Musings
Around the time I turned 50, I came across a website called ‘Cowbird‘ that aims to gather and preserve exceptional stories of human life. I’m not so sure that my stories are all that exceptional, but it did get me into writing some of my own stories down.
Edge Pieces and Corners: Building My Family History - When I moved to the US in 1995, I naively thought of myself as a bold adventurer, the first in my family to venture overseas. When DNA testing became a thing, I very quickly realized that I have a lot of distant cousins here. Back then, the tools to help you join the dots and determine the who, how, and why distant relatives had made the journey across the Atlantic didn’t really exist, but I’m happy to report that that is starting to change Every 12-18 months, I find myself diving deep into genealogy… a bit too deep sometimes, as...
Looking for Tuxedo - Every day that I’m in St. Petersburg, I walk 8-10 miles. It’s my way of building a mental map of the city, and also making sure that Wolfie is getting plenty of exercise. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve made a commitment to meet and greet strangers along the way, and already, some of them have become friends. This is a story about a gentle soul, who I recently met on the streets, and his ongoing search for one of his cats, called Tuxedo. Looking for Tuxedo “I’d been looking for a sign, to let me know that he...
What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding? - My latest random conversation was with Lindsay and Adam, over breakfast on Sunday morning. At this time of year, it is still around 80F at breakfast time, and so I’d chosen to sit outside what is St. Peterburg’s closest approximation to a classic Mid-Atlantic diner. Lindsay and Adam were seated about 5 minutes after me, and as usual, Wolfie was the spark that triggered us to start talking. At some point, I mentioned that we’d traveled down from Delaware in my bright red campervan (Robert’s Red Ford – thank you, Lisa!). It turned out that Adam had used to live...
Falling - This morning’s conversation was with Trinnie, and it started when she fell for me in a big way. Or rather, when she fell over, right in front of me, in rather a spectacular way. I’d taken Wolfie down to St. Pete’s Pier, to watch the sun come up. Well, that’s why I was there. As usual, Wolfie was more there in the hope that he might finally catch one of those all-too elusive squirrels. After taking in the sun’s earliest rays, I bought a cafe con leche to go, and started to think about breakfast. The good thing about getting...
Not So Ordinary - We’d reached the corner of the block, at the same time. I don’t remember exactly how our conversation started. I think it was that she’d admired Wolfie, who had previously been keeping himself busy, by sniffing every bush in sight. Now, he was patiently standing by my side, as we paused for this frail and elderly lady, carefully navigating the corner with her walker. The next part of our conversation went as so many of my conversations do, when she said “oh, you have an accent”. I responded in my usual way, with “I don’t have an accent… you’re the...
Ian Calvert – Goodbye to an old friend - Two weeks ago today, literally hours after Riza had been swapping messages with our good friend Ian Calvert, we learned of his tragic death in a car accident. Among that confusing mix of emotions that comes with the sudden passing of someone you've known and loved for a long time, I sat down to write the following tribute.
Digging in the dirt - It's official. I've become more than a little obsessed with my family tree. I first tried to dig into my family's past in the mid-1970's, when I spent the summer holidays staying with my brothers in London. 
My epicurean adventures continue - In 2012, I spent 3 months at Sias University in Henan Province, China. I was teaching leadership to young women, as part of the World Academy for the Future of Women. While I was there, I tried to experience as many new things as possible. Crunchy frog surprise anyone? - … I might be wrong, but I think that there’s a chance that could have just been my tasty treat before bedtime. If it wasn’t a crunchy frog (and knowing that it wasn’t anything that had ever had anything remotely like wings to flap), I probably don’t want to ask too many questions or make too many guesses as to what it was, just in case I don’t like the answer. How it started was that I taught class tonight from 7pm until 9pm. I was busy putting the finishing touches to my charts befoe that, and so I didn’t...
It only hurts when I laugh - After a long and hectic week here on the Sias campus, yesterday (Sunday) really was a day of rest. I decided not to set an alarm, and so just woke naturally around 8:15 or so. I’ve been reading ‘The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared’ for the last week or so, and so I decided to stay in bed until I finished it. I had agreed to meet with the World Academy Media team at 10am, and so I picked up breakfast on the run, and headed over to the Administration team. There were too many of us...