Durban might be half-asleep, but ...

… I love coming home, because:

You can swim in the sea! It’s wild, and a little dirty, and you get tossed around a lot and end up with sand in your cozzie, but you can swim for ages and not freeze.

Durban seems to stay the same. I was driving home from the beach yesterday afternoon with my best friend — and it just felt familiar. Hot, muggy air, Musgrave Centre on the right, the Varsity on the left, Tolgate bridge up ahead (with its badly scrawled “No war” graffiti). I love it.

It’s beautiful in its own special, somewhat cheesy, regal-old-lady way. Palm trees, brightly coloured art deco buildings, that layer of seediness about the beachfront and town. It’s gorgeous. It’s unpolished. It’s inimitable.

Nobody’s trying to be anything they’re not. There are no crazy, asymmetrical hairdos, no posing (or, at least, a whole lot less of it). The whole city feels like being in your lounge at home — no need to dress up for anyone. And people are really very relaxed and friendly. Is this because it’s home for me? It could be.

It’s home.