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Flotsam and Jetsam

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Out of Africa

June 3, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

The Girl and I have always believed ourselves to be a lucky combination – a notion based largely on evidence drawn from direct experience. An example of this good fortune would be the sale of our Buckinghamshire apartment in the UK back in 2015, the year that we moved to Canada.

We had been trying to sell the property for nearly four years – without success – before finally doing so just a week before we emigrated. This might seem to stretch the definition of good luck were it not for the fact that the sale was completed just as the sterling/Canadian dollar exchange rate hit its most fortuitous level for the best part of a decade – a figure that has not been matched since.

It came as a considerable and most palpable shock, therefore, when our latest adventure – the African safari trip trailed in my last post – imploded spectacularly over the last week.

That is right… we did not get to Africa… we did not go on safari… we finally retreated to the west coast of Canada to lick our wounds in a state of considerable shock.

In short – we are not happy!

I am not going to catalog in detail the entire fiasco here, though I will undoubtedly be naming names in a subsequent missive. Those who live in the UK may well have seen the news items of a week ago which recounted the spectacular and catastrophic failure of British Airways’ IT systems that laid waste to much of the operation – ticketing – check-in – baggage handling – online services – etc, etc… On what was touted as being the busiest travel weekend since the COVID pandemic British Airways cancelled well in excess of two hundred flights and wrecked the travel plans of thousands of customers.

The ‘highlights’ of our particular experience include having one flight delayed overnight and a replacement finally cancelled at around midnight – after we had spent ten hours in the terminal. We were told that we must collect our checked baggage and leave the terminal building – to join an already extensive queue of folk trying to find a room in the airport hotels. This was the point that we discovered that BA had lost our safari luggage!

Over the following three days we spent many wearisome hours on the phone trying to reschedule flights (including connecting flights in Africa for which we will  get no refund!) and to search for our missing bags. When it became apparent that there was no chance of both us and our bags coinciding in Johannesburg we finally gave up and spent another day trying to persuade BA to let us go home – the which they would not do without considerable further outlay.

Now we have to attempt to recover at least some of the cost of this ‘trip of a lifetime’.

This whole has been a deeply traumatic experience for us both and has left our confidence considerably shaken. We both had moments in which we could not see how the situation could be resolved – and I think it may take a while before we again attempt anything similar.

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Into Africa

May 25, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | 1 comment

Back at the beginning of the year I announced that The Girl had decreed that this would be the year in which we finally achieved that long-dreamed of bucket-list item – the visit to Botswana for an African safari.

I recall also writing that I would be giving much more detail – chapter and verse – as the event approached. I feel quite guilty that I have not been keeping my part in that bargain. Sorry about that…

Well – here we are! I am writing this from a hotel room in the UK. We flew in yesterday and we are busy acclimatising ourselves to the time-zone change before heading south tomorrow to Johannesburg, from which we immediately set forth for Botswana. Once there we will be out of Internet range for much of the expedition, so further updates – and, of course, pictures – will have to await our return. Expect the full meal deal then, though.

It is a good thing that The Girl enjoys the planning process. Even in these high-tech and enlightened times setting up such a trip is a fairly major operation. Two matters in particular have complicated things. In Botswana the transfers between safari lodges will be effected in small planes. Small planes means small luggage, so we had to purchase really quite diminutive duffle bags and to pack with particular care.

The matter of what to pack was complicated further by the likes and dislikes of the wild-life. The big (and small) beasts do not care for bright colours, or for whites. The bugs and mosquitoes – on the other hand – really have a thing for blues and blacks. Clearly there is good reason for khaki being the colour of choice for African explorers.

All of this meant that an almost entirely new wardrobe of high-tech and lightweight clothing – in taupe and khaki – was required. Fortunately Canadians are passionate about the great outdoors and there are many outlets that provide just the sort of gear required.

When it came to packing we did the obvious; we packed our safari bags and then loaded them into bigger suitcases – along with the additional items that will see us through a few days in London once we get back. My brother will kindly look after all those items ‘not required on voyage’.

Yesterday’s flights from Canada were long and tiring. This is not the time or the place to vent about what used to bill itself as the ‘world’s favourite’ airline, but that will definitely come later. Suffice to say that I was not surprised when – the day before we set out – the airline contacted us by email to tell us that our flight from Seattle (don’t ask!) had been cancelled and instead of our business class trip into Heathrow we had been re-booked on a lesser airline in economy!!

The Girl, naturally, hit the roof! After an intense hour on the phone we found ourslves in business class again – this time on Aer Lingus – but with an additional stop-over in Dublin!

As I say… that whole sorry saga can wait until later. For now – let’s go… on safari!

 

 

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Matters musical – 2

May 12, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Following on from my ‘Matters Musical – 1‘ posting a couple of weeks back… herewith the second and concluding part.

I mentioned in the aforesaid posting that Anam Danu had been featured on no less than three compilations of independent music made available through Tom Hilton’s ‘Aldora Britain Records‘ – in addition to being featured in an article in the associated e-Zine. The Chanteuse and I were most flattered by the attention and grateful for the coverage.

We were further offered a single release on the label during April. The advantage of this would be, of course, that our name and our music would be pushed in its own right and thus be all the more visible. We happily agreed to this proposal and offered our January single – ‘Perfect‘ – paired with a re-issue of a song from our first collection (‘Winds of Change‘) entitled ‘The Journey Home‘.

Having been written and recorded back in 2019, ‘The Journey Home‘ was one of our earlier experiments in working together. As one would expect, we have made a great deal of progress since then – both technically and artistically – so we decided that we should re-work the track, lengthening it and updating sounds and instrumentation. The original recording featured a fiddle part that I had played on a halfway decent sampled instrument, but – since part of our expansion plans for this year include starting to work with other musicians – we thought that this would be a good opportunity to experiment. We were introduced by a friend to Victoria violinist, Kate Rhodes, who agreed to play the session for us and thus became the first person other than The Chanteuse and I to appear on an Anam Danu recording.

The two tracks were duly released last month and can be found on Bandcamp here. We were most excited subsequently to find that the release had entered the Aldora Britain Independent Top 20 – the which records the tracks on the ABR Bandcamp site that receive the most plays. At the time of writing we are at number 13 on that playlist.

We will also be releasing ‘The Journey Home‘ under our own auspices to all the usual streaming and download sites during June. More on that come the time.

The Chanteuse and I have also been busy working our how we can play all of this music that we have been creating for a live audience. As mentioned above, this will inevitable entail finding other like-minded individuals who are keen to play with us. Reworking the material for live performance also requires a considerable amount of work – but we are making good progress.

Thank you for listening!

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Matters musical – 1

April 30, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

I am moved – every once in a while – to furnish the gentle readers of these digital digressions with an update on the progress that The Chanteuse and I are making on our musical odyssey. I hope that this is not too wearisome for those that have little interest in such matters.

Back at the end of January I posted herein a missive announcing the release of a new Anam Danu single – going by the soubriquet of ‘Perfect‘. The Chanteuse and I have been busy promoting this recording; with some small degree of success. The track was listed in a good number of playlists, reviewed by various digital media pundits and the release engendered the publication of several feature articles in online fanzines and the like. Should you wish to know more you can find details in the news section on our website.

Back in November we had a track from last summer’s album release – ‘Soul Making‘ – included on a compilation of independent music by a UK based e-Zine and record label – Aldora Britain Records. Tom Hilton – the Scot whose brainchild ABR is – writes thus:

“Aldora Britain Records is an independent music e-zine and record label. The e-zine produces interviews with unsigned and underground artists and reviews their music. The label produces compilations of these artists. The vision of AB Records is to create a go-to place for music lovers all over the world to discover great new stuff, an online platform for independent music. It’s much needed!”

Tom and ABR have been most generous to us, having now featured us on three different compilations – the most recent being titled ‘Street Corner Jive‘. ABR also produce an international independent music e-Zine at regular intervals and Anam Danu was honoured to be the subject of of a feature back in March of this year. Should you wish to discover more about us you can find the article here:

Now, in the interests of not overwhelming merely perfunctory perusers of this idiosyncratic anthology with a bombardment of minutiae – and finding that I have considerably more to say than first I anticipated…

…I am going to split this post into two installments.

Coming soon… part two!

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Mind the gap

April 23, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

“Every time I go to the dentist they say, ‘You really need to fix that gap of yours’. I’m like, ‘My gap is paying your dentist bills.'”

Lara Stone

I grew up in the UK during the late 50s and the 60s – at a point at which British dentistry was busy earning itself a seriously poor reputation. Fluoridation was still a matter for argument – our parents’ generation were busily making up for the difficulty of obtaining sugar during the post-war years of austerity and – in the case of dental health for children – the public policy was one of “drill and fill”.

A generation of kids – self included – grew up seriously traumatised by such dental experiences.

Now – I had at the time what I took to be a charming gap between my two front teeth. My dentist – immune to that charm – decreed (and in those days one just went along with such ‘expert’ opinion) that the gap should be closed and he duly ordered for me an implement of torture designed to slowly force my two front teeth together by the slow turning of a screw. The device was hideously uncomfortable and cumbersome and I naturally did what (mildly) rebellious youths were expected to do.

Yet another visit to the dentist left the man in charge puzzled as to why his hideous apparatus was not having the desired effect and he was clearly keen to come up with some even more fiendish device for my next visit.

Before this could happen my brother obligingly resolved the issue. We were both keen cricketers (he considerably more talented than I) and we were regularly involved in scratch games on our local cricket green. My brother was possessed of a decent arm and could generate a fair bit of pace. On this occasion a short delivery leapt from the pitch and caught me square in the mouth. One of my front teeth was broken in half and – as it later transpired – the one next to it left in a permanently discoloured state. I had to have a crown fitted to the broken tooth, which at least finally dealt with the gap.

And thus things remained throughout the decades. We Brits are nowhere near as keen on cosmetic dentistry as are our North American cousins and I had finally reached an age at which I could tell my dentist to get lost, so my oddly coloured teeth became a fixture. As a result my smile has always been somewhat guarded and this has contributed in no small measure to my distaste for having my photograph taken.

Until recently…!

Now that I live in Canada things have taken a turn for the better, without my really having had to do anything about it. Whilst having some routine work done last year my new dentist decided that I must really want my discoloured tooth upgraded and – by means of some modern magic potion – rendered it into an almost acceptable tone without a word being spoken. Then – this year – a small piece of my by now venerable crown broke off and I had to have a new one made. After some helpful consultation – and by means of yet more magic – I now have a set of front teeth that actually look as though they are meant to be together. I guess I now look the way my UK dentist envisioned that I should more than fifty years ago. Wonders will never cease!

There – that didn’t hurt a bit…

 

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Failing better

March 30, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

"This work" is licensed under CC BY 4.0“Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Samuel Beckett

A handful of posts back I gently mourned the lack of a decent (IMHO!) Sunday Paper here in western Canada and breathed an authored sigh of relief at the discovery of The Atlantic magazine – by way of compensation.

As it happens I had not originally intended the subject of that missive to be my quest to find an agreeable journal here on the island, but rather an appreciation of a particular article that I had come across within the digital variant of my new favourite source of commentary.

The piece concerned is titled “The Fine Art of Failure” and is by the Canadian novelist, Stephen Marche. In fact, the article was adapted from the Marche’s slim Field Notes volume – “On Writing and Failure” (the which is also apparently subtitled – “On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer”). I was so taken with the article that I Amazoned forthwith and purchased the real thing.

Marche’s premise is that it doesn’t matter how famous or well-respected one becomes as a writer – the main focus of one’s existence is exactly the same as for the complete beginner… that of being continually rejected (albeit at a somewhat elevated level). Marche writes:

“Failure is the body of a writer’s life. Success is only ever an attire. A paradox defines this business: the public only see writers in their victories but their real lives are mostly in defeat“.

Much of this slim tome is made up of the sort of anecdotes that should be taken to heart. A few pages in Marche discusses the “cruel species of irony [that] drove the working life of Herman Melville“:

“His first book was Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, pure crap and a significant bestseller. His final book was Billy Budd, an extreme masterpiece he couldn’t even manage to self-publish. His fate was like the sick joke of some cruel god. The better he wrote, the more he failed”.

For those dreaming of literary success Marche is clear-eyed:

“The internet loves to tell stories about famous writers facing adversity. … What I find strange is that anyone finds it strange that there’s so much rejection. The average telemarketer has to make eighteen calls before finding someone willing to talk with him or her. And that’s for s*** people might need, like a vacuum cleaner or a new smartphone. Nobody needs a manuscript”.

…or a song …or a play …or a screenplay …or a painting! Marche acknowledges that his thesis is not restricted to the literary arts. It is the same all over.

I cannot recommend this slender volume enough to anyone who harbours the creative urge. It is strangely and contrarily reassuring to all those of us who had – at some point – to choose between keeping the stacks of rejection letters or throwing them away (or indeed burning them!) and giving up the whole idea.

You know who you are!

 

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Wow!

March 23, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

I posted – back in February – a really quite excited missive celebrating a Scottish Rugby triumph over the auld enemy on the opening weekend of this year’s Six Nations tournament – at Twickenham! Those who don’t follow such things may not be aware quite how big of a deal this was. The Scots won consecutive victories at the Home of Rugby for the first time in a very long time.

Subsequent to that post – in which I also looked ahead hopefully to at least two more wins in the competition – I kept fairly quiet, so as not to jinx the team. Well – the tournament finished last weekend and I need keep silent no longer.

As predicted, the Scots were unable to beat either the French or the Irish (currently numbers one and two in the world) – the latter completing a fine Grand Slam in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day (many congratulations!). The Scots did, however, win their other two games, finishing with three bonus point victories and third place in the tournament.

Even more impressive is what those results have done to the current world rankings (see below) – a matter of considerable import in a Rugby World Cup year.

Let it be said at once that Scotland are in a fierce group in the World Cup. They will have to face to both the Irish (again) and the South Africans in the group stages and they would need to beat at least one of them to stand a chance of progressing to the later stages of the tournament. This is extremely unlikely – but we Scots are by nature infeasibly optimistic, so who knows?

…and, of course, nothing will stop us celebrating in the meantime.

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Stuff happening

March 16, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Last Friday The Girl and I had a telephone consultation with the Travel Medicine and Vaccination Centre here in Victoria. Our purpose was to establish that which would be required for our forthcoming trip to Africa.

Now, The Girl has a rather splendid written record of her previous vaccinations and it was a breeze to determine what (if anything) is in need of updating and what additional precautions should be taken to keep her safe on the basis of our detailed itinerary.

I – naturally – presented a rather different challenge. I feel sure that all in the UK must now be effected in a considerably more rigorous manner than ‘when I were a nipper’; clearly I must have had the usual round of immunisations for a child growing up in the UK in the 60s – but I as far as I can recall I have never possessed a written record thereof. With the memory of a man heading rapidly towards his eighth decade there was no chance that I could categorically state that which I had had and when I had had it.

The lady from the TMVC cut through all the cr*p. I mattered not a hoot what jabs I had had back in the day; with the exception of HEPs A & B (which I had somehow contrived not to have thus far) everything would need to be updated anyway.

We thus presented ourselves the following day at the TMVC to be stuck like pin cushions. Tetanus, Typhoid, Polio, Diphtheria, HEP A & B… It is a good thing that we each have two arms !

Anyway – ’tis done and all we need to do now is to pick up our Malaria medication. Things have apparently moved on since my last experience of these vile tinctures – the which saw me through a visit to India back in the 80s. Then – having failed to read the instructions for the tablets with adequate care – we experienced several distressing nights of psychotic reactions – waking at 4:00am, sweating profusely with pounding hearts and the conviction that we were about to die in our beds. Not nice!

Preparations for the Africa trip are proceeding apace. Travel in Botswana on small planes necessitates the toting of only very limited luggage. We not only had to purchase soft bags small enough to fit into the cargo hold of a Cessna, but also to equip ourselves with a new safari wardrobe. The limitations are not solely to do with weight. The wildlife in Africa doesn’t like whites or other bright colours. The mosquitos – on the other hand – do like blues, blacks and other dark colours.

As we are travelling in the African winter we must be prepared for cold 5:00am starts, but also for 30C days. Layers it is then – and of suitably lightweight clothing. It is a good thing that Canada – being a nation in love with the great outdoors – has plentiful supplies of high-tech gear that is just the job (though at a price, of course).

Well, I think that is about enough of an update for now. More – of course – to come!

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Every glittering ounce

February 28, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

“Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshipped and fondled like a priceless diamond.”

Hunter S. Thompson

It is hardly feasible – no matter how hard our forefathers may have attempted so to do back in the bad old colonial days – to relocate to the far side of the world without making changes to the way one lives. Such modifications may turn out to be unexpectedly significant or even life-changing. Lesser amendments, on the other hand, might go virtually unnoticed in the moment – though perhaps acquiring greater import with the passage of time and with the benefit of hindsight.

I am writing this – for instance – on a Sunday. Back in the UK a key part of the Sunday ritual would have been the quick trip out in the morning to purchase coffees and a stack of Sunday newspapers. My personal and long standing favourite was The Observer – now part of the Guardian group.

When we came to Canada we looked around for a substitute; only to discover that there really isn’t one…  at least, not in a truly satisfying sense. There are some multi-part weekend papers to be sure, but they are very meagre fare by comparison to their British counterparts. They lack weight in all senses and are sadly not able – in my view – to  boast columnists or journalists of a comparable calibre to their UK equivalents.

It is, of course, quite possible to purchase British newspapers – including The Observer – in Canada… if one is prepared to wait for half a week and to pay a hefty premium for so doing. We are – needless to say – not!

It is further a fact of life these days that pretty much everything print-based has now been moved (or duplicated) online. It is certainly possible to read all of the titles with which we are familiar on the tiny screen, though some are protected by pay-walls to which I am not prepared to donate. Not all of these transitions online has been effected in an agreeable form. The Independent (my daily paper of choice in the UK when I had time to read such a thing) is now an online only journal that is sadly (but inevitably) beset by advertising. No big deal in itself were it not that the implementation in this case results in the screen constantly refreshing and jumping about as one tries to read – in the service of dandling fresh adverts before one’s weary eyes. The whole experience is so irritating that I was obliged to withdraw a routine contribution to their funds and to look elsewhere.

With the BBC website now a shadow of its former self – though still indispensable – I find myself now a subscriber to The Guardian – something that I had not anticipated. Though The Guardian‘s politics have always found favour in our household we have often thought them to be a little too po-faced to be likeable and their writers a little over-fond of the sanctimonious.

A year or so back I found myself searching furiously for a new source of cultural and current affairs analysis; a journal with its heart in the right place but still attractive to writers who knew how to turn a phrase and to frame a persuasive argument. I found just such in The Atlantic – that venerable literary magazine that has evolved into an influential platform for long-form storytelling and news-maker interviews. In addition to its monthly edition it produces a most useful daily digest of articles during the working week – and I would not now willingly be without it.

I recommend it – regardless of where in the world you reside.

 

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Huzzah!

February 7, 2023 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

Image by <a href=" https://www.vectorportal.com" >Vectorportal.com</a>, <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" >CC BY</a>It is not often that one gets to celebrate happy occurrences two days running. This just happens to be one of those occasions.

In my last post I announced the long-awaited arrival last Friday of my shiny new Canadian passport.

“Hurrah” – says I!…

Then – on the very next day – Scotland triumphed at Twickenham over the auld enemy in the Calcutta Cup.

“Hurrah and twice hurrah” – I cry!…

Yes – it is that splendid weekend at the start of an otherwise gloomy February when the Northern Hemisphere’s greatest sporting event – the Six Nations Rugby tournament – kicks off. This year – being a Rugby World Cup year – promises to be particularly exciting, with the current top two sides in world Rugby – the Irish and the French – taking part. Both sides started with an away win – the Irish convincingly at the Principality in Cardiff – the latter rather more tenuously in Rome against the Azzuri.

The final match was the aforementioned Calcutta Cup clash between Scotland and England at Twickenham. There was a time – not so long ago – that the Scots routinely took a drubbing at the Cabbage Patch. Indeed, one had to look back a long way to find any Scots wins at all. Of late and for the moment, however, the worm has turned. Scotland have won the last three such encounters – including consecutive wins away from home. This is splendid stuff! Over the last six years the English have won once – there was a magnificent 38-38 draw at Twickers – and the remaining four wins have gone north of the border.

So far, so good. However, the Scots are all too aware that they have not, of late, been able to follow up these excellent wins with consistent results elsewhere. Now – no-one is expecting them to beat either the Irish or the French this year, but wins against the struggling Welsh and the greatly improved Italians would be most welcome.

Fingers – etc – firmly crossed and many pious invocations to the rugby gods duly rendered…

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