History and buns, creativity and nostalgia.

I have succombed to two sticky buns, a reaction to anti Muslim comments at the pottery group I have just rejoined.  We all tried to navigate the tension to something manageable, and I was able to make a couple of comments that may have impacted from my experiences in Senegal and Kyrgyzstan,  and because even 30 years ago Broxbourne school had Muslim students, but is painful, for all. There they were happy in their ignorance and along comes this newcomer, who challenges them, but then hates, the tension it causes.  Same on the allotment,  challenging them there about digging.   Anyway I have succombed to two buns to cope but am now buried in an exploration of food in Wormley in the 17th Century, to distract myself.    I have it in mind to explore our local food culture from the Abbey to the plethora of excellent Turkish cafes in the area. 

The other day I was in woke heaven.  The new V and A is testament to what blending cultures can do for creativity.  There was a queue to get in it has proved so popular and in the lobby there were young people playing reggae.  30 years ago similar youths would have been on tower blocks in Hackney champtioning pirate radio. Today they are part of the establishment.  Reform would hate it.  

But things both move forward and backwards.    Stratford Royal Theatre, opened in 1884.  The area wasn't rich, but with the support of a coal merchant got a small theatre.  Electricity arrived in 1902.  Nearby Hackney built its theatre around the same time, also with electricity.   Having just been to both of them, they are glorious reminders of the past,  and how theatres can attract diverse audiences.

  

The musical The Harder They Come, based on the Jimmy Cliff film was first devised at the theatre at the beginning of this century,  and we went to the opening night of its 2026 revival.   I loved it.  My brother had been into ska and I heard and enjoyed standard singles from Bob Marley, but I didn't and don't think of it as my kind of genre particularly, but listening to all those tunes again, embedded in the story, brought out the lyrics, making me realise that whilst R, my partner,  as someone of Jamaican heritage, understands those beats, much more than a white kid in Kent, something about them had entered my story, much more than I had realised.  And of course when N was little I introduced him to the story and the music too.   

Black people have lived on these shores since at least Roman times, the first followers of Islam came to live in the UK in the 16th century,  as Elizabeth sought to benefit from trade relations with places like Morocco.  Yet in small town England, people can still say, why should local Muslims have a mosque!  And my waistline, suffers in protest. 

Wise words and wonderful walks.

 When I was first an elector, I voted Labour, we were in Ed Heath country!, and I used to fight with my best mate, Brie, whose birthday it would have been today, but she died recently, we used to fight as I was left and she was right. So it never would have occured to me that I would be grateful for a Tory, but this week as the Tories mostly kept Reform out of my Borough, it was thank goodness for the Tories. I came third again.  Thank you kind voters.  And on the whole the Green Party did much better than before.  

The other reason for being grateful to a Tory is the wonderful railway journeys done by Michael Portillo, it was because of him that I suddenly realised I could visit the south of France in spring because that was how it was originally done and because of him I have become aware of all sorts of routes.  But recently I have been ahead of him. He has just done a series on Japan, which enabled me to reminisce about the places I went to you and learn about the many places I did not get to and now he is in Uzebekistan, but I visited there whilst studying to be a journlist so during my 20s.  

It is so long ago I cannot remember the full details - my sister, Dad and I had visited Moscow and Leningrad over Christmas the year I divorced and I must have gone back to the Soviet Union in the March of that year , or the year after, as I was so taken with it.  We visited Moscow again, and then I think flew down to Samarkand and onto Bukara and back via Taskkent.  I remember our flight was delayed, so we missed quite a lot of Samarkand, but in the evening I went up to see what I could see. I was frightened by some dogs,  fear of rabies, and a man called the dogs and I somehow gestured to him I was trying to look at probably the Registan Square.  Well he took me inside the building and showed me some of it, before I perhaps stupidly took fright and thought I had better get back to the hotel.  It was suprisingly cold in Samarkand, they had snow, which was unusual at that time. It might have been in Bukara that we saw women celebrating International Women's Day, the first time I had heard of the festival.   The country now, based on TV shows, is now very modern in places, but Samarkand and Bukara are timeless and wonderful.  I bought the black hat, you can see in the picture, at a factory we were taken to, and even though it was a man's hat, everyone liked that I was wearing it.  I got lots of thumbs up.  My coat came from Laurence Corner, which was once a famous shop for all sorts of eccentric items.   Amazingly I still have the skirt that is in the picture. Very green.  

Such a long time ago,  but shows I was interested in travel even then, this year what with the war in Iran and everything most of my trips will be very local, but there is still so much to learn. For example I went on a Rogation Pilgramage on Sunday in Hampstead and on Hampstead Heath.  It was quite painful in many ways as it took me back to living in the area, but that was also why I wanted to do it.  I learned so much about a place I had lived near to for a long time.  For example we started with the graves of Constable and Harrison, the clock maker, then to a French church, where Graham Greene was married and where De Gaulle worshipped during the war.  It was built by a French refugee and allowed to be built as it was specifically for the Frnech community in the local area, despite Britain being at war with France at the time.  On past the Quakers to a more modern gothic church, at almost the highest point in London and from there onto the heath, and the boundary way markers between St Pancras and Highgate Vestry.  I was distracted a bit much of the time by one of the other participants.  Was he, or was he not, but then blown away to discover one of the other pilgrims had gone to school in Broxbourne with my son!  Rogation is to do with community and agriculture, so I figured I can do that, but the most sacred space we touched was the beech tree cathedral.   Heavenly.  I need to return.  

St Mary's with x in the background?

Wales, Wales, and Worcester.

As a Green an unnatural period of heat, and sun, is a concern.  As a traveller how extraordinary to be in Wales and have non stop sunshine in April.  It was bliss.   

St David's Cathedral with the ruins of the Bishop's Palace behind. 

That being said a few things did not quite work, but in the end, it does not really matter. One I slipped in the bath (again) whacked my face, and shock myself up,  but luckily no long lasting effects. (I was having the bath to ease out my very painful back, so one pain, helped cancel out another!)  Two and this I have taken longer to get over, despite the brilliant weather,  I did not get on the boat to Ramsey Island which was what I was really trying to do on the holiday.  It was very frustrating in many ways as to have non stop sun is almost unheard of in Wales but it still wasn't the right weather for my trip, so it got cancelled.  A later trip would have happened, but there were not enough people signed up to do it, and frustratingly, with another company, they too did not have enough people to go out.  So several people had made the effort to get to St. David's and spent money too, to get there, but their trip did not happen, partly because the boat companies have not found a way to work together for everyone's benefit!  And there is quite a bit of hanging around before all this is worked through, which when the sun and sea beckon is frustrating.  

Whitesands Beach

Caefie Beach

All of that could have potentially spoilt the trip, but when the sun shines that part of Wales is so lovely it is not such a problem.  I started in Havefordwest and at one time it must have been a handsome place, but arriving late in the afternoon it was almost all shut.  However,  I could explore the remains of an old abbey and look up at the broken walls of what must at one time have been an awe inspiring castle, so that felt like a mini adventure.   There was so little there, I was able to catch an earlier bus next morning onwards to St. David's.  Too early to sign in to the hotel, I headed downhill, with case, to the Cathedral.  It is the most wonderful sight.  Pictures do not do it justice and inside it has a lovely energy.  But I was also there for brunch with welshcakes. However, if I could have I would have been tempted just to sit and sit in the peace of the nave.   When my boat trip did not happen the following day,  I returned and spent more time there.  Apparently if you do two trips to St. David's that is the equivalent of a pilgramage to Rome, but not sure if two brunches count.  

The other enticing thing about St David's is that you can see the sea from this tiny city, and it was so inviting I found myself walking across a field down towards St Nons but instead arrived in Port Clais just in time for the bus.  I was so careful with my footing trying to hurry to catch the bus but not fall, it is ironic that it was a bath than felled me.   The following day, I returned to the area to explore a bit more, going up the hill, sitting and just watching the sea and the sky, and then going back down the hill in time for the bus again, but this time onto the beach for the afternoon.  

A long time ago, my brother was sun burned so badly on a Welsh beach he had to go to A and E, so dozing on the beach I was mindful,  but it was lovely to bask in the heat and just watch the dogs and a couple of kids love running up and down on the largely empty beach.   I was tempted to stay long, but figured that despite the apparent regularity of the buses, it would be good to get back to St. Davids in time for tea and cake.    However, at that moment the buses failed me,  and by the time I got back the cafes were shut, so intead I had very nice fish, with so many chips I could not finish it all.   Rather than throwing them away something inspired me to take them with me and as it felt too early to go back to the hotel, I explored futher and found myself on the cliffs overlooking Caefai beach.   Here the birds were wheeling and keen eyed, but the wind stopped them landing on the harvest I had saved.  But as I left, I scatted the chips and the birds ensured no litter remained.  A lovely ending to the time there. 

Breakfast next day was a bus ride away in Fishguard, lunch in Aberglasny Gardens, with aforementioned brother, and wife, where it was so hot, we had to seek out the shade of the wild flower meadow and the evening meal was in Brecon with more of the family and live music.  Happy Days.  Saturday I spent almost the whole day in the garden, apart from doing my second Brecon park walk, but Sunday, and this was the event which sparked the whole trip we went to Builth Wells for the Wonder Wool event.  I bumped into someone who had been at the trip I did in January, and loved seeing all the beautiful wools but it was the weaving that really captured me. 

A surprise in Brecon (One of Dad's aquisitions, looking for a new home 

With my bus pass, I can't get free travel in Wales, but it is still good value to use the different routes, apparently the direct bus to Cardiff has stopped, so I have missed a trick there, but the route through to Hereford still operates, so that was where I headed next, on route to see a friend in Worcester.  And there the weather finally turned and there was a very cold wind, but the Commandery is a great place to stop and learn more about this area and a part of British history which is absolulutely seminal but not always covered in depth in school.   

Worcester

These days trips abroad are more complicated, so it was wonderful to discover part of a previously unknown bit of Wales and to revisit places, but to see them from a new perspective.    I am already hoping I will get to return as there is still so much more to see and experience and who knows, perhaps I will one day see the birds flying over Skomer. 

Aberglasny

A modernised version of the Mapa Mundi