WORLD TRAVELS - THE MOST TIRING JOURNEY EVER

The London McKee’s have just arrived at their new assignment in Hong Kong.  I am excited for them in their new surroundings and am remembering our experiences more than 35 years ago when we first travelled en famille to our new assignment overseas.      

 In 1972 Ian accepted a 2 year appointment as Town Planning Adviser on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.  This was to be our first overseas assignment as a family and our outbound trip to that idyllic island was the first of many memorable journeys - our preparations for departure set the pattern for many to be undertaken in the future.  Given that any pre-departure time spent in a hotel would not be paid for by our employer we usually stayed in our house until the day we left.  I always underestimated the number of last minute things that had to be done.  When I think back on it I’m not sure how I did it at all with the boys so small and having to leave the house clear for an unidentified but hoped for in-coming tenant.  Although we left the house furnished, we still had to leave the house bare of our more personal belongings and any food.  So of course there was always the problem of the last meal, the sheets used for the last night, etc. 

For the St. Lucia departure in early October, David was 4 months old, Andrew 2 yrs. 4 months, and James 3 yrs. 5 months.  James and Andrew were at a particularly lively stage.  David was a good sleeper.  Andrew was still in nappies and still liked to drink from a bottle.  James was more independent - a good easy child but he could be quite headstrong.  And Andrew could be just plain ornery.  I can remember the anticipation of the night before turning to sheer fatigue as the evening hours moved on and there were still tins of  food in the cupboards and the number of last minute boxes we were taking over to our neighbours  and the boxes we were putting in our carport store seemed endless.  This first time we went overseas we stored our things with friends who lived in Monkstown, a 15 minute drive from Dundrum.  For other assignments in subsequent years as our storage requirements grew, we used C.I.E. who stored our belongings at Broadstone Station. 

The items we selected to send to St. Lucia had been packed and sent  several weeks earlier.  The shipment included favorite toys, books, items for operating a household there - sheets, blankets, towels.  We also sent our blue Volkswagon  - I can’t remember at what point we relinquished the car for shipment from Dublin, but I certainly remember getting an unexpected sighting of it in the dock area in St. Lucia.

                What with needing things for the last minute in our house in Dublin and also wanting to provide as much as possible for our new house in whatever country we were going to, we somehow always seemed to end up with too much (or too little) of various items. 

                On the eve of the departure itself I don’t think we got to bed before midnight  and then we were up at about 5 a.m. to get ready to go to the airport for our early flight over to London.  I had to have many many bottles packed for feeding Andrew and David.  James and Andrew were excited.  David was good as gold and slept most of the time for the whole trip.  We had a bit of time before our flight to St. Lucia which was scheduled to leave London around 2 in the afternoon.  But then our flight was delayed and also we were very slow going through security.  It was at a time when hijacking was a real threat and security procedures were slow and laborious - I remember they even searched David’s nappy.

                At last we were on the plane ready for departure - the longest of British Airways flights.  I don’t know how many hours it was before we landed in Antigua - David had been so good sleeping most of the time - no trouble at all.  James had been grand but did require entertaining.  And Andrew had never stopped moving, squirming, wriggling, etc.  He only fell asleep just as we were about to touch down in Antigua.  At one point he spilled butter on Ian’s brand new shoe.  Ian was cross.  James had slept part of the way so he was ready to get off the plane with me in Antigua.  Ian stayed on the plane with Andrew and David.  I was weary.  James wanted some airport trinket, I didn’t have the energy to figure out how to pay for it and James howled for a long time in protest.  Back on to the plane for the further 2 hour (?) flight to St. Lucia. 

Finally we landed in Hewonara in St. Lucia at the southern end of the island.  It was nighttime, hot and steamy.  James said to Andrew, “come on Dandu, let’s have a look around” and those two little boys  tried to set off into the tropical night. 

                We still had the final leg of our journey to complete - a short flight in a small plane around the north end of the island to reach the capital Castries.  The flight was delayed, there was a thunderstorm, Andrew and James were throwing up.  The carry cot hadn’t appeared from the hold of the big aircraft so I had to hold David while we were waiting in the airport.  We were pretty weary!!!  Finally the flight was called.  Some kind woman offered to hold David but I declined her offer because the plane was so small that she would have been in the back and I would have been up front.  The flight was very scary as thunder rumbled and lightening flashed around us.  Finally, finally - I can’t tell you how tired we were - we arrived at Vigie Airport in Castries.  We were supposed to be met but the designated person was no where in sight.  Somehow we made our way to the Miramar Hotel which was only a mile or so away but it seemed like 100 miles.  After the usual check-in formalities we reached our room and flopped into our beds, absolutely exhausted.   What a lovely view awaited us when we opened our curtains in the morning – the ocean, palm trees, green grass, tropical flowers  - magical to the revived weary travellers.              

An article in today’s Irish Times caught my attention - “Poet and author John O’Donohue laid to rest”  More information about this man whose New Year Blessing I quoted in my last entry.  He was only 52 and he died unexpectedly in his sleep on January 3rd while on a visit to the Avignon area of France.  At the funeral, his brother told the congregation one of John’s favourite jokes - it was about a farmer who sold his four pigs in the one day, carrying each pig to the fair separately and selling it before going back home for the next one.  The farmer was asked why he didn’t bring all the pigs in together and that what he was doing was an awful waste of time.  “Sure what’s time to a pig?” was the farmer’s response.  I like that joke.  I wish I had had the privilege of knowing John.

With this joke in mind today when I was browsing in the Oxfam Shop (what else to do on a cold rainy January afternoon), I spotted a neat little book titled the Little Book of Pigs, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.  The pictures and accompanying text are wonderful.  I will be quoting from this book in due course.

Several of the blogs I read are about the rural life style - Irish Sally Gardens and Getting Stitched on the Farm - from these authors I am gaining an even greater appreciation of the lovable qualities of pigs.

A few days ago in the Irish Times there was a tribute to John O’Donohue.  This was not someone that I had heard of before reading the article.  He was an Irish poet, philosopher, and Catholic scholar, a very spiritual man.  What attracted me about the article was A New Year Blessing which had been part of his latest work, Benedictus.  I quote it below to share it with you:

A New Year Blessing

BEANNACHT

On the day when

The weight deadens

 On your shouders

And you stumble,

May the clay dance

To balance you.

And when your eyes

Freeze behind

The grey window

And the ghost of loss

Gets into you,

May a flock of colours,

Indigo, red, green

And azure blue,

Come to awaken in you

A meadow of delight

When the canvas frays

In the currach of thought

And a stain of ocean

Blackens beneath you,

May there come across the waters

A path of yellow moonlight

To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

May the clarity of light be yours,

May the fluency of the ocean be yours,

May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow

Wind work these words

Of love around you,

An invisible cloak

To mind your life.

In Ba;;ard in Seattle I visited an art exhibition put on by 5 or 6 artists, mainly artists working in glass.  I was delighted to witness a glassblower and his student.                     it appeared to be a fascinating process.  And I kept returning to the studios to admire the work of these artists.  I ended up buying a small ornament made by the Laughing Magpie over on Vashon Island.  A nice glass star type ornament to remind me of our visit to Seattle.  Now it is hanging on a branch in our tree in the back garden trying to catch the elusive low rays of January sunshine.  Many birds have found our garden but so far the glass ornament is still waiting for the sun.

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Seattle was our visit to the Experience Music Project.  My daughter-in-law Susan has written a great account of our visit and posted photos on her blog - see her entry High Notes.   This is a lovely record of our family’s visit.  It was a very rainy gloomy day in Seattle and it took some persuading of the youngest member of the family that going to the EMP was a good idea.  But once she got there, happiness reigned.   

This past weekend I had a music experience of quite a different nature.  No electric guitars or rock bands this time.  No, it was a group of about 25 recorder players getting together for a day of making music - and then performing for a select audience - 5 appreciative human attendees plus one lovely black labrador guide dog.  This was a special day - the first of its kind at the DIT here in Rathmines Dublin.  The day was organized by Laoise O’Brien, my recorder teacher at the DIT, along with 2 other tutors, Kamala from New Zealand and Julien, who hails from France.  

We assembled in time to start playing at 10 a.m.  - Kamala took the first session and later we were divided up into 3 different groups, arranged according to our level of proficiency.  No nomenclature was applied, so I made up my own - lower intermediate, intermediate, and advanced.  I was assigned to the lower intermediate group - at this point I don’t want to call myself a beginner.  This is now my 3rd year of lessons and trying to play with the Irish Branch of the Society of Recorder Players.  I have made some progress - I still have a long way to go!!  Saturday was a wonderful day - playing with the full recorder orchestra and playing in our “lower intermediate” group.  Laoise and Kamala and Julien were soh enthusiastic and helpful.  Thank you to the three for making this first DIT Recorder Day such a success.  I hope there will be many more. 

 part of my group - Hanneke, Joan, Janet, Eric, Jacqueline,  ………… 

  Julien, Laoise, Kamala in rehearsal
 

   The following quote is printed at the start of the latest book I am reading (Passage to Mutiny by Alexander Kent).  It is attributed to an English poet, Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861).

Where lies the land to which the ship would go?

Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know

And where lies the land she travels from?  Away

Far, far behind, is all that they can say.

This quote puts me in mind of our recent flight from Seattle back to Amsterdam.  It was so interesting to have the map of our flight path as we soared high above the clouds at 39,000 feet on our journey.  That was my entertainment for the entire flight.  Take off from Seattle was on time at approximately 1 p.m.  From sea level we climbed up up up in a northeasterly direction.  Initially we could see snowcapped peaks far below us but they soon faded from view and the clouds took over.  We had daylight for about 2 hours.  Then we flew into the night.  Familiar names appeared on the map - Kamloops - that’s a name I particularly like.  I’ve never been there, in fact the only cities I have been to in Canada are Victoria and Toronto.

Kamloops, Revelstoke, Calgary, Edmonton, Alberta, Saskatoon, Regina, north of Winnipeg - on we went.  Hudson Bay, Baffin Island, Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, inching our way along toward Godthabn (Nuuk) Greenland.  Felt we were getting closer to home when we crossed over Greenland.  Then Iceland and Reykjavyk and we were nearly there.  Just the descent over Glasgow and the North Sea to Amsterdam.   A 9 hour flight, arriving when it was still dark but daylight soon to come.    Seattle and our loved ones far behind.             

 Here are a few images from my recent trip to Seattle.

   winter sky over Ballard 

  Watch cat

 owner gone shopping

 a bit of pink in a solstice sky

 tea pot for sale

  Eccentric street sculpture

  Garden planter

  Glass blowing tuition    

  Grandma’s socks

 outline against a winter sky

  

Here’s a lesson in geography.  We are now well past the solstice and the days should be getting longer - why is it almost dark now and it’s only half past 3 in the afternoon.  Were we spoiled by going to Seattle and finding the days so much brighter and longer compared with Dublin?  I hadn’t realized that there would be so much difference.  Dublin is latitude 53 degrees North and Seattle is latitude 47 degrees North.  In Seattle a few days ago I was quite happy to be out shopping until dusk descended as 5 o’clock approached.  Not so here in Dublin.

Here are the official sunrise and sunset times for today in Dublin

Jan 2, 2008

8:41 AM

4:17 PM

Length of the day  7h 36m 20s

And here are the stats for Seattle

Jan 2, 2008

7:58 AM

4:29 PM

Length of the day  8h 31m 15s

I know there is also a difference depending where you are located in your particular time zone - London and Dublin are in the same time zone but London is that much further east so the sunrise and sunset times differ accordingly.

Stats for London

Jan 2, 2008

8:06 AM

4:03 PM

Length of the day  7h 56m 28s

That’s it for now.  Keep looking for those signs of Spring.  I could begin to see a few in Seattle just after Christmas.  There were buds coming on the trees and shrubs.  Today in Dublin our garden had lots of birds - the trees are bare but the birds are enjoying the food I put out for them.

Armstrong Sperry is an author I admire.  When I was growing up in Boston I read a number of his books written for children.  So now when I come across his books in 2nd hand shops or book fairs, they bring back childhood memories.  I wrote about this in my blog entry a couple of months ago - (scroll down to The Book Collector, November 5, 2007).  Over Christmas I was delighted to receive a comment from Armstrong Sperry’s granddaughter - she has a very interesting website devoted to her grandfather.

In exploring this website I found so many parallels to my own family history.  Armstrong Sperry was a New Englander - a writer, author, artist, traveller.  He was of my parents’ generation.   In 1925 he travelled to the South Pacific - an area that I had the privilege of getting to know 50 years later when we lived in Fiji.  In earlier years though much of my leisure reading was about that part of the world.  Moby Dick, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, Pitcairn’s Island, just to name a few.  That part of the world had a fascination for me.  And now as 2008 dawns I look forward to reading more books set in this part of the world.

In 2007 I completed my reading of the Patrick O’Brian Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin Master and Commander 20 volume series.  At this point in time, I seem to have a fascination for naval history.  Now I have embarked on the Bolitho series of books by Alexander Kent.  When I was in Seattle over Christmas I found a treasure trove of these books.  I don’t dare reveal how many of these books I bought but I’ll tell you that my book stash is now rivalling my yarn stash.  Well, anticipation is half the fun, isn’t it?

                 No need to read further if you are not interested in words or the game of Scrabble.  One of the items I subscribe to is Wordsmith.  The Wordsmith is based in Seattle and each day he sends his readers a word.  A few months ago I wrote a couple of blogs about textile related words.  Leading up to Christmas, the Wordsmith posed a good puzzle for his readers.  The 5 words he posted during the pre-Christmas week seemed totally unrelated and yet there was a link - the 5 words taken all together used all the letters of the alphabet, except the letter l.  Hence the correct answer to the puzzle was     no el    I didn’t know the winner but the runner-up was Andrew Robinson of Donnybrook - there I was visiting in Seattle and it was exciting to read that a Dublin person had been the runner-up in this fun contest.

I digress.  As for the interesting game of Scrabble, there were all sorts of challenges and mis-challenges - here are some of the words - jibs, braker, li, quo, thurl, qi, ka, dan, gen, om, and scive.  Some were found in the official Scrabble dictionary - some were not - any takers?