Uh-oh, I've done it again ... and it took me only a few days ... To do what, you may ask ...? Well, as some will know, I have the habit of breaking chairs ... or at least ensuring they go entirely out of kilter, balance and composition because of a) weight (despite considerable weight loss) b) posture (OK, I slouch on chairs, yes, I do ...), c) (but not necessarily always so) shoddy workmanship. In fact, as to c) I have been known to destroy quite sturdy, chairs of quality craftmanshipin my day... Anyway ... Niki's kitchen stool was victim to whatever I do ... the legs sort of, well, broke and twisted ... You have to admit, they were weak! So off to IKEA Lisbon it was this morning to purchase two (yes, there is safety in numbers) stools ... Perhaps I should invest in some cement blocks to sit on ... I mean, you can't break those ... Can you? For more information about the sculpture in the photo, go here.
Did you know that place names in Portugal starting with 'Al' are of Arabic origin? I didn't, but now I do. Niki and I went to the Algarve - which to Dutch tourists is well-known as the Holiday Haven In The Sun where one of the easiest things to get is 'Friet van Piet', as a large contingent of said summer slickers drive down to the Algarve to Get Away From It All and spend time with their friends, neighbours, relatives etc. etc. who also all go there, too, of course :-)
I'm sure it's not all as bad as that, but it is indeed a veritable tourist trap ... We went to the town of Albufeira (another 'Al', would it have something to do with the fact that the first continent across the sea to the south is ... erm ... Africa?) , where Niki had been asked to do a presentation of her new book, Hoola Hoop (an English language course for young learners in Portugal). It involved 60 or so people listening to a presentation, playing games, singing songs and (for some at least) actually Hoola-hooping ... Tess, Yarrow, you would have had a ball!
After the presentation we had lunch with one of Niki's co-authors, Cristina and her husband-to -be Ben, in a little marina (see photo) ... the icecream was Huge and Delish! A three-hour drive took us back up to Lisbon.
On return to Lisbon we spent a long time in a taxi to a hotel where we met with Vanessa Tenorio, a teacher/school owner from Brasil (see photo below), who Niki and I know from IATEFL. Vanessa was in town with her husband, the president of an organisation of Travel Agencies - however, the taxi driver had no idea where he was taking us. So we drove around for what seemed like an hour and in the end Niki had to direct the poor man to our destination ...There was a bit of a sad story behind this.
He had been in Lisbon for only three months. He and his wife had lived in a town called Porto and had recently split up: he decided to move to the big city. He was trying to learn where everything was, but found it all very hard. At one point he was happy to stop the meter as he wanted to show us he wasn't diddling us. We got there in the end and had a nice chat and drinks with Vanessa.
Sunday morning, having tubed in with Niki to an area called Rato, at the end of one of the underground lines, Isat down on a park bench in the Jardim Principe Real … The sun dappling its light on the palm trees and Jacarandas floweringin purple (which made me feel very much at home); children playing in the little playground to the side; dogs walking their owners; birds singing all around me. Different kinds of bird – birds I haven’t heard in a long time … sparrows, mainly, and some pigeons, swallows. Some people are lying on the grass, snoozing, reading; others are chatting or minding their kids.
I feel quite happy in many respects, especially with and around Niki – we’re getting on very well, very loving, caring, making real what until a little while ago, we felt was too amazing to be true. But I also feel cramped by the city around me – a feeling which I had increasingly been experiencing in the last few years every time I went back to Amsterdam, London or whichever other city I happened to be in. More people, less space – and it makes me appreciate the abundance of natural space in Pearces Creek; the uninterrupted vistas; the lack of artificial sound … I don’t think I can ever get used to ‘just’ city … I’ll always need a balance between the two, and it pleases me no end to know that Niki is also attracted to the countryside (by buying the house in the mountains).
I also feel a bit lost in language, or rather the lack of it … many Portuguese do speak some English, but the Portuguese I have is very limited as yet. I feel a bit like Gregorius Mundus, in Night Train to Lisbon, who battles through what to him is an unintelligible language to understand and explore the mysteries of this city and its people, prompted at the spur of a moment by a mysterious Portuguese woman.Knowing some Spanish helps a bit, but the two languages are quite different, both in terms of pronunciation and intonation, as well as vocabulary. I’m sure I’ll get into this, but it’ll take some time.
A man has sat down beside me, smoking, reading his newspaper. After a while he leaves to sit with some other people, then comes back. He seems to ‘belong’ in this park, but I’m a bit wary of him, coughing his lungs out, smoking.
I’m settling in to a few more pages of Miles Unger’s Magnifico about the Medici family in Renaissance Florence, a fascinating account of the people, the country and the time, before Niki comes and collects me to go and have some lunch in a café in the Jardim.
In the meantime, back in Aussieland, Tess and Yarrow are having fun with stepsister Bryony at what is otherwise known as "308" (a pretty view of which you can see below), where Mieke and John live. We have cybercontact, through Skype, regularly to keep abreast of what is happening on both sides of the globe and what is keeping each other's hearts and minds busy.
The other day Yarrow sung me another beautiful song she has been studying recently - it's impressive to hear her golden voice reach out through space and time. Tess says she is continuing to enjoy her piano playing - she's quite impressively skilled at improvising and 'translating' music from paper to ears to hands ...
Yarrow has just recently done an excellent Circus Performance, as has Tess - I'm awaiting a video of Tess' performance to show that on this blog as well (unfortunately no video of Yarrow's performance is available).
And Mieke has celebrated her birthday today - congratulations! I believe a picnic at Blackbutt was in order ...?
OMG! Going through a suitcase of old photos at my mum's house, after my dad's passing, I came across a few interesting snapshots which had been engraved in my mind from youth, but which I hadn't seen for decades ... Kids ... don't laugh ... It's easy to guess who I am ... erm, was ... :-)
I travel around a bit for work ... earlyJune I will travel to Holland to start off a new project for a Dutch publisher, Malmberg; after this I will travel on to Slovenia, of all places, to talk about writing a young learner course for a publisher there, Rokus Klett, based in Lubljana; and somewhere I may need to go to the UK to talk about a current project for Mexico with my publisher, Macmillan, in Oxford.
Before coming to Europe I was in Korea, doing a presentation for my new book with OUP, Grammar for Young Learners and Malaysia. It was fun seeing a poster up with my name on it ...!
While I am in Portugal, 'ordinary life' as we know it also continues of course. This is where I work during the day. Niki, who owns and runs a language school and teaches at one of Lisbon's universities, often works during the evenings, so the fact that I can write anywhere and anytime comes in handy and I can flex my working hours around hers. The cat, going by the unusual name of Astrid ..., enjoys a daily bask in the sun, rolled up behind the curtains ....
At the start of this same journey, I was also reunited with my love, Niki, in Portugal.
For now dividing my time between Australia and Portugal, we are traveling our road together, hand in hand, sometimes in cyberspace, sometimes physically together. Niki lives in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal where the skies are as blue as they are in Australia (on a sunny day ...).
Having left Amsterdam a bit more than 7 years ago, it's taking some time to get used to living in a city again - to get used to limited space, different sounds, people, high rise and the colour of concrete. Fortunately, I do hear birdsong in the mornings!
Niki, a country girl at heart, also has a house in the Serre de Estrella mountains, in the village of Sarzedo, but for now this is no more than a ruin which will be done up over time. At the moment, the gables are being extended and a new roof is being put on. Hopefully by the end of this year it will be a liveable proposition ...
We do not yet know where this road will take us ... whether it will take us to Australia, to Portugal, to somewhere else, to both places ... It will take us, and our loved ones, somewhere for sure ...
At the beginning of my journey, a very important person in my life started one, too. On Monday 18 May 2009 my father died, suddenly, but not unexpectedly.
In my mind, he has not gone away, and he is still very much present in my life ... or at least I have not said goodbye to him.
We helped him move on during a beautiful ceremony that I was privileged to be present at, as was my daughter Anjes.
These are words I think he would have appreciated:
"Death is nothing at all... I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Pray, smile, think of me - let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well."
(Canon Henry Scott Holland)
There's snother personal post on dad's passing on Mieke's blog.
A new country, new people, new layers of colour on an already finished canvas, new threads in an already complex web, new notes of music in a remix of sound …
Indeed, I am setting out on a long journey, and I will travel well; be safe, and be happy. Thank you for your good wishes. My travels started late January and this journey feels indeed as C.D. Lewis describes it in the poem you quote, and which lends this blog its name: an elaborate, ornamental melodic flourish weaving in and out of a vocal piece, fragile and shedding light in a dark wood on a bright morning.
Over dark wood rises one dawn felicitous,
Bright through her awakened shadow falls her crystal
Cadenzas, and once for all the wood is quickened
So our joys visit us, and it suffices.
Our joys visit us, and it suffices.
Yes, there is sadness and regret when one starts out on a new journey, because going on a journey implies going away from somewhere; but there is also joy, simple joy which is sufficient to carry one through. And going away always implies coming back. Come with me on my journey to see new places, meet new people, discover a new present.
Uh-oh, I've done it again ... and it took me only a few days ... To do what, you may ask ...? Well, as some will know, I have the habit of breaking chairs ... or at least ensuring they go entirely out of kilter, balance and composition because of a) weight (despite considerable weight loss) b) posture (OK, I slouch on chairs, yes, I do ...), c) (but not necessarily always so) shoddy workmanship. In fact, as to c) I have been known to destroy quite sturdy, chairs of quality craftmanship in my day... Anyway ... Niki's kitchen stool was victim to whatever I do ... the legs sort of, well, broke and twisted ... You have to admit, they were weak! So off to IKEA Lisbon it was this morning to purchase two (yes, there is safety in numbers) stools ... Perhaps I should invest in some cement blocks to sit on ... I mean, you can't break those ... Can you?
