Wither Zimbabwe?

I just got back from a flying visit to Zimbabwe. Damn, it's a beautiful country. The people are wonderful, the countryside is lovely, but oh, dear. There's hardly any traffic on the roads; why? A chronic shortage of foreign currency to buy fuel; and to buy just about anything. Zimbabwe makes very little domestically except a few agricultural products; chiefly tobacco, and with everyone being noble and giving up--or trying to--hardly a money spinner for the future, not so? That's assuming of course there was an agricultural industry left. Which there isn't. My Favourite Antipodean advised me that in its prime there was 120 hectares of coffee plantation in the country. Now there is 6. And you realise how significant that is to me. Still, I managed to buy a little coffee at the airport. Divine.

But. I was, albeit briefly, a millionaire. I needed a little local currency, and got US$10 changed at the bank. At Z$99 000-00 to the greenback. It was a wodge of paper about 3" thick. Croesus! Still, at Z$19 000-00 for a bottle of Coke (yes, bottle. No cans there.) it didn't last too long. Even so, there are some wonderful wonderful times to be had. I, the Antipodean and the She of the Beautiful Mind stayed at the York Lodge in Harare. Beautiful, beautiful. Wonderful large rooms, fabulous decor, gorgeous gardens, quiet, and we had Kariba Bream for supper; not entirely dissimilar to trout. Salivatory.

BlueBoy has now finished his scholastic career and is off to seek fame, fortune, life, love and liberty in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a few weeks time. Let's be honest, he didn't enjoy school so much. As an parting shot in his yearbook, this was his quote.

'Sure, it might be big enough, but look at the location.'

Suitably cryptic, don't you think?