Our thing on a Saturday morning – or any other day really – is to have a little breakfast at our favourite spot in Hermanus called Cands. Well, today is Human Rights Day, so that means breakfast, right? One street up from the main road, Cands gets tourists, but it is mainly us locals here today. We know good food (and good prices) when we see it. Outdoor tables overlook the pedestrian – friendly street and inside there’s a peaceful vine – covered courtyard. The dappled sunlight in there is just right for the old bones of our Lulu, who has the run of the place.

Today we’re having breakfast with young Emma, who astutely chooses a Vanilla milkshake and a toasted egg and cheese sarmie. After ordering, we nip around the corner with Lulu. We walk past a superb mural by local artist Jeandre Mariner. Tourists are posing in front of it and taking selfies – all part of the virtuous upward cycle of a small pothole – free town. My mate Owen is at his post, gathering bucks from parked cars. In theory, the parking attendant is supposed to ward off car thieves and the like but actually there’s none of that going on. I give Owen parking money because I enjoy his ebullient spirit and his sense of style. Today he wears new shades and a shark tooth necklace. He readily strikes a pose with Emma in front of another Mariner mural.

Back at Cands, our breakfast is delivered to us by the ever – cheerful Gary, who is sporting splendid new braids.

“But boys don’t wear braids ” says Emma.

“Oh, and why not?” replies Gary, gently erasing from her mind a gender sterotype.

I do a little drawing of Emma sipping her milkshake. She generously declares it “good, ” and underneath it she writes ” It is my human rights to drink a milkshake!”

Who can argue with that?