The academic year is winding down in Stellenbosch.  There is still a lot of administration to take care of beware I can pack away my teaching material, and I have some exciting ideas for next year that I shall sneakily work on when I have the chance. But if I’m lucky, my schedule will be clear for doing research pretty soon.

There is really one three obstacles in my way: finishing up the courses (calculating the final marks, etc.), setting up the departmental website once and for all, and arranging the postgraduate students for next year. It sounds easy, but it is really a ton of work, and everything seems to happen at once. Or at least, everyone demands that these task are all completed immediately.

The one lesson I seem to have to learn over and over is to carefully consider the path of least resistance, but for the short term, but for the long term. Too often I am in a hurry and do not spend that five minutes to think about how to avoid doing the same task in two months’ time. (I also find that I cannot trust any promises I make to myself, such as doing it earlier next time round.)

Right now I am going to take the path of least resistance staight to bed. (Just after adding that the two photos above were in February in Vleesbaai. We tried to photograph the moon and its reflection on the sea.  Without a tripod it is almost impossible, and even then you probably need two exposures: avec moon and sans moon.  But I still like these pictures. Damn WordPress installation is broken! Or is it my host provider? I’ll fix it tomorrow.)