Flashback

Isn’t it strange how our minds become conditioned to our environment? Our minds also become conditioned to social circumstances, without us realising this influence until after the event. These conditioning situations can be short-term, extending over a few days or weeks, or longer term, taking months or even years for us to have a “flashback.”

Clayton is on a short leave this week, to take a refresher break from the pace of his job responsibilities, and reduce his accumulated leave on hand. Therefore, to me the past few days have seemed like.. well, I’m not sure…, probably like weekend or a public holiday. It was only last night when we were sitting around his bar-b-que (which is customarily a weekend or public holiday event), that I realised that it was a Tuesday! The same sort of thing generally often happens over the Easter and Christmas periods, when one loses track of the days.

I last walked along the Blaauwberg beachfront early last December. I was recovering from major surgery at the time, and also very busy packing up home and arranging sale of cars and house, and all those time-consuming things associated with emigrating. Anyway, walking along that beachfront will always hold particularly unforgettable memories for anyone who has been there. Over the past weekend, while walking from one set of stores to another in the Coastlands shopping area, I was nearly blown off my feet by a near-gale force wind, biting and icy cold. At that instant, for the very first time, after ten months, I experienced a flashback of trying to walk at Blaauwberg against the impossible winds that blow there November through April every year.

Isn’t it strange how such a seemingly insignificant detail can bring back a particular set of feelings. Up north on the same day, winds of up to 296 k’s per hour were recorded. By the way, we also lost electrical power for half the day, probably due to wind damage to overhead power lines. The Wellington region is no stranger to hurricanes!