By the sea

We had a conference at Blankenberge, a seaside resort town on the coast of West Flanders. It feels 10 000 miles from the beaches of Adelaide (while it is, in fact, only 9964.4 miles away). The beach is meant to have sand too hot to walk along in comfort, the harsh sun is meant to burn away your sunscreen and sear into your eyes, the only relief coming from plunging into the clear water which is deceptively cool, resulting in the painful sunburn of the day after. Instead in Blankenberge the sky was grey, it was freezing cold and softly raining. No one in their right mind would bother going to walk along the small gray beach, wrapped up against the cold of the wind, just to look out onto the cold grey ocean. At least the squak of seagulls in the morning was a touch of the familiar...