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Now that wet weather has arrived it has installed itself firmly, but having viewed images of the floods in England, I shall certainly not complain and in any case, we need it.
Recent news of a local well running dry was alarming, considering that we also depend on one, however this turned out to be a false alarm, luckily.
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We also depend on having electricity to pump water out of the well, but we have a generator in case that fails.
In Washington I was once without power for five days and out there one had no need of a generator then.
The sort of storm which causes that kind of outage is becoming more frequent in the Pacific Northwest.
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Five days is a long time to be without electricity when you have become so dependent on it, but I was fortunate in that I had a gas stove and a gas fire which was so effective it adequately heated the entire house.
In the event, I quite enjoyed being disconnected from devices. I have always been happy to lose myself in a book and I had a house full of cats to entertain me.
Boredom has seldom troubled me.
Even sitting around the domestic terminal at Khartoum Airport for 48 hours wasn’t entirely boring.
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Admittedly, counting tiles and the number of flies on the floor isn’t the most riveting form of entertainment, but after a few hours, the sun came up and we twice witnessed a stunning desert dawn.
Regrettably, I have no photographs of that rather unusual holiday.
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Living in Asia in the 50’s, our evening entertainment was limited to reading or card games to the sound of my father’s tape recorder which taught me to appreciate classical music and French cabaret.
Classical music activated my imagination. I visualized herds of wild horses in the American West, storms at sea and sweeping ballet scenes that I wanted to choreograph!
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As a little girl, before we went “abroad”, I was always making things. I loved mini bricks and when given shoe boxes, I turned them into a house.
Scraps of fabric I made into clothes for my teddy.
Hours were spent perusing my general knowledge book or looking at my father’s atlas.
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It’s a good thing for a child to learn how to occupy itself productively, silently!
Later, when I travelled on long flights, I passed time writing endless letters.
Or simply daydreaming.
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As you can see, I had a few fair weather photos up my sleeve.
They will run out if our current weather forecast proves to be accurate, but we are confined to base until Friday anyway, so I may even have to dig into the ancient archives.
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Who know what that will turn up!
Confined to base? I hope you are not being held hostage by the cats!
Such a pity that today’s children are not taught to occupy themselves productively, silently!
Nit the cats no. It’s to do with transport. My brother and I learned to be silent because my father wouldn’t tolerate anything else!
I like to read about how you kept busy and amused yourself in years gone by. But 48 hours stuck in Khartoum Airport would seem like the worst kind of hell to me.
Best wishes, Pete.
Let’s say it was a unique experience. We put all that effort into flying to Juba in the south and when we got there we asked ourselves what the hell we did it for. Then spent two weeks driving back overland in a Bedford truck. But I learned a lot!
What turns up?
Trousers
a bad penny
an unwelcome guest.
Ha, yes, isn’t that the truth!
I also never felt bored with myself. Good books and cats are always good companions, but….
Sitting at the airport that long is not fun at all no matter how entertaining yourself ..
Do you still like to fly?🙂
Take a care! 🙋💗
We didn’t actually stay in the airport the whole time. After about 8 hours they took us to a hotel for a bit, telling us we must return at about 2 am. We kept getting breakfast inn the middle of the night and there were lots of cats in the restaurant. I loved travelling but sitting in aeroplanes never agreed with me. My knees always hurt, feet swelled etc.. My last flight was 6 years ago when we came back from Seattle. I got business class seats in order to have space for the two cats we carried aboard but I was so uncomfortable I had to stand up a lot of the time. Also airports stopped being fun when security became such a big thing.
So it wasn’t that horrible 🙂. I still enjoy going to airports, and do far we haven’t had any issues, with the exception of one in Italy on the way home. Due to security concerns, our plane was delayed for a few hours. They cought and removed the two guys and their luggages from the plane. Security searched the plane, we safely returned home and I was very appreciative for their security work.
Have you read Arthur Hailey’s “Airport”? I am curious if that story can be true. He described airport life and service 🙂
Stay safe!
When I first worked in an airport there were no security checks because they were not needed but then people started hijacking aeroplanes and things went from bad to worse. In the beginning it was the airline staff who had to search baggage by hand which was not fun! I read that book a long time ago and as I recall it wasn’t too far off although perhaps a bit glamorized. There was a film in the 60’s with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and a very young Maggie Smith called The VIP’s which I would love to see again. It was about a plane load of passengers delayed at Heathrow by fog, a situation that was very common in those days as London was famous for its fog!
So interesting.
No I didn’t see that movie. Maggie Smith was nominated for Golden Globe award as Most Promising Newcomer. I just checked it out🙂
Of course I can’t wait for your first snow photos! It is interesting to read how you kept yourself busy as a child – it was more or less the same with us when we were kids.
A few days ago I was very surprised to see two young children with their mother at our local traffic department (where we renewed our driver’s licenses) colouring and playing “rock, scissors and paper” with each other. When I asked the mother about it, she said they don’t have electronic devices and that’s how they keep themselves busy. I told her how impressed I was – I think there is enormous pressure on parents these days about what is expected of them in terms of how they should raise their children.
I’ve always thought that raising children is a huge responsibility that is taken far too lightly by far too many but I would hate to be told how to raise my children if I’d ever had any!
Well, our weather is certainly interesting, if not picturesque at the moment.