The Old Man and the Seafood Restaurant at the End of the Universe

This is the ultimate in right brain crafting. I can just lie here, reclined on a day bed in my coastal room, with my head against the pillow, gazing anywhere I choose, while typing on the wireless keyboard on my lap. I don't even have to look over at the iPad to see what I'm writing. It just flows directly from my thoughts to my finger tips, then on to some kind of digital paper that then floats up into something called an iCloud.

Hurray for technology, and for Mrs Larson, for teaching me to copy type. This is a mad skill that has served me in so many ways during these digital times. Yet she taught us when we knew nothing of the future. The most spectacular piece of consumer electronics any of us had seen at that time was a Texas Instruments calculator.

Now, thanks to her, I can lay back on the Swahili Coast and write my manuscripts seemingly into thin air, while reclining on a sedan chair, listening to Miles and Coltrane, and smoking a joint. The Black Label has been consumed, though I tried not drink too much tonight.

There's been a blustery offshore breeze blowing through the Blue Marlin all afternoon and evening, in that way a full moon raises the tides then strengthens the wind, though it seems to have died down now. Sandra's been up in Mombasa visiting Fatuma's relatives all day, while I've been working on the Hartley itinerary.

Propped up at the bar this afternoon, putting the finishing touches to my next safari, while watching the women's 100 metre qualifiers in the Olympics and the kite surfers, who numbered a dozen at one point, carve up the surf between the beach and the reef, I found myself asking, "Is there anywhere better I could situate the office?"


I'm nearer Gorillaland now than at any time in the past six years, and by that I mean the lifestyle I set out to make for myself when I began writing the novel. This is close, very close. This idyllic beachfront hideaway is only a two hour flight from Entebbe. Once I get it all worked out, I'll not know where I want to be. The choice of superb retreats I've set up for me and Sandra, and our sphere of influence, will serve us very well in years to come. It's important to plan for one's future. Hell, I'm still only 50!

There is something about watching the lovely young things milling around on this beach in their skimpy bikinis that reminds me of my age and wisdom. You go, girls! Greta Scaatchi in White Mischief comes to mind, or maybe that's just wishful thinking... Presently four buxom asses have just lined up at the bar, and I'm trying not to get


distracted. What I actually wanted to write about was the ten kite surfers out there cutting up the gleaming turquoise reef, butt...


This has been an extraordinary year, from day one, when I walked out into the waves of the Sea of Cortez and sated my soul with the fragrance and glow of a place and a time that really made me happy. I was missing was my baby, my dogs, my home, but glad of the gulp of fresh air. In the following months I traveled through a myriad of towns and places, across three continents, hung out with some of the solid people in my life - old and new friends - spending quality time with them that I'll always cherish. I was nourished with such stimulation and inspiration as I might have been a character in a story book. It's a book I've yet to write.

But nothing feels better than being a heartbeat away from home - not home, but on the fringes of the homestead, close enough to call Ol' Yeller out from the yard. In such a place, the heart grows fonder. And to be here with my baby, chillin' in the glow of the Swahili Coast, where the vibe is just right, makes me feel gelebt.

This is what I've sought all my liife: sun, sea, sand, satisfaction, freedom, all the while being with my baby-baby, at last. Just gotta figure out how to get the dogs down here and make this a permanent thing.


Blessings from the heart of an old soul, who is currently residing where strength rolls in on every curling wind-blown crest of a wave. The old man and the seafood restaurant at the end of the Universe, says "Karibuni." Life begins at fifty.


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Location:Diani Beach, Kenya