Joined in my isolation by two charming ladies

Well, this certainly unexpected !  Like a lot of other oldies in the US, Europe and other areas I am in total lock-down in my house, instead of doing what I was planning, which included long anticipated trips to Hawaii and Singapore - and back to the UK . Whether I made the right decision to stay here rather than go home (while I could) remains to be seen. It was a classic example of having to make a decision with constantly changing and incomplete information. We'll see.

 

                I have been joined in my isolation by two charming ladies. Those of you who have visited me here may recall two lamps in the apartment built around two porcelain Chinese ladies about 12 inches tall. They are of Kwan Yin, the Buddhist Bodhissatva (Enlightened one) of compassion. Each holds two lotus flowers with the palm of their left hand upwards and open in a abhaya (gesture) of protection, and stand on lotus flowers above a swirling and tubulent ocean. They're only 20th Century but quite charming - not so fine as the ones already here but in better nick and bigger. I recently came across them at the back of a local antique ship, very cheap, and succumbed immediately. I'm sure they will look after me.

                I certainly haven't been bored in my nine days of lock-down. The US Navy never does things by halves and I have engaged in a really steep learning curve in the technologies of on-line teaching for the main course I run which starts in a couple of days. Computer technology has never been my strong point and I have this theory that computers, and indeed anything electronic, can smell human fear and love to exploit it. But it certainly takes my mind off things - and I'm in the throes of writing a book on the same subject (which my daughter encapsulates as 'boats') so all that keeps me busy.

                I'm also lucky in that I have quite a large private estate by the sea to wander around in without fear of encountering anyone else. I reckon by the end of 3-4 months or however long it is, I will have worn a path around it like tigers used to in the disgracefully small  zoo cages they used decades ago. I've already discovered a large gravestone for something rather than someone called Isabella in one of the wooded areas. And standing on the cliff edge looking out at the sea makes one feel better. So I'm luckier than most of the self-isolated.

 

                Observance of the new restrictions has been patchy so far, and will be I think until things really bite. Generally it's been a lot quieter than usual and seeing Bellevue completely empty with all the Mansions closed indefinitely seems very eerie.

 I found myself going to the window to watch a car go by at one stage. But at the weekend when the weather was nice there was loads of car traffic going up and down. That doesn't necessarily imply a breach of social distancing when they reach Brenton point or wherever they are going , but I did spot some workmen inspecting a nearby house who definitely were not doing it. In fact a couple came here to look at a problem I've had open up in the last couple of days. Those pestilential  'rats with tails' have broken into my loft by pulling off some of the loose coving in the roof soffit and that needs fixing because the noise they make is intrusive. Selfishly I hope they manage it before the Rhode Island Governor declares a total lock-down which I think she shortly will.

                So far though things seem under control. Illusory, no doubt, but I'm very impressed with US home deliveries. One grocery delivery arrived within 3 hours of my making it !  So, I'm coping just fine at the moment, though the death of a colleague I knew from the Philippines  (Female, fit, half my age) after a conference in Paris at the beginning of the month was sobering.

One can but hope. So keep well !     

My Name in Lights !

My office has  a splendid view of the sea and famous Pell road bridge which was built ambitiously high so that battleships and aircraft carriers can get underneath it. My view the other way isn't so grand though, as my office is tucked away behind the big and very busy 'Protocol and Events' department. Their job is to organise all visits and conferences and we have a lot of them, so things are bustling all the time. All of the ladies there made a special point of looking after me as the sole academic in their bailiwick. I think they were rather proud of having one ! Nothing was too much trouble. This was evident from Day 1 when, on arrival,  I opened one of the parcels I had sent here from the UK and a lot of broken picture glass fell out, slightly cutting me in the process. Before I could say 'oh dear' - or whatever- they came to the rescue, wielding  dustpans and brush, vacuum cleaners and sticking plasters - and it's been like that ever since.

 

 

                But not anymore as to my regret they are in the throes of moving to another part of the building and their space is now an emptying wasteland of unoccupied cubicles and boxes of stuff. The window of my office. the sun streaming through, can be seen in the back left hand corner of the picture. The rest is a cluster of iron poles. No-one is sure whether they are to divide the cubicles or to hold up the ceiling - since this is a later 19th Century building that hasn't been terribly well maintained. Anyhow they were very concerned that anyone coming in through what passes as the front door behind the security barrier wouldn't necessarily know I was there, so this was their solution at least for the time being. It was a complete surprise  - I was really touched and delighted as I have always wanted my name in lights !

                Another 'first' was my venture into solo home entertainment . I gave my version of an English High Tea to two colleagues from Newport and their wives- unbelievably the very first time I have done anything like that in my whole life. Of course I over-catered, and will be eating the residue for the next few breakfasts and lunch, but it all seemed to go well. I think Cherry would have been proud of me coping with the challenge. Family members will be reassured that the family tradition of candles was maintained with two big ones lit by me for the first time. Afterwards no-one reported being poisoned. It was a lovely day weather-wise, if on the cold side and I took them to look at the Big House and to the edge of the cliff where one can see the sea, the rocks and the hoi polloi passing by below us. Rich people round here know how to protect themselves.  Apparently property owners here own not only the beach (with none of that democratic English traditional stuff about only down to the high tide line)  but the offshore rocks as well.   

 

But of course, things have rolled on. As the virus increasingly made itself felt in the US, it became increasingly clear that we were on the edge here, as everywhere else, of big changes to our lives for the foreseeable future. So far as we know (because the US hasn't been well stocked with testing kits, Rhode Island hasn't been badly affected yet, but big precautionary measures are being taken. Everywhere is much quieter than usual.  All my trips (including ones home) are cancelled.  The War College hasn't exactly closed down but nearly everyone has been told to work from home and we oldies to self-isolate. This is just Day 3, but so far so good - and long may it stay that way for all my readers !