London is under attack again, for the umpteenth time and sad though we all are, the resilient spirit which has seen the people through difficult times is showing its face again. I am here in the city at the moment and I am deeply sorry for the poor people, who have lost their lives and who have suffered under this last attack and the one in Manchester.
Jane with friend Eliot, Isle of Wight
While the last tragedy occurred on London Bridge, I was enjoying myself on a lovely, gentle and very nostalgic trip to the beautiful Isle of Wight. I have three delightful friends, all men, who like to take the odd trip together and this time I was fortunate enough to be included…..Friends are Terence (Terry) Frisby well known playwright, Eliot Watkins …history teacher at one of England’s leading schools, Kings, in Wimbledon and Jeremy James Taylor OBE, who founded and ran the National Youth Music Theatre, which has spawned a few luminaries, including Jude Law, Tom Hollander, Sheridan Smith to mention a couple! These men are seriously well educated and thus conversation is always stimulating, sometimes controversial and argumentative, but never boring. And full of enjoyment and laughter!!!
Jude Law
Tom Hollander
Shanklin Chine
The Isle of Wight is a small island off the Southern Coast of England, reached by ferry and easy to visit, with not too many people. I used to go as a child with my father for his allowed two weeks vacation each year with me (divorced parents) and we stayed in Shanklin….where the four of us stayed this time, in a real throw back to the 1950’s hotel, wonderful….breakfast included…real china, proper teapots, eggs and bacon, toast and marmalade. This is a reminder of England not long after the war, when life was lived much more slowly and modestly, without technology and people having real conversations with each other, not by text nor email, but face to face, my favorite form of communication.
My Uncle Lee, mother’s brother also ran a hotel on the Island in Freshwater Bay…many long happy, rather drunken evenings spent there with Uncle, Mum, David Hemmings and our dog Jasper, who was taken to church one Christmas Eve…..surrogate child, I suppose, for the one we never had. This is near the Needles, a strange formation of rocks running out into the sea and Alum Bay, which is comprised of Multi coloured sands. Jeremy has a Production coming up in July at the Rose Theatre, Kingston called Sea Stories…true stories of the Upside Down Sailor, Tony Bullimore who had a propensity for capsizing his boats! So we visited various ports, yacht clubs and other sailing organizations to deliver flyers and advise them of the Show. This included Cowes, the famous sea faring town of a major regatta, held each year, racing, and attended by such luminaries as the Duke of Edinburgh, who raced there for many years.
I could go on and on with this blog, but don’t want to bore those of you kind enough to read.
Bye for now!
ALUM BAY, Isle of Wight
Your blogs are never a bore…always a delight to read and imagine being “there.”
I can just see dog Jasper sitting obediently in church being a “good boy” amongst all the activity of a Christmas Eve service.
I hold London in my heart for many reasons – sad and happy.
Thanks for this post, Jane. I lived on and off in Manchester for 15 years. Like Orson Welles with Woodstock, Il. I regard it as my real home and my heart goes out to the people there.
Thank you for commenting Tony…