Time-traveling in England

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.