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This was a first attempt at a diary. It began nearly ten years after my retirement and was intended to be a ditty-box of materials, ideas, concepts, thoughts and experiences which I might use in some form of envisaged scribbling I planned for the 'new millenium' - a dateline which everyone was prematurely hailing.
I was thinking of a compiling a 'Common Book' (the correct if archaic term for a literary 'ditty box' used above). It was for my grandchildren, describing this idyllic life on the tip of Africa . . . and a more turbulent past.
In the event this form of autobiography never ever took comprehensible shape. Perhaps it might start after I turn 80.
Meanwhile these scribblings are a reminder of how different things are when we look at them for the first time - through 'new eyes'.
They are also a disturbing reminder of how much our coast has changed in less than a decade since we first arrived here in 1997. Despite all the protective efforts, led by David Beattie and our Cliff Path Management Group and many caring citizens and holiday visitors - the coast line has suffered hugely this decade from increasing crowds and criminals.
The perlemoen poachers are responsible for damage to this rich angling coast that will take a generation to repair, if full restoration is possible. And the constant presence of people and their activities have seen the snakes, the mongooses, the porcupines, the dassies - even the birds - dwindling in numbers. Despite this, the Cliff Path and its flowers remain a reminder of how precious our little planet is.
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