Like a Longfin Eel

  It’s been a rough couple of weeks; not so much energy to write. M’s funeral was last week and a privilege to go to. His son wrote a eulogy poem which is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. After this I went up to wales, to be shown around by a sister of one of my Friends I met in Bangladesh. I didn’t know her sister at all at the start but she drove me around for three days, which was really kind of her. The valleys, Gower, Cardiff bay with its Tory-free government…  I got a proper welsh tour complete with obscure cocktails (the Trevor Nelson) and really personal insights (her parents remember Aberfan, her housemate is the first generation in his family not to work in the mines, and he described what it felt like to go down the mines and feel them breathing). https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/britains-best-small-venue-shortlist-newport-le-pub-23362?amp https://youtu.be/Eijc2tGe-zM Feeling tired. Feeling lucky. _______________________________ B’s poem for M - ...

New Years with R&M.  My aim when I booked my flights in October was New Years with R&M. Even then I don’t think I expected I’d actually be able to get here. I anticipated another lockdown. A winter mess. Borders shut and no way to Spain. There were covid passes (quick to expire and slow to replace) and covid tests  and transport issues to the airport that needed sorting over the patchy public holiday days. In the end, the sketchiest bit was the bus to Bristol airport from Exeter, delayed by an hour and a half. The bus stop had no shelter and I stood in the pouring rain with four strangers feeling like totoro. And now, suddenly, I’m sitting at Malaga airport. The sky is blue and the clouds are high and far away. There's a  heat wave  hitting the UK at the moment and its come here too.  ========== R&M have four kids. Their lockdown experience is the hardest of anyone I know. The kids did fine. R&M are incredible.  After a 4 month l...

I was chatting to one of the secretaries at work today about the Christmas break and she relayed how she had returned to Nazi Ireland, "you know, like your country, with the passes and the ID and the fuss at the borders." I was taken aback, I couldn't really tell how serious she was. But I let it slide because it was just so good to hear an Irish accent and chat about nothing and everything for a bit. I lost a good hour but it was very worth it. I never circled back to her thoughts about Nazi Ireland, I admit. I feel like I'm on the pointy end of the NZ restrictions at the moment and I didn't really want to find myself agreeing with her. Nazi comparisons are rarely accurate or helpful.  It's nearing midnight and I'm sitting up waiting to see where I land for  the lottery . Although there is a way to request special entry as a Doctor back into NZ and its quarantine system I'm waiting on paperwork to be eligible for that (that is a medium length and yet ...