YESTERDAY I spent the first day of my 47th year by climbing Gaika's Kop -- the highest point around Hogsback, I think. It's steep, and the last stretch is an on-all-fours scramble not to get blown right off by the incessant wind up there. By the time we got back I felt 48. The second pic is of the view of the Tyume Valley from halfway up, and there's an arrow that points to the village where I go to school these days: Gcato Senior Secondary School, in Binfield.

IN CAPE Town last weekend, I spent time with my nephew, Simon, in his extremely cool bamboo house, which one reaches by climbing up a ladder and crossing a long bridge. Inside he stashes loot: a jewel-encrusted sword, a radio in the shape of a daisy, a pistol and a bell that alerts him to intruders. Later, we went to see "The Princess and the Frog": the princess is black, and when she kisses the frog, she turns into one herself; all set in New Orleans and featuring a vicious voodoo man. Take your children.