Gorgeous morning. Guys came to fix some issues with the balustrading panels on the deck. Then I went over to the Freeths - another family who were one of the first to build a place at Omaha in the early 1970s. They've lived here for decades now.
I'm tasked with writing a history of the early days of Omaha, from a people perspective. We've done the development, the land, the beach, the infrastructure etc. But this one will be about the people, the families from the old days. And that includes my family!
Had a great catch up and reminisce. Photo albums came out, memories discussed, special moments recalled. Smiles and laughs. And a dose of sadness because many of the people from the early era are gone.
The new part of Omaha, developed during the 1990s, is different in just about every way to the original part. I think the people who have homes in the new part will be very enlightened by the article I'm about to set to work and write!
Inktober - today's prompt word is Bulky. What? WTF? How do you draw bulky? It's not a very portrayable word! I'd given it quite a bit of thought over the previous 24 hours but nothing had jumped out in my mind.
I thought maybe bulky knits, wool etc. But that's hard to transcribe to an interesting visual. Knitting is more about tactile and tangible.
I settled on the idea of a BULKY suitcase - which is my general travel style - overpacked, suitcase bulging, can't help myself. No matter how hard I try, my suitcase has always been overfull and often overweight for decades. I've been lucky many many times, somehow waltzing through with bags that are so overweight I can't even lift them - that includes hand luggage!
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I created this using inks purchased in Bridport, Dorset in 2017.
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Believe me, I do like simplicity - but I also like choice! And, given that most trips I take involve different countries (well, not right now 😒), activities, seasons, reasons ... I've gotta throw in something for every likelihood!
And then there's coming home - with bargains on board ... well, the poor suitcase gets even more stressed and the hand luggage burgeons. My muscles have to as well! I tend not to worry too much although approaching the check-in desk is often with trepidation!!! I've escaped overweight luggage charges many times. And sometimes I just don't know how! (Positivity, authenticity, distractgin, resignation ... who knows.)
Overall, overweight luggage is a nightmare - but positivity is good - especially when you're someone who is virtually incapable of packing lightly! That's me! (more below)
For dinner I made a roast vege salad (kumara, parsnip, carrot) and sizzled up a piece of pork fillet. Served with edamame. I love pork fillet and this one was up there with the best concoction I've created. Tomato, bbq, hoisin sauce, sherry, apple juice, coriander. Seared and sizzled and then rested and carved. Melt in the mouth deliciousness.
The National party has just announced they will give a big boost to horseracing! Out of the blue. No political party has had much focus on the industry for decades - even though it is highly valuable through breeding etc. Interesting ...!
SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Travel journal 1978 ...
That inky suitcase artwork has got my travel juices flowing.
But I can't go anywhere. Only in my mind ... so here's some reminiscing ...
A few posts back I mentioned a School trip I did in 1977/78 - from l'il ol' NZ to Europe/UK. Two months. Around the world and back. A big deal back in those days.
Here's a post from my trip journal from that trip, from the final flight home after a few days in Hong Kong. Alludes to [too much] luggage ...!
"Left hotel at 6.30pm, bus to airport. Luggage was weighed as a group - 186kgs overweight! Didn't have to pay though."
We were lucky! 186kg! WTF?
We were a group of 16 school kids and two teachers i.e.18 of us.
Divide 186 by 18 and that means each of us had about10kg too much luggage.
Hmmm, I think I probably changed the ratio, swayed the odds and skewed the average of things in a big way ... see below ...
Bear in mind that I had purchased a typewriter and tennis racket in HK. Ice skates and boots in Germany. And trinkets along the way (which still to this day remind me of an amazing slice of my life).
I had to buy an extra suitcase along the way as the one I started out with was bursting at the seams (just like my ink artwork!) It was one of those early hard cardboard style cases, with flick latches and a plastic handle that cut into your hand when carrying. No wheels. No expansion. Alas, the glories of modern day travel luggage hadn't been invented yet. Nightmare!
I'm pretty sure my mind was generating some sort of prototype back then as I lugged both my heavy suitcases (remember, no wheels!) and all my hand luggage up the VERY VERY LONG driveway to the Youth Hostel in Holland Park where we stayed on that trip back in 1978. These days I have ideas for luggage innovation - but it's all too hard to know what to do with it. So the ideas remain in my mind.
I still remember every nightmarish step of that long driveway walk. Two suitcases, two bits of hand luggage, one small 15yo girl. The last leg of a full-on two month trip. We were all pretty exhausted. But I was so excited to be in London - a place I had longed to visit since the moment I was born!!!!
I had to do the whole driveway slot in small stages: take one case and one piece of hand luggage 50m, go back for the other two bits. And so on. Forever. I couldn't go too far with each drop as I had to keep the bags in my sight at all times. Hey, this was scary London where a robber could come out of the bushes at any time. Unlike safe NZ (yeah right!) I was still staggering my way up that drive while everyone else was already safely checked in!
Some of the people in our group had cameras and money etc stolen from their room in that place and it made the whole London stay a bit traumatic. Gutting for them. It put most of the group off London. Not me!
Another little snippet from the travel journal, pertaining to our final flight HK to Auckland.
"Vandermint broke everywhere."
Oh dear, I do remember that fiasco now I read about it. Smashed duty free. Sacrilege.
But, excuse me, was I even allowed to do bring in liqueur? I was 15!! I was obviously bringing in duty free booze for mum and dad - a real privilege in those days, and saved a fortune (not like now where the savings are a bit of a nonsense and the whole thing is a sell-fest). Those duty free stores must be suffering big time due to Covid.
Maybe one of the teachers snuck the purchase through for me? Must have.
I do remember Vandermint - chocolate mint liqueur - eww yuk! But mum loved it. And the bottle was quite attractive. But that poor one ended up smashed on the airplane floor and never made it out alive. I remember being gutted about it, as much as I remember that laborious slog up the youth hostel driveway!
On a trip to London some years back, I took a walk through Holland Park (lovely) and also took a look at that long driveway! OMG seeing that interminable driveway, my 50-something-year-old self could not imagine how my 45kg 15yo self managed to do what I did with that luggage all those years ago! But I did. Because I had to. No one else was going to lug those bags for me! If nothing else, that very moment in my young life (well, it was actually an interminable 45 minutes of moment) taught me resilience. I was a very long last to reach the building. A sad and long last; the racehorse everyone feels sorry for! Just too much weight!
Having said all this, the experience definitely did not teach me to pack lightly in future years!!!!!!!!! 😀
One time I made it through check in with 34kg and through boarding with 30kg of hand luggage. Phew. Flying with Eva Air London to NZ in 2004. Angels were truly looking down on me that day! It's quite a story.
So, to reflect, those few days we bunch of school kids spent in London back in 1978 made me know that that was where I desired to be. Soon. And I made a plan to get back there as soon as I could. I arrived in London in January 1982, having just turned 19. Plan accomplished.
London and the UK have always been, and always will be, in my veins. Even though we are so far apart, London is my second home and returning regularly is important to me. Covid has buggered that up for the time being. Brett and I should be there right now visiting Sam and friends and places.
I miss my UK-based friends. I miss the UK, London, Europe.
Covid - please bugger off so we can travel to these wonderful places again ...
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Outside the BBC, 2017
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