February already! January
disappeared under a blanket of grey and a foot of snow. The teenager has sat
the first part of her AS levels and life has returned to normal.
I have started walking again –
not quite those sunny early morning power walks of Southern California but a
chilly, brisk, just get on with it hike through slush and mud. I have exchanged the potential hazards of
mountain lions, bears, coyotes and a posse of Mexican gardeners for puddles and
potential flooding – my regular route along the river has to be timed to match
the tide tables. I’m lucky, we have settled in a rather picturesque village and
if it is too wet then I head uphill and inland past chocolate box cottages and
homes concealed behind automatic gates and hidden away at the end of very long
drives. The most hazardous part of this route is avoiding being run down by a
speeding Maserati.
Another high or low of this week’s
endeavour to explore was a trip into Southampton and its relatively new Sea
City Museum. I’ve always felt that my home town doesn’t really make the most of
itself and its sea faring heritage, nor put a great deal of effort into promoting its historic buildings or its waterfront. The Sea City museum
is housed in the rather bland Civic Centre – well away from the sea – and has dedicated a large proportion of its
exhibition to the ill-fated journey of the Titanic which set sail from
Southampton in April 1912. The
exhibition concentrates on the lives of the Titanic crew (what no Kate and
Leo?) the majority of whom were from
Southampton and the majority of whom, quite naturally, didn’t survive. Whilst it’s an informative and educational experience, with an extensive selection of artefacts and rather (too) realistic
sound effects, it’s hardly uplifting.
When we arrived in California and I told people we
came from Southampton I was surprised that very few Americans had ever heard of
the place. It’s a major international port. I mentioned the Titanic and the Mayflower
which also set off from Southampton and carried the Pilgrim Fathers off to
Massachusetts, I mentioned cruise liners and the Queen Mary, now resting in
Long Beach, but it provoked little reaction.
Of course, now I’m older and great deal wiser, this doesn’t surprise me, Americans do rather struggle with the concept of world geography. Eventually gave up explaining about
Southampton and told everyone I came from south (of) London –
it seemed to work much better. (The teenager recently received a
message from a former US school friend asking how she was settling in back in
London, and when she replied she wasn’t in London, he replied, oh yeh – how close to London is England?)
And talking of the Mayflower and
the Queen Mary, a full size replica of
one and the original of the other were both encountered on our travels in
America, and are major tourist
attractions. Perhaps Southampton would draw more visitors if a life size model
of the Titanic was moored up on its quayside, although perhaps not...
I think I’ve changed my mind
about booking that cruise.
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