be served a rigorous curriculum while the other kids will take maths literacy, but every single student will have to take one or the other. The problems faced by incoming university students seem numerous and complex, while educators try to figure out how to fix a situation created by four hundred years of colonialism then apartheid.

Daryl gave his talk on Friday, his first at a South African university. Since not many people would understand his field he was a bit unsure how it would go, but according to David people enjoyed it.

We go for beach walks everyday and often see wildlife. On our first day we ate delicious roti wraps on the beach and saw a whale putting on a performance. There is a scenic coastal walk along a rocky stretch called St. James’s Walkway. The first time we walked along this stretch we saw a school of dolphins and on the walk back we saw a pair of seals.

This is quite the perfect spot to do a final stretch of intensive work before we take our vacation in December.