I was walking Hout Bay beach the other day. Whenever I visit Hout Bay I walk very precisely from one end of the beach to the other and back again.
There is a rock that I kick on the left to begin the walk‚ and a rock that I kick on the other side‚ and then I have to walk back and kick the first rock again. That is my ritual‚ and I like to pretend that every time I’m there I kick the same rocks‚ but truthfully all rocks look very similar to me and in a brain that needs to daily remember passwords that are at least seven digits with one of them being a number and another one a special symbol‚ who has space for memorising rocks?
As I walked along I took in the usual sights of the seaside: little boys chasing little girls with pieces of wet kelp; elderly couples walking hand in hand at the water’s edge with their trouser cuffs rolled up like a Cialis commercial; a teenaged girl sitting cross-legged on the sand with her head in her hands.