Monday Morning, Mother City
And now Cape Town, again. You know how the emotions you feel in certain places come to completely define those places? Cape Town airport is one of the strongest examples of that for me. Mostly in connection with landing, because when I come back to South Africa from abroad, I invariably land in Cape Town. Woolies; coffee. Then it’s either a rental car or an Uber to Vredehoek, and a specific balcony with a view and a very old friend.
I feel it everywhere here. And almost everywhere in London. In Amsterdam, for sure as well, and Jaipur. Any place where I’ve spent enough time. My emotions are always so big that they form a cloud around me and soak into the surroundings. Like smells triggering a memory. But I guess everyone feels like that. Same place, hopefully new eyes.
Okay so what’s on the agenda for this week? It’s my last week in Cape Town for this trip, then off to London for probably two months, with some work to be done in Berlin, Amsterdam and Puglia. I’m trying to get a property deal over the line in London and it’s taking ages, just need to give it a last push while there.
This week; I’ve got a test tomorrow for a new skill, or sport perhaps, that I’ve picked up. So I’ll need to do a fair bit of studying today. Some gov work. I also need to close some deals for Pharos and make this idea something real finally, some term sheets that need signing and some strategy workshops. I had also committed to sharing the journey of building the fund on tiktok and that’s a bit behind, so I should get to that. Then there’s some admin work, paying some people, being paid, trying to standardise a to do list in one place, some meetings to schedule. Dinners with friends, dates, working out. Seeing a mentor on Thursday. That’s going to be good.
All the things, all the things. I read yesterday that “the thing is the thing, you know what it is, cut it with the bullshit distractions”. Feeling my way towards a full life that is necessarily composed of, you know, stuff, like admin and working out and all those bloody dates, but with a single track focus on The Thing. In that regard the time is a gift and effort is not wasted and consciousness is light.
Because more than anything. More than absolutely everything. This week I want to be deeply, thoroughly and utterly aware, present, focused. I want to drop down deeply, I want to feel time, every second of it, etched on every inch of my skin. I want to hone and strengthen my attention like a muscle.
So now, a walk.