Monday 8 June 2015 DW
Up at 3.00am having gone to bed at about midnight. The taxi was early and had driven up the drive contrary to our instructions. Taxi driver is originally from Korea. I think he has taken us to the airport before.
Deborah’s case was over 23 kg so we had to slip some things into the backpack hand luggage. Last week we sent just under 20kgs to the UK. When we fly later we are only allowed 20kg so we will have to send more on to the Quaker Woodbrooke Centrein England from Germany!
When we got to Auckland we had to move quickly to head for the International terminal. Luckily a bus came by so we didn’t have to walk.
The flight was uneventful. Deborah watched an enjoyable thriller called Kingsman: The Secret Service which was good. Then she watched an informative documentary about Helen Clark, ex Prime Minister of NZ which David recommended. Finally she speed up the new The Second Best Marigold Hotel but did not quite get to the end.
On the train coming in from the Nartita Airport in Tokyo we got talking to a young NZ couple. When Deborah mentioned Parihaka the man mentioned his father’s cousin, our friend Maata Wharehoka. Deborah then realised she had met Phillip before at the Burnside High School Wharenui.Small world! A tip for new travellers: buy your return ticket when you arrive as it works out much cheaper.
When we got to the Friends Center [sic] in a taxi, it was full of American students who are here for a couple of weeks. Off to the supermarket down the road for food as we are not allowed to cook here.
Fell into bed exhausted. If you ever come to stay at Friends Center ask for Room F which is a lovely large room with two single beds, a basin and a good sized cupboard. It is the pick of the rooms.
Tuesday 9 June DW
Japan welcomed us with an earthquake at about 5.45am 9/6/15. Windows rattled, house shook, Deb slept. David figured it for a 4 – seemed it was a 4.5 but about 50k deep. Cold shower in the morning as the gas switches off with an earthquake.
David caused a big panic in the morning as he couldn’t find his wallet. Deborah went through his case and found it hidden in with his shoes no less. Something to dine out on for a while!
At 10.00am Yoshiko our SERVAS hostess turned up to show us around. She is petite, slim and elegantly but simply dressed. We took a bus down to the train station and set out for Tokyo Edo Museum. Edo is the old name for Tokyo. This is a very worth while museum with exhibits depicting the various modern eras in Japan’s history. We entered the seventh floorover abeautiful curved wooden bridge such as are depicted in Hiroshige ’s prints from the 19th century. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige
There were large small scale models of parts of the city and captions in both English and Japanese. After lunch we went back and finished our visit. Nearby was a small Sumo Museum but neither David nor I was interested in visiting it. Yoshiko wanted to show us a garden with hydrangeas but we only had time to see some lovely Japanese irises with their feet in ponds of water and visit the Meiji Emperor’s temple. There we followed some of the etiquette found on http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2057.html
At the purification fountain near the shrine's entrance, take one of the ladles provided, fill it with fresh water and rinse both hands...At the offering hall, ...bow deeply twice, clap your hands twice, bow deeply once more and pray for a few seconds...
Wednesday 10 June DW
David and I went to the Sony Building in Ginza as we had such fun there over 20 years ago. We put on wigs and took photos of ourselves which we could take away. This time it was frankly boring! However we went up to the 7th floor and discovered an interesting exhibition of photos of a group of peasant women from a small island, Kihnu, off Latvia on the Baltic Sea. While their fishermen husbands are away working, they are trying to keep up the old traditions. It showed them with their dogs and cats. Some lovely shots.
We had lunch in an English style pub as David was dying for a beer. Then we headed back to Shinjuku to visit the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. We had been told that flowers would be out there but there were very few to be seen. The best view was from the Taiwan Pavilion which looks out over a series of ponds. It was built in 1928 to celebrate the Emperor Showa’s wedding. Overall we were disappointed with the Garden.
We headed back to Shinjuku to meet our hostess and buy some fish for dinner. While having a look around the station Deborah had noticed a man in a wheelchair who was having some difficulty manoeuvring his wheelchair. When we came back about 10 minutes later he was still in the same place. Deborah went to the police kiosk and signalled to a policeman to come with her. He refused but designated an underling to do so. By the time they got around the corner the man had managed to move a short distance. The policeman indicated he would now take over but Deborah stayed to make sure he did not abandon the man. She noticed that he had a couple of rubberbands on the arm rests which seemed to be keeping parts together. In the evening we asked our hostess about the fact that hundreds of people walked past and avoided the man by a large margin. She told us that Japanese people feel ambivalent about disabled people. We asked Nobu the next day and he said that sometimes if you try to help, they do not want any help.
For dinner we had Temaki Sushi. We had a small square of Nori (seaweed) onto which we put some rice, wasabi and then some fish (salmon, red tuna, something like squid in colour and texture) dipped in soy sauce and then cucumber and a herb with a Basil taste. It was fun sharing the fish and vegetables from a common dish. For desert we had very small thin pikelets shaped like fish with a sweet filing.
We enjoyed our stay with Yoshiko as we could ask her questions about many topics. She told us that although she was David’s age she had chosen to have an arranged marriage or omiai. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miai Her father was a diplomat in the USA and was the first Japanese ambassador to Israel.
Thursday 11 June DW
We had arranged to stay with a second SERVAS host but Rosmarie, who is originally from Switzerland, suddenly had the chance to go hiking in China with her daughter so there was a change of plan.
She had already invited us to a breakfast which her English language students had to cook and serve as part of their training in hotel service. All the students were over 50. We arrived at a subway station at 10.15am and Rosmarie’s husband Nobu met us and took us to the venue at the Tokyo Shigoto Center. We were then separated out into groups at different tables. Service was very formal as is the custom in Japan. After breakfast there were some formal speeches and each student had to introduce him or herself, mostly in English.
After breakfast Nobu was our escort for the day. He took us to the Kagurazaka area where there are still some old Geisha houses. The area probably still has brothels but as it is illegal there is sometimes a discreet restaurant as a front.
As it was very hot we went to have a beer by a moat and in the shade of some trees. Later he took us to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly which is the equivalent of our City Council. We went up about 20 floors in the lift in one of the twin towers and had a free magnificent view of the city.
We enjoyed our time with Nobu as he was such fun, had a great sense of humour and we could ask him lots of questions. He took us all the way home in his car. A great day.
Friday 12 June DW
Today it was off to the Kabukiza Theatre in the Ginza district. See http://www.kabuki-bito.jp/eng/contents/theatre/kabukiza.html
You have to line up outside if you want to buy a ticket to see only one act of the play. They had little wooden benches with red covers and the whole process it was very formal. We paid ¥1,000 each for entry plus ¥500 to rent a little electronic box to read in English a translation of what was being said or who was coming on stage. It is such a long time since we went (21 years ago) that we thought we were going back to the same theatre. However this was a modern building and did not have the same atmosphere as the other theatre we went to. In Kabuki all parts are played by men and the makeup on male characters is a full face of stylised makeup. The makeup was more modern as it was a modern historical play although set in the 1860s. The “callers” were still there – men who sit right up the back of the theatre and call out in appreciation. However the few calls were pretty feeble.
We went down the road afterwards towards the Tsukiji fish market and ended up having lunch in a nice little sushi bar. We could have chosen our sushi off plates which came round on a small belt but we opted for a set menu which was better value for our money!
We then went back to check out the theatre shop but it was full of expensive food gifts and consumer goods not to our taste.
On the map we noticed there was a National Film Center and The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo so we set off on foot to find them. We found the film centre and paid ¥70 each (as Senior Citizens) to go in. It was not terribly interesting – it needs a major revamp. Most of the captions were so small that it was straining our eyes to read them! It turned out the Museum of Modern Art was in a completely different place.
On the way home we popped into see a Temple which was in a lovely big courtyard but had none of the usual trappings such as a water trough to wash your hands.
David was dying for a beer so we bought two cans with our groceries and snuck into a local park for a drink with nibbles. No alcohol is allowed at Friends Center.
Saturday 13 June DW
We decided to go to Asakusa which is known for its old-town atmosphere and historic Buddhist temples. Many roads lead to the Sensouji Temple. On each side there are a myriad of tiny shops selling food and gifts of all sorts as gift giving in Japan is very much part of the culture.
As we went towards the temple it made me think of Jesus throwing the money lenders and the sellers of doves out of the temple which was supposed to be a place of prayer. I made my prayer for Peace and the hope that Japan will not again have an active army and that our NZ army should only be a force for good too.
We had toyed with the idea of a river cruise but after lunch we decided to go back to the Friends Center and get organised for Sunday and Monday. Paul Barnier, an Australian translator who lives at the Center, was about to start his English Cooking class for 10 ladies. Eventually we were invited to join the class. We were astonished to see Hiroko Koibuchi at the class. We had hosted her as the Japanese representative for NZ Quaker Yearly Meeting in2013. As she lives quite a distance from Tokyo we did not expect to see her at all. Small world again!
Sunday 14 June 2015 DW
The group of young Americans, mostly women, left for a trip to Kyoto early this morning. Unfortunately WiFi was not working so we could neither send or receive email.
We went to Meeting this morning at 10.30 and there were about 20 people in all. It was silent until a woman got up to speak. She turned out to be Sachiko Yamamoto who is the only Quaker now who teaches at the Friends Girls School. She told us later her theme was about sharing some of your burdens with others and dealing with others yourself, especially if they are the consequences of your own actions.
We gave the Meeting a copy of Quaker Faith and Practice Aotearoa New Zealand. We introduced ourselves and Deborah explained why she was wearing a white peace poppy with the word PEACE in the middle. Some Quakers are wearing these badges for the duration of a the commemorations of World War 1 to show that war is not a glorious action and we would rather focus on Peace.
After lunch at the Meetinghouse a film was to be shown but we left to pack and set out for the airport by taxi to Shinagawa Station where we took the Narita Express Train to Terminal 1. There we eventually took a free bus to Narita View Hotel where we each donned a Yakata, a simple Japanese cotton robe, drank Korean sake bought at the hotel Convenience Store and ate sushi while watching some TV. We then took to our computers to catch up with correspondence.
JAPAN TO GERMANY
Monday 15 June DW
Up at 5.45am and took the hotel bus to Narita Airport. Arrived at seven. The Lufthansa flight started well with newspapers and magazines at the door. I took a New York newspaper and Der Spiegel. Later I started watching the film Twelve Years a Slave but about 15 minutes later the entertainment system died. The announcements were not loud enough the whole flight. When they came with drinks they left us out and I had to call out to them that they had forgotten us! David had special meals brought to him so he always got his meal before me. The meals were very so-so. We had a snack in between and most people went to sleep because there were no films and little light in the cabin. For the second meal there was no choice – they did say we could wait and see if there were any meals left over from business class but I thought they might forget me again so I took the pasta meal rather than wait for beef. I think I prefer Air NZ.
We had a text from Anne saying it would be better to take the train to Mannheim as she had to go there anyway. She has gone blond since I last saw her. She took us home to Herxheim and met her mother again and a Polish woman who comes for 2 months and then goes home for two months. Brigitte is paid a daily rate and they make sure she has free phone calls home so she can call whenever she wants to. She works with Frau Hergl and when Mrs Hergl was unwell Anne could go to work knowing her mother was cared for. They have a field where they grow vegetables and fruit and Brigitte prepares this food for the table. They found Brigitte through an agency in the village and quite a few families have help in the house for their elderly through this system.
Tuesday 16 June 2015 DW
In the morning we set off to see the triple aisled Speyer romanesque cathedral begun in 1030. We also went down into the crypt where they have concerts and where the baptismal font was large enough to put the whole body in. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer_Cathedral I always marvel at how they constructed these magnificent buildings without any modern machinery. Theirs was an ongoing faith which involved much hard work and vision.
After that we went to the Judenhof where we saw two short films in English explaining about the uses of the buildings which used to be there. In 1084 the bishop offered refuge to Jews who had fled Mainz. By the 1500s the peaceful co-existence of Christians and Jews had broken down and the Jews appear to have left. There was a mikvah or ritual bath down some stairs where people went to cleanse themselves for example a woman post menstrual period. We asked about what happened with Jewish people during the war. We were told that quite a few had left but those who remained were taken away.
As Anne’s mother and Brigitte had prepared lunch for us we went back for a lunch of lovely meat broth, bread and strawberries, redcurrants and raspberries from their garden.
In the afternoon Anne had planned to take us to the Gartenschau but her uncle who was over from Peru said that it was not very interesting so we didn’t go. Her uncle had been a Missionary – Priest in Peru and is now retired there. The woman who keeps his house adopted a daughter and together they have brought her up.
Instead Anne took us for a ride to show us the lovely villages in Rhineland-Palatine and the fortresses and castles up on the hills. We went through villages with narrow streets with cobblestones and some of those houses are fachwerk which remind us of the English Tudor houses. We visited Burg Landeck a small fortress on the hill which had a moat and two protective outer walls. They have various festivals here. Later we went to a Schloss or castle which had a museum but we didn’t go in. It was a handsome yellowish painted building with long narrowish windows and therefore rather angular in aspect. It was built for a König Ludwig (King Louis).
One thing we noticed was the number of houses which have many photovoltaic panels on the roofs. Anne told us that if you build a house you now have to include photovoltaic panels. They are planning to close down all the nuclear plants by 2020. There were a few wind turbines there too and apparently many in northern Germany.
After abendbrot (light evening meal of bread, cheeses and jam) in the evening we went over to meet two of Anne’s brothers who live in the large, long, courtyard which used to be the home of Anne’s grandparents. There they ran a restaurant, dancehall and must have also had animals and some farmland as they still have a field where they grow all the fresh produce which we ate.
We met Hermann Josef and his Peruvian wife Marcella and their 18 year old daughter Marianna who live upstairs of one side of the courtyard. She is about to go to Peru for a trip. Marianna is also apparently a very good piano player and such a bright spark that she will have a choice of university. I think she was planning to study medicine.
We had hoped to meet the other brother who is an actor. We had to peep through the windows of the theatre as he was still at a meeting.
Wednesday 17 June 2015 DW
In the morning Anne’s brother Herman Josef dropped us off at a local station to catch a train to Karlsruhe. From there we changed trains to take us to Pforzheim. Cornelia met us in her black Mercedes Benz coupe. She had an appointment at the physiotherapist so we went walkabout to the market where we bought strawberries and cherries. At 1.20pm we met in a Chinese restaurant which had a very nice yet cheap buffet for 6.90€.
We went home to Mühlacker to drop off our cases. We eventually went out to Cornelia’s partner Bernd’s country land and hut. She showed us around his garden which I last saw probably in 2002. He has developed ponds and has all sorts of fruit and vegetables. We ate Kuchen (cakes) and drank tea and had a most enjoyable time. It was a bit difficult for Bernd as he does not speak English and for David as he does not speak German!
At home Cornelia set to making a lovely courgette soup and other food but we could not everything justice!
Thursday 18 June 2015 DW
Gaby, a retired English teacher whom I met in 1981, came to pick us up at about 11.00am. She took us to her flat to see her nice new bathroom. In the lounge the lovely pastel coloured carpet and sofa in several shades were still in evidence and some fresh transparent curtains with flowers on them.
Gaby drove us to Ötisheim to the Zur Krone restaurant for a lovely lunch. We both had an asparagus dish with the big fat white asparagus only found in Germany. I had liver and David chose pork. They were enormous platters of food and we staggered out afterwards!
I had always hoped that Gaby would come to NZ as she used to be an inveterate traveller but she no longer goes far. Her dear friend in London has died so she does not even go that far either.
In the evening after dinner David had a go at helping Cornelia get SKYPE running on her computer.
Friday 19 June 2015 DW
In the morning Sandor, Cornelia’s 35 year old son dropped in. I first saw him in 1981 as a baby! He is now very tall and of a large build. He is engaged to his blond girlfriend, Katya, but no date has been set. Cornelia was pleased to see him as he seldom drops in.
Cornelia dropped us off at the station in Mühlacker at the station. Apparently many stations have closed and have no personnel present. I think there was only one person there. Certainly on some trains no-one even comes to check your tickets! We took the train to Stuttgart where we got on our first FIRST CLASS coach where there were free newspapers and magazines. When you get a Rail Pass you can only travel on First Class. However when we tried to go into the DB Lounge in München they told us Rail Pass people were not allowed in! Although we could connect to the internet we could neither send nor receive emails.
In München (little monk) we made our way to Brigitte Rauch’s house via the Underground 5 and then Bus 186. On the way to Brigitte’s house we realised that the wheel on my case was kaput.
Brigitte is a computer expert. She lives in a relatively narrow house with basement, ground floor and two further floors. She was not home but one of her flatmates and motorcycle companion, Jörg was there. He was about to go out to practise for an acrobatic show he will take part in next month in Finland. Brigitte arrived and was very welcoming. She advised to use our 3 day ticket and go back to town to try and find a new case so off we set.
There was nothing as big as my case and although the tickets all claimed so many litres, beware of false dimensions on labels. They seem to count the length of a case from the ground even though there is no storage under the wheels. We came away empty handed but with a couple in mind.
When we got home another man indicated I should let him in. He turned out to be Georg who also lives on the 3rd floor where Jörg lives. We had a vegetarian rice dish with Brigitte. Later her husband Seth and their nephew, Collins came home and we had a lively conversation around the table. Seth is from Ghana and two of them have supported various nephews and nieces through school as they have no children of their own. They have a home in Ghana. Seth used to be a teacher in Ghana but now works in a spare parts department for cars. He also has a business to send goods to Ghana in shipping containers which takes all his spare time.
Saturday 20 June 2015 DW
We slept in Brigitte’s office on the first floor. We got up early on Saturday as we had decided to use our one free Rail Pass train ticket to go to the famous King Ludwig’s castles. I had seen them in 1981 when I lived in München and became an au pair mädchen at the age of 35! Every day I would go in the morning to the Volkshochschule (equivalent to say Polytech) to study German. Once a month or so they offered outings to various places of interest.
It was a journey of 2 hours by train to Füssen which is not far from the Austrian border. Then we had to get a bus to Hohenschwangau. Although it was a rainy day there were lots of people there in a very long line to get tickets for both castles. After standing in line for about half an hour a group of Americans who are with the military left. I then decided that as a disabled person with a walking stick I could go in the line for those who already had bookings and the man agreed with me!
We grabbed some very nice large bread rolls – one with the most delicious salmon I have ever eaten and a second with ham and cheese and gherkins and shared them. We walked up to Hohenschwangau and had a look in a very simple chapel. It was quite a long wait before we could take the tour. It was raining intermittently. This castle was that in which Ludwig 2nd grew up. After that we took a bus up the hill to the white Neuschwanstein. We then walked up to the Marienbrücke (Mary’s Bridge) which allows you to have an amazing view of the castle and see and hear the roaring, foaming water below. It is a bridge to nowhere. I didn’t stay on it long as there were too many people on it and no supervision whatsoever. Nearby a young American who said he was an engineer and he also did not find it safe. When I made my feelings known at the castle the man told me that it is regularly checked. He also said that they will close the bridge in August and install a system to control the number of people on it at a time. Hopefully no accidents will happen in the meantime!
The Disneyland Neuschwanstein was filled with the fantasies of a mentally unwell adult Ludwig who overspent his budget by far! He was a great fan of Richard Wagner who wrote heroic operas about people from the past or perhaps mythological figures. Hitler was also a great admirer of Wagner and they were both apparently anti-Semites. The rooms are full of paintings of scenes from the lives of these heroes. In the throne room there are paintings of the 12 apostles plus the 6 Kings who became Christian saints. There is no throne as although it had been ordered, the King and his psychiatrist died in mysterious circumstances by Lake Starnberg in Berlin. There were many stairs to climb so it was a good thing I had my walking stick.
By the time the tour was over and we had taken two buses back down to Füssen we had missed the last direct train back to München. We grabbed a sausage and breadroll at the mainstation and set off home. In the dark we were a bit confused and took the bus going in the wrong direction. We had a very nice Turkish driver who told us to stay on and he would be going back in the right direction! We eventually got home at about 11.00pm. TIP: if you want to go to the castles book your tickets online – you day will be shorter.
At home there was another SERVAS host who lives locally but who is busy selling his goods and giving away things and taking off on his travels. He showed us a simple but fun paper game using recycled paper of course. Peter has written a card game for SERVAS which consists of Thank you. Welcome, Hello & Peace in several languages each with a pronunciation guide. Seth had helped him with the Ghanian language and I hope to send him the Maori words for the English version as the world gathering of SERVAS will take place in New Zealand in October. We got to bed after midnight.
David was keen to do the trip around the city by bus and then go to the Bavarian Film Studios about 30 minutes out of town. We had a good guide who gave a commentary in German and English for the 7 people on the tour. At the Film Studios the first set we saw was that of the excellent film called Das Boot which was made in the 1980s set in World War 11. They were not allowed to film it in a real submarine so they used a mockup which we squeezed through and various models. We saw a Viking set, an ordinary street set complete with tram rails and a set which was used for a recent film depicting Samuel L Jackson as the President of the USA escaping from a space capsule. We were also invited to take part in acting out some scenes. We took part in one set in a train when an earthquake happened, David became a weatherman and I was flying on a white creature. Another scene had an Austrian woman acting as a hotel receptionist and talking to various people whose conversations were prerecorded. Her script was on a monitor. I said after my flying scene it was a pity David hadn’t recorded it and lo and behold when we got to the end of the tour we could buy those recorded scenes. These will be showing soon in a cinema near you!
We met Brigitte in the city and went for a typical Bavarian meal. I had a pork with potato dish with a glass of beer. Then we went to see an exhibition by a German woman called Louise Bourgeois who went to live in New York. The pieces were enormous as she often used doors to surround her objects or had them in wire cages. Freudian stairs were also a feature. It was rather morbid but thought provoking. The one thing I liked the most was a very small pencil etching which had as the caption something like “les voleuses des grate-ciels” ( the women who were stealing the skyscrapers).
Later we sat outside in a garden and had a glass of beer before going home.
Monday 22 June 2015 DW
As our three day ticket had run out we had to buy a new day ticket on the bus. We were trying to put a 10€ note into the slot for cards so a man came to our rescue immediately with change. It was quite a contrast to our experience in Japan. We went to the PO to find out about sending a parcel to England especially if we bought me a smaller case. On the way to Woolworths to look at cases we asked directions from a lady who told us that she used to go to NZ every year on holiday. Eventually we found a nice case elsewhere at 119.95€ and did not have to go into the centre of the city. The lady also gave us a solid box to convert into a smaller one. When we were coming home from our second local bus trip to the PO we decided to take the advice of a little old lady who had told us in the morning there was a nice bakery one stop further. I chose a Bienenstick or Bee sting cake is a German dessert made of a sweet yeast dough with a baked-on topping of caramelized almonds and filled with a vanilla custard, Buttercream or cream. David had a Schokoladentorte which we shared and we both had a hot chocolate. Just as we headed for home the rain started.
We had another very pleasant evening with Brigitte eating bread and cheeses and imbibing wine.
Tuesday 23 June 2015 DW
Off to Wien (Vienna) by train again. You no doubt know of Wiener Schnitzel which means a Viennese cut of meat. You take the name of the city and add –er as is done in Hamburger! I appeared to have connected to the internet but nothing worked. David later noticed that my gmail got shut down again. TIP: it isn’t worth trying to connect as it doesn’t work and wrecks your gmail account!
On the train we met an Australian woman from Brisbane and her daughter aged about 6 who were heading for Vienna too. She had spent a lot of her life in France and Germany. Later in the journey I took my tuatara over to them and explained what it was and gave the little girl an old 5 cent piece with the tutatara on it. On the way out in the lift I asked if the little girl’s father was Austrian and her mother gave me one of those looks and said very quickly that she didn’t have a father. Luckily we realised that we could get off the train earlier in Vienna and then get more easily to our SERVAS hosts. We arrived in Vienna at about 3.30pm.
The contrast in Germany and Austria with the trains in comparison with Tokyo is quite stark. There are lifts everywhere so that it is easy for disabled, mothers with prams and people like us with heavy cases to get from one level to the next. From memory I think London and Paris are also difficult to manoeuvre with a heavy case!
We took the U-Bahn (underground) and followed our SERVAS hostess Annelies’ instructions and soon found their appartment. It consists of 4 large rooms with high ceilings - bathroom-laundry, a study where we slept, Annelies and Helmut’s bedroom where they keep their bicycles and a kitchen-lounge which looks out on to a garden. Their appartment is the only one which has access to the garden. Their two cats like to go outside. Annelies teaches French and Sport and Helmut is an automation engineer who works from home but travels for his work and runs courses.
That evening they took us for a ride in their car and showed us all the main buildings in the city. We were driving along when a tram which was passing on the other side of the road suddenly slammed into Helmut’s side mirror and shattered the glass. He then went and reported the incident to the police. Then we drove out of the city up to Kehlenberg (Mount Kehlen) where we had a superb view of the city. We could see the Danube and the side canals which were constructed some years ago using old beds of the river. This was to alieviate any flooding and has also become an area for boat sailing and other leisure activities.
When we came down from the hill we went to a Weinstube (literally: Wine Room) where we drank some local white wine. Annelies had prepared a rich goulash with dumplings for dinner and we drank a red wine.
Wednesday 24 June DW
After a breakfast of lovely fresh brown bread we set off for the Hunderwasser House. “Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000) was an Austrian artist and architect. Born Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna, he became one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists by the end of the 20th century....” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser for more information. He is of interest to New Zealanders as he spent his latter years in NZ. His Kawakawa toilets are a must stop in the North Island. He designed a Koru flag for NZ which is very topical as this year we will have the first of two referenda on whether we should change our flag. Secondly Whangarei have just voted to build a Hundertwasser designed museum.
We were lured into a cafe which was part of the building by the promise of a free video about the house so David had a beer and I had a decaf coffee. So far any so called latte style coffees leave much to be desired – I can make better at home!
You cannot go inside so we walked around outside with David taking photos. Then we went to the Kunst Haus Wien – Museum Hundertwasser. It was interesting seeing all his paintings.
That evening Annelies made a special dessert of apricot dumplings called Marillenknödel. It is always great to try new local recipes. https://goodcookbecky.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/marillenknodel-austrian-apricot-dumplings/
Our hosts may come next year to the International Body Art Competitions as they have a holiday house in the south of Austria.
Thursday 25 June 2015 DW
We left Westbahnhof at 9.48am a station before our official hopon. TIP:If you are going to stay with someone it might be worth checking with them beforehand which station to get on and off to catch an underground especially if you have a railpass. When we arrived we got off a station early as it connected with the Underground.
We arrived in Budapest at 12.49pm and my nephew, Guy, was there to greet us in his sleek Honda. car. It was quite a long drive home. Dori and the girls were out. Guy dismantled the sofa so we could have the mattress as the whole sofa was too big to move into the study! Soon Dori came with Laura (9), Zita (8) and Emily (6 months) whom we met for the first time. She is a bonny baby and loves her food. Unfortunately she was born with limited sight and has a condition called OHP. It tends to be a random thing which happens at a certain stage of development because of lack of hormones. This means that although her eyes are perfectly formed she does not have enough connections to the optic nerve. She also has to go several times a week to exercise her body muscles. Dori looked brown as she had been to Rome for a week with her brother to celebrate his 50th birthday.
Friday 26 June 2015 DW
Guy went off to the office and we slept in. Dori went off to buy a cake as it was her mother’s birthday. Late morning she took the girls to see their grandmother while we caught up with our emails. Later that afternoon David and Zita and I went down to the shopping mall at Mammut (Mammouth). Zita was our translator. I wanted to buy what they called “secret socks”. I didn’t want those ghastly knee-high nylon stockings so we had a job finding even the one pair I managed to buy. We also bought a few groceries and some wine.
Saturday 27 June 2015 DW
Guy took Laura, Zita, David and me in the car to a wood. We walked along a wide path through the relatively open wood ie. the trees were thin trunked and had a light cladding of leaves and were well spaced. Eventually we came to a large open field which used to be an airport for small planes but now has grass on it. Over on a hill to the right we could see people paraponting.On the left we saw some small hangars and a small plane outside. The girls had brought a ball with them so they played around with that.
Eventually we arrived in a village and went to a very pleasant inn for lunch. It was time for a beer. I ordered pork with bacon swimming in potato mash which was very nice but an enormous platter! No room for a dessert. After lunch I noticed a wine shop with a cute little white dog outside. We went in and found a nice Villa Maria NZ sauvignon blanc to buy for Dori for about NZ$25.
On the way back through the field we met a man and his woman friend out walking his Dalmation dog and throwing his boomarang which he had bought in Germany. Several of our party had a go at throwing it!
Later in the afternoon the whole family went out. Guy did the shopping while Dori went to her exercise class.
On Saturday evening I suggested to Guy that he and Dori should take some time out together so off they went for an hour and a half. Emily slept soundly while they were away.
Sunday 28 June 2015 DW
Guy took David and Zita and me out to the country so that Zita could have a riding lesson. The young woman had the lovely chesnut horse on a lead for most of the time. We stood and watched and had a good chat. Afterwards Zita had to groom the horse by climbing up on a small ladder. David took a video. The gate of a winery next door appeared to be open and there were cars there so Guy tried to drive in but a man came out of small office and indicated it was closed. Apparently the Parliament has voted for shops to be closed on Sundays. The only exceptions appear to be restaurants and small corner shops.
We went to another nice restaurant where they had a lovely buffet lunch. Included were desserts so I had a large slab of carrot cake. We also had a beer with our lunch. We ate outside but the only problem was noise from the road and from the large number of smokers who came out for a puff.
In the evening we had BBQed meat and a salad as we had each evening. David was found cradling Emily and singing away quietly to her. Both looked sooo.. contented. Later we enjoyed sitting on the lovely balcony and having a chat before packing up.
Monday 29 June 2015 DW
Up at 7.00pm, quick shower, quick coffee and toast. Out the door just before 8.00am. Although we had planned to take the bus and the underground Guy took us to the Underground. There were no lifts so I had to go on a moving escalator which I hate at the best of times. As it was going very fast and I was hesitating a man grabbed my bag on the first escalator and took it down. On the second one I managed as it did not go down for a few steps. When we got out and went to the station we had to lift our cases up a few steps. We were wondering which platform we would leave from as it doesn’t say until 20 minutes before the train leaves. A man with a label “Porter” came along but I wouldn’t let him take my case. He mentioned to David that we could go to the First Class lounge which we then did. I only had time to drink a lukewarm cup of milk (no decaf coffee there) and then we had to get on the train.
There was great bustle as a group was getting on and the porters were busy putting cases on the train. We sat in the wrong seats but the people just sat in our seats and said not to bother changing! A man was looking for his case and as far as I know did not find it. That is one reason why I won’t let a porter take my case. Some people behind us had kept a key but I don’t think anyone got there in time to get it back!Spoke to a man from Palmerston North who is on a 3 week trip with his wife.
We were met at the station on the platform by our friend, Russell Genet. He and Wendy are travelling around Europe and we will meet up again in Birmingham. Russell led us a merry dance around the station until he got his bearings and we found Wendy. We decided to eat in the railway station. Wienerwald was a name I knew so we grabbed a booth and ordered various foods and had a good long chat. Our SERVAS hosts had emailed us to let us know that they had just got tickets to a TV Show which they had been trying to get for ages. They wanted us to get there before 5.00pm. We made our way to Kaisersmühlen the area where the old riverbeds were brought back into use for the overflow of the Danube River and for leisure places. Apparently the Suez Canal had just been finished so the machinery used there was transferred to Austria and served another good purpose. We had a good chat with Anneliese who is a teacher trainer. Hans eventually arrived home from his work at Siemens where he does work to do with satelites and space.
We settled into our room and then took off to have a look at the area. We walked down to the small Danube tributary. We headed over a wooden bridge and found many little huts on our left and a Police Sports Centre on our right. We decided to go in to the right and find a cafe for a beer. In the long wooden building I went into an office to ask where the cafe was. I could not understand a man with a very strong accent and a pencil-thin moustache. He had to repeat himself and I got the gist finally. We continued on and found the police social club. A nice young waiter assured us that we were welcome so we sat outside in the shade. I had a nice Radler, a beer with a nice shot of lemon and David had a Pfiztner which is a bit bitter for my taste. We watched a dragon boat complete with large drum and drummer go with the flow and come back later against the current. A couple of people arrived paddling their paddleboards and came in for a drink. It was a very pleasant interlude.
When Anneliese and Hans came back we were busy catching up on emails. Anneliese’s mother had celebrated her 80th birthday the day before so we had some very nice leftovers of crumbed Wiener schnitzel, rice and a salad which we had made followed by a piece of many layered chocolate cake and other delicious cakes. This was washed down with some local red wine. All the while we were having a good conversation as both speak fluent English.
Tuesday 30 June 2015 DW
On Tuesday Anneliese didn’t have any appointments until midday so she had kindly booked a washing machine the day before and took care of our washing. The building they live in had a ground floor and then about 6 stories. There are a series of buildings which are built around a large garden under which are the garages. There were a series of three such buildings which were built in the 1990s.
We set off to take the 92 Bus. On the way to our hosts’ the day before we had noticed that there was a United Nations building opposite the station. I thought we might be able to fill in our final morning by going on a tour so we decided to find out. However to find anything out we had to go into the building through a customs-like check complete with X-ray machines. The man said that we would not be able to store any cases so we decided to do a visit there and then if possible. We lined up at a window and while waiting I suddenly realised that we only had photocopies of our passports. The man check with his superior who said she would make an exception and allow us in. He then asked for our tickets. We had no idea we needed to get a ticket or pay for it so that slowed us up and 11.00am was approaching rapidly. I went and bought two senior tickets at 7€ each (NZ$11.63).
There were only 7 people in our group – a lovely young blond girl from Copenhagen, named Ulriche Lassen, who is studying in Norway, a woman from Central America and three people from another South American country although one of the group said she lived in Israel. The tour group leader was a very well presented young man named Dionysis Neubacher who is finishing his PhD in linguistics but hopes to study Science further. He wore a smart suit, was slim and handsome right down to his wellgroomed eyebrows. He was diplomatic, charming, spoke excellent English and was an excellent guide.
We stepped out into a large courtyard where all the flags are in alphabetical order. I think that if NZ votes later this year to change our flag we should also change our name to Aotearoa New Zealand. Not only should our name reflect the Pakeha influence but then we might go higher up the list of any countries. With a surname starting with “W” I know what it is like to always be at the end of a list!
We learned that there are 193 countries in the UNO and that there are not only centres in New York and Geneva, but also Vienna and Nigeria. Dionysis also pointed out that although the population of each country member varies enormously each one only gets one vote. However in the security council there are 5 permanent members – China, Russia, the UK, the USA and France and 15 changing members. NZ happens to have recently gained a seat. Any majority decision of the non-permanent members can be overridden by any of the 5 permanent members.
I recommend the hour long visit to the UNO if you are in Vienna. After the visit I wandered to the back of the room with the various offices and found a Women’s section which was moribund and uninteresting. A woman visitor appeared to be making a bracelet and behind the counter was a woman in her 70s who took no notice of me when I went to the counter and looked at some very ugly almost colourless necklaces and earrings. What a waste of space! Where is WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)?! Here was no information there about women. That whole office space needs to be revamped and some more lively women employed or taken on as volunteers to run the women’s section.
We headed into townby the UBahn, a quick lunch and off to Sigmund Freud’s house. 8€ to get in. It was interesting but the audio guides we got only gave so much information. Then you had to look at a booklet to find out the detail of the objects and photos. Why did they not label the photos and objects and say if you wanted more information then refer to the booklets. They also had curtains around these photos which had to be pushed aside to see them fully. They served no purpose as in the day people wanted to see these things and in the evening the museum would be closed. Another place needing a full revamp!
On the way home we went to the Wiener Prater. The Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district (Leopoldstadt). The so called "Wurstelprater" is the oldest amusement park in the world.
Even on a Tuesday there were quite a visitors although some dogem cars had no-one in them. We walked around and had an icecream and then headed for home.
Anneliese made a delicious aubergine and tomato dish which we enjoyed very much. It was more refined that the Aubergine Florentine recipe I have used a lot as she did the full steps in preparing it. We again had some lovely cakes from her mother’ birthday party which we enjoyed immensely.
Hans told us about his Zero G Flight which he did in Bordeaux, France to experience weighlessness. It involved going up in a plane fit for the purpose. The plane would go up steeply and then come down steeply or David says it goes in a “parabolic arc”. The main thing was that Hans enjoyed it immensely!
Wednesday 1 July 2015
We were left to our own devices when our hosts left for work. We eventually closed the door behind us and headed for the bus. Then we took the U1 to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Station). Luckily in Vienna there are ramps and lifts for disabled and mothers with prams and disabled in wheelchairs.
Our train took us all the way to Pörtschach am Wörtersee. We tried to get our credentials at the World Body Painting Festival reception but they were not available so we were given a temporary pass so we could get into the Body Circus Party that evening. We walked to the supermarket Billa with our cases and packs and bought some groceries. After trying to hail a taxi I asked the checkout lady in the supermarket to call us a taxi. Then we went a short journey in a taxi (5€= NZ$8.30) to our appartment at Ferienparadies Gutounik. It is up on the hill, has no view of the lake but it is relatively quiet yet close to the town. In fact there are trees all around with lovely birds singing away. The appartment was spotlessly clean and very pleasant – kitchen-dining-living, bedroom and bathroom. It was mostly well equipped but there was no potato peeler yet plenty of pots! I asked for a peeler but there was none forthcoming.
To get down to the village all we had to do was walk down some rustic steps beside the trees for about 100 metres, a short way along the road to the station, walk under the trainlines, across the road and we were on the main road through the town. Another 100 metres, a left turn and we were at the venue reception desk. A 10 minute walk.
At 7.00pm there was an official walk around the whole peninsula. It was quite bewildering how many tents and venues and stages there were. After the tour we were led down the main road to the Body Circus Party. David applied a Māori moko transfer on my chin and I used a blue tablecloth with tahitian pattern bought last year on Mo’orea Island, French Polynesia, as a wrap-around dress. As my bras straps showed I wore a blue summer cardigan. David had made two Māori motif headbands so I wore one of these. He put some Māori transfers on his forehead, wore the other headband and his Tuatara t-shirt. We had been told we could assist in a room where people were having themselves painted in various ways. David painted wine leaves over a young man’s face, shoulders and chest. My one and only client was an older man named Georg who wanted a butterfly on his face like the picture dehind him. I warned him that I hadn’t done anything like this for a long time – not since the last Quaker fair at least 6 years ago. However he wasn’t too worried – it was all part of the fun.
Then we went through to the party in a large tent on the square next door. We bought ourselves each a bottle of beer and went to sit down and enjoy the band and the dazzling array of dressup which came by.
Before long we had to move as people started lighting cigarettes and spoiling our evening. It is sad to say that Austria does not appear to have progressive laws about smoking. Maybe bodyartists are more nervous types. Whatever. Let’s hope that the governments of European countries might legislate so we don’t have to breathe second-hand smoke. I don’t mind second-hand cars, houses, books, clothes etc but I do mind second-hand smoke and fumes.
Thursday 2 July 2015 DW
We slept in and then caught up with our emails as one does after a party.
In the afternoon we took another stroll around the venue trying to get our bearings.
We met a few interesting people on our travels. We spoke to Zina at the Kryolan stall. She certainly knew David’s name and had many dealings with Jeanette Roffey. We had to tell her that sadly we lost Jeanette last year. We sat down in the area by the lake and had a chat to Aven, an English journalist, who writes articles and take photos and lives in Andorra for tax purposes. He had brought his bicycle so he could get around.We also met an artist from Finland named Vesa Kivinen who is lucky enough to have financial support from a bank. He was setting up an installation. He would like to come to the NZ Body Art Awards. His bank will probably finance this. David was pleased to see Alex Hansen, a body painting artist originally from Brazil but based in the USA. The last time David saw him he was judging his work in the NZ Body Art Awards. He won his category.
We also met a very nice body painting artist named Yvonne Boyd, who is a Quaker from the Argenta Quaker Meeting in Canada. She told us about how that Meeting was founded by people from the USA who fled theircountry at the time of McCarthy anti Communist enquiry in the 1950s. It is worth the read on http://dayamati.blogspot.fr/2008/06/teachers-and-hippies.html We also spoke to Mark, a neatly dressed Englishman, who was having his first go in the Brush and sponge section. A friend, Victoria, was there supporting him but was not going to be his assistant painter. He needed a model so I asked a young man who turned out to be Italian. He had organised this trip as a surprise for his French girlfriend who was a makeup artist so Mark agreed that they should stay together and he should find someone else.
Friday 3, Saturday4 and Sunday 5 July DW
The next three days were full. Each day at about 10.30am we collected the lists with the names of all the competitors and which tents they would be in. The first events began at 11.00am and we were there to see that they did not start early and that they had only prepared what was allowed. Three hours later any assistants had to stop painting the body but could still put makeup on the face and do hair or fingernails. We would give them an hour’s warning, 5 or 10 minutes warning and then I would usually use my school marm’s voice to tell them to down tools. We had not been told what warnings to give but we worked it out as we went. When the main painter stopped they then took their model to the Jury tent,followed by the photography sectiondown by the lake and eventually to the mainstage which was quite a walk away, especially if one was wearing very stiletto shoes.
On the final evening we went home for a break and then came back at 11.00pm for the prize giving which was late starting. We were thrilled that a young New Zealander Sophia Bue (assisted by Lara also from NZ) became the World Champion for Special Effects Bodypainting. Results are on http://www.bodypainting-festival.com/de/media-presse/informationsblaetter.html#results
We decided not to stay for the Colour Splash Paint Party whereby one wore a white t-shirt which would be transformed by others splashing paint on it!
Monday 6 July 2015 DW
Although we got to bed at about 1.00am in the morning, we had to be up at 8.15am to finish packing. Check out time was 10.00am. We wanted to see an apartment for 4 people but Horst, our host only showed us a duplicate of ours. The sofa pulls out to become another double bed. This is really for families and therefore not suitable for four adults.
We had ordered a taxi for 10.30 to take us to Klagenfurt Airport. While waiting I had a good chat with Horst about pensions and the noise levels allowed for festivals. He and Erika own 4,000 sq metres of land around the guesthouse and apartment house. Next weekend they will have white weekend when everyone is dressed in white from head to toe. The school holidays also start this week so it is a busy time.
Anna who is the wife of Alex Barendregt, the World Body Painting Festival director, had told us they are hoping to persuade the local government authorities to allow them to have the second weekend in July next year so that even more people will come. However the three main days have been confirmed as Friday 1 to Sunday 3 July, 2016. There will of course be workshops before that.
The price for the taxi had been set at 40€ (NZ$66.44) before our 20 minute journey began. We had tried to find out how to get to the airport via the S-Bahn but the Information Centre and the Austrian Railways were not much help. The Austrian Railways were one of the sponsors of the World Body Painting Festival yet the young woman recommended we take a taxi. Apparently the S-Bahn does not go all the way to Klagenfurt Airport. At the station there are only machines and not a person in sight!
This was a day not to remember GERMAN Wings! Our first flight 4U285 from Klagenfurt to Cologne was supposed to leave at 12.45pm but that was running late.
A little four year old boy was playing with his dinosaurs so I took my Tuatara over, squeezed his sound box and introduced him to the boy and his mother. I showed them the picture of me taken with a tuatara on my arm at the Invercargill Tuatarium a couple of years ago. I carry some now defunct 5 cent NZ coins which show the tuatara which I give to children. TIP: If you have not been to the Tuatarium, plan to be there late on a Friday afternoon when they feed the tuataras and you may get the chance to hold one. I have my Kiwi which is at present tucked up in my case but he can come out later. I hope to go into schools again and talk (English, French or German) about Aotearoa New Zealand and show these animals – just for fun.
There was a loud group of young English people with strong British accents waiting for the plane. They turned out to be a theatrical group who are touring The Rocky Horror Show written by Richard O’Brien, a New Zealander.
I was not allowed to sit in seat 10C as it is an exit and they saw my walking stick. However I had been talking to a young woman who also had a stick she had stowed away but they let her sit in that row! She suffers from multiple sclerosis and has to take drugs which cost 2,500€ per month. Luckily that comes from Government health coffers. She works for DHL the German post and parcel company who treat their employees well. She even gets cheaper travel. As a person with a major health problem she is also entitled to extra leave per year.
When we arrived in Cologne we went straight through to Gate C10 for the next flight. We were supposed to board at 15.15pm and fly off at 15.45pm. The waiting area was changed twice and no explanation given. Later we learned they had to replace the plane. We finally started boarding at 17.30 and arrived in Hamburg at 18.50pm. We had missed our connection back down to Geneva. I sat on the cool floor. I got chatting (as by now you will know I do, if you didn’t know before!) with a young Swede named Sandro (with dreadlocks) who works as a reliever postie and delivers mail to my cousin, Caroline’s house, in Solna, Stockholm. Small world! It took more than an hour to get up to the counter to get a new ticket. Frau Müller who looked after us at the counter took nearly 30 minutes to rebook us and book us into a hotel. She came out personally to make sure we got the taxi.
The Best Western Alsterkrug Hotel was in a leafy suburb about 12 minutes away. We ordered dinner finally at 9.30pm. I had a Hamburg style dish of three types of fish with potatoes and crisp, green pea pods – delicious. As we had drinks we ended up having to pay 10€ above the 20€ allowed each for our meals. After dinner we went for a short walk to the river and found a small windowed cupboard on the bridge rail with a book exchange. I found a book I liked but unfortunately had nothing on me to leave so I must do that somewhere else. Shades of Christchurch post the earthquake when we had a few such lovely ideas in action! Breakfast was a buffet and I had to have Rollmops as they are a delicacy from Northern Germany. It was a very nice hotel. I especially liked the magnifying mirror in the bathroom – a very nice touch.
First Housesitting Assignment DW
We answered quite a few Trusted Housesitters requests for house and petsitting in New Zealand before we struck lucky. We had mentioned that we were Quakers. In fact I gave a quick reply as were had to get to Meeting one Sunday Meeting. As it turned out our Dutch hosts have served in many countries including Bangladesh under the umbrella of the UNESCO. We spoke via SKYPE and it was all agreed that we would come while they had a short break at a reunion in Milan.
Unfortunately we arrived a day late as German Wings, an off shoot of Lufthansa, did not get us to our connections on time. However Czikus was able to take us walking with the Tibetan dogs several times and teach us the basic commands. They are Bandhu, male, larger and younger but has back problems and HSin-Tie, female, slim and older. They both have dark coats but his is greyish. He is the leader of the pack of two and has a mind of his own.. Hsin-Tie is a sweet dog who likes to please, if she can, but in the end she follows Bandhu. The cat is Mi-Mi-Ji, a lovely slim tabby cat.
On the first evening we had a pleasant dinner out at a local restaurant. On David’s birthday the next day (Wednesday 8 July) we had a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Champagne and later a gateau which Czikus and I travelled quite a way to find. However a birthday is a birthday. Rolf assured David that 71 is a great year as he is there too. They were very thoughtful and invited two different Dutch neighbours Gertrud and Marja over to meet us and Ron, a Quaker to take us to Geneva Meeting on Sunday. We also have the use of Czikus’ car.
On Thursday 9 July Rolf and Czikus left for their break in Milan in the morning. They took Rolf’s car which they were to leave at the station. Apart from walking the dogs and making sure they were fed, cool and happy we made a couple of trips to the supermarket in Gex. Unfortunately Bandhu had a hot spot on his neck which looked like a cut. We had to put some hydrocortisone solution on his neck to try and stop him from scratching himself. It was very hot so I would run some small towels under the cold water and put them on their backs only to find they had shaken them off! For the last two days the dogs refused to go out walking. We only saw Mi-Mi-Ji, the cat, a few times as she disappeared. However the neighbour saw her .She turned up on the grand piano on the day Rolf and Czikus were due back.
We went to Quaker Meeting on the Sunday and followed Ron in to Geneva. A group arrived after the start of meeting and they turned out to be young English Quakers over for a Summer School. There was a meeting re nominations after a cup of tea so we left to go into Geneva. We ended up going down to the lake where there was an outdoor exhibition of photos and captions on the 200 years since Geneva joined the Swiss Confederation. At the same time a triathlon was taking place. We spoke to a young man who was a coach for the Austrian team.
On 13 July our hosts arrived home in the evening. We had prepared a meal of Aubergine and salad. There were fireworks that evening but the dogs were safely inside so that they hopefully could not hear much. On the actual French National day we all stayed home and again David and I prepared the dinner of spinach ravioli with creamy mild pepper sauce and salad.
Wednesday 15 July 2015 DW
Rolf took us to Geneva Airport on the French side so we could get our car, in the morning. It was smaller than expected so David’s bright orange case went in the boot and my large new grey one on the back seat. Off we set to Moulins in the direction of Lyon but not on paying motorways. There are intermidable roundabouts and sometimes we were on 2 way roads at 70kph or 90 kph or on 4 lane motorways on which you can go 110kph or occasionally even on very rustic roads which barely take two cars. We came to a lake so we stopped and had a hotdog as no cafes seemed to be open. Luckily David had updated his GPS so that was mostly useful until we came to a detour which TomTom knew nothing about. We stopped and asked a man as the “déviation” sign had run out and we were not sure where to go. He told us to follow him. As I was driving for the first time I told him that I was not a fast driver but he took me rather literally and we had to dribble along behind him for quite some time!
We arrived at Villeneuve-sur-Allier to a very nice welcome from Christine and Jean-Pascal. We found Christine on the Air BNB site whereby you stay in someone’s home. We gulped down some nice cool water and then got into her para style temporary blowup swimming pool. I had emailed and asked if there were any restaurants in the village or if Christine also did dinners. She had replied that she would supply dinner for 12€ per person. We had some very nice wine aperitives.Then Christine regaled us with individual guiches containing 4 local cheeses, followed by a choice of salmon or delicious cod with rice and ratatouille. For dessert Christine had made
Christine’s Crème Courgette aux Amandes- Amand Cream Courgettes
400 – 500 g peeled courgettes steamed and then left to drain overnight
Beat 3 whole eggs
1 glass of sugar
1 glass of milk
50 g of powdered almands+ almand essence (or any other essence)
100 g melted butter
Mix all ingredients in ramequins, cook in a bain-Marie for 40 minutes at 130 degres.
Add fresh fruit on top.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner with Christine, who works part time in a bank and Jean-Pascal who works in Paris in IT. They were both on holiday so J-P was able to be at home too. We can recommend this lovely B & B which cost NZ$74 plus the dinner.
Thursday 16 July 2015 DW
We went into Moulins as we wanted to visit the Centre National du Costume de Scène. We were rather taken by the costumes worn by Nureyev and the reconstruction of part of his Paris apartment which was one of his 6 houses. There was rather an old but interesting film in English about him but the sound was poor so I sometimes read the French captions to get a fuller picture! We also looked at costumes from l’Opéra Comique and in each room there were small TVs showing the particular light operas.
We eventually arrived in Saintes at about 7.00pm. Cecile had a system whereby she left the front door unlocked and we had a number to put into a box and hey presto there were out two keys. She happened to be at home and when I asked about using a washing machine she offered to do our washing for us.
There was a local Galette Charentaise to welcome us as well as two small bottles of bubbly water. A very nice touch.
We have a downstairs studio with separate hallway, shower and toiletrooms. The only disadvantage is that the room is right on to the street and we have to wind the white plastic shutter up if we want some natural light but passersby can see right into our bedroom/livingroom!
Saintes, Port d’Envaux and Sculpture Blessing
Friday 17 July 2015 DW
We arrived in the village of St Saturnin but were told we could not drive on to Port d’Envaux. There would be a music festival and only people with arm bands were allowed through. We had to get out and walk. We discovered that Les Lapidiales were some distance further so after a short walk around the village we ate our lunch down in the small “port” and then walked back to the car. We had to drive way round to finally find Les Pierres de Crazanne where Les Lapidiales and the carvings are.
We went back to town as a different car was waiting for us. On the first day the car suddenly jumped out of gear when David was in 4th gear. On the second day 3 times when we were cruising along at about 100 kph in 5th gear the same thing happened. We traded our small silver Fiat panda for a black Opel car which is somewhat roomier.
When we came home Cecile invited us upstairs for a drink. We were very privileged to drink some Pineau Blanc that was 25 years old with ice. It is an aperitif made from a blend of lightly fermented grape must and Cognac eau-de-vie. Very nice. We met again a very shy Lucie aged 3 to whom I had earlier shown my tuatara and kiwi and later her father, Sam, who works in a bank. Cecile works at the Town Hall and amongst other things she deals with the insurance on town buildings. She has a son who is on holiday with his father.
Saturday 18 July 2015 DW
We got up at 4.00am and left at 4.45am as planned. I dressed in the blue outfit I had made from some soft cotton material from Mo’orea. We were quite surprised at how many people were at Les Lapidiales. We had to stand up to see what was happening. We had the first two verses of Mai Wai Ra (Who will ...) written out as requested by Paora ready to join in but that song did not come up. The French Club sang Si Tous les Gars du Monde (If Everyone in the world – a song about equality and everyone working together) but were told to stop after a couple of verses.
Paora Toi Te Rangiuaia, the Māori sculptor, whom we had come to support as an adjunct to the Waiheke Island French Club, was supported by his uncle Elder Te Reo and aunt. Ngāti Runana had come from London to sing, dance and give their support and a lovely woman named Maikara Ropata had come to represent her grandfather whom I understand taught Paora many of his skills. There were others there like Christelle Berthon who is a professional harmonica player and who loves NZ and desperately wants to go back there.
We found our friends Graeme and Sally, who were our SERVAS hosts on Waiheke Island, after the ceremony. They in turn had invited French SERVAS members whom they had either hosted or stayed with. They invited us back to their rented house “Les Arches” back in St Savinien. It can accommodate up to 12 people and was costing 135 € a day as two of the women had rented it for a month. We had some breakfast and then did some reading and some people had a sleep. We went for a walk down to the village and the covered market. We had some lunch at the long communal table and then did a longer walk around the town.
We set off for the sculpture site again in plenty of time for the 3.00pm performance of Ngāti Runana. First there were waiata and haka up on the flat land and then we went down to the site of Paora’s sculpture and there were further performances.
The meal was to be at 7.00pm and Paora had told us that they had allowed for 20 people from the French Club. However most had disappeared by 7.00pm so we joined Sally and Graeme at the meal table. We had brought food in case there were too many people. We ate mashed kumara with nicely cooked pork stew. I got our table singing a few verses of Chevaliers de la Table Ronde a song re the enjoyment of wine.
Eventually we went down to the sculpture again where two women from a storytelling group from La Rochelles called Les Amuse-Gueules (The Appetizers) performed The Legend of Maui. Afterwards I spoke to Brigitte who told that they had used Sir George Grey’s versions of the various stories. David understood very little as it was mostly in French with a few parts in English.
After the performance we had dessert. Many people had already gone home.
By the time we got home it was getting on for midnight so we fell into bed.
Sunday 19 July 2015 DW
We went downtown for a walk and found ourselves at a market with carpets, food, wine and clothes. We were pleased that we stopped at the Abbaye aux Dames. In the church there were some beautiful tapestries designed by J F Favre. See http://www.ipernity.com/doc/jacquespfjc/9313647 This is the same artist who did the woodblock illustrations for two books of polynesiennes legends which I have.
We went down to the river and ate our picnic lunch. Nearby was an old Roman Archway. We decided to go and look at the older part of the city over the footbridge. When we came back we sat and read our books by the river. We decided we would go and get a free bike but just at that moment several families had arrived and taken all the viable bikes so we went off and had a beer.
We spend the rest of the day catching up with answering emails and working on our blog.
BLOG 4 From La Rochelle to Brest
Please note that some of this blog was written during August. Let us know if you find inaccuracies and we will endeavour to correct them. Deborah
Monday 20 July 2015 DW
We left Saintes at about 11.00am thinking it was only going to take about an hour to get to La Rochelle (Population 80,000). I had forgottten that Google does not allow for the fact that we exclude paying for travelling on motorways so that it would take longer. When we finally got to La Rochelle TomTom our GPS also took us to the waterfront and took us on a merry dance around areas that are now closed to cars. We finally reached our SERVAS hosts rather later than we had told them.
Christiane, a retired librarian, and Michel, a retired engineer, live in a charming white house with elements of the old and new. From the street there is only the white wall of the house to be seen. Step behind the wall and there is small garden with a long stretch of grass. They are looking after a very good natured golden labrador named Keran for a family away on holiday.
We had a lovely bedroom on the ground floor with shower and basin and a toilet not far away. Unfortunately I got locked in the lavatory but luckily for me Michel heard me trying to open the door and opened it from the outside with a coin. Apparently this has happened before!
We had a beautiful lunch with a lovely spinach and cheese guiche as the main dish. Then Christiane offered to accompany us on a bike ride to the port which is very close by.
At three o’clock we set off on our bikes through a park and then down by the sea. It was a very hot afternoon. The tide was low and it was quite muddy but there were a lot of people on the white sandy beach sunbathing. It looked a bit odd!
We saw many places – too many to tell you about. We went into the Protestant Church which was oblong and the walls had wooden panels to halfway up. There was an exhibition on women who had made a difference in the church over the centuries. We need more of this as women are so invisible in history. With Kings and Queens they are often portrayed as pawns in cementing the alliances between countries, provinces or families. It always seems that history is “his story”!
Not long after we were at the Cathedral of Saint-Louis with its white Roman style arches. In the cathedral we saw yet another tapestry designed by Jean-Franҫois Favre which was a modern representation of the area with the sea and boats and the four cardinal points of the compass.
We went into the Musée du Nouvel Monde to look at the books and find out when it would be open next day. Unfortunately it was going to close in an hour and it would be closed the next day. In the courtyard there was a statue of a black man namedToussaint Louverture. It is well worth reading about his life first as a slave and then as a successful leader and general in what is now Haiti. He was treated in the most dishonourable way by Napolean and died in a cold prison in France. One website is http://www.historywiz.com/toussaint.htm If you find a better on please let me know and I will change it.
We biked past the newly renovatedTown Hall with the insignia of a boat. It made me think of the Paris Fluctuat nec mergitur latin motto which also shows a boat and means “It is tossed about but never sinks”. We saw a beautiful house which belonged to a man named Nicolas Venette (1633 – 1698) who decorated his house with busts of celebrated doctors from ancient times.
Tuesday 21 July 2015 DW
In the morning Michel had an appointment with physiotherapist as he is recovering from a broken ankle. Christiane and Michel’s grandson had broken his arm playing soccer and was coming to town to go to the hospital. We met them fleetingly as we left by bike by ourselves to visit the towers down at the port. It turned out that that the Tour de la Lanterne which is being renovated is closed.
We then went to the Tour de la Chaîne and climbed up to various levels where there was information in both French and English. Having been in the hands of both the French and the English La Rochelle became French in 1372 and stepped up its programme of fortifications for the port. The two towers which were open were part of that programme. The Tour de la Chaîne built between 1382 and 1390 was the residence of the harbourmaster who levied taxes on ships and controlled the chain which could open and close the port.
We went back for lunch and were able to talk to Christiane and Marcel’s son Franҫois, a physiotherapist, his wife Virginie, who is in insurance, Marion, 13, Arthur, 12, and Louanne, 10. You can see the strong ressemblance between the children and their grandfather who has a lovely smile.
In the afternoon we headed for the second tower which is La Tour Saint Nicholas. Here we were given a large A4 guide in English re the tour. Construction of the tower, which was built on piles, was probably started early in the 14th century and completed in about 1376. It was used for both defence purposes and as a residence but there were separate stairs so that soldiers and residents did not need to meet. There was an excellent video in French playing in the top room of the tower.
Both towers had very good bookshops with much to tempt one. I liked some plastic plates which had various quotes which were to tell children about good manners eg. “Je ne mets pas mes coudes sur la table”.= “I don’t put my elbows on the table”. David did not like them at all!
David was in great need of a hair cut. Most places charged a minum of 22€ but we noticed a place on our first day which only charged 15€ so we went there. We had to wait ages so I read a magazine and chatted with a young lad who was feeling bored. The young man who cut David’s hair did a good job.
We had a wonderful stay with Christiane and Michel.
Wednesday 22 July 2015 DW
I thought it might be a good idea to go through Les Sables d’Olonnes where we might visit for a short time a French chap, Joël, who was a French assistant in Christchurch in 1980 when I began teaching at Aranui High School. However they were not home when we phoned. We drove on and bought a made-to-order small baguette in the local boulangerie and headed on until we found a place called Bretignolles-sur-Mer down by the sea to consume the goods.
We moved on to St Marc sur Mer which is a suburb of St Nazaire (population 45,000). We could not quite find their house as the address was 135 Ter and we did not know what this meant. We found 135 but the gate was locked. We found two buildings of flats but no name on the letterbox corresponded with the name we needed. Suddenly there was a voice from over the fence asking if we were Deborah and David. Marcel was busy doing some maintenance painting. Our new SERVAS hosts Marcel and Yveline are preparing for a trip to New Zealand in November and December.
Our hosts took us to see the beach at La Baule which is a lovely sunny resort. In the back streets we saw the large handsome stone houses often with a wooden balcony in the back streets. We continued on to the Port de la Baule where we saw many leisure boats and a few workingsboats. From there we went a charming village called Kervalet with lovely stone houses. After parking the car and went to see to Guérande and the salt marshes. The people here have been harvesting the salt in the same way by raking the water for the last 1500 years. They produce coarse, grey salt and fine, white salt in their ponds bordered by mud walls. There are 180 species of birds here.
Thursday 23 July 2015 DW
In the morning we drove to the market to buy fish and at St Marc to order des galettes made with the Sarrasin flour which is brown in colour.
For lunch we had a small orange melon, sardines with homegrown potatoes, cheese and then coffee.
In the afternoon Marcel drove us to the village of Kerhinet where there are lovely thatched houses. In another small village where there were many artisans I bought a small wooden brooch of a white seagull for 2€. We had a wonderful afternoon being taken around the sites and sights of the marais or swamplands.
Late afternoon we went back to La Baule complete with portable chairs ready to listen to a free concert by Aurore Voilque and her band of drummer, bass player, sax and clarinet player and a guitarist. This was great jazz! Aurore not only played the violin like a gypsy (shades of our own gorgeous Lyttelton player Fiona Pears) but also sang beautifully. A lovely evening.
When we got home we had a delicious late dinner of galettes completes with ham, egg and cheese.
Friday 24 July 2015 DW
Yveline left before we did as she takes her elderly aunt shopping twice a week. We were not in a hurry as our next SERVAS hosts Marie-Noëlle and Jean-Giles were celebrating 40 years of marriage at midday in a restaurant. We stopped off at La Roche Bernard as recommended by the hosts we had just left. We had a walk around the charming old cottages. As in many of these villages there were artists selling their wares. In one small shop the woman was making small glass objects such as pink flamingos and some lovely fish on stands. One is tempted until one remembers we are already overweight for our flight to England where we are only allowed 20 kgs.
We were running early but the library in a nearby town Saint-Ave was not open until 4.00pm so we had a walk round the town. We eventually got in and retrieved our emails and then drove on arriving at about 5.30pm.
Marie-Noëlle and Jean-Giles live in Monterblanc (Population: 56,000) which according to French Wikipedia comes apparently from the Breton Sterwenn meaning "White Monastery", probably because the monks dressed in white, as opposed to the monks dressed in homespun.
Our hostess, Marie-Noëlle, was in a wheelchair as she too had broken her ankle. That left Jean-Gilles to drive, cook and run around after us all! They have a lovely modern house with an open plan downstairs area with great views over the countryside.
They were also expecting a visitor from Spain who was coming for two nights through Marie-Noëlle’s Spanish teacher. They had warned us about this but it turned out that Maria could speak a number of languages fluently and had no trouble communicating.
Saturday 25 July 2015 DW
In the morning Maria had gone for the day to join her group. Jean-Gilles drove to the city of Vannes and parked by the harbour. We walked around the market and I tried on a pair of shoes which did not quite fit. Marie-Noëlle got round in her wheelchair.
In the afternoon we went to Gavrinis Island to see some neolithic art and architecture. We had to take a boat out to the island and the visit was strictly controlled. What we found was a large cairn which is actually a dolmen covered by a pile of stones. From the outside it looks like a neatly rounded small hill 20 feet high and 160 ft in diameter. Inside is a 45 ½ ft corridor which rins into a single chamber in the centre of the structure. There are some 50 hewn stone slabs lining the chamber and corridor of which 23 are decorated with carvings. Many of which make me think of finger prints but are also zigzags, herring-bone patterns cattle horns and other designs. This was probably constructed for ancestor worship about 3500 BC as were other such constructions in Brittany. It appears to have been abandonned suddenly in about 3000BC .
It was well worth the visit. We would never have known to go there if our hosts had not recommended it.
Sunday 26 July 2015 DW
We had breakfast at 8.00am with Marie-Noëlle, Jean-Gilles and their Spanish guest Maria. I enjoy some more of their delicious blackcurrant jam on a crepe with plain yoghurt. Yum!
David drove the whole 1 hour and 38 minutes to Plogastel-St Germain. We got there at about 11.15am. We had thought of going to Pont-Aven but the rain was pouring down so we decided to leave that until we go to Concarneau.
Our lovely German hostess, Birgit, was just as I had imagined her – blond and vibrant. Her friend Raphaëlle a social worker from Lyon was there with her daughter Celestine (16) and son Merlin (11).
After lunch Birgit took us to Quimper (Kemper in the Breton Language) which has a population of about 64,000 people for the annual folk festival. As it had rained hard in the morning the annual parade had started later than usual. We had to pay 4€ per person to go behind the barricades and saw about 10 of the 43 groups.
There were pipe bands with the local bagpipes all beautifully dressed in the costume of their group or town. The women wore the local white coiffe or headgear and in most cases it was made of starched lace. Some headgear are so tall that women have to put their heads to the side to travel in the car! Some groups were dancing and one group stopped and invited the bystanders to join in. I refused the first offer and showed my walking stick but when a second handsome young man approached me I gave my stick to David to hold and joined in. Birigit, our hostess, said she loved the festival because it involved both young and old. There were quite a few babies in the parade. Nearby there was a group of old women sitting on their chairs enjoying the parade.
After the parade we walked around and saw the stalls. Birgit bought herself a lovely calendar having spoken to the artist whose work she already knew.
Monday 27 July, 2015 DW
David and I went first to Port-Aven which is back in the direction we had come from the day before. Everywhere they are selling the local biscuits - tried a number of biscuits but nothing grabbed us. This is quite a charming village. Paul Gaugin is the name on everyone’s lips. We got rather lost trying to find the Chapelle de Trémalo – a gothic church from the 16th century where you can see the painted wooden statue of the yellow christ which was made in the 17th century. It became famous when Gaugin painted his Yellow Christ and then his self-portrait with the Yellow Christ. It is a charming church, surrounded by hydrangeas.
On to Concarneau which has a famous walled town on an island in the harbour. We walked around all the ramparts on one side which were accessible to the public. We tried to work out where the painting we had at home was painted from. Later the young man at the Tourist Office suggested it was part of the Port de Plaisance where all the pleasure boats are moored, painted from a beach which is now closed. So we went back but that area of the ramparts above the beach was also closed.
We drove further around the waterfront and went to the Chapel of the Cross. There I lit a candle for my friend Eric Fundt who was murdered in the early 1980s in Brittany. I have tried to find out where he was murdered but so far I can’t even find any newspaper reports.
Tuesday 28 July, 2015 DW
The weather report was not good so we had already decided we would have a “day off” which of course retired people never get!
Raphaëlle and Celestine went off to Quimper to do some shopping. Young master Merlin took us on a tour of the town. First we stopped at the Post Office to take out some money. Then we went into the good sized church and as always we silently said our prayers for Peace. We went down one road and noted the very faded sign on a wall for Renault cars with a much newer sign for Peugeot cars on the garage itself.
Up another road we found ourselves at the cemetery and were pleased to see how well maintained it is. This may be in part because there is a tradition to visit cemetaries in November at Toussaint. I found this comment on http://www.french-property.com/reference/french_public_holidays/all-saints-toussaint/
“ November the 1st is indeed a national Jour Férié in France, meaning that most of the shops, restaurants, schools and companies are closed. La Toussaint (All Saints Day), although deeply rooted in the Catholic religion, is actually widely respected in France and has given rise to a few customs.
Generally speaking, French people like to attend the All Saints Mass to remember the Catholic Saints as well as honour their late relatives. Then they usually take the advantage of this bank day to visit some cemetery and lay down a symbolic bunch of flowers at gravesites as sign of honour.”
Perhaps we should start a new tradition in Aotearoa New Zealand and then our cemeteries might look a bit better. I must admit some of our family graves need some care. I found out about a year ago there is still space in one plot in Christchurch belonging to our family.
Unfortunately it started to rain so we had to go back home.
When Raphaëlle and Celestine came home Raphaëlle made a lovely quiche with flaky pastry, cheese, mustard and tomatoes. Each meal there is always cheese so I have decided to limit myself to one piece a day. The bread is made in a Moulineaux machine with a 6 cereal flour plus some other seeds such as pumpkin seeds. It takes 3 hours to make. It is delicious!
In the evening we went to Creperie Tante Marie which is run by Birgit’s friends. The restaurant was inherited from Tante Marie. We had an aperitif while waiting for all our pizzas which were made from scratch.
Wednesday 29 July, 2015 DW
We went shopping in the morning at a supermarket on our way out. Then we headed north for Douarnenez, once a thriving sardine fishing village, and walked down to the port. On the way down I spotted a shop with lovely Indian cotton tops so I bought a lovely loose teal-green one to replace my favourite Fiji blouse which had just given up the ghost.
There was a walk around to the charming village and archealogial site at Plomarc’h [sic]. There you can see stone houses, gardens and a Breton animal farm at a site with a simple hostel. There are also the remains of Roman occupation which was obviously well organised. It was well worth the walk but take your lunch with you!
We went on to Plouhinec and a site called Menez Dregan which is described a an archealogical trip back 500,000 years. Time was running out so we couldn’t visit the centre nor visit the cave there but did see the dolmens which in this case were cairns of small stones piled up like little round houses without roofs.
According to Wikipedia a dolmen, also known as a cromlech, portal tomb, portal grave or quoit, is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone ("table"), although there are also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic (4000-3000 BCE).
Further along the road were the magnificent large stones which formed “walls” of an open corridor which led to an open chamber with another very large flat stone as a roof.
Maria, a SERVAS traveller from Italy, arrived home with Birgit in the evening. Birgit had thought the market would be open that evening in the village but it was a few kilometres away so we jumped into two cars and set off. David and I bought some lovely moist Rochefort. There were not many people there as a mistake had been made and the market should have taken place when a lot of people would have been there the next day for some sort of church celebration. If we bought something we could go and guess the weight of something ( I am writing this a month later and my memory is a bit hazy) and the person nearest to its real weight was given some cheese. I think I would have been second...but second is not first...
While we were at the market Eggplant Florentine which David had prepared was cooking. We had bought Chianti wine to honour the new guest from Italy. I prepared a salad full of raw vegetables. We love the rocket which is easily found here in the supermarket, which lifts the taste of any plain lettuce. After cheese we had a dessert of Breton galettes with strawberry or plum and coconut icecream... Mmmmmm...
Thursday 30 July, 2015 DW
On our way to Brest we went to the Crozon Peninsula. The Pointe de Penhir rises to a height of 70 metres above the sea. It’s a very rugged coastline and at the western most point there are some isolated craigs which are known as the Tas de Pois (piles of peas). Nearby is the memorial to the Bretons who fell in the second World War.
We went on to Camaret sur Mer where Vauban’s Tower is an historic fortification guarding the harbour and built in 1669-94. Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them. He also advised Louis XIV on how to consolidate France's borders, to make them more defensible. The tower can normally be visited but unforunately it was being renovated so we couldn’t go in.
Our Tomtom only gave us Rue des Cormorants as the address for our next SERVAS hosts so we accepted that and drove on to Brest. We arrived to find that we were not at the right place but the couple who lived there were very helpful and we were soon on our way to Allee des Cormorants in Locmaria- Plouzane which was about 15 minutes further on! Our hosts were Catherine, first a medical doctor then later an actress and Christofer, a musician originally from Sweden. Their daughter, Maïlys, in her early 20s was also at home.
We were invited to have a drink and chose a Pastis, known as “the mik of Marseille” with alcohol of course. We ate small cubes of feta with a red topping with toothpicks and other lovely nibbles. Soon their friends Pascal, a newly retired fireman and his wife Jocelyn who are also members of SERVAS arrived for dinner. Pascal asked why we didn’t ask to stay with them. Simple, I replied, you only had a small “e” for English in the SERVAS booklet (which means that your English is not very good) and David is not fluent in French.
We had a fabulous dinner and conversation.The main dish was a long fish – about 800cm long steamed in a long narrow pot and presented on an equally long dish. This was served with potatoes and salad. Cheese followed with red wine from Bordeaux, including the Rocquefort which we bought the day before. Then we had the blackcurrant crumble that Jocelyn had made.
Friday 31 July 2015-08-01 DW
We had a delicious lunch of grated carrot and beetroot, spinach pasta with salad followed by fruit.
Then we set off for Pointe Saint-Mathieu at Plougonvelin which juts out into the Mer d’Iroise. I thought that must mean the Irish Sea but there are several possible explanations. In old French iroise might mean “irish” or “angry” referring to the rough seas. There are also a couple of meanings given by Wikipedia from the Breton Language...
While I went and had a look at the tiny museum David climbed up the lighthouse. In reading the pamphlet I learned the origin of the French word phare which means “lighthouse.” Apparently in about 300BC Ptolemy, the King of Egypt had the first lighthouse constructed opposite Alexandria which became one of the wonders of the known world. Hence from the French pharaon (pharaoh) comes phare.
The coast has many lighthouses as it is so rugged and has such dangerous seas and storms. It was the monks of Saint Matthew who lit the light each evening to guide the ships. Elsewhere to we were told that sometimes very poor peasants deliberately lit fires to lure boats to dangerous areas so that they could then salvage some of the goods when the ships foundered.
Nearby are the ruins of the Abbey and Monastery of St Matthew. The legend is that Saint Tanguy is said to have founded the first Abbey in the sixth century and that a relic consisting of a piece of St Matthew the Apostle’s skull had been put there by Breton sailors who had miraculously saved it from a shipwreck. However archaeology and history have shown that the Roman abbey was was built in the eleventh century. The Benedictine monks had flocks of believers who came to venerate this relic. What do you make of that? I call it superstition and bullshit – or if you like early marketing!
There was also a very nice stone church on the site. Some brothers were in evidence at the museum and taking tours of the abbey ruins.
A little further along the Pointe there was a National Memorial for sailors who “died for France.” It has been further recognised as a memorial for those in the navy, those who worked on merchant and fishing ships during various wars. It even encompasses those who have died in time of peace such as sea search and rescuers. There is a tall, narrow memorial with the face of a Breton woman wearing her simple hat looking worried with hands clasped in prayer. Down in the crypt of this cenotaph you can see photos of the men who lost their lives.
We then drove to Le Conquet and stopped to look at a some lines of menhirs, these tall, flat, upright stones a large grassy area by the road. We then went into the town proper and parked our car by the hôtel de ville and took a walk over the passerelle, a long wooden footbridge which led to the Kermorvan Peninsula. By the time we had walked a short way up the hill we realised we were running out of time so we turned back and headed for home.
Before dinner we drank a pinot gris from Alsace as an aperitif. We ate small octopae with garlic and vinegar and later crêpes completes with ham, cheese and egg (also sausauge) cheese. In this part of Brittany they call them crêpes whereas elsewhere they were called galettes. We then had some fruit to finish the meal.
We then repaired to the music room where each person performed. David on the flute and Christofer on the grand piano performed En Bateau by Debussy. David played Spirit of the Earth and then Christofer played an improvisation based on that piece. We were blown away that he played it on the spot! Catherine played on the button accordeon and also sang an Edith Pfiaf song with great allure. Maïlys started to sing an Italian aria but felt her voice was not warmed up enough so she went to her room to warm it up. There was a great difference when she came back with her voice warmed up and she felt more confident. She would like to study singing but has to undergo auditions to get into a good music school. I can’t remember if I sang anything as I am writing this a month later! Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves with our lovely hosts.
Saturday 1 August
Off to the airport early to make sure we got there is plenty of time. We parked the hire car outside but no-one came to verify that the car was intact. We thought that was rather odd as they usually do so in NZ and Ausralia.
There was no sign of the GoTo Airline so we were a bit worried whether is existed. However there were other people waiting for the same airline and eventually the signs went up and we took off for Birmingham.
When we got to Birmingham Airport we took a train to the centre of Birmingham. From there we took a taxi to the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre at 1046 Bristol Road. Thus begins the next blog...
Woodbrooke in August 2015
Saturday 1 August 2015 DW
This is a blog not a journalistically written piece. Please read it as such as take out of it what you want! I would prefer to have photos interspersed in the text but that is not possible on this website. Many of the extra notes have been taken verbatim from Wikipedia or other sites.
We arrived by train from the airport and took a taxi to Woodbrooke. It is situated on a long boulevard- like road with wide grassy strips down the middle. It is called Bristol Road but it is in Birmingham. Woodbrooke is the only Quaker Study Centre in Europe. The house was given by George and Elizabeth Cadbury in 1903 for that purpose. There are many bedrooms accommodating people on courses or those who just want a break. It is set in spacious grounds with a beautiful walled flower and vegetable garden established at the time of the first owner, Josiah Mason, an industrialist and founder of Birmingham University. Out on the main lawn there is a lovely labyrinth which is mowed into the grass.
Our room seems to be the largest double room which is in the New Wing over the Art Room and faces out towards Bristol Road. However there are trees and a house occupied by two groups which probably saves it from being too noisy. As per so many hotels with double rooms it only has a small wardrobe suitable for one person and one desk and no towel rails for large towels. It does however have a wash basin with a small towel rail. Eventually we purloined an extra table from the computer room and a computer chair from the garage via our friendly handyman, Pete. However I still got neckache!
On our first full day there we set out for Selly Oaks Meetinghouse which was just back up the road towards Central Birmingham. It was a lovely building with several other meetingrooms. There were no children there and most of those there were older than us.
In the afternoon we walked back again up the hill to buy some coathangers as those provided were large wooden ones which took up too much space. We made our first acquaintance with the local Sainbury shop.
Daily Routine
On our first day on duty we had to be up ready to go at 7.00am. Robin Bowman is the Friends in Residence co-ordinator. He used to teach singing at the Guildhall School of Music and in fact was away for two weeks of our stay teaching two courses. I believe it was our Australian Friends Ronis and Michael who compiled the sheets that we use each day to make sure to cover all the many little details we must attend to particularly early morning and late at night. The day starts with a walk down to unlock the back gate which leads out to a lake and vast green public lawns. Canadian geese are in residence and a few other birds are fouling the paths around the lake.
Each morning Meeting for Worship is held from 8.30 to 9.00am in the Quiet Room.I spoke once about slavery as I had been reading in The Friend about modern day slavery and I had received a petition from Avaaz about the emprisonment of a man named Biram in Mauritania who has been outspoken about slavery in his country especially of women. I had also just read a very moving small book which was the journal of an American Quaker Botanist named Cyrus Pringle who was a conscientious objector during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) and spoke of the scourge of both war and slavery. I have lent that book to Jorine of the Quaker Theatre Group known as The Leaveners who has just written plays about COs and may base her next play on this book.
At 9.00am each day we have a meeting of the FiRs (Friends in Residence) to update any news of guests overnight and any notices for the day ahead.
During the weekend from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening we have FiRs on duty in the office in case guests need anything. This can be anything from a hottie, to the bonfire box, to the equipment to go for a row on the lake within Woodbrooke’s grounds.
We also cut flowers from the walled garden and put them around in the rooms where courses are on, in the Quiet Room, in the Cadbury Room or in the corridors. There are not enough small vases so David and I have so far purchased 4 crystal vases for the Minifie-Williams collection which we are donating to Woodbrooke.
During the rest of the week we have time off in the afternoon. During the week the professional staff are on duty at the reception desk so we don’t usually greet the guests unless there is a course starting. We then show the guests to their rooms and explain procedures such as how to access WiFi, fire drill and how to use the door card. There is also a guided tour of the buildings which we also do. The buildings are frankly a rabbit warren of buildings and corridors. It takes about 3 weeks before one can confidently go from one area to the next!
At both lunch and dinner one of the FiRs rings a bell and asks for silence to give thanks for the food and the company. The food was so fullsome we decided to only have dessert in the evening otherwise who knows how we would move out of the building when the time came to go! However in the last week they served Eton Mess (broken up meringue with fruit and cream) one lunchtime and I even sneaked back for a second helping. I had a cooked breakfast every morning of egg and tomatoes and mushrooms and a drop of backed beans on toast followed by toast with butter and marmelade and washed down with decaf coffee with milk.
Epilogues
In the evening at 9.30 we had a 15 minute Epilogue in the Cadbury Room. I had to lead one evening so I asked David to first play a piece on the flute. I then read a short passage from our Quaker Faith and Practice Aotearoa New Zealand by the late Enid Bloomfield about how privileged some of us are to be able to give volunteer service whereas millions of poor have to work just to survive .
Another time David began epiloque by explained the gifting of our Quaker Māori name in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1993 by the Māori Language Commissioner. He then read 2.04 from Quaker Faith and Practice Aotearoa New Zealand re Murray Short our present YM Clerk’s engagement to his Maori wife and how the Quaker Family came to meet the Maori Whanau and the new bond that was formed. Elsie Bennett who reported this “moving and humbling experience”, admitted that in spite of the fact that her family had been in New Zealand for 150 years and her grandfather learned to speak Māori before he spoke English, it was her first real contact with Māori people.
I read the lovely gentle poem Healing by Josephine North (3.09) for an epilogue and David used Liz Remmerswaal-Hughes Be still and know that I am God passage (3.16) for another. One evening our fellow twin Friends in Residence who are always knitting, sewing or making something beautiful, did a moving epilogue using pictures they had taken at the Quilt Exhibition with music in the background. David also loved the Desiderata poem which Julianna, our Irish Eva Koch Scholar read another evening. Another memorable epilogue was a that of a small group of young Quaker graduates all about to go out to work in areas of Peace. They read a Gandhi quote and then a young man played a Satie piano piece on the grand piano. Epilogues are both rich and soothing at the same time.
Overnight two FiRs had to take phones to bed with them in case of emergency. The first time I was the lead FiR I had to get up at 11.50pm to answer the door to a man whose plane from Germany had been held up for many hours. He had an appointment at the hospital the next day so it was important to get to Birmingham.
***************************************************************************
On the first Wednesday in Birmingham we had man named Mohamet bring a Honda Jazz for us to try out. He was asking for £2,000 (NZ$ 4893.00) for this rather dirty car. He implied he was a dealer but we thought not! The steering was stiff and the air conditioning didn’t work. On the way back I noticed that the yellow light came on indicating that it was running out of petrol but he didn’t seem perturbed at all. Somehow it seemed very iffy indeed so we declined to buy it.
On Thursday 6 September we had our first day off. We set off for the Quilt Exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre with fellow FIRs Faith and Margaret who are twins and now share a house in Sheffield. They always have knitting or some sort of handiwork on the go. We finally found David’s sister Kay’s quilts in the Over the Seas section. There were so many marvellous pieces of work. I was interested in one that was a compilation of squares completed by serving prisoners.
Ton and Liz Remmerswal, Quakers from Hawkes Bay who have been biking around Europe and the UK for about 14 months also arrived at Woodbrooke. As they are friends of ours they were given a very good offer for a two night stay and eventually stayed a third night.
We had a fifth Kiwi staying at Woodbrooke. Each year there are 4 Eva Koch Scholars who come for 6 weeks to study a topic of interest. Peni from Golden Bay who is usually a physiotherapist by day has been studying for her Masters through the Peace and Conflict Centre in Dunedin was a lucky recipient of a scholarship.Her aim was to produce a shortened, more accessible version of her MA thesis on Building Relationships: Quaker Peacebuilding in a Pacific Context.
Buying a Car
On our second day off we had another car brought out from a Honda dealer. We were after a Honda Jazz automatic which are hard to get. By buying through a dealer we knew that it had to be up to a certain standard. So we are now rolling around in a pale blue 2007 model Honda Jazz which is a step from my electric blue 2004 model. The suspension is a bit firmer than we would prefer but overall it seems to run well.
Payment From NZ for the car took time and insurance even longer. We asked fellow Friends in residence if we could send the insurance money to their account. Unfortunately one of them reversed two digits of their bank account and eventually the money went back to NZ. The second time round all was well.
Things got so difficult with the insurance that we appealed to all our friends for help. It was great how people sent the message on to others who had recently travelled in the UK. Insurance was difficult as most companies refused us as we are not resident in the UK. One, called Downunder Insurance refused us insurance as David is over 70. Most would not look at our NZ no claims bonus. We had brought letters about our insurance but they then required a letter showing that David’s car in NZ had been sold. We finally sorted it out on arrival in France.
It wasn’t until 10 days after buying the car that it was delivered to us I checked the bottom of the boot and it was still full of water. The salesman, Lee, told us on the first showing that it had probably filled with water when it was open on show which was nonsense as the floor of the boot would also have been wet. However the man delivering the car phoned Lee who apparently said that if it rusted they would do any repairs necessary! I think that the groomer probably was too lazy to empty the pool of water out.
Visit of Tokyo Friends Girls School
On Hiroshima Day , 6 August, a group of 20 girls from the Friends School in Tokyo and their team including a professional interpreter arrived at Woodbrooke. On Saturday 8 August we joined in on a bonfire for the Japanese Girls. I took my Kiwi and Tuatara and gave a short talk which was translated by the accompanying translator. Liz Remmerwaal told the sad story of the cultural misunderstandings in the Featherston Japanese Prisoner of War camp in New Zealand leading to many unnecessary deaths in 1943. For the Epilogue she told the same moving story. A visiting Quaker writer from Dublin, David O’Donoghue, read a poem. He works in the Irish House of Parliament and has written a book with a very interesting title The Devil's Deal: The IRA, Nazi Germany and the Double Life of Jim O Donovan.
On our second Sunday we went to the Bournville Meeting. There was even a member of the Cadbury family there. I gave ministry about what happened at Featherston to the Japanese Prisoners of War. I announced that there was a concert by the Japanese girls in the afternoon being Nagasaki Day.
The concert was help in the Cadbury Room. I pointed out Jill Cadbury to Liz Remerswaal who rushed over to get a selfie with her. Afterwards Jill said to me that her husband was descended from Richard Cadbury not the more famous side of the family!
The girls first sang several songs. Then they invited us to try out using the Kendama which is a traditional Japanese toy. The kendama has three cups and a spike which fits into the hole in the ball. Basic kendama tricks consist of catching the ball in the cups and on the spike. I have used them with dyslexic children to help develop hand-eye co-ordination. For the first time ever I got one on the spike! A second group taught how to juggle using two beanbags. The third group showed how to make the famous peace cranes out of paper.
David played Haru No Umi (The Sea in Spring) on his flute for evening epilogue for Nagasaki Day while three Japanese girls used a sheet to make a crane on the floor. It was a deeply moving end to the day.
People
I had some wonderful talks with people mostly over meals but sometimes late at night. Guests wear a name tag so that the kitchen staff can check off who has what meals. However I also often asked where people came from in the hope this might help me with my genealogical search!
One man told me how he had been sexually abused at a boarding school and how it had completely affected his life in spite of a lot of counselling. Over lunch I spoke to Michael who led a nontheist group and realised that I was heading that way too. I then started experimenting with my centering down hymn in Meeting and found a new way of leaving “God” out and substituting “Love”. What is life about but relationships and Love?!
Woodbrooke is very open to people of all abilities. Sometimes we had had to deal patiently with people who have mental health problems or who are deemed difficult. We also have quite a few people with physical disabilities. Emma a lovely blind woman came for a break and I enjoyed taking her for a walk around the grounds and describing the flowers and working out best how to take her silently around the lawn labyrinth. Those who come often are always given the same bedroom so that they can make their own way round independently. A severely handicapped woman came as part of course and had three members of her family to support her. We even had a woman who is going through a divorce who brought her dog for emotional support.
Courses
Woodbrooke is a Quaker Study Centre so there are many courses run. Most courses are in the weekend but quite a few are during the week. There is always a meeting of all staff on Thursdays to go through courses about to happen. They do not have to be Quakers but obviously they would have to be in tune with Quaker beliefs.
Before coming we had been told to let the volunteer co-ordinator know if we wanted to go to a particular course. I was interested in Sacred Economics: developing our personal responses to economic issues. I thought that this course might be a good start before going to Edward Dommen’s course in October in France based on his book A Peaceable Economy.
Charles Eisenstein, an American, has gifted Sacred Economics so you can get it online free. However part of his thesis is that if you find worth in it, that you send him some money. I find it hard to read online and wanted to mark the book so David sent for the book for me rather late. Therefore I did not get the book finished before the course. During the week before the course I put my name down as there was still a place. That was to cost me £72.16 (NZ$175.73) as I was already a resident. Then a couple of days later I learned that someone was now on the waiting list so I said that I would pull back and let that person go. Finally I was told that someone had had to pull out so I got to go to the course free!
A very nice couple, Lucy and George ran the course. There was not a lot of group work but plenty of time for personal reflection. We were offered a notebook to write down our thoughts on some of the questions. Lucy had prepared summaries for those who had not fully read the book. The highlight was the SKYPE link-up with Charles himself on the Saturday evening, answering questions while lying on his bed! As we have been so busy working, organising travel and then travelling I have yet finish the book!
We had a time of Ministry and I spoke about that wonderful woman known as Peace Pilgrim who gave all her possessions away and dedicated her life to Peace by being available to others. Charles Eisenstein’s thesis in action. Her book is available online free. She said she felt free when she gave her possessions away. I remember feeling like that when I gave away a lot of my teaching materials.
From the course it was suggested that we might like to try a free 4 week course run by the University of Cumbria on Money and Society. Each week there is a 2 hour lecture to watch and listen to on PowerPoint and then a 500 word essay to do. Once you put yours online you can read and comment on other people’s efforts. David and I only managed the first week. There was a great deal of interesting material to take in. The essay was thought provoking as it was whether we would invest in an existing alternative currency called Ven. I would love to do something like that with longer time between assignments as I am at zero on economics! It will be repeated again next year but will start on the very day we leave Woodbrooke again. As yet I have no idea where we will be going at that time.
For our next stay at Woodbrooke in February – March David and I both like the look of The Parables of Jesus (£200 = NZ$487 for residential or £145= NZ$353 for non residential) or if there are no places there is Being a Quaker Clerk which interests me on the same weekend. Only one of us can go to a course per weekend so we will have to see. I am also interested in Understanding Islam, Challenging Islamophobia (£135 =NZ$329 for residential or £97=NZ$236 for non residential) which in on in our second weekend.
I put the prices so that New Zealand Quakers know how expensive it is to come and ask Meetings for financial help if necessary. If you are a Friend in Residence you don’t pay for accommodation and you also get the course free if there are free places. However you may not know until the last moment if there is a free place. If you take a place then you have to pay for it.
Visits
During our third week we were very pleased to have Marian & Phil McNichol, ex Resident Friends in Wellington at Woodbrooke for a night. On the Monday afternoon they took us out with Peni Connolly for a forest walk at Licketty Hill. On the way back we popped into a few Opp shops at Northfield.
That week we booked what turned out to be a self-guided “tour” of the Bournville Cadbury “Factory” which does not produce any goods. There were zillions of excited children with correspondingly harassed parents. Interestingly the following Sunday at Meeting there was a glossy pamphlet The Dark Side of Cadbury put out by the Methodist Tax Justice Network . They criticise Cadburys for tax avoidance even before it was taken over in 2010 by Kraft now called Mondelez International. They suggest boycotting Cadbury goods and writing to the management, one’s MP and joining them in their campaign.
We also visited Selly Manor in the local village which is well worth the visit. This house was originally built as a yeoman’s house, a class below gentry. The earliest records for the house date from 1476. By 1853 it had been split into three cottages and was known as The Rookery. The census records show that by 1861, there were 21 people living in what must have been overcrowded conditions. In 1907, The Rookery was in poor condition and was put up for sale by auction. It was bought by George Cadbury, who was the chocolate manufacturer, philanthropist, creator of Bournville village and teacher of adult education. It was then moved to its present site.
In each room there were interesting notes about how various idioms to do with day to day utensils came into being. We bought a little booklet about these idioms. There were also costumes one could put on and have one’s photo taken.
On the same site is the cruck-framed medieval hall house, Minworth Greaves. About 750 years old, the building was moved by Laurence Cadbury from Minworth, near Sutton Coldfield, and reconstructed onsite in 1932. In the photos taken at the time there was very little left of the house. Now they use it for weddings and other events.
We trotted off to a medical clinic where you did not have to make an appointment. Nor apparently did you have to pay. We soon found out that it was really only for emergencies and David could only get a month’s supply of his medication. We had an Indian woman doctor who was rather bemused that we didn’t know how things worked. David went to order his mediation at the pharmacy but some parts were not readily available. When we got home we found they had forgotten to put in some medication. Then when he phoned they said they had cancelled one medication.
Eva Koch Scholar Presentations
On the third Saturday we were looking forward to the Eva Koch presentations in the afternoon.
Haifa Rashed of Palestinian descent did a survey of those who have had placements in Quaker programmes in the last 20 years. She looked at the impact it had on the individual’s spiritual development and later actions.
Peni Connolly from Golden Bay was to be the second speaker. She had just put up her heading when there was a loud noise and an elderly lady had fainted. We all had to file out of the room and have an early afternoon tea for more than an hour.
Peni had asked me to sing a Māori song. David and I sang Ma wai rā (Who will take responsibility) and the beginning and Te Aroha (Love) at the end of her talk on Building Relationships: Quaker Peacebuilding in a Pacific Context. This focuses on Quaker action in the area of race relations, focused on the inequalities and injustices experienced by New Zealand’s indigenous people.
We have enjoyed the lovely Irish accent of the quietly spoken but very thoughtful Julianna Minihan from Cork. She set about exploring the influence of William Penn’s ideas on religious liberty on eight later individuals. She will produce booklets on each of these people.
Helen Chambers who hails from Bristol explored what parents and families need in the way of support from their Quaker meeting and beyond. She set out to find good practice so that it can be shared with other Friends.
***************************************************************************
On Sunday 23 David was on duty but I went to Cotteridge Meeting with Mia a Friend in Residence. The Meeting house was built in the 1964 and is spacious and light and very fit for purpose and for use by others. From 2004 to 2014 they had an environmental audit done and have made many improvements such as insulation.
A man named Chris was celebrating his 71st birthday. Someone mentioned something to do with Cornwall so I spoke Martin afterwards. His Great Uncle Mr Oats was headmaster at St Agnes School in Cornwall. That is the area my great-grandfather James Williams and his wife Great Grandmother Sophia Bartley came from. It is from that conversation and a few emails to Quakers in Cornwall that we will go and housesit in Cornwall in December-January. A Cornish Quaker, Vernon, has also just kindly sent me a book on mining in Cornwall so I have much reading to do!
Stratford on Avon
As David and I now had wheels we set off for Stratford on Avon accompanied by Peni, our NZ Eva Koch Scholar. We went to 5 venues associated with Will Shakespeare. A tip for travellers is to buy Membership of the Heritage New Zealand before you leave the country. This gets you free entry or a much reduced price to places like this. These tickets are also valid for one year so we can go back if we wish. Peni remembered coming as a child but I only remember visiting Anne Hatherway’s Cottage in 1981 with my boyfriend Philip who died two years later.
Peni and I enjoyed the house where Shakespeare is said to have been born as there were two handsome young guys acting Shakepeare scenes outside. Most of all I liked his mother, Mary Arden’s farm, which was out of town near Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. At the farm the people were dressed in costumes of the time. We did some dancing and Peni made a connection with the man teaching the dance. He knew some people who live in Golden Bay! There were pigs there too and some owls and other birds as part of the falconry display. We felt rather uneasy that the birds were all tethered to posts.
Overall a very enjoyable day. If you don’t have the time to go there, then Selly Oak Manor is an excellent substitute.
Birmingham Back-to-Backs
On our final Tuesday we went to see the Back-to-Backs in Birmingham for which you need to prebook. These houses were built literally back-to-back around a communal courtyard with shop fronts on one street. The guided tour took us from the 1840s through to the 1970s to discover the lives of some of the former residents who crammed into these small houses to live and work. It can’t have been fun to share the toilets down in the courtyard with so many people. The last shop was owned by a tailor, originally from Jamaica, who finally shut up shop in 2002, and left all his goods there. Very interesting.
On our final weekend I was pleased to see Nancy, an American who has lived for years in France but used to work in Switzerland. Nancy was one of those people who helped restart the Quaker Meeting in Kehl-Strasbourg in 2002. She was At Woodbrooke to run a course on Reviving the Ancient Symbol of Light: Jung and beyond. We will catch up in France in October.
A most stimulating stay at Woodbrooke with some wonderful spiritual insights. I recommend being a Friend in Residence.
From Woodbrooke to South West France
We left Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, England, on Monday 31 August, after lunch. We had an appointment with Robin and Barbara who live in Gayton halfway between there and London. At the end of January we will go to Gayton to look after Meisy, their lovely golden Labrador through Trusted Housesitters. We had invited Alison and Stuart who were Resident Friends in Christchurch several years ago to go out to dinner with us but we had not calculated our time well and got held up in traffic. In the end they cooked us a lovely dinner. We left our car at their house in Wimbledon and took the train into central London to Paddington. Tip: If you are staying for a few days in London buy an Oyster Card for transport and load it up with money.
Martha, David’s youngest daughter, lives just around the corner from Paddington Tube Station in London Mews. In case you don’t know, Wikipedia tells us that mews is a primarily British term formerly describing a row of stables, usually with carriage houses below and living quarters above, built around a paved yard or court, or along a street, behind large city houses, such as those of London, during the 17th and 18th centuries... It arose from "mews" in the sense of a building where birds used for falconry are kept, which in turn comes from birds' cyclical loss of feathers known as 'mewing' or moulting... From 1377 onwards the king's falconry birds were kept in the King's Mews at Charing Cross. The name remained when it became the royal stables starting in 1537 during the reign of King Henry VIII. The cobblestones are still there and some stables have been converted into garages. It is relatively quiet considering the hustle and bustle of the street out the open arch at the only entrance.
On Tuesday we set off for Friends House to meet Jo Rado who was also a Quaker Resident Friend but in Wellington last year. She has kindly offered to lend us her narrow canalboat for a couple of weeks in June next year. Obviously business people like the peace and quiet of Friends House and come for lunch, laden with their laptops. While we were there we had a good look round. Deborah did a bit of research in the library to see if she could find anything about her Quaker Whitehead ancestors. Her great-grandma was Jane Anna Whitehead (1849 – 1927) whose father was described as a Quaker printer from Leeds.
We were also shown around the remodelled Quaker Meetingroom which can hold one thousand people! Later when in the bookshop we ran in our dear friend Mike Zipser again who restarted the Quaker Meeting in Strasbourg (France) – Kehl (just over the Rhein River in Germany) in 2002 by inviting a few of us to his flat in Kehl. We looked at various books but resisted the strong temptation to buy books but took a few free CDs.
That evening Martha shouted us to the wonderful giant puppet show War Horse. We had booked to see the show in Auckland about two years ago and were very disappointed when it was cancelled. We were right up the front to the side so at half time we moved to front facing seats. Little did we know that the actors would rush past several times and we would have to pull our feet under the seats! It was a brilliant show and we can highly recommend that you go and see it. I have always thought that it must be awful for human beings to be butchered in battle. In this instance the focus is on the hardworking horses who also suffer terribly. Let’s see what we can do to find other ways to resolve conflict!
On Wednesday we set off to meet Elizabeth whose property we were going to look after. Elizabeth and Donald had planned to go to their property Bordeneuve-Dirat in the commune of St Félix Lauragais in Haute Garonne in France to show us how to look after their cats and the property itself. However Donald had a fall and fractured his shoulder while in hospital for something else so they can’t come. Instead Angus who was there with his wife will stay on.
After that we went on to the Genealogical Society. We were dissuaded from joining by the man at the reception who told us it was not worth joining unless we could use the facilities in London frequently. David bought a book on how to research your Scottish ancestry. I was tempted by a secondhand book titled A History of British Surnames by R A McKinley published in 1990 by Longman. My sister, who took her husband’s surname of Fairbrass might be interested to know that it is of French origin from fier meaning proud and bras meaning arm. Our mother’s maiden name was Best which seems to come from beast! Online on Ancestry.com I found a clearer explanation: English, northern Irish, and French: from Middle English, Old French beste ‘animal’, ‘beast’ (Latin bestia), applied either as a metonymic occupational name for someone who looked after beasts—a herdsman— or as a derogatory nickname for someone thought to resemble an animal, i.e. a violent, uncouth, or stupid man. I hope my ancestors were the former!
That evening Martha came back from the course she is on and cooked up a delicious dinner for six. We had chicken kebabs and delicious chocolate brownie for dessert. We met her flatmate, Anita, who is a very attractive and friendly Australian of Chinese origin. A young couple who will marry in Featherston in December were also invited. The husband-to-be suffered a stroke the week before. They had discovered that he had a hole in his heart and had operated straight away and there he was looking and feeling great. Thanks be to the medical profession!
On Thursday 3 August we took the train back Wimbledon to get our car and then set off for Dover. We were quite surprised that the crossing only took two hours. We then drove on to St Amand-Les-Eaux for a very special meeting over dinner.
When I was a child at 16 Jacksons Road, Christchurch, New Zealand, we had two old ladies as our neighbours. One was a Miss Grigg and the other a Miss Havelaar of Dutch heritage. It turned out that she had started Save the Children Fund in New Zealand which organised sponsorship of children in other countries. I decided I would start sponsoring a child as soon as I started earning which was in 1969. My first sponsorship was of a French girl named Marie-Christine who lived in the north-east of France near Lille. I could write to Marie-Christine in French which made me very happy. I was thrilled when I was sent a beautiful large photo of her taken in St Amand-Les-Eaux wearing her first communion white robe and head veil. She had written on the wide frame. When I arrived in France in 1971 I had hoped to meet her. I made enquiries but eventually in 1972 I was told that she had married and I could not have any more contact with her. I was very disappointed.
I have always wondered what happened to Marie-Christine. I sent an enquiry to the mayor’s office in St Amand-Les-Eaux in May before I left NZ. No reply. I sent the same email about a week before I left Birmingham and phoned the Mayor’s office. Then action. Through a woman with both names being English, Priscilla S., I managed to meet Marie-Christine. I think Priscilla told me she is in fact Belgian and that the tracing was a team effort.
When Marie-Christine drove into the car park of the restaurant I recognised those beautiful prominent cheek bones from her teenage photo. She is a lovely warm woman who will turn 60 this year in November. Poor David was a bit left out as we got to know each other. She had said in an email that she was rather confused and surprised but we got on well. She had not known that the sponsorship involved money.
David and I had booked into an AIR BNB stay and had arranged our hosts to have breakfast at 8.00am as they needed to get to work and school. We were rather surprised to find they had left for work when we came down. We then went off to meet Marie-Christine and our helper Priscilla who had made our meeting possible. We were surprised when we had a phone call from Marie-Christine when we were almost there. We were only 5 minutes late or so we thought!
Marie-Christine had given Priscilla a bouquet of flowers and I had brought a silk scarf with a pukeko on it for Priscilla. She acknowledged that the other two women in the office had helped as well so we thanked them.
As we left the Mairie we said to Marie-Christine that we didn’t have time to stay and see the town. We hoped to come back again on our way back. I said that it was about 10.45am but Marie-Christine said that it was an hour later. We suddenly realised that there was a time difference between England and France that we had not accounted for. No wonder our hosts had already left in the morning and no wonder Marie-Christine was wondering why we had not arrived on time. A few apologies to make!
We then set off to Strasbourg. We had a warm welcome to Mayou’s apartment in Robertsau. Last time we were in Strasbourg in 2010 we had come for dinner in their house in Schiltigheim but before her husband passed away they had moved to this lovely apartment all on one level. It is well back from the main road and the bedroom looks out on fields of corn as though it is a rural property. A lovely quiet spot in the city. My friend, Irene, who was only in town for that evening came for dinner. Mayou is an amazing cook and hostess and we had a delightful evening.
We had discovered when we were interviewed on SKYPE by our hosts for the housesit that they are vegetarians and did not want us to use their pans for cooking meat. We had also agreed to eat vegetarian food if they were there. We therefore needed to buy cooking utensils to use for meat. We had bought a brand new cutting board on our way into Strasbourg so we wanted to go to Emmaeus to buy other kitchen utensils.
I found this commentary on Emmaeus on The Good Life France website which I have cut down considerably: Emmaus, a charitable movement, was founded in France in 1949 by Priest Abbé Pierre. Emmaus help people who are homeless, in poverty and socially excluded to use and develop their skills to help make changes for the better in their lives and communities. The Emmaus shops in France are usually a veritable treasure trove of selling all manner of recycled second hand goods, from furniture, bric-a-brac, records, books and clothes to cookers, fridges, electrical goods, French antiques and bicycles. Should you ever be going to France to study or live this is the best place to get goods to set up a flat.
Mayou and her sister had booked us all a tour which included the cathedral clock and various sundials around the city. Unfortunately David could not understand much and there were too many people on the tour so it was hard to hear. Instead of the tour ending back at the cathedral the woman just ended it in a street without any directions as to how to get back to the starting point!
In the evening we picked up Mayou’s niece, Christine. When I came to live in Strasbourg in 2002 I put an ad up at the university inviting people to do language exchanges with me. Christine was one of three people with whom I eventually practised my French and gained three special friends.
We met up with Renate, husband, Michel and their two lovely children Juliette and Florian in a restaurant to eat the local Tarte Flambée. This delicious northern European answer to pizza is a rectangle of very thin, crisp, dough-like pastry served on a wooden board and covered with a sizzling mixture of crème fraîche or fromage blanc, onions, chopped smoked ham, and, sometimes, cheese or mushrooms. I met Renate through SERVAS the Peace homestay organisation which we enjoy so much – both hosting and staying with others.
On Sunday 6 September Mayou had organised a real treat for us all. We had to get up early and drive for an hour or so to Scherwiller to take part in the 19th Gourmand Walk. We started with the first group at 10.30am. We were given a pouch to wear around our necks and a wine glass much as we do at wine festivals in ANZ. However we had to walk about 7km and at each stop we were given something to eat and we could choose which wine or wines to try.
We started with a bubbly produced in the same way as Champagne called a Crémant d’Alsace. Apparently it only lasts for 5 years whereas Champagne which is somewhat more expensive is known to last much longer.Soup was next with a Sylvaner wine in it. The third stop was up the hill and the guest winemakers from Switzerland had wines on offer. At one stop we had a small four piece German ensemble who did not speak French. Mayou and I had a dance to the tuneful and inviting music. Later a whole brass band from Switzerland valiantly walked up the hill. The final stop was for coffee back down in the town which I could not drink as they had no decaffeinated coffee. We had a memorable day!
Another German friend Renate E. had contacted Mayou before our arrival. She came for lunch on Monday and again Mayou was a most attentive hostess. It was good to hear how Renate’s daughters are progressing in their study and work.
In the evening after dinner we went drove to Mayou’s daughter’s house and left the car there. We then took the tram to the Place Broglie. We walked in further to the Cathedral where we met Mayou’s sister again. We saw a beautiful Son et Lumière (Sound and Light) show with images projected onto the side of the cathedral to celebrate 1,000 years since building commenced.
Unfortunately we did not get time to see all our friends in Strasbourg this trip. However we have a 5 year UK visa so we intend to come back within the five years and hopefully touch base again in Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux and Strasbourg.
On Tuesday we set off for Lyon via various motorways. At Lyon we had arranged to stay only one night with SERVAS hosts Christine and Laurent whom we stayed with in December 2010. At that time we were lucky enough to arrive just when the Festival of Light was on and went with the family bus into the central city for the celebrations. This time I wanted to hear how their son got on in New Zealand when he went on a privately arranged exchange. He was taken to Abel Tasman Park (at the top of the South Island) but was disappointed not to see more places. Apparently when his exchangee came to France but did not want to converse in French and just wanted to play video games!
Our final lap was from Lyon to St Felix Lauragais mostly on paying motorways. David’s wonderful TomTom did a great job directing us the whole way. We took turn about each hour with the driving. I find moving into motorway traffic very stressful. As we have an English car with the steering wheel to the right the passenger has to double check that there is space to move out into the traffic. Three lanes in one direction is good because one can stay in the middle lane and avoid the slower trucks and the newcomers in the right lane and the Speedy Gonzales in the left lane. We mostly travelled along at 100km in the place where 130kph is the limit so as not to waste money nor unnecessarily pollute.
As our houseowners could not come to France due to Donald’s fall, Angus had stayed on to show us the ropes. His wife, Jane, has already gone to another housesit. He drove us round for several days to show us where to find various places. As he left on Monday we settled in to try and establish some sort of routine to use our time well.
c/- Elizabeth Breeze & Donald Watson, Bordeneuve-Dirat, 31540 St Félix Lauragais, Haute Garonne,FRANCE Telephone +33 (0)5 61 83 24 15
Three Real Estate views as the property is for sale
http://www.ab-real-estate.com/south_france_property_Castelnaudary_Mas_Farm_1929
http://www.greenshifters.co.uk/for_sale/2252_5_6_Bed_Farmhouse_Organic_Smallholding
http://prettysmartproperty.org/1/post/2015/07/2252_5_6_bed_farmhouse_organic_smallholding1.html
Arrival in South- West France
We arrived on Wednesday 9 September to a welcome from Angus who kindly stayed on as Donald and Elizabeth could not come to show us the ropes. Angus’ Jane had already left for another assignment. Angus preferred to sleep in his luxurious campervan. He took us around in Elizabeth and and Donald’s French car as Jane has their car.
Local towns People and Events
The next day Angus took us to St Félix Lauragais and I asked at the Mairie about the local school. We also found out that there would be the opening that evening of the Arts Vagabonds en Lauragais – in the local Château. This is the first of many art shows opening in the next week. However we were too tired by the evening to go!
We went on to Revel and we had a coffee and tea at Angus’s favourite cafe in the main market square of Revel. The woman who runs the tiny cafe is attractive and long & lissome and that adds to the experience, according to Angus. There we met his friend Barry originally from South Africa who was there with a friend Charles from the USA and various other people. Most people sit outside on the bright orange chairs under the vast verandah. They even sit out on the car parking area.
In the afternoon we went to visit Barry in Roumens as he had a book which Angus had lent him. We sat around the large kitchen table on the first floor of his rather old house. His sister, Norma, was over from London.
Barry’s sister-in-law, Ilse, turned out to be another person who was on a Kindertransport, from Germany who was accompanied to England by a Quaker, a Miss Hope. Kindertransport was an operation to save Jewish children from Germany and occupied countries in 1938 and 1939. Almost 10,000 children were transported to the UK through this programme. A Quaker in Germany, whom I met at Woodbrooke, is doing research into Germans who were helped by Quakers. Ilse lives half the year in France and the other half in London.
On Saturday we were back in Revel to see the market. We also took in a few more art exhibitions as part of the Arts Vagabonds en Lauragais. I got talking to Geneviève who is a self taught artist and paints lots of pictures of children by or under the sea. I was telling her about housesitting and she was enchanted about the idea of travelling and housesitting. I sent her the information and she then invited us to another exhibition in a place called Bram about 40 minutes away the following Friday. We also went to Sorèze and found a couple of exhibitons there. At one Catherine Huppey had painted pictures of children in Laos, I think, where she sponsors a child.
St Julia was the place to be on the Sunday with its large vibrant vide grenier (Empty your attic) in the square and outside many houses and the three venues with more exhibitons. I especially enjoyed the small, framed charming copper engraved prints of flora by Marie Besche and the large nudes and portraits of Alain Lecarpentier. I bought a lovely red wool jacket for 10€ (NZ$18.00) and a recorder as mine has collapsed and won’t last long. After all I think the old recorder was my older sister’s when she was at primary school so that is more than 65 years ago!
We decided to try and introduce ourselves to a new neighbour each day. On Sunday we met Daniel and Marie-José and also met their son and girlfriend. Their son lives in Montpellier but his girlfriend has just started a year long course in couture (dressmaking) in Toulouse which she was very enthusiastic about. Daniel and Marie-José are retired and he is a great bricoleur (handyman) and gardener.
On Monday Angus left to catch up with his wife and her best friend’s daughter from the USA. We popped in to meet Hélène and Jean-Claude Pech. She is a retired primary teacher and said she would see if a local school would like me to talk about NZ and its endangered animals. Hélène has taken up patchwork quilting since she retired and had some beautifully sewn examples on her walls. She was also embroidering a very large tablecloth.
Another day we met the young and attractive Mme Cardinal and three children Amber, Alexandre and Adam as they drove out late afternoon.
On Thursday we went shopping in Revel late morning and found that the butcher’s shop we were in was about to close. We then went to Lidl next door for some groceries but did not find everything we needed. David reset the GPS only to find that there was another supermarket Intermarché metres away where we could find the rest.
Our late afternoon walk took us to meet Pierre and Michèle Andréjac . He is a retired accountant and was busy grooming his long V shaped hedge. We don’t let the grass grow under our feet!
Exhibition at Bram
The highlight of Friday evening was our trip to Bram and the exhibition there. Apparently an old lady having no children gave her large house to the town a year or two ago to be converted into a lovely art gallery. She still lives next door.
We saw more paintings by Geneviève and I liked a blue (her favourite colour and mine) one of lovers kissing who are holding their child and with a poem titled la ballade des gens heureux (The Ballad of the Happy People) beside it. That was for sale at 1000€. Franҫoise had made some interesting voodoo like dolls and other figurines, James some humorous ceramics such as “The frog who wanted to make himself bigger than the Ox”, Odile had painted ultra bright coloured figures and sculptures of “people” and Stéphane had made equally bright coloured figures of all sorts which we were invited to touch gently. Naturally the children at the opening were busy touching and hearing sounds. Prices ranged from 140€ to 4,000€. Needless to say we did not buy anything but enjoyed the experience.
The lovely cats
We are enjoying the cats very much. Elizabeth and Donald don’t know the origins of any of the cats, two being taken over from their predecessors and two being strays.
Chouchou is a short haired white/grey tabby cat with brown eyes. He is about 16 years old and was adopted from the last owners. When we arrived he had mite bites on his face which seemed to be a bit bloody. Both Angus then David put Betadine on the wounds and 10 days later he seems to be fine. He is rather nervous and tends to lower his body when you touch him even gently. However he reacts differently if you comb him gently with the fine comb and seems at ease with that. We didn’t see Chouchou for a whole day and started to worry but he turned up finally in the evening. Two weeks or so later we have found he likes to be picked up and cuddled especially if any of the other cats are around. He likes to be seen as loved by us.
Didi is a big white fluffy medium-haired, blue eyed very affectionate male cat and loves cuddles. He is about 18 years old as was adopted from the last owners of the house. We have just applied to look after two ragdoll cats next year and thought that Didi was probably also a ragdoll cat from the photos we have seen. However Elizabeth said they think Didi is a Birman with the wrong colouring. According to a website it is very difficult to tell the difference between the two. He hangs around hoping for human food but gets a couple of teaspoons of wet meat catfood a day. Since Elizabeth and Donald arrived to take over while we go to Congénies we have discovered they don’t give him any meat. I think the last carers must have used the meat to entice him to take a pill. He gets a few knots in his lovely coat which we deal with each day. He lets us know when he wants something by coming and clawing us gently on the leg or arm.
Lanky is a very big, heavy Norwegian Forest cat with white underneath and ginger on top and yellow-green eyes. She was a stray who just wandered in looking hungry and bedraggled more than 9 years ago. They think she is about 10 or 11 years old. She likes a good rub on her tummy and is a very gentle giant. In spite of her longish hair she does not have many tangles. I found her with her mate Chouchou in the tunnelhouse one morning sitting companionably near each other.
Miam Miam (Yum Yum) is probably about 4 years old. She is a tortoiseshell short haired small cat with yellow eyes, appears very confident but tends to arch her back if you go near her and won’t let us cuddle her although she likes being stroked. Over time she is becoming more relaxed with us. She apparently came as a stray a couple of years ago. She cries when we put her outside at night. In spite of my efforts to stop her Miam Miam walked across the table and got caught up in the fly tape which we had hanging down so we had a bit of a to-do for a moment getting her unstuck! Her tail was sticky for a day or two afterwards and gathered various debris for the first few hours. She is the only one who claws at the sofas so it is lucky that there are covers over them.
Heritage Week
The second week we were here was the national French Heritage Week. We took advantage of several free tours during the weekend. On Saturday 19 September in the afternoon we went to our town, Saint-Félix-Lauragais which is about 8 minutes away from here up on a hill. There was a free guided tour of the château which was bought by the town in 2012. When you look at the walls you can see the different eras when they were constructed. Wikipedia tells me that: The castle was originally constructed in the 11th century. The first Synod of the Cathar church, known as the Council of Saint-Félix was held there in 1167. In the 14th century, the castle was transformed into a country house by a brother of Pope John XXII. The complex includes buildings from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
According to Wikipedia when the Château came on the market the Mayor of this commune of 1,373 inhabitants intervened and compulsorily acquired the château at a cost of 1,240,000 €. They still need 3m€ to make it fully safe to use so we could not go up to the upper stories. There was a lovely roman mosaic floor (moved from elsewhere) in the entrance hall but the last owners had removed the middle part of this treasure. For some reason the town authorities don’t seem to know where it has gone!
On Sunday morning we had booked a walking tour of the town of Revel (population 9,000) which is the biggest town in the area. After some lunch on the main square we headed to the Canal du Midi Museum and Gardens down by Lake St Férreol a few kilometres from Revel St Férreol. Entry to the museum was free over the weekend. We hired English earphones which was a help. It tells about the idea which had existed for centuries to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea and thus avoid having to go round past Spain and pay taxes to the King of Spain. A wealthy salt tax collector by the name of Pierre-Paul Riquet, who was not an engineer, worked on the scheme for many years. He was given the blessing of his King, Louis XIV in 1660, to build the system but died before its completion. It is a very interesting story of how he tried out his ideas on a smaller scale at his property before embarking on the full scheme. We had a look around the “gardens” which were more like a park with some walking tracks. There was a fountain spouting water high into the air like a geyser in a natural river.
Back at Revel at 4.00pm we had a tour of the Belfry which sits in the middle of the 14th century covered market which is supported by wooden pillars in the central square. On the ground floor is the Office de Tourisme. Then there was the prison on the next floor and above that the guards and right on top the lookout.
We think that Heritage Week is a great thing and each small village has so much to show. We were lucky to be around at the right time!
Weekend Activities
We had a quiet week until Friday. We had been told by the last housesitter that a place to get to know people is the café at St Félix. I had popped into the school there to see a teacher about speaking to her 4 and 5 year olds about NZ and Kiwis and Tuataras next week. As I came out I tripped over a tiny bump and fell over and screamed my head off as I got such a fright. David came running over from the car and a nice woman, named Janine, who was supervising the children’s lunch, came running out to help me. Once patched up we headed up the hill in the car to the café. However we preferred the menu next door so we sat at the Cave Sybille instead! Later a Dutchman told us that on Sundays at midday there is Jazz played so we booked for Sunday as well!
We had been phoned on Thursday by the Real Estate Agent re a couple coming to see the property on Saturday afternoon. We had just finished doing some housework but on Saturday morning we had a further tidy up. They only stepped into the livingroom, went outside and walked around exterior of the house and then left. They did not want to come back and do a more detailed visit later. They had appointments to see 13 houses in all.
On Sunday (27 September) we set off to yet another Vide Grenier (Empty your Attic) and Foire (Fair) in Jalabertie which was only about 6 minutes away by car. This was a big garage sale and there was even a Bouncy Castle for the children. You could even buy microwave ovens or a TV which was a bit tempting as we have neither. There was something for everyone. We ended up buying only food such as a large pumpkin, bread and hazelnuts. I met Janine again from the school at a stall. She is apparently the teacher- aide in the classroom where I will speak on Wednesday.
This week has been quiet. However on Monday 28th Barry came again in his red car to play the piano and accompany David on his flute.
Late in the afternoon we went for a walk around the property and were around the back for a while. When we came back there were two neighbours with a woman’s bike for us. There are actually two men’s bikes but since David’s hip replacement he finds it hard to lift his leg high, so neither was suitable. They also both had what I call “rams –horn” handlebars which means you are leaning down. We had been talking to Pierre and Michèle, neighbours who live down near the rubbish bin area (in a nice house and garden) and said we would like to borrow a suitable bike. Michèle had given a bike to Maryse, another neighbour of ours in the other direction, so she contacted her and there they were with a nice step-through style bike! If you don’t ask you don’t get!
The next day the winds were at 40kph hour so we didn’t venture out. However on Wednesday and Friday afternoons we had a good ride along the greenway alongside the feeder rivers for the Canal du Midi and beyond onto a few roads.
On Wednesday 30 September we went to the school at St Félix Lauragais, which is below the hill on which the village sits, and I spoke to the children aged 4 and 5 about the Kiwi and the Tuatara. My Kiwi has been to Europe twice before and has suffered a burn, had to be sewn up on the posterior and then was dry cleaned after his last trip. He has faded somewhat as he was on display a lot in sunny Palestine in 2010 in particular. I use a card, which, when opened, makes the kiwi noises which are supposed to sound like “Kee-wee” but I can’t hear that myself. The Tuatara is a newer model and he has a built in voice box which you squeeze.
On Sunday 4 October we set forth to meet Kathleen one of the members of the Toulouse Quaker Meeting in the carpark of a supermarket. She has Jesus with her who is a member of Barcelona Meeting and is originally from Chile. We followed them on the paying motorway to the outskirts of Toulouse. From there we took a metro into the centre. The carriages are very short and narrow and when the train arrives you are behind a glass partition so that no-one can fall onto the tracks.
The Meeting was held in the Vieux Temple a Protestant church very close to the centre of the city. After Meeting and a very convivial shared lunch we four went on a tour of a part of the city in open tourist train. We were supposed to hear a commentary in English over earphones but it was too difficult to make out what was being said. Even the French was very muffled so that was disappointing. We decided to stay on and have a bit more of a wander around but did not see much more before deciding to go home.
Barry couldn’t come on Monday as he had a funeral to go to. However on Wednesday he brought a new guest, Margaret, whom he has known for about 60 years. David and Barry played flute and piano while Margaret and I drank tea and got to know each other. They met through singing in groups over the years. Barry says he is not a solo singer so we haven’t heard a note of song from him yet.
On Thursday we went to Carcassonne Airport to pick up our hosts, Elizabeth and Donald. We called in at the Bio Co-Op so that they could buy their sort of food. When we arrived home the cats were pleased to see their Mum and Dad. We left the next morning about an hour before the real estate agent was due to arrive with some more prospective buyers.
Quakers in Congénies DW
On Friday morning we set off for Congénies where David and I served as Amis Résidents in 2010 for 6 months. We went via Castres and Mazamet as Deborah had read about a secondhand shop for clothes which were situated in each town. We found the Ding Fring shop in Castres but it had either moved or never been at the address given on the website in Mazamet which was annoying so we just drove on!
The present Amis Résidents are Judy and Dave had been here before us and have been back for the last three years. The buildings and the grounds are looking good. Judy has set up a tiny potter’s studio in what was to have been an outdoor shower room.
On Saturday we realised we had nothing suitable for a shared lunch so we went back down to the village to the greengrocer cum quasi bakery depot to buy a few bits and pieces. The boulangerie in the centre of the town shut up shop two years ago no doubt because of the competition of the small shopping centre which was set up five years ago out on the main road.
Meeting began at 11.00am to give out of towners time to get there. Bonnie and Dave who were here also as Amis Résidents before Judy and Dave came. We were very pleased to see our Friends Alistair, Raymonde, Christiane whom we knew from 5 years ago. Eion and Paula are over from England for a break and the seminar and are also staying at the Quaker House. We met for the first time Olivier who runs a boutique for selfhelp environmental saving ideas.
After a shared lunch David and I spoke about the Quaker Meeting in Christchurch Pre and Post Earthquakes and showed pertinent slides.
Wine and Culture
Later in the afternoon we set off for the next village, Calvisson, to visit the Cave Co-opérative. After tasting 3 wines we bought 5 litres of the most expensive of these red wines at 2€20 a litre (NZ$3.74) which was delivered from the bowser into our plastic container.
I had noticed there was an exhibition of broderie au boutis and not knowing what it was we went to the Calvisson local hall to find out. Wikipedia tells me that The term Provençal quilting, also known as boutis, refers to the wholecloth quilts done using a stuffing technique traditionally made in the South of France from the 17th century onwards. Boutis is a Provençal word meaning 'stuffing', describing how two layers of fabric are quilted together with stuffing sandwiched between sections of the design, creating a raised effect. One lady told me that the material of the two layers is always cotton and showed me that the stuffing she was using was cottonwool. There was a group of women in Provencal costume who did some provencal traditional dances accompanied by the men who played simultaneously on the one handed three hole high pitched flute called the galoubet and a long narrow drum.
Sunday was again the day to go to a vide grenier (empty attic) at Aubais about 5 minutes away. I bought a book of short stories by Gustave Flaubert. Then we went to the Brocante at Sommières. This was mostly made up of people who make a living selling second hand things. We ended up with some birthday cards, a leather mask with gold around the eyes for David and a lovely piece of Lapus Lazuli stone for me. I also got hooked on a book titled Before I go to Sleep by S J Watson which was very gripping and well worth the read. A film starring Nicole Kidman has been made but only has two and three stars out of five from various websites.
Our Network Group and a Haircut
When we were Resident Friends we joined the Réseau or Network and went each Tuesday to free French lessons in different peoples’ homes. Sometimes, if a person did not have a big enough house they would hold it at the Maison Quaker. We asked our friends Jon and Mary, whom we were to meet on Wednesday, if we could join them and Jon said it was fine to turn up. It was at Per and Lilli’s house at Sommières. They are a lovely Danish couple who speak impeccable English.
I was in the advanced group who looked at some pages from a book by a well known writer who went to live in a village and got to know a peasant farmer. Eventually he recorded the reminiscences of the farmer and wrote this as a book. He thought the farmer might want to be anonymous but the farmer was adamant that he was happy to have his name on the book.
The only thing I did not like was that we were asked to read a long paragraph each, sight unseen. This is a serious No-No in my books as a reading teacher. There was at least one person who had difficulty reading in a flowing way and we all stumbled over words. David had his old teacher Rol (Rollande) in a downstairs room with the other group. After lessons we had the usual wonderful shared lunch.
David and I did a stroll in the old area of Sommières. We came to the hairdressers shop where we had our hair cut on 2010. When they had a big flood a few years ago the salon was flooded even though it is up relatively high above the Vidourle River. Two sisters of advancing age run the salon. Paulette was just finishing cutting a young priest’s hair. She was a bit tired so she asked me to wait for her sister Ninette to come back from a funeral. Ninette said she remembered us but I wonder...I have promised to send them a postcard when I get home.
Lunch in Lunel
On the Wednesday we went to Lunel to meet our friends Jon and Mary North whom we met 5 years ago through Quaker Meeting in Congénies. We met at the Terrasse Restaurant. We had a great time catching up. Jon and Deborah ordered the same main course of Noix de Boeuf but Deborah’s was tough and sinewy whereas Jon had a proper fillet. As we left Jon and Mary were kissed goodbye by the owners so it is clear that they know them well. It’s not what you know but...
Dinner at O Château
Another couple Eoin (Owen) an Irishman and his lovely wife Paula had come to the Maison Quaker for a two week holiday so we chatted with them a number of times. Eoin was busy preparing for his presentation for the weekend. On the Thursday evening we all plus Anne Antony who had also been an Amie Résidente and comes from Santa Fey, New Mexico went to a restaurant which is called O Château for the seafood buffet evening at 23€ (NZ$37.50) a head. Unfortunately a waitress tipped a small cup of coffee over Eoin who was rather upset. As compensation they offered us all a cognac or armagnac which we accepted.
Weekend Seminar
The theme of the weekend seminar was Is a Peaceable Economy Possible? based on the book by Edouard Dommen who helped organise the weekend and spoke to the theme. He is an English Quaker who lives in Geneva. We also heard from Martin Wilkinson, brother of Richard Wilkinson who co-wrote the book The Spirit Level. He showed us the charts which show unequal many countries are. The US has the worst statistics (so much for the American Dream!) but you might be surprised to see how unequal things are in NZ. Watch Richard’s TED talk on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7LzE3u7Bw
We had the 8 foundations from Nancy, who was part of our small group who restarted the Quaker Group in Strasbourg-Kehl in 2002. Josephine was unfortunately the only person who had no French so all her talk on Sustainable Value Creation had to be fully interpreted. Eoin spoke of Spiral Dynamics and mentioned this method of describing behaviour had been used to help Mandela and de Klerc in South Africa in their long series of secret talks before Mandela was released. I did a short presentation on Sacred Economics which was the course I attended at Woodbrooke. There was some discussion also about prisons.
The weekend was a busy one but with time allowed for socialising. A couple of people came with me to visit Francis Fesc, a painter, who did me a lovely painting of the Quaker House in 2010. I bought a painting of a horse’s head similar to one I gave my great-nieces in Budapest five years ago.The Resident Friends were busy the whole time and seldom got the chance to sit down. Michaele, originally from Roumania, and her French husband, Jean-Paul, cooked up some beautiful meals for up to 35 people.
There was some tension around the use of languages. There were three or four French participants whose English was not good enough for them to understand English speakers and the same for a few people with French. We tried having those needing simultaneous interpreting near the back but there was always a buzz of talking. We also tried interpreting everything paragraph by paragraph. Neither was particularly satisfactory.
However the weekend was a wonderful gathering of Quakers and enjoyed by all.
Montpellier
On the Monday we went on to Montpellier. We parked our car in an underground central park and dropped into the tourist office. From there it was just a step and hop over to the Place de la Comédie where we were to meet my French family from Paris in 1971 – 72 for lunch. We had asked them to book a restaurant as we do not know the city. Their second choice was Chez Boris as the first was being renovated. The reason for inviting them was that Sylvain was turning 50 the next day. Mme Lafont , Eric the eldest, Sylvain and his younger brother Ivan were all there. Unfortunately Monsieur Lafont died back in 1985. We had a great lunch and there was a lot of laughter. It was a bit hard on David as he could not follow all the conversation.
As we were not expected at our SERVAS hosts home until 6.00pm we took a walk to the Place Royale du Peyrou where there is frankly a rather unlovely Arc de Triomphe, with Latin inscribed on it: Ludovico magno LXXII annos regnante dissociatis repressis conciliatis gentibus quatuor decennali bello conjuratis pax terra marique parta 1715 », which means something like ”Louis the Great (Louis XIV) whose reign lasted 72 years brought peace on earth and on the seas after having separated, contained and become attached to his allies in a war which lasted 40 years.” I have just finished a brilliant novel by Jean Teulé called Monsieur Montespan. He was the husband of one of Louis XIV mistresses who, according to the book, loved his wife dearly and wished she would come home. However she had quite a clutch of children with the king. It gives some eyebrow-raising details of how aristocrats behaved in those times. Louis may have “built” some amazing châteaux but like money spent these days on armaments there was much money wasted then on wars or perpetual parties. Apparently aristocrats were not allowed to engage in commerce or trade so I suppose one had to derive one’s income from the estates the king gave you for services rendered in peace or war, or at the gaming table.
Just beyond the Place Royale du Peyrou is the St-Clément aqueduct which was constructed in 1754 to bring drinking water from the town of the same name to Montpellier.
Marie-Thérèse and Robert, our SERVAS hosts, live on the third floor of a six storey building on a small boulevard fairly close to the centre of the city. Our hostess was walking very stiffly as she had broken her kneecap and had to avoid bending her leg. She is the third SERVAS host who has a broken limb – we had two broken ankles in Brittany! They had invited a friend Adrien to dinner as his wife was out at dinner elsewhere. After dinner Adrien, who is a professional musician, played the piano while David played his flute. Adrien then played us some Jazz music.
St Guilhelm-le-Désert
The next day we set off for St Guilhelm-le-Désert as recommended by our hosts. It took about an hour to get there. Close to the village was the Grotte de Clamouse, a cave full of stalactites and stalacmites which we did not stop to see. It was charming mediaeval village in the Gellone Valley on the Chemin de St Jacques pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella. The town with a population of about 250 souls is named after Saint William of Gellone, who was a cousin of Charlemagne. His Occitan name is Guilhem. After a lifetime of battles, he founded the monastery of Gellone (now Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert) in 804 near Lodève. As we arrived we could see the ruin of a castle up on a craggy part of the hills above the village. There is the legend of the Giant’s Castle...
We went into the Abbey and walked around the cloister and then into the museum which turned out to only be the one large room where one could watch a short audio-visual presentation. We then walked down the hill taking in the sights and looking for somewhere to eat a simple lunch. On the way back we finally decided and went in and sat down. Then I counted that there were at least 10 other people waiting for lunch but only one lady to serve us all. As we had other plans for the afternoon we decided to move on as one does in such circumstances!
At the village square on the Place de la Liberté we found a Sandwich Shop. We were pleasantly surprised how big our sandwiches were – full of too much butter, yummy cheese and ham. I then went to a dress shop to buy a brightly -coloured loose, Indian cotton, half price blouse and David went off to take a few photos in the back streets.
Along the road we stopped to have a look at the Devil’s Bridge...My pamphlet explained why it was so called so I will leave it to you to read if you are intrigued. See http://www.beyond.fr/sites/devils-bridge-herault.html
Pezenas
We then went on to Pezenas where I had been with the Congénies Network Group back in 2010.
I had enjoyed going to the Scénovision which is a series of rooms you go through to learn about the life and theatrical career of a man named Jean-Baptiste Poquelin later known as the famous playwright Molière. Perhaps one can say that Molière was to the French as Shakespeare was to the English. His patron was the king’s brother. He wrote a play named Le Malade Imaginère - The Hyperchondriac to be performed before King Louis XIV. This king as you see keeps popping his head above the parapet quite often in our travels. Some of Molière’s other famous comedies are The Misanthropist, The School for Wives, Tartuffe, The Miser, and The Bourgeois Gentleman.
I had the feeling there were either subtitles or some way for David to get meaning from the show which started every 15 minutes. Unfortunately I misunderstood the woman and when we went in as a group of two and there were no subtitles. Then I remembered there were listening devices but David did not want to go back to get them so he must have missed a lot. I also thought that the scenes from plays which were part of the audio-visual of each room were far too short and you could hardly get the gist of the scene and then they had moved on to another part of Molière’s life. One supposes that the plays are well known to most French people from their school days,
Sylvian’s 50th Birthday
We then headed to Sète where Sylvain and his husband Franck live. They had some time ago a ceremony which was called a PACS or civil union ceremony. However in 2013, with a change in the law in France, it was possible to be married in France.
We got lost trying to find the right address as our GPS TomTom took us to the wrong end of the road which was too narrow to drive down! However on our third attempt we found it. Unfortunately we arrived too late to see the view of the sea from the house which Sylvain and Franck just moved into in June. Franck works in real estate so he must see the pick of the houses!
We enjoyed a wonderful evening celebrating Sylvain’s birthday. At Sylvain’s request David took his laptop and showed the photos of the Body Art competitions from this year. We had great wine, food, and conversation.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
- Mark Twain
Landscapes and Biking
As soon as we got back from Congénies we noticed the changing face of the fields. All of the corn cobs which looked pretty dry were being havested to feed animals.
We went out for a few bike rides when it was not too windy. We ventured further down the green way each time. Eventually when we went to the right we reached Lake Enclas where men were fishing for trout.
The furtherest we have been when going to the left was across a main road, past a former lockkeeper’s house with abundant hens and a lock which never seems to be open. From there we followed the river which goes past Revel to Saint Ferreol Lake but we didn’t get that far. We rode 200 metres off the track down a gravel road to a very large furniture shop which is isolated along a stretch of road leading to Ravel. We spent some time looking at the furniture which was mostly well made but for large houses such as that we are living in. Almost direct across the road is a smaller shop where they sell cushions, curtains and cute things to decorate your home.
31 October – My Birthday
On my birthday we were into Day 3 of very heavy winds. The winds were so bad that we had no internet connections nor any phone. My German friend, Cornelia, with whom I share the birthday tried in vain to phone and ended up ringing David’s English cellphone when we were in the restaurant. When my French friend Irène phoned in the evening she was cut off twice. I have never had so many lovely greetings from friends. Thank you. Next year is the big 70 so think up a fancy dress to wear to my afternoon to early evening party on Sunday 30th – a day early!
We went for lunch to St Julia which is like our namesake village St Félix Lauragais in that they are both mediaeval villages perched up on a hill for safety from the enemy. The restaurant was the Auberge St Julia (auberge=inn). There were 22 customers including us but I think they could handle about 30 people. David chose a set menu for 16€ (NZ$ ). He started with a pumpkin soup, then a Caesar salad, followed by tender caramalized chops and fried potatoes. For desert there was apple tart.
I had the so-called Caesar Salad, then Cassoulet, the white bean casserole speciality of the region followed Baba au Rhum. As usual we ate half and then exchanged plates.
I remember the best Caesar Salad I ever had was when David and I were on our honeymoon and were taken out for dinner by the female Kryolan representative to an awe-inspiring restaurant over the sea in San Francisco. The man came and mixed the salad with a great flourish in front of my eyes. It was delicious and obviously had the right cheese and all the right ingredients. Unfortunately the one on my birthday contained non- descript bites of an almost tasteless cheese which was not parmesan and contained no egg.
According to Wikipedia the salad's creation is generally attributed to restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States. ... A Caesar salad is a salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper. It is often prepared tableside.
However it was a very pleasant meal with personal service. The owner and his wife were often in the restaurant and spoke to all the clients some of whom were obviously regular diners. There was also a young man obviously celebrating his birthday with his or his girlfriend’s family.
The owner spoke of the World Cup Rugby New Zealand versus Australia and his regard for Dan Carter. I find this adulation trying. I know the All Blacks are at the top of their sport but it becomes a bit much. I always say that I am proud that I have never been to a Rugby match in my life. I’m afraid it is indelibly linked in my mind to male violence usually fuelled by alcohol.
The restaurant had no view of anything which was a pity and the decor was pleasant. The toilet was a very nicely decorated and clean. The only gripe there was the cluster of towels hanging on the same hook. There was a hand dryer but it was too hot.
I prefer those lovely Dyson hand dryers but they may be expensive to run. Well what a shock I got when I read an article in the Daily Mail which said Researchers found 27 times more germs in the air around jet-air dryers in comparison with the air around paper towel dispensers. See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2842648/Modern-hand-dryers-worse-spreading-germs-room-paper-towels-study-claims.html It seems that paper towels might be more hygenic.
Toulouse Quaker Meeting and the Salon de Vins in one day
On Sunday 1 November we went to Meeting in Toulouse. We travelled to the outskirts of the city as per last time, parked free and took the metro into the centre. There were 15 of us at Meeting for Worship. After Meeting we had a shared lunch which was most enjoyable. One of the ladies distributed lots of chocolate bars and sweets which she had ready for Halloween the night before but had no children callers. We were rather surprised as she is an avid vegetarian. According to one of our NZ Quakers who is also a doctor, sugar is the greatest danger to our health. This doctor, Marion, even went to the trouble last NZ Summer Gathering to take many small groups to the supermarket to show them how much sugar has crept into our foods.
The same Toulouse Quaker had a pile of free entry coupons for the Salon Vins Terroirs (wines from various places in France) so off we set by metro. Tip: we had boughtwhat seemed a rather expensive ticket 5€50 (NZ$9.05) for transport (although it was the cheapest to go there and back) which would have allowed a group to take 12 trips in a day. Always ask about these cheaper travel prices.
Off we went to the Parc des Expositions and had a great time. For 1€ we bought a glass and for another 1€ we got yet another holder. We spent time looking at the coupons we had left after entry thinking they gave us free samples but in actual fact all the samples were free. Many people were buying up wine and borrowing the sack barrows to take them out to their cars. As we left we were peering at enormous rounds of nougat and a man needed a pen to write a cheque. I obliged, so we were given some nougat to taste. We resisted the temptation to buy any foods or wine. Had our car been handy...
French Rural Roads
Going home we decided to avoid the motorway so our TomTom (GPS) led us around many narrow country roads. It was dark and I was driving and never managed to go faster than about 65 km although some parts were 90km zones. For a large country, the rural roads of France are very narrow and even in the daytime it is hard to drive at 90km in my not so humble opinion. Mind you, I am a conservative driver. If ever cars bank up behind me I always pull over at a convenient place like a bus stop and let others pass. We met very few cars on the way.
Of External Drives and Dentists
On the Friday afternoon we went to Revel to see how a computer specialist had got on with repairing David’s defective Toshiba external drive. Like David, he could not retrieve anything off the drive so he did not charge us anything. Luckily David managed later to retrieve some photos which he had deleted from his camera chip.
David decided he needed a dentist so we asked the computer man for instructions on how to get there and ended up on a wild goose chase. However we eventually found several dentists’ rooms but none was open and most appeared to be closed also on Monday! David had already had lost a small chip one of his front teeth and the uneven edge was annoying him. However on Sunday he lost a good slither of the same tooth but this was now more serious. On Monday we phoned around and finally found someone who could take him Wednesday morning. We were pleased that the whole thing only took 30 minutes and only cost 43€ (NZ$71). As you have to pay the first NZ$250 yourself for our insurance policy we were quite relieved.
Time for Music
In the afternoon our English friend Barry came round to play the piano with David on the flute. While we were having lunch in Lunel with our friends, Jon and Mary, we somehow found that they were also friends with Barry from Jon singing with him a long time ago. They will come over in a couple of weeks and music will abound.
Burning Rubbish
I was rather dismayed to see a man burning his autumn leaves the other day. His property looked as though he had enough room to compost them. Being rural he could get away with it but I wonder about in the city?
We went for a walk down the road to take our recyclables down to a community deposit place. Our neighbours, Michelle and Pierre, were also busy burning what appeared to be leaves in the ditch on their side of the road. However they explained that after the crop of corn fodder had been harvested on the other side of the road a lot of the corn sheaves flew over the road. They were raking these sheaves from under their beautifully manicured long hedges and burning them in the deep ditch as they cannot go in the compost.
Exercise
Sometimes we sit for many hours at our computers. We need a break. So off we go for a bike ride. The other day we decided to go on the roads just for a change. It is very flat and we are very visible. On the way back David was taking a photo of a place called Bordeneuve as our place is called Bordeneuve-Dirat.
Along came a very elegant lady named Jacquee out on one of her long walks. Her surname is Passebosc . She told me that bosc means “wood” in the Occitan language or Langue d’Oc (hence the Province of Languedoc). The word oc was the Provenҫal word for “yes” which makes one think of the Scottish “och aye”. There were people who earned money helping others “pass” through the woods safely in the times when one was liable to be attacked by bandits – hence the name Passebosc.
Sunday Outing including White Feather Stories
Every two or three days I have to get out and about. Yesterday (Sunday 8 November) we drove 40 minutes to Nailloux to a Vide Dressing – Vide Placard – Bourse aux Jouets (empty your dressing table – empty your clothes cupboard – toy exchange). I don’t think that people exchanged toys it was just that you could sell them.
I bought a nice cotton blouse with short sleeves and a camisole with a light jersey with glitter lights and some earrings. The woman who sold me the jersey told me she had been 140kg but had lost 40kg. She paid for an operation but was then reimbursed 100% by the French Social Securite. She looked great but said she could now only eat small meals. David sat in the car most of the time while I was in the hall. He said he played Sudoku.
I had a chat with a young woman named Stéphanie who is doing English exams through Cambridge University. I offered to do a language exchange with her via Skype and gave her my card. More than a month later I have not heard from her.
I bought a small golden feather brooch from a lady at the same stall. When I saw the brooch immediately thought of my dear friend, Maata, at Parihaka. The one white feather is a symbol of Parihaka. One story says that at a gathering at Parihaka an Albatross landed and dropped one feather in a courtyard and then left. It became the Raukura (feather) and was honoured by the two leaders at Parihaka - Tohu Kakahi and Te Whiti o Rongomai.
Of course the white feather has been used in times of war as a sign of cowardice. My mother old us many times about her brother, who was a chronic asthmatic and could not become a soldier in WWII, came home one day very upset because someone had given him a white feather.
In Maoridom Te Ati Awa in Wellington usually wear three feathers, interpreted as standing for "glory to God, peace on earth, goodwill toward people" (Luke 2:14). Albatross feathers are preferred but any white feathers will do. They are usually worn in the hair or on the lapel (but not from the ear).
While researching the white feather I found a story in Wikipedia which will be of interest in particular to Quaker readers. The apocryphal story goes that in 1775, Quakers in a Friends meeting house in Easton, New York were faced by a tribe of Indians on the war path. Rather than flee, the Quakers fell silent and waited. The Indian chief came into the meeting house and finding no weapons he declared the Quakers as friends. On leaving he took a white feather from his quiver and attached it to the door as a sign to leave the building unharmed.
The Midi Canal
On the way home we stopped off at Gardouch (population 1290 in 2012) to wander along one bank of the canal and look at the barges. Most of them seemed to be permanently moored homes. We came across a rather menacing looking goose which was obviously protecting its family so we decided to turn back.
On the other side of the river was a largish two-storey house which had been the lock keeper’s home. Such houses seem to be described as “cottages” but they are reasonably large. The one near us appears to be two cottages. Perhaps there were two people who worked shifts and had assistants living the house to help them? Of course in those days they had larger families too.
Ruins of a Convent
As we drove to Toulouse last week we had noticed the ruins of what appeared to be a church so we stopped off on the way back in Les Cassés (population 255 in 2012). We met a couple from Albi who told us that there had been a convent of 60 nuns way back in about 1200. I couldn’t find any such information on Google. We circumnavigated the village and saw some stele or gravestones which had been put under a jutting eave for protection. There was one particularly interesting and apparently rare one of a man with his arms raised in prayer. Some think it is an image of Jesus Christ and others think it is an image of Bogomil of Bosnia.
Quaker Retreat at the Abbaye St Marie du Désert
We were lucky enough to be on the spot when the Toulouse Quaker Group were planning a retreat for November on “Receptivity and Discernment: The way from silence to action”. We took Susan, a lovely Scottish woman with us in our car.
We had been told Susan lived near us so we got in touch. She invited us for lunch on the Monday with her and her French husband Bernard who speaks impeccable English as he lived in England for years and taught English literature in a university. As we left we suddenly realised that it was 4.30pm and we had been sitting at table since we arrived at 12.45pm!
We didn’t enjoy the drive to the abbey as we had to go through Toulouse and when we got out into the country side our TomTom did not know where the abbey was. We asked several people the way but sometimes we did not quite understand where they were sending us to. However we evetually found the abbey in the middle of nowhere!
The abbey has been there since the 12th century but in 1852 a community of Trappist monks who follow the Rule of St Benoît and spend time on prayer and work. We were warned that meals were to be eaten in silence.
We went to the 6 o’clock service which was in French. There were printed booklets which we could follow. One thing that struck me was that the sentiments of some of the psalms were very righteous and vengeful and for me not worthy of a Christian church. There were about 14 monks, one very elderly monk in a wheelchair. Although they used a microphone and mostly sang it was hard to hear the words.
The buildings are massive and with high ceilings a problem to heat. The accommodation wing for guests has been nicely modernised. There were wide corridors with tiling downstairs and varnished wooden floors upstairs. Each room had two beds and a modern basin and a cupboard for hanging clothes and storing cases plus one desk and chair. The maximum stay is one week.
I was rather disappointed to find that we would not eat with the monks. When a man came with a parcel to deliver to the abbot I led him through several doors until we found the monks preparing our lunch in a large flagstone floored kitchen.
One monk would be on duty to supervise the passing round of dishes and to say a prayer before we ate. He then put some music on which was sometimes too loud. Some meals were slightly strange. We had soup followed by very large cheesy omelettes which were for six people. Later what looked like a second soup was delivered – it was liquid pumpkin- but we didn’t have any soup plates anymore nor spoons. Apparently this liquid was to have been served with the omelette. The meals were simple, savoury vegetarian dishes and there was plenty of fresh bread and apples. A bottle of wine was on each table too.
There were 24 participants on Friday including Guillaume a non-Quaker who decided to come at the last minute. The Friday evening session was an introduction to the theme Receptivity and Discernment led by Barbara, a German Quaker. Barbara explained that first we must be receptive in order to discern – to be receptive with our bodies and listen not only with our hearts. The book Listening Spirituality by Patricia Loring was especially recommended.
It was not until Saturday morning that we heard the terrible news of the Isis bombings in Paris with a loss of more 120 People.
On Saturday we had sessions on Wrestling with Discernment, the Teachings of the Ignatius and Experiment with Light. We also saw the film Cowspiracy which claims that the back end emanations of animals are responsible for much greater pollution than transport on our planet.
After dinner we were in Judith’s hands. A long banner of paper had been spread along the enclosed cloisters. Judith led us through sensory experiences of hearing, smelling, tasting etc and then requesting that we take up pencils, pens, paints etc to draw on the banner. This was a beautiful and memorable moment.
Each evening ended with an epilogue followed by wine and cake.
On Sunday morning we held a Quaker meeting in a beautiful upstairs chapel. After meeting I proposed that we send the beautiful banner we had created to Paris with a message from the Toulouse Group. I also suggested sending a message to the Islamic Council. In the end the banner was far too long so we shortened it and sent the most favoured message which was “Déclarons La Paix” (Let’s declare Peace.)
At home I put up a message on our letterbox with the Toulouse slogan plus another which a Quaker had suggested “Si une personne souffre, nous souffrons tous.” (If one person is suffering, we all suffer.”)
Visit to Toulouse
David’s youngest daughter, Martha, whom we visited in London just before heading for France came to visit us. Her plane was not due in Toulouse until 10.30pm on Friday 20 November so we decided to go earlierand visit two museums. However we found that we only managed to see Aeroscopia (11.50€ = NZ$18.64). We hired some English listening devices but they were handheld, heavy and difficult to use. If they had been at least on a band to hang around one’s neck they might have been easier to use, especially as I was using my walking stick.
In a large hangar we spent about an hour just reading captions beside photos. By then I was quite tired as there were few seats in the place. Once you go out, you cannot come in again so we carried on. Then we went inside some planes such as a Concorde and a large Super Gupy designed as a giant cargo aircraft for NASA. Down at ground level my favourite plane was the Cessna 337 Super Skymaster “Push Pull”. It had an engine with propellor at the front and one at the back as well. It was quite a stubby odd little machine. Outside were some more planes. We spent about 3 ½ hours there.
We then set off to a shopping area to buy a few things. Then we tried to find an Indian restaurant I had booked by answerphone but there were so many road works that our GPS kept on sending us back to the same impasse. Finally we got there and it was closed! We then went back to the shopping mall and settled into a large meal at Flunch. We could stay there until late so our books came out and we had a good read.
Martha’s Visit
On Saturday morning David and Martha set out for a bike ride along the voie verte (green way) which is a cycle and walkway alongside the Rigole which is a side river as part of the Canal Du Midi. Wikipedia tells us:
The critical feature of the Canal du Midi was to provide sufficient water to ensure that the lock system continued to function, even through the summer months. The first part of this endeavor was the rigole de la plaine (French: trickle of the plain). It carried water from the Sor River, at Pontcrouzet, to the Bassin de Naurouze, where the water was to enter the canal. This was done in 1667.
Unfortunately the rain suddenly starting to pour down so they can home somewhat damp and bedraggled!
We went into central Revel, the nearest town, late morning so Martha could see the market place which is always awash with fresh produce, especially bio on Saturday morning. I did my Mrs Malaprop act and asked if the cheesemonger had any “Chantal” instead of “Cantal”. The cheesemongeress had no Cantal but gave us a cheese said to be similar but forgot to put in the name with it so I can’t tell you what it was!
A malapropism is the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect, as in, for example, “dance a flamingo ” (instead of flamenco ). The term comes from the name of the character Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan's play The Rivals (1775). I seem to be dropping a few malapropisms in my speech these days. What is that a sign of?
We had booked in for lunch at L’Entre Vins, a tapas bar in central Revel,. It is run by two youngish brothers Guillaume in the kitchen and Benoît in front of house. Guillaume was wearing a black T-shirt with a white fern in honour of Jonah Lomu who has just died. We had a very nice lunch with a variety of dishes.
On Sunday we headed to Le Lac Ferréol but somehow missed the restaurant I had booked by answermachine. We did a second circuit and found the place. As the restaurant had not replied to my phone call we went in to check that our booking was secure. They did not have a booking for us but there was room. I had phoned on Monday when they are closed so it appears they had not bothered to listen to their answerphone. Annoying when you have to pay for the call!
We went off into the “Gardens” which are really a park. There is the geyser-like fountain which with the sun on it gave many photos with a rainbow. Then we crossed the road to the lake which is fairly low at the moment even after a few bouts of rain. The lake is part of the storage of water for the Canal du Midi.
After the fiasco with the booking the meal at the Restaurant la Terrasse de Riquet the meal was delicious and the service attentive. We knew in advance that the meals are large so I chose a salade with three meats including du magret de canard (duck breast) which I had wanted to try. We were all so full that we thought we might have a dessert later but our friendly waitress told us that they had an excellent pâtissier so we shared a chocolate dessert which was sublime! My review is on Trip Advisor.
Monday 23 November
The man came to replace the water counter today. We had difficulty finding the meter. He got me to run the tap and the meter was not moving so it is damaged. However part of the replacement will be at the cost of the owners. He will send a “devis” which translates as a quote or estimation so I am not sure whether it is a fixed price or not. I told him the property was for sale. I heard him say on his cellphone that no-one would pay the bill as it is for sale. I therefore told him the owners were honest people!
Two of the cats lept out of his van so I pushed the back door of the van to but did not shut it. Later I made sure that all the cats were either inside the house or out of the way as he prepared to go. Sometimes Chouchou is a worry as he does not move out of the way when we drive the car out.As he left the back door was swinging around. I tried to call out and wave my arms and ran after him to alert him but he neither saw nor heard me!
Final Week
We were feeling sad to leave our lovely cats – Lanky the large, long-haired, ginger and white female Norwegian Forest – a gentle giant beloved of Chouchou a slender grey and white tabby with a sad expression. David calls Chouchou “Cling-on”as he likes to do just that when David is trying to type on his computer. He is rather jealous and when another cat is patted he always wants his share immediately! However he licks Madame Lanky and they snuggle up together when possible. MiamMiam, a short-haired tortoiseshell cat is the youngest and very independant and full of energy. My favourite is the eldest cat, Didi, a white, long-haired male Birman with beautiful pale bue eyes. He is gorgeous to cuddle and his fur smells like very lighly perfumed talcum powder. Alldifferent – all lovely.
We were also sad to leave our new friend, Barry, with whom David has enjoyed playing music. On our second to last afternoon Barry came over for a last tingle on the grand piano.
Angus arrived on the same evening to take over for a week. Later Susan and Bernard arrived for dinner. I had warned them that the house is cold but even with the fire blazing Bernard did not find it warm enough.
Heading Back to England
On Saturday we headed for Poitiers where we were booked in for an Air BNB. The house was an elegant older style building, possibly from 19th century down under a cliff-like hill. Patrice owns half the house and is a university teacher. He was in La Rochelle to run a marathon but his very handsome, friendly and intelligent Australian boarder, Thomas, was there to greet us. Another guest Etienne, who spoke very good English, was there too. The house was beautifully heated and we had a large room.
On the Sunday we headed to Caen and down to the Port at Ouistram. We went for rather a long drive to get some petrol as it is cheaper in France than in the UK. We found our Air BNB but unfortunately our hosts were out. When went for a long stroll down to the beach. When we came back our hosts, Matthieu and Moana had just come home with three tired boys. They invited us to have a cup of tea with them. Moana’s mother comes from French Polynesia and her parents are building a home on Mo’orea. Her mother and sister are both artists painting in lovely vibrant colours.
Later we went and had dinner in a pub on the waterfront. We were seated at a table next to a group of gendarmes...
Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. Oscar Wilde
Sidmouth
After landing at Portsmouth at about 1.15pm on Monday 30 November, David competently drove on the crowded motorway. I took over in a quieter spot. We were so lucky to be invited to stay with Tina and Ruth, Quakers who at present live in Sidmouth. They were Resident Friends at the Christchurch Quaker Meetinghouse in Aotearoa New Zealand twice.
During our visit we did several walks into town. There were lots of what we call opp (opportunity) shops which are known as charity shops in England. They are usually well run and have only goods which are in a good state of repair. However they are limited to clothes and books and few household goods. They don’t seem to have any electrical goods, sofas or anything that would take up a lot of space.
The world is small. We were invited to have lunch with a Quaker couple and Jan Pawson was originally from Christchurch. It didn’t take long to find a strong connection even though she left there many years ago. Her sister was a SPELD (SPEcific Learning Disabilities) teacher and wrote the history of the first 25 years of the organisation. I was a SPELD teacher and wrote an article about David’s second daughter and her struggles with learning which was published as a cameo story in that history book.
Sidmouth is on the world heritage Jurassic Coast with red cliffs, which document 180 million years of geological history. We went to the beach several times but not to swim! Once we went to Jacob's Ladder which is the sandy, western end of Sidmouth's town beach. It is named for the white wooden staircase in several sections zigzagging its way from the beach and the wave swept promenade to the gardens above. In other spots such as Branscombe there is a long shingle beach about a mile long.
A new trend these days is for showings of live performances in cinemas. We were lucky enough to see The Mikado which was live from the Coliseum in London. The show was set in an English 1930s seaside hotel. In his sweet youth David played the part of Edith in a production at Timaru Boys’ High School. My father loved Gilbert & Sullivan shows and he often pumped out the tunes on the piano so I too enjoyed their works.
Quaker Workshop
Our Friends booked us in for a Quaker Workshop on Saturday 5 December: Jesus the Man: Christ in us at the rooms rented by the Exmouth Meeting. After the seminar I saw the brochure which announced the workshop. It was run by a Quaker group called The Kindlers and their motto seems to be “visioning new fire”. There were three facilitators and another apprentice who watched and learned. The description of the course was “Jesus: wisdom teacher, healer, prophet, transformer, source of our testimonies; Christ: divine Light, inward teacher, universal archetype, mystical presence. How do new biblical insights deepen the life of Spitit? Are Quakers Christian?”
I stated at the beginning that I was not a “Jesus person”so that this workshop would challenge me. Years ago I rejected so much dogma like the virgin birth and original sin that I threw the baby out with the bathwater. The exercises we did were mostly very interactive but it was the final guided meditation that made me see the Light. I’m so glad we were invited and went! I try to follow the teaching of the man Jesus Christ which is that of Love.
Housesitting in Penzance
We were very lucky that our request for housesitting went out to Quakers in Cornwall. It just so happened that Moira and Tony from Penzance were off to New Zealand and happy for us to housesit. They have a very comfortable house opposite the sea. Over the road is a grassed area and paths where people can take their dogs walking and we are up a longish drive so that the waves are no worry even in a storm. The view out the dining room window is of the Mount St Michael in the distance
As we wanted to experience all the Quaker Meetings, on Sunday 20 December we went to the Penzance Meeting which is held in the band rooms about 20 minutes walk from the Fitt’s home. We introduced ourselves and when we said we were looking for housesitting after Meeting we were offered a flat in town for the last part of our stay. Penny Best (née Williams) but no relation and her husband have a flat so that when they come to visit their daughter they have their own place.
When we visited them a few days later we met their small grandchildren, Loveday and Jago, which are both Cornish names. Penny teaches dance and has founded a website for mothers, grandmothers...Her “retired” husband, John, chairs Arts Central in currently under-used vacant office space right above the Central Station in Milton Keynes. He is also a chairperson for the South-East Waterways although they do not own a narrowboat. Their flat is in central Penzance in an old church with some large glorious gothic shaped windows.
The Eden Project
Some friends of our first hosts in Penzance were coming on their annual trip post Christmas to Penzance and bringing his mother. There was not enough room for us all so we had to go elsewhere for 5 nights.
This was an opportunity to go to the Eden Project in Bodelva, northern Cornwall. We booked to stay for 2 nights in the Youth Hostel created as part of the project. We had a small room which was one of four in a shipping container. We had less than one square metre to stand on and a double bed with bright green duvet. There was a single bed above the double one. The shower, basin and toilet were in a glassed off area. There were spaces to hang clothes and to store our bags.
It was lucky we had inquired before we came as to what facilities there were in the hostel. We both bought Life Membership before we met each other and have stayed in many hostels. This is a pop up hostel which in theory is only there for two or three years and apparently came with no kitchen at all. The manager told me he put in the one large sink, a microwave, two fridges, and a few other kitchen machines in that area. There are tables, benches and chairs, sofas and a play area for the children in the large tent which enveloped the small reception area cum bar. As the complex has 58 rooms and accommodation for 228 people this area is totally inadequate. If everyone wanted a cup of coffee at the same time it would be impossible!! Luckily we had brought food which only needed heating up.
The Eden Project is in a large crater which was once a china clay pit. It consists of two large bubble-shaped biodomes which maintain miniature eco-systems as well as other buildings.They have not only the flora but also the fauna such as birds.
It was lovely but not nearly as exciting as we had expected. There were numerous little corners with information but there was no one theme to latch on to. There were so called tea tastings but there were only two teas to taste! It even had a temporary skating rink.
In one bulding there was an enormous stone “seed” made out of a single piece of granite, its surface has been carved with 1,800 nodes in the pattern of a Fibonacci spiral – the growth pattern found across the natural world in things like sunflowers, pine cones and ammonites. It took two tears to sculpture. Somehow it did not grab us at all.
We spent the day in the area of the domes. There was a Cornish group of four men and one woman who sang some lovely songs. There was also storytelling and various other events in the domes. We then had a rest and a cup of tea in the entrance building.
My favourite display was a moving exhibit was called “Plant Takeaways”. It was the model of a room into which came mannequins of people plus a dog and cat. One by one the people and the animals were stripped of clothes and the table disappeared as did the cat’s milk. It was to make us aware of how much we depend on plants for life. I loved it and watched it several times. It was very funny and brought the message home.
Outside I liked a display of small individual plastic domes at eye level which contained boxes stating the plant that had been used to make the medicine. Behind each one was a row of the plant.
We stayed for the so-called “Christmas Show”. We walked again in the tropical forest biomes and there were some slightly different events happening but nothing of real interest. It was really a bit of excitement for small children.
I would call some of the exhibits “educainment” which for me fulfilled neither education nor entertainment. A missed opportunity. The Eden Project needs a slogan which keeps popping up but it is nowhere to be found. For us it lacked heart and leadership.
Air BNB at Feock with Henri(ette)
For the final three nights we went to a rural spot at Feock. Henri has an old stone two-bedroom cottage in the middle of three which were once stables. Nearby is Trelissick estate which used to belong to members of her family but some of the land, the large house and many outbuildings were given to the National Trust in 1955. We did a short walk in the park there but at this time of year it was quite sodden under foot.
On New Year’s Eve Henri took us over to the local “pub”. Originally it was an unused stone shed but a tenant who lives in another more modern house nearby converted it into a very cosy room with a bar. We took food and drink and met two lots of tenants. Henri being young left for town to see in the New Year. We found the cigarette smoke a bit hard to take so after a couple of hours we walked 10 metres back to Henri’s cottage.
Events
On Friday 11 December we went down the road to the turning on of the Newlyn Christmas Lights. There was carol singing, speeches and the usual stalls selling luminscent lights or snacks. Later we had a dazzling display of fireworks which seemed to go on forever.
The next morning we trotted 100 metres down the road to the Newlyn Art Gallery to see an exhibition of art by the late SirTerry Frost (1915- 2003). He painted brightly coloured abstract paintings using circles and lines. Apparently he started painting when he was a prisoner of war in Germany.
On Saturday 12 December in the evening we went to a similar celebration called the Carolaire Service conducted by the local vicar who had a fund of jokes relying on puns. This was in the next village called Mousehole (pronounced Mauzol). There are several stories as to how it got its name. We are happy with the explanation it was because there is such as narrow entrance to the harbour – just enough for a mouse to get in!
Mousehole is known for its Christmas illuminations. Since 1981, every December 19 the lights have been turned off in memory of the victims of a lifeboat disaster. Tom Bawcock's Eve is a unique celebration held in December each year to celebrate the ending of a famine in the 16th century by local resident Tom Bawcock. He was a fisherman who saved the town from starvation when he went out in a storm and landed 'seven sorts of fish' as the song goes. The famed Star Gazey pie, a mixed fish, egg and potato pie, is baked with fish 'swimming' through the pastry crust. We saw the Star Gazey Pie in lights! This festival is the inspiration behind the book The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber which we bought. If you look on YouTube you will find the book being read by the actress Sian Philips with all the illustrations – great for a child of any age to watch!
On the Sunday evening we went to a lovely Concert of Christmas Carols with three groups singing – a mixed choir, a men’s choir and a small acapella men’s group who sang Cornish traditional songs mostly in English. We were invited to join in some songs. There was a lovely supper at half time. We were invited to give a donation for what was a very nice evening.
We were sitting next to Helen whose husband was in the men’s choir. We ended up having lunch with them in Flushing near Falmouth a few weeks later after Nick had undergone a hip replacement. On discovering Helen played the flute we invited them over to Penzance and Helen and David had a good airing of their flutes. It was too bad that it was not long before we left. Helen and Nick are great sailors so we hope that Nick’s hip replacement will allow them to get back under the sails.
Quaker Meetings
Sunday 13 December we went down the road about 15 minutes to Marazion which sits opposite the St Michael’s Mount. From the pamphlet online I downloaded this information about the place: Many people think that Marazion has a connection with the Jewish community that settled in the area. In fact, its name is derived from the important fairs and markets that were held here – the earliest recorded in 1070. Marazion had two significant markets: Marghas Byghan (Small Market) and Marghas Yow or Jew (Thursday Market). Time has blurred the spelling to Marazion, yet the main street in Penzance is still called Market Jew Street.
We went to the old Quaker Meeting House built in 1688. This is the Meeting for Worship which our hosts go to. It was their Christmas party day. There were about 20 people in Meeting but some did not stay for lunch. There were other visitors from Reading and Wales. It is smallish thick-walled oblong, stone building with Meetingroom, kitchen and toilet. As there were some children there I stayed out and showed the three boys from the Thompson family my Kiwi and Tuatara.
We made a point of going to the old cob thatched roofed Come-to-Good Meetinghouse at Feock on the way to Falmouth dating from 1710. It is a Grade 1 Listed building which means it may not be demolished, extended, or altered without special permission from the local planning authority. Inside, the naked thatched ceiling soars upwards and one can feel and see the wind blowing in. It has a half upper gallery but no-one can go up there now. It was rather cold and the mustiness caused me and another woman to cough. Some rugs had been provided so I drapped one over my knees. After Meeting we also went to see a separate building for the children.
On Sunday 10 January we went to the Truro Meeting - a handsome oblong stone brick building about 45 minutes north of Penzance. As the Meeting has shrunk they now hold Meeting in a smaller, cosier room. Following a shared lunch we had a very interesting talk by Will Coleman, who not only has done extensive research about outdoor places in Cornwall where in medieval times mystery, miracle and morality plays were performed but also has written some books for children. In addition he is keeping alive the Cornish language. This is the first time anyone had spoken of the Cornish language during our 5 weeks in Cornwall.
St Michael’s Mount
One good tip we were given before we left NZ was to join Heritage NZ which cost about NZ$72 for joint senior citizen membership. This allows you to get in to over 300 National Trust properties free of charge. If you buy joint membership here it would be over NZ$200!
Early in our stay we decided to go to visit the Mount, a National Trust property, but the weather was lousy most days. The Mount is a small island with a castle and church on the summit and a few houses and shops down near the water. It was given to the Benedictines, religious order of Mont Saint-Michel in France, by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century.[From afar it looks like a miniature version of its French counterpartand is also a tidal island. We took the amphibious vehicle from Marazion and were there in no time at all! We had a very interesting tour of the grounds and castle complete with a Cornish wicked giant story. We could even see the giant’s heart as a red stone in the path we were climbing up so we had no reason not to believe the story...
The island is linked to the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts. We were able to walk back to the mainland at low tide. A very enjoyable excursion but make sure you wear sturdy shoes!
Land’s End and Minack Theatre
One Sunday afternoon we went to Land’s End which was “closed” with one lone man waiting to take photos with his signage in the background! The landscape is very steep and rugged. The wind and rain were in evidence but the seabirds somehow seem to manage. There were some rather ghastly entertainment places aimed at children which luckily were closed as were the gift shops.
On the way home we also stopped off at Minack but it was closing time so we did not get to see the theatre. The Minack Theatre is an open-air theatre, constructed above a gully with a rocky granite outcrop jutting into the sea (minack from Cornish meynek means a stony or rocky place).
Rowena Cade, who lived in Minack House, decided that the cliffs below her garden would be the perfect setting for an outdoor theatre for a local drama group. She and her gardener moved endless granite boulders and earth, creating the lower terraces of the theatre, much as they are today. The first production of The Tempest in 1932 was great success and the Seconday Schools Shakespeare Festival will take place in March.
Montol Festival
According the Wikipedia The Montol Festival is an annual festival in Penzance, Cornwall. The festival is a revival or reinterpretation of many of the traditional Cornish midwinter customs & Christmas traditions formerly practiced in and around the Penzance area and common to much of Cornwall at one point.
Every year the main event, Montol eve is held on the traditional date of the feast of St Thomas the Apostle, usually the 21st of December, which always coincides with the Winter Solstice. Another website says that during the main event the people of Penzance take part in many of the Cornish traditional customs of Midwinter and Christmas including Guise dancing when many people wear traditional masks, dress in disguise and wear mock formal costume.
The week before the event when we saw an ad for the event in the window of a shop selling secondhand goods including masks. We bought my mauve feather mask and David his gruesome skull mask. We rolled up at about 4.00pm for the entertainment in Chapel Street. There was drumming, playing of a band, dancing and fire-eating & fire dancing. It was soon dark as it is always pitch dark by 4.30pm here in Cornwall.
After that the Raffidy-Dumitz Band led us up to the Princess May Recreation Ground for the Midwinter Bonfire and the burning of the Papier Maché Sun. The ground was rather muddy so after that we walked back down to the main street leaving the revellers to enjoy the festival.
Daily Walks
We try to go out each day for a walk. One day we set out to find the plaque re the Plymouth Pilgrims who set out for America. We asked at the New Lyn Harbourmaster’s office but they knew nothing about it. We eventually found it at no 49 Fore Street. Wikipedia records this as:
Traditionally, the last port in England for the Mayflower was Plymouth; however, there is continued controversy that the ship had to stop at Newlyn in Cornwall on the Land's End peninsula before sailing west. It was believed that the water picked up at Plymouth had caused fever and cholera in the city, so Newlyn provided fresh water to the ship. Newlyn has a plaque to this effect on the side of a building on its quay. It was erected in remembrance of Plymouth historian Bill Best Harris, whose research is believed to have uncovered this little-known detail about the voyage.
Visiting Mines
Geevor
I wanted to understand how life as a miner was like for James Williams my great grandfather. Early in the New Year we set off for Geevor Mine at Pendeen, not far from Penzance on the Penwith Peninsular and spent 5 hours there which was not enough time to see everything. Geevor Tin Mine is now a museum and heritage centre, covering an area of 67 acres which makes it the largest preserved tin mining site in Great Britain. However it was only a working mine from 1911 until 1990 so the conditions here would have been much better than those which my great grandpa experienced in the 1850s and 1860s. All the same, the conditions were pretty rugged. There were many displays and we were the only ones on the afternoon tour underground.
Bottalack
A couple of days later we went back to explore the area again. We went down to the sea to look at the Bottalack Count House. It was built on the cliffs during the 1860s at the height of the Cornish mining boom and was the hub of the day-to-day running of the mine and also where the miners collected their pay. It is now managed by the National Trust but is open for anyone to go into.
We saw the ruins of the calciners which seem to have been a series of chambers off a tunnel. Arsenic was a profitable byproduct when smelting tin. When the chambers cooled down the white powder was apparently left coating the walls and ceiling. Women and girls often did the work of removing this toxic substance. We were told that those who did this work coated their faces with clay for protection.
The arsenic was used mainly in the Lancashire cotton industry in pigments and dyes and also in industries such as glass manufacture, in the production of lead-shot, in leather tanning and in wallpaper manufacture and agriculture. I seem to remember that women used it to have a whiter complexion too. However the soaps apparently had very little arsenic in them!
Gwennap Pit
On Friday 8 January when we were on our way home from Truro we stopped off to see the Gwennap Pit. I found information from various sources about this lovely spot. In the 18th and early 19th centuries Gwennap parish was the richest copper mining district in Cornwall.
The pit was caused by mining subsidence in the mid-18th century. Gwennap Pit is an impressive open air amphitheatre near Redruth made famous by Methodist founder John Wesley, who preached there on 18 occasions between 1762 and 1789. After Wesley's death the local people turned the pit into a regular circular shape with turf seats. Its remarkable acoustic properties and distinctive natural setting make it perfect for services, musical events, school visits, performances and weddings.
Heartland
When visiting Redruth we made a trip to see the free Heartlands site which only closed in 1996. You do however have to pay for parking!
There is a relatively small museum with an excellent shop and a very friendly young woman as guide. For £3 we did the tour of the Robinson’s Engine House and saw the Cornish pump engine built in 1854. It was designed by Captain Samuel Grose who was a pupil of the famous Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick. It was moved four times but it was used in this engine house from 1903 until 1955.
Levant Mine
I would love to have visited the East Pool Mine as it would have been the nearest to where James Williams worked. However it was closed for the winter.
We therefore had to go to the Levant Mine, a National Trust property further south-west on the Penwith Peninsular. There is a simple reception desk and a coffee machine and a few books and bits and pieces on sale but no sitdown café. Maybe that is because the very narrow road is not suitable for buses.
The mine sits high on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Again we spent 4 hours at the mine – another fascinating place. When we arrived there were three very enthusiastic men getting up steam on the single cylinder 100 inch steam engine used for pumping water out of the mine. There were various plaques to read. I was particularly interested in the work the women did. There was also a film to watch. We had a guided tour and we were the only people on the tour. It was very interesting but our guide had us standing out in the bitter wind on the cliffs for rather a long time!
The mine was established in 1820 but closed in 1930. Tin and copper ores were raised in this mine which went down to a depth of about 600 metres. It got the nickname "mine under the sea" because tunnels were driven up to 2.5 km from the cliffs under the sea.
Miners did not get paid until they started work. First they had to climb down a series of ladders which might take up to two hours before they could start work. It might then take up to two and a half hours to climb back up again after a hard day’s work. They then had to walk home in their dirty, wet clothes.
1842 marked the introduction to Cornwall of the German man-engine which was a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms to assist the miners' journeys to and from the working levels. Wikipedia has a moving illustration of how the man-engine worked. Levant got its man-engine in 1857. At the same the miners got a new building called the “Dry” where they put their work clothes on. Conditions were improving.
In 1919 there was a disastrous mining disaster. Thirty-one men were killed when a link between a rod and the man-engine snapped. The engine fell down the shaft with many men on board. The engine was not repaired, and the deep levels were never worked again. It eventually closed during the depression as the price of tin dropped dramatically.
I bought quite a few booklets about mining. At Levant I bought The Mine under the Sea by Jack Penhale which was the pseudonom for Raymond Harry. He recounts how his father died from quartz dust in his lungs from working in the South African mines for 6 years. He wrote: “To live to be 45 was to be an old man.” In those days miners earned £6 a month in Cornwall but in South Africa one could earn from £80 to £120. On the death of his father Jack therefore had to start work at the age of 14. It is a very interesting account of how he started working above ground and gradually learned all the different jobs needed down in a mine. He was there the day the man-engine collapsed.
Stone Formations
On the way to look at mining ruins on the Penwith Peninsular one day we stopped and had a look at an ancient stone formation. It was extremely hard to find as the stone alongside the road was hard to see. The formation made up of stones in various circles was so overgrown that if was hard to see what it might have been!
On the way home when we were trying to find another formation we were lured away by a sign which told us there was a chapel and wishing well. Unfortunately signage gave us no idea how far away it was from the car park. We ended up finding the ruins of a small building with a well in it but we were not sure whether this was actually the chapel so we continued on. In the end it was starting to get dark so we headed back to the car. I was glad I had my gumboots that day as the path was very muddy!
On yet another day we were determined to see Lanyons Quoit, a flat covering stone of a dolmen formation. Again one could miss it if one was not looking for it. Apparently in the 18th century the quoit had four supporting stones and the structure was tall enough for a person on horse back to ride under. In1815, the Quoit fell down in a storm and now only has three supports and stands only 1 ½ metres high. A local who was out walking his dog reckoned that it was used for leaving out dead bodies so that carrion would eat off the flesh. He may have had tongue in cheek.
Cornish Food
Cornish Pasties are good grub. We had quite a few while we were there. Warrens Bakery boasts a shop either side of Market Jew Street, the main shopping street in Penzance. It just so happened we were passing the shop at about 4.30 one afternoon. A young woman was outside calling out that they had pasties and cakes at half price. Quite a few times we were there at that moment and the lure was too difficult to resist.
According to the guff on the paper bag, the business began in 1860. Miss Harvey, the daughter of local St Just baker met Master Warren, the farmer’s son. The Warrens provided the products fresh from the field and the Harveys did the rest. The pasty was first mentioned during the reign of Henry III in the 13th century. By the 1700s it was firmly established as a Cornish food eaten by working families, made using potatoes, swede and onion. Meat was too expensive at the time but it was added later.
Traditionally taken down into the mines, Cornish pasties needed to be a meal that could be held in the hands. The distinctive crimped edge protected the miners, who would hold the crust to eat their meal and discard it along with poisonous dust from their hands. One of our guides said that miners would not have wasted good food by throwing it away!
Saffron has been used in baked goods in Cornwall for many centuries, dating back to the times when Phoenician traders exchanged exotic spices for tin. Nearby St Michael’s Mount was one of the largest trading centres for spices in Europe. One day late morning David felt peckish and bought a large yellow saffron bun with currants, another Cornish speciality. By the time I came out of another shop he had almost demolished the whole bun.
We didn’t out much for meals. We had a roast one Sunday in The Railway Inn in St Agnes which was nice. We met a Quaker couple in Trengilly Pub for lunch. It was down a scary, steep, narrow road so we wondered how many people would bother to make the journey. However we left by a better road so that is how it survives! The meal was very nice but rather expensive. All the pubs tend to be old, have low ceilings and be somewhat quaint, cosy and dark.
To thank our Quaker hosts for allowing us to housesit in their seaside home in Penzance we took them to Tremeerheere Sculpture Gardens restaurant for lunch. I disgraced myself by knocking over a glass of red wine when I got a bit demonstrative with my hands during a conversation. The wine splashed over the white wall and dripped like blood on to the floor. The staff were wonderful and cleaned up the mess, told me not to worry and brought me another glass of wine which they did not bill us for. The food was good but again rather pricey by NZ standards. The restaurant building was rather beautiful architecture with soaring white walls but rather impractical as far as heating costs! Outside were large sculptures mostly of an abstract nature.
This is an article I wrote on request for the Cornwall Family History Society which I have updated.
In search of my Forefathers and Mothers...
by Deborah Williams from Christchurch, New Zealand
Cornwall is the county where my great grandfather James Williams, a miner, was born in Illogan in 1839. He died in Reefton, a mining town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand in 1908.
Unfortunately I did not know the names of his parents nor his siblings until I sent away to New Zealand for his death certificate after I had arrived in Cornwall from New Zealand. In the meantime by sending the names given to James Williams’ New Zealand born sons (Samuel James and my grandfather Thomas Henry) Clare Morgan of the Cornish Studies Library was able more easily to pinpoint the most likely family which turned out to be correct. Constance (née Harris) and Samuel Williams were the proud parents of 8 children according to the censuses from 1841 to 1861. I have yet to trace all those siblings of my James Williams and thereafter the present day generations.
One of the most important lessons I have just learned in genealogy - check what information a death certificate provides as it may save you a lot of work. By 1875 New Zealand death certificates included the names of the parents of the deceased.
James did not marry until 1874 in Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand. The marriage certificate did not include James parents’ names as it was not required until 1880. He was married by a Methodist minister in New Zealand which did not surprise me as his wife, Sophia Bartley, a milliner, born in St Agnes, Cornwall, in 1839, had two brothers who became Methodist ministers. We still don’t know whether James and Sophia knew each other back in Cornwall but I suspect they did. After all it took more than eight years between meeting my husband, David Minifie, and then actually getting married!
When James died his funeral was at an Anglican church in Reefton. A local historian at the Black’s Point Museum, Reefton, has suggested that St Stephen’s Anglican Church was considered the High Church and some of the Methodists became Anglicans. However it is possible that the Williams family were always members of the Church of England. I have yet to find out.
It is interesting how many of one’s known relatives get claimed by other people in their family trees. You have to be vigilant and prove that they don’t belong to the other family. One person in New Zealand had claimed my grandfather Thomas Henry Williams and killed him off young. A second person had claimed the same grandfather’s actual death for their family member.
A woman on Ancestry had married great grandfather James Williams to another woman. By paying attention to where the groom was born, information gleaned in part from several censuses, I was able to prove to myself that he had not married in England. It was yet another James Williams.
England had its first regular census in 1841 and these are valuable sources of information. I have found it is important to look at the original documents. Someone printed out the 1841 Census for James Williams which meant I only saw his parents and older sister, Mary. However, later, when I saw the whole page there were James’ grandparents and great grandparents.
I have also joined the Cornwall Family History Society in Truro and been there three times. The second time a member came especially to help me with research into John Bartley who became a Methodist minister in England. An entry in a Methodist book notes all the parishes where John served which is invaluable when searching the censuses. Another brother became a Methodist minister in California in the USA.
On one of my visits to the Cornwall Records Office the will of my great great great grandfather Samuel Williams made in 1850 was copied for me. I have not yet had time to study it in detail. However I know that his sons-in-law were given the right to occupy and farm land leased from Anna Maria Agar, a very wealthy landowner, yet his own son James Williams, uncle to my great-grandfather James, was specifically excluded from any benefit from the will as he had “rendered no assistance in procuring the above mentioned property”.
On looking up the probate entry for his son, also Samuel, on the Cornwall Family History Society’s database I was able to ascertain the exact date of the son’s death in 1862. I got 30 days access to Samuel Williams Jnr’s will through the Bodmin Probate Service Office for the sum of £10. It was more straightforward than his fathers’s leaving everything to his wife Constance and thereafter when the youngest turned 21 each living child should have equal shares It appears he may have owned some land as some “rents” were also mentioned.
One tip for researchers: take care not to send any attachments to emails to the Cornwall Records Office as the email will get binned in the junk folder and you will never get an answer! Put the information in the body of the email.
It appears that both Samuel, James Williams’ grandfather and Samuel Williams, his father, both copper miners, were illiterate as each each used a primitive mark to sign his will and his marriage certificate respectively. Unfortunately I have found nothing of note in the way of school records nor of mine records which might paint a wider picture of my ancestors.
Perhaps the most exciting visit was to the St Agnes Museum which is run by volunteers and officially closed for winter. The curator, Clare, kindly gave up 3 hours on a Sunday morning and did some searching for me. Clare gave me two letters written in 1989 by a woman researching her family tree which connects to the Bartley family. I have not been able to get a phone number for the writer but phoned everyone in her town with the same surname in the phone book with no result. I then phoned her local council and a woman suggested I contact the elections office. A helpful phone operator at the elections office affirmed that a person of the same name still resides at the same address. I have posted off a letter and await the outcome. You have to learn to think outside the box if you hit an impasse.Luckily persistance is my middle name!
We had no idea that when we set off for the St Agnes Museum we were going to an old church with a door on the left for the Methodists (as were the Bartleys) and a door on the right for Anglicans. It was also the cemetery with the Methodists on the left and guess who on the right! In the cemetery are buried Prudence Ann Bartley (néeTallack) and Thomas Bartley my great great grandparents. Their daughter, Fanny Kent (née Bartley), her husband Richard Kent and their grandaughter Ruby Kent Bartley who was the daughter of Clara and “the late William Bartley” are in a nearby grave. William does not figure in the 1901 census when Clara and Ruby (aged 4 months) are living with her parents but Clara is designated as married. In the 1911 census however Clara is widowed. She was eventually buried in another grave some rows away as was described as “ the beloved wife of R. Bartley”. Did she marry two different cousins or was it the same person? That is a mystery yet to be solved.
Peter Lawn of the Blacks Point Museum, Reefton, New Zealand, sent me information from the obituary which was also so useful. I had completely neglected looking at newspapers which were a mine of information re marriage, births and other events. I have just received information such as newspaprer advertisements from Reefton, New Zealand, found in Papers Past, a free database of newpapers and other written material in New Zealand, which indicates that Sophia Williams ran a Milliners & Drapers shop in the town.
According to his obituary, James Williams left England in 1864 and arrived first in Melbourne and possibly went straight on to Adelaide in South Australia. There are the years in Australia from 1865 when he arrived to fill in. He arrived in New Zealand in 1868. So far I have no information as to how Sophia Bartley came to New Zealand. We have taken out World subscriptions to Ancestry and Find My Past. Through Ancestry I am starting to get in touch with some of the descendants of Sophia’s brother,the Rev Thomas Bartley, who emigrated to California with his wife, Mary Jane Vivian.
Having thought I would have all the family sorted out iduring my six week stay in Cornwall I now realise it is a life sentence of hard, sometimes frustrating but exciting work. If you ask for help, you will get it from many people. One man in Cornwall, Pensylvannia, in the USA, has the OPC Database and was able to give me valuable assistance. Another in Australia also has the CDs for tithing of the land. Ancestry and other free databases such as the Mormon Family Search allow you to find people you are related to.
Should any readers be able to provide me with more information or photos on either the Williams/Harris or Bartley/Tallack families please contact me by email: debwnz@gmail.com. I hope to find living relatives. I am in the UK until September 2016.
“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.” ― Samuel Johnson
I have decided not to keep telling the readers the source of my information. Suffice to say that I use Google to search and often incorporate material from Wikipedia. Last year for the first time I gave Wikipedia a donation as they manage a wonderful online free encyclopedia of mostly very accurate information.
On the Road
After Penzance we steered our trusty Honda Jazz car towards Wiltshire. On the way I noticed that we were going near Launceston. I remembered that George Fox, the founder of The Religious Society of Friends, was imprisoned here in 1656. We decided to stop off and have a look at Launceston Castle. Although the castle was closed we came upon the ruins of the very dungeon where he was incarcerated for eight months.
If we only want to stay somewhere for a night we book an Air BNB which we find cheaper and more convivial than a hostel or hotel. Our hostess told us that she had written a book. Naturally we wanted to know what it was about. She kept telling us to buy it and then we would know.
She finally told us the basic story. It is titled Behind Bars: a Shocking Case of Depravity by Elizabeth Renard, which is a pseudonym. It is an horrific story of neglect, violence and sexual assault and rape. “Elizabeth” and two of her siblings are now free from their father who is in prison and mother who is demented. It was Elizabeth’s older brother who finally laid a complaint to the police as an adult. Another brother unfortunately did not join them in the court case.
I read the book. Unbelievable that parents could behave as they did. Luckily now Elizabeth feels free and is happy to get on with her life. Elizabeth and her husband, whom we did not meet, are moving to France as soon as they find a suitable house to buy. I wish them every happiness.
Peace Tax
The journey to our next petsitting job gave us an opportunity to stop off in Devizes and go the Meeting there. We stayed at the above Air BNB not far away. I wanted to meet a man I have admired from afar. He is Robin Brookes a Quaker and a member of the Peace Tax Seven. These people were prepared to stand up and say NO to paying for the military.
At one stage Robin actually pinned the money he owed to a board so that the baliff had to come and take it rather than Robin giving it to him. In 2004 he also went to the Inland Revenue recovery office in Swindon with a large cheque made out to the Global Conflict Prevention Pool. It's a fund set up by the Government to get at the causes of war and solve problems before they end in conflict. However they did not accept the cheque. Quakers have a long record in withholding taxes for conscientious reasons.
At the height of the campaign I held a lone vigil outside the cathedral in Christchurch. I also managed to get Robin interviewed on the radio twice and one of those times was by Linda Clark on National Radio.
After Meeting there was another Meeting for Business. While Robin attended the second Meeting David and I walked along the canal to his daughter-in-law’s teahouse in a garden centre. We had a lovely lunch together and Stephanie’s food was delicious. As a result of that conversation with Robin I have been in contact with Peace Movement Aotearoa who have renewed their membership of Conscience and Peace Tax International.
Ruth Cadbury who is a Quaker and an MP here in England will present a short, simple Peace Tax Bill in Parliament in Spring this year. Watch this space.
Oxford SERVAS hosts
In Oxford we had arranged to stay with SERVAS hosts Philip and Gita. He is doing contract work for the Health Service trying to reduce to cost of employing agency nurses, often from overseas. Gita, who was born in Germany, is a face painter. She actually started painting for church fairs and now it has become her work. She had quite a few enquiries while we were there.
Originally she trained in England as a cabinet maker. There were some lovely examples of her work in the house. She made the chairs we sat on at the dining table and a beautiful elegant white wood cabinet with an understated Asian look about it.
Fiona, their dog, used to belong to Gita’s father who came from Poland to live with them three years ago. He has since died. Fiona,who is a short legged collie, likes to spend a lot of time outside. When she was in Poland she lived chained up outside even though there was plenty of space. She is nervous of people but did allow us to pat her.
Oxford and Two Museums
On the Monday we took the bus into the city as parking is apparently difficult and expensive. We popped into a music shop and I came out with The Recorder Consort book3 – 40 pieces for recorder consort collected by Steve Rosenberg . I met Steve, an American, at one of his workshops in NZ many years ago when I was into playing a lot of Early Music. In another shop I bought a lovely children’s book. I love buying books but never seem to get the time to read them!
We spent the day in two museums which are joined together. The Natural History Museum, which was founded in 1860, is a grand looking Victorian building. The Museum was designed as a neo-Gothic cathedral to science and the design was an open competition. Within a year of completion it hosted the famous debate on Darwin’s Origin of Species between Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley. It holds the University’s internationally significant collections of geological and zoological specimens. Among its most famous features are the Oxfordshire dinosaurs and the Dodo. It is of an open plan with a gallery upstairs.
With the publication of Simon Winchester's The Map that Changed the World, a new audience of readers were awakened to the relatively unsung achievements of an 18th century Englishman. There was an exhibition of his maps and his personal history up in the gallery. The first map was published just over 200 years ago in 1815. We had certainly never heard of William Smith nor of his unique map, depicting the geology of England, Wales, and part of Scotland. In 1817 he drew a remarkable geological section from Snowdon to London. Unfortunately, his maps were soon plagiarised by the Geological Society of London and sold for prices lower than he was asking. He went into debt and despite the sale of his geological collection to the British Museum, he finally became bankrupt in 1819 and was sent to debtor's prison. At least copyright these days would have given him more protection!
The Pitt Rivers Museum displays archaeological and ethnographic objects from all parts of the world and all time periods. The museum was founded in 1884 when General Pitt Rivers, an influential figure in the development of archaeology and evolutionary anthropology, gave his collection to the University of Oxford. There were more than 26,000 objects in 1884, but now there are over half a million in the museum. The museum is packed with too many items.
We saw that there was an exhibition of photos by the Burton Brothers (1866- 1914) of Dunedin, NZ. It was a small collection with some black and white photos. One photo was of the pink and white terraces. Another photo was of Guide Sophia Hinerangi who was the principal tourist guide of those famous Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana at the time of their covering during the Mt Tarawera eruption of 1886. She later became a tour guide at nearby Whakarewarewa, Rotorua.
An exhibition re Captain Cook on the programme for 2015 had not yet made its appearance.
Both museums are free and worth visiting. You could never get bored as there is so much to see. There were even glass boxes with live animals such as a tarantula.
Dogsitting in Northamptonshire
We arrived in Gayton on Tuesday 26 January to look after Meisie, a lovely golden Labrador. We had met Meisie and her owners retired doctors Robin and Barbara on our way from Birmingham to London back in September. They left the day after our arrival for a holiday in Costa Rica.
Our job was to take Meisie for a walk each day of at least an hour. Our hosts and had predicted snow for this time of year but it had not come to pass. I had prepared myself by buying some cheap gumboots in France. David soon found on the first walk that he needed a pair too because of the muddy state of the public footpaths over farmland. In England and Wales a public footpath is a path on which the public have a legally protected right to travel on foot. There is a dense network of short paths. It is probable that most footpaths in the countryside are hundreds of years old. We had a booklet of walks but sometimes we either got a bit lost or came to a legal footpath where the landowner or tenant had tied the gate firmly shut. This is the case not far from the town where we are blocked from going into fields where there are horses.
One day as we were coming back from a walk we found a fat little corgi with his tummy nearly on the ground, no collar who seemed a bit exhausted. We knocked on a door nearby house and although the lady did not know the dog she put on her raincoat and came out with us. Eventually we found out that he or she belonged to the Green Farmhouse. There was no-one home but someone knew that the porch door was often open so the dog was left there.
Meisie is a lovely quiet dog and very obedient. The only time she barks and gets agressive is with the large sticks she picks up! She did eat a mouse one day and we could see the poor mouse’s tail quiver as she ate is up in short order!
A couple of times we met a nice woman, Annie, out with her large, old and arthritic black retriever Labrador named Diesel. The second time poor old Diesel could not go over a stile. He then thought he could put his head through a wire fence and got stuck for a few minutes!
The house is a modern four bedroom home will all mod cons including WiFi. It is beautifully furnished and has many lovely paintings. The garden is quite big but this is a downsized home from when they brought up their two children and later their niece and nephew. The main living room area where we spend most of our time is church-like with its high ceiling and large windows forming a cross. The view of the rolling green hills is stunning. On the first day I thought there was a large river in the distance. However it was the roofs of very large industrial buildings in Northampton which seem to form a continuous silver-white line!
Northampton Quakers and the Globe Project
On our first Sunday we went to the Northampton Meeting. The Meetinghouse is a Grade11 listed building built in the early 19th Century in the traditional red brick Georgian design with a rather grand white closed portico with Roman Doric columns. There was a large and well kempt garden with garden seats and surrounded by tall red brick walls. An oasis in the city, no doubt. Inside they had put in a false ceiling in the Meeting room to keep the heat in.
It is always worth contacting a Meeting in advance as there are often activities after Meeting. David made a self-crusting guiche to take for a shared lunch. After lunch a member of the Meeting, Julia, and a Baptist named Margaret Williams, talked to us about the Globe Project. It was inspired by William Carey (1761- 1834), who grew up in the area and like George Fox, founding father of Quakers, was apprenticed to a shoemaker. He became a Christian, a teacher, a pastor and then the first Baptist missionary to go to India. He was a gifted linguist and translated the bible into many languages and set up schools for both boys and girls.
While serving as a teacher he designed a shoe-leather globe to teach his students about geography. Hence the name Globe Project. The aim is to make people aware of the new immigrants in their midst be they refugees, asylum seekers or economic migrants. After the talk we moved into groups of four and were given topics to discuss for about 20 minutes. It was a very interesting talk and discussion which is highly topical.
Just as we were leaving I heard a man mention the Kindertransport. Axel was one of those Jewish children who were saved by Quakers who arranged for them to leave Germany before WW2 started. I have put him in touch with Dr Lucinda Martin, an American Quaker, living in Germany who is interviewing people like Axel. If anyone knows of any such Jewish people please let me know.
Milton Keynes Quaker Meeting
Milton Keynes was designated a new town in the late 1960s and incorporated a cluster of existing small towns. The site was deliberately located equidistant from London, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and Cambridge with the intention that it would be self-sustaining and eventually become a major regional centre in its own right.
On Sunday 7 February after a shorter walk than usual with Meisie we set out for MK as it is often known. Our trusty Tomtom guided us there in 28 minutes. The MK Meetinghouse is purpose-built and has a round Meetingroom with a central shaft leading up to a window which lets the light in, similar to the Quaker Settlement Quiet Room in Whanganui. It is built to hold 60 people and there were about 50 at Meeting. For a town of 213,000 (Christchurch NZ 366,000) this is a very good attendance. There were even three young girls at Meeting. At the end of Meeting John Punshon, a well known Quaker and teacher leaned forward and introduced himself.
I met Eleanor Harwood and her two young daughters Susannah, aged 7 and Pippa aged 10 who will leave for Wellington, NZ, in May. Her husband, Bruce Charlier, a geologist, has already left to take up a post at Victoria University of Wellington. We suggested that they might to come to Quaker Summer Gathering in Taranaki at the end of the year.
Bletchley Park
While researching Milton Keynes I noticed that the famous Bletchley Park was nearby. We decided to go there on Sunday after Quaker Meeting. Although it was rather expensive at £14.75 (NZ$32) for over 60s and students, it was very interesting. The place was abuzz with visitors.
It was interesting to learn that the Enigma machine was originally designed for commercial use, particularly in banks, but the Germans decided to use it during WW2. Some Polish people had broken the system at a time when it was only changed every few months. With the advent of war, it changed at least once a day, giving 159 million million million possible settings to choose from. The Poles decided to inform the British in July 1939 once they needed help to break Enigma and with invasion of Poland imminent. The codebreakers, including the now famous Alan Turing, managed to work out how the more and more complex machine worked.
There were teams of mostly women who worked from large houses not far away who intercepted morse coded messages and after decoding, translators were need. There were men and women on motorbikes who delivered messages. Operators receiving the morse messages became so skilled that they could tell that it was the same person sending a message. By tracking when and where the messages were coming from a pattern of German troop movements could also be drawn up. We saw working models of the “Bomb” machine which would work out the code for the day. In the Mansion they showed where the film The Imitation Game was made and there were quite a few props used were on display.
We went on a guided tour of the whole place but quite a lot of the time we were standing outside in the freezing cold! I would have preferred to have taken the listening devices which are included in the price. We got there at about 1.00pm but 3 hours was not enough time to do it justice before it closed. It is well worth the visit but allow a whole day if you can.
19th Wedding Anniversary
We had originally intended to go to Warwick Castle but because the weather was so bad we decided to have lunch in the nearest town of any size - Towcester (pronounced Toaster), about 12 minutes drive away. Unfortunately several establishments were closed on Mondays so there was limited choice. In the end we went at 2.00pm to 185 Watling Street. It is interesting to note that Watling Street was the most important Roman road which runs East to West across Great Britain. The broad, grassy trackway found by the Romans had already been used by the Britons for centuries. The Romans, who invaded Britain in AD 43 later paved the street.
Elsie’s Café
We read about this café in the Northampton Quaker Newsletter. Before we went to the afternoon theatre in Northampton we went and had lunch at Elsie’s Café – Pay as you Feel Café. The name comes from the fact that it is at the Labour Club – a sort of working men’s club. Take the letters LC and you get the name Elsie! They operate a Pay As You Feel system which helps pay the rent. If someone cannot pay that is okay. You just put your donation in a bucket as you go out.
The café is run by volunteers who produce tasty food made from the ingredients that they have rescued. They strongly believe that food should be eaten and not wasted. They are given food by Waitrose and various other food outlets. They always have a vegan dish on the menu. David had chicken with couscous and I had the vegan option. As usual we exchanged plates half way through the meal. David then had apple crumble and I had trifle with thick luscious cream.
There was a man playing the guitar and singing songs from the 1970s. A group sitting near us were mostly Downs Syndrome adults with their carers. Next to us were two middle aged women having an animated conversation. One of volunteers, a woman in her late 40s possibly of Indian origin, sat down and took the trouble to tell us more about the ethos of their work. She told us she couldn’t bear to see food wasted. There was a nice atmosphere in the place.
I wrote to the manager of the Café Shena who was not there when we were to thank them for this work. She wrote back and said: We are one of over 150 Cafes worldwide that are part of The Real Junk Food Project. Our aim is to undermine the present food system to make it reform itself. Everywhere within the system we see inequality and unsustainable practices.
You should look up Adam Smith TRJFP on Google, here is a remarkable 29 year old who started this revolution from a small cafe in Leeds. See the 10 minute Ted Talk video http://therealjunkfoodproject.org/about/
The motto is Let’s feed bellies, not bins. So perhaps if you are travelling you can also eat as such a café!
School Visit
As I often do, I offered to speak at the Gayton Primary School. It is a Church of England School but it is at the same time an ordinary state school. Apparently the church originally started these schools and they have therefore remained as Church of England schools. This was new to me but it seems as though it is a bit like our integrated schools in New Zealand. This particular school is in a cluster of four schools and there has an Executive Principal who oversees all four schools and an Assistant Head Teacher who runs the school day to day.
On a website I read that these schools usually admit children of Church of England and other Christian families first but the vast majority also admit local children including children from families of other faith traditions. At least 25 per cent of places in new Church of England schools are for pupils from the local neighbourhood regardless of faith background or none.
I spoke to two classes – the younger group for 30 minutes before morning tea and the older ones for an hour after morning tea. I had my trusty Kiwi with me and a new card which makes the sound of the Kiwi when you open it. My last one “disappeared” possibly at the school in France or somewhere in my luggage. My sister kindly sent me two new cards so I have a spare to hand. I found a lovely song on YouTube called “Hiwi the Kiwi” so I got the children to sing the chorus after me line by line. I also had my tuatara which when squeezed obliges with some grunting sounds. I think the children enjoyed my visit.
One girl thanked me as I was leaving. I go purely as a volunteer but I find it disappointing that I never seem to be formally thanked. When I was teaching my students would be taught how to thank visitors when asked to do so. I think it is part of a child’s training to learn those basic manners and simple speech making. I also always got students to write and thank the guest afterwards. Manners maketh man. This was apparently said or written by William of Wykeham and became the motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford.
The Herbal Bed
Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton was the venue for a play by Peter Whelan. Based on real events from Stratford in the summer of 1613, The Herbal Bed recounts the public trial of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna. Accused of adultery with her neighbour, Susanna and her husband fall under the glare of intense public scrutiny as they sue her accuser for slander. It is marks the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare’s death. He died on 23 April, 1616.
The play was extremely well written and acted especially a scene set in Worcester Cathedral which was brilliant. The set and the lighting were so good that it felt as though we were really there in the cathedral. I hope we might see it in Christchurch some time.
The theatre itself was like a smaller version of The Theatre Royal in Christchurch.
Scaramouche Jones
Scaramouche is a stock character in the Italian Commedia dell'arte farce who is a cowardly braggart, easily beaten and frightened. The scene was set on the website:
It’s 31 December, 1999 and the mysterious white faced clown Scaramouche Jones emerges from the circus ring for the very last time. With just an hour remaining before the new millennium, he finally tells of his journey from a Trinidad whorehouse to The Big Top. Justin Butcher's classic piece of theatre brilliantly weaves the actual events of a century which shaped the world we live in today, with the life story of an extraordinary character.
Richard Jordan was the actor who has this 90 minute monologue with a few sound effects on the way. He also works in radio and TV producing and presenting. Northampton is his home base so I think this was the first performance before the play goes on tour. I love the spoken word as words conjure up pictures in one’s mind and the audience is then engaged. It was quite a feat to do such a long one person show. It was very well done but I would have liked more use of silence – the pause – for more dramatic effect.
The small theatre of about 80 seats was packed and as no seats were allocated we arrived early and got mid front row seats. I was told I should visit the loo and see the beautiful Victorian bowl with flowery pictures on it. It was so pristine it look almost new to me.
Back to Woodbrooke
On Sunday 14 February it was time to move on. We headed back to Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham in our trusty Honda Jazz. This is to be a three week job share as Friends in Residence.
Written by Deborah except one section clearly marked as written by David
Birmingham Jewellery Quarter
On our first official day off we went by car to central Birmingham to visit the Jewellery Quarter. We went to the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter. When the proprietors of the Smith & Pepper jewellery manufacturing firm retired in 1981 they simply ceased trading and locked the door, unaware they would be leaving a time capsule for future generations.
Today the factory is a remarkable museum, which tells the story of the Jewellery Quarter and Birmingham’s renowned jewellery and metalworking heritage. It is owned by the Birmingham City Council. Entrance cost £7.
It was very interesting to learn what those symbols on jewellery mean. From the toss of a coin it was decided that Birmingham would use the anchor symbol. So if you have any jewellery with an anchor sign it was made in that city!
We went on an hour long guided tour of the factory and saw all the machines used. The owners were careful not to waste any gold dust. The workers were not allowed to wear hair oil otherwise they could run their hands through their hair and go home with some dust. Likewise when the boss realised how much dust there was on their work jackets he used to wash them all every day to get out the dust! Each day he would weigh how much gold remained in each man’s tin to check none was missing within the 1 to 2 % loss which could be expected. The office was run with ancient typewriters and means of calculating. It was well worth the visit.
After a quick cup of instant coffee and a sandwich in the cafe which had been another jeweller factory we set of for the Pen Museum. This cost £2 per person and it is run by volunteers. We learned that at one stage Birmingham supplied four-fifths of the world supply of pen nibs. The first room was crowded with memorabilia. They also had simple machines which were used to make the old “dip and scratch”steel nibs for pens. We were able to have hands on experience on some machines. It was mostly women who worked in the factory on machines run with leather belts as in the jewellery factories. These belts could cause nasty injuries if you got caught up in them. The women had to produce thousands of nibs per day. In this particular factory the owner had a Turkish sauna upstairs in order to use the steam produced by the engines.
It was interesting to learn that the Josiah Mason who first owned the building at Woodbrooke Quaker Centre where we are serving, made his fortune in making pens and nibs amongst other things. Later the Cadbury family bought the property and eventually gifted it to the Quakers.
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
In the middle week we had two days off so on the Tuesday we headed by bus to the central city to visit the Museum & Art Gallery. First we went to the gallery about Birmingham, its people and history. There was a interesting model of Birmingham as a mediaeval village. You could press a button and a light would highlight the real person and his activity in the village. Of course the Lord of the Manor had the biggest house and everyone had to pay him rents!
There was material about the industrialists in Victorian times and about the slave trade. Sad to say some Quakers made their money using slaves. In 1808, the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which outlawed the slave trade, but not slavery itself.
There was an interesting multi –miniscreen video about World War 1 and World War 11.
We had a look at the Staffordshire Hoard featuring gold, silver and cloissonné garnet finery found in 2009 in Staffordshire by a man with his metal detector wandering around in a field. It was made to decorate weapons such as swords and knives.Many of the war-gear decorations have garnet inlays or exquisite animal filigree figures. There is still much research to be done but it is thought that the artefacts date from the 7th and 8th centuries during the Kingdom of Mercia.
We had a very tasty soup and bread lunch in the Edwardian Tearooms complete with an upper gallery as in the Oxford Museum.
There was a temporary exhibition representing some of the faith groups in Birmingham. Unfortunately some of the exhibits did not have enough information for the reader to understand fully the significance of the pieces. One article did not say what faith group it belonged to. We were taken aback to see Quakers represented by a shiny grey silk dress as a wedding dress. Quakers used to wear grey and when some women started wearing fancy grey dresses they would be admonished for not keeping to the testimony of simplicity.
Apart from the beautiful golden objects in the Staffordshire Hoard I loved a beautiful statue of The Archangel Lucifer (1944–45) by Jacob Epstein. I felt this angel was perhaps the very angel from The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox, a deeply moving book written by a New Zealander.
Courses at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre
The Parables of Jesus (from David)
I was fortunate to be able to attend a weekend session (Fri 19 to Sun 21 Feb) on The Parables of Jesus while being a Friend in Residence at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. There were two leaders, Chris Nickolay who used Godly Play to tell the stories and Mark Russ who used conventional techniques to help us respond and tell our understandings of the Parables.
At the first session on Friday night Chris produced a golden box. Various objects were respectfully removed to illustrate The Parable of The Good Shepherd. He removed the objects from the box – a square of green felt, an irregular light blue felt, dark brown felt squares broken on one side, three black irregular felt shapes, five sheep and the shepherd.
Each came with a question – What could this be? Further questions followed – all open-ended with no answer given. Not a lot of participation from our group this early in the session. At the end we chose one of five areas set up to show our understanding of the parable using clay, water colours, pencils, contemplation or reading. I chose clay. At the end of the session the leaders shared food and drink with us.
The second session Saturday morning was with Mark Russ. We broke into three groups. We were asked to draw and discuss The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Then we moved back into the full group and discussed the differences of St Augustine’s commentary.
11.15-12.45pm Godly Play – second parable. This time it was the Kingdom of Heaven being likened to a pearl. Again we were given a number of props including pears, houses and household items. I found this one the easiest Godley Play to relate to. For the final stages I chose water colour painting.
4.30-6.15pm. Parables as subversive speech with Mark Russ in two groups. My group had The Parable of the Talents. Discussion then presentation to the other group. I gave a synopsis then the traditional version. Then others gave a subversive version – servant 3 being whistleblower. The other group did The Rich Man and Lazarus.
7.45-9.15pm Godly play (Chris) was a sower of wheat. I did not find this so interesting.
Sunday Morning – opened the 4th box – was plain brown. What could be in it – was another brown box – what could it mean? About 4 nested brown boxes then a small golden box – with nothing in it – was it spirit? Then we were given our own brown box to decorate.
My impressions were: of Jesus as the story teller, probably using stories that were well known to his listeners – but with a twist. The probable re-writing of the parables by the early Church to put the establishment in a better light. Using Liberation Theology to similarly turn the stories on their head – from the viewpoint of the oppressed. More questions than answers. No right answer – find your own.
Understanding Islam and Islamophobia (from Deborah)
I had put my name down for an interesting looking course on Understanding Islam and Islamophobia to challenge myself about my views on Islam and Muslim. I had read the better part of a rather academic book called Islamophobia by Chris Allen. One part went on a bit about who was the first person to use the word which does not interest me one iota! One extremist group described in the book wrote on their website:
Islam does not recognise freedom … democracy is also anathema to Islam, since
Muslims do not believe in the rule of the majority or in elections every four or
five years or in sovereignty for anyone or anything other than Allah, whether
that is the people, their government or any constitution, be it the UN, OIC or
any other body. As for secularism, Islam considers anyone adopting this to have
committed an act of apostasy ….
I happened to come across a book called Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia published in 1992. It is about a princess of the Saudi royal family and her struggle as a woman to have a voice and any rights whatsoever. She tells of some horrific treatment of women who are perceived to have stained the family honour and therefore must be stoned to death or locked in a dark padded room until she dies. The book was to have been a one off but it appears it has turned into a trilogy. Again this is at the extreme end of the wedge.
However I didn’t get into the course as it was quickly oversubscribed. I was too parsimonious with myself and said I would be content with a last minute cancellation which meant it would be free. Courses here cost a lot more than in NZ. I heard one of the participants say that it was the best course he had ever attended at Woodbrooke so maybe next time I come to Woodbrooke in 2018 or 2019...
Course on Clerking (from Deborah)
I happened to be having lunch at the same table as one of the organisers of a course on Clerking and said that her course interested me so it was a pity I couldn’t attend that course. She then said I could and soon after I was an ex officio member of the new course for experienced Clerks. Although I have not been a clerk I have been to many Meetings for Worship for Business otherwise it would not have made sense to attend. Janet and her daughter Clare ran the course and it was excellent. I had no idea that this was the first time they had run the course.
On the Friday evening we had introductions but I didn’t have a clue where some people came from as I don’t know the counties at all. We are learning the geography as we move up the country! We were given 28 page handbook and other material to read for the next two days.
On Saturday we looked at how to handle various situations which have arisen such as a young friend breaking the law but following his/her conscience. This has recently happened here in Britain. Another session we looked at making minutes and other material with history in mind. We also played the Boundaries Game of what is acceptable and not acceptable in Meeting. Some of the cards read “Preventing a child from ministering.” or “Regularly arriving late for meeting. “ or many other topics. We had played that game in our Christchurch Meeting and found it very interesting as to what might be acceptable to some and not to others.
The session on the Art of Minuting was a very good but difficult exercise. The evening before we had been given a page of letters published in 1916 and complied by Janet Scott for the latest Quaker magazine the Friend. These real letters debated conscientious objection, alternative non-combatant service and taxes which pay for war. They were the basis for forming a minute as though the letters had been spoken ministry. That was a hard task. We sat in groups of three and shared our minutes. I was very conscious of my meagre effort.
The course continued on Sunday and finished at lunchtime. It was an excellent course with time out on Saturday afternoon and finishing with a 30 minute Meeting for Worship which gave me time to reflect on whether being a clerk was a job I feel called to do.
For Conscience Sake
On the last Saturday we went to a play at the Bourneville Meetinghouse. Soup and bread were offered before the play. The audience was for the most part elderly and mostly Quakers. After the play there was time for questions and discussion which was very interesting considering there were one or two WW2 Conscientious Objectors present. As there was no entry fee a collection was taken after the show. I took the following information straight from a Quaker website.
For Conscience Sake, a new play by Plain Quakers, explores the choices faced by conscientious objectors in World War One against the backdrop of growing militarisation today.
When Morris, would-be thespian and unrepentant curmudgeon, tries to unravel the story of his grandfather's heroic exploits in the Great War, he is faced with an unexpected surprise. His unlikely buddy, Albert, unsuccessful author and Quaker enthusiast, attempts to ease the pain by arguing that we should remember the courageous conscientious objectors who resisted conscription in 1916. If more had done the same perhaps millions of lives could have been saved. Unconvinced, Morris stubbornly defends what his grandfather did for King and Country, until Albert unearths documents in Huddersfield that reveal a disturbing truth . . .
Plain Quakers theatre projects is a theatrical partnership founded in 2007 by Arthur Pritchard and Mike Casey. Using simple story-telling theatre and minimal resources, they aim to raise awareness of Quaker concerns and traditions through plays that are relevant and accessible, and that encourage an active engagement with Quaker testimonies on peace, simplicity, and ethical living, in the context of contemporary global capitalism.
We had met Arthur first online back in 2010 online via Skype and then at Congénies. We were pleased to speak to him after the play.
Black Country Living Museum
Our Woodbrooke receptionist, Jo, said her favourite place to go to was this outdoor museum which is a collection of buildings brought from the surrounding district to form a town. It was about half an hour from Woodbrooke by car.
We went in to see the Newcomen Engine which is a full sized working replica housed in a brick building. In 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented the world’s first successful steam engine with a cylinder working a piston. At first it was used to pump water out of mines but later James Watt adapted his more efficient engine to produce rotary motion, greatly broadening its use beyond pumping water.
A mixed group of teenagers were asked questions by the guide but none was willing to venture an answer in case a wrong answer was given. The teacher and I were the only ones willing to take the risk!
It was by visiting the small Pitt Cottage we could see how much progress has been made for working people over the last 130 years. A lady dressed in a costume of yesteryear told us about life in those days. I can still remember that the nightcartman used to go down to Rockinghorse Road to take away the “nightsoil” as it was so euphemistically called! Many people in the world still endure this basic level of hygiene.
We booked in for a free guided tour of the Drift Mine which is a near-horizontal passageway in a mine, following the bed of coal. This is a reconstruction of a Stafforshire mine known for its “thick coal” or “ten yard seam” which was unique in Britain. It was very well done with sound effects and spoken reminiscences. Of course I am very interested in seeing what conditions are there, as Great Grandfather James and his father and grandfather before him were copper miners in Cornwall. Mining was a very dangerous job. In 1850 in the Black Country there were 189 deaths due mostly to shaft accidents and roof falls.
The Fish and Chip Shop had been recommended so we trotted down to share a portion at lunchtime. We could have them cooked in oil rather than fat. They were golden crisp and I can warmly recommend them.
The Workers’ Institute building exists because of the courage and determination of the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath, who went on strike for 13 weeks in 1910 to fight for the right to a minimum wage. It was built with the money remaining after the strike ended and extra funding to furnish the Workers’ Institute was raised from bazaars held in February 1912. I bought an excellent book titled Martha’s Story which is a fictionalised diary of the chain makers (mostly women and children at home) strike seen through the eyes of an 11 year old girl.
There were simply too many buildings to visit in a day. However we had to drop into the St James School where a “lesson” was in progress. I counted 38 heads in a photo in the guide book. I think many classes were much larger in those days.
Emile Doo’s Chemist Shop was a must given David’s former profession. Before the National Health Service was formed in 1948 shops like this offered free advice. Babies and diabetics were weighed weekly and first aid was administered here! A chemist would also make his own remedies. Apparently Mr Doo undertook veterinary and dentistry work in the backroom.
John Wesley (1703 – 91) visited the Black Country 15 times but would not have visited the Methodist Chapel, as it was not opened until 1837 when Queen Victoria came to the throne at 18. It was a place of worship for the Methodist New Connexion which had split from the Wesleyan Methodists in 1797. It was a large brick hall with stark white interior walls and dark wooden panelling and seating upstairs and downstairs. The grand dark wooden pulpit is the focus at the front and above it enscrolled are the words “Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness”.
We had to book and pay extra to travel through the Dudley Canal. We went through the Dudley Tunnel which was originally built as a mine tunnel in 1776 – 78 to enable limestone to be brought out by boat. Canals were also important “roads” during the industrial revolution. I helped “leg” the boat through one tunnel so I was allowed to buy a certificate at the end of the trip! “Legging” involves lying on your back and pushing with your feet to move the boat through the tunnel. In the old days there was no towpath in the tunnel so the horse walked over the top of the hill before resuming the job of pulling the boat.
We also bought some lovely fossils of shells which we had to declare when we sent a box home. The fossils plus a treated feather mask and wooden carved mask David bought in Penzance caused us a great deal of trouble because of biosecurity risk when they went through NZ customs. Next time we will take such things home in our luggage so we can deal directly with biosecurity and save friends and ourselves all the trouble!
As you can see we thoroughly enjoyed our visited and spent more than 5 hours there. It was not cheap at £13.50 (NZ$27.80) but tickets are valid for 12 months and we highly recommended the Black Country Museum.
SERVAS Hosts at Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire
We were very lucky to stay with Malcolm, a retired university Chemistry teacher and Mary, a retired psychologist at Sowerby Bridge on our way through to Scotland. They were most generous hosts with their time and lovely food and wine. They live in one half of a rather grand Georgian Mansion which Malcolm bought when he was a widower. He is a collector of books, jugs and antique clocks. In the very large main downstairs room which is a kitchen, dining and livingroom there are a number of grandfather clocks.
My maternal grandfather William Ernest Best was born in Bradford. It is thanks to him that I was able to get an Ancestry Work Visa and David was able to come as my spouse. Malcolm is interested in family history research and on arrival handed me a package of work he had done on the family tree including a map of Victorian Bradford. He later shattered my illusion that my great grandfather John Whitehead was a Quaker as John’s obituary clearly states he was a “Wesleyan”. I shall have to dig further.
We had hardly arrived and Malcolm took us for a drive around the district. The next day we were again taken around the district and had a wonderful time. It was very interesting to go to the Bradford Industrial Museum. The Mills were built around 1875 as a small worsted spinning Mill but grew over the years. In 1970, Bradford Council bought Moorside Mills from Messrs. W & J Whitehead to create an innovative museum. I wonder if those Whiteheads are related to me!
Bradford's Industrial Museum has permanent displays of textile machinery, steam power, engineering, printing machinery and cars. We visited the elegant Moorside House where the Mill Manager lived and the Mill-workers' terraced houses decorated to reflect three different time periods.
The best was yet to come. We drove up to the very house where my maternal grandfather was born at 16 Northfield Place, Manningham, Bradford in 1878. Unfortunately we could not go inside as the owner was out at work. I left my card and have since been in touch with the owner, Yasmin, who like many people in the area now is of Pakistani origin. She is a Maths teacher in a College for adults. Next time we are in the vicinity I will arrange to visit the house.
Dogsitting four King Charles Cavalier Spaniels
We had met Nancy on Skype for our interview and kept in contact before arriving so we felt we knew her already. Nancy is a lovely vibrant, generous, intelligent woman with a great sense of humour and a lovely Scottish accent.
Unfortunately she was widowed some years ago but she often speaks lovingly of her late husband who was in the oil industry. Nancy herself started off in a bank as a teller but later designed systems for computer programmes for banks. Nancy was going off to a photography course in Portugal so we had come to look after her dogs.
Nancy and David were not blessed with any children but she has her clan of dogs. At present she has 6 King Charles Cavaliers Spaniels but we were only asked to look after the four older ones. There was Robbie, a prize -winning showdog who is mostly black and white but has tan brown eyebrows and a small brown “freckle”. His father is Charlie whose colours are white and Blenheim which is that lovely rich tan brown. Uncle Geordie, is very similar to Robbie but obviously older and has no freckle. Jinty is the smallest and has a large white forehead and similar colourings to Geordie, her son and Robbie her grandson! They are mostly of a lovely nature and have a soft, silky coat.
The dogs spent most of the day in their pen in the kitchen. They would go out regularly for toilet breaks to a large back garden. As the weather was cold and sometimes rainy they did not want to linger. Dinnertime was a bit of a bun fight and each dog has to be separated into his or her own area. In the evening we sat in a cosy corner of the livingroom and the dogs like to jump up on our knees and be petted and sometimes combed.
We did not have to take the dogs out for a walk. I don’t think we would have managed with three active fellows plus Jinty, the mother and grandmother! We enjoyed our time at Caldermill.
When Nancy came home she brought Allison, an Australian, who had attended the same photography course. Allison had been a dogsitter for Nancy some years ago and now they are good friends.
Robbie Burns at Alloway
As we had arrived several days in advance Nancy suggested we might like to go and do a Robbie Burn’s Day about 50 minutes away at Alloway. Luckily the Museum in Robbie Burn’s birthplace is another National Trust property and therefore free for us with our New Zealand Heritage Card. We spent most of the time at the museum which was a collection of memorabilia and some odd stands aimed at children. It was interesting to learn of several important relationships he had with women. It was poorly lit and did not seem to have a particular direction in which to go. I liked the parts where you could hear the poetry being read.
Silhouette pictures were obviously fashionable at the time of Mr Burns. You could get your silhouette sent to you by email. Mine did not open so they later sent it again but I had the same problem so I gave up!
We took the Poet’s Path to the cottage where Robbie was born in 1759 and spent the first seven years of his life. His father actually built the four room home – the barn, the byre or cowshed, the spense or parlour and kitchen. I did not find it particularly interesting.
The other three places to visit were the ruined kirk in the churchyard with its illusions to the poem Tam o’Shanter, the Brig o’ Doon or bridge which is part of that poem and the Burns Monument, a small Greek style temple which is in need of repair.
A good day’s trip out and a little knowledge gained. Before I went I must confess to being completely ignorant about Robbie Burns. A dear Quaker friend has been the Robbie Burns prizewinner in New Zealand so we sent him a postcard.
Quaker Meeting in Glasgow
On Sunday 13 we went to Meeting in Glasgow. My memory of Edinburgh from way back in 1971 was of heavy Victorian buildings. What we saw in Glasgow was also solid, grimy Victorian buildings.
The Meeting is worried about its building in Elmbank Crescent as the next door building has been demolished. What was an internal wall has become an external wall and hence damp has crept in.
We made several connections with the members. Mike is a “retired” professor of Criminal and Community Justice and is very interested in Electronic Monitoring.
I also remet Mary who is the sister of Jonathan Barkas. I lived in an upstairs flat belonging to Jonathan and his wife Evelyn when I spent the academic year teaching English at the University of Robert Schuman in Strasbourg 2002 to 2003. While I was there Jonathan died leaving his wife and two young children.
After a quick lunch of soup in a large but empty restaurant we went to the Glasgow Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It was again a large victorian building with grand wide balconies upstairs. Downstairs was a plethora of stuffed animals – elephant, giraffe, emu and more. We had a look at Scotland’s first people and Scottish identity in Art and saw a beautiful painting of the Christ of St John of the Cross by Salvador Dali.
Quaker Meeting at Faslane
Once a month there is a Meeting at Faslane where there is a Navy Base. On the website the description is:
HM Naval Base Clyde – commonly known throughout the Navy as Faslane – is the Royal Navy’s main presence in Scotland. It is home to the core of the Submarine Service, including the nation’s nuclear deterrent, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines. The Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport, 8 miles from Faslane, is responsible for the storage, processing, maintenance and issue of key elements of the UK's Trident Deterrent [?] Missile System and the ammunitioning of all submarine embarked weapons.
The following week we set off for the Meeting at 9.00 am. As predicted there were quite a few places where normally one could go 70 mph we were only allowed 50mph for quite long stretches. The reason that so many road works were being repaired was because it was near the end of the financial year. There was still money to be spent so now the rush to do it before the deadline came!
We had been directed to park in a cemetery carpark and we were the first there.
One woman said she had been coming for 14 years. In the past the group had met in the middle of a roundabout but that would be too dangerous if someone got it into his/her head to drive straight through the circle. They now met at the roadside behind a safety barrier. Near the beginning of the Meeting we remembered a regular member who had died in the last week.
Ironically quite a few cars tooted to show that they agreed with the banner on Peace while we held an mostly silent Meeting. There were 18 present plus a guide dog taking a rest.
After Meeting I had a few words to say about our presence. I mentioned our friend Rob Green who had been a commander of a Trident submarine but now stands firmly on the side of Peacemakers. He wrote a book about his aunt - A Thorn in Their Side: Hilda Murrell Threatened Britain's Nuclear State. She was brutally murdered and Rob believes that MI5 have a murder to answer for while an innocent man sits in prison. His wife, Dr Kate Dewes, has worked tirelessly for peace and was for some years on the United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. Kate was part of the team on the World Court Project from New Zealand who took a case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to have the use of Nuclear Arms declared illegal and won.
After a picnic lunch with the Glasgow and Edinburgh contingents we set off to have a look at Hill House a National Trust property which was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a famous Scottish architect, who designed Arts and Crafts Nouveau Art buildings . Unfortunately it was not open. From the outside it looked rather ugly.
From CALDERMILL near Strathaven (pronounced Straven) to Skye
We set off at 9.40am on Wednesday 23 March for the Isle of Skye.
When we got to Glencoe well into the day we stopped off at the National Trust for Scotland Centre. As we are members of Heritage New Zealand we got in free so do join Heritage NZ before you leave as it is cheaper than joining here. We went through a display centre and saw a short DVD about the formation of the land, some information about mountaineering and some Scottish history. Then we had a simple lunch in the café.
From here on we felt very much at home as some of the scenery was so like being in NZ. Some areas were craggy like our Mount Cook and others were long flat terraces we identified as being post glacial moraine. The mountains had been flattened down.
To get to Skye you used to have to take a boat. In 1995 they completed a bridge which was at first a toll bridge. Since December 2004 it has been tollfree. Just before the bridge on the mainland there was a quaint stone bridge leading to a rather picturesque tall, narrow castle. Eilean Donan is situated on an island at the point where three great sea lochs meet.
We arrived about 6.00pm feeling rather tired after 6 hours driving between the two of us. We found Crepigall Cottage with the yellow door. It is tiny. The bedroom is so small that our cases are in the livingroom. See http://www.skyeselfcateringcottage.co.uk/
Skye View & Cemetery Crawl
On Thursday we had arranged to meet a Quaker at her home as she no longer has a car. Tomtom, our GPS, took us across the island as it is a shorter way than around. The road is across is very peaty flattish land with lovely autumnal colours – browns, golds and mossy greens. The road is a single lane wide with many a Passing Place as they are called. It is mostly very easy to see the cars coming from the other direction on the windy and sometimes hilly road.
Jo is a woman of many talents. She used to run the Foxwood Bed and Breakfast at Ullinish, Struan, for which she has many great reviews. However she has just sold the house and business to a youngish couple and is about to sell a second property and enter a new venture with her daughter back in Yorkshire.
She also used to organise the publication of a classy community magazine called Skye View. When we told her that David was researching his McCaskill ancestors she said she would get back copies of a couple of these magazines from the BNB next door for David as there were articles about the McCaskills. We were surprised to learn that the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian church are completely separate churches. She was a most interesting and knowledgeable woman and we enjoyed a great hour or two with her.
From her house we went on to a couple of cemeteries where David took photos of all the graves with the McCaskill name on them. However these were mostly modern graves as crofters were too poor to afford such luxuries in the 1800s.
Bracadale – Fernilea and Fiskavaig
On Good Friday we set off again to Bracadale on the main road. We wanted to visit the other side of Loch Harport which is part of the wider Bracadale area. It was raining and I was the driver so I let David go into the two cemeteries by himself. We had difficulty finding Portnalong Cemetery so we had to enquire at a house nearby.
On the way back we visited the Talisker whisky distillery and each had free tasting of 2 whiskies. I must say they were a lovely drop but the cheapest was £40 (NZ$84) a bottle.
Dunvegan Castle
On Saturday we headed to Dunvegan Castle. It was a rather rainy day so in the end we did not attempt to walk around the gardens.
We had a warm welcome to the castle (£10 = NZ$ 21 for seniors) but the whole setup was rather disappointing. The outside of this fortress-castle is very scruffy. Frankly it needs some new eyes to look at how they can make it more interesting and give us a clearer idea of the history. There are large paintings of former clan leaders and their mostly beautiful wives which look as though they need to be better protected from light and maybe visitors. There are some ghastly smaller ones which would be better removed as they have no artistic value nor interest.
A cream embroidered waistcoat said to have belonged to Bonnie Prince Charlie is on display as is a lock of his hair in a locket given to the famous Flora MacDonald. She helped Charlie escape government capture by taking him with her in a boat disguised as her serving maid. A further relic is the Fairy Flag. Legend has it that this sacred Banner has miraculous powers and when unfurled in battle, the clan MacLeod will defeat their enemies. All these relics need to be better displayed.
We watched a video fronted, I think, by the 30th clan chief, Hugh MacLeod, who spoke with a very English accent. He was born in London and apparently had a career as a freelance director, producer and writer in film and TV and now apparently also manages the estate. The DVD needs to be redone too as, like the castle, it lacks a consistent theme and feels dated. Even if by the time we leave the castle we have the “Hold Fast” motto and coat of arms firmly in our minds.
We were told by a local couple that the castle had been much improved in latter years. I would struggle to give it three out of five stars. There is much to do to make it an outstanding visit.
MacLeod DNA
I found this short article on a website:
A DNA project concerning surnames MacLeod, McLeod (and variants) was conducted in around 2004, with the intent to determine if there was genetical evidence of a common ancestor of all MacLeods and if so, where the founder(s) may have originated from. The project consisted of about 400 male participants who submitted a sample of their Y-DNA. The project found that about 32 percent of the total sample shared the same haplotype, therefore it was determined that this percentage shared a common ancestor estimated at about 1,000 years ago. The conclusion of the study was that today 32 percent of MacLeods descend through the male line from a common ancestor. The study was unable to prove the founder of the MacLeods was of Norse origin, and concluded that the MacLeods may have originated from either Scotland or the Isle of Mann.
EASTER Sunday
Oh dear! We did not realise that British Summertime was to start this morning. I had just sat down to read my emails on my computer and looked at the time – 11.25am. Of course my watch only said 10.25am and we knew that Quaker Meeting was only 7 minutes away.
We jumped into the car and raced up the road to the ARMS Centre. I cannot find what those letters means but be assured it is not about weapons! It is a Multiple Sclerosis therapy centre with a hyperbaric oxygen chamber which apparently is of help to sufferers.
There were 5 other people at Meeting. Ann had made a lovely iced cake and we were each given a lovely slice with a cup of tea. Lots of conversation flowed especially about David’s search for McCaskill relatives.
In the afternoon we went for a walk up the road near the Crepigall Cottage. It rained a bit. We saw two donkeys who looked a bit lonely but as we had nothing to give them I only called sweetly to them! A sheepdog followed us up the road to make sure our intentions were good. David took a photo of an ancient gravestone of which there are only two to be found on Skye. Interestingly it mentioned on the note that part of the engraving was a mirror and a comb. Was this a woman’s grave? It seems rather sophisticated for those days.
Easter Monday
“Durchfall” is one of the most descriptive German words I know. It means “through fall” or in English diarrhea which is not a fun medical state. Poor David had been in this state for a day or so. He went off to bed early.
I found that my article which I had titled In search of my Forefathers and Mothers...had been published in the Cornwall Family History Society on the website but the title had been changed to Pitfalls and Pointers ‘Six weeks was far from enough’.
On reading another article by another Williams he was looking for a Susannah Kent and that name rang a bell. Fanny Bartley, the older sister of my great grandmother married a Richard Kent so I thought that maybe I could provide some answers for him. I was up until nearly 3.00am trying to find out more about the Kent family through Ancestry and Find My Past. Fascinating stuff especially when one finds other people have claimed Richard Kent and sent him off to die in the USA. There are obviously several men of the same name! My Richard was buried in St Agnes graveyard in Cornwall! I later realised that I had met a Susannah Kent back in NZ!
I finally woke up at about 11.30am. We decided to go and visit what some had described as the best part of Skye – the trip to the light house at Neist Point out on the Duirinish Peninsula. This stands on the most Westerly point on the Isle of Skye giving great views over Moonen Bay to Waterstein Head and out over the Minch to the Western Isles.
The lighthouse is no longer manned and the four apartments there are in disrepair which is a pity. There are some sheep nearby on steep slopes. An old rusty flying fox to bring goods down from the road a short way stands derelict and a much larger crane rusts down by the sea. It appears that goods used to be brought in by sea to the lighthouse. There are remnants of long stone fences. It is a beautiful spot and there were many fellow tourists there to enjoy the views.
Tenant Crofters
On the way back we stopped at a memorial to the Glendale martyrs who stood trial and were imprisoned in the early 1880s for standing up against the unfair treatment by the owners of the land where they were tenant crofters. The landlords refused to allow the local people to collect wood from the shore for heating, and they had to use straw to thatch the houses as they were forbidden to cut rushes. The crofters also demanded the return of the common grazing land that had been taken from them. Taking direct action, they began grazing their cattle on this land. Three men were sent to prison as the leaders of this action. As a result there was a commission and the crofters were later given some justice.
Two Small Museums
At Colbost we popped into the Croft Museum, a largish room crofter’s cottage. There was an honesty box for payment. This is owned by one Peter MacCaskill who does not seems to be of the same branch as David is descended from. He also has another thatched cottage not far from Dunvegan Castle where the giant Angus MacAskill who was 2.36 metres tall is celebrated. We had gone in when he was preparing for opening. David could not find his branch on the family tree on the wall and elderly Peter was very vague. There were very old newspaper clippings on the wall and on a table which was thick with dirt.
Dinner Invitation
In the evening we had been invited to go down the road for dinner or perhaps I should say supper with fellow Quakers Alisdair and Ann. Alisdair spent some of his childhood on Skye but later spent many years on the mainland. He has been a teacher and in early retirement accepted a position running Rydall Hall, an Anglican retreat and holiday centre in the Lake District. Ann, who also has a teaching background, became fascinated with the Le Fleming family who had owned Rydal Hall. She ended up writing a book on the family who have strong connections with Canterbury in New Zealand. Michael Le Fleming came out to Christchurch in 1851. They are both very interesting and intelligent people of many parts.
Tuesday
David chose to do the circuit of the north-eastern Trotternish peninsula.
At the end of the day we paid a visit to the doctor, neatly dressed in his Harris Tweed jacket who examined David thoroughly. He decided that David was on the mend but needed to have a much greater intake of liquids and that could include wine.
While we had been waiting I had headed off to the charity shop but only got about 10 metres and crossed the road to a local craft display in a hall. There I bought I am Malala which was an excellent read. She has written about her life with the help of a journalist. I recommend the book. I also found another book with lots of photos of early Skye so I took it over to David for approval as it was £20 and I would not have bought it for myself.
In the evening we set the washing machine going. It was a machine which was supposed to dry the clothes as well. However we ended up with sopping wet clothes and could not even get it to spin things damp! The next morning we phoned Susan the housekeeper who kindly took our clothes away to her home nearby. When she came back they were still wet but at least they were not dripping.
From SKYE to HARRIS and LEWIS
We drove for about 40 minutes back up the west coast of the Trotternish Peninsula to Uig where we were to take the boat to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris. The sea was as calm as can be and we had an uneventful 90 minute trip across.
Even on the tourist brochure it tells us that the Isle of Harris is joined to the Isle of Lewis. We drove north –east up the main road to Keos where we were to stay four nights with our SERVAS hosts, Jan & Mun. They have an amazing amount of local knowledge as they are both involved in many community works. Jan has been a teacher and in retirement is a tourist guide and Mun worked for the Council in a range of jobs so he knows many of the inside stories.
They invited their young neighbours over for a meal as Andrew is connected with our hostess back in Caldermill. He trained as a concert pianist but has pulled back to the quieter life of the Outer Hebrides. Later we went down to their house by the sea and David played his flute with Andrew’s wife, Catherine, also on the flute, another man, Douglas, on the flute and Sarah on the French horn. Unfortunately David did not get to play with Andrew who was busy in his role of father settling a little one down to sleep.
Another evening we drove around the hill to Jan and Mun’s daughter’s house for dinner. Pemma was away at a hen party on the mainland so again her husband, Scott, was busy being father to his lovely daughter, Mia, aged about four.
On the last day we explored their property and found two tunnel houses. We could not find the henhouse but we did enjoy some eggs from the hens! There is also a very large modern shed which houses some veteran cars amongst other things. They also have about 20 sheep in the paddocks.
Thursday
We set out to do the tourist circuit of Harris. We therefore travelled south again to South Harris. We stopped above Tarbert so David could get a few shots of the town and sheltered harbour below.
At one stage we turned a corner and there was a view of a lovely white sand beach ahead of us. As the weather was rainy we did not stop off and visit that lovely vista.
We did stop off at the Seallam Centre where Bill & Chris Lawson have set up a museum and a family research centre. Bill had information about the Mitchell family but there was no material which was new to David. The museum had been set up partly with children in mind.
There were many books for sale at Seallam Centre. I picked up one book and read the blurb about Lord Lever (of soap and washing powder fame) who bought the island and hoped to set up industry to give employment to the islanders. To this day there is a town on the south-west coast of Harris named Leverburgh. On a website called undiscovered Scotland I found further information:
In 1918 Lord Leverhume, founder of the multinational company Unilever, purchased the whole of Lewis and Harris for £36,000. Over the following five years he set to work to transform the economy of Lewis in particular, spending the better part of a million pounds in the process. In 1923 he gave up his plans for Lewis, deciding instead to concentrate on Harris.
An t-Ob, renamed Leverburgh in 1921, was to be the centre of an economic empire founded on fish. Lord Leverhume built and equipped fishing boats and set up a processing plant at Leverburgh including fish smoking and refrigeration facilities, warehousing and accommodation. Lord Leverhume died of pneumonia after a trip to Africa in May 1925 and Leverhume's dream died with him.
At the southern tip of Harris we visited the Church of St Clement at Rodel as recommended by our hosts. The church was built in the 16th century by Alexander MacLeod of Harris and Dunvegan (Skye) who was known as Alisdair Crotach (Humpback). It is a lovely church no longer in use but open daily and worth the visit. There are three tombs carved in black stone depicting three knights, including that of Alexander. To either side are symbols of the four Evangelists and the 12 Apostles (with Paul replacing Judas). Within the recess, below the sun, are angels blowing trumpets, more saints and the Virgin Mary flanked by bishops (including St Clement).
When we came round to the eastern side of South Harris the scenery changed abruptly. There were many stones between the tarns and peat-like land. Near the end of our journey up and down the rolling road we saw a colony of seals. We did not visit any of the commercial Harris Tweed factories.
Friday
We went into Stornaway, a town founded by the Vikings to do some research. The town's population is around 8,000, making it the largest town in the Outer Hebrides. Observance of the Christian Sunday has long been a strong aspect of the island's culture. There was great opposition, for example, to having ferries running on Sundays but that has now changed.
It was raining hard and blowing hard. David got some help in the library to look up his family tree. We went along to an Anglican church and searched in the churchyard. We were invited inside out of the rain by the very nice vicar, Terry Taggart. The interior of St Peter’s Episcopal Church was white and simple with one simple stained glass window in the chancel and I felt very much at home.
In the afternoon at the Births Deaths and Marriage office a lady with a nametag Myra was very helpful. She also phoned up the sexton, Alex McLennen and arranged for him to meet us at the graveyard. Unfortunately there was no grave marked Mary Mitchell (née Wright) for David’s Great Great Grandmother although the name of Mitchell was recorded as being in that section of the graveyard.
Saturday
We decided to do the west circuit of Lewis. We drove through the middle of the island through a rising but level landscape. We stopped a moment to take a photo of a whalebone arch on the seaside in the village of Bragar.
We were pleased that we made the effort to step off the main road and walk a few minutes to visit the Norse Mill and Kiln which faced out to a sea inlet. The kiln building was full of straw so no kiln was visible. The water to run the mill had been diverted so that the mill could be renovated.
We diverted off the main road to see the Gearrannan Blackhouse which consists of some old stone crofter homes and craft buildings with thatched roofs which are a living museum plus a hostel and several self-catering cottages. There is also a giftshop and café. We peeped into the hostel which had a state of the art modern kitchen. It would be ideal if one were walking around the island.
Dun Carloway is a broch or Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Wikipedia tell us that their origin is a matter of some controversy. The theory that they were defensive military structures (an Iron Age equivalent to the castles and tower houses of medieval Scotland) is not accepted by many modern archaeologists), while the alternative notion that they were farmhouses is dismissed by some others. This one is a remarkably well preserved broch - on the east side parts of the old wall still reach to 9 metres tall. It was amazing to walk up the stairs and try to imagine how it used to be and who might have lived here. It is likely that there was an upper wooden floor.
The final stopping point was the tall Stonehenge-like Callanish Stones which are an arrangement of standing stones placed in a pattern like a gigantic cross with a central stone circle. They were erected in the late Neolithic era, and were a focus for ritual activity during the Bronze Age. There are many legends as to what they mean. Unfortunately we arrived late afternoon when the rain set in so we did not stay long.
Sunday 3 April
We set off for Stornaway after a fantastic stay with our great SERVAS Hosts Jan and Mun. The crossing of two and a half hours was smooth and uneventful and we arrived at Ullapool on time. We even arrived in Smithton just beyond Inverness in advance of what we had estimated.
Hi. My name is Harvey. I am a 12 year old blue roan cocker spaniel and I live in Smithton near Inverness in Bonnie Scotland. I live with Grandad.
I used to be a stud dog for breeding but when I was past my best they just left me in a cage. Lucinda saw me there and persuaded them to give me to her.
Like her father and brother she is in the military. She decided to transfer to the military in Australia and is a Major no less. She couldn’t take me as I would have had to have stayed in quarantine for a month and she thought I might pine away.
I have a lump larger but lighter than a cricket ball in my nether regions but the vet says it is only fatty tissue. They could drain it over a day but I would have to have an anaesthetic which might not be good for me.
So I live with Grandad in his three bedroom council flat in a row of joined two storey houses. Military personnel have priority for council flats. Unfortunately Grandma died about 15 months ago so Grandad is on his own. He looked after Grandma through her illness. You can see some lovely photos of Grandma in the house. She was 18 and he was 21 when they married. They were married for 52 years. Grandma was slim and elegant and Grandad is slim too. As Grandad was in the military there are many photos of him in his regimental Scottish tartan.
Lucinda is tall and elegant. Deborah and David who are looking after me have only met her on Skype. Her brother Iain left the military and now works in Angola guarding business people and VIPs. He lives in Ireland with his wife Denise and two children. His teenage daughter has just been selected to represent Ireland in the Olympic Games in gymnastics. She is also a great Scottish dancer and likes many styles of dance.
Grandad has gone off to Australia to visit Lucinda. His regimental gear took a lot of space in his case as he will take part in the ANZAC parade. Lucinda would like him to go over and live there too but he won’t leave me so that is that! That is why D & D have come to look after me.
Wednesday 6 April
Deborah and David arrived on Sunday evening so that they would have time to get to know me before Grandad left on his holiday. On Wednesday morning Grandad told me he was off “shopping” and I believed him. However he did not turn up in the evening.
D & went to the newish Archive Building which is on the far side of town by the Botanical Gardens, swimming pool and sports complex. David did some research into his Scottish family tree – the Mitchells in particular and the McCaskills. They had lunch in the sports complex and watched children in a holiday programme running around the stadium track . Later they went back over the bridge and wandered around the shops. Deborah found a nice cotton top with short sleeves to take to Morocco. She later found out that long sleeves would be better for Morocco!
Saturday 9 April
Silly Deborah had forgotten to put my breakfast meat in the absorbent paper last night but she managed to get the liquid out quickly. She was too busy watching Cleopatra on TV. This morning I ate a whole pouch of meat with turkey added. Demolished that easily and ate the meat properly.
3.00pm This afternoon David and Deborah put me in my harness. I was so excited. We only went for a walk around the block but I really enjoyed myself. It took 30 minutes and I would like to go again. That’s what they think anyway.
I ate a whole meat pouch for dinner with ham added. Yum.
10.35pm Oops. I just pooped on the green carpet in the lounge. Deborah let me out about 15 minutes or so ago but I was reluctant to go. She left me out for a couple of minutes hoping I would relieve myself but obviously I didn’t do the job well! I feel rather embarrassed. David had to clean it up this time.
Monday 11 April
After the Skype call from Grandad and Mum, Deborah and David tried to hang out the clothes. The line broke three or four times so in the end they had to dry the towels in the dryer!
In the afternoon D & D went and bought a new 20 metre clothesline for the princely sum of £1.95. They put the line up in the evening.
Tuesday 12 April
When the clothes went up on the new clothesline it collapsed. Some clothes were very green as John McKenzie had mowed the lawn earlier in the morning. They had to be washed again! David put several knots in the line this time and it held.
Early afternoon D & D took me for a walk but I decided I didn’t want to go far so I had them take me home in less than 15 minutes. It shows them who is in control.
In the morning the light in the bathroom gave up the ghost so D & D went out again in the afternoon to the Shopping Centre to buy another of those fancy bulbs which cost £10.
Wednesday 13 April
D & D went off so-called “shopping” but I know they went to the library as they came home with a book. It is called Marrakech Express by Peter Millar. They seem to be planning a trip to Morocco soon.
They were going to walk to the library but it started raining just as they went out the gate so they drove there. Lazy sods. Afraid of a bit of rain. When they got home I had got hold of the current TV Guide again and ripped up the top of the pages to come so they can’t read which day is which! I think now they have learned not to leave the magazines on the floor. These humans can be slow learners.
In the evening D & D went off to the Eden Court Theatre to see a show called I am Thomas described as “a brutal comedy with songs”. It is apparently based on a short story by James Robertson. Thomas Aikenhead (1676 – 8 January 1697) was a Scottish student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy. He was the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy. Here is a review site http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/26/i-am-thomas-review-told-by-an-idiot-liverpool-playhouse It took some time to get into the swing of the show. There were a large number of props and backdrops – which tended to distract from the play rather than enhance it. The songs were mostly ballad style. The eight cast members acted, played various instruments and sang with gusto.
When D & D got home less than three hours later I had left 3 visiting cards in the middle of the livingroom floor. Luckily the brown cards did not make any mess.
Thursday 14 April
Nothing much happened today.
Off they went today to the shops. Deborah thought that the PO was at the back of the Co-operative shop and David wasn’t sure so we asked a gentleman at his garage. He showed them a faster way to the shops. He knows who John is and told us he also lost his wife 10 years ago to throat cancer.
I blotted my copybook again by leaving poo smudges around on the green livingroom carpet in the evening.
Friday 15 April
D & D have finally remembered that I like the radio on when they go out.
They also discovered it was Deborah who distributed those so-called brown “smudges” round the livingroom – there was a whole lot of brown on the bottom of her slippers. They owe me an apology – well, sort of – as after all I did make the mess in the first place. In my defence, I may have done it outside and Deborah has got slack and walked outside in her slippers. Goes to show...Enough of that!
Early afternoon D & D went off to the Archives Centre as there was a display of original archives re the Battle of Culloden. It’s 270 years tomorrow since this uneven battle took place. That means it was 200 years before Deborah was born! They saw the family trees of those involved including that of the present Queen and quite a few Highland families usually with Mac or Mc in the name. There was even a very naughty but good looking gal called Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh known as Colonel Anne organised troops for the Jacobite side whereas her husband was fighting on the government side!
Saturday 16 April 270 Years since the Battle of Culloden
This morning D & D went off to the Culloden Battlefield. It is 270 years since that important battle took place.
The night before the encounter the Jacobites under Lord George Murray decided to make a night attack and leave at dusk for the English camp. However they left somewhat later and by the time to got to Nairn where the Duke of Cumberland had been celebrating his birthday it was nearly light so they marched back to where they had come from. Men deserted from tiredness and hunger and only 5000 mostly untrained Highlanders met 9000 disciplined English troops. It was a rainy day and the battle was over in less than an hour. Bonnie Prince Charles was nowhere to be seen.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 Jacobites were killed or wounded in the brief battle. Government losses were lighter with 50 dead and 259 wounded although a high proportion of those recorded as wounded are likely to have died of their wounds. The aftermath of the battle and subsequent crackdown on Jacobitism were brutal, and earned Cumberland the sobriquet "Butcher". The next two days the moor was searched and all those wounded were put to death.
Wikipedia provided this information. Please support them.
Wednesday 20th April
Today Deborah and David went off “shopping” in Inverness. They actually went to the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. Apparently they were not particularly delighted by the exhibits in the Museum. It was a pity that there was no clear direction to take to go around the Museum. The Art Gallery had an exhibition to do with architecture but that grabbed them even less than the Museum! Oh well, you can’t please everyone!
Thursday 21 April Brahan Castle
David’s Great x2 Grandmother was born at Brahan Castle, located on the Seaforth Estate. It was the setting where the first defeated Clan after Culloden, was gathered and forced to surrender their arms.
David and Deborah went off there today for a couple of hours or so. Actually there is no castle left as it was demolished in 1951. However It was unlikely to be in the actual castle itself but in one of the worker’s houses his ancestor was born. Here is David’s pedigree on his father’s side of the family in his own words:
My great great Grandmother, Mary Wright was born at Brahan Castle, 2 November 1817. Her parents – John Wright from Stornoway and Lydia De la Caye Acres from England, were married at Brahan on 9 September 1816. John Wright was a joiner so was probably working at Brahan Castle – the residence of the Seaforth McKenzies. He worked at Seaforth Lodge, Stornoway and other properties in Lewis 1825-1826.
Mary Wright married Daniel Josiah Mitchell on board the Revenue Cutter at Stornoway, 9 July 1839. Their first child, Joannah Mitchell married Peter McCaskill in Liverpool 3 Dec 1863. Eventually they emigrated to New Zealand and their sixth child, born in Temuka 28 March, 1877, was my grandmother, Marion McCaskill.
D & D took me out for a walk when they got home even though it was nearly time for my dinner at 4.30pm. They had forgotten to bring any poobags and I decided to do two lots down on the main drag. Deborah had to nip around the corner to home to get a couple of those brown bags and save the day.
After my dinner we all sat outside in the sun for about an hour as it was so hot. Deborah even fetched her sunhat and some suntan lotion. She was reading A House in Fez by Suzanna Clarke who is the wife of Sandy, Deborah’s first boyfriend –an all very innocent teenage romance. David raced through it and does not usually enjoy reading so much. Deborah seems to be enjoying it too! David is now on to a book Deborah borrowed from the library titled Marrakech Express by Peter Millar. After that she didn’t get time to read it herself!
As it was the Queen’s 90th birthday there were two programmes on TV with some personal footage and commentaries by members of the family. As usual Deborah was more interested in those programmes than David. They both enjoyed a very interesting programme about Pompei and how the bodies came to be preserved there whereas nearer Vesuvius only skeletons were found.
Tuesday 26 April
As usual D & D told me they were off “shopping” but in fact they went off on a trip on the Caledonian Canal. Deborah spotted a poster in the library about free trips on the Canal for disabled people. She wrote to the website and they told her that although she is no longer seen as a disabled person in NZ she could go on a trip.
Today there were supposed to be three other people going on the trip but they did not turn up! The trip is on the Caledonian Canal, cruising the 4.5 miles between Caley Marina and Dochgarroch, which took exactly 2 hours.
There were four retired gentlemen who took them out along the canal. They enjoyed the conversations with the men as frankly the scenery either side of the canal was not very interesting. They could see the neat stone walls along the side of the canal and gorse bushes. After an hour when they came to a lock the boat turned around. David had a go at steering the boat but Deborah declined. They were provided with a cup of tea on arrival and during the voyage. Chocolate biscuits were also available!
D & D bought a few small souvenirs and gave a donation to the Seagull Trust. The ‘Highland Cross Seagull’ was officially named by Princess Anne as Princess Royal in 2012 at Seaport Marina Inverness. During the last three years, over 6000 passengers have been carried.
Monday 2 May
Grandad came home this evening. I knew something was going on all day as D & D were busy cleaning the house from top to bottom. David was taking cases and boxes out to the car. At first I could hardly believe my ears when I heard Grandad’s voice. As soon as I saw him I was so happy!
So now it is time for me to rest happily ever after with Grandad and to say goodbye to you all. Over and out to Deborah. Woof! Woof!
Journey to London
David Livingstone Centre
We left Inverness at 9.45am and headed south according to TomTom our faithful GPS’s plan. At one stage Deborah noticed that there was a David Livingstone Centre which was a Scottish National Trust Property. We decided to make a small detour to Blantyre and do a visit. It was very interesting as we ended up with a man guiding us around. David Livingstone was born here in 1813 and began work in the cottonmill at the age of 10, working a 12 hour day followed by school lessons. At the age of 24 he did a two year course in London covering medical practice, midwifery and botany. He went off to Africa to convert the natives and walked thousands of miles across the continent. He only had one convert – a chief who was none too pleased to have to give up polygamy as were the families of the brides sent home! However according to Wikipedia The Kwena tribe leader kept rainmaking a part of his life as well as polygamy. Livingstone was a leader in the efforts to abolish slavery. It grieves me to know that slavery still exists in our modern world.
Air BNB at Galgate
If you haven’t read our earlier blogs may we recommend Air BNBs. They are people’s homes where you can stay and pay somewhat less than for a hostel or hotel. The hosts are usually very interesting people.
We had worked out that Galgate was more than halfway to London so we had booked a stay there with Jonathan. He was born in Zimbabwe where his parents still live. He teaches in the Management School of the University of Lancaster around the corner.
One of the cats had found a small black mouse-like creature which turned out to be a shrew. Jonathan got it off the cat and sent it on its way.
Joanthan’s house is very old with very uneven floors. We had a very comfortable room with two single beds. The only problem was that I could not climb into the very high bath to take a shower. The bath bottom was also very narrow and slippery so I did not chance it!
We had a great chat with him and later with his partner Daniel. I had a short conversation with his daughter, Kate, who came in very late after preparing for exams.
Air BNB in London
We had thought of calling in to Coventry as we headed to London but we were glad we kept on driving steadily to London. Guy, a violinist, arrived just as we were trying to find a suitable place to park. We were very disappointed to find only a sofabed. As it was advertised as a “real” bed that is false advertising! However it was a very nice small flat in Wimbledon in a rather rundown cul de sac without the “cul” or round bottom.
We left soon after arriving at Guy’s house as our friends Stuart and Alison had invited us for a light meal in spite of the fact they had a family bereavement to deal with. We got caught up in a traffic jam so a 17 minute journey took nearly one and a half hours! Our hosts had a wonderful spread of food for us. We left our large case and a plastic box in the house.
Back at our digs for the night we met Beth who is another young musician.
The next day we headed back to Queens Road to leave our car. Stuart happened to arrive just at that moment. He accompanied us to the station and helped David purchase the train ticket to send us out to Luton Airport. Another journey has begun...
Morocco
We used our new TWO TOGETHER railcard (£30) to get from Wimbledon to Luton Airport (£20.60) which gives you a third off the price. We were booked into the Luton Ibis Hotel.
The next morning we got a bus from the outside the hotel next door although in fact the airport was very close. If you are taking an Ryan Air flight you need to allow heaps of time as we were rushing through the system to get to the gate on time. It was a jungle of people. If you had a case to drop in you had to spend time in one line and then go to a second to get checked before the x-ray machines. I put myself in the Business Plus line with my walking stick and got us through quicker.
We had a flight to Nîmes which took about 2 hours. We had to reclaim our baggage and go through the system again. We had a break and something to eat and then boarded a plane for Fez, Morocco.
Friday 6 May Arrival in Fez/Fes Our Beautiful Riad Yamanda
As promised there was a man at the airport to take us into town in his van. I took about 20 minutes and the price had been prearranged at €15 = 150 dirhams.
You can’t drive in the Medina but the driver was able to get to a parking area. Then we went on foot for about 4 minutes to the Riad Yamanda. From the non descript street we were not prepared for the beautful interior of Moroccan mosaics of hand cut tiles known as zellij. We looked heavenward into the atrium which in our riad is covered with glass windows but open in others. It is truly magnificent. I think the red chandelier spoils the look.
Our room on the ground floor is about two storeys high. The room is about 10 metres long. About one third of the wall is narrow oblong lapis blue tiles interlaced into diamond shapes with white square tiles both small and large. Above that is a different pattern which has some pink semi-circular and oval tiles. Facing onto the atrium there are two high carved wooden doors with a second set above the first. Very large heavy curtains with red velvet flowers on grey material are lifted to each side. On either side of the doors are double windows with shutters. Above each window is a coloured glass semi-circular window. Surrounding the window is a circular design chiselled into the plaster gips and above that a frieze which continues around the whole oblong room.
The floors are also tiled in a diamond style pattern with every second tile being white interspersed with terra cotta, green, black and blue. In the middle section there are large slabs of marble surrounded by a blue and white pattern of tiles. The ceiling is wooden painted design. A large beautifully crafted lighting fixture with coloured glass hangs from the ceiling. It all has to be seen to be believed!
We have a Queen-sized bed and then there are two long backless sofas with cushions.
The bathroom has a tilled floor too and a white ceiling at one storey level.
Our hostess is an intelligent young woman named Fatima Zohra. We call her Fatima bleue as she often wears a lovely electric blue overdress or jellaba with white trimming. She is assisted by another Fatima who does most of the kitchen work and making the beds. There is a tall thin young man named Yousef who is around some of the time. When we come in he is often sittting in the atrium doing nothing. I must ask if he can read. He could use the time to enjoy himself or learn something – there goes the teacher in me!
Our first stay cost $41 + $5 booking fee = $46 a night for Bed and Breakfast. We booked through air BNB.
Gala Concert
When we booked to come to Fes we found out that there were would the Festival of Sacred Music on at that time. We had paid about NZ$100 for the opening evening titled A Night Full of Stars. This was based on the story of Sherherazade and was billed as a journey of discovery into the history of Morocco and the myths of the East. We had been told to get there early so as to have a good seat.
In the queue we met an Irene Feuz, an Australian whom we invited to sit with us. Unfortunately she only had a B ticket so she had to sit in a section further back. We were in the A section which was a raised section behind all the invited guests and the two princesses associated with it. I asked a young man sitting next to me why the King of Morocco’s wife was only a princess and not a Queen but he did not know. The second “princess” had earlier been described to me as the Queen of Qtar.
We were in the A stand but we could not see the princesses! The evening began well with an introduction in French, Arabic and English. Most of the programme however was in French which I thought was rather insulting. My favourite was the Ethopian woman in a white dress who had a sexy, earthy voice and dared to move her body and thereby her boobs so tantalizingly. There was an Indian singer who flung her long dreadlocks around her body while playing a drum with one hand, a stringed instrument with the other and dancing in circles. Another woman who wore the gold (or was it green?) dress with green lining in the sleeves also had a beautiful voice and knew how to use it and the microphone well. There was a group of Azerbaijani women playing metallic sounding Qanun very well. The instrument resembles a large autoharp. The strangest group was that of very large three puppets manipulated by the an operators who each sat high up on the puppet. It was a pity we did not have a programme. I felt sorry for locals and for David who could not understand the French. It
The ever changing lighting was superb and helped create the atmosphere so well. The sound system was also very well done.
Unfortunately the show started late at about 9.30pm as the guests of honour arrived late. Just as it began it started to rain. As it was an outdoor venue the umbrellas came out and the poor young guy to my left could not see the show well until the rained stopped again.
Sandy McCutcheon and his friends wrote very fair reviews of the event. See
http://riadzany.blogspot.se/2016/05/fes-festival-2016-opening-night-review.html
Saturday 7 May
Unfortunately David had another bout of diarrhoea so we had to take things easy. We walked around the Medina and looked at various goods. We decided to go to the tannery and a man pointed the way. Sometime later when we got lost he suddenly appeared again and led the way. We knew this routine which we learned in Egypt. A man showed us around the tannery from on high was which a great way to see it. There is a new tannery waiting to be visited by the King before it can be used. We had a look at some leather goods but did not buy so our self appointed “guide” went off without any commission.
We met up with the Australian woman Irene at the Clock Cafe. We went up to the terrace but she came later and waited downstairs. David finally went down to get her.
After dinner we set off for a free concert of Sufi music. We had to wait for ages. Irene told us about her filming of aboriginal elders and about how things are in aboriginal communities. Some boys came along and talked to Irene using a bit of English and French. We listened to a few songs but Irene was not feeling very well and did not want to walk back alone so we decided to call it a night too.
Sunday 8 May What is a Museum?
We got up at 11.00am. We went to the Institut Franҫais nearby to find out where the Galerie of Photographs is as there seem to be 3 venues. There were two policemen who told us to come back at 5.00pm.
We trotted off the Fez Museum. Entry was only 10 dirhams each. It is located in a magnificent building with a large garden. In each room there was an attendant. The men variously wore a smart navy blue uniform and another a suit and the women white trouser outfits with red writing saying they belonged to a cleaning company. On their heads they had red scarves.
The first room had parchment documents such as a wedding certificate and a Koran. The notes were in Arabic and French so at least we knew what we were looking at. There were several beautiful copper astrolabes. They were used to make astronomical measurements, of the altitudes of stars, and in navigation for calculating latitude, before the development of the sextant.
Another room had clothing such as wedding belts and heavy necklaces. A further room had only a few doors, locks and interesting looking keys. A Jewish candlestick was on display perhaps to remind us of the Jewish population who once lived here. A final room also held guns, knives and a saddle.
This museum did not light any great fires in my mind. Frankly it would not draw children in nor teach anyone any history as there was no social context for the pieces on display. How does it dare to call itself a museum?
My research tells me that: According to the ICOM Statutes, adopted by the 22nd General Assembly in Vienna, Austria on August 24th, 2007:
A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.This definition is a reference in the international community.
Although there is not supposed to be any alcohol sold in the medina we had a beer and chocolate milk in the Café des Jeunes. We went to another place called Disney for a tajine of dried meat with egg which cost 20 dirhams each. We returned to the Institut Franҫais after 5.00pm as instructed. The two policemen fetched a man who appeared to be drunk and raved on at us so we left.
Monday 9 May Breakfast and Find the Concert
As usual we began the day with three types of bread plus butter, jam, small packets of soft cheese and back olives. The bread and the additions change. The first day we had oil and honey and other breads. To drink a fresh orange drink plus coffee for David and milk and chocolate for me. The promised decaf coffee has still not appeared.
We set off for a leisurely walk outside the Medina. We wandered down to the Park where the concert was to take place in the afternoon. A gate was open so we strolled in and sat by the lake to eat our bananas. It was really a sort of botanical garden. We were intrigued by an earthen building which appeared to be part of the old Medina wall which was the “Initiative for Human Development” which frankly looked like a prison. It had bars over the three high up windows. We skirted the building and finally found an earthen ramp which led up to a locked door. No sign of life!
We decided to go back into the park but the gate was now locked. We continued on around the park and found the entrance to where the concert was to have taken place. However due to the rain we were told that it had been cancelled. We continued on our way but decided to retrace our steps. A taxi driver foisted his card on us for trips but also told us that the concert would now take place down the road at the Prefecture. Chaos reigned.
We got talking to a nice French couple, Elizabeth and Michel from Versailles, who also wanted tickets. It turned out that they had been members of SERVAS the Peace Homestay organisation, as a newly married couple over 40 years ago. Michel has worked in Personnel Resources for his career and they have four children. An Australian was trying to convert his piece of paper into a ticket but was told the ticket person was not yet there. Some time later the same woman who said that, was busy selling tickets! We thought the tea and food was for the special guests but eventually realised we too could buy a cup of tea and nibble some small sweet pastries.
The concert (150 dirhams = NZ$ 21) was advertised as being Maria Mazzotta (singing) and Maristella (dancer) from Italy. In fact there were three singers mostly singing in harmony accompanied by a violin, accordion, guitar and tambourine. When the dancer performed the singers usually had a rest. The large room got rather stuffy and I found myself drifting off sometimes. However it was a great concert with people getting up and dancing near the end. Here is part of Sandy’s review:
When the group from the heel region of Salento finally made it to the stage they roused the crowd with a three-part song in the Griko language, the women wailing more than singing and their close harmonies and polyphonic movements coming as a wonderful surprise to the uninitiated. This surprise was nothing, though, compared to what followed: a taranta dance by Maristella Martella, who went into a feverish whirl that was thrilling and terrifying to watch in equal measures. She was a woman possessed, in an ecstatic fit, who, with her hair and body and shawl, did everything except collapse on the carpet floor, which seemed a real danger given how they overlapped.
This was all done to the sound of guitars and tambourines, and that jingly drum sums them up: ancient, wild and sensationally, anacreonticly fun. The high-octane performance did have some slower songs and tunes but these brought nowhere near the cheer as those where they let it rip. Despite the great music, the real star was Maristella Martella, who ended the event by summoning the large crowd to their feet and leading them all in one final physical frenzy. “Her energy and vitality was amazing,” said first-time festival-goes Mihai from Romania, “and to hear this rare language of Griko performed in this living European tradition was a great experience.”
As we left the three French puppeteers with their gigantic puppets turned up with music playing so we followed the crowd after them down the road. I noticed a place that offered a bread roll filled with meat plus some chips for only 10 dirhams each which is about $1.50. We sat down on seats on the street and watched the world continue by and awaited our meal which was very tasty.
Finally off “home” to answer emails and write our blogs. David went to bed at 10.15pm but I read my novel for an hour or so.
Tuesday 10 May Two Festival Events
A Prize
In my emails was one from the Archives in Inverness, Scotland, telling me I had won a prize for the Jacobite Quiz when they had documents to do with the Battle of Culloden on display. That means I have a one hour consultation for David with the Family History Librarian which will have to be by email or Skype as we don’t intend to return to Inverness.
A Cookery Lesson
David had a cookery lesson with Fatima Bleue.
We went to the market and bought the ingredients – vegetables, mint,chickpeas and lamb. I cooked my favourite Harira soup, a pumpkin sweet dessert and a lamb tagine with dried apricots and prunes. Deb and I ate this for our midday meal then had the rest of the soup with bread in the evening. Fatima was a good and patient teacher.
I went off to a talk by a French Jewish woman who is a photographer.
I went to a square just outside the Medina. I asked a taxi how much it would cost me. He said 20 dirhams but Fatima Bleue had already told me that 7 should suffice. I finally found a man who had a meter and charged me 7 so I gave him one more as a tip. He qualified as a chef but worked in France as a taxi driver and is now here in the same job.
I was looking at my map and the usual lurking man came along to show me the way. It was dark outside the door and by mistake I gave him all my coins which I later realised amounted to something like 17 dirhams ($2.50) for 2 minutes work!
A Photographer’s Slides and Talk
I was first to arrive at the Riad Karawan! Catherine Bendayan, 62, is single and loves talking to people. She came over and spoke to me. I then spent time with two colleagues who organise theatrical events from the Nantes – Rennes region talking about NZ and trying to persuade Maurice to listen to some Māori music as music is his speciality.
Catherine showed us slides of women of many cultures. She also talked about a dry country – Mali and a project to build a dam there so that the women could grow food. The second country was deemed a wet country – Vanuatu but I am not sure why. There did not seem to be a project in the same sense as the Mali project. I think she was just recording their dances and dress as part of her interest in ethnography. Just at the end she spoke of her book and mentioned the sort of women she had interviewed.
I had asked a couple of French people if I could walk back to the square with them and then Helga joined us with the same request. She is a German woman who lives in France. They asked a taxi to take all four of us. A man told us to follow him. In the end he said cam back with a white van. Before we stepped in I asked how much each and he said 10 dirhams so we said no way. Then he said he could only take two and it would be 10 for the two of us so Helga agreed. He kept on raving on and I was worried about the quality of his driving so I asked him to watch the road. He was flailing his arms about and turning to talk to us. He finally calmed down and apologised as we drove the three miles to the Batha Square.
I did not have any change to pay my share so I planned to buy some water. As it turned out Helga is staying in the Riad Jasmine right next door to us! Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to pay her my share.
Hawniyaz – a Kurdish Group
After eating the delicious meal which David had prepared we walked to the Prefecture to watch the afternoon’s concert at 4.30pm. The programme is printed in a tiny font and told us that we would hear Hawniyaz a performing group inspired by Kurdish and Azeri traditions. The singer was named simply Aynur on the programme. Aynur Doğan is a contemporary Kurdish singer and musician of Kurdish ancestry from Turkey. She has sung on stage with the Cologne Philharmonic. Cemîl Qoçgirî is a Turkish-Kurdish tembur player who was born in Germany in 1980. The tembur is a long necked flute. The third member of the group was an older man at the piano who was mostly playing jazz style but he was not mentioned in the programme. A little research on the web told me he was Salman Gambarov is an Azerbaijani jazz pianist and composer.
I was very surprised at hearing the traditional eastern singing combined with jazz piano. The grand piano gave out beautiful warm bass notes. Salman was a very skilled player. Aynur performed sitting down which is most unusual. I somehow did not warm to her singing. As David commented they did not seem to be communicating with each other and it took a long time for them to warm up. Near the end Aynur sang shorter and more interesting pieces which I enjoyed. The tembur lute did not add a lot to the music. It was a pity each song and its theme was not introduced. That was a failing throughout the festival.
Wednesday 11 May
Photographic Exhibition
We had the usual problem of finding a red taxi which would take us to the Institut Franҫais. We seem to line up in the wrong place! We wanted to see the exhibition of photos billed as Dialogue des Cultures et Religions which was sponsored by Austria. There were about 20 photos all by different photographers. The first one we looked had in the foreground two young people of different ethnic groups talking to each other amicably while in the background an older man was getting angry with someone else. There happened to be a diagonal metal bar between the two groups and the photographer described that as a metaphorical divide which we found a bit over the top! Other photographers put their interpretations on things that were not to be seen at all in the photos.
Taxis
We wandered around for a bit looking to see if there were any large department stores in this more chic part of town near the Avenue Hassan II but found none. We could not get a taxi to take us back. They would take people who arrived after us! We could not figure out why. When we eventually found a taxi and got back to the south end of the Medina I asked a man manning a barricade. He said “We are not racist.” I replied that I had not said they were racist. Those were his words. He then told me that taxi drivers like tourists as they pay more and give tips. David thought that maybe it would be harder to get a return fare. Our return driver had in fact picked up an extra passenger, a young woman, as we came through so he would have got a fare from her too! A mystery still to be worked out.
The Market
We explored the vegetable market and ran into Fatima Bleue who was shopping there as she had guests for dinner tonight. The man gave us four free apricots before we bought 6 bananas for 13 dirhams (NZ$2). Further on we came to a very large open space from where we could see the white tombs in a large cemetery outside the Medina walls on a hill. There was a secondhand clothes market in tents of various sizes with mostly clothes for men and children. We went back to a stall near the Bab Boujloud or Blue Gate where for 10 dirhams (NZ$1.50) you get a good sized slit round bun with cooked onions and mixed meat in it. Very tasty.
On the Terrace
We went straight home and up on to the terrace about four storeys up and enjoyed our meal in the sun. We had a great view of the whole of the Medina from the rooftop. We sat and read until the wind started up again and the rain clouds appeared to coming nearer to drop their load upon us. We came down the dark stairs only to find a locked door. Then we realised that we had taken the wrong staircase. Up we went again and down the naturally lighter, brighter stairwell.
Guitar Concert
At 8.20pm we trotted 10 metres around the corner to the house which once belonged to the Italian ambassador. It is now called the International Centre for Intercultural Dialogue. Twice a day there is a concert there of Andalusian Music. We arrived to find only a small group at a table.
As the atrium is open and there are often sudden gusts of rain we were seated in a side room. We brought our seats out a little so we were sitting directly in front of the two guitarists. We both ordered a beer. They also brought us some olives and small nibbles. Two young guitarists played classical music with great skill. The more handsome one who communicated in English at the beginning was called Karim. His friend always looked down and said nothing.
When they took a break a man came and turned the background music on and forgot to turn it off. We didn’t notice that until a woman was singing opera and it was clashing with their playing! David went and turned it off with the remote. An English couple came and sat near us but the woman could not see both players. We four decided to leave at 10.00pm as we were rather cold. The evening’s concert with drink and nibbles included was 100 dirhams each (NZ$15).
Thursday 12 May 2016
Morning Concert
At 10.30am we went to a concert by children. As we arrived two Indian boys and instrumentalists were performing. Then we had a teenage choir wearing red scarves. Following them was a well trained large group of 10 to 11 year olds wearing coloured tops and some wearing masks. They sang action songs a couple of which were in French. Later they were using sticks in other action songs. The oddest performance was a man with microphone to his mouth making an odd noise. Finally the two Indian boys sang with the whole group.
Afternoon Concert at the Jardin Jnan Sbil
Met Mary Arden from California who has been working at the Hoffman Institute for 20 years running courses. She has Quaker friends back home. Her friend Michael eventually turned up too.
The women’s Amazigh Sufis from Tiznit by the name of Agraw consisted of 11 mostly plump women. They were all dressed in a long filmy white fringed shawl over the head and down over the arms. Each had a black burka over her face usually covering the nose. They wore scarlet long sleeved jackets with long black skirts with colourful embroidery on the bottom. Most had various silver or colour bracelets and rings on. They were seated on cushions. The singing was lead by a woman in the middle and was sometimes accompanied by 2 metallic drums.
On Sandy McCutcheon’s The View from Fez there was this comment from Hedd Thomas:... It was fascinating for some, with the Australian describing the whole thing as “a joyous, colourful, gaggle of rhythm,” but, understandably, its highly repetitive nature left many satisfied sooner than expected, and a slow but steady stream of people left the Jardin before the 6 o’clock rain brought the spectacle to a sudden end.
We bought some delicious large flattish macaroon cakes on the way home. 10 dirhams each was far too much! There are about 7 dirhams to the NZ dollar. We paid one dirham each for some later in Marrakech which were slightly smaller. Buyer beware!
We had dinner at the Cafe-Restaurant Laglali. The menu at 70 dirhams came down to 50 very quickly without our saying a word! Very nice meal. First we were offered green olives. Starter for David was bean soup and I had a Moroccan salad with tomatoes, cucumber, parsley and a few olives. Then David had tagine of mince meat and I had a vegetarian dish. Both were steaming hot and well presented. This was served with the very nice Moroccan bread. To finish we had coffee and tea and some Moroccan cakes. It's great for watching the world go by in the Medina not far inside the Blue Gate. We warmly recommend this cafe. Good food and service.
At 10.00pm we headed for the open space where free concerts are held. Once it got going it was clear it was only pop tunes. The wandering audience (there were no chairs) was mostly young lads of about 16 or 17. There were few girls and families by the time we left.
At 10.40 pm we arrived at the garden near home called Dar Tazi. We were early so we got a front seat on the carpet next to a young woman, Mamoni, and her four year old daughter. She spoke some English and I found out that she teaches “second chance” children four hours a day.
I took this material straight from Faith Barker’s review on The View from Fes:
Thursday night’s Sufi Nights performance was given by the national firqa (musical group) of the Boutchichiyya tariqa, a brotherhood which has been at the forefront of the revival of Sufism in Morocco. ... Musically, the group stood out from the other brotherhoods who have performed this week because they use no musical instruments or percussion. The courtyard of Dar Tazi was filled with the sounds of their intertwining voices. The lack of percussion didn’t matter because their chanting created its own rhythms, and they staggered their breathing so each piece was a continuous thread of sound, a rich tapestry where individual voices came into focus and then blended in again. There were hints of polyphony, and sections where one main voice took the lead and the others accompanied him in an undertone.
Although we did not understand one word we enjoy the musicality of the concert and the deeper spiritual context. I thought of words and stories from the bible as they sang. It was far more interesting than the women’s group in the afternoon and it was free as well! By the time we left to go home it was 12.15am but the concert had not yet finished. We both had emails to answer so we didn’t go to bed until 1.15am.
Friday 13 May 2016 Afternoon Concert
We were at the afternoon concert today early so we could be in the front row. However we were sent to the second row for the mythical people who never come. Met James who moved to the front row and David and others joined him. They then brought a few more chairs and made a new front row and did not allow anyone to put their posteriors on these hallowed chairs!
Virginia Rodrigues – Brazil's Celestial Voice - Review by Lynn Sheppard [Taken from The View from Fes where you can also see the photos]
Virginia Rodrigues' band opened their afternoon performance appropriately with a song summery-sounding track which seemed to celebrate the improvement in the weather. Upbeat and sunny, it circulated around the audience like the light breeze which blew through the palms of Jnan Sibil and heralded the arrival on stage of Ms Rodrigues herself...
Rodrigues' repertoire ranges across many genres. Some tracks sounded choral, like they wouldn't be out of place in a church, while others had a more festive, samba beat. Some, like the second track of her set, sounded more jazzy or drew on the famous Brazilian bossa nova rhythms. But the passion and emotion of the lyrics, not to mention the incredible range of her voice, immediately set Ms Rodrigues apart from vocalists of the easy listening variety, even for those of us who don't understand Portuguese.
Today's concert was an opportunity to showcase Rodrigues' new album, Mama Kalunga, which was released just last month. The album tracks were arranged by the three musicians on stage with her today: Bernardo Bosisio (guitar), Lura Ranevsky (cello) and Marco Lobo (percussion). The set also drew on her other four albums and showcased each of the musicians' talents as well as Rodrigues' vocals and her unusual grunts and gasps.
Many of the tracks were based around a huge range of traditional and less traditional percussion sounds, created from shells, bells, plastic tubing, a plastic bottle, a birdsong whistle and the distinctly more recognisable drums and tambourine. One track featured percussionist Marco Lobo wearing ankle bells and playing a berimbau (a single stringed percussion instrument resembling a bow) opposite Rodrigues in a kind of duel on stage.
Although Rodrigues began the set with more solemn and melancholic songs, as the concert continued, the mood lifted. With the fantastic weather and in the lush green setting of the Jnan Sibil gardens, it was impossible not to be joyous and once the vocalist introduced a samba from her native Bahia, several members of the audience - the young and young at heart - were on their feet dancing.
By the end of the set, Rodrigues was dazzling us all not only with her voice but with her smile. She would have brought a ray of sunshine to Fez, no matter the weather. She seemed to be energised by the enthusiasm of the crowd and began lift her skirts and wiggle her hips around the stage. At the end of more than 1.5 hours on stage, she shimmied off, only to be called back for an encore, which she granted with an absolutely stunning accapella spiritual track. And with that, our journey to Brazil was over and the crowd dispersed through the gardens into the medina of Fez.
Review and photographs: Lynn Sheppard
I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with Virginia’s performance. It was too melancholy at the beginning and took ages to warm up. However she gave each of her three fellow musicians space to show their talents. That final unaccompanied song was extremely moving in a way none of the other songs had been.
Saturday 14 May 2016. Volubilis, Moulay Idriss and the Medina of Meknès
The Fes Tour Company had quoted us at least 1,000 dirhams plus hire of a guide at Volubilis and tips so we set out to do it cheaper and have some adventures.
The first mini-adventure was taking the red taxi to the station. All seemed well as he had a meter which we could see ticking along. We suddenly realised that we should have left home earlier but we got held up at the gate.
We were in a rush as the train was due to arrive in about 6 minutes. I raced into an information office and asked a young man if we could buy tickets on the train. He said we could but we would pay 10% more. We raced down under the track to the other side. We only found one seat on the train facing in the direction we were moving and David seat in a seat which was in the wrong direction. An official came through and I said in French I wanted to buy tickets but he continued through the train.
We saw lovely countryside as we enjoyed the halfhour ride to Meknès. As we got off another official asked if we had paid and I said we hadn’t but I had tried to do so. He then said we each had to pay 35 dirhams! I was not happy as we had expected to pay 20 and this was 75% extra! We paid up.
We stepped outside the station and I asked a policeman where we could get a taxi to go to Volubilis, Moulay Idriss and then back to the Medina. A man came up and said he said 300 and I agreed but then said we wanted a driver who spoke English. However we got Rashid who only spoke a little French and drove a rather battered old Mercedes. David sat in the front with him. From behind one could see a large sheet of plywood with a belt of strong material around it which was screwed together to hold the front seats in a row. The front & back door pulls were wooden as well. No seat belts to be seen.
It was beautiful and lush green out in the valley. There were many olive trees as that is an important industry. On the way back David noticed some sunflowers too. It took about 30 minutes to get to Volubilis.
Entry was 20 dirhams each. A guide popped up and demanded 200 dirhams. I said 100. He said 150. I said yes! Baha is a tall, handsome, intelligent man with good English.
The ruins are divided into the upper and lower parts. The lower parts were developed first as they were nearer the river and the upper later. The origins of its name are unknown but may be a Latinisation of the Berber word oualilt, meaning oleander, or desert rose, which grows along the sides of the valley.
It was part of the kingdom of Mauretania which became the western most stated in the Roman Empire after the fall of Carthage in 146 BC.
After Claudius annexed Mauretania in 44 AD, the city grew substantially due to its wealth and prosperity, derived from the fertile lands of the province which produced valuable export commodities such as grain, olive oil and wild animals for gladiatorial spectacles.
At its peak in the late 2nd century, Volubilis had around 20,000 inhabitants – a very substantial population for a Roman provincial town– and the surrounding region was also well inhabited, to judge from over 50 villas discovered in the area. There is still much to be excavated.
Juba II of Numidia was placed on the Mauretanian throne by Augustus in 25 BC and turned his attention to building a royal capital at Volubilis. Educated in Rome and married to Cleopatra Selene II, the daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Juba and his son Ptolemy were thoroughly Romanised kings, although of Berber ancestry; their preference for Roman art and architecture was clearly reflected in the city's design.
I am indebted to Wikipedia for most of this information.
We saw some beautiful mosaics still in situ in the grand villas on the higher ground. The first one was of Diana the huntress naked in her bath with her naked maids. She is shooting the peeping tom whom she has turned into a deer. We saw another version of the same scene in another villa but it was less colourful. Obviously it was the scene of the day to have on your villa floor! Villas might also have their own heating system under the floors and their own bathing facilities. Some mosaics featured the wild animals which roamed around and others included the four seasons.
I remember a mosaic of Medusa’s head. She was described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place of hair. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weapon , which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, until he gave it to the goddess Athenato place on her shield.
There was another famous mosaic of the Gordian or continuous knot which is associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem) solved easily by loophole or "thinking outside the box" or as Alexander did by just cutting the Gordian knot. There is the interesting story of where the name came from on Wikipedia, my research friend!
Water and flowed under blocks of stone which could be easily lifted along a grand road between a simple Roman gateway and a triumphal Arch at the other end. There were also arcades of shops. We saw the large olive press apparently worked by human labour.
After an hour our tour was over and before we left our guide was busy two more clients. Rashid drove us over to Moulay Idriss and told us firmly to be back in 30 minutes by 1.00 pm. He had suggested that we might want to have a lunch break but we wanted to wait until we got back to Meknès.
Moulay Idriss I arrived in 789, bringing with him the religion of Islam, and starting a new dynasty. In addition to founding the town named after him, he also initiated construction of Fez. The town itself is compact and mostly situated on the hill.
Just off the main square is the Mausoleum of Idriss I, a sacred destination that is open only to Muslims. We came to a wooden barrier and were asked if we were Muslims so we had to say that we weren’t.
A lad who spoke some French decided to take us up some steep steps so we could look down at the unattainable mausoleum building. In fact there was the large shrine, a medium sized mosque and a much smaller possibly somewhat older mosque in the same complex – all with green curved tiles. Also of note was the round minaret at another mosque the only one in Morocco. When we came down the young man ask if it had been a good tour and I said it would have been better if he spoke English! He then cheekily demanded 150 dirhams but only got 30 from us. I suggested that he should negotiate a price at the beginning and not ask for a ridiculous amount at the end.
Back in Meknès Rashid stopped on a hill so we could get a good view of the walls around the medina and then dropped us off near the Place El Hedhim Place Lahdim. We enjoyed a lunch of Moroccan harira soup and bread in the square. Then we went to the Dar Jamai Museum where we were twice pursued by employees wanting to give their expertise and possibly gain a tip. It was in a lovely setting but no better than the Fes Museum. We wandered round the shops and markets for a while but it was mostly day to day things for sale.
We took a blue taxi to the station. He picked up another fare not far from the station. We had a long wait train 20 minutes late. When we arrived in Fes we took a Red Taxi who then picked up another fare and took us on a slight detour to drop her off. We were stuck in a traffic jam for a few minutes.
We had dinner at Tham’s Restaurant. We were intrigued when we noticed his sign said “Welcome Sandy”. Sandy later told us that he had helped this man tidy us his restaurant and he was always welcome there. It cost 50 dh (NZ$7.60) for harira soup plus chicken pastilla. It is a sweet and savory Moroccan pie. The traditional filling is pigeon, roasted almonds, sugar, cinnamon, eggs wrapped up in a pie (filo pastry or Warka pastry). It was dusted with icing sugar and a grid design in cinnamon.
COSTS FOR THE DAY TRIP
Red Taxi 15
Train tickets 70
Main Taxi ride 300
Entry to Volubilis 40
Guide 150
Toilet 2
Young “guide” 30
Lunch 26
Museum 20
Blue taxi 10
Train 44
Taxi 10
TOTAL 717
Dinner 130
The trip for the day therefore cost us at least thirty percent less and we had a few adventures along the way. We had to remind ourselves that we must not always take the easy way out!
Sunday 15 May Start of three day Trip
Day 1: Fez to Merzouga
David had booked this 3-day, 2-night trip from Fez to Marrakech. We had to be ready for a 7.50am pickup so Fatima left out some breakfast foods for us. We were collected from our riad by a very tall, quiet man and taken to the nearby square with the fountain.
There we found a modern four-wheel drive car complete with driver, Hassan. A few minutes later two young Canadian woman joined us. They were sisters of Punjabi descent whose parents were born in England and Scotland but had emigrated to Canada. Jeevan has done a year of Biology study but plans to change course while Kanchan how has done Political Science and Islamic studies and is nearing the end of her undergraduate studies.
It was a bit squashed in the back with three people so eventually we took turns to sit in the front. We drove for at least an hour and then Hassan announced we were stopping for breakfast much to our surprise. Later I looked back at the basic description of the trip and there it did mention 3 breakfasts but no breakfast was mentioned in the day’s itinerary. As we had all had breakfast we only wanted a hot drink.
We passed through Ifrane, a winter ski resort built by the French in the 1930s to resemble a Swiss village. All very nice for the rich!
We came to the cedars forest in Azrou at 89 kilometres south of Fes. We got out of the car to see some monkeys. Local people were selling peanuts which tourists were buying to feed the monkeys so to a certain extent they were playing to the audience for food. One of our fellow travellers looked up on her cellphone to find out what kind of monkeys they were.
Wikipedia subsequently informed me further on these Barbary Monkeys. They are found in the Atlas Mountains of both Morocco and Algeria. The Barbary macaque is of particular interest because males play an atypical role in rearing young. Because of uncertain paternity, males are integral to raising all infants. Males live to a maximum of 25 years while females may live up to 30 years. Besides humans, they are the only free-living primates in Europe. Although the species is commonly referred to as the "Barbary ape", the Barbary macaque is actually a true monkey. Its name refers to the Barbary Coast of North West Africa.
We asked our driver what sort of monkeys they were but he did not have a clue and made no effort to find out from his cellphone. If he is to be called a driver-guide he needs to know such basic information. Later I asked about the Morocco flag but again he could not tell me.
We drove on for hours then drive across the Middle Atlas Mountains. Most of the day was spent winding our way through the beautiful forests, springs, jagged rock faces and Berber villages.
We were supposed to stop half way for lunch in the town of Midelt apparently famous for its fossils and rocks, three hours along the way. We did not have a clue where we were as our driver gave no commentary at all. In the end we asked him at least twice when we were going to stop for lunch as were getting hungry not having eaten since about 7.00am. He asked if we liked pizzas and we said we did.
We finally stopped for “lunch” at about 4.00pm in Hassan’s hometown of Rissani. This was Seven hours into the journey instead of the midway point. He led us into some backstreets and into a large dark room. He told us that a Berber Pizza had been prepared for us. I was adamant that I had not been asked if I wanted to order one and I wanted a salad. I told Hassan in no uncertain terms that he should have asked what we wanted. After all we were paying directly for our lunch.
We continued towards Merzouga and descended towards the Sahara Desert. We stopped in a few places for photos but mostly the last part of the road was very flat and boring.
We had twice written to find out what would happen with our cases while we went on the camel ride but had no answers. We were given a room with key at the Kasbah and told to leave our bags and cases there and only take what we needed for the night. I don’t think we had any tea on arrival as in the itinerary and as is the custom. We were taken to the back of the establishment where there were camels saddled up and a new guide waiting to lead us on foot across the sandy dunes of the Erg-Chebbi.
It took one and a quarter hours to reach to the desert camp. Some tents had fallen over. There were other groups there but we did not get to talk to them. The camels were hobbled and mint tea was again supposed to be served but again I don’t remember that. We were sent up the hill to take photos. We waited a long time for dinner which was finally served at about 10.00pm. There was no communication as to what the sequence of events would be!
We then went out and the guide lit a fire and played drums and sang. We each sang a short song too. We fell into bed exhausted from a long day.
Monday 16 May Day 2: Merzouga to Gorges and Ouarzazate
The next morning we were told to be up at 7.00am to see the sunrise. There were flush toilets there but no shower. We climbed quite high up to see the sunrise. When we came down the camels were ready to go. It only took one hour this time. It is harder sitting on a camel as you go downhill! It was also hard on the flat when they walk on some of the stones.
We had breakfast in the adobe-style diningroom and then took a shower. We then returned back the way we had come. We ended up in Rissani again.
We were taken to a Kasbash where we paid maybe 10 dirhams to get in but we were told to each pay the guide 30 dirhams to show us around. It had been the palace of a man with three wives and a number of concubines. After that we had another guide who spoke reasonable English and was very pleasant, intelligent and informative. He showed us around the village, the Jewish mellah and the market and ended up at the inevitable seller of carpets. No pressure to buy, of course!
We travelled along the rugged Road of a Thousand Kasbahs that rise up like turreted sand castles along this ancient caravan trading route. I am writing this three weeks later and cannot remember clearly what we saw each day, partly due to lack of commentary from our driver. We stopped at various places where there was obviously water and a river valley was full of date palms and greenery – oases in the desert. We had lunch in a nice open air restaurant and were left to chose what we wanted.
In the afternoon we went to the Todgha Gorge. It is a canyon in the eastern part of the High Atlas Mountains near the town of Tinerhir. Both the Todgha and neighbouring Dades Rivers have carved out cliff-sided canyons (Arabic: wadi) on their final 40 kilometres through the mountains. We saw the part of last 600 metres of the Todgha Gorge which are the most spectacular. Here the canyon narrows to a flat stony track, in places as little as 10 metres (33 ft) wide, with sheer and smooth rock walls up to 160 metres (525 ft) high on each side.
David and I took a walk down the gorge. There was a hotel on the opposite side of the river on a relatively narrow strip of land on the first part. On the next section the walls narrowed down which made it feel like a room with great high walls. There were local sellers with the usual wares along one side with a wide path and the river running through on the other side. It was nice and cool as it was quite a hot day.
Back on the road David asked to stop and look at some ammonites. It was a large factory with many very large ammonites and some very grand tables and kitchen fixtures made from the marble containing the fossils. However the prices also were higher than elsewhere. As the price tags were on the smaller items the man was not prepared to haggle so he left empty-handed.
We stayed the night in Ouarzazate nicknamed The door of the desert, which is a city in south-central Morocco. We had large rooms with ensuite in the Hotel Les Jardins in Ouarzazate. However the service left much to be desired! The waiter didn’t have a clue how to serve and kept reaching across when he brought the food. We ate dinner outside and breakfast inside.
Tuesday 17 May Day 3: Ouarzazate to Marrakech
First we went to visit the Kasbah of Taourirt and then Atlas Studios movie studios, the largest in Africa. Films like The Gladiator, Babel, and Lawrence of Arabia were made in this area of Morocco.
We stopped for lunch at a place where women make products out of argan nuts. The Argan fruit is native to Morocco. The fruit of the argan tree is small and round or oval. A thick peel covers the fleshy pulp which Moroccans usually use as animal feed. The pulp surrounds a hard-shelled nut that represents about twenty-five percent of the weight of the fresh fruit. The oil is used to dip bread in at breakfast or to drizzle on couscous or pasta. Berber women do the process all by hand and make shampoos and cosmetics from the oil.
I went next door and ended up buying a lovely old Berber brooch after some hard bargaining. I was also tempted to buy a dress but it was too gaudy to wear at home often.
We passed through the High Atlas and the Tizi-n-Tichka Pass, along a road that climbs from the plains up to 2260m above sea level through small villages and waterfalls. We eventually arrived in Marrakesh and our driver took us to a place inside the Medina where we could meet our host.
Our Riad Ineslina was quite different to that of Fes. It was in the medina and the entrance was in a dark narrow alleyway. To step through the bright blue door you had to lower your head as you stepped down into the entranceway. It was more modern, less grand and had an open atrium. Our red walled room was on the first floor. It was a good size but had no table at which to work on our computers. There was an ensuite bathroom. Breakfast was mostly on the ground floor. It was a very pleasant building.
Thursday 19 May
The Majorelle Garden is a twelve acre botanical garden designed by the French artist Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s and 1930s. One walks around raised concrete paths to admire many cacti and plants often natives of Mexico. The used of vibrant colours against the greenery of the plants is gorgeous. The special shade of bold cobalt blue which he used extensively in the garden and its buildings is named after him — Majorelle Blue. There were also bright yellow pots and slippery brick red paths. I remember my mother said that she was taught that “Blue and green should never be seen”. Here blue and green shiny tiles went well together.
The garden has been open to the public since 1947. Since 1980 the garden has been owned by Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé. After Yves Saint Laurent died in 2008 his ashes were scattered in the Majorelle Garden.
The garden also houses the Islamic Art Museum of Marrakech, whose collection includes North African textiles from Saint-Laurent's personal collection as well as ceramics, jewellery, and paintings by Majorelle. It contains 600 artefacts, including wood, leather and metalwork, carpets and textiles and musical instruments. There is a display of traditional dress that Lonely Planet describes as making “Star Wars costumery look staid and unimaginative.” It continues: “ Best of all is the mirrored, midnight black, octagonal chamber displaying a sumptuous collection of chiselled, filigreed and enamelled jewels that reflect into infinity beneath a starry desert sky.”
The bookshop had some tempting titles such as Peter Mayne’s A Year in Marrakesh published in 1953. I was also tempted by a book of Popular Moroccan Fairytales and Legends collected by a woman medical doctor, Dr Légy, in 1926. If you can read French it is Contes et Légendes Populaires du Maroc. You can also download and extract from it at https://books.google.co.ma/books?id=jZ2WZOSa-aAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false
On the way home we went back to a shoe shop in the local souq or market. We had been there yesterday and I was first offered these shoes for 200. I had not even tried them on. David liked them but I was not sure. Then he went down to 150 but I was tired and said I would come back tomorrow. This morning we went to his shop but he told me the price was now 200. He said he had felt sorry for me last evening and he bent himself over as though he had seen a bent old lady! However this afternoon I tried them on and then we renegotiated the price and I ended up paying 170 dirhams (NZ$26).
The Uses or not of a Walking Stick
I am of course walking around with my walking stick. It does get me more respect and sometimes a seat on a bus. At airports I can venture into the priority line too. As I have low blood pressure it is sometime quite useful to have the stick to keep myself in balance. If I walk around gardens, museums and upstairs especially if there is no handrail it is essential. This morning a man waved his stick with a seat on it and cheerfully called “Échange.” (exchange). I almost agreed but his stick would not have fitted so well into a suitcase as mine can be shortened. When we were in French Polynesia in 2014 two dogs attacked another dog which we had minded in 2012. David yelled to me to use my stick but I couldn’t bring myself to wack the dogs. I just screamed and soon the owners came and hit their dogs on the heads with planks of wood and they all scattered away! I had hoped there might be a better way of parting the dogs. Any good suggestions?
Hamman Bath Experience
David has now ticked off three important Maroccan experiences: a cooking lesson, a couple of camel rides and then last evening a visit to a local bathhouse. He was lucky because he went in the men’s side with Jerôme, our host. Boukra, who had just had her hair cut and styled and her toenails done did not want to take a bath. She took me in the woman’s side spoke to an attendant who did not speak French and left me to it.
A man was a couple of metres into the passageway in an office which could see people entering from both sides. Entrance was 10 dirham. Boukra, who is Moroccan, gave the female attendant 40 dirham to look after me. I had grabbed a glove off the display cabinet in the riad and I had been given some special soap.
http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/africa/morocco/marrakesh/jemaa-el-fna/
Friday 20 May
Today we had breakfast on the terrace. It was really hot so we availed ourelves of the sunhats provided. By the time we have worked on our emails and got organised to go out it is usually midday. Friday is usually quieter as it is the Moslem holy day so some people close their shops.
We made our way to the Artisanal Complex where you can see all the goods which you find in the souqs but here they are at a fixed price and often slightly better made but more expensive.
We bought 8 small change purses with gold embossment for 10 dirhams each, gave the man a 100 note and I was rather surprised when the man gave me 60 change. He suddenly asked me to give him the rest of the money so I obliged.
David walked around and tried various slippers – some orange ones with ultra pointed toes but decided they were not for him. He ended up with yellow slippers with stitching around them and rubber soles.
We had mixed salads and bottled drinks for lunch in the café at the complex.
Then we went back to a shop where we had seen some intriguing little cedarwood boxes about the size of a matchbox. Slide it open and out comes a little snake. We hope that our grandson Astin will like this. A great little “trick” for April Fool’s Day. We had a Capstan tin which normally would contain cigarettes. On April Fool’s Day we would have turns at having the tin at school. We would ask our friends what they thought would be inside. I can’t remember whether we let them open the tin or whether we did. Anyway as soon as it was opened, out jumped a large spider on a spring and we called “April Fool!” All innocent childish fun.
On our way to the Maison de la Photographie we got waylaid with shopping. I made a large purchase of 3 pairs of simple Hand of Fatima earrings for 50 dirham. David saw some masks and next thing he was busy negotiating to buy a wooden desert Berber mask which a rather Asiatic looking face.
Maison de la Photographie
When Parisian Patrick Menac’h and Marrakshi Hamid Mergani realised they were both collecting vintage Moroccan photography, they decided to open a gallery to show their collections in their original context. Together they ‘repatriated’ 4500 photos, 2000 glass negatives and 80 documents dating from 1870 to 1950; select works on view here fill three floors, organised by region and theme, and include a rare, full-colour 1957 documentary shot in Morocco. Most works are editioned prints from original negatives, and are available for sale.
Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/morocco/marrakesh/sights/museums-galleries/maison-de-la-photographie#ixzz49EoPP6ax
Medersa from Lonely planet
“You who enter my door, may your highest hopes be exceeded” reads the inscription over the entryway to the Ali ben Youssef Medersa, and after almost six centuries, the blessing still works its charms on visitors. Founded in the 14th century under the Merenids, this Quranic learning centre was once the largest in North Africa, and remains among the most splendid.
Sight lines are lifted in the entry with carved Atlas cedar cupolas and mashrabiyya (wooden-lattice screen) balconies. The medersa’s courtyard is a mind-boggling profusion of Hispano-Moresque ornament: five-colour zellij (mosaic) walls; stucco archways; cedar windows with weather-worn carved vines; and a curved mihrab (eastern-facing niche) of prized, milky-white Italian Carrara marble.
The medersa (theological college) is affiliated with nearby Ali ben Youssef Mosque , and once 900 students in 132 dorms arranged around the courtyard studied religious and legal texts here. Despite upgrades with its 19th-century renovation, the Ali ben Youssef Medersa gradually lost students to its collegiate rival, the Medera Bou Inania in Fez, but the medersa still exudes magnificent, studious calm.
Djemaa El Fna (mostly from Lonely Planet)
The Djemaa El Fna or Hangman’s Square in Marrakech, is a magnificent site where you can see and hear original artistic performances such as dance, acrobatics, storytelling, fortune-telling and sorcery. It is a patchwork of ever-renewing traditions, which today are rightly counted as „Intangible World Heritage“ (UNESCO). And it happens everyday.
The hoopla and halqa (street theatre) has been non-stop here ever since this plaza was the site of public executions around AD 1050 – hence its name, which means ‘assembly of the dead’.
By 10am, the daily performance is under way. Snake charmers blast oboes to calm hissing cobras; henna tattoo artists beckon to passers by; water-sellers in fringed hats clang brass cups together, hoping to drive people to drink.
The show doesn’t peak until shadows fall and 100 chefs arrive with grills in tow, cueing musicians to tune up their instruments. This is a show you don’t want to miss – but stay alert to horse-drawn-carriage traffic, pickpockets and rogue gropers. Arrive early in the evening to nab prime seats on makeshift stools (women and elders get preference).
Applause and a few dirhams ensure an encore. It's a bargain show, and critically acclaimed too: for bringing urban legends and oral history to life nightly, Unesco declared the Djemaa el-Fna a ‘Masterpiece of World Heritage’ in 2001.
We bought a few more bits and pieces and had dinner in the square. Unfortunately we could not join the circle of storytellers as we would not understand the stories. To get an idea of the tradition I was reading In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah, who is the son of a Sufi teacher and storyteller. He lives in Casablanca.
Train from Marrakech to Casablanca
We took a yellow taxi to the station. Marrakech has a very modern train station. I used our French bank card and the young man then wanted ID so I fished out my driver’s licence. Once we had bought our tickets (296 dh)we wandered around trying to find where the tracks were. They were through glass doors and when one looked through it looked as though one was looking out on a street. It turned out you could not go through until not long before the train left. Your ticket was checked at the door. We had been advised that it was best to travel first class for several reasons. First class is air conditioned, has 6 seats rather than 8 seats per compartment and your seat is reserved. David liked the idea of air conditioning.
We found only two first class carriages and had to guess which one was car 2. A woman was sitting in one of our window seats so we asked her to move. She was reluctant to do so but admitted she did not have a window seat. We had settled in and the train was moving when a man came to claim one of our seats. It turned out that we were in the wrong carriage! However he was happy to take one of our tickets and move to the other carriage. We arrived in Casablanca about 2.00pm.
Casa Voyageur Ibis Hotel
We had chosen the Casa Voyageur Ibis Hotel as it was right by the station. As we entered it had an electronic door frame to suss out any metal. With my walking stick and David’s hip it went off but no-one asked any questions or checked us out! What is the point of this “security”? I said I hoped we had a quiet room but in fact our room 309 looked out over the station car park. It was the most basic hotel room I have ever stayed in and is in need of renovation. There was, for example, no electric kettle to make a cup of tea. I asked the housekeeper on our floor for a second chair so that we could both later do our emails. Early the next morning at about 6.30am a cacophony of car horns blasted what sounded like a daily ritual of blasts.
The breakfast was very basic. There were lukewarm scrambled eggs in a dish which could easily have had a bain marie underneath to keep the eggs warm. The pain au chocolat had been overbaked. There was no salt and pepper on the table. A number of the dishes were chipped. The young woman gave no sense of service. There was a dear wee kitten just outside the diningroom sitting looking at the lovely green lawn and private garden.
Hassan II Mosque and the Medina
We we told not to take a taxi from directly outside the hotel as they would try to overcharge us. We walked a little way and saw they had a tram system. A very nice woman advised us to go to the end of the line to a beach and then take a taxi for about 7 dirhams. The tram cards cost 1 dirham each and the trip 6 more dirhams. That is about one dollar NZ. However the journey to Aïn Diab beach lasted 45 minutes! There was a car show in this affluent suburb lying along the Atlantic Ocean so it was hard to find a break in the traffic to hail a red taxi. In the taxi we passed a lighthouse. We arrived at the massive Hassan II Mosque which sits out over the sea. Unfortunately we had missed all the tours for the day. Our Lonely Planet guide book did not mention that there were any tours on Sunday but we were told that there would be hourly hour-long tour from 9.00am the next day with the last being at 2.00pm.
A side door of the vast main room was open and a man “kindly” allowed David and a few others in to take photos. He then demanded a fee and when he saw me taking money out of my purse outside the room he indicated that discretion was the word!
We walked around the outside of the building as far as we could go but there were ugly barriers at each end which was a great pity.
We walked down a road and watched boys diving into the sea and a couple of dogs being coaxed into learning to swim! We still had about two and a half hours to kill before we were due at the evening’s restaurant so we went wandering. A man told us the restaurant was only 400 metres away and that turned out to be about right. It was incorrectly marked on the Lonely Planet map! I suddenly looked at a brass plate and there it was! So we continued on into the medina or old part of the city. We were admiring a well done cartoon on a wall when a serious but open faced man asked in French if we wanted him to explain the Arabic. He said it was something like “Between you and me Casa will be kept clean.”
Around the corner was an old colonial building which had changed hands several times depending who was in power – the French Protectorate or the local Pasha or warlord. In 1912 Morocco became a French Protectorate under the Treaty of Fez. It wasn’t until 1958 it became an independant country under King Mohammed V.
We found ourselves in the commercial area and bought a few nibbles for the train ride the next day. Soon we were in an area with mostly permanent shops and a few stalls. Before we knew it we were at the southern gate of the medina at the Place des Nations Unies (UN Square). There were a couple of water carriers who look like Tibetan characters and wear a red hat and decorated clothes. They wander the streets offering water. You can pay if you wish or theoretically take and not pay. David paid one so that he could take a photo. Back inside the medina I bought a second small box complete with snake but this time for only 30 dirhams so I did not even bother to negotiate.
Rick’s Café
My friend Sandy who lives in Fes had given us Kathy Kriger’s email to make our booking at Rick’s Café. He said to mention his name and that we would like to sit at Table 6 which turned out to be between the bar and the piano.
Pure magic is offered here from the moment you walk in the door. Perhaps romance would be a better word. The waiters are attentive. The food is superb. With our beers we were offered delicious filo sticks and the always present green and dark olives with toothpicks. I chose the curried monkfish medallions, compote of apple and dates with couscous (185 dh) and David the grilled swordfish, eggplant compote, basil oil, balsamic zucchini(135dh). The bread buns were a bit pedestrian but passable. We chose a bottle of Domaine de Sahara reserve (160dh) a lovely Moroccan white wine which was nicely chilled and complemented the fish well. We debated whether we had room for dessert but I decided upon an icecream sundae selection and David chose chocolate lava cake. These are on the menu at 60 dirhams.
From 9.00pm there was a real piano player giving us his versions of many jazz favourites or Happy Birthday if you wish. David said sweet words I had never heard before and our eyes misted over with some of the tunes which were played. This was not a cheap meal especially for Morocco but if you want a delightful and special evening with your true love I can warmly recommend this restaurant.
When the waiter came to take our order for dessert we thought he said that we were being offered desserts by the owner Kathy which was a lovely surprise and turned out to be true!
Unfortunately the toilets are downstairs and only the first part of the stairs has a railing which is easy to hold if you have a disability. On the first turn you have to hold on to the wrought iron design as there is no proper railing. Just before we left I went downstairs. I thought I had made it to the bottom but did not see a final step. I put out my walking stick to support myself not realising there was this final step. I crashed to the marble or maybe it was tiled floor and screamed very loudly about two or three times. Each time I fall I have this strange moment in time when I know I am falling, that I cannot stop it but a feeling of time moving very slowly. David was right behind me and later remarked how carefully I had been coming down the stairs. Waiters and the pianist arrived en masse. David asked for ice and I stayed seated on the cool floor for several minutes. I slept with a pillow under my swollen leg. I have a swollen knee and bruises in several spots.
Hassan II Mosque Again
For 120 dirhams we went on a one hour tour of the mosque. The female guide had a rather strong accent and sometimes did not wait for the large group to arrive before she started her commentary.
Tipping
During the tour she said that the money from the tour paid for the 90 odd people who worked at the Mosque. She said she was not paid – if we got her drift. I think maybe she was but also welcomed tips. She did not get any from us. Interestingly there was a woman in the toilets who wanted a tip but I had no small change. In the hotel when we wanted a chair, later an extra pillow and when we wanted to get our case and packs out of the hotel storage we felt obliged to give a tip. One is always trying to get change for such eventualities. There seems to be a lack of change!
Back to Fes
We took the train back to Fes and again travelled first class. There was a very attractive and wellspoken woman, named Safia, who lives in Belgium but sells Moroccan rugs to a shop in Melbourne, Australia. The second younger woman had just got engaged to her Iranian boyfriend who lives in Germany. She will get a visa for France and go to Germany from there after Muslim Ramadan in June.
Muslim Faith
If you are going to Europe or Britain it is a good idea to know about the Muslim Faith. I was surprised to see how many Muslims there were in Birmingham and other cities in the UK. Its five Pillars are:
Shahada is a declaration of faith and trust that professes that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is God's messenger.
Salat is the Islamic prayer and consists of five daily prayers.
Zakāt or alms-giving is the practice of charitable giving based on accumulated wealth.
Three types of fasting or Siyam are recognized by the Quran: Ritual fasting, fasting as compensation for repentance and ascetic fasting. Ritual fasting is an obligatory act during the month of Ramadan.
The Hajj is a pilgrimage that occurs during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah to the holy city of Mecca. Every able-bodied Muslim is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life.
An Evening with Sandy
David had decided that he would like to come to Morocco to learn Moroccan cooking and see my first boyfriend, Sandy. It is probably unfair really to say he was a “boyfriend” but he was certainly the first boy who ever kissed me. It was a very sweet and innocent relationship. I was tickled pink that Sandy remembered that first kiss and gave it one sentence in his autobiography The Magician’s Son. We actually were both astride our bicycles and we got rather tangled up! My mother never warmed to Sandy but I loved his propensity for telling a good story. This talent has led him to be a writer of novels and plays, a journalist, photographer, linguist, a broadcaster and an entertainer. His third wife, Suzanna Clarke, who wrote the book A House in Fes about renovating their private 300 year old riad is unfortunately away in Australia with Zaki, their adopted Moroccan baby son.
We rolled back in to Riad Yamanda and were greeted like old friends by young Miss Fatima. We contacted Sandy immediately. We freshened up and then took a taxi around the medina to a square where the Cinema Amal is to be found. There was Sandy whom we have seen twice on Skype but not seen in person since we had lunch with him and two other New Zealand friends in Brisbane. He had not long published his autobiography so it must be about 10 years ago!
We had a gin and tonic and a guided tour of the three levels of the riad. Each level has its own cat. One cat who came with them from France at some point has its own EU passport which on the outside is just like an ordinary passport but inside a paw mark and cat photo! Since the book was written they have even gained a room from a Spanish neighbour. The house is on a hill so houses are at different levels. She had a high ceilinged room and wanted a lower ceiling. Sandy paid a premium and gave her a new lower ceiling and he got a new floor and a whole new descent sized room. They have one particularly magnificent ceiling which an American museum offered a fortune for but they would not sell. As with all houses he has a rooftop terrace from which he can see a large number of mosques and still counting! There were even small rooms for slaves to sleep in.
Sandy speaks the local language and makes a point of speaking to people in his neighbourhood as he goes by. He told us about a local medina project of a library for children with books in Arabic, French and English. He also told us how his housekeeper went from relative rags to riches when he took her to a festival in Australia and she earned enough money to buy an apartment in the Nouvelle Ville or New Town. Apparently a lot of people dream of getting a good price for their old house in the medina and thereby being able to move to the new part of town. Many families have to live in one room without running water. You can tell how many families are living in the building by the number of TV aerials. My research shows that in 2014 the average earnings a month were 3 to 4,000 dirhams or NZ$450-600. Most things here are therefore cheaper but life here at the bottom is very hard. There are always beggars in the street. They are usually old people.
We then went to the Fez Café also known as Le Jardin des Biehn set at one end of a large lush garden once owned by a pasha or high official in the Ottoman Empire. David had beefsteak and I had a platter and Sandy had pre-ordered his swordfish when booking. We had a bottle of white Moroccan wine but it was drier than the one we had at Rick’s Café. We had thought we would be able to shout Sandy but the dishes were expensive by Moroccan standards and we had to pay by cash rather than by card! We then went on the Ruined Garden restaurant another relatively chic restaurant for desserts. We met Sue, an Australian who is about to go to Germany and get married. The chef had just tried a new lemon tart recipe. I suggested that a little spice might improve it. Then we were offered a layered cheese dessert which was delicious.
A most enjoyable evening.
Monday 23 May
We decided to take a stroll in the Medina to buy our last few gifts and to visit a few buildings. We referred to Mazing Medina in our Lonely Planet guidebook.
We stopped at the Medersa Bou Inania (20 dh)which was founded in 1351–56 by Sunni Moslems. The name Bou Inania comes from the first part of the sultan's name Abou Inan. The madrasa functioned both as an educational institute and as a congregational mosque.
This is the only madrasa in Fes with a minaret.Opposite the main doorway of the madrasa is the entrance to the ablutions house for washing limbs and face before prayers. Left and right of the central court there are classrooms. The madrasa is one of the few religious places in Morocco that is accessible for non-Islamic visitors.
It has been beautifully restored and a place of great tranquillity. You step off the noisy, busy and dirty street into this oasis. Whenever I go to such places I always think “Glory to God in the highest.” I would like to sing a song of Christian devotion as that is all I know. I believe that all the main religions are seeking the same thing but we go about it in different ways.
Yesterday while shopping and buying two tablecloths we met a lovely man named Abdellah Alami at 141 Talaa Kbira phone 06 75 89 79 15. He was a lovely gentleman and was a pleasure to negotiate and buy from. He had a quiet dignity and exuded something deeper than the usual salesman. His youngest son came by who is studying at the university. He had the latest hairdo – quite a contrast with Dad! I was telling Abdellah about the library for children and he wanted to know more so I told him I would ask Sandy to contact him.
We had ordered dinner for 8.00pm but Fatima was running a bit late. We started with a variety of salads which were delicious and a meal in themselves. The we had ordered a vegetable tagine and a chicken tagine. It was all delicious and we could not eat it all. Then a Milk Bastilla was served for dessert. See a 3 minute video here on how to make it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alw_VUHsqTM On the video there is warfa filo pastry, almonds or other nuts and a sort a blancmange with orange blossom all put in layers. Usually that meal would cost 200 but as we are in house guests it is 150 dirhams each(NZ$23).
Tuesday 24 May Lunch in Moroccan Home
At the late concert of men singers on Thursday 12 May at Dar Tazi we sat down next to Mamoni Hayani and her daughter Marwa ait ben Abdellah aged four. She asked David about a skin problem she has but the singing was too loud so we couldn’t really communicate. I gave her our card and she sent us an email inviting us to have a lunch or tea at the house she and her husband rent.
We met Mamoni at the gate of Dar Tazi just after 1.00pm. It took about five minutes to walk to her apartment along nice clean streets with no shops at all. The apartment was on the ground floor. Her sister Sanae Hayani was there too. She speaks very good English as she uses it in her work. She works for a large seed company and they import pea seed from New Zealand. She had to leave to get back to work by 2.30pm which was a pity. Brahim ait ben Abdellah, Mamoni’s husband, was having a shower when we arrived. He was tall, dark and handsome. He works for his cousin overseeing the running of several Riads. He spoke some French but we were unfortunately limited in what we could say to each other.
The room in which we came had plain white walls. In one wall was a framed material object which looked like a bag. It was a gift given about 5 years ago but not for their wedding. We were not sure what it was. There were wide flat mauve sofas with long round cushions with decorative tassels with beads on them. The round table was just above our knees and had an embroidered oblong white cloth on it narrowing to a plain tassel at each end. As in many houses we have seen it had a high ceiling. It had a wide opening into the corridor where we could see six gold fish swimming around their aquarium.
We began the meal with a lovely salad with rice, tomatoes, lettuce and a variety of raw vegetables with some triangular deepfried vegetable samosa-like edibles. We were already starting to feel quite full when Mamoni brought out an enormous dish of couscous with seven vegetables. The cabbage, carrots, courgettes, pumpkin etc are arranged so that the colours are like stripes coming out from the centre. Apparently Moroccans consider it lucky to combine seven vegetables in one dish. Under the cabbage in the centre were chicken drumsticks.
Next we were regaled with a dessert with a sponge base with bananas and peaches spread on top. Mamoni had made this herself. I was served a very large piece and declined a second helping. David has also declined but she misunderstood and brought her husband and David a second helping which he nevertheless enjoyed. Not long after Mamoni brought in tea with a tiered dish with small cakes or sweets on it. The top level had tiny pieces of biscotti. I also had an almond twirl with a fine stick of chocolate in it. There were many more to try but no space for them. Brahim had to go back to work so we said our farewells. We showed Mamoni the pictures in our Boasting Book and she showed us photos on her phone.
Unfortunately Brahim and Mamoni’s daughter Marwa has not been feeling very well so she was in and out of the room. When it came time to leave at about 4.30pm her mother carried her to show us the way. She took us another way back to the Batha fountain and we suddenly realised where we were and which block of the medina she lives in.
There was a great experience which money can never buy. A great way to end our time in Morocco.
A Walk in the old Jewish Mellah
We went back to our Riad and only ventured out again at about 8.30pm for a walk in the mellah or Jewish quarter of the medina. In the 14th century Fès became a refuge for Jews. This walled area for Jews gave them greater protection from the Arabs. They enjoyed the favour of the sultan and repayed him with their loyalty during conflict. Around 200 Jews remain in Fez but all have now left the mellah in favour of the ville nouvelle. Their old houses remain, with their open balconies looking onto the streets a contrast to Muslim styles of having inner courtyards. The area appeared quite prosperous but there were quite a few jewellery shops with very blingy diamond rings.
We had an interesting chat with a very nice woman who spoke fluent French and had a wedding shop. She told me that weddings are very expensive events. It appears there may be several ceremonies and changes of elaborate clothing even over several days. She had white material casks for jewellery and there very large containers which looked like material tajine dishes made of white material with embossed silver decoration.
Wednesday 25 May Final Day in Morocco
David was struck down again by the dreaded lurgy! We spent most of the morning at home but took a stroll down a few streets we had never visited before. On a path which crossed the two main ways through the medina we came to an old building on which there was an historical sign in Arabic, English and French. It is to be converted into luxury apartments when permission is gained.
Two men who may or may not be the official guards beckoned us to follow a French couple in. I asked the man how much it was to see around but he signalled that we could deal with that later. They abandoned their large plate of couscous and two spoons to show us round what was once the home of a pasha. It was a magnificent building with two distinct courtyards. We gave one of them a tip of 20 dirham as the other couple had paid the other man.
We banged into Sandy and his housekeeper Rachanda who had just finished lunch at Thams not far from the Blue Gate. David did not eat but I had a delicious Tajine aux pruneaux.
Later that day it was time to leave Fez and Morocco and head back to London for British Quaker Yearly Meeting.
Log of the narrowboat Floradora
Written by Deborah with help from the crew.
Jo Rado, Gary Johnston (Eastborne, Aotearoa New Zealand), Deborah Williams & David Minifie (Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand)
Saturday 4 June
We had arranged to meet at the boatyard at 7.00pm as Jo wanted to go to the final meeting of her singing group. She brought Gary in her car. Instead we met up at the Barley Mow pub. Deborah had read that there were good meals there on Trip Advisor. Deborah did not think much of the beer she had – little foam and a bit bitter. The meal was quite pleasant but not as good as others seemed to think!
We arrived at the boatyard at about 8.00pm. It is usually locked by then but Jo had the number to get in. We unloaded and then the cars had to be driven over the railway bridge to the carpark.
The last users of the boat had not left it in good order. There was a very mouldy loaf of white bread in the breadbin. Unfortunately there was a problem with the toilet so we had to use the toilet at the centre which was very nice and even had heat blasting in!
Sunday 5 June 2hrs 40min+about 5= 7hours 40 minutes
Jo wanted to get the toilet fixed but the centre was too busy. Eventually it was worked out that someone had taken a lid off the toilet box which normally should not be removed and put it back on the wrong way. Problem solved.
We had originally planned to go to Quaker Meeting in Oxford but decided that it was now impossible to get there. We puttered off at 10.00am on the Oxford Canal once everything was sorted. Eventually we had a Meeting for Worship of 20 minutes just before lunch at 1.00pm.
We moored between Bourton Lock and Bourton Bridge on the right side. See page 151 of the Waterways Guide 1: Grand Union, Oxford & the South East which is most informative.
Dinner at 8.00pm consisted of pasta with tomato sauce and cheese plus fried red cabbage and raw celery. The red cabbage had to be fried as half of it was mouldy and had to be thrown away. David added some unknown ingredients and it made for a tasty meal. Three of us washed it down with a bottle of Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc. Jo drank only fresh water.
Monday 6 June 1+1 ½ 2+2 ½= 7 hours
Jo showed Deborah the morning routine of checking the engine water and oil.
We left at 9.45am. At one stage a boat went by and the owners called out that Floradora used to be owned by the Rados. Jo suddendly recognised some old friends, Richard and Diane Mayers. Later she caught up with them and got their address.
At Slat Mill Lock only one paddle was working so the second was covered with a white plastic cover. The means that it takes longer to empty and fill the lock. Just after that we came to a very shallow part to the left. Luckily someone had warned us as they went by. We stopped at 10.45am at Bridge Store at Cropedy Wharf Bridge. Gary and David went ashopping but there wasn’t much choice. They didn’t have any carrots which we wanted for our coleslaw. We refilled the water tank and used the toilets.
Just after Clattercote Wharf we stopped for lunch on the right. Jo had her favourite radio programme The Archers at 2.00pm so she listened to it on her solar radio. Apparently there was to be an interesting event which she did not want to miss.
2.30pm we set forth with David at the helm. We made a stop at 4.30pm at Fenny compton to get the fan belt repaired. However the workshop is closed on Mondays. We sat down and had a discussion as to how we could possibly get to Coventry and back again in the time alloted.
5.00pm off again along the canal. We tied up at 7.30pm 2 major bends after Bridge 123 at Prior’s Hardwick Bridge. David whipped up two large omelettes with eggs, chickpeas, yellow pepper. He made a salad of raw spinach, finely sliced broccoli and small tomatoes accompanied by a tasty vinagrette. Three of us washed that down with a Villa Maria pinot noir while Jo drank pure water.
Jo and Gary played a good game of scrabble which meant the dictionary had to be at hand for any disputed words.
Tuesday 7 June 2+6= 8 hours
Breakfast at about 9.00am and off at 9.45 with David at the helm. We had a series of locks at Napton. Jo saw her friends, Helen and Jeremy, on their boat. We eventually arrived at Wigram’s Turn Marina at about midday. A man quickly tightened the fan belt. Ususal charge for any repairs starts at £35 but the man said to give him £10 but Jo was so pleased to get it done so quickly she gave him double.
We had the usual lunch of self made sandwiches with butter, cheese and tomato. We got rid of rubbish and used the immaculate toilets which even had a shower. Jo had arranged earlier in the day for a taxi to pick her up. She was going home for a choir practice as there is a concert coming up very soon. She told us not to wait so off we went straight ahead to the Grand Union Canal.
Just past Bridge 103 a little black and white Scotty dog on a boat was busy barking at a white swan who was hissing at him/her while the owners sat inside and did nothing.
We all took turns although I only did 30 minute stands at the helm because of my bad knee. I fell over in a restaurant in Morocco and have a badly damaged left leg which is still swollen some 3 weeks later. We branched off left at Braunston back onto the Oxford Canal. Gary was very kind to a pale looking Japanese couple in their late 40s at the second of the three Hillmorton locks. The wife said she did not understand what to do and there were particulary difficult paddles which I could not raise.
We eventually stopped at 7.00pm between Bridges 59 and 58 in Rugby opposite a green park. David and Gary went off shopping and came back about 40 minutes later laden with good food.
We had a meal of pork chops and coleslaw – green cabbage, finely grated carrot and celery with sesame seeds. This was washed it down with a Dino pinot grigio.
Wednesday 8 May No Sail Day
After breakfast at 8.30am we set off for the station an hour later. We took a train from Rugby Train Station at 10.00am. The journey only last 10 minutes and there we were in Coventry.
On the way to the cathedral we stopped at the Heart Foundation Charity shop where Gary bought a brown sunhat which has a wider brim than his present hat. We also surveyed books at the Oxfam bookshop where David bought some Handel flute music. On the way back we came out with a a small book about Coventry Cathedral published 1975 and another book by Tracey Chevalier titled The Virgin Blue.
The Old Cathedral
We ambled our way to St Matthews - created as cathedral in 1918 and bombed out in 1940 by the Germans. There was an moai-like statue of the bound Christ before Pilate with his hands bound and a crown of thorns by Jacob Epstein. Moai are large statues found only on Easter Island.
St Mary’s Guildhall
We went next door to St Mary’s Guildhall. This is their own description somewhat shortened: From the 'Cloister', a carved 15th century staircase leads to the magnificence of the medieval Great Hall. Angel musicians grace its timber roof, whilst portraits of past monarchs look down from the high walls.
A fine late 15th century stained glass window dominates one wall, bathing the hall in colourful light, and drawing one's attention to the incredible late 15th century tapestry below, one of the rarest and most important examples in the country.
Manufactured around the years 1495 to 1500, its significance lies not just in its age and remarkable state of preservation, but also in the fact that, incredibly, it remains hanging on the very wall for which it was created more than five hundred years ago.
At more than nine metres wide and three metres high, this magnificent artwork dominates the north wall of the Great Hall, and is testament to both the skill of its Flemish weavers, and the wealth of the city of Coventry at the end of the fifteenth century.
The scene portrayed includes seventy five individual characters, principally members of a Royal court, angels, saints and apostles, with an image of the Virgin Mary at its centre, and incorporates numerous examples of symbolism and hidden meaning, some of which remain unexplained.
The hall hosted King Henry VI's court during the Wars of the Roses, provided a stage for William Shakespeare and witnessed King James II being showered with custard.
Built in 1340-42 as part of the Guildhall's Gatehouse, the Drapers’ Room actually takes its name from an adjoining chamber, which was leased as a meeting room by the Drapers' Company in the 16th and 17th centuries. Mary Queen of Scots was detained in Coventry for three months in 1569/70 and it is likely that she was in this room.
There are also the Mercers’ Room, the Tanners’ Suite, the Armoury and the Fullers’ Room. The fuller softened raw wool to make it suitable for weaving into usable cloth. The Undercroft or crypt which has a beautiful vaulted ceiling was used for storage, sometimes for Guild merchandise, and certainly for food in readiness for the grand banquets in the Great Hall above. Today it is a restaurant with white tablecloths.
The “New” Cathedral
We finally went to the “new” cathedral. If you wished you could go in and pray and did not have to pay. We sat in a small circle of chairs and made our usual prayer for peace. Before us was the tapestry of Jesus Christ by Graham Sutherland. I personally don’t like the middle section of the tapestry which one tends to see rather than the eyes which are said to be the window of the soul.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We had lunch in a Subway as it had a good £3 offer for half a loaf with drink and Wifi. David sat for two hours on his computer as he has to do work for the Aotearoa New Zealand Quaker website. I had 160 emails waiting mostly from Trusted Housesitters. We are still looking for a place in Edinburgh for up to 12 days from 1 to 12 August.
We took a train back at 2.47 and arrived back at the boat at 3.20pm. Jo was back from her choir and enjoying the sun on the front deck. Gary emptied the loo and we motored just beyond Bridge 58 to a point where we could turn around. We set off back at 4.30pm but had to wait at the the Hillmorten Locks. When you use these three locks you go back up over 18 feet. Amazingly simpy but fascinating engineering.
We tied up after the two bridges for the M4 at Bridge 79. We dined at 7.45pm on bowtie pasta and tomato sauce with coleslaw. The wine was Jacob’s Creek Shiraz which is my favourite every day wine. We had plain yoghurt and bananas for desert with pieces of dark chocolate and hot drinks to follow.
Thursday 9 June 1 ¼ + 1+ 1+2+ ¾ = 6 hours
I got up at 7.00am as I thought that was time for arising. By 8.00am we were breakfasting and away by 8.30am.
Visit to Braunston
David requested to stop at Braunston (Bridge 89) which was a good choice. We locked up, crossed the bridge climbed up the hill of lush green pasture and medieval strips with furrows between. All Saints Church was a stop for a Peace Prayer. It had an excellent historical timelime with both English and local history. David spotted yet another Tracy Chevalier book Remarkable Creatures for 50p so naturally we purchased it.
We trotted on to the village and shopped and then had coffees and tea at Our Café a volunteer village concern with rag rugs and various handmade banners for sale. We had an interesting talk with a woman volunteer who had lived in Saudi Arabia. The village had several signs pointing out historical buildings such as the school which is still in use. We were away for two enjoyable hours.
At 11.45am we started off again with David at the helm. We stopped an hour later for lunch near Bridge 103. Off again at 1.25 pm. We were just passing the Wigram Turn Marina to our left when an old spitfire passed overhead and did a couple of acrobatic turns and continued on its way. David and I got off the boat at Bridge 109 the Coventry Road Bridge.
Napton on the Hill
We walked up the hill to Napton on the Hill up to the 13th century church at the top. According to the Waterways Guide: Legend has it that the church was to be built on the village green but the devil persisted in carrying the building stones to the presents site where the church was eventually built. It was smaller than the last church and had simple windows especially behind the altar.There were however some traditional stained glass windows in the left chapel. Again we prayed for peace.
Tel Aviv Shootings
We heard the news yesterday that two presumably Palestinian cousins dressed in suits had suddenly stood up in a café in Tel Aviv and shot at least 4 people. Hamas apparently applauded this move.
***************************************************************************
I have just finished reading an excellent novel titled the Betrayers by David Bezmozgis, a Jewish Canadian who was born in Latvia. A very good read.
We met Gary and Jo at Bridge 113 known as The Folly Bridge where they had emptied the loo and rubbish.
We stopped for a cup of tea and another pow-wow to decide our next moves just after the Napton Adkin’s Lock. We had been through a series of seven locks taking us upwards. We have decided to head for Banbury by Saturday evening so that we can take in any theatrical events and go to Quaker Meeting the next day.
We set off again to eventually stop for the evening just before 6.00pm on a stretch of canal a little way along from the last lock just before Bridge122. The radio gave us news.
We sat down to a delicious dinner of potatoes with a stir fry of vegetables ( carrots, broccoli, cabbage, onion and ginger) and an egg. Desert was strawberries and plain, thick but smooth white yoghurt. David played a variety of pieces on his flute while we three had an enjoyable game of Boogle, a word game. D & D went off for a walk while Gary and Jo got stuck into a long, serious game of scrabble. We all fell into bed at about 10.30pm.
Friday 10 June 3 ½ + 4 = 7 ½ hours
I hardly slept all night. I sat up at 7.00 am and read more than 40 pages of the new novel I bought yesterday. I am a real fan of Tracy Chevalier as her novels are steeped in history. This one is called Remarkable Creatures and is about the discovery of extraordinary fossilised creatures at Lyme Regis and the friendship between two women from different stratas of society in about 1804.
Just after 9.00am Gary set off on the towpath and we left on the boat. We caught up with him an hour later as he sat astride Bridge 129. Just as I handed over to Jo after an hour at the helm it started to rain and gave some moisture to the earth for about half an hour. By the time we stopped for lunch at 12.30pm just before Bridge 144 it was quite muggy and sunny.
We then tackled the five Claydon Locks with Jo and Gary being the lock operators with their heavy metal windlasses to raise and lower the paddles plus their pushing skills for opening and closing the lock gates. Those locks take us down 30 feet 6 inches. David was the helmsman and I the dogsbody who jumped onshore whenever we had to wait to get into a lock. I would pull the boat in and wind a rope around a bollard if one were available. In between I would write this log. Everyone was happy with his or her role.
We stopped again at Cropedy Wharf Bridge to take on more water and clear the toilet out. We were stuck waiting a good half hour at the Slat Mill Lock because one of the paddles was not working and there were others in front of us.
At 6.00pm we parked up near the Slat Mill Bridge 157. Dinner at 7.45pm. Today the menu was pasta with a mustard asparagus sauce with a coleslaw of cabbage, grated carrot and courgette, celery and tiny pieces of washed mandarin skin. I did not record the wine for the evening.
Saturday 11 June ¾ hour Banbury
Breafast at 8.30pm. Unfortunately Jo discovered that the bilge pump was not working so we used cutoff plastic milkbottles to clear the oil and water out of the bilge. Jo was down in the muck and David and I were the relay team to get rid of the mess to the side of the towpath. It wasn’t very oily. Gary was also at hand for the cleanup.
At 10.00am we left for Banbury. When we went into the Bourton Lock we were at the same level as the lock cottage which is being renovated to use as a community house.
It didn’t take long for us to arrive in Banbury.According to a website the name Banbury may be derived from 'Banna', a local Saxon dignitary who is said to have built his stockade here in the 500's. By the time of William the Conqueror 'Banesberie' was mentioned in the Domesday book. In the 13th century it had grown to become an important wool trading centre bringing wealth to the local population.
The first boatyard was only open on Fridays. At the second a man said that it was likely that the pump had burnt out as it had been left on. Jo went off to buy a hand pump to use in the meantime and came back with two. Unfortunately the jiggle siphon only works when the end of the hose is lower than the top section from which the water needs to be drained. The other one had such a small pipe that it might be faster to get the water and oil out manually.
Banbury
The modern Banbury Museum complex had a very nice café with very large “bucket” mugs of coffee at a very reasonable price. We sat out under the eaves and used the wifi. Later we individually went into the museum. There was an interesting display re canals and narrowboats on the enclosed bridge over the river. This leads to the Information Centre cum giftshop which turns out to be part of the modern Quay Mall with a multitude of shops.
On the second level of the Museum building there was a very interesting photographic exhibition of photos which had all won awards and could be purchased in a book. The overall winner was a photo of many people simultaneously taking photos of Stonehenge. In the foreground were all the cameras showing Stonehenge and in the background Stonehenge itself.
In another large room there was a history of Banbury. I learned that they wove a woollen “plush” material which looks and feels somewhat like velvet. I googled the difference between the too and only found this answer:.. plush and velvet are not the same thing. Plush is kind of in the realm of fake fur - a knit with little stretch, but a much looser density than velvet. It's usually a knit.
Compared with many museums it was modern, interesting and fun. They had various hands-on activities for children. A woman on reception told me they were about to update the canal material and add more activities for children.
++++++++++
Later in the afternoon we moved a short distance so that we would not have boats banging into us. David cooked another good vegetarian stir-fry with Hallami cheese washed down with an Italian shiraz followed by strawberries and yoghurt.
We all played scrabble for about an hour. I was surprised to win.
Sunday 12 June 3 ¼ hours
Quaker Meeting in Banbury
We set of on foot for the Quaker Meeting just before 10.00am. We were looking for a shop where we could buy food to contribute to the lunch.
The Meetinghouse was built in 1751 and was surrounded by a garden. Apart from a reading from Advices and Queries there were two requests for holding an individual and support for prisoners in the Light.
Post Meeting Near Ministry was invited. I had picked up a bird feather on the way to Meeting and had been thinking of the pen is mightier than the sword. I had thought further of how quicly we can now communicate by email. I also mentioned that the 20th anniversary of the declaration of the illegality of nuclear weapons at The Hague. I gave my feather to a little girl who came in near the end with her mother. It turned out that she goes to an Anglican primary school and wants to know more about Christianity.
**********
Jo Rado’s cousin, Chris Jones, had invited us to lunch. His wife, Veronica, was away sleeping in a tent and doing an archealogical dig. On the way to Chris’s home we passed a lovely statue of the fine lady upon a white horse, with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes...Chris and Veronica have a lovely two storey house in a very leafy area not too far from the Meetinghouse. Chris had made a delicious quiche which we ate with tomatoes, salad, potato salad and homemade bread. There were some English cheeses and then a a lovely cake with coconut and glacé cherries.
We went out to see the garden a third of which was visible from the diningroom. We were accompanied by their 12 year old dog. Through an archway was a large vegetable garden. They plan to downsize in the next year or so and this house would be ideal for a family.
Chris took us all back to the river. Jo collected all her things and Chris was going to drive her back to Lower Heyford to collect her car. From there she would go to Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
David and I went to the Mall to organise a present of a special T-shirt for Jo. Gary sat outside the Museum Café to get his emails.
At 5.00pm again on board Floradora we set off to find a new mooring place. One was too close to a lock, another too close to the trains.We finally found a place at 8.15pm between Bridges 189 and 190.
We had a simple meal of toast and instant soup as we had eaten very well at lunchtime.
Monday 13 June 3 ½ hours
This morning it rained on and off! We travelled about 6 miles and arrived at Lower Heyford by midday but after filling up with diesel and water David and Gary disappeared further up the canal to turn around. I had turned the water off and assumed they had taken the advice of the attendant.
In the afternoon we caught up with out emails. Gary and David emptied the toilet unit and then we went over to check the car.
Upper and Lower Heyford
We decided to explore the area by car. Upper Heyford was a charming village with old church and thatched cottages with lovely roses climbing over the front faҫades. Lower Heyford’s church seemed to be exactly the same design but was in fact older.
**********
We enjoyed a dinner of salmon, new potatoes, carrot & parsnip and salad with spinach and tiny mandarin pieces. This was accompanied by a Brancott Estate pinot noir from New Zealand.
We have had a most enjoyable 10 days on lovely Floradora. When Jo and her late husband bought the boat it had already been blessed with this name. If you look carefully you will see the their surname RADO is in the middle of FloRADOra which is an amazing co-incidence!
Thank you Jo Rado and Gary Johnston and David for the great camaraderie we have all enjoyed!
Friday 17 June Arrival in Sweden
We flew Norwegian Airlines and arrived an hour late in Gothenburg. Ingmar & Annika were there to greet us in their white gas fueled VW hatchback. It was at least an hour from Gothenburg Airport to their home in Floby.
Annika has just retired as a specialist to do with cystic fibrocis at the Children’s Hospital in Uppsala, which is an hour north of Stockholm. She looked at lung function of both adult and children patients. Ingmar has spent his career teaching many subjects in schools for young adults. We met him at the Quaker Centre in Congénies, France last year. They will both come to New Zealand in November this year and stay with us.
The house was previously their holiday house in the country area Trevattna/Trävattna= three waters where Ingmar grew up. As they only recently moved and they have not yet settled in properly. They own a zillion books and the walls are lined with bookcases.
Saturday 18 June Fika & Astronomy
Bernd and Sig-Britt some friends whom our hosts had not seen for a while came by so we sat down for Fika which is considered a social institution in Sweden. It means having a break, most often a coffee break, with one's colleagues, friends, date or family. The word "fika" is an example of the back slang used in the 19th century, in which syllables of a word were reversed, deriving fika from kaffi, an earlier variant of the Swedish word kaffe or coffee. This practice of taking a break, often with something to eat is central to Swedish life. We ate the typical warmed cinnamon rolls and other biscuits.
Bernd spoke of warmly of Emeritus Professor Roy Kerr from the University of Canterbury who won the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy which was presented to him here in Sweden in May. He was the first New Zealander to be awarded the Einstein Medal in 2012. He has made other important contributions to general relativity theory. The discovery by Kerr of the black hole was so extraordinary that it is comparable to the discovery of a new elementary particle. Back in 1963 before advanced computers, Roy Kerr solved some of the most difficult equations of physics. By doing so he had found the exact solution of Einstein’s equations describing rotating black holes. This term had not yet even been coined until 1967!
Dalénmuseet in Stenstorp
In the afternoon our hosts took us to the Dalénmuseet in Stenstorp. Gustav Dalén (1869- 1937) was an extraordinary inventor who won and lost a fortune and after being blinded went on to create a fortune again. He began as a farmer and he expanded the farm to include a market garden, a seed merchant business and a dairy. He invented a milk-fat tester to check milk quality of the milk.
Dalén went on to study and then went to work for AGA who developed lighthouses using Dalén's products. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1912. In 1922 he patented his invention of the AGA cooker which are prized in some English homes. He patented more than 100 of his inventions.
I bought a pin badge which says “Var Optimist” which means “Be an optimist.” He would keep several under the lapel of his jacket and he used to give them to people who were feeling low. Ingmar said that his father used to describe himself as a mixture or an “optipest”!
Gökhem Svenska Kyrkan Cuckoo’s Home Swedish Church
This church is a medieval Lutheran church built in the Romanesque style. The vaulted ceiling has unusual paintings. In some, each figure in the painting is held up by a servant-like character. In other parts there were elegant designs. At the back was an elevated open floor with the organ and choir seating. Outside was a separate high wooden structure with a wooden bell shaped roof which sheltered the church bell. It was built in about 1842.
Görel, (Carol) a Quaker from 3 hours away came for the evening meal and to stay the night. She is a physiotherapist. Her English is impeccable.
Sunday 19 June Börstig Quaker Meeting
We were lucky enough to be coming at the same time as a group of visiting British Quakers from Somerset so a Meeting was arranged at the home of John and Ingegerd Wyatt. There were Friends the Smålands Group and the Västra Götalands Group as well. With Ingmar and Annika Hollsing and us that came to 21 people plus Irma La Douce a large poodle belonging to a Swedish couple.
The Programme for the day was as follows:
11.00 Welcome from John and Ingegerd. Brief Introductions.
11.05 Talk/Discussion/Led Worship on a theme coordinated by the Wyatts. I seem to remember it was what signs have led us to action. I spoke of the dream I had in Tokyo many years ago which led me to start prison visiting.
11.45 Pause-Break
12.00 Lunch. Börstig will provide rolls and soup. Friends are encouraged to bring their own picnic baskets and something to share.
13.00 Silent Quaker Meeting for Worship. (Approx. 1 hour)
14.00 Fika/Tea/Coffee provided. General fellowship, meeting each other
15.00 End of programme. Depart.
John and Ingegerd Wyatt have two children of primary and secondary school age. They have converted the former stables next to their house into a simple BNB. If anyone is travelling to Sweden in Summer this could be a place to stay. See https://www.airbnb.se/rooms/11811388?s=Gkpo9EIl&guests=1
Monday 20 June Osteria
We went lunch at Osteria in Falköping. An osteria in Italy was originally a place serving wine and simple food. The emphasis has shifted to the food but menus tend to be short, with an emphasis on local specialities such as pasta, grilled meat or fish, and often served at shared tables.
This place specialised in cheeses. There was a buffet of cheeses, olives, figs, pasta, tomatoes, chutneys, bean salad, cheese “pie”, with light breads, rye bread, small stuffed hot bell peppers. There were fine slices of hams including pickled ham and also pieces of fruit and fudge. A rich and filling meal for 125 Kronor (NZ$21).
Gudhems Kloster
Gudhem Monastery was a convent in Gudhem Falköping between the 1100s and 1529. The ruins of the monastery and cloister walls are visible in Gudhem.
Gudhem is an ancient gathering place, and the name means "home of gods". The site is located on the plateau overlooking the Billingen. It has an advantageous location at the old pilgrim route that went from the continent via Denmark and Ätradalen to Falan and Skara and from there on to Olav the Holy's grave in Nidaros in Throndhjem in Norway.
In fact, it was established during the second half of the 1100s, was donated by King Knut Eriksson. The monastery church, which originally belonged to the royal estate is somewhat older and built in the early 1100s.
Another patron of the monastery was Catherine of Ymseborg. She was the widow of Erik Eriksson Läspe and lame (1216-1250). Catherine donated "goods and gold" to the monastery. This was an opportunity to build a monastery and church which still exist as ruins. In the coming decades Gudhem grew in size and importance.
Catherine died in the monastery in 1252. Her sculpted grave tomb is now in the National Historical Museum. A cast copy was set up in 1964 on the original site of the ruins.
Ekornavallen largest grave field in Northern Europe
Ekornavallen has been used as a burial place for at least 4000 years, which makes this site one of the most remarkable sites in Sweden. The oldest are the passage graves - the biggest one, Girommen, is presented on a sub-site and one stone cist built 4-5000 years ago. A cist is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Up on the crest of the hill, there is a bronze- age cairn, about 3000 years old. The youngest grave is from the iron age and consists of stone settings, standing stones and stone circles (judge rings) and a tri-radial cairn.
It’s out in a field over a small cattle stop and is free to the public. There are sheep which keep the grass down!
Family time
Thomas, Ingmar and Annika’s son came with his two daughters. After a light meal I talked to the girls about the Kiwi and Tuatara with Grandma Annika translating. Their mother had come over late the evening before as one of their three dogs had attacked another. Annika had bandaged the dog’s leg but today it had the full treatment at the vet’s.
Tuesday 21 June Journey to Stockholm
David finished putting together three clothes cupboards for Annika. I worked on advising Ingmar about where they should go when they come to New Zealand.
In the afternoon it was a 45 minute drive to Skvöde where we were to take the train. In the end Annika and Ingmar left us there as the information board told us the train was coming later and later. It was about 45 minutes late but we could not let Eva our hostess in Stockholm know as David’s phone was not getting through.
It took a while to work out how to find line 11 of the subway. There did not seem to be any notices anywhere. We finally arrived at Eva’s apartment at about 8.00pm. There is no lift in the building and she lives on the fifth floor so David had to carry our case up.
Eva welcomed us to her elegant, large loft apartment with a beautiful wooden floor, high roughcast white walls and black and white carpets. Half the apartment is the open plan kitchen, dining and livingroom. There would be three bedrooms but she uses the third room as a dressingroom, sewingroom and study. Everything is modern and spotless.
Eva was mostly attractive and charming. She works for the Ministry of Education and arranges auditions for ballet dancers. She used to be a school inspector when they were there to praise but also to give helpful advice. She had prepared some tasty canapés with cream cheese and orange coloured caviar and bubbly awaited us. Later we sat the table and ate some delicious smoked ham with spinach and potatoes. We had a very nice Californian red wine. This was a very welcoming start to our stay in Stockholm.
Wednesday 22 June Stocksundstorp
In the afternoon we set off for my cousin Caroline’s home. We had to take two buses and by the time we walked in the gate it had taken an hour to get there. Caroline was about to set off to find us. My Aunt Carinne was not looking well. It is no wonder as she is 87 and has a heart problem.
I gave Caroline the three page family tree which William Heaslop and I had prepared plus the many papers which Maureen Smith had copied for Brian Stedman when she worked for the Mormons.
Who should walk in but Arion, Carinne’s younger son by a Greek man Gregori. Arion is a local politician. It turns out that he knows our hostess, Eva, as she is in the Labour Party while he is in the Conservative Party. He was with his son Carl who turned 12 yesterday. His 14 year old daughter Nake was quite shy and would not try her English on us.
Later Caroline’s older half brother Lorenz came in. He has worked for many years for the Moonie Church now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification or Unification church. Much later his Korean wife Julie and physicist son Shan (27) also turned up. I had not realised that Lorenz and family have been living in the house for the last 10 years. Aunt Carinne has her own room downstairs and Lorenz and Julie and two boys and two girls live upstairs.
Thursday 23 July Royal Palace & Nobel Museum
We took the underground and went into the centre of Stockholm. It was late afternoon so we didn’t go into any of the parts of the royal palace you can visit. We did go into the giftshop where we saw some lovely but expensive gifts.
We decided to stroll past the palace on the island of Gamla Stan. We came upon the Nobel Museum. We watched quite a few short films of previous prize winners. We had a very interesting English tour with an excellent male communicator. English and American Quakers were given the Nobel Peace prize in 1947. I have picked out one sentence from the citation given at the award ceremony. The problem is not merely one of providing food and clothing, it is one of bringing people back to life and work, of restoring their self-respect and their faith and confidence in the future. Inspiring words for inspiring action.
It made me think of the words of our founder, George Fox: Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you.
Alfred Nobel 1833 –1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. Known for inventing dynamite, Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. Nobel held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous.
After reading a premature obituary which condemned him for profiting from the sales of arms, he bequeathed his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes. Prizes were to be awarded in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace each year. The Peace Prize was to be presented in Oslo, the others in Stockholm. So far 800 awards have been made but only five percent of those have been women!
This is a museum worth going to.
Friday 24 July Midsummer’s Day
We travelled by two buses to Överjärva Gård’s Farm in Solna for the Midsummer’s Day celebrations. They have farm animals there and an educational programme for children and teenagers. There is a craft shop, antique furnitures hop and compost for sale but none of these was functioning today. The café was doing a roaring trade but we bought the cheaper saveloys and icecreams outside.
There was a good performance by a clown who involved lots of children in his fun and magic. Free facepainting was also on offer. Near the maypole there were pieces of greenery and string so that one could make a nice head wreath. The maypole was decorated with greenery and then lifted up. People then joined in the simple dances. There were many families there with small children. It was a lovely atmosphere.
Just as we were leaving four young women came past us. One was singing really joyfully making up a song in English as she walked along. Impeccable English is spoken by many people. We got talking to a lovely young Swedish student and her university flatmates from Thailand and Singapore. It turned out her boyfriend is a Quaker and she knew a lot about Quakerism. I gave her the Kulturkalendar for Solna city which includes the two celebrations at Stocksundstorp. Much to my embarrassment my name is mentioned as interpreting Bellman’s music. I only have one song prepared.
David and I had a rehearsal of the one Bellman song I will sing. He wondered why I was not singing the song exactly as in our manuscript. We listened to two interpretations of the song on YouTube which are both a little different from the written notes. I had learned the tune from YouTube before I got the sheet music and now it is harder to change than to learn from scratch!
Martha’s plane from London was three hours late. She eventually arrived at two in the morning. She had been up since 5.00am when she received a text to go to work because a small majority of UKers had voted to leave the European Union!
Saturday 25 June Three interesting conversations
David and Martha set out for a Father and Daughter Day when I left to go and see my cousin. She was not at home so I enjoyed a one-to-one conversation with Aunt Carinne for an hour. She is very busy writing a book entitled Agape (Love) which she hopes to have published by August.
Caroline was not expecting me until the afternoon. We sorted out the table where there will be a display of pictures and memorabilia re her father. She wanted to listen to the CD of Trevor talking on Radio New Zealand or the NZBC (New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation) as it was called in those days and chose the best recording to play on his birthday.
Lorenz, her older half brother, very kindly offered to take me for a ride in his boat so I happily accepted. We went past many wooded islands mostly with wooden holiday houses. I enjoyed talking to him about his relationship with my uncle, his stepfather. We also discussed Interfaith as that is a common interest. He has been part of the Moonie Church now called the Unification Church for more than 20 years and works on the Interfaith aspect of the church.
Later Caroline and I went and had a pizza and talked about our relationships.
I really enjoyed these three personal conversations with three lovely people.
Unfortunately I held the key for Eva’s flat. David and Martha arrived home to find I was not yet there. I was waiting at the first bus stop. Whereas it had taken 30 minutes to get right to my cousin’s house this morning it took an hour to get back from the first bus stop! Luckily I had David’s phone and at least I could reply to their text.
Sunday 26 June Quaker Meeting and Celebration at Stocksundstorp
We allowed an hour to get to Quaker Meeting by subway changing trains once but luck and rain were not on our side. When we eventually found the site which I recognised from a Google picture we could not work out where to go in. Later we saw the sign which said something like kväkarehus but we had not recognised it!
We were about ten minutes late. There were about 18 people there including us. We could not understand the spoken ministry as it was in Swedish. Afterwards we introduced ourselves. There was nice bread and toppings and cups of tea. We had to sit at the English speaking table. I would have loved to had stayed longer but we had to rush home.
We texted Martha to make us up bread rolls. We rushed in, a grabbed a few things and then out the main door to the bus stop a short way up the road. It was so wet and we had so little time that I did not put on my pacific skirt and top brought especially from NZ to wear!
At Stocksundstorp I attended to finishing the visual family tree of photos by adding those which Lorenz had printed. Carinne gave a resumé of Trevor’s life. Caroline sang two songs one of which was using the words of Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream. I Have A Dream Carinne’s cousin, Karin Lövgren and her daughter Alexandra, 7 month old grandson and a blond teenage girl arrived a bit late. While David was getting his flute I spoke a little about the people on the photographic tree. I sang my Haga Park Bellman song with a flute introduction by David. He then played Spirit of the Earth by Philip Selby.
Kim Lougran, an Australian, who was only 20 when he arrived to work in Radio Sweden, told a funny story about Uncle Trevor. He was very keen to participate the day that there was to be a mixed sauna. When he went there he was the only person. He went back and asked why no-one was there. He was asked:”What is the date?” 1 April!
After the performances we had non alcoholic wine and biscuits.
Lorenz drove us to the cemetery where Uncle Trevor is buried. Carinne had made a nice stone sculpture there. Caroline laid a wreath and a lovely perfumed pink peony.
When we came home Julie, Lorenz’ Korean wife, was preparing some food. David and I made a tour of the garden and its sculptures. Lorenz set up BBQ to cook the chicken which Julie had marinated in something tasty. We had a tour of the house.
Over dinner David and Martha sat with Carinne, Caroline, Lorenz and Julie. I sat with Jeanette and Kim who are vegans and their older brother Shan. Johan, the other son, was not there. There were interesting conversations at both tables. I was doing most of the talking at my table!
We had a wonderful day and were lucky that Lorenz brought us home by car.
Monday 27 June Photographic Exhibitions
We went into central Stockholm to the Fotografiska Museum. As we came down from the underground there were two young students with free bicycle rickshaws to take up a few hundred metres along the road to the museum!
There were six exhibitions so we saw them all. The one that made the greatest impact was the first one on the ground floor. I have taken this material from the website:
Since 2001, fine art photographer Nick Brandt has been documenting the vanishing natural world and animals of East Africa through his haunting, majestic portraits... In this new series of epic panoramas, Brandt records the impact of man on places where animals used to roam, but no longer do. In each location, Brandt erects a life size panel of one of his animal portrait photographs, setting the panels within a world of explosive urban development, factories, wasteland and quarries. The people in the photographs go about their daily lives, oblivious to the presence of the panels and the animals within them, who are effectively now no more than ghosts in the landscape.
There was a marvellous photo of an elephant reflected in the water with an earthdigger now operating in the area where elephants once roamed freely. Another was of a giraffe in what has now become a quarry and therefore a place impossible for giraffes to survive. Another photo was of rhinoceroses in a vast rubbish dump where people now had to scavenge for food and goods. The one that had most impact was of homeless people sheltering under a large road bridge. A group of young people were busy sniffing glue but a curious small child was using a short stick to prod the lifesized photo of an elephant who once might have lived in this location.
The exhibition was titled Inherit The Dust.
The second exhibition was about Romani people:
It all started in the summer of 2009 when Åke Ericson found himself in the city of Breclav in the southern Czech Republic. Here he learned that the mayor had evicted two Romani families from their homes – in a city where they had lived for several generations – to make space for a new shopping mall in their neighbourhood. They were moved to a stable that stank of ordure and lacked both running water and heating...
Unfortunately this exhibition it did not make a great visual impact as the captions beside each photo were far too small as were the photos. One could ask for a free Romani phrasebook with the idea that people might make an effort to communicate with these people. I asked for one.
Every day there is a Romani woman who sits outside the supermarket with her container begging for money. She never smiles but mumbles something at us. A man however sits down in the subway station and always smiles. We have seen another woman at various places well inside the subway system. We bought extra fruit for the woman two days ago but by the time we came out of the shop she had gone.
The third exhibition was about Greta Garbo. By the age of 37 she had stopped acting. Before that she had managed to dictate her own terms for films. There were films you could stop and watch if you had the time.
We took a break and bought coffee and chocolate to drink while munching our lovely brown Swedish Frökusar buns filled with avocado, cheese and tomato.
Upstairs we had three more exhibitions. Hannah Modigh had an exhibition titled Hurricane Season about Louisiana which is a place under constant threat of hurricanes and flooding. Hannah said It all began because I wanted to explore a macho culture that I believed existed in the area. I was struck by how segregated it still is. Because the groups are so removed from each other, this destructive us-against-them system is entrenched.
For me the most interesting photo was that of a female dressed in her Klu Klux Klan regalia minus the headgear. All the photos whether of black or white people exuded poverty. I have often thought of those people in Louisiana post Hurricane Katrina. It seems people did not get a fair go at all.
Another exhibition was of the work of Aapo Huhta Block from Finland who was the Young Nordic Photographer of the Year for 2015. His photos were taken on colour with almost no colour, mainly sharp pictures in grey, black and white with graphic shapes, shadows and modes as the website blurb told me. The images did not appeal to me.
Bryan Adams showed a two part exhibition named Exposed. One part was photographs of men and women who had ended up mutilated when serving in the armed services in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was Wounded: The Legacy of War. Some proudly showed their medals in the photo, others showed humour and yet others showed a very serious face to the world.
The other part of Bryan’s work has been in portraying many well known personalities such as Amy Winehouse and Mick Jagger. I loved a photo of the Queen all dressed up as per usual standing by a window. To her left were two pairs of gumboots. There was a lovely sassy photo of a topless woman named P!nk [sic] who is a singer-songwriter and more.
Our hostess Eva came home for the night so Martha got to meet her.
Tuesday 28 June 100th Anniversary of the Birth of my Uncle Trevor Williams
In the morning Martha left do some sightseeing and shopping before she later flew back to London. Eva left to go away for a couple of days. We went to Solna Centrum and visited the City Mission’s second hand shop. We bought some silver and some plastic salad servers and a book in English.
Eva told us that a truck ran into the side of an important bridge and traffic has been held up for hours. It is on our bus route to the airport so we will have to leave earlier than planned. As we are to travel on Ryan Airline the airport is about 90 minutes from Stockholm anyway!
In the afternoon at 5.00pm another commemorative concert was held at Stocksundstorp.
This was Caroline’s programme:
PROGRAM TREVOR 28/6 AT 17 ( PREL) CAROLINE KONFERNCIER
( OUTSIDA WE WIL HAVE MICROFONE + KEYBOARD -INSIDE PIANO)
1 CAROLINE SINGS 2 OWN SONGS ACCAPPELLA 2 EGNA
2) LILYANA ALEXANDERSSON TREVORS COLLEGUE FROM RADIO SWEDENHOLDS A SPEACH ABOUT TREVOR
3) DEBORAH AND DAVID SINGS 2 OR 3 MAORI SONGS We sang Po karekare Ana, Te Aroha, and Now is the Hour in both English and Maori.
4) DAVID PLAYS FLUTE MUSIC 7 MINUTES ( SAME AS LAST SUNDAY)
5) CAROLINE SING HE OWN GOSPEL "GIVE ME A REASON This was a particularly nice song.
6) WE LOOK AT TREVORS PHOTO AND ( DEBORAH TELLS A MEMORIE ABOUT TREVOR)
First using the photos I had set up for the family tree I explained the Heaslop Irish side and Williams Cornwall origins in Trevor’s heritage.
I read Caroline’s memory about Uncle Trevor having half of his navy money go into an account for her and how Mum & Dad did the same for the rest of us. Then I read Prue’s memory of being swung in the hammock. My sister Caroline had sent a photo of George Bernard Shaw who in 1934 had made a negative comment about the student newspaper which Trevor edited. I added my own memory of being interviewed at Broadcasting House. When the man realised I was Trevor’s niece just as I was leaving, he asked me to come back into the room and warmly invited me to come back if I wanted a job. I then read a short excerpt from a card proud father Trevor had written to Tom and Brenus Johston in Christchurch Christmas 1968 which extolled the talents of his young daughter, Caroline.
7) WE LISTEN TO TREVORS RECORD This was about the Waitomo Caves area during the Queen’s visit in 1953 – 54.
8) OPERASINGER JANINA PRUZEK SINGS 1 KLASSICAL SONG
She had a very powerful voice which more than filled the room.
9) PAUS 10 MINUTES WE GO OUT IN THE TERASS
SERVS WINE ETC AND SAYS A TOAST TO TREVOR
10 ) JANE HELEN SONGWRITER SINGS 2-3 SONGS TO GUITARR OR KLEYBOARD
11) CAROLINE SINGS SOME BLUES AND JANE PLAYS KEYBOARD ,
12) WE SING BELLMAN SONGS TOGETHER ( WE HAVE SWEDICH TEXTS)
Lorenz kindly brought us “home” by car to Eva’s lovely apartment.
Wednesday 29 June National Museum of Economy
We had hoped to go on Monday to this museum while Martha was still with us. However it was closed. We had 30 minute tour with an educator. When we started listening to our audio guide a lot of what we had heard was repeated on the audio-guide which was rather annoying.
http://www.myntkabinettet.se/english
The exhibition presents the history of coinage over the past 2,500 years, as well as earlier, alternative currencies. In many places, some form of currency existed long before coins were invented. Economic history is a significant part of human culture. See how payment methods have evolved from shells and other forms of currency to the plastic cards we use today.
We saw a section on Swedish money. Then we moved on to plate money. In the 17th century, the face value of Swedish coins had to be matched by the material value of their metal content. Copper was the main metal used for minting, and this exhibit features examples of copper plate coins. See and touch the world’s biggest coin, dating from 1644 and weighing 19.7 kg!
We went on the Entrepreneurship section where I was pleased to see some women given their just praise. So often “history” is HIS story and women are left out. How refreshing!
In the evening we went to sing and play flute at an open mic evening at Arnest Bar in Sundbyberg. Caroline sang at 8pm. We loved her own song Give me a Reason which she did with great passion. She had a great team of musician improvisers - saxophone, and three guitars! It was a great venue and some great musicians. David played the flute solo Spirit of the Earth by Philip Selby and then we two sang Po Karekare Ana as requested by Caroline. We sang and later danced until about 10.20 pm and then we went outside to catch the bus home.
Thursday 30 June History Museum
We spent a good part of the day at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm which contains the world's largest collection of artefacts from the Viking Age. We had a 40 minute guided tour but half of that was already covered by the audio guides which we had hired.
After eating lunch outside we saw the Gold Room with amazing gold and silver treasures. We went upstairs and had a history of Sweden through the Kings and Queens. Again it was refreshing to have some of HERstory and not just HIStory. There were even a number of historical items which mentioned gay people. I have never encountered this before. Yeah!
The Tudor Arms Pub
My Uncle Trevor Williams was one of those who wanted to have an English pub in Stockholm. Unfortunately Uncle Trevor died a few months after the pub opened in 1969. It was called the Tudor Arms so we went there for a beer. There seemed to be a regular clientele, mostly males, who popped in for a drink. There were tables outside but unfortunately, due to renovations, they were surrounded by scaffolding.
1 July 2016 Time to leave
Caroline came to have lunch with us. We had been warned to take the bus to the airport early so we go to the bus station 5 hours before our flight. As it was Friday evening the traffic was quite heavy so it took about 2 hours instead of 1 ½ hours. The Ryan Air flight was somewhat better than the ones we took to France and Morocco. …
* * * * * * * * *
Some General Comments re Sweden
German & English Languages
During the early years of the 20th century the sympathies of the Swedish monarch, King Gustaf V, and of the Swedish military, were believed to be with the Germans. King Gustaf was married to a German (a granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm I), and the Germans and Swedes shared fear of Imperial Russia. The German language was therefore learned in school.
Practically all young Swedes now speak English. Most speak impeccable English with an attractive accent. This was such a bonus for us! People always went out of their way to help us sometimes before we even asked for help. I could read words on signs as Swedish is related to the German language but I could not understand the spoken language.
At the commemorations re Trevor some people said that he was part of the move to learn English. When he arrived he had no job but eventually worked in the English section of Radio Sweden. Films on TV are never dubbed so that viewers get authentic language.
Appearance
On the whole Swedish people are slim and dress in fairly classical, bland, one colour clothing. Women do not wear a lot of makeup but false eyelashes are certainly in fashion! There are quite a few people of colour who appear to be well integrated into society. I saw few Muslims in comparison with the UK.
Stockholm
The city is very clean and for the most part not too crowded. As I had my walking stick people were very respectful and immediately gave me a seat on the train. The buildings are not too high in the central city which makes it a very pleasant place to be.
We had a wonderful time in Sweden.
Quaker Country
Sunday 3 July Coventry Meeting
We had flown in from Sweden very late on Friday and stayed the night at the airport. We picked up our car from the Wallace’s house in Wimbledon. Then we headed to Coventry to stay in an Air BNB with Chris.
Sunday morning we went to Quaker Meeting. Before we knew it we were invited to take a walk around the city by Anne and to lunch by William & Gillian Waddilove in Woolston, Coventry, out in the countryside. We chose to go to lunch but hope to take up Anne’s offer if we come back again. William and Gillian will celebrate 40 years of being in the house in two weeks time.
We arrived at Longland Caravan Park, in Kirkby in Furness just before 7.00pm. There was our “tin tent” which is about 20 metres long and has its own flush toilet and shower. Compared with a narrow boat this is luxury as far as space!
Sylvia had cooked a delicious chicken dinner complete with carrots, greens and Bill’s potatoes. The fridge was stocked with plenty of food. We felt overwhelmed by this kindness.
Monday 4 July
Unfortunately our car started jumping as though it were going out of gear as we drove from Coventry yesterday. We phoned the Honda agent in Kendal and arranged to take the car in on Tuesday for them to check out under the warranty.
We had a swim the in the warm water swiming pool in the afternoon. Otherwise we had a quiet but busy day catching up on blog writing and photos.
Tuesday 5 July DAY ONE: 1652 Quaker Country
Sylvia was our driver and Bill the commentator. When they managed Swarthmoor Hall they used to do this tour as part of their work. We drove past Sedbergh Church [pronunciation: sedba] where George Fox preached under a yew tree. This moment is featured in one of the Quaker Tapestry pictures.
We went first to Brigflatts Meeting House which was built in 1675 and is the second oldest Quaker Meeting House in England. An upstairs wooden gallery was added in 1711 and downstairs there is an enclosure to accommodate the sheepdogs of worshipping friends. We held Meeting for 20 minutes. I propped the door open as the old stone building was rather musty.
Afterwards we had a cup of tea. We admired the charming, colourful English cottage flower garden. Up the road behind the Meeting House and across the road is the children’s space which is obviously seldom used. Further up behind the Meeting House is the large two storey house where the warden lives with her family.
It was here at Brigflatts that George Fox reports in his journal in 1652 that Richard Robinson was “convinced” meaning converted. He went to stay in Richard’s house but a dark jealousy riz up in him , after I was gone to bed, that I might be somebody that was come to rob his house, and he locked all his doors fast.
At Firbank Fell (fell means hill and comes from Old Norse) we ate the delicious picnic lunch which Sylvia has prepared. Two horses leaned over from a small paddock and tried to get some food off Bill so Sylvia gave them some pieces of apple. In that small paddock a chapel once stood. George Fox had refused to preach in the chapel but came over in the afternoon and stood on the hill nearby, on the large rock, and preached for three hours to about 1,000 people. After lunch Bill gave us two readings from Quaker Advices and Queries from the rock and we held another 20 minute Meeting for Worship. I think that in order to preach for three hours one would have to have enormous stamina and faith.
We drove back to Sedbergh Village to take a closer look at the church mentioned above.George Fox would not go into the church as he believed that the ground and house was no holier than another place, and that the house was not a church, but the people which Christ is head of... (The Journal of George Fox page 107). There happened to be a large number of people in town because it was a fair at which new servants were hired.
Inside the church are two panels known as The Sedbergh Embroidery. Apparently the Quaker Tapestry (really embroideries) has spawned embroideries in other local churches. These panels depict the local history. In the second panel there are seventeen events. Two of those are Quaker events namely George Fox preaching at Firbank Fell and a picture of Brigflatts Meeting House.
Some bookshops had just closed at 4.00pm but the one we went into had the very book I had been looking for titled The Birthplace of Quakerism but for an extravagant £20. At that price I did not buy it! Bill had trotted off down the road to have tea and cake. He has a good appetite but is a slim man.
Wednesday 6 July DAY TWO: 1652 Quaker Country
Bill and Sylvia came and picked us up at 10.45 to take us to Swarthmoor Meeting House. The Meeting also owns an allotment, a couple of houses and a field next door which has a solar array in it. The original building and land were bought by George Fox in 1688 for £72. His initials are over the door. We joined in the Meeting of about 20 people. The building smelt a bit musty.
Straight after Meeting a chap named Jeff showed us around the building and outside. Upstairs there were shutters as the women used to hold their Meeting for Business and wanted some of the warmth from downstairs to filter up to them. Later the upstairs was used as a school with a visiting schoolmaster. The floor slopes purposely down.
After tea and cake we were then invited into what appeared to be a more modern building next door. Originally it was a barn where Quakers left their horses during Meeting for Worship as they might have come a considerable distance. We sat at a very large table covered in beautiful white tablecloths – some with embroidery where we were offered vegetarian or chicken soup with bread and cheese. There was some interesting conversation around the table.
To my right was Marian, a woman of about my age, whose husband is a Baptist Minisiter but who has been coming to Meeting for the last four years. She would like to see some Bible teaching within Quaker Meeting. I suggested she find a course to go to at Woodbrooke and might later consider going to NZ as a Resident Friend.
Swarthmoor Hall was our next port of call. Sylvia and Bill left us there for 1 ½ hours. Outside the building is quite ugly but as I had seen pictures I was prepared for that. We paid £6 audio guide and went into the house.
The first room to the right of the front door is a large room which is where Quaker Meetings were held. There was a long wide table and furniture from the period. As the house was out of Quaker hands for many years the rooms have been changed and furniture also. However there is a chair which was Margaret Fell’s and one which George Fox used to sit on. Margaret Fell’s first husband Thomas was a judge and a Member of Parliament. He did not take part in the Meetings but sat in his study next door from where he no doubt heard the ministry given. I felt very excited to be in these two rooms so that I can now picture how it was back then.
Upstairs on the second floor there were various bedrooms with memorabilia which were unprotected or badly displayed. There was a Flemish tapestry depicting the story of the two women claiming to be the mother of a baby before Solomon. It is not in a good state of repair and is not protected either. There were two old Quaker bonnets which could be touched. Bill commented to us later that the house is not a museum.
On the third floor which was a very large open room there were some clothes for children to dress up in. I tried on a cotton cap and a Quaker bonnet of the type which Elizabeth Fry, the first prison visitor, used to wear. She features at present on the £5 note.
We went on to Sunbrick Burial Ground in Urswick where Margaret Fell was buried. She was first married to Judge Thomas Fell and then later to George Fox eleven years after the death of her first husband. Margaret is seen as the mother of Quakerism and George as the father of Quakerism. There are no gravestones in the burial ground as was the custom at that time.
We called into St Cuthbert’s Church at Aldingham which is largely of 12th century Norman origin. The interior is of simple white walls and roman arches. The local Anglican minister was happy for George Fox to preach in the church in 1652. This was quite exceptional as George often haranged priests for accepting payment for preaching.
We could not go past Roy’s Icecreams which Bill and Sylvia recommended. They spoke of the reasonable price and the size of icecreams in NZ. I licked my way through a £2 waffle cone with a scoop of Black Forest and second scoop of liquorice and blackcurrant. Delicious!
Sylvia gave me a wonderful pile of books including The Birth of Quakerism by Elfrida Vipont Foulds. Inside the cover she had ostentatiously written $200.00 in reference to the £20 a second had book seller wanted for the same book yesterday. Sylvia’s copy cost 40p way back!
In the evening we went to Rookhow Meeting House which was built 1725 as a central place in which Quakers could meet. The building is rather dark and rundown and there were many small candles glowing around the walls. There was however a warm welcome and a cup of tea after the Meeting for Worship attaended by about 20 people. They only use the Meeting House once a month on a Wednesday for an evening Meeting and once a year for an Area Meeting.
On the same site is the Rookhow Centre which is billed as “comfortable budget self-catering accommodation... providing accommodation for up to 20 people” Unfortunately the centre is not up to modern expectations so I doubt they have many bookings. On the same site there is Quakers' Wood - 12 acres of mature mixed woodland but the paths are a bit overgrown.
Friday 8 July 2016 David’s 72nd Birthday
Greenman Bill and Sylvia turned up early for the trip on Lake Windermere. We went out on the boat from Lakeside which took us to Bowness. We had a look and said our Peace Prayer at St Martin’s Church. The original church was built here in 1203 and this looks as very active Anglican church. We liked seeing the good sized photos of all the couples to be married in the church this year with a request to pray for them. David bought a second hand book. We found coasters for our names in a shop and we also bought a teatowel with a map of the area on it.
We climbed up the hill to the Laura Ashley Hotel The Belsfield. We ordered a fish platter and a plowman’s platter and all ate well. The waitress later brought David a small piece of cake with a candle in it.
We took the boat back to Windermere. Sylvia drove us back to the Longlands Caravan Park in Kirkby in Furness.
We barely had an hour to catch up with emails when Greenman and Sylvia were back to take us out for dinner. Sylvia was the driver as usual and took us on an interesting tour to get to Ravenglass by the sea. I had booked us into a fish restaurant as per David’s wish and Sylvia’s suggestion. We had a delicious meal at The Inn at Ravenglass. Sylvia remembers when she was young the boat coming in and going down to buy the fish directly from the fisherman. Then we took a walk down the road and saw a great big open steel gate used to prevent flooding. Sylvia drove us back to the park yet another way. A lovely birthday for David!
Saturday 9 July Ulverston
Today we were invited to Greenman and Sylvia’s home in Ulverston for lunch. Much of the goodies – vegetables and fruit – came from their allotment. Their house in a street of relatively narrow houses built maybe a hundred years ago. It has a cellar, then ground floor with kitchen living-diningroom and front parlour, first floor with bathroom and two bedrooms and then a big loft room with Sylvia’s writing desk at a window. It has all been decorated very tastefully by Sylvia. In the so-called “tin tent” caravan where we are staying she has made curtains with soft pelmet of the same material which sit well above the windows. She is not only a good cook but has many talents for handcrafts such as crochet work.
After lunch we went down to the allotment which is large. Greenman Bill spends a lot of time there. There are a number of sheds, glasshouses, a polytunnel, a hen house with three hens in residence but only one laying. There were potatoes, courgettes, onion and garlic, rhubarb, fruit bushes bearing gooseberries, black currants...
We were given some tayberries which we had never heard of before. Wikipedia tells me that the tayberry was patented in 1979 as a cross between a blackberry and a red raspberry, and named after the river Tay in Scotland... the fruit do not pick easily by hand and cannot be machine harvested, so they have not become a commercially grown berry crop.
Sunday 10 July
We went to Cartmel Quaker Meeting as we were told that there were usually only four members left there. Sylvia and Bill were there too and with a visitor from Hereford altogether we were ten people. A Meeting the day before had decided to sell two unoccupied, rundown flats next door and put that money towards revamping the Rookhow Meeting House.
The Cartmel Priory was recommended to us s a place to visit. It has been a place of pilgrimage for 800 years and has many interesting old tombstones. In 1537 there was the dissolution of monasteries by order of Henry VIII who had become the head of the Anglican Church. Properties were sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s.
In the church there were two sculptures by Josefina de Vasconcellos born of an English Quaker mother and a wealthy Brazilian father. One sculpture was titled The Young Martyr and symbolizes the death of 22 men who believed that they had been authorised to return to the monastery. However King Henry gave orders to the Duke of Norfolk “You shall, without pity or circumstance, cause the monks to be tied up without further delay or ceremony” and they were all hanged for resisting the taking of corn from the monastic tithe barn. The sculpture shows a man’s hooded head, eyes closed behind a barred window.
One wonders what life might have been like then and now if Henry VIII had not fallen for Anne Bolelyn?
We also had a ticket from the caravan park where we are staying to visit Holker Hall which belongs to the Cavendish family who still own much of the land here. The building dates from the 16th century, with alterations, additions, and rebuilding in the 18th and 19th centuries. The west wing was destroyed by a major fire in 1871 but rebuilt and this was the part we visited today. The rooms were grand with many lovely paintings of privileged people.
I was interested because my mother was a bit fascinated by the six beautiful but sometimes scandalous Mitford sisters. They were caricatured, according to The Times journalist Ben Macintyre, as "Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover; Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur". Diana married Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists and Deborah married Lord Cavendish and became the Duchess of Devonshire. She died a couple of years ago.
The garden was informal and some of the trees pruned into attractive semi-circle shapes and others into horrible oblong or square box forms.
Monday 11 July KENDAL
We cleaned up our lovely Tin Tent Palace and moved to Kendal on Monday. Having emptied the loan car from Honda Kendal we then took it back. We took our car for a drive as the first time we had gone to pick it up the gear lever was woobly and it was still jolting. Unfortunately before we moved off even, the car started shaking like a minor earthquake was moving it! Oh dear!
Tuesday 12 to Saturday 16 July The Quaker Tapestry and Our Daily Routine
Have a look at http://www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk/ for the introductory video about the Quaker Tapestry.
Bridget has been the General Manager of the Tapestry Centre for more than 20 years. She features in the introductory DVD mentioned above and another one about how to do the stitches used in the Tapestry. They were both made some years ago. She is also a very good singer and we bought her lovely CD Universal Chorus sung with her partner, Roy, some guest singers and great instrumentalists. The songs are inspired by the Tapestry and I particularly liked the one about the Quaker William Sellars who was forced on board a naval boat but who refused to take up arms.
Dawn was in charge of us as volunteers and is Visitor Service Officer. She is a lovely young-looking, slim blond who is always helpful. Lisa is the Operations Manager. She tried out teaching but found it was not for her. She is also a very warm, helpful person. Her partner is a professional darts player so they were off to Germany at the end of our stay for a long weekend of darts.
It is interesting how The Tapestry came to Kendal. The Meeting House was built in 1816 to hold 850 people but there is a much smaller group there now.
In fact it seems there was a schism way back in 1835 which left the Kendal Meeting with only about 100 members. This was known as the Beaconite Controversy which asserted the authority of the Bible over Quaker mysticism and the Inner Light.
In 1990 the Meeting came to the sad decision to sell the Georgian building but got no takers perhaps because it is a listed building. They had even found a new site and and appointed an architect. Then the clerk had the bright idea to approach Anne Wynn-Wilson, the founder of the Quaker Tapestry and invite them to Kendal.
Each day we reported for work at 9.45am. The first thing was to put the signs out at the gates on two different roads. On Stramongate we also put the magnetic TOILET sign which means we are part of the scheme whereby any member of the public can come and use our toilets. This is a very nice idea, especially if one is caught short! It also means people come in and look at your business. There never seems to be one nearby when I need one!
We can have a free plain hot drink once a day at the café now privately run by Ruth. It is in the large courtyard and is the ground floor of our flat. As there is no-one else we take breaks separately.We tend not to get a break in the afternoon for one reason or another.
Each day a volunteer comes for an hour while we have our lunch. We have rushed out each day to do various chores such as buy stamps andbuy a decent sized bowl for making coleslaw instead of having to use a pot.
The last person is admitted to the exhibition at 4.00pm and then we can start closing up. Theoretically we are open until 5.00pm but some days we can close up earlier if one of the people upstairs comes down to lock up and cash up.
Evening Walks
We try to go for a walk in the evening before the TV news at 6.00pm. One evening we got to the top of the hill to see the ruins of Kendal Castle. There are excellent information boards around the walls of the castle. One can still see impressive cellars with broad Roman arches which would have housed wine in medieval times. There is enoughof the building left to get an idea of what it might have been like to live in one of the new towers.
Another evening we went on the Quaker Walk with the booklet produced to led one around the inner town. The local Civic Society have been active in putting up many plaques around the town which are readable and interesting.
Saturday 16 July Summer Flutes Concert
We had noticed an ad for this concert at the Kendal Meeting House. It was held at the Methodist Church about 15 minutes walk away. Since 2015 Sue Nicholls, a Quaker, has been the conductor. The feature of the concert was that members played various flutes and that quite a few people had a chance to do a solo. None of the pieces was too long so that was also good. We had pieces by Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and Felix Arndt with an arrangement of Over the Rainbow to end the first half.
In the interval, just like the Christmas concert in Newlyn, there was a lovely supper provided. We sat at a table with a young Spanish lad who turned out to be staying with the conductor’s family so we also met her husband. Unfortunately we didn’t get to speak to Sue at the end.
The second half began with the Teddy Bears’ Picnic which makes me think of my childhood friends who lived next door. George used to have us dancing and singing this song! After several more lovely pieces we had a stunning piccolo solo in Silver Birds by Ch. De Thiere played by a tall attractive young woman named Lizzie who is off to dentistry school. To finish we enjoyed the beautful Bolero by Maurice Ravel. Strangely it featured on TV a few days later when remembering great wins at earlier Olympic Games. Jane Torvill and Christopher Deans were a stunning duet on ice, dancing to this haunting piece, never to be forgotten.
Sunday 17 July Kendal Meeting and Pendle Hill
After Meeting and a quick lunch we drove more than an hour south to the village of Barley. It lies at the base of the long sloping plateau summit of Pendle Hill which is formed from the Pendle Grit, a coarse sandstone. The area is known for the trials of the twelve Pendle witches in 1612 which are among the most famous witch trials in English history and some of the best recorded of the 17th century.
However that sad story was not our focus that day. We wanted to go there as part of our pilgrimage to 1652 country. It was here that George Fox, our founder, had a vision. In his journal, George Fox described this vision on Pendle Hill:
As we travelled, we came near a very great hill, called Pendle Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it; which I did with difficulty, it was so very steep and high. When I was come to the top, I saw the sea bordering upon Lancashire. From the top of this hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered.
It was steep up the rocky steps. There seemed to be quite a few Moslem families taking very small children up with no water on a hot summer’s day. I was pleased when some of them turned back down. On the top it was very windy. There was no memorial to Fox, only a trig station, which surprised us. We came down a more gentle sloping path.
Monday 18 July Beatrix Potter Day
We had a wonderful day discovering Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) not only as a writer and illustrator but also as a farmer and breeder of sheep and a great philanthropist and conservationist. They are celebrating 150 years since she was born.
We went to her her house called Hill top. You have to get a ticket for a particular time in order to get into the house which she bought in 1906 as her artistic retreat from London. She left the house and its small farm and other properties to the National Trust. The house, farm and local villages and people she knew appeared in the illustrations.
After a cup of hot chocolate and a piece of cake we went on to the Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead which was once her husband’s law office and is now owned by the National Trust. It houses the original book illustrations – sketches and watercolours by Beatrix. David was very taken by these exquisite pictures.
Finally we went to Wray Castle a Victorian neo-gothic building built in 1840 in Cumbria. It also has an association with Beatrix Potter as she spent a holiday here at the age of 16. We had a very interesting tour of the house. Like many places these days it has a room with dressups for children and a billiard room where you can have a game if you wish. The house and grounds have belonged to the National Trust since 1929 but it was used in the past by a variety of groups including the navy.
Friday 22 July Invitation to Dinner
We were delighted to be invited to dinner by Donald and Hilary who are members of the Kendal Meeting. Their daughter Tonia is a doctor in Queenstown back in New Zealand. Donald was just recovering from having a hip operation and was doing very well. From the street one could not guess that there is a lovely flower and vegetable garden and several green grassy terraces reaching down to the river. Across the river is open land and a factory in the distance is masked by some trees so the view is idyllic.
Sunday 24 July Brigflatts Meeting
Today we set off for Brigflatts Meeting House which we had visited with Sylvia and Bill. There were about 10 other people. Today there was no vocal ministry. The door was closed so I found it a bit musty and it took a while for me to ignore this problem. We have a dehumidifier in the Quaker Tapestry Room. I was thinking that this building and the very musty thatched roofed Come-to-Good Meeting House in Feock, in Cornwall, could maybe also do with a dehumidifier. We introduced ourselves at the end of Meeting for Worship.
A lovely couple Ann and Richard Taylor invited us to lunch at their home in Kirkby Lonsdale. Richard is a descendant of one of the Rowntree families who were grocers and worked in the trade in Scarborough. Ann used to be a nurse. They were both birthright Quakers and sent to Quaker schools. They are very committed Quakers and apparently upstairs they have many Quaker books. Richard is related to Jean Payne and Daphne Erasmus and knew Burn Hockey’s father, Stanley. These people are all members of our Christchurch Meeting!
Preston Patrick Meeting House
On our final Sunday we went to Preston Patrick Meeting as we had not seen inside the building. We had also met Meg Hill who lives in Kendal but attends this Meeting. She is the cousin of our Yearly Meeting clerk in Aotearoa New Zealand, Murray Short. Meg has pretty blue sparkling eyes and a nice nature. The interior was simple with white walls and brown wooden furniture.
After Meeting we chatted to various members who had associations with ANZ. I popped upstairs and found a lovely room with some great old books on Quaker topics. The old children’s school is rented out as is the two-storey cottage on the front of the Meeting House so I assume this Meeting, although small, can manage financially.
Sizergh Castle [Pronunciation:siza]
We decided to visit this castle now owned by the National Trust and not far from Kendal. There was a group of well dressed and mostly very knowledgeable lady volunteers in the rooms. The Strickland family who gave the castle to the National Trust have the right to live there in perpetuity. The earliest part of the building is a tower built in the fourteenth century. The lovely collection of portraits of the Catholic Royal Stuart family reflects the Strickland family's links to the Jacobite court in exile in France. Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII and a relative of the Stricklands, is thought to have lived here after her first husband died in 1533. Catherine's second husband, Lord Latymer, was related to the dowager Lady Strickland.
I liked the dumb waiter which was in the far end of the castle as it stands today.
We loved the gardens – the stumpery with its ferns, the flower garden with myriad shapes and colours and the vegetable gardens with companion planting. There was also an orchard with a few beehives and extensive grounds to walk around.
Yarns in the Yards Theatre
We were lucky enough to be around when this theatrical festival Yarns in the Yards was taking place. Kendal’s business in the past was sheep and wool hence the two meanings of “yarns”. Kendal Community Theatre was set up in 2011 with the aim of being very inclusive and accessible. Plays were to be read, workshopped or performed throughout the day. All the plays were performed free either outside in the ancient cobblestone yards or in the Quaker Meeting House, the Unitarian Hall and other venues.There were 58 new 15 minute plays written sometimes by small groups of children and sometimes by adults.
We went to the introductory evening at the Shakespeare Centre. The first play was commemorating the 300th Anniversary of the first Jacobite Rebellion on the streets of Kendal in 1715. There was no backdrop and women played male parts. The actors read the scripts which had only been rehearsed a few times. That was the whole point of the festival. Later a panel of those involved in running the festival spoke about their roles and answered questions.
As we had Monday off we were able to go to a Masterclass at the Quaker Tapestry but actually in the Meeting Room. This involved those who came, reading parts in a play. We read a play which was called Aliens Attack written by some children. Later we saw plays written and read or acted by adults with minimum props and costumes such Are Yer Dancin’? and an historical play called simply William Smallword about a local organist, music teacher and composer. There were two plays one evening about WWI. The Listening Post was about skulduggery among Kendal Pals in the trenches whereby one man was knowingly sent to his death by his superior.
My favourite was When One thing is Really Another (Not a very good title) which was a read performance about women in the past who worked at K Shoes and the love that could not speak its name which was the surprise ending.
On the same evening David’s favourite was Going Solo a play acted about twins trying to achieve independence. We had a wheelchair bound woman who clearly had problems speaking but who worked hard at producing good speech and who also used a preprogrammed tablet for communication. Her twin had an offer to go to university but felt perhaps she should stay home to be with her sister. I think that the play was perhaps specially written to fit the actors.
It was a great festival and it has set me thinking of how this idea could be transposed to my community, Bishopdale.
Monday 1 August To Bradford
Monday 1 August
We left Kendal at about noon and arrived in Bradford at about 3.00pm. We drove mostly on two way roads. It was a lovely scenic road with lots of green pastures and trees but took more concentration looking out for wide loads or narrow bridges. We got stuck behind a green vintage truck with a flashing light on top. The driver had several opportunities to pull over but didn’t. Some annoyed drivers took great risks like passing on a corner. When we finally passed it was a little old man who was oblivious to anyone else.
We arrived at the Best Western Cedar Lodge Hotel, Bradford and settled in for the evening. We decided to have dinner in the diningroom. I had a liver dish and David had a chewy, gristly rump steak with a nice blue cheese sauce. We each had a nice glass of red wine. We shared an Eton Mess which had a great quantity of cream in it.
Tuesday 2 August
I met Sue Steel of the Bradford Family History Society in the Local Studies Library in the centre of Bradford. She showed me the grave indexes but frankly as they are not organised in any way I decided it was not worth spending hours going throught it. In the end I mostly just fiddled around with Ancestry. I asked about wills but they are held in York.
Not far away we found a cheap Chinese restaurant where you could eat as much as you liked for £7.95. We regaled ourselves.
Than we went for a wee wander in the CBD. The Civic Offices are in a grand old building which is obviously being restored. The tower in particular is covered in scaffolding and is obviously being restored. It is a grade 1 listed building.
We went round the Media Museum. It was disappointing and as David says it seemed to be focussed on children rather than adults.
Wednesday 3 August
Bradford Peace Museum
Several Quakers had told us that there was a Peace Museum in Bradford so we had to go there. Although it is free it is on the second floor of a building where you have to ring the bell in order to get in. It has a relatively small space and quite a few historical banners.
We met Shannen and Sarah who were busy putting up some of Maggie Glover’s portraits ready for a special exhibition. She called herself a Peace Artist and her pictures did not gloss over how people looked.
As we came back we popped into the Impressions Gallery which had a photographic exhibition re Musicians who played Punk Music against racism back in the 1980s. Neither of us was “grabbed” by this exhibition.
Deborah’s Maternal Grandfather’s Birthplace
We went to the House where my Maternal Grandpa, William Ernest Best was born at 16 Northfield Place, Manningham, Bradford.
I met Yasmin Saddique, a Moslem woman of Punjabi descent, who lives there now with her husband and son, Jaman aged about 10 and rather shy daughter Safia aged about 4. We didn’t meet her husband but her parents arrived when we were there. She had bought some samosas and gave us a cold drink. She was wearing a black scarf with diamantes. We stay about 40 minutes altogether.
When we went there earlier in the year and saw the outside of the house we had not realised that it was a back-to-back house.
Wikipedia tells us:
Back-to-back houses are a form of terraced house in which two houses share a rear wall (or in which the rear wall of a house directly abuts a factory or other building). Usually of low quality (sometimes with only two rooms, one on each floor) and high density, they were built for working class people and because three of the four walls of the house were shared with other buildings and therefore contained no doors or windows, back-to-back houses were notoriously ill-lit and poorly ventilated and sanitation was of a low standard.
The house was smaller than we thought. We walked up several stairs to the front door. On the ground floor there was the front room where there was a TV and it was obviously where guests are received. Out the back was a door which is no longer used which led to an alleyway once shared with the neighbours to go out to the outside toilets.
Down in the basement was a very nice spacious modern kitchen which took up most of the space. On the third level there was the main bedroom and bathroom. The fourth level had another bedroom.
Thursday 4 August
We went to the Leeds Museum to see the display about Conscientious Objectors. It was titled Courage, Conscience & Creativity and explored peace, interfaith work and personal stories.
The Leeds Quakers and Bradford Peace Museum curated material on conscientious objectors – men who refused to fight, for many different reasons. It featured the Friends Ambulance Unit and Richmond Castle cell graffiti.
Unfortunately it was a rather crowded display. There was a large screen with Quakers talking about their experiences but it was hard to hear. The children’s play area was right next to the display and they could blow horns and clang something so we gave up in the end. Further along in the WWI display there was captions way down too low. They were also written in blue which made them even harder to read!
We then went to an interesting talk in the Museum by Dr Claudia Sternberg, University of Leeds. She compared the way two different British and German approach remembering WWI. We had to leave in a hurry as our parking ticket had run out.
We had written to Trish, a SERVAS hostess and Quaker. She and her husband Keith were going to Edinburgh to work at the Quaker café and theatre during the festival so they couldn’t host us. However she asked at Meeting and Jill, who has been to NZ about four times, said she would have us to stay.
We drove to Jill’s house which was not far away from the Museum. We had a long chat and a few cups of tea. Mrs Rosa Parkes, her rescue pussycat was in residence but is shy of new visitors.
Friday 5 August
We had a quiet day. We went out and did some shopping and had a salad for lunch in a not-for-profit café. The money goes to support musical and theatrical performances in the café.
Saturday 6 August
We went in our car to central Leeds. Jill suddenly wanted to go well before we needed to. We waited in a lovely garden square but no-one from Quakers came. David’s phone did not work when we tried to phone Robert Keeble, the Leeds warden. We raced over to the Leeds Meeting House where builders were busy adding a new storey but no-one was there.
We then drove to Bradford Peace Museum. We were pleasantly surprised to find a free parking spot not far from the Peace Museum. Shannen Lang and Sarah her assistant were still at the Museum which was lucky as we didn’t know where the ceremony woud take place.
We went to the annual outdoor commemoration of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki attended by the Lord Mayor Councillor Geoff Reid and his wife. There were only about 30 people there. I spoke at that commemoration. I had prepared something having consulted Kate Dewes and Rob Green. About 30 people came. Afterwards we all went back to the Peace Museum for tea, biscuits and conversation.
We then set off to see an exhibition at the Bradford Meeting House. On the way we suddenly noticed something stuck to our windscreen. When we reached the Meeting House we were able to read the letter. We had a parking ticket! That evening a I wrote a letter to the Bradford Parking Services to explain we had not seen any parking notice.
At Bradford Quaker Meeting House the exhibition was many large posters of the horrible effects of the Hiroshima bomb. We had a great conversation with Dr Chris Butler who was wearing a black T-shirt with red Jobs not Trident on it. He was once a doctor in Penezas in France and held Quaker Meetings in his waiting room. There was also Kevin Holloway and Robert Peebles the warden from the Leeds Meeting House.
In the evening we had a takeaway Thai meal which cost about £32 ($NZ58) and frankly was not that good. There wasn’t much food and it was not very tasty.
Sunday 7 August
We went to Leeds Meeting today. The first ministry was from a woman who has married her wife only three weeks ago in a moving ceremony. Meeting was followed by a lovely lunch of soup, bread and fruit.
It was then off to the Gay Pride Parade. We had some banners with Meet the Quakers – Truth, Peace, Equality, Simplicity, Justice from the Quaker Meeting House. A group of about 12 of us set off down the hill. It took about 20 minutes to get downtown to the gathering. We waited around for about half an hour. There was a two tiered bus for Gay members of Sainsbury’s staff. Other firms were also supportive of their staff. Then the parade set off through the streets. People clapped as we went by. I heard some bystanders make positive comments. Just behind us there was a Jewish banner. Another poster declared Some Christians are Gay – get over it!
We were quite surprised that there were no floats with groups represented on them with singing or dancing which I am sure they have in the Auckland Gay Pride Parade. Near the beginning someone was going by and throwing multicoloured sweets. Late in the parade I was given a rainbow chord with coloured whistle.
It was all over in about 45 minutes. Our hostess Jill was not feeling very well so we found a café where we could have a cup of tea or coffee. After that Jill, Bridget who lives round the corner from her and Una who lives next to the Meeting House took a taxi back to the Meeting House. We walked back up the hill past the old Meeting House and the handsome white University of Leeds buildings.
Monday 8 August
We drove from Leeds to Scarborough. It was supposed to take 1½ hours but took 2 hours. We went to Scarborough Castle run by English Heritage. We saw structures from throughout the ages. There were audio guides and very informative boards with good pictures. Wikipedia helped me here:
A 4th-century Roman signal station, one of several on the Yorkshire coast, was built on the headland at the cliff top. The station was to warn of approaching hostile vessels, and took advantage of a natural source of fresh water which became known as the "Well of Our Lady".
William le Gros, Count of Aumale, a powerful Anglo-Norman baron and grand-nephew of William the Conqueror, built a wooden fortification after his receipt of the Earldom of York, from King Stephen in 1138, granted as reward for his victory at the Battle of the Standard.
In September 1642, at the outbreak of the English Civil War (1642–1651), Sir Hugh Cholmley occupied the castle as a Parliamentarian loyal to Oliver Cromwell but swapped sides in March 1643. The castle was refortified on Cholmley's orders, including the establishment of the South Steel Battery for artillery.
After Cholmeley's defection, the castle, with its garrison of 700 Royalist soldiers, the town and its strategic supply port were on the side of Charles I. (reigned 1625–1649) The Parliamentarians saw Scarborough as a valuable Royalist target because it was the only port not under their dominion... On 18 February 1645, Sir John Meldrum took the town from the Royalists, cutting off any escape routes by land or sea and delivering the port for Parliament. The same day, Cholmley retreated into the castle and refused to give in, so the Parliamentarians prepared for what would be a five-month siege – one of the most bloody of the Civil War, with almost continuous fighting.
By July the tide was turning in the Parliamentarians' favour: bombardment, scurvy, lack of water, perhaps a shortage of gunpowder and the threat of starvation and only 25 men fit to fight meant that the castle surrendered on 25 July 1645. Only about half of the original 500 defenders emerged alive.
We had actually come to see the castle because it was here that George Fox, founder of Quakerism, was imprisoned: The castle was used as a prison from the 1650s, and the garrison increased in 1658, and in 1662 it returned to the Crown. George Fox (1624–1691), founder of the Religious Society of Friends was imprisoned there from April 1665 to September 1666 for religious activities viewed as troublesome for Charles II (reigned 1660–1685). You can read it all in Chapter 16 of George Fox’s Journal. See http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/ch16.html
The final part of the castle’s history which was emphasized was from the start of WWI:
During the First World War, Scarborough was used for British propaganda purposes after the bombardment of the town by two warships of the German Empire, SMS Derfflinger and SMS Von der Tann, on 16 December 1914. The raid killed 19 people and damaged the castle's keep, barracks and curtain walls. The castle was severely damaged by the hail of 500 shells directed at it and the town. The barracks were demolished due to the extensive damage wrought by the bombardment. In the Second World War, the castle served as a secret listening post.
It was about 40 minutes to Whitby. We found Chiltern Bed and Breakfast okay but had to go round several blocks to find a park. The BNB gave us a four day parking ticket for certain streets.
When settled in we took off to look around the town. There were quite a few pedestrian only areas in cobblestone streets. We popped into the Save the Children shop and a couple of other charity shops.
Just before we crossed the bridge we saw a family tucking into some nice Fish‘n Chips and asked where they bought them. They directed us over the bridge to Hadleys where we dined amply on fish and chips for the price of £27 or NZ$49! This town sure rakes in the dough! I was a bit concerned about a white bearded man whom we had seen sitting in the information centre. He was now sitting opposite the restaurant beside a red telephone box. He actually looked quite tidy but seemed to maybe be talking to himself. An older waitress told me not to worry as the man has a flat nearby.
Tuesday 9 August
St Mary’s Church up on the hill beside the monastery is surrounded by tall gravestones. The Norman church was built on the site around 1110 and added to and altered over the centuries. The tower and transepts are from the 12th and 13th centuries. The tower is square and crenellated, as are the walls. Inside there are enclosed pews each with a family’s name on it and many memorials to soldiers and worthy parishioners.
The first Abbey at Whitby was founded in 657 AD by the Anglo-Saxon era King of Northumbria,Oswy (Oswiu). He appointed Lady Hilda, as founding abbess. English Heritage care for the site. Inside the museum there is not much to see but one can have an audio guide. Outside there are boards which show how things would have looked more than 1000 years ago. There are walls on two sides and there is only a skeleton shape left of the rest of the abbey but enough with the help of these boards with pictures to see how things once were.
It was then on to the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. The Museum is in Walker’s House which belonged to Captain John Walker, a Quaker, to whom the great explorer, Captain Cook was apprenticed in 1746, and to which Cook returned in the winter of 1771/2 after the First Voyage. Cook served Walker first as apprentice, then as seaman and lastly as master’s mate until he joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He spent most of his time at sea on Walker’s colliers, mainly in the coal trade between the Tyne and London but including voyages to the Baltic and Dublin. There was a special exhibition re the women who got left behind while the sailors were away for years at a time.
We were rather interested in a print of Tahiti which will cost us £100 if we can get one from York. It shows the area of Tahiti where the transit of Venus took place at One Tree Hill.
We had a beer at the Endeavour Pub. Then we went to a recommended pizza restaurant named Moutreys in Grape Lane opposite the entrance to Cook’s Memorial Museum. David ordered a large seafood pizza and I a fungi pizza with mushrooms on it. They also brought a bowl of Parmesan Cheese to the table. The bases were crusty and good. We both had a glass of Chilean Shiraz. We were very full at the end. It cost £29.45 or NZ$53.26 – not cheap! We went to the Co-operative and bought a few bits of food including a packet with three chocolate bombs so naturally they had to be consumed straight away.
Wednesday 10 August 2016
We drove to Edinburgh and stayed two nights with Julia who works in accounts at the Scottish Parliament. We met her at a BNB at Stanford Airport and all going well she will look after our car for 18 months.
Wednesday 10 August 2016
We drove to Edinburgh and stayed two nights with Julia who works in accounts at the Scottish Parliament. We met her at a BNB at Stanford Airport and all going well she will look after our car for 18 months.
Unfortunately we still have a small problem with the car. By the time the car had been “fixed” at Honda Kendal it had a new problem. It throbbed when the engine was going and one put one’s foot down on the brake for example at the lights. They told us that the problem should right itself after 300 miles. After 500 miles the problem is still there. Western Honda in Edinburgh wanted £60 for a first exploration and then £220 for further testing.
It took two weeks to work out what the problem was. We made many calls to Honda UK over the matter. In the end the repair has been accepted under the warranty but the explorations have not in spite of a clause which appeared to say it would be. Even two people at Honda UK said that it looked as though it might be covered. We will get some advice when we get to London and see if we can have them reimburse us. I don’t give up easily when I think I am right as my readers may know!
Accommodation
We were devastated to miss out on working at the Quaker Meeting House during the festival. However through Trusted Housesitters I found a dogsit for just over two weeks. Jane and John were taking their two teenage daughters to their holiday house in Switzerland where they used to live and work.
Yana the dog is a three year old black labrador who originally trained as a blind dog but had some problem with her hip so could not be used as planned. We take her for a walk each day. Every second day we try to go to the park so that she has plenty of space to run after the ball.
The house is a very modern award wining home in an area where there are majestic older mansions. Downstairs there is an indoor swimming pool so some mornings we brave the coldish water. Once in we enjoy it. See http://www.zonearchitects.co.uk/projects/new-villa-in-conservation-area-edinburgh/ There is now a high wooden fence at the front which is not shown in the photo.
Sunday 14 August Quaker Meeting
The Meeting for Worship was an experimental type of Meeting which, at first glance, seemed to be for the one child who was there. The child’s mother who was originally from Taiwan talked about a seed as the starting point for all life. Seeds were passed around. There was more commentary on growing.
We were then invited if we wished to make something at the tables provided. I decided to make a word picture of a flower growing below and above ground with bee (Deborah means “bee”), rain and sun which are so important to all our cultivations.
Then we were invited to give ministry about our creations. I did not feel called to comment. One woman had torn a staircase out of paper and wrote an appropriate word on each stair. Lovely.
Edinburgh Festival
For some reason, perhaps because David did a course on the parables, we chose to go to Edward Elgar’s The Apostles on the Saturday evening. The stage was crammed with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, a National Girls Choir whom I did not see, 6 soloists ,6 young trainee male singers from the Royal Conservatoire Voices, the Scottish National Orchestra and the conductor. It was very well sung but somehow did not uplift either David or me.
Our next event was In the Wine. This was a young dance group from Wellington named Java Dance Theatre founded in 2003 so we thought we would go along and support them.
We were first there so we sat on the bottom of the stairs and ate our homemade sandwich lunch. We had to go out and line up before being allowed in again. We talked to the Canadian neurologist brother and neurologist sister-in-law of the ‘cello player in the show who came with their two children.
The show opened with a beautiful young naked nymph brandishing a piece of ivy/vine emerging from among the wine barrels and drum boxes in the middle. There was an Adam-and-Eve-like celebration of love and enjoyment of the vine and a ceremony of marriage. We were given sprigs of rosemary to throw on the happy couple and were invited to smell cinnamon which was crushed and thrown over them.
This was accompanied by much drumming on wooden cubes with holes and rythmic clapping which we were enjoined to participate in. The wine barrels were used throughout the dance as props. We had music from a talented duo of the violin player and the cello player who also participated in the dance. The fifth person, a dancer, was a redhead young woman.
It was a vigorous performance but needs to be shortened to have more impact.
Afterwards there was the possibility of a wine tasting which appealed to us so we stayed on. We met Bronwyn Chin, a Wellingtonian Chinese and friend of the cast. Sarah Gatzonis, the lead female dancer,is of Greek extraction from Australia. We enjoyed talking to her and Michael Gudgeon who is originally from Christchurch while tasting the Urlar Wine from East Taratahi, near Carteton.
To support a Quaker singer whom we had met on Sunday we went to Majk Stokes‘s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (£4 each =NZ$7.26) at 6.30pm on Wednesday 17 August. He wears his silly singer-songwriter hat ...covering such topics as food, gardening, the environment, the blues and turning 40.says the description for Venue 40, the quaker Meeting House. I particularly liked his song on Bees (as my name means “Bee” if you haven’t learned that by now) and another witty and melodius one called “One of those days”. They were simple ballads and he drew on puns and rhyme as his main techniques. He read a short pithy poem about Jesus and cross contamination! A very pleasant concert. All his material was original.
Thursday 18 August
We arranged to meet Julia Campbell at the Scottish Parliament where she works in accounts. We had lunch with her in the staff canteen. She showed us around the building which has about 500 staff.
They have this Parliament, plus other representatives to the British Parliament and a third tier who represent Scotland at the European Union. This is unfortunately very costly.
Later we stayed on and had a look at a photographic exhibition by Harry Benson titled Seeing America. He took photos of many of the iconic people in the USA during the 1960s and 1970s such as President Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Apparently Benson has photographed every American president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama.
Friday 19 August
Today from 11.00am we each took a turn at reading the Chilcot Report for 10 minutes which was videoed. A group of us sat in a small shed for an hour and tried to concentrate on the contents of the report. They hope to finish the 12 volumes sometime tomorrow. It does not embue us with great hope for the mighty British military machine – full of incompetence amongst other shortcomings. Of course we have no truck with war anyway – this goes to show how stupid it is!!!
The Chilcot Report is the Inquiry into the Iraq War which was published on Wednesday 6 July 2016. Sir John Chilcot said near the beginning of his 12 page public statement:
In 2003, for the first time since the Second World War, the United Kingdom took part in an invasion and full-scale occupation of a sovereign State. That was a decision of the utmost gravity. Saddam Hussein was undoubtedly a brutal dictator who had attacked Iraq’s neighbours, repressed and killed many of his own people, and was in violation of obligations imposed by the UN Security Council.
But the questions for the Inquiry were:
• whether it was right and necessary to invade Iraq in March 2003; and
• whether the UK could – and should – have been better prepared for what followed.
We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.
We have also concluded that:
• The judgements about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction – WMD – were presented with a certainty that was not justified.
• Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated. The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate.
• The Government failed to achieve its stated objectives.
Does this not give food for thought?
Popped into the Scottish Art Gallery and saw some modern art which was for sale. We went back a week later and had a further look when we had a moment. The gallery is right near where one can buy half price tickets to shows for that day and many of the one person show people tout their shows with small glossy colourful flyers.
We also went to an intense and well acted two person play titled How is Uncle John? (£5.50) which was about the sexploitation of vulnerable young girls and women. It was written by Sally Lewis who worked with women who had been trafficked, their families and organisations who support them. It was deeply moving how these traffickers operate to hook young women offering what seems a fabulous holiday in Italy. Then comes payback time...
Saturday 20 August
Patricia Petitbon and Susan Manoff - La Belle Excentrique
On 7 March Rupert Christiansen described the French soprano opera singer Patricia Petibon as both 'enchanting and irritating'. I think this is a very fair comment. She arrived on stage in a beautiful seagreen-blue gown, her dyed red hair decorously piled on her head in plaits. Her regular recital partner, the pianist Susan Manoff, from the USA, was more simply dressed in black.
Christiansen wrote further: There’s no shortage of fun in this bizarre selection of salon melodies and cabaret chansons, but Patricia Petibon's singing remains divisive... She is technically secure, and sensitive to textual nuance. There’s no shortage of fun, energy or wit. Yet sometimes she tries too hard, overkilling with self-conscious charm what should be left sweet and simple. Again well put as I would have struggled to describe her style.
First our performers gave us some beautiful songs well sung and played. The shenanigans began with a song titled Je te veux ( I want you ie. I lust after you) with music by Erik Satie and words by Henry Pacory. Patricia threw something into the audience and then lured the man who caught it up on stage and proceeded to empty his shirt pocket, put the contents in his trouser pocket and then stuffed the red soft toy heart in his shirt pocket and then sent him back to his seat!
The next song as Fido, Fido so we had dog noises coming from her well trained throat between the well sung notes. She turned her back to the audience and used a long large white feather to represent Fido’s tail.
For a peculiar little song L’élephant du Jardin des Plantes the pianist donned a mask of an elephant’s trunk. The second verse was sung in French but it is translated here as :
Do not tell everyone, dear aunt
At the top of your voice.
The Botanical Garden elephant
Has wee-wee’d in his pants.
It was as though a child was speaking and transferring his own worries of wetting his pants on to the elephant. A bit like the lovely A.A. milne poem “James, James Morrison, Morrison...took great care of his mother although he was only three.” It was quite bizarre seeing this elegant woman singer singing such puerile songs and her pianist being part of the act.
Things got really over the top with some songs titled La Bonne Cuisine by Leonard Bernstein. Both women went off stage and came back dressed in aprons and laden with pots and pans, carrots, you name it! As he would have written in English the French translations did not quite match the original words. There were four songs which were recipes complete with props some of which were thrown out into the audience. I found this section a bit tedious and way over the top.
I must say I hoped we would hear some sophisticated French songs sung and accompanied with charm. The performers are topnotch but I found parts of the show too far over the top and they used too many infantile props. By all means have fun but...! We paid £22.05 (NZ$39.65) per seat.
Sunday 21 August
We took Yana for a walk to the park as she hadn’t had a proper walk for two days due to rain. The day before we were just about to go out and it started raining cats and dogs so that was the end of that! As usual she enjoyed the red/pink ball being thrown to her. She holds it in her mouth and squeezes it so that it makes a sound. It also flashes!
We went to Quaker Meeting for Worship and I gave ministry about reading the Chilcot Report.
Julia D-B was at Meeting but was not feeling well. She decided to come and eat with us but then turned back as again she did not feel up to it. We grabbed some pulled pork buns from Oink which was doing a roaring trade. There was a whole pig in the window which attracted business. The crackling looked good.
Julia had told us about Songlines which was a free show where you could also participate. We went to St John’s Church where we had two choirs and one soloist. The tenor soloist, Chris Elliot, interspersed the concert with two German lieder by Strauss and Mahler and a song by Vaughan Williams. We had the mixed Love Music Community Choir which was made up mostly of older women and the Edinburgh Gay Men’s Chorus who were loudly clapped. We were invited to join in the chorus for the Wild Mountain Thyme which you might recognise with the last line being Will ye go, Lassie go? At the end the tenor invited us to sing Happy Birthday to his mother who was 70. In two months that will be me!
In the evening I watched two films: The Dressmaker with Kate Winslet. The Telegraph had labelled it “Royally daffy” but I must have seen a better review which convinced me that it was worth viewing. It is described as: In 1950s Australia, beautiful, talented dressmaker Tilly returns to her tiny hometown to right wrongs from her past. As she tries to reconcile with her mother, she starts to fall in love while transforming the fashion of the town. At times it verged on slapstick. The scenery for the town never looked real either.
I had already seen the second film The Young Victoria with Emily Blunt but it was so well acted and the costumes and settings were so gorgeous that I wanted to see it again. It was worth the reviewing and I hope to watch again sometime. If you haven’t seen it, do watch it.
Monday 22 August
We went to an afternoon session at the Quaker Meeting House on Trident – where do we go from here? Timmon Wallis, a London based Quaker, wrote The Truth about Trident but unfortunately they had no copies for sale. The book gives 20 arguments both for and against the Trident Programme which will cost billions. He was joined by Janet Fenton, a member of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, who like Tim has been an activist for decades. She is also a member of WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) and has just come back from a United Nations gathering called the Open Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament. They voted to continue working for a process for a ban.
We spent a bit of time just around the corner at the Genealogical Society where David tried to progress a family mystery with an experienced member but made no progress.
At 5.15pm we went to a Korean play Girl. Much of it was in Korean but they used a character who was translating for a woman from Myanmar. She had brought the ashes of her adoptive Korean mother back to Korea. The Korean family, who has all been born after World War II were shocked to learn the story. A marriage had been about to take place but because a death had occurred in the family the wedding would now have to wait for the following year.
The story was that the 12 year old had been abducted by Japanese soldiers. They decided she was big enough and took her off as a sex slave. She was raped by 30 to 40 men a day as though they were all pissing in her. If you got pregnant they cut the baby out and killed it.
I can hardly begin to think how ghastly this would have been for these 200,000 Korean girls and women. They were called comfort women which is even more disgusting. An article from December 2015 in The Telegraph stated that finally an agreement between Japan and Korea for compensation had been reached 70 years after the war. At that point there were only 42 women still alive.
I spoke to the woman who wrote the play afterwards. Another woman translated. She admired my Peace badge so I gladly gave it to her. The Modl theatre group have vowed to keep presenting plays so these horrible acts will not be forgotten.
Tuesday 23 August
We took Yana for a walk high up above the Leith River. When we got home I had to do some ball throwing to make up for the lack of running around and getting the ball which we do at the park.
About noon we set off to town on the bus. First we had to go and top up our bus card. Then we headed for the Peace Centre which is right next to the Quaker Centre. I met Alessandra, an intern from Italy and later the manager of the centre named Brian Larkin.
At the Quaker Centre we saw the production The Handmaidens of Death by “Herbert Tremain” which was the pseudonym of Maude Deuchar. From 17th Century until 1968 all plays had to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for approval. This was to keep up the standard of public morals but would often amount to political censorship. It appears that this play was not performed nor published until now. It was acted by the Flatpacktheatre with Big Blue Egg Productions.
From the blurb:
A recently discovered but engaging melodrama, written during the final months of the Great War. A group of female munitions workers facing tensions over the shortage of men are confronted with the ultimate outcome of their work. Written by a woman under a male pseudonym, the play was forgotten as wearied public opinion moved on in the aftermath of war. It throws a theatrical sidelight on contemporary attitudes towards these women – the women that fill the shells that load the guns that... Heroes? Victims? Or witless handmaidens?
Unfortunately the small theatre was far too hot and humid and we both started to fall asleep. The first scene projected onto a flimsy backdrop was of a country lane near a munitions factory during the day. There was a lot of banter about the lack of men and jealousy over a fellow worker, a widow at 20 who was about to marry again when some of her fellow workers had not yet found their first man.
The second scene was the same lane but at night. Suddenly there were men there all soldiers called Fritz and the spokesman knew all the women’s names. When one of the young women kissed the soldier he was cold and of course dead from the bombs the women had made...
An interesting play and worth watching. So many women did not marry last century because of the two wars – another reason to abolish wars. Quite a few of my teachers were maiden ladies doomed to solitude.
Wednesday 24 August
After a longish bus ride and feverish search for the venue we arrived on time for Kiwi Penny Ashton’s Promise and Promiscuity: A New Musical by Jane Austen and Penny Ashton which cost £10 (NZ$18.15) each and lasted just over an hour. She led us through a story with many characters who were mostly of course stupid women such as the main character’s mother and sister and cousin Horatio with his digestion problems.
The heroine invited a man on stage named Mr Malt and then he became a brewery magnate but had to be taught how to dance in readiness for a ball. Of course in the end all was well and both heroine and sister found love matches with money and status.
Many a pun was made or a name such Trump or Elvis or even the Kardashians got a mention! Songs were interspersed in the performance and one was even accompanied by the ukulele. Penny has had several awards which were richly deserved. A great 5 star performance.
Afterwards we spoke to her as she was selling her light magnets which would be easy to carry from NZ. She was pleased to meet David as she used to buy makeup in his shop. She said she was thinking of writing something from Dickens next. Next day she wrote on her Facebook page about meeting us – the Minifies – makeup royalty!
In the evening Julia Campbell came for dinner.
Thursday 25 August
Just Let the Wind Untie My Perfumed Hair... or Who Is Táhirih? was written, composed and performed by Delia Olam. Apparently Sarah Bernhardt, the great French actress of the 19th century said that “Táhirih is the Persian Joan of Arc.” She was not only beautiful but also learned and a great poetess and a devout Muslim. She lived from 1815 to 1852 in Iran.
Delia Olam, who is from Adelaide, became other key players in this unknown true story: the father, the friend, the servant and the executioner. She had put poems to music and played cello and an instrument which looked like some type of autoharp. It is worth looking up Táhirih on Google to find out more about her.
I enjoyed the show and David liked one of the songs so much that he bought Delia’s CD.
Just as we were going to the venue we saw there was an Islamic Exhibition. We assumed it was an artistic exhibition and decided to pop in after the show. It was really a series of well written wall charts about Islam in a large oblong room.
We could then talk to some people before leaving. I still cannot bear seeing women even wearing the scarf. I know we used to wear hats in church to cover our crowning glory apparently. That has gone by the board and people are free to wear a hat or not. My great grandmother, Sophia Bartley born in St Agnes, Cornwall, was a milliner so it must have kept her in business in Reefton because she had a shop especially built!
I also discussed the fact that women cannot become mullahs and asked why not. It is of course just the same thing still in the Roman Catholic faith. Women are not given full equality. Bring it on!
I took a booklet titled The Status of Woman in Islam by Dr Jamal A Badawi, a male Islamic scholar who appears to live in Canada. He keeps on going on about the “more emotional nature of women”. Apparently the Quran does not make any comment on whether a woman is fit to be head of state but one saying from Muhammed is interpreted as saying that women are “ineligible”. This learned Egyptian born man says “It is rather, related to the natural differences in the biological and psychological make-up of men and women.”
The Toad Knew
The King’s Theatre was a bus ride and a walk away so we left in plenty of time. Tickets cost £22.40 (NZ$40.65) each.
The interior of the theatre which was first opened in 1906 was strange. There were three tiers of boxes three wide on each side of the stage. As far as we could see, no-one was sitting in the boxes. They looked like cakes which had been decorated with that thick white Easter egg icing we ate years ago. There were the usual cherubs, slightly evil looking men and beautiful maidens. On the ceiling is a painting completed by playwright and artist John Byrne in 2013 but it looks very Art Deco. It features a harlequin and a flame-haired woman and quotes Shakespeare's line "All the World's a Stage".
We were told: This is visual theatre to enchant you, delight you, and fill you with wonder.
Well unfortunately it didn’t. The set was brilliant. It was like a giant pond with water lilies on top. The lilies kept on changing their configurations and regrouping and changing colour which would take a technical whizz or two to think out and then months of design and computer work in the rearrangements. There was also a spiral staircase which was put to good use.
There was a singer with a great voice but the songs were not that great. There was a short older man with a bald head who was often pitted against much taller younger man who liked to show off – sort of Laurel and Harvey but didn’t quite make it. From time to time a young woman would give us a show of her acrobatic skills from on high. There was a scene with plates which became pure slapstick and then tedious. A machine which looked like a vehicle to carry a military machine gun ie. toys for boys was wheeled in at one stage and shown off as only boys can do. Near the end a great transparent fish came on stage but it was totally unclear what his/her significance was, if any.
We could not find any unifying theme or story in the show. I was interested to read the blurb afterwards:
Intertwining dreams and childish terrors, burlesque and realism, The Toad Knew explores the raw, unforgiving love between brothers and sisters.
Well, you could have fooled us. We certainly did not get that message. Some obviously enjoyed the show and stood up to applaud. We were glad to get out of the theatre and away from the noise.
Friday 26 August
We arrived late this evening to Attrape-Moi (Catch Me) as we hadn’t reckoned on Friday rush especially on a Bank Holiday weekend.
Just to diverge for a moment I wondered why they have so many “bank” holidays. Google dredged up from somewhere the following explanation:
British bank holidays are public holidays and have been recognised since 1871. The name Bank Holiday comes from the time when banks were shut and so no trading could take place. There is currently a total of 8 permanent bank and public holidays in England, Wales and Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland.
Getting back to today’s show I found out that the group comes from Quebec, Canada. Flip Fabrique is a group of circus school friends who toured with Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Éloize, before starting their own company.
Having arrived late we had to wait to go in and sat right up in the gods at the Presbyterian Assembly. I wondered what we had struck as the first part we saw seemed rather puerile. However as the show progressed I could appreciate the speed and skill of the artists. We saw Diablo twirling, ball juggling, large ball manipulation and hula hoop dancing from the only female of the six person group. Near the end of the show a large trampoline allowed the group to bounce their way around the stage.
Some children in front of us seemed to be enjoying the show and one child below was very excited and gave voice to her joy. However as the Evening Standard reviewer said this circus show has skill but doesn’t break any new ground. I enjoyed the show but I have to agree with this reviewer. Tickets were £14 (NZ$25.40) each.
Saturday 27 August
After taking Yana for a walk to Julia’s house to sign some papers re our car we left her at home and set off for the nearby Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. We saw pictures by Picasso which did not set my heart on fire. There was a tourist couple, life-size models by Duane Hansen. I have seen his work before and have a feeling it was in Christchurch, NZ. I recognised a certain style of painting and found it was a David Hockney painting titled Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians. There was an interesting face with heavy blotches of colour by Alexejvon Jawlensky. We both liked a painting of a rabbi with a cat instead of the usual Madonna with child! There was a lovely Mondrian box and a very simple Mondrian painting with a yellow oblong in the top left corner which can be seen here https://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/modern-one-23559/room-displays/abstract-art-and-britain-between-the-wars
I had never heard of Bridget Riley before. She did rather large paintings some of coloured straight lines and one of dots. There was a smaller work with black and white triangles which was very clever. My favourite, titled Vespertino, had straight line pastel colours woven into each other. You would need some very large rooms to house her works and you might well be mezmerised by the lines.
Sunday 28 August
After a relatively short walk with Yana we set off by bus to town. We went to the Fringe Festival half price office. The young woman ran through some shows and we chose a Korean show. Then it was off to Quaker Meeting on Victoria Terrace which is a wonderful spot high above the town. You can’t drive along this terrace – it is pedestrians only.
I had brought my Kiwi and Tuatara to show the children. First we went to a small local garden which is owned by Scottish wildlife, I think. We sat down and shared a good thing which had happened to us this week. There were about six children and about the same number of adults. Then Li-nan, originally from Taiwan, invited us to collect some leaves to make a picture later. I just watched.
Back at the Meeting House in the Staff Room children and adults painted leaves and then did autoprints by turning them over and stamping the image on a page or painted around the edges of the leaves. While they were doing that I talked about the Kiwi and the Tuatara. I opened the Kiwi card so they could hear the Kiwi all and squeezed Tuatara for his/her call. I sang them the Hiwi the Kiwi song and suggested they might like to find it on YouTube.
The festival called us again and it was off to the university campus for Snap, the Korean show (£7pp half price tickets). The description included:
A contemporary mystery magical performance SNAP, a multi-faceted art performance based on Magic combining ingenious stage language, illusion, mime, white art, and more. All award-winning artists bring to life characters such as The Alchemist, The Time Traveler, The Dreamer, The Trickster and a host of others to bring you a fantasy experience never seen before in the history of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The good thing was that not a word needed to be spoken as it was all visual. There were three guys who did the silent movie style of humour. We had the usual things disappearing or a red scarf that in a moment became a rose. The only woman of the eight performers, The Witch, failed to excite my interest with her Spanish style presentation. However she appeared later and definitely gave us a wow performance. I would say the same for the Alchemist. At one stage both David and I were flagging as it was too hot in the theatre. The Flash was a male-female duo who have achieved the 30 second Guinness Record for fastest costume change illusion. They seemed to change clothes every 3 to 5 seconds – it really was amazing. Overall it was a good show and they had won an award for the best Asian performance.
Our hosts were to have arrived home at about 8.00pm. Jane had warned us that groceries would also be delivered about that time. Groceries arrived but two emails arrived with delay messages. The family finally arrived at about 11.00pm. Yana, their dog, heard them before us and she was a very happy dog. Mother and two daughters had a group cuddle with Yana on a lovely lime green shaggy carpet on the kitchen-dining floor. We left Jane going through her mail.
Monday 29 August Goodbye Edinburgh, Hello York
We had given a few things away, left a plastic container half full with Julia but added our light grey weekend bag to our luggage. I pulled David’s bright orange case and he pulled my larger grey case with the lighter grey bag on top. We took the bus to the station which is not too far away.
Our train left at 11.55pm and arrived in York at 2.40pm. That cost £34.65 pp using our two-for-one rail card.
We had been invited to stay for a few days with Jim and Sally McGurn. Thirty years ago when Jim was a language teacher he wrote two superb books – Vous êtes en Scène and Tolles Theater which I have used for years. They are short scenes in French and German to help students learn basic communication phrases. A typical playlet would be about taking a train or going shopping for food. Jim made the stories into funny and therefore memorable scenes and another man, whom he never met, did some great line drawings to depict those scenes.
I had adapted Jim’s material to make it easier for students to work easily in pairs. I had translated the part for one character into English and she (includes “he”) had the part for his/her partner in the target language. The partners could then easily correct each other but had to remember his/her own part in the target language. I found this also worked very well for the refresher courses I ran from home for adults who were off to France or Germany on a holiday. My sister-in-law told me that Aranui was about to throw out these great texts so I bought them for a song.
I decided eventually that I would like to share my adaptation with other teachers in New Zealand. However I needed permission from the publisher, writer and illustrator. I think that the publisher had been absorbed into another company, the book out-of-print and the publisher was not helpful. A friend who mostly teaches German told me she had met Jim and I managed to find him thanks for the internet! It turned out he had been running a cycle company Get Cycling for more than 20 years! Jim decided that he did not want me to put the material on the web in case he republished. When we came to the UK David had kindly put all the French adaptations on CD Rom so I sent those to Jim. He then re-iterated his invitation to come and stay.
Sally picked us up from the station with Joe, their Down’s Syndrome son. They have leased an electric car so that Joe’s carers can take him out during the day. Every week Joe and Gareth, one of the carers, go and do the household shopping which Joe enjoys. He needs one-to-one care all day. We were pleasantly surprised as to how much money is provided per week but Sally says it still does not cover holiday pay of five and a half weeks per annum for the carers. This week a letter had arrived cutting the amount of money by about thirty percent.
Get Cycling was running an event at a local community fair as it was a bank holiday. Children were trying out low lying recumbent tricycles at £1 for 5 minutes. The money goes to their cycling charity for people with dementia. We bought icecreams and had a mechanical toy pig race for Joseph’s benefit. He likes buying jam too.
1066 and all that!
I found an interesting stall with a tapestry/embroidery of a local battle which was part of the 1066 takeover of Britain by William the Conqueror from Normandy, France. The tapestry was only about 3 or 4 metres long at most and done in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry. This was a depiction of the Battle of Fulford near York. See fulfordtapestry.info
Britain has its own Bayeux Tapestry at the Reading Museum, west of London. Their website gives the following information:
Harold had no hereditary claim on the throne - he was not of royal birth. He was the son of Godwin... Harold's sister, Emma, was married to Edward the Confessor... The tapestry shows us that Harold had fought with William (the Conqueror) against the Duke of Brittany and shows him swearing (allegiance to William) upon holy relics.
When Edward the Confessor died Harold was chosen to be King of England by the leading Saxon noblemen. Right away Harold had problems. His brother Tostig was accompanied Harold Hardrada King of Norway when he invaded England. Both Hardrada and Tostig were killed by Harold's army at the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York.
At the same time William of Normandy had brought his army to England to claim the throne. Harold marched from Stamford Bridge to London then on to Hastings where William's army waited.
Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust
We were thrilled to discover that Jim and Sally’s house was in the Lotherington Quarter Phase 2 at the Derwenthorpe estate which is part of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, a Quaker enterprise.
The Lotherington Quarter is takes its name from Elizabeth Lotherington (1764-1835) who married John Rowntree (1757-1827) in 1785. They had three sons and four daughters, one of them was Joseph Rowntree Senior, who set up a grocery business in York in 1822. Joseph Rowntree Senior was the father of Joseph Rowntree, the well known philanthropist and Quaker owner of the cocoa works.
Our hosts have also bought a second house on the nearby Seebohm Quarter Phase 3 development. It takes its name from Benjamin Seebohm (1871-1954), second of the four sons of Joseph Rowntree and Emma Antoinette Rowntree, née Seebohm. At the age of 18 he entered the family cocoa and chocolate business, with which he was associated until retirement in 1941.
The house has three stories so that Joseph can stay with his older brother whenever they have guests. In the evening we went over to Richard’s house and met his girlfriend, her sister and partner. We loved their Ikea lampshades which are made of paper shaped by wire so that you can decide the shape of your shades yourself.
Tuesday 30 August
Sally fitted us out with bicycles. I had a fold up bike and David a tricycle with two wheels on the front. There are cycleways everywhere on the estate which go to town very safely. Unfortunately David’s trike was quite hard to control on sloping corners and he nearly fell off at one point.
Once we got to a roundabout where Morrison’s supermarket dominates, the cycle paths were much more precarious. Sally then left us to go to work at the cycle business. We locked the bicycles up just inside the town and hardly walked 10 metres when we found ourselves waylaid by a charity fair with some lovely books for sale. We found Now we are Sixty and Now we are Sixty (and a bit) and Ronald Searle’s The Illustrated Winespeak.
We set off to see the York Quaker Meeting House. Helen Cadbury was the receptionist for the day. She turned out to be the sister of Ruth Cadbury the MP who has had the first reading of her very simple Taxes for Peace Bill. We had a great conversation. We wandered around the town but didn’t really achieve much.
We went to Morrison’s supermarket on the way home to get some food as David was going to cook dinner. He made one of his self-crusting quiches to go with a Deborah Coleslaw. Dinner had to be served pronto as we were going to accompany Sally to her ukulele group.
The ukulele group was held in a pub and there about 20 people there. David took one of Joseph’s drums and two spoons and played those until Sally asked him to stop. I had borrowed one of her ukuleles but I have not really played since my last group lesson in June, 2011. That day our ukulele lesson at the WEA was stopped twice by major earthquakes and I haven’t really got into it again. However I enjoyed having a few simple strums and singing away with the group.
Wednesday 31 August
We took two bikes and off we went to town. We went to the York Art Gallery with the thought of seeing the “Truth and Memory: British Art of the First World War”. However, having looked at the book that had all the pictures in it we did not feel inclined to pay to see the actual paintings. I often head straight for the bookshop – it saves paying lots of money to see art that does not appeal!
We had arranged to go and see Colin Hincliffe who sells prints of material from Captain Cook’s time. We had seen one at Whitley which we liked. We ended up buying a black and white
VIEW OF MATAVAI BAY, IN OTAHEITE, TAKEN FROM ONE TREE HILL). ill. Sydney Parkinson. London: 1773. 21 x 25cm. A good strong impression from a drawing by Sydney Parkinson from the official account of Captain Cooks First voyage. . Two unobtrusive folds. A very clean copy. Large margins. The Endeavour is shown at anchor off Point Venus where Cook set up his observatory to record the Transit of Venus.
It was a double joy for us as the original picture was done by Sydney Parkinson, who was a Quaker. We had seen this view last time in Tahiti as they had built replica buildings, which were still there when we went in 2014. Cook’s observatory was built in 1769 now 247 year ago!
Colin then took us and showed us where John Woolman a great American Quaker is buried behind a block of flats. John Woolman was a man of great principle. He was a very strong advocate against slavery in particular. Sadly he died in York in October 1772 of smallpox. Colin gave me some information he had printed out. It told us that the house he died in was in Marygate. We later decided to go and find the house but somehow we missed it. We decided to sit in the quiet garden cum burial ground and eat our lunch.
At 1.15pm we went to the Quaker Meeting House. Lower Friargate, to join others Meeting for 30 minutes in the Quiet Room. There was a woman there named Barbara who knew our friend Bill, the Greenman and erstwhile manager of Swarthmoor Hall. There were only about six of us there. Afterwards we had a chat with the Wednesday receptionist, Phyllis, lovely woman of English/Kenyan heritage whose mother was a poetess.
We went for a walk around the Walls of York which I had done either in 1971 or in 1981. We also had a look inside the cathedral which is vast.
Eventually we took the bikes and cycled out to Jim and Sally’s Get Cycling business in Hospital Road. They have an amazing variety of cycles and specialize in cycles for disabled. They had just received 125 boxes of bicycles to be assembled for the Sheffield City Council. They don’t have enough staff and have just taken on a female apprentice. The bicycles for those with dementia and disabilities are very interesting. See http://www.getcycling.org.uk/
We shouted our hosts to dinner at The Black Swan Inn, a tudor style building. David ordered Giant Yorkshire pudding filled with home roast beef, mash, vegetables and onion gravy £9.50 . I had Home-made pigeon pie pigeon breast, mushrooms & chestnuts in a red wine sauce topped with shortcrust pastry, with wholegrain mustard mash & braised red cabbage £9.25 We always eat half and then change plates so we try two dishes. We were pretty full but decided to order desserts. However the cook had left so the decision was made for us.
At home Sally could not find her purse which had a lot of cash in it. She was convinced that she had left it at the pub so she phoned but they had not found it. She decided to drive to the pub but it was not in the grounds either. She called and cancelled her credit card. Next day the purse was found still at work so we were all very thankful.
Thursday 1 September
Sally kindly dropped us off at the station in time for the train to London. This was much more comfortable than the train to York perhaps because it was a Virgin train. On the way about 80 minutes along the way we saw a great big field of photovoltaic frames. Perhaps financially it is more productive than a field of food?
We arrived at Kenilworth Avenue at about 3.00pm rather tired after lugging our cases and packs. David, the gentleman took my larger case and our grey weekend bag and I pulled his smaller, lighter bright orange case. Linda and Keith gave us a warm welcome to their very comfortable three storey home with a lovely garden out the back. They were very busy packing in preparation for going to France so we prepared the evening meal.
Saturday 3 September
David had noticed an ad in the Quaker British weekly magazine The Friend for a Media Training Day in preparation for Quaker Week in October.
We arranged early to go to Friends House at Euston Road as there was a sound installation and photography Echo Chamber inspired by WWI Conscientious Objectors and marking 100 years of conscientious objection. It had officially finished the day before and was to be dismantled that morning by Fiona. It was in the large room where 1,000 could meet during Britain Yearly Meeting.
There was a white octagon suggesting a tent or maybe a field hospital where Quaker COs might have served. It had a metal structure and was made of bandages stitched together. There were small recorders embedded into the bandages which were playing interviews of people mostly from WWI. There were wooden boxes one could sit on and listen to the recordings. Nearby there were photos of COs and their families and written descriptions of what happened to each one.
The Media Day was held in the George Fox Room upstairs. We were well looked after with lunch provided. We were both disappointed in the day and frankly we gained very few new ideas. The best teacher was Hazel, a journalist who had been brought in from outside. She gave several people the chance to be interviewed about very difficult subjects in order to show us how prepared one needs to be. The examples were however not about Quaker Week but rather about making a statement for example when a member has been accused of interfering with a child. The other group workshops were on creating a press release and using Facebook and Twitter but I came out none the wiser especially from the latter. We did however pick up an outreach book which has some good ideas.
Quaker Meetings
We went to Wandsworth Meeting of which Linda and Keith are members on Sunday 4 September. I took the Kiwi and Tuatara and spoke to the three children who were cared for by Hank and Annie. One little boy treated Kiwi badly so I had to speak to him very firmly about care of animals. After that he settled down.
After Meeting there were cups of tea and I met Mike again who had kindly introduced us to Linda at Britain Yearly Meeting. It was through that introduction that we are staying in Linda and Keith’s house.
Quakers throughout Britain have been reading through Quaker Faith and Practice (4th Edition). I think the idea is not only to become more familiar with the texts but also to decide whether it needs updating. I stayed for the session while David went off for lunch and the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Society of Arts with Martha, his youngest daughter.
The first chapter chosen was 8: Centrally managed work and the second chapter 28: Sharing the Quaker Experience. People had been invited to read out excerpts which spoke to them. They were the same ones which had spoken to me as I read them in preparation for this session.
Two from Chapter 28 are worth reading so I will copy them here:
28.02 When you come to your meetings...what do you do? Do you then gather together bodily only, and kindle a fire, compassing yourself with the sparks of you own kindling, and so please yourself...? Or rather do you sit down in the true silence, resting from your own will and workings, and waiting upon the Lord, with your minds fixed in that Light wherewith Christ has enlightened you... and prepares you, and your spirits and souls, to make you fit for his service? ` Williams Penn, 1677
28:10 Many of the people who come to us are both refugees and seekers. They are looking for a space to find their authenticity, a space in a spiritual context. It is a process of liberation. Some discover what they need among Friends, others go elsewhere. This gift of the sacred place that Friends have to offer is a two-edged sword. It is not easy administratively to quantify: it leads to ambiguity. It demands patient listening: it can be enriching and challenging to our complacency. It is outreach in the most general sense and it is a profound service. It may not lead to membership and it may cause difficulties in local meetings. But if someone comes asking for bread, we cannot say, sorry we are too busy discovering our own riches: when we have found them, we’ll offer you a few. Our riches are precisely our sharing. And the world is very, very hungry. Harvey Gillman, 1993
They were to have further discussion at a Friend’s house later in the week. After the session there was a shared lunch. It was nice to sit down and talk to the local members. Annie kindly dropped me back home.
On Sunday 11 September we went to Wimbledon Meeting which is in a house. Usually it is a small meeting but there were 19 people there. When David came to give Ministry he was asked to stand by the door. One lady who is very hard of hearing and had her poodle hearing dog with her always sits opposite the door so she can try and lip read and won’t have the sun in her eyes.
Afterwards I had a chat to a petite black woman originally from Cuba. She used to come to Meeting when she first came to England years ago to learn English. She teaches Spanish. Sadly she lost her partner to cancer just 3 months ago.
Wednesday 7 September
We stayed around home on Monday and on Tuesday the Polish cleaning lady, Ula, came for a couple of hours. Finally on Wednesday we set off to Friends House in Euston Road. We wanted to look at the bookshop. Then we had some lunch there.
We decided we would talk to Paul in hospitality about our misgivings about Swarthmoor Hall, in 1652 country in Cumbria. This is the cradle of Quakerism and was the house of Judge Thomas Fell and Margaret Fell who became the mother of Quakerism. However we were a bit disappointed in the welcome there, the lack of books for sale, the lack of care and poor display of some of the old books and artefacts and the fact there are no resident friends at night. A Quaker in York told us that when she and her elderly mother were staying there, an alarm went for 5 hours and no-one answered the phone calls requesting someone come and turn the alarm off!
After that it was off to the British Museum to see Sunken cities: Egypt's lost worlds sponsored by BP. Martha had given us some corporate sponsored tickets from ING where she works. We spent two hours there as there was so much to see.
Thonis-Heracleion (the Egyptian and Greek names for the same city) subsided below the sea as per Venice today and also due to earthquakes in about the eight century AD. In about 1933 the shapes could be seen from a plane. It wasn’t until 1996 that a team was able to film in the silty waters at the entrance to the Nile and bring to the surface a few of the statues which can be up to 6 metres high and other treasures. Here we met the pharaoahs of Egypt and the stories of the rulers of Rome and Greece. There were films to watch, statues mostly of people but also a bull, steles covered in hieroglyphics and jewellery to admire.
David liked the large smooth statue of Taweret, which has the head and body of a hippopotamus, the limbs of a lion and the tail of a crocodile. She stands on her hind legs with pendulous breasts as she wards off evil, protecting women in labour and children. She apparently was a goddess-protector during the reign of Psamtik who ruled from 664 to 610 BC.
I was also interested to learn that in the Egyptian creation story that the god of the earth was male and the goddess of the sky female in contrast to our Māori Papatuanuku, Earth Mother, and Ranginui, Sky Father.
There was a photo of a long, wide, shallow wooden boat on the floor which archaeological markers on it where objects were found. It has yet to be brought to the surface. I liked a life size but damaged sycamore wood statue of Serapis who was the Greek equivalent of the Egyptian god Osiris-Apis. I was amazed how well it was preserved considering the time this 2 century BC statue spent in the water! You can read a review on this exciting exhibition at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/british-museum-explores-extraordinary-lost-cities/
Friday 9 September Others Travelling to NZ
Kay, whom I met at Quaker Meeting last Sunday, came for a simple sandwich lunch and advice about where to go when she comes to New Zealand next March. Intercity, the bus company, seem to have a good deal for travelling around the country. I also always recommend joining SERVAS, the peace homestay organisation. There are plenty of lovely hosts all over NZ. When in Sweden, I gave our Quaker friends Annika and Ingmar similar advice and was able to share their itinerary with Kay. Maybe I should have been a travel agent!
Saturday 10 September The Threepenny Opera
This evening we went with our friends Stuart and Ali to The Threepenny Opera. It is a satirical update of John Gay’s original 18th century Beggar’s Opera with lyrics by Berthold Brecht and music by Kurt Weill. It was written in the late 1920s and was a satirization of the bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic with their attendance at grand Wagnerian Opera but set in Victorian England's Soho. The Threepenny Opera served as a direct attack on Wagnerian opera which was for the elite and instead depicted the lower elements of society.
Most of the reviews gave the show three stars out of five. I thought that was fair. The show was slow to get going. There appeared to be no scenery but over time there were many changes of basic timber frames literally with paper thin walls. We even had a staged fall of three walls with our main character Mack the Knife standing in the centre front of the stage as a wall fell on top of him with the paper ripping as it touched his head and fell. In another part, more bland scenery, in keeping with the poor area of town, emerged from below the revolving stage.
Rory Kinnear who played Mack had a great voice but his character spoke too well and looked too West End to be taken seriously as a spiv. As David agreed he needed to be more menacing. Mr Peachum, his father-in-law was more also more eccentric than menacing. The whole production seemed to lack a certain energy. All the songs are sung in unison. I would like to see someone jazz it up a bit with some harmonisation. It was 2 hours 40 minutes long. Again I think less would be more!
Wimbledon and Lawn Tennis
Wimbledon is synonymous with lawn tennis and there have been tournaments here since 1877. The famous tournaments were held as usual in June and July. This is now the only Grand Slam Tennis Tournament on lawn as the other three in Australia, the USA and France are all on hard court. There is no advertising here around the courts. In 2009 the centre court was fitted with a retractable roof so that play could continue even if it rains. There is a strict dress code for competitors and white clothing is the order of the day.
My mother was a great fan and even stayed up late to watch the tennis. Not long before she died Mum told us she met my father when he went over the road from his home in Salisbury Street (he lived on the corner of Park Terrace and Salisbury Street) where she was playing tennis with a girlfriend who lived there.
We had a lawn tennis court at 16 Jackson Road and my father played tennis with a group of men every Saturday in summer. The club was called the Wham Club just for fun. Once a year the men and wives would take Mum and Dad out for a slap-up meal.
I never saw my mother play – she was too busy preparing the sumptuous afternoon tea for Dad and his boys. One man regularly arrived with a tin of biscuits but he was the only one. After playing post tea the men would come in again for a beer. The man who brought the afternoon tea would then leave for home as he was a Methodist and teetotaller.
I researched this word “teetotaller” thinking it was “teatotaller” and that they drank tea instead of alcohol. How wrong I was! As usual Google and Wikipedia came to the rescue:
It originated, as we learn from the Landmark, with a man named Turner, a member of the Preston Temperance Society, who, having an impediment of speech, in addressing a meeting remarked, that partial abstinence from intoxicating liquors would not do; they must insist upon tee-tee-(stammering) tee total abstinence. Hence total abstainers have been called teetotalers. Poor man!
Let’s get back to Wimbledon. David and I went to visit the Museum and the 90 minute tour for £21 (NZ$38.19) for Seniors The tour could easily have been done in an hour. Before we went we had no idea how big the complex was. The Centre Court is only used for 2 weeks in the year which seems a bit crazy. The Centre Court can be covered in 10 minutes with its retractable roof. It will take three years to complete a similar roof for another court. We visited the IBM centre where all the statistics of the games are compiled, saw the media centre and the BBC studio.
The Museum was full of noise and had its display cabinets full of interesting material. A man summoned us in to see a 10 minute 3D presentation re Wimbledon. The apparatus was too heavy and I was afraid it would damage my rimless glasses so I had to hold on to it the whole time!
There were displays of the types of racquets, of videos of famous players and how clothing has changed over time.
Women used to play in their corsets and heavy clothing but a French woman named Suzanne Langlen who first played in the French championships aged 14 in 1914 turned up at Wimbledon in 1919 wearing a dress which revealed bare forearms and was just above the calf. The other women kept their whole body covered.
We saw a photo of the handsome Anthony Wilding from Christchurch who won the singles from 1910 to 1913 but sadly lost his life in WWI. We have Wilding Park in Christchurch with 39 courts which were severely damaged in the February 2011 earthquake. However the facilities were reopened in 2013.
Philippa Gregory, writer of Historical Novels
I have just finished reading The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. I kept checking out the storyline and found it very accurate. She did take some poet licence over the two princes who disappeared from the Tower of London but it was very well done. She is also bringing the stories of women to the fore. So often history is “his story” and not her story! That is one reason I volunteered to interview two women about their experiences of the earthquake and aftermath. I only got to interview a Frenchwoman in the end. My profile is on https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/download/part/26639. You can see my efforts on
I had already read The Other Boleyn and A Respectable Trade (about the slave trade) which I also enjoyed a lot. She has written plenty of other interesting historical novels. I scored 23 out of 30 on the Henry VIII Quiz partly due to reading the Boleyn book and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, another brilliant historical novel. I read at night to help me go to sleep!
Meeting a Cousin from Australia
In 2004 through an amazing
Chiddingfold for the Weekend
We had been invited for the weekend by my friend Elizabeth with whom I flatted in Carlton Mill Road way back in 1977 to 1978. Elizabeth worked for Coca Cola at the time developing new drinks. Elizabeth and husband, Ben, have had their home on the market for some time. They want to move as the road has become noisier and they want a new challenge. The house is described as:
The Old Barn is thought to originally date back to the 1580’s and was extended some 50 to 100 years later. The cottage retains enormous character, charm and original features with a wealth of exposed timbers, beams and original doors and is a building of historic interest.
The elegant double drawing room forms part of the original cottage and overlooks the lovely front garden, the main Inglenook fireplace is a beehive style open fire and there is a second Inglenook fireplace giving great character to the room. ...I would describe the house and decoration as charming and quintessential English decoration. A fuller description with photo is on this website until it is sold:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52795589.html
We talked over a cup of tea and a newly baked two layer cake. Later their son Jonathan came and joined us for dinner.
Sunday 25 September
We visited Petworth House a National Trust house and garden. We had two very interesting talks by the wonderful volunteers who look after all the rooms. Just remembering all the people who have lived in the house would take a feat of memory. I read that they have 450 volunteers who help run this property and most seem to be over 70!
I was blown away by the number of large portraits which crambed the walls of most rooms. As well there were sculptures of beautiful bodies Greek style, some Constables and many Turner paintings. We all liked an Adoration of the Magi attributed to Hiernonymus Bosch.
There was also the oldest English globe in existence made in 1592 by Emery Molyneux. It was said to have been given to the 9th Earl of Northumberland by Sir Walter Raleigh. Neither Australia nor New Zealand feature on the globe. I think that such globes were made of papier mâchée. Wikipedia told me that: Molyneux's globes were the first to be constructed in such a way that they were unaffected by humidity at sea. They were made of flour-paste, an unusual material for the time.
We had a light lunch in the café in the servants’ quarters which were open to visit. Then we went and wandered around the grounds which we set out in a “natural” fashion by the famous gardener, Lancelot Capability Brown. They are celebrating 300 years since he was born. He had a lake dug out and used the soil to form “natural” hills! The Ionic Rotunda was built in 1766 in the Park at Petworth House.
Up close as one arrives it looks like a hotchpotch of buildings but from the other side out in the park it appears to be a plain Georgian building although in fact some parts were built earlier. The chapel with its early English Gothic windows is the only complete part of Petworth built in medieval times.
It would be worth another visit of a whole day. We only scratched the surface.
Monday 19 September Currying Favour
Back in London in the evening we invited our hosts, Linda and Keith, out for a meal. They are fond of curry so we went to a restaurant named Masaledar at 121 Upper Tooting Road. There was nice Jazz music playing in the background and a simple decor with light glitter with dimmed lighting. David and Keith went across the road to buy some beer. It was a very pleasant meal. Afterwards we went to a very interesting shop called Pooja, at 168 170 Upper Tooting Road. A young woman persuaded us to buy 1 kg of sweets for about £9. We went home and had wonderful time tasting the sweets.
Tuesday 20 September
We had to wait for a man to come and get a parcel of 17kg which we were sending home. We eventually went to town so late that we arrived at the London Museum at 4.45pm. We decided that it wasn’t worth going into the paying exhibition on the fire of London in 1666. Instead we looked around the sections on pre London London, and Roman London which was very interesting. Time began to run out so that we had to walk fast through the Victorian section and the sections on modern times. I think a day here could be productive.
We then took a double-decker bus 23 to Paddington and sat upstairs. The four front seats were taken up by two women. As soon as one left we moved up to get away from a selfish young Frenchwoman who was talking at the top of her voice on her cellphone. She hardly allowed her listener to say a word. I finally asked her in French to get off her phone but she did not oblige. The older woman left at the front thanked me for at least trying. The young woman eventually toned down her voice but carried on regardless.
Martha cooked us a simple meal of fish with a tasty green salsa verde sauce with walnuts, potatoes and beans. We had a nice dry prosecco white sparkling wine. For dessert she had made individual chocolate mousses in Bonne Maman jam jars to which we added banana, yoghurt and chocolate icecream.
Martha and her remaining Australian Chinese Australian flatmate, Anita, move into a new flat on Saturday so there were a few boxes awaiting filling and clothes adrying.
Wednesday 21 September Gatwick to Dubai
On the flight with Emirates which left from London on time at 9.45pm I watched three films so I did not get any sleep!...
Wednesday 21 September Gatwick to Dubai
On the flight with Emirates which left from London on time at 9.45pm I watched three films so I did not get any sleep!
I saw Love and Friendship an adaptation of an early novel by Jane Austen that was published only posthumously (in 1871), is set in London and on rural English estates in the early nineteenth century. It comes across as a well acted, well costumed soap with a scheming and beautiful heroine as the main character. Three and a half stars out of five.
La Vache (The Cow) with the English translation given as One Man and his Cow is a comedy about the journey to the French Agriculture show in Paris made by a Tunesian farmer and his cow. Another three and a half stars out of five film.
The Man Who knew Infinity is the true story of friendship that forever changed mathematics. In 1913, Srinivasa Ramanujan (played by Dev Patel), a self-taught Indian mathematics genius, travelled to Trinity College, Cambridge, where over the course of five years, forged a bond with his mentor, the brilliant and eccentric professor, G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), and fought against prejudice to reveal his mathematic genius to the world. A moving and at times sad film.
We actually arrived early probably at about 7.20am on Thursday morning. It was about a 7 hour flight. We had a very nice dinner with wine - one of the nicest airline meals for a long time!..We left the airport at 8.30am and travelled first by the metro and for the latter part by tram.
AIR BNB Apartment
Our host had some of the instructions wrong so we had to back track to get on to the tram system! We got a bit lost on arrival and went into the wrong building. We finally arrived at the apartment in Amwaj 4 Building, Level 34, directly behind the Amwaj Rotana Hotel Jumeriah Beach Residence at 10.30am. We had been told that the key would be under the doormat but no key was to be seen. We then had to wait 20 minutes for the owner, Simon, a real estate agent for Colliers who grew up in Christchurch. I was feeling like a jombie.
The maid had not been, the bed was not made and the rubbish was still in the bin from the last clients. It turned out that the law has been changed since we booked. Hotels complained about the competition from Air BNB so now you have to let out the whole apartment or not at all. So we would not have Simon’s presence. He made the bed and showed us a few things and left.
We went out and bought some food. Later David had a rest for a while. We had a meal of pasta and a simple coleslaw of cabbage and carrot with a vinagrette dressing. We made enough to have for our second night! We then fell into bed.
Friday 23 September Bus Trips Around Dubai
We have spent the day going round Dubai on bus trips.See https://www.citysightseeing-dubai.com/tour-info/48-hour-ticket/ We paid 240 Dirhams (NZ$90) each for a 24 hour ticket. We left from the Amwaj Rotana Hotel which is down a level from our building. Upstairs on the bus the front part is airconditioned so we kept cool in the 37 degree heat.
The first trip was called the Marina Route which took us round the area we are staying in. The one thing that is clear is the amazing architecture. Christchurch city planners and architects need to make a visit so that they can understand that unadorned oblong boxes do not lift the soul but adorned buildings do. It doesn’t take much to lift a building. I would be happy to show them how to do so at little extra cost.
We then drove out to the Palm, a series of islands which have been made into the shape of a palm tree with 16 fronds out of reclaimed land. To protect the whole palm a surrounding crescent island forms an 11kilometer-long breakwater. A Belgium and a Dutch firm were major contractors as they have experience of reclamation. Apparently the houses here are very expensive. When you buy a house you may also get a “free” car worth half a million dollars so that is just an “extra” as part of the deal. That’s what the commentary told us! At the top of the Palm is the large Atlantis Hotel with various options for swimming for example with dolphins. We did not take up the offer! Instead we took the Palm Crescent Route in a smaller white minibus which took us along the two outer fronds of the Palm. There was a large amount of construction going on.
Our Punjabi driver has to leave his family at home as he cannot afford to pay for their education here. It seems to me that the “prosperity” here is based on bringing in low paid workers from the Indian continent and The Philippines. The oil will run out in about 2040 so Dubai is working on its tourist image and events. No tax is paid here except for a transport toll which is automatically recorded each time a card goes under the toll bar. You pay for education and I assume also for medical insurance.
At the Dubai Mall we had a ticket for the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo. It is a brilliant idea to have a public window on some of the fish to lure the troops in! It was great to see the sharks, stingrays and myriad of small and large colourful and dull coated fish. There were turtles, jellyfish with long streamers and a very large and long alligator from Australia.
From the Dubai Mall we took the red bus on the red route - Historic Route. I wanted to go to the Museum for which a ticket was included in our bus fare. It didn’t open until 2.30pm on a Friday which is the Moslem Sabbath but we only had to wait about 20 minutes. The building was in the form of an old fortress. It was mostly well laid out with captions in Arabic and English. In one room the captions had been scratched out and in another couple of rooms the lights were so dim it was impossible to read the captions. There were some excellent life-sized models of people in different traditional professions – all men of course! Overall however it was worth the hour visit.
We ended up at Dubai Mall at about 5.00pm. We went and had a “free” cup of coffee at Costa. We thought we might have to take the metro and the tram back but as luck would have it there was a Night Tour which began at 6.00pm and took us most of the way. We finished by taking the tram back.
Saturday 24 September
We were annoyed to have to wasted the whole morning sorting out our phone back in New Zealand. In spite of a number of emails and phone calls to our tenant well before we left London he had still not given permission for us to have our phone number back.
We took the tram and metro directly to Dubai Mall. We then took the same Historic Route bus round to the Al Maktoum House. This was the family which founded the dynasty which still rules Dubai today. Luckily for them oil was discovered in about 1968 and that is the basis of their wealth. However when the oil runs out in 2040 they hope that tourism will be a big earner.
The house was a big disappointment. Firstly the house was a bit hard to find as the driver only gave a vague wave in the direction. It was a traditional house consisting of mud coloured rooms around a courtyard. In each room there there were old photos of fishing and other activities but scarcely a woman in sight. There were no explanations inside the house and nothing about the family. We had seen quite a few of the photos in the museum the day before. In one room there were stamps and coins mostly from India. Frankly do not bother to go there!
We raced back to our Air BNB as we were to meet some Quakers at 7.00pm. Tom Farquar and Mary Grady had suggested we meet at the Amwaj Rotana Hotel. Tom had come over but took us back to their apartment by Taxi. It turned out that Tom was the principal of Sidcott Quaker School in Washington where President Obama’s daughters go to school. He had resigned as he wanted to explore growing weeds which are very edible. However he has ended up founding a whole new school in Dubai for a Chinese billionaire. The buildings were not ready after a year so Ton went off and taught in another couple of schools in the Middle East. Tom plays the flute and I seem to remember he also had a lute in their apartment. Mary is a brillant quilter using beautful colour combinations. There were plenty of examples of her art on the walls of their apartment. We had drinks and delicious nibbles at Tom and Mary’s apartment and then we set off for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant at Pier 7 on the Marina. We had a wonderful evening with them and wished we could have had a Quaker Meeting with them and the few other Quakers who live in Dubai.
Sunday 25 September
Today we had a short shopping spree. When we got to the Dubai Mall we stopped at a very small shop selling lovely colourful Indian cotton dresses. I bought a gorgeous long cotton dress which is not really in my colours – orange, yellow with splashes of green and blue. It cost 99 Dirhams which is about NZ$35. Dress Shoes Modern Route Jumeirah Mosque Souk Madinat Jumeirah iced Costa Coffee via Marina Route.
Monday 26 September
We took a taxi very early to the airport and got there in 30 minutes as there was not much traffic on the road. It cost 80 dirhams but we gave the man 100 as he was so pleasant! A good tip to start his day.
When we got to Sydney we were in transit. We had just had something to eat when I heard my name called. We had to race to the boarding gate which was quite a walk. The hostess told me that I was being upgraded to business class. My dream had come true. However I could not leave David in economy so I said I was travelling with David. They said that they were just about to call him too.
As soon as we got on to the plane we had a glass of real French Champagne. The food was nice but somewhat richer. I could push a button and my seat became a bed.Very nice. More comfort and space was somewhat to my liking. Next time first class would be good!
Arrival Home Tuesday 27 September
We were very surprised that the bio security people were not strongly in evidence. David had wooden masks and declared them and I mentioned I had a small lavender bag which had left NZ with me. Our cases went through the x-ray machine but then we were free to go.
We stepped through the doors to a Haere Mai banner and a Gidday banner with Wendy and Russell, Marian, Prue and Nicola! An unexpected “crowd” welcome! Wendy and Russell gave us some lovely lasagne which we couldn’t eat that evening as we had been upgraded to Business Class and we were full up!
Saturday 29 October
One of the reasons we came home from the UK was to celebrate my big 70. I decided to have a fancy dress afternoon tea party. I found a very nice caterer, Mary, who does this work to raise money for the local St Margaret’s Presbyterian church. Sadly the church was burnt down in May by a mentally ill man who had burgled it the week before that.
I was a bit sad that my second sister, Prue, was away up north for a month walking Te Araroa (the long path). The website tells us: Te Araroa is New Zealand's Trail - taking in spectacular New Zealand landscapes from beaches to volcanoes to forests to cities. The 3000km route stretching from Cape Reinga in the North of New Zealand to Bluff in the South. My younger brother, Sholto and his wife Bev, had booked a trip to Australia at the beginning of the year and left on the morning of my party.
I was "Moana" as I had a beautiful Punjabi caftan covered in a very colourful seascape. I had bought it secondhand on Mo'orea Island three years ago and have been dying for an excuse to wear it.
My headdress was supposed to be swirling seaweeds. It took a bit of making. I chose the four main colours of the caftan - royal blue, turquoise blue, red and gold and repeated each colour. Each of the eight sections of glitter tulle had a piece of satin or synthetic material behind it. I sewed shells and paua on to it and David glued it at the bottom so the tulle would not get so tangled.
I had hoped to have a makeup artist to do my face but Selina, David's best artist, could not do it and didn't find anyone else. David therefore did a quick and effective paint for me on my face.
David decided to take the theme and turned it on its head and became a loan shark! You can see him in the second photo wearing a mask bought in Dubai. He had a soft toy shark borrowed from my great nephews on a bank cap and loan captions all over his jacket. In the photo he is trying to intimidate my older sister Caroline who is wearing an empire dress - someone took her to be Snow White and another thought she might be Jane Austen.
As it was very windy we had photos in the garage pinned to sheets. Although we had a newly bought secondhand large gazebo outside, it was mostly too windy so people tended to stay inside. Altogether about 57 people came to the party.
We had Halloween characters, two convicts, the devil himself, a blond curly headed gal with a cute little 50s skirt, a young pirate, a sailor, a mother Christmas, a Palestinian, a Scotman, a monkey, a young man sporting a large bowtie, a flapper...Look at the photo section.
No presents only handmade cards
I had requested no present except handmade cards. I had some lovely cards with drawings and many creative presents. Wendy and Russell made me a tiny bagatelle game in a CD cover complete with silver balls to go into holes each of which were milestone moments in my life.
Young Elsie had knitted me a gorgeous little hen. My great nephews William and Oscar made potato people (David and me) with a potato with a tail presenting our late beloved pussycat Possum.
My sister-in-law, Kay, who is a world class quilter, made a material card with flowers in the background and a beautiful large pink bloom with gradations of colour in the foreground.
Marian, who has now twice looked after our affairs while we have travelled, created a “Certificate of Participation” in recognition of my phenomenal participation in the ART OF LIFE. On the back is some advice such as “The trick is, when there is nothing to do, do nothing.”
I also received Gillian’s self published book “I am” which is her personal journey of self discovery and awareness in the face of cancer. Her creative talents have been unleashed in the making of knitted wall hangings some of which are the illustrations in the small book.
I was blown away by the bouquets of flowers I received from David’s three daughters, my friend Julie who was too ill to come and then on Tuesday from my beloved French family whom I lived with in Paris in 1971 – 1972.
Sunday 30 October
We went to Quaker Meeting bearing sandwiches and birthday cake for morning tea.
We then raced home and David’s sister, Kay, and brother-in-law Norwegian born Bård cam for lunch with their hostess, David’s cousin, Claire. Kay and Bård had come over from Australia for the party which was great. We finally finished lunch and chatter just before 5.00pm!
Monday 31 October
Monday was my actual birthday. David and my older sister Caroline and my oldest friends Karen and Lindy plus Marian and I went to the Château on the Park for lunch. Great food but poor and very slow service. We finished lunch at nearly 4.00pm!
Early evening we popped over next door. Young Fin turned five today and began school. We had bought some lovely cushion covers with a Camel on them in Dubai – made in India no doubt. I then had to find a book to go with the covers. “Is a Camel a Mammal?” which is by “The Cat in the Hat” team who create fun books with rhyming couplets was just the ticket. We included a card with a photo of us on a camel in Morocco and a photo of Fin with his little sister Eden taken Sunday afternoon in the garden. We were impressed that Fin was already a reader so he should go far! However we did not linger as he was very tired after his first day at school.
I had made a special trip to the supermarket to buy some mandarins instead of sweets for any HalloweenTrick or Treaters but none came.
Future Party Plans
I plan to finish a major part of my family tree for my 75th birthday so that will be for both sides of my family.
I am not sure whether I will have a big birthday party again. It is almost impossible to have a long enough conversation as the hostess for it to be satisfying. It is always nice to have a conversation over a meal with up to 6 or 8 people.
Suffice to say we will continue to have our Annual self catering Garden Party in February. We hope to see family, friends and their friends at these parties.
Thank you dear Family and Friends for the love you have shown me at my time of celebration. I am indeed blessed in so many ways, not the least in having the constant support of David, who is indeed “the wind beneath my wings.”