The Imperceptible Immigrant

The uninvited guest

July 29, 2022 in Life as we know it | Permalink

“Pain: An uninvited guest that comes into our lives that demands our fullest attention before it can even think about leaving us.”

Unknown

Bah!!!

Well – I guess it was inevitable…

When The Girl and I returned the other day from our travels abroad we brought with us an uninvited guest.

That’s right – we got COVID!… and that after all the worrying earlier in the year as to whether or not we should be traveling at all.

To be fair – the world is a very different place to that which it was a year ago. Back then we went to great lengths to keep ourselves healthy. Now, in many countries, the assumption is that – vaccinated or not – one will eventually succumb to the virus. Here in Canada we may still be wearing masks to go grocery shopping – and certainly if we go to the theatre or to a concert. For goodness sake – even our national carrier still insists on masks being worn at all times – which is certainly not the case with all airlines.

In the UK and in France the great majority of folk do not wear masks at all and many other precautions seem to be exercised in a desultory fashion if at all. I read a piece the other day by a Brit who had recently been infected, the which meant that he was no longer one of the 15% of the population that had not had the virus – and thus joining the 85% that have! The gist of his piece was that the majority of those recently infected belong to the group that had never had COVID, rather than being re-infections of those that have.

Now, The Girl and I are both inoculated to the eyeballs – four shots apiece (the which clearly did not stop us catching the wretched thing!) – and we are now isolating and relying on dearest friends to do our shopping for us. My symptoms are mercifully mild – little more than a scratchy throat and a predilection for sneezing. The Girl – as is sadly the way with such things – is having a tougher time, as a sinus infection seems to have taken advantage of her weakened state to set up shop alongside the spiky thing. Not fair! Not fair at all!!

The only bright side (and certainly not one that I will bring to The Girl’s attention just yet awhile) is that our four shots will shortly be joined by the additional immunity that comes with a having a dose of the blasted thing…

Hey ho!

Tags: COVID-19, Health, Travel, vaccine

Missing in Action

July 24, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Regular visitors to these pages – and indeed those who are subscribed to this long-running assemblage of trivia – may have detected something of a stony silence around these parts of late. There has been – it cannot be denied – an absence of posts.

The explanation for this phenomenon is simple. For the first time in around two and a half years the Imperceptible Immigrant and The Girl are off and away… travelling!

On previous such jaunts I have endeavoured to keep the blog up to date as we went; the which was not always easy, particularly when it came to the editing and uploading of photographs.

This time I decided upon a different approach; I would collect images, impressions and experiences as we journeyed, but I would not upload or write anything until we returned.

Well – our sojourn is almost over. In a couple of days we head back to the west coast of Canada. Once there I will again commit to electronic media all manner of impressions of the places to which we have been and of the things that we have been doing.

See you there!

Tags: Europe, Holiday, Travel, United Kingdom

Peter Brook

July 6, 2022 in Life as we know it | Permalink

Peter Brook
1925 – 2022
RIP

There is little that I could write about the towering figure of post-war British theatre that was Peter Brook that could not – and will not – be far better addressed elsewhere. His influence on the theatre was immense, even once he had retreated to Paris and was less frequently seen in the UK. Sadly I was too young to catch the productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company that cemented his reputation (the which famously included ground-breaking productions of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘ and ‘Marat/Sade‘) and I only saw the filmed version of ‘The Mahabharata‘.

Brook was – of course – not only a theatre practitioner, but also a teacher, a thinker and a writer on the subject of the noble arts. Theatre students today would do just as well to seek out his many books. A quick hunt around my shelves reveals copies of ‘The Shifting Point‘, ‘There are no Secrets‘, ‘The Tip of the Tongue‘ and – of course – ‘The Empty Space‘ – without which I would not be.

A sad loss to the theatre and to the world.

Tags: Loss, Memories, Peter Brook, RIP, Theatre, Writing

Canada and stuff

July 3, 2022 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

“The cool thing about being famous is traveling. I have always wanted to travel across seas, like to Canada and stuff”.

Britney Spears

Last Friday was Canada Day.

I have mentioned this event several times in these meanderings since first I visited these shores. It is perhaps little surprise – given recent (and more distant) history – that the reaction to the celebrations has become considerably more equivocal over the years. As an outsider (and in particularly one with the background that is my inheritance) I hope that I can empathise appropriately with all (or most!) parties. There is much that is good here – and that should be celebrated. There is also much that is bad – and that needs to be repaired.

There are also fireworks – the which we get to see from our deck. Here be some pictures thereof: