Summer roots & fruits

Johannesburg: Just got to this city and I'm sitting at a table on the pavement outside Roots & Fruits in Emmarentia. This city is paradise in mid December: the roads are quite, the climate is ideal, shop keepers and waiters are friendly, and just about every afternoon is refreshed with an awe inspiring Highveld thunderstorm. (God help the rest of the country, wherever the Gautengers have gone for their summer holidays.)

I'm finishing up one last item of work, hopefully by tomorrow morning, before considering myself officially on holiday. I'll also be emailing off an instalment of my masters research project tonight; the deadline of 15 February looms.

There is a crack in the clouds, the summer sun is drenching me and I can almost see my bare legs turning brown before my eyes.

Two obviously wealthy women with, apparently, few cares are sitting at the the table next to mine. I can overhear their every word - subpoena this, subpoena that. I don't envy them in any way.

Tonight I look forward to family time...