One of the themes of England was this feeling of
time-traveling—visiting the berth where my father set sail to immigrate to the
US at the age of 3, over to meet up with college friends who I hadn’t seen for
20+ years, meeting new cousins and seeing other cousins after 25 years, and
stopping by my first school in Kensington Park.
Totally time jumping, also in the land of the music of my youth (Culture
Club, Duran Duran, the Eurythmics). I’ll
be time-jumping a bit as I write these blogs, as I’m having trouble keeping up
linearly, ergo Ireland will come soon even though it was before London and as I
write this I am in Cadiz (after Belgium/Holland and Portugal, let alone writing
about time on the ship).
First day in Southampton was a bit of a tummy recovery day—you know,
the wild spicy food of Ireland. Not sure
what it was, but taking 3 naps worked.
Out to wander & had dinner in Southampton; most of my dinners out so
far have been Indian food. The following
day I was on duty and got to walk around the town with the Executive Dean John
Tymitz, which included visiting the Titanic museum. We also got as close as security allowed to
the berth that both the Titanic and the Queen Mary set sail from (the ship that
my dad immigrated on about 60 years ago).
I also picked up a cell phone for Europe with a sim card for about
$25. It’s hard getting used to tap
texting on the 9 keys again, but has been valuable to connect with friends—in
England I used it to connect with my cousin Nicole, and my two friends from
Smith Jennifer Johnson and Louisa Keating.
Since then my phone has mainly been used to connect with Kate, the only
other person who has my number and an international phone as well, so now
instead of the Bat-phone, it’s the Kate phone.
After chilling in Southampton I popped on a train to the Victoria
Waterloo station in London, where I was met at the gate by Louisa and JJ
(Jennifer), two dear friends and awesome people from my days at Smith
College. I hadn’t seen them since
graduation in 1990—twenty-two years, and we picked up as though it was a
weekend in the city in college. Ticking
off what we did: headed immediately to
the Eye of London where I got a brief whirlwind tour of London from the air and
a bird’s eye view of their lives the past years. From there we bounced down the Thames headed
for dim sum, sidetracked by an amazing multi-cultural farmer’s market (holy cannoli,
Malaysian pancakes were awesome), which also included a pitcher of Pimm’s &
fresh fruit (also awesome, always wondered what Pimm’s was—I still don’t know
what it is exactly, but it was delicious).
Out to dim sum, wandering over the Thames and over to tea at a cool
funky place for more catching up and delicious food (scones, jam, and clotted
cream—which is divine, and should probably be called “divine cream”, because,
you know, well the clotted thing just doesn’t do it justice. And yes, there was an unabashed food theme to
the day—it fit—the joy of it, of savoring life, of being in a timeless moment with
good people. Catching up with Louisa and
JJ was nothing short of fabulous and wonderful—a mix of intelligence
(Smithies), honesty, reflection, laughter, and a bit of wondering too—wondering
where the next 10-20 years take us.
From their sweet presence I was gently deposited into the network of
the London Tube and sent on my way to Nottingham, where my cousin Nicole lives
on Portobello Road.
Backing up a bit, my paternal grandparents were from Scotland. My grandmother had 9 brothers and sisters,
which results in a lot of cousins—I have met many of my father’s generation,
but less of the cousins of my generation.
My dad had met Nicole several years ago and basically and correctly said
she was cool peeps (although in his lingo), and Nicole was generous enough to
not only let me stay in her flat in Portobello road for the evening, but
actually to pull together an amazing group of family and friends over an
amazing multi-course Sabbath meal. Which
was also awesome and delicious and time-less traveling in the sense of
reminding me of my grandparents and tasting the food of my people and culture
for many generations (matzo ball soup, roasted chicken and potatoes, chopped
liver). Nicole was a gracious host and
we connected with sharing pieces of our lives, our family histories, and with
reflecting on differences between England and the US. To find a piece of home away from day-to-day
home was a blessing, and I’m really grateful to have met new cousins &
partners and gotten to connect with cousins who knew me when I was 3 and knew
and loved my grandparents. Speaking of
being 3, the following morning I swung around the corner to the apartment we
used to live in on Kensington Road (Princes House). Across the street was the private park I used
to hang out in with my mother and a nanny—I remember collecting bits of broken
blue & white pottery from who knows how many centuries ago. Also across the street was my Montessori
school. I still have somewhere a booklet
from that school where we got to draw and clip and post things that we
liked. I remember I liked to draw
lions. There was a father & young
girl there & I asked the father to take my picture, that I had gone to
school there 40 years ago. The little
girl looked at me with huge eyes, because she had gone to school there
about 4 years ago. Again, time-traveling. The biggest impression overall was how close
everything was, as compared to when I was younger—it seemed a bit
further/bigger, maybe simply because of relative human scale/smaller legs.
Back to Southampton with a full heart and full tummy, oy.
